The brilliant Kris Kuo, with help from Fabian and the Werner lab, has identified a key driver of cyclic gene expression in Sulfolobus, which has a cell cycle but no CDK/cyclins. Amazingly, TFB2 has a cyclin box that regulates its degradation as cells exit division. Another reason to love archaea!

A TFIIB paralog drives cyclic transcription to orchestrate the archaeal cell cycle

Cyclic transcription is a hallmark of the cell cycle. While transcriptional waves in eukaryotes are driven by oscillations in cyclin-dependent kinase (CDK) activity, many archaea have an ordered cell ...

biorxiv.org

Millions of beating cilia keep airways clean. At the base of each is the transition zone (TZ), a gate that controls which proteins enter and leave. In our paper out today in Science, we used cryo-FIB-ET to image the TZ inside human airway cells www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

In situ structure of the human ciliary transition zone links linker defects to primary ciliary dyskinesia

The ciliary transition zone (TZ) regulates ciliary proteome composition, yet its molecular architecture, protein content, and contribution to motile ciliopathies remain poorly defined. We applied in situ cryo-electron tomography and subtomogram averaging ...

science.org

Are you interested in the nuclear envelope and are still lacking a dye for it? Try the lectin concanavalin A in #U-ExM! Together with @baukjeje.bsky.social, @gautamdey.bsky.social and @dudinlab.bsky.social and many collaborators sharing species with us we explored the versatility of this dye

Omaya Dudin 𓂆 ¦🍉¦🦠¦🔬¦@dudinlab.bsky.social · last wk.

We wanted to share this asap for everyone to use ! This will remain a #preprint for the time being. We are happy to recieve feedback, hear whether or not ot works in your hands and continue to apply it across #eukaryotes as part of #ExÂME You want to know more : www.dudinlab.com/exame

Very proud of the team, led by @baukjeje.bsky.social & @fmikus.bsky.social To all of you doing #Expansion #Microscopy #UExM Try Concanavalin A. Its cheap, easy to use & labels the #nuclear #Envelope @moorefound.bsky.social @embl.org @sciencesunige.bsky.social @erc.europa.eu @snsf.ch

Baukje Hoogenberg@baukjeje.bsky.social · last wk.

Do you want to label the nuclear envelope? Do you work on a non-model species? Try Concanavalin A! We tested ConA on various species across the eukaryotic tree and find it is a very useful ExM-compatible marker for the NE and ER. Read all about it in our preprint: www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...

If you thought you understood how one cell becomes two (and imagined studying the problem using an organism that lives in deep sea volcanic vents was impossible), read Florian’s paper and think again!

Florian Mayer@florianmayer.bsky.social · last wk.

Excited to share our preprint on Ignicoccus cell divison: only the inner membrane divides, progeny cells accumulate in cell clusters and pop-out! www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6... Great work with the labs: @buzzbaum.bsky.social @curiousdina.bsky.social @anja1.bsky.social @tbharat-lab.bsky.social

Excited to share our preprint on Ignicoccus cell divison: only the inner membrane divides, progeny cells accumulate in cell clusters and pop-out! www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6... Great work with the labs: @buzzbaum.bsky.social @curiousdina.bsky.social @anja1.bsky.social @tbharat-lab.bsky.social

The life cycle of an archaeon with multiple membranes

Many prokaryotes are diderms. They divide using an FtsZ division ring to simultaneously constrict physically coupled inner and outer membranes to form daughter cells with two membranes. Currently, onl...

biorxiv.org

Recruitment for the EMBL International PhD Programme is officially open! 📣 At EMBL, we train young scientists to become skilled and creative future leaders in academia, industry and other sectors. Start your career in the life sciences with us! 🔎 Read more and apply here: bit.ly/4x9Edss

I am excited to share that I will start my group @embl.org in Grenoble in February 2027, where we will investigate host-pathogen interactions using in situ cryo electron microscopy🦠❄️🔬! I am recruiting PhD students through the current open call of the EMBL PhD Program: www.embl.org/about/info/e...

A wild publishing ride to get here... but finally! (first bioRxiv: January 5th, 2024 🙃) Amazing work from @lorenzlamm.bsky.social and colleagues 🤗 Special thanks to the community who jumped early on the boat, sharing feedback and training data to make MemBrain v2 a reality 🙏🏽

MemBrain v2: an end-to-end tool for the analysis of membranes in cryo-electron tomography - Nature Methods

MemBrain v2 enables streamlined analysis of membranes in cryo-electron tomography by providing user-friendly tools for membrane segmentation, membrane protein localization and spatial analysis, suppor...

nature.com

MemBrain v2 is on @natmethods.nature.com now? I never had a @biorxivpreprint.bsky.social with 164 citations before😅 ...Which is also to say: Thank you to the amazing #TeamTomo community, many of whom not only beta tested, but also contributed diverse training data. This one belongs to all of us! 🤗🔬🧪

Ricardo D. Righetto@lifeonthewedge.bsky.social · last wk.

