A very nice write up about our recent work taking a peek at Cx46/50 channel-channel interactions! Thanks, @structurabio.bsky.social!

Structura Biotechnology@structurabio.bsky.social · 4w ago

🔬Using #SingleParticle #cryo-EM on plaque-mimicking nanodiscs, researchers determined multiple connexin assembly states and uncovered lipid-protein interactions that may help understand gap junction organization and function. Read more in the latest #CryoSPARC Blog 👉 cryosparc.com/blog/gap-jun...

My personal summer of code continues with another ChimeraX plugin - this time, MorphometricsX! Load quantified meshes from morphometrics (or pycurv) in ChimeraX with color-by-quantification and display alongside tomos and particles. Coming to the toolshed soon! #teamtomo github.com/baradlab/mor...

Just in time for the weekend, the 2nd beta for our Surface Morphometrics 2.0 release: github.com/GrotjahnLab/.... Beyond the major API change from the first beta (which used for the michigan class!), this one includes a major overhaul of the dual gaussian fitting for thickness and refinement.

Release 2.0.0b2 · GrotjahnLab/surface_morphometrics

A quality and robustness release on top of 2.0.0b1, focused on the density-profile bilayer fitting (mesh refinement and thickness measurement), a forgiving centralized config system, and packaging ...

github.com

Very excited about our new work highlighting the role of lipids in mediating multi-channel assemblies of Cx-46/50!

Reichow Lab@reichowlab.bsky.social · 2mo ago

Dual-channel Cx46/50 gap junction assemblies in a shared lipid-nanodisc = lipid-mediated packing and a lipid site near the NT gating region that is absent from single channels. Plus a 1.8 Å open-state single-channel benchmark! #cryo-EM 🍩’s #NIH-funded-research www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...

#NIHFundedDiscovery How do cells avoid the "kiss of death"? Gap junctions share life-saving signals—but under stress, they shut down to prevent spreading cytotoxic damage. #CryoEM reveals the molecular switches behind this process! www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1... www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

Super excited for this one! High-res #cryo-EM ensemble of sHSP/client complexes, uncovering 'Mechanism of small heat shock protein client sequestration and induced polydispersity' www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1... A teaser...👇

Pleased to share the peer-reviewed version of our latest work on resolving the complexities of a-crystallins/sHSP's: www.nature.com/articles/s41... A timely release of this story... as it is a great setup to the next one, coming soon!!

Dynamic fibrillar assembly of αB-crystallin induced by perturbation of the conserved NT-IXI motif resolved by cryo-EM - Nature Communications

Here the authors show that mutating αB-crystallin’s NT-IXI motif transforms polydispersed oligomers into ordered fibrils, enabling cryo-EM to provide insights into the principles of high-order assembl...

nature.com

Inaugural post sharing a newly updated version of our little protocol for high quality fiducial removal in #CryoET processing

Tomogram Reconstruction and Gold Fiducial Removal with WarpTools, Etomo, and Fidder

While gold nanoparticle fiducials greatly improve tilt-series alignment in cryo-electron tomography data, they can cause artifacts during later image processing steps. We presen...

protocols.io