Elliott Weix
@weix.us
Studying biochemistry and mathematics. Yeast synthetic biology research in the Coyle Lab @ UW-Madison. More info at https://weix.us
Interested in how cells communicate and process information to work together? Love microscopy and seeing things no human has seen before for the first time? Finishing up your Ph.D. or position in early 2027? We are looking for an experimental postdoc to join the lab. Please reach out!
What can a microscopic organism in Lake Mendota teach us about cellular adaptation? The @cellraiser.bsky.social Lab is studying P. collini, a single-celled predator that reshapes its feeding structures to match changing conditions in its environment. Read the story: biochem.wisc.edu/2026/07/16/i...
Investigating a Microscopic Predator in Madison’s Lakes
Researchers in the Coyle Lab have identified unusual growth patterns and their underlying biochemical mechanisms in a single-celled organism on the hunt.
biochem.wisc.edu
Reminder that today (July 13) is the last day to submit comments on the OMB proposal. The proposed changes would allow arbitrary cancellation of grants and require review of scientific proposals by political appointees rather than experts in the field. www.regulations.gov/document/OMB...
Regulations.gov
regulations.gov
Undergrads @uwmadison.bsky.social build the skills & knowledge to jump into projects across a range of fields. In our Q&A series, you'll meet some biochem majors who serve in important roles. Recent grad Emma Kluge has started work @elilillyandcompany.bsky.social: biochem.wisc.edu/2026/06/24/u...
Undergrad Profile: Emma Kluge
Recent graduate Emma Kluge was a researcher in Catherine Fox's lab, where she studied how DNA replication is impacted by heating up enzymes that are critical to the process.
biochem.wisc.edu
Had a blast putting this video abstract together with colleagues for @zjmaggiexu.bsky.social story in @currentbiology.bsky.social on how the "vampire cell" P. collini builds the perfect feeding trap 👀. Be sure to check out the full paper: www.cell.com/current-biol... www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ikzm...
A cellular vampire builds the perfect feeding trap / Curr. Biol., June 24, 2026 (Vol. 36, Issue 14)
YouTube video by Cell Press
youtube.com
Congratulations to Coyle-Lab alum @born2raisecell.bsky.social (now in Kole Roybal's lab at UCSF) on being selected for this! Very well-deserved -- can't wait to see what you do next
Jane Coffin Childs Fund for Medical Research@jcchildsfund.bsky.social · 3mo agoWe are thrilled to announce our 2026 Jane Coffin Childs Fellows! These thirty-two outstanding scientists are performing cutting-edge research to advance our understanding of human diseases such as cancer, neurodegeneration, autoimmunity, pathogenic infections, and more. 1/3
@zjmaggiexu.bsky.social's story on suctorian trap structure adaptation is now online in @currentbiology.bsky.social , with new evolutionary analyses and modeling! This fall, Maggie will keep exploring predatory protists as a PD in @nbellono.bsky.social group; keep an eye out for her she's amazing!
sciencedirect.com
Scott Coyle@cellraiser.bsky.social · 10mo agoHow do cells adapt morphology to function? In a 🔥 preprint by @zjmaggiexu.bsky.social , with @dudinlab.bsky.social and @amyweeks.bsky.social , we identify a self-organizing single-cell morphology circuit that optimizes the feeding trap structure of the suctorian P. collini. 🧵 tinyurl.com/4k8nv926
Check out this awesome paper from @neugmonicaelena.bsky.social on a new family of nickel pincer enzymes! www.nature.com/articles/s41...
Discovery and characterization of a nickel enzyme family that catalyses intermolecular hydride shuttling - Nature Chemistry
There is limited understanding of nickel-catalysed chemistry in nature. Now a bioinformatic pipeline reveals a structurally distinct family of nickel pincer nucleotide-dependent enzymes. Nickel pincer...
nature.com
Excited to share our new bioRxiv preprint! We introduce RIPPLE, a synthetic platform that couples reaction–diffusion signaling with protein condensation to generate tunable intracellular architectures. Grateful to @zjmaggiexu.bsky.social and @cellraiser.bsky.social. It’s been a rewarding journey.
Scott Coyle@cellraiser.bsky.social · 3mo agoSub-cellular architectures arise through integrating signaling and structure. @edenchang.bsky.social and @zjmaggiexu.bsky.social show how coupling reaction-diffusion signaling to protein condensation provides a tunable, regulatable landscape for sub-cellular structure www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...