A wild publishing ride to get here... but finally! (first bioRxiv: January 5th, 2024 🙃) Amazing work from @lorenzlamm.bsky.social and colleagues 🤗 Special thanks to the community who jumped early on the boat, sharing feedback and training data to make MemBrain v2 a reality 🙏🏽

I am looking for a lab manager for my group that I will be starting at the @fmiscience.bsky.social in February! We will use in situ structural biology to investigate dynamic ciliary processes. More info here —> bsky.app/profile/comp... #cilia #teamtomo #proteomics #protistsky

FMI science@fmiscience.bsky.social · last wk.

📢 We’re hiring! Join Caitlyn McCafferty’s (@computingcaitie.bsky.social) new group as Lab Manager and help shape lab operations, develop protocols and support research on the structure and dynamics of motile cilia. Apply by October 9: www.fmi.ch/education-ca...

🚨 New preprint alert! 🚨 Choanoflagellates reorganize their global cytoskeletal architecture within seconds to explore confined microspaces. This is the main PhD work of the amazing @maitefreired.bsky.social www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6... A tread 🧵⬇️

Rapid repurposing of microvillar content drives a flagellate-to-amoeboid switch in the closest relative of animals

Animal cells extensively remodel their cytoskeleton during differentiation and can notably switch between two major motility modes: flagellum-based swimming and actin-based crawling. We previously sho...

biorxiv.org

Exciting news! Our @erc.europa.eu StG project ARCHAEAOLOGY got funded 🎉 We’ll combine cryoET/EM, ExM & spatial omics to explore the subcellular organization of Asgard archaea. Job ads coming soon! 🦠 ❄️ 🔬 #TeamTomo #ArchaeaSky #MicroSky

EMBL@embl.org · 2w ago

Congratulations to @florianwollweber.bsky.social, the recently appointed Group Leader at EMBL Grenoble, who received an ERC Starting Grant worth approximately €2 million to investigate the origins of eukaryotic cell complexity. bit.ly/4gNwEBk

It is happening, and registration is open for the EMBO Workshop: Bacterial and archaeal cell division: diverse mechanisms and models. 20–23 April 2027 | Barga, Italy. Come and join us @awehenkel.bsky.social, @seamusholden.bsky.social, @s-lab.bsky.social ! Deadline: Jan 6, 2027. #Bacdiv27

EMBO@embo.org · 4w ago

Sign up now for the EMBO Workshop "Bacterial and archaeal #CellDivision: Diverse mechanisms and models" in Barga (Lucca), Italy, 20–23 April 2027. Deadline: 6 January 2027 https://meetings.embo.org/event/27-cell-division #EMBObacDiv27 #genetics #biochemistry #StructuralBiology #EMBOevents 🧪

Who needs chromatin anyway...? NOT THIS GUY! www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6... 1/n

Chromatin is dispensable for bacterial life

Inside cells, DNA is intimately associated with proteins, forming chromatin. The protein constituents of chromatin vary across the tree of life: histones are the principal building blocks of chromatin...

biorxiv.org

Molecular architecture of colossal surface layers from hyperthermophilic archaea Led by @idocaspy.bsky.social (Ido) In collaboration with @mkrupovic.bsky.social and @vikramalva.bsky.social labs doi.org/10.64898/202...

Join our team at EMBL Imaging Centre! We are looking for a Microscopy Specialist with strong expertise in advanced light microscopy to help develop and establish cutting-edge super-resolution cryo-light microscopy and cryo-CLEM workflows. Apply here: embl.wd103.myworkdayjobs.com/EMBL/job/Hei...

Microscopy Specialist

Your role The Microscopy Specialist contributes to the delivery and continuous advancement of the EMBL Imaging Centre by providing specalist expertise in super-resolution cryo-light microscopy (Cryo-L...

embl.wd103.myworkdayjobs.com

1/5 How much phosphorylation can a single kinase deposit? In our new study with @typaslab.bsky.social out in @nature.com, phage T7's kinase (T7K) modifies almost all the E. coli proteome + more densely than all ~500 kinases do our own proteomes 🤯 www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Pervasive phosphorylation by phage T7 kinase disarms bacterial defences - Nature

The T7 bacteriophage deactivates bacterial defence systems through T7K phosphorylation of nearly all host and phage proteins during infection.

nature.com

Excited to share our paper with @savitski-lab.bsky.social, led by @tarabartolec.bsky.social, Karin Mitosch & Clément Potel, out now in @nature.com. We show that T7 phage broadly disables bacterial defenses using a unique ‘loose cannon’ protein kinase. www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Pervasive phosphorylation by phage T7 kinase disarms bacterial defences - Nature

The T7 bacteriophage deactivates bacterial defence systems through T7K phosphorylation of nearly all host and phage proteins during infection.

nature.com

Typas Lab@typaslab.bsky.social · 2y ago

Excited to share our preprint with @savitski_lab led by @tarabartolec.bsky.social, @KMitosch & Clément Potel! We uncovered a mechanism by which the T7 phage broadly counteracts DNA-targeting bacterial defenses by deploying a loose cannon kinase in its genome @embl.org www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

Amazing to be a part of this fantastic work led by the @brendanburns999.bsky.social lab! Here, for the first time, we visualized unique viruses associated with Asgard archaea using cryoET. You can read it here: lnkd.in/gs7mztKw

Excited to share what I've been working on with an incredible team! Visualisation of Asgard viruses on cell surfaces and vesicles, and a story of complex viral interactions. Preprint: www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6... @brendanburns999.bsky.social @belindaferrari.bsky.social @xabivc.bsky.social

(1/4) We are very excited to share our latest preprint from @sauer-lab.bsky.social: Mega Expansion Microscopy (Mega-ExM)! We combine iterative hydrogel expansion with whole-proteome NHS labeling and post-expansion immunostaining, reaching tunable expansion factors up to ~1500× in whole cells 🤯

bioRxiv Biophysics@biorxiv-biophys.bsky.social · last mo.

Structural cell biology by mega-expansion microscopy https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.08.05.743040v1

New preprint! In collaboration with the Yogev lab (Yale), we characterized and determined structures of various gamma-tubulin complexes from C. elegans, showing how divergent worm subunits evolved to template non-canonical (11-pf) and possibly canonical (13-pf!) microtubules: tinyurl.com/2sapyx2b

Closing this weekend! Join us as a scientific biocurator in the OneDep biocuration team. Work with structural data, software and processes that support data deposition and curation. Apply by 2nd Aug: tinyurl.com/47t93kxp. CAK-CDK1-Cyclin-B1: Timing is everything (#cryoEM EMD-54971).

This story is now published in @natplants.nature.com ! 🎉🎩 Check out the final article here: nature.com/articles/s41477-026-02361-1 Very similar to the original bioRxiv preprint, with the addition of some cool polysome analysis (in the supplementals)! Thanks and congrats to everyone involved! 🙏

Chloroplast-encoded small subunit extensions reshape the Chlamydomonas chlororibosome - Nature Plants

Using in situ cryo-electron tomography, researchers found a unique ‘arm’ domain on the small subunit of Chlamydomonas chlororibosomes. This discovery suggests that chlororibosome structure is more evo...

nature.com

Florent Waltz@florentwaltz.bsky.social · 7mo ago

Long in the making, but happy to present the Chlamydomonas chlororibosome! Cryo-ET🔬reveals a large new domain on the small subunit, built from multiple extensions in conserved ribosomal proteins. bioRxiv 📖: shorturl.at/q44tG This suggests greater chlororibosome diversity than expected! 1/n 🧵

Do #tintinnids dream of electric sheep? 🤯 Here is a single cell capable of building a lorica and living inside it for protection... it also swims, feeds, hunts Can even detect and habituate to mechanical cues! #celllearning #protistsonsky #cilia Read more in our preprint doi.org/10.64898/202...

I am starting my lab at the University of Geneva next January! Incredibly excited to soon be joining the MOCEL department as an Asst. Professor. The lab will use evolutionary cell biology to study chromosomes, centromeres & speciation 🧬🔬🌱 Intrigued, want to join or collaborate? 🔗 helsenlab.org

Helsen lab | chromosome and centromere evolution

The Helsen lab at the University of Geneva explores how centromeres and chromosomes evolve, diversify, and function across eukaryotes. Discover our latest publications, research team, and open positio...

helsenlab.org

Some bacteria do not live as individuals. They build multicellular filaments and connect neighboring cells through tiny cell-cell junctions. Cyanobacteria are among the most beautiful examples 😍 In our new paper, we reveal first molecuar insights on the cyanobacterial septal junction architecture 🧵

Excited to share our new preprint led by Fred and me in collaboration with the archaeal community! We found that the molecular foundation of histone-based chromatin has pre-eukaryotic roots in Asgard archaea. (1/4) #ArchaeaSky www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...

Emergence of histone-based chromatin complexity in Asgard archaea

The emergence of the eukaryotes coincided with the diversification of histone proteins and their post-translational modifications by enzymes that constitute the core of eukaryotic chromatin. Yet the e...

biorxiv.org

Honoured and delighted to be elected as an EMBO Member. Many thanks to my group and to everyone who has supported me throughout the years. I am deeply grateful for this recognition.

EMBO@embo.org · 3mo ago

Welcome and congratulations to the 60 new members and 11 associate members who have been elected to the EMBO Membership! They join a community of more than 2,200 leading scientists. 🧪 https://www.embo.org/press-releases/seventy-one-leading-scientists-elected-to-the-embo-membership/ #EMBOMembers2026