Holthuis Lab
@holthuislab.bsky.social
Lipid cell biologists who love to hang out with chemists & computer simulations experts to grasp the complex behavior of membranes
Lipids build the membranes of all cells, but identifying their precise functions is extremely challenging. Here’s our attempt to change that: How to find and understand lipid-protein interactions, by Katelyn Cook & company. www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...
From the major German Funding Agency, the DFG; content-wise independent from the Government. Run by the universities and the scientists! 👊🏼 @dfg.de
Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft@dfg.de · 3w agoHow can we protect academic freedom against growing attacks? A new position paper issued by a DFG Senate working group outlines how the resilience of research and the research ecosystem can be strengthened – and how policymakers, industry and society at large can contribute: sohub.io/aziq
A new, rather unexpected glycolipid class. Very well done study. Given how they look structurally, I think it makes a lot of sense to test these lipids against a panel of GPCRs. Lipid biology keeps surprising me. I like that. www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...
biorxiv.org
The anatomy of an AI-supported academic article is becoming more apparent. I desk reviewed ~70 manuscripts this week for our journal. Reckon 20ish had significant AI assistance. On top of hundreds of others recently I'm starting to see patterns. Are other editors are seeing the same or similar? 1/
Yale isn't just deciding whether to settle one investigation. They're deciding whether to cave to the Trump administration's campaign to use civil rights to control higher education. Yale has the resources to stand up for academic freedom. I hope they do(1/2) www.insidehighered.com/news/governa...
Faculty and Students Demand Yale Not “Cave” to Trump
Reports surfaced late last month that Yale University is negotiating a deal with the Trump administration, which is investigating the university’s admissions practices.
insidehighered.com
Deeply shocking, these White House draft regulations regarding federal funded research in the US, primarily aimed at advancing the interests of one individual. Hope 🇺🇸 scientists will make some coherent noise to divert a disaster that will undermine science & innovation in the US and far beyond
American Society for Cell Biology@ascbiology.bsky.social · last mo.White House draft regulations could reshape federally funded research, including peer review and international collaborations. Learn what's proposed and why it matters. Comments due July 13. https://www.ascb.org/science-policy/white-house-draft-regulations-could-reshape-american-science/
📯Congratulations to Michael Timme, who defended his PhD thesis “Decoding the tumor suppressor activity of ceramides through molecular dynamics simulations” with flying colors today 🎩, leaving behind two proud (and somewhat tipsy) Doktorvaters 🥂 @melolab.bsky.social & @holthuislab.bsky.social
📯 Our paper “VPS13C/PARK23 initiates lipid transfer and membrane remodeling for efficient lysosomal repair” out now in Nature Communications rdcu.be/frKmN
VPS13C/PARK23 initiates lipid transfer and membrane remodeling for efficient lysosomal repair
Nature Communications - Not all components of the lysosome damage response pathway have been defined. Here, the authors discover that the bridge-like lipid transport protein VPS13C senses lysosomal...
rdcu.be
Truly bizarre story of how two papers from the 1940s by physics pioneer Max Planck have been "retracted" from Naturwissenschaften, potentially by an algorithm, for anachronistic "plagiarism" issues, leaving the current editor baffled (but it is Springer Nature so.... www.science.org/content/arti...
Why have papers by one of history’s most famous physicists been retracted?
Springer Nature has removed two studies by Max Planck. A bot may be to blame
science.org
If you are looking for a cool PhD project on lysosome biogenesis under supervision of an excellent mentor in a thriving research community, this is your chance ungermannlab.bsky.social👇
ungermannlab.xn--bs-vl72a
ungermannlab.bsky.social@ungermannlab.bsky.social · 3mo agoThree PhD positions available to work on yeast lysosome biogenesis and reconstitution of membrane fusion as of July or September 2026. Details can be found here: myshare.uni-osnabrueck.de/f/76c16d1fcc...
Advice for @erc.europa.eu : Prohibit the use of LLMs for grant writing. Let applicants sign a declaration that they have not used such systems and that the text is written by them and them alone.
If you are looking for a cool PhD project on lysosome biogenesis under supervision of an excellent mentor in a thriving research community, this is your chance ungermannlab.bsky.social👇
ungermannlab.xn--bs-vl72a
ungermannlab.bsky.social@ungermannlab.bsky.social · 3mo agoThree PhD positions available to work on yeast lysosome biogenesis and reconstitution of membrane fusion as of July or September 2026. Details can be found here: myshare.uni-osnabrueck.de/f/76c16d1fcc...
“We must protect and cultivate the ecosystem of human knowledge. AI models can mimic the appearance of scholarly work, but they are (by construction) unconcerned with truth — the result is a torrential outpouring of unchecked but convincing-sounding “information”. — as quoted in Guest et al. (2026)
Against the Uncritical Adoption of ‘AI’ Technologies in Academia — Digital Culture & Education (ISSN: 1836-8301)
Written by: Olivia Guest, Marcela Suarez, Barbara C. N. Müller, Edwin van Meerkerk, Arnoud Oude Groote Beverborg, Ronald de Haan, Andrea Reyes Elizondo, Mark Blokpoel, Natalia Scharfenberg, Annelies ...
digitalcultureandeducation.com
While BioNtech & Moderna become household names because of their Covid vaccines, those emerged from different projects: finding ways to treat the most challenging cancers. They hypothesized that we could vaccinate patients against their own tumors, & evidence is mounting that they were right! 1/n 🧪
📯Proud to share a preprint of a joint paper with Michael Timme and @melolab.bsky.social on how ceramides disrupt hexokinase binding to VDACs and modulate channel tilting. Our CG-MD simulations reveal a potential mechanism by which ceramides may induce apoptotic cell death📯 bsky.app/profile/bior...
bioRxivpreprint@biorxivpreprint.bsky.social · 3mo agoCeramides disrupt hexokinase HKI-VDAC complex assembly and modulate VDAC tilting https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.04.25.720789v1
Choice words from Dr. Szostak here. And while I am no Nobel Prize-winning scientist, I identify with the same quandary as an immigrant, moving here in 2009 and (proudly) becoming a citizen in 2023. I, too, don't recognize that country anymore 😢🇺🇸🧳🛫. newsletter.ofthebrave.org/p/im-a-nobel...
I’m a Nobel Prize-winning immigrant. I can no longer recognize this country.
Attacks on science and immigrants are destroying America.
newsletter.ofthebrave.org
Wan’t to be faculty at a collegial host-pathogen focused department in a beautiful bikable city with amazing food? This link is for you: facultycareers-ohsu.icims.com/jobs/39006/a...
☕ @mathilda95.bsky.social @nadlerlab.bsky.social & co introduce a correlative light and electron #microscopy workflow, Lipid-CLEM, combining near-native #lipid probes and on-section labelling via click chemistry. Lipid-CLEM quantitatively analyses lipids in membrane nanodomains. bit.ly/4moYLJH
Visualizing suborganellar lipid distribution using correlative light and electron microscopy - Nature Cell Biology
Lennartz et al. introduce a correlative light and electron microscopy workflow, Lipid-CLEM, combining near-native lipid probes and on-section labelling via click chemistry. Lipid-CLEM quantitatively a...
bit.ly
The 2026 Otto Warburg Medal winner Maya Schuldiner received the medal from @volkerhaucke-lab.bsky.social after a moving laudatio by Christian Ungermann Thanks to @elsevierconnect.bsky.social for the continuous support!
Looks like a great @embo.org workshop coming in September: “Lipid Code to Life”, with a who’s who of lipid #biochemistry… (e.g. @dimovalab.bsky.social @holthuislab.bsky.social @sciezgin.bsky.social etc ) More info and registration: meetings.embo.org/event/26-lip... #lipids #biophysics
Lipid Code to Life
Modern lipid biology has evolved far beyond the traditional view of lipids as simple building blocks or energy substrates. Lipids are now recognised as dynamic regulators of biological structures and…
meetings.embo.org
New paper from my group in @science.org : "A small polymerase ribozyme that can synthesise itself and its complementary strand" www.science.org/doi/10.1126/... Outstanding work by @edogia.bsky.social
How did life arise from simple chemical building blocks? New #LMBResearch led by @edogia.bsky.social in @philholliger.bsky.social group has identified a small self-replicating ribozyme that could be the answer. Read more: mrclmb.ac.uk/news-events/...
📯Congratulations to Tobi Adeosun, who defended his PhD thesis on “transbilayer lipid dynamics & inter-organellar lipid transfer in lysosomal repair” with flying colors today 🎩 and joined Saron Tooze’s lab at the Crick Institute, leaving behind a proud and tipsy Doktorvater 🥂
Modern lipid biology has grown far beyond its roots. Advanced technologies offer novel opportunities to unravel the role of lipids in the organization of biological systems. Build on this momentum and join The EMBO Workshop "The Lipid Code to Life" Sept 7-11, 2026 meetings.embo.org/event/26-lip...
Have you registered yet? Early bird registration and abstract submission are open until January 31. mosbacher-kolloquium.org
Please sign up on coming-soon.embo.org/w26-51 to be informed once the website is live. We are very very very much looking forward to welcoming you to Dresden, one of the most lipid-loving cities, next year!
The lipid code to life
7–11 September 2026 | Dresden, Germany
coming-soon.embo.org
Ups we did it again! Please mark your calender. EMBO Workshop “Lipid Code to Life”, taking place September 7–11, 2026, in Dresden, organized by Maria Fedorova, @lipid.bsky.social, Valerie O'Donnell, @holthuislab.bsky.social and @molcellbiophys-lab.bsky.social 🥳 Retweets = lipidlove
Key determinants of VDAC-hexokinase I complex assembly revealed by a minimal vesicle-based interaction assay https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.11.03.686449v1