Sub-cellular architectures arise through integrating signaling and structure. @edenchang.bsky.social and @zjmaggiexu.bsky.social show how coupling reaction-diffusion signaling to protein condensation provides a tunable, regulatable landscape for sub-cellular structure www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...
Watching reaction-diffusion signaling couple to protein condensations feels like opening a new world of exotic subcellular spatial patterning 🌌 huge thanks to the evolving idea started from @edenchang.bsky.social and @cellraiser.bsky.social that make this journey possible and incredibly fun!
Scott Coyle@cellraiser.bsky.social · 3mo agoSub-cellular architectures arise through integrating signaling and structure. @edenchang.bsky.social and @zjmaggiexu.bsky.social show how coupling reaction-diffusion signaling to protein condensation provides a tunable, regulatable landscape for sub-cellular structure www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...
Now online @pnas.org: We developed a simple, scalable, and accessible platform for deep profiling of phosphoeraser specificity using human phosphoproteome-derived peptide libraries (PhosPropels!) 🧪👩🔬https://www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/pnas.2523183123
Phosphoproteome-derived peptide libraries for deep specificity profiling of phosphatases and phospholyases | PNAS
Protein phosphorylation is dynamically regulated by the opposing activities of phosphowriter enzymes (kinases) and phosphoeraser enzymes (phosphata...
pnas.org
Make your voice heard here by July 13: www.regulations.gov/document/OMB...
Regulations.gov
regulations.gov
Thanks to the Ono Pharma Foundation and The University of Chicago for supporting this amazing symposium! And congratulations to the Weeks lab's own Sopo Jalalishvili for winning a poster prize for her work on phospholyases! 👩🔬🧪@uwbiochem.bsky.social
ONO PHARMA FOUNDATION@onoinitiative.bsky.social · 4mo agoGreat momentum at 2026 Chicago Chemical Biology and Therapeutics Symposium, hosted by CCBT at The University of Chicago and Ono Pharma Foundation. Insightful presentations and meaningful interactions drove the success of the meeting. Grateful to all attendees! ccbt.bsd.uchicago.edu/events/
No fooling, Avogadro 2.0.0 is finally here! Rebuilt from the ground up: fast modern rendering, improved stability, designed for the next generation of molecular, biomolecule, and materials research & education. 🧪 ⚗️ avogadro.cc/install/ discuss.avogadro.cc #opensource #openscience #compchem
Awesome representation from @uwmadscience.bsky.social at the @asbmb.bsky.social #ASBMB2026 meeting in DC! #ScienceServesUsAll
Congratulations to my student Dennis Bolshakov and his coauthors @weix.us, Tommy, and @born2raisecell.bsky.social on making the cover of ACS Synthetic Biology! A great paper and an awesome cover 🥳 pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/...
Quick thing one can do for science! See also 5calls.org - calling your representatives is often even more effective than an email.
Stand Up for Science!@standupforscience.net · 6mo agoEmail your senators to urge them not to confirm Jim O’Neill as Director of the National Science Foundation. He's not a scientist, has no relevant expertise, promoted vaccine misinformation, helped gut the CDC, and his Silicon Valley ties raise questions about protecting the public interest. (1/2🧵)
Our work on the E3 ligase mechanism of target-directed microRNA degradation is now published! Amazing collaboration with Brenda Schulman’s lab led by @jakobfarnung.bsky.social and @elenaslo.bsky.social, with special thanks to @wyppeter.bsky.social, Lianne Blodgett, and Daniel Lin! tinyurl.com/Z8TDMD
The E3 ubiquitin ligase mechanism specifying targeted microRNA degradation - Nature
Target-directed microRNA degradation is driven by the atypical ZSWIM8–CUL3 E3 ubiquitin ligase that uses a two-RNA-factor authentication mechanism to specifically recognize AGO–miRNA–trigger...
tinyurl.com
David Bartel's Lab@bartellab.bsky.social · 9mo agoWe are thrilled to share our latest work uncovering the mechanistic basis of target-directed microRNA degradation (TDMD). This work was driven by @jakobfarnung.bsky.social and @elenaslo.bsky.social in a fantastic collaboration with Brenda Schulman's lab. tinyurl.com/E3TDMD (1/5)
The deadline for the submission of papers to the special issue on the International Yeast Meetings of 2025 has been extended to 31 March. Papers should be connected to one of the meetings listed below. Hurry up and don't miss this chance! More information at: onlinelibrary.wiley.com/page/journal...
Yeast Call for Papers: International Yeasts Meetings of 2025
Yeast is a microbiology journal for research in the rapidly moving field of yeast biology. We publish the most significant developments in unicellular fungi.
onlinelibrary.wiley.com
Yeast Journal@yeast-journal.bsky.social · last yr.We are very happy to announce that #Yeast is launching a new special issue on the International Yeast Meetings of 2025: #ICYGMB32, #pombe2025 and #ISSY38. The deadline for abstract submission is 30th September 2025. Hurry up!!! More info in the thread below. onlinelibrary.wiley.com/page/journal...
Evolution of error correction through a need for speed | Science www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...
Evolution of error correction through a need for speed
Kinetic proofreading is a class of error-correcting mechanisms in biology that expend energy to avoid mistakes during replication, transcription, and translation. Proofreading is typically assumed to ...
science.org
Great to see our paper on light-intensity dependent swimming patterns in #Chlamydomonas out now in Phys Rev Lett. as an Editors' suggestion! With a nice commentary by @philipcball.bsky.social. Chlamy actively modulate the beat planes of their #cilia! journals.aps.org/prl/abstract... #protistsonsky
New in ACS SynBio: led by Dennis Bolshakov, we used the awesome power of yeast to define how expression levels, noise, and sequence program the dynamics of synthetic protein waves, allowing us to genetically encode new cellular timescales stable over generations! pubs.acs.org/doi/full/10....
Thrilled that the lab's first @hhmijanelia.bsky.social project is up on bioRxiv! Story behind the story to follow. www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...
Memory from variability: Heritable short-term cellular memory emerges from stochastic biochemical reaction networks
Cells exhibit a mysterious form of selective heritable short-term memory, influencing outcomes as diverse as cell fate decisions in embryos and environmental responses in cancer cells and bacteria. He...
biorxiv.org
New preprint! We found that the flavin-dependent halogenase RebH catalyzes sequence-tolerant Trp bromination in peptides 🧪https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2025.12.17.694899v1
Congrats to Badger senior Evelyn Browning: a 2026 Marshall Scholar!👏 One of only 43 awardees in the country this year, she will investigate genetic variants related to neurodevelopmental conditions as a grad student at @cam.ac.uk & @sangerinstitute.bsky.social.
Senior will take next step in science with prestigious Marshall Scholarship
UW senior Evelyn Browning will use the scholarship to continue her research of genetic variants.
news.wisc.edu
Join us for Rohith Rajasekaran's (@born2raisecell.bsky.social) PhD thesis defense on Friday, Nov. 21! Rajasekaran's research was completed in the Coyle Lab (@cellraiser.bsky.social). More info: today.wisc.edu/events/view/...
IPiB Thesis Review: Rohith Rajasekaran | UW–Madison Events Calendar
today.wisc.edu
Thrilled to share our work on the 🔥 single-celled predator Podophrya collini, which rewires its cell morphology to hunt more efficiently. Huge thanks to our amazing team—Amy, Lauren, Omaya, Marine, Mari, and especially Scott—for making this shine! ✨
Scott Coyle@cellraiser.bsky.social · 10mo agoHow do cells adapt morphology to function? In a 🔥 preprint by @zjmaggiexu.bsky.social , with @dudinlab.bsky.social and @amyweeks.bsky.social , we identify a self-organizing single-cell morphology circuit that optimizes the feeding trap structure of the suctorian P. collini. 🧵 tinyurl.com/4k8nv926
![4-panel comic. (1) [Two people standing next to house with solar panels on roof. Person 2 has a black hat.] PERSON 1: Wait, you got solar panels? I thought you were against renewables. (2) PERSON 2: Oh, definitely. I hate the environment and want to harm it as much as possible. I’d *love* to have an oil furnace. (3) PERSON 2: But the technology just isn’t there and the cost is too high. I despise solar, but it makes more financial sense in my situation. (4) PERSON 2: But with the money I’m saving, I can buy and burn industrial waste in my yard to try to make up for it. PERSON 1: Ah, yeah, carbon onsets.](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:cz73r7iyiqn26upot4jtjdhk/bafkreie2wurazlh7ynqjwmo56q3vyj5mu7ol6wgbwftgza656o4f2f5v6i)
