🔬 New study by @molecularocean.bsky.social has unveiled why plastic-"eating" enzymes struggle to recycle items like bottles and fibers. 🔗 More info: https://www.icm.csic.es/en/news/molecular-hurdles-hindering-total-recycling-plastic-bottles-unveiled

OCEANZYME connects plastic in the ocean and fishermen’s boats to sampling, enzymatic discovery, protein reconstruction, molecular simulations, and back to lab proof of concepts. www.icm.csic.es/en/news/ocea...

📢 Apply for the #PhD 🎓 in Molecular and Statistical Biophysics at SISSA in lovely Trieste! 3 fully funded fellowships starting Oct 2026. ~8 months of classes, then choose your project. Remote entrance exam. Application deadline: 11.5.2026. Please repost! 👉 msb.sissa.it/join-us/ #joinus

Finally out! Why does crystalline PET still resist enzymatic recycling? With molecular simulations, we show the key limitation lies in enzyme shape and dynamics, pointing the way toward redesigning enzyme active sites to finally tackle crystalline PET. pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/...

Why Do PETases Struggle with Crystalline PET? Catalytic Ensemble Sampling Reveals Molecular Bottlenecks

Polyethylene terephthalate (PET) is a widely used thermoplastic whose high crystallinity poses a major barrier to upscaling enzymatic recycling. Although PETases with high activity and stability have ...

pubs.acs.org

#UniBarcelona | 📚 Descobreix el projecte Apel·les Infantil d’Òmnium Eixample i @idp-ub.bsky.social per impulsar la creativitat i la llengua catalana entre els més petits. ➡️ Amb el conseller de Política Lingüística, Francesc Xavier Vila 🗓️ Dimecres 14 de gener 🕛 18:00 📍 Edifici Històric, Aula Magna

Acte presentació Apel·les Infantil | Òmnium Cultural

Òmnium Cultural | Llengua Cultura País

omnium.cat

#Iran executed an astronomical number of protestors in the 80s. The true number will likely never be known, but thousands in the 1980s alone. They plan to start mass executions from tomorrow (Wednesday). Time is running out. If you say nothing, history will judge you. www.hrw.org/news/2022/06...

Iran’s 1988 Mass Executions

In 1988, Iranian authorities, acting on the orders of Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khomeini, summarily and extrajudicially executed thousands of political prisoners across the country. Human Rights Watch ...

hrw.org

The world’s next drug-resistant bacteria could be deadlier than cancer. Our best hope to save lives may be … AI. www.sfchronicle.com/projects/202...

No one is safe from the world’s next superbugs. Is this new science the solution?

Old antibiotics are losing effectiveness — and new ones aren’t being discovered fast enough. Our best hope to save lives may be AI.

sfchronicle.com

I am happy to announce the release of NEMAT: An Automated Non-Equilibrium Free-Energy Framework for Predicting Ligand Affinity in Membrane Proteins. Nice work by Albert Ortega-Bartolomé. Preprint: doi.org/10.64898/202... Code: github.com/QTC-IQAC/NEM...

If you are interested in joining the project as a postdoctoral researcher in computational RNA biophysics, integrative modelling, molecular dynamics, HPC, software development, or related areas, #joinus at www.bussilab.org/fis3

A key component will be the further development and benchmarking of methods within @plumed.org , our community-driven platform for enhanced sampling and integrative molecular simulations, providing efficient high-performance workflows.

🎉Our group has been awarded a prestigious #FIS grant! #RNAScale - Exploring RNA Dynamics across Scales: From Base Pairs to Viral Genomes 👉 www.bussilab.org/fis3 We will soon open postdoctoral positions across several components of the project! An expression-of-interest form is already online.

I will likely be recruiting a new postdoc early next year, working on protein allostery (can be either method development or applications). Please reach out to my GT email address if interested.

📣 New preprint out! We are zooming in on the molecular determinants and energetics that limit PETase activity on crystalline PET: it requires high energy both to reach reactive configurations and to separate its chains. Feedback is welcome. Submission in two weeks. lnkd.in/d3MCJhEg

Energetic Constraints in the Enzymatic Depolymerization of Crystalline PET

Polyethylene terephthalate (PET) is a widely used thermoplastic whose high crystallinity poses a major barrier to upscaling enzymatic recycling. While PETases with high activity and stability have bee...

biorxiv.org

After decades of whispering, proteins have started talking to me!

🏅 El #CSIC anuncia los vídeos ganadores del concurso ‘Yo investigo. Yo soy CSIC’ 📹 Los vídeos están protagonizados por personal investigador en formación que explica su trabajo en clave divulgativa  👉 https://f.mtr.cool/cmzsvlcaqn

A review reporting on the discussions held at the recent @cecamevents.bsky.social workshop on enzymatic plastic degradation that we co-organized in Trieste is now available on #arxiv

Molecular Ocean Lab@molecularocean.bsky.social · last yr.

The paper highlighting key insights, future challenges, and research priorities identified during our recent CECAM workshop in Trieste is now available online. Take a look to see what’s coming next in the field of enzymatic plastic degradation: arxiv.org/abs/2507.14413 Many thanks, everyone!

The paper highlighting key insights, future challenges, and research priorities identified during our recent CECAM workshop in Trieste is now available online. Take a look to see what’s coming next in the field of enzymatic plastic degradation: arxiv.org/abs/2507.14413 Many thanks, everyone!

Computations Meet Experiments to Advance the Enzymatic Depolymerization of Plastics One Atom at a Time

Plastics are essential to modern life, yet poor disposal practices contribute to low recycling rates and environmental accumulation-biological degradation and by-product reuse offer a path to mitigate...

arxiv.org

Thank you @briannaabbott.bsky.social for this wonderful piece, and highlighting what the MIT MAESTRO study means to our participants! I love that my quote was about HOPE. I KNOW that this is a solvable problem. We need to work together to fix it! www.wsj.com/health/chron...

Chronic Lyme Disease Was Once Dismissed. More Doctors Are Coming Around.

Newer trials are starting to track Lyme patients and investigate potential treatments

wsj.com

Comparison of Molecular Recognition in Docking Versus Experimental CSD and PDB Data | Journal of Chemical Information and Modeling pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/...

Protists! www.nature.com/articles/d41...

Single-celled organisms set for greater role in gut health

Long cast as villains, some protists, such as Blastocystis, are potentially beneficial to human health.

nature.com

Great news from the @crg.eu on @monicabettencourt.bsky.social appointment as the new director. This is excellent for the CRG and for catalan #science, for Monica is an excellent choice and a leader to a bright scientific future! #womeninscience

Monica Bettencourt-Dias@monicabettencourt.bsky.social · last yr.

Happy to be the next (and 1st female) @crg.eu director. The CRG always stood out to me, for its excellence in understanding life's principles, with implications for health and biodiversity, & its collaborative, open and innovative way of doing science. Thrilled to join its amazing community in 2026!

Excellent piece by @julieparsonnet.bsky.social on infectious diseases as root causes of a number of chronic human diseases; pausing research on bacterial and viral infections will limit efforts to cure neurodegeneration, autoimmune, metabolic disease as well as cancer substack.com/inbox/post/1...

Infections cause everything

Another reason why RFK Jrs. MAHA plan is misguided

substack.com

🤯 Implications for OLE RNA as a natural integral membrane RNA from Ron Breaker's lab rnajournal.cshlp.org/content/earl...

Thanks to the organizers for the invitation: Francesco Colizzi ( @molecularocean.bsky.social ) Paula Blazquez-Sanchez and Giovanni Busi. It was fantastic!

Bonobos, our closest living relatives, exhibit communication that shares more structural similarities with human language than previously recognized. www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

Extensive compositionality in the vocal system of bonobos

Compositionality, the capacity to combine meaningful elements into larger meaningful structures, is a hallmark of human language. Compositionality can be trivial (the combination’s meaning is the sum ...

science.org

Trois de nos plus grands scientifiques, Yasmine Belkaid (@pasteur.fr), Bana Jabri (@institutimagine.bsky.social) et Alain Puisieux (@institutcurie.bsky.social), prennent la parole pour appeler à des réponses courageuses des pouvoirs publics face aux attaques contre la recherche. ⬇️

This article does a great job describing the lives of young American scientists: “You roll up your sleeves, try to make or discover something useful and then let the scientific community try to punch holes in your work to make sure that it’s sound”

Prasad Jallepalli, MD, PhD@prasad.bsky.social · last yr.

www.nytimes.com/2025/04/03/o... Really important piece to share widely. Too many Americans don’t know how severe a threat this Administration poses to our scientific infrastructure, global leadership, and health security

This sound familiar: “However, it turns out that travel agencies charge far more than it would cost an academic to arrange their own travel and accommodation—sometimes staggeringly more”

Stefan Bon 🏳️‍🌈🎸🐕@bonlab.info · last yr.

With Academia under financial pressure, this article hits home. It is time to focus on our core objectives and purpose. academic.oup.com/brain/articl... 🥽🍎🧪

Only a few days left to secure your spot at the most groundbreaking conference in the world! 😎 (Okay, maybe not 𝘵𝘩𝘢𝘵 much, but it’s going to be fun). Don’t miss out—register now before the deadline hits! Outstanding list of speakers, and talks, and posters: www.cecam.org/workshop-det...

Molecular Ocean Lab@molecularocean.bsky.social · last yr.

Interested in enzymatic plastic depolymerization? Join us at the @cecamevents.bsky.social meeting in Trieste, hosted at SISSA from May 6-8, 2025! Slots available for talks and posters—share your work with us! Co-organized with Paula Blazquez Sanchez and @bussigio.bsky.social tinyurl.com/mrx8nucs

It was great to contribute to the characterization of these new Cas9 molecular scissors from the deep ocean, alongside a dream team led by Silvia Acinas and Julian Ceron. @raticosdeciencia.bsky.social www.icm.csic.es/en/news/gene...