A long-standing mystery in cholesterol biology: why is ER cholesterol sensing so switch-like rather than gradual? Our answer: cholesteryl ester phase separation in the ER membrane, which converts small lipid changes into a cooperative transcriptional response. www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...

ER cholesteryl ester phase separation underlies switch-like cholesterol sensing

Cellular lipid homeostasis requires mechanisms that detect subtle changes in lipid abundance and trigger rapid, coordinated responses. The INSIG/SCAP/SREBP2 pathway provides a central feedback system ...

biorxiv.org

How does an adenovirus transform from an immature particle into an infectious virus? See our new preprint for a closer look at how protease activity orchestrates structural changes that enable adenovirus maturation and infectivity. www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...

bioRxiv Microbiology@biorxiv-microbiol.bsky.social · 15h ago

Protease-driven remodeling of stabilization networks during adenovirus assembly https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.08.04.740336v1

🚀 My first Cryo-EM structures are OUT on the PDB! 🎉Super excited about this milestone as PhD, it’s been a journey, and I’m grateful to finally have these as my first Cryo-EM structures! 🙌 🔁Thank you for sharing!❤️ Read @daaninthelab.bsky.social et. al.: www.science.org/doi/10.1126/... ⬇️ 2nd video

Hello, AI

Prof. Feynman@proffeynman.bsky.social · 2d ago

The pleasure isn't in being right. It's in the finding out.

Good description of a scientist?

Daily Dose of Philosophy@dailyphilosophy.bsky.social · 3d ago

Thoughts? #philosophy

I'm not sure folks have realized just how crazy the second half of 2026 and 2027 will be for global temperatures – on the back of a record-smashing El Niño event. Here is my latest estimate of where both years will end up compared to global temperatures since 1850.

Take a look at our new paper on the structure of the EHD2 that, upon oligomerization, forms rings that remodel the plasma membrane and form caveolae. Beautiful work by Elena, Vasya @vasiliimikirtumov.bsky.social, Jeff & Oliver Dumke's team; take a look: www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Is this the worst Ebola outbreak ever? Certainly sounds very bad.

Africa CDC chief says ‘no magical solution’ for intensifying deadly Ebola outbreak www.cidrap.umn.edu/ebola/africa...

Ebola may have been spreading for months in the DRC before anyone recognized it. A new reconstruction suggests the outbreak was already widespread in the gold-mining town of Mongbwalu by January. It wasn’t officially declared until 15 May. Why did no-one raise the alarm? My story for @science.org 🧪

EXCLUSIVE: Congo’s Ebola epidemic started at least 4 months before it was detected

A remote mining town gripped by fear saw hundreds of suspected cases before the government declared an outbreak, report says

science.org

We are excited to share two preprints reporting a mosquito-specific receptor for chikungunya virus and other alphaviruses! 🤩 www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6... www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6... @harvardmicro.bsky.social @harvardvirology.bsky.social @hhmi-science.bsky.social

Will "has four-character PDB depositions" soon be an age marker? Maybe along with "knows what mouth pipetting means"?

How do poxviruses initiate infection after getting into the cytoplasm? With Tom Calcraft, @miguel-virus-cells.bsky.social & Peter Rosenthal, @crick.ac.uk we solved the structure of the vaccinia virus portal that mediates viral assembly and early mRNA and subsequent genome release. rdcu.be/fwGTn

In situ structure of the poxvirus portal complex

Nature - Cryo-electron tomography uncovers the structure of a conserved hexameric ‘portal complex’ that spans the core wall in vaccinia virus, and shows how it is associated with viral...

rdcu.be

my god www.reuters.com/world/africa...

US government map of Africa mislabels every country at global conference

A U.S. government ​map of Africa mislabeled every country during a State Department presentation at a global conference ‌in Brazil this week, causing a stir among attendees who took screenshots and po...

reuters.com

One month left to apply (deadline August 31st)! 👇 #Virology #AcademicJobs #FacultyJobs #FacultyPosition #TenureTrack #GroupLeader

Daniel Hurdiss@danielhurdiss.bsky.social · last mo.

We are looking for an Assistant or Associate Professor to join us at the @utrechtvirology.bsky.social. Interested in building an independent research programme in a collaborative #virology environment? Please take a look and share with anyone who might be a good fit! www.uu.nl/en/organisat...

Wie weit sind wir wirklich im Kampf gegen HIV? Ein aktueller Blick auