Eilika Weber-Ban Lab
@ewb-lab.bsky.social
We study proteostasis and cellular degradation machines in mycobacteria. weber-ban-lab.ethz.ch
We are facing the biggest challenge in recent history to equal access to education and knowledge. Access to AI tools is a new mechanism for discrimination. All the while these tools are trained without permission on our common good: our thoughts, creativity, data, and intellect.
Phenomenal #glycotime by Lorenzo Rossi, @j-a-n-alexander.bsky.social, @asramirez.bsky.social and Kaspar Locher ⬇️ shows a pipeline for building THE glycoform you want with unprecedented yields! Now you can design your glycoform with GlycoShape and make it with Glyco-BUILD 👏 doi.org/10.1038/s414...
GLYCO-BUILD: an enzymatic pipeline for the synthesis of peptides carrying eukaryotic N-glycans - Nature Communications
Rossi and colleagues assemble an in vitro enzymatic pipeline using enzymes from distinct domains of life to recapitulate eukaryotic N-glycosylation. This work advances the synthesis of bespoke glycope...
doi.org
Asgard archaea were first found in mud at the bottom of the North Sea. Today, cellular biologists Martin Pilhofer and Christa Schleper are exploring one of their more elusive structural elements: a totally tubular system that looks a lot like our own. www.quantamagazine.org/tiny-tubes-r...
We are currently witnessing the complete succumbing to blackmail of the so-called civilized world. The speed of general moral and ethical decline in the name of economic constraints and reasoning is shocking. We must be aware that scientific integrity will not escape untouched.
Proud of my doctoral student Charlotte Schilling who successfully defended her thesis today! Congratulations, Charlotte, on an excellent job! 👏🥂
Check out our latest preprint with the Qi lab on the structure and disease physiology of the human ERAD complex. Outstanding work by Leo, a cell physiologist whom we successfully tempted into structural biology! Preprint: www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
Muñoz-Hernández, Xu, et al. @mike-wieczorek.bsky.social @ethz.ch report #cryoEM structures revealing how NEDD1’s C terminus forms an α-helical tetramer that docks onto the γ-TuRC without inducing major conformational changes in the complex during its recruitment to MTOCs rupress.org/jcb/article/...
Congratulations to our colleague Jörn Piel and the other awardees! nachrichten.idw-online.de/2025/05/15/j...
Jung-Stiftung zeichnet wegweisende Forschungsansätze aus
nachrichten.idw-online.de
Breaking news and a great honour for D-BIOL professor Jörn Piel: he wins the very prestigious Jung Prize for Medicine! Our congratulations! ethz.ch/en/news-and-...
ETH microbiologist honoured with prestigious European medical award
Chemist and microbiologist Jörn Piel combs through the vast world of bacteria for new natural substances to combat the antibiotic crisis. The ETH professor has now been honoured for his research with ...
ethz.ch
🧵5 Top Free Alternatives to BioRender for Scientific Illustrations! These five websites offer free scientific illustrations for biologists. Great for presentations, research papers and other research communication needs. Save and share the post!
As scientists we must be ready to communicate the importance of vaccination wherever the discussion may come up, with family, friends or at the hair dresser. Be prepared to explain in a fact-based and accessible manner.
Combating vaccine revisionism - Nature Medicine
The scientific community must take a strong and active stand against vaccine revisionism — the false narrative that there is insufficient evidence to support the safety and efficacy of vaccines.
nature.com
Check out our new study revealing how ATP-independent activator Bpa binds asymmetrically to the Mtb #proteasome — and pinpointing key Bpa residues involved in substrate interaction. 👏 Tatjana v. Rosen, Rafal Zdanowicz & @yasser-elhadeg.bsky.social 🔗 www.nature.com/articles/s41...
Substrates bind to residues lining the ring of asymmetrically engaged bacterial proteasome activator Bpa - Nature Communications
Mycobacterium tuberculosis has a proteasome similar to eukaryotes. This study reveals how the activator Bpa recruits its substrate HspR, providing structural and mechanistic insights. The authors iden...
nature.com
Asgard archaea have actin - but what about microtubules? Where do they come from? 🧐 Our new paper www.cell.com/cell/fulltex... by @xujwet.bsky.social & @florianwollweber.bsky.social, in collaboration with the Schleper & Wieczorek labs, describes tiny Asgard microtubules! #TeamTomo #ArchaeaSky 1/6
More than 2 decades ago the PINK1 protein was found to be linked to Parkinson's disease, but its structure and how it was activated was not known. Until @science.org today. A triumph for cryo-EM and structural biology, introducing new targets for drug intervention. www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...
In case you've forgotten about measles induced immune amnesia www.nbcnews.com/health/healt... w/ @michaelmina.bsky.social @virusesimmunity.bsky.social
Measles virus targets certain immune cells in the body: What to know about complications
The virus targets certain types of immune cells in the body, destroying them in the process.
nbcnews.com
Thank you, Annette, for taking on this important responsibility!
ETH Zurich@ethz.ch · last yr.Annette Oxenius has been appointed ETH Vice President for Research. From 1 August 2025, she will assume responsibility for research development and promotion at ETH Zurich. The 56-year-old Swiss national is an esteemed immunologist and professor at the ETH Department of Biology. Read more:
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
Cell-autonomous innate immunity by proteasome-derived defence peptides - Nature
Proteasomal degradation of cellular proteins generate defence peptides constitutively and in response to bacterial infection. Such peptides might provide a source of natural antibiotics that...
nature.com
Fully agree! “Peer” review being the important aspect here. And yes, reviewing takes time, as it should.
Carl T. Bergstrom@carlbergstrom.com · last yr.Let's talk about this Nature piece in more detail. I've rarely read something so anti-scientific anywhere short of the National Review. www.nature.com/articles/d41...
Some good news! The final program for the inaugural #GRCBiologyofMycobacteria is up! We are also officially oversubscribed but cancellations happen... www.grc.org/biology-of-m...
2025 Biology of Mycobacteria Conference GRC
The 2025 Gordon Research Conference on Biology of Mycobacteria will be held in Pomona, California. Apply today to reserve your spot.
grc.org
👏 Another chapter in the midnolin proteasome story from @xingulab.bsky.social www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
Structural basis for the midnolin-proteasome pathway and its role in suppressing myeloma
The midnolin-proteasome pathway degrades many nuclear proteins without ubiquitination, but how it operates mechanistically remains unclear. Here, we present structures of the midnolin-proteasome compl...
biorxiv.org
A new study from the Weber-Ban lab led by Charlotte Schilling @cm_schilling with support from @rafal_Zdanowicz @Glockshuber_lab reveals the signal linking DNA damage to the activation of the mycobacterial DNA damage response. More: biol.ethz.ch/en/news-and-...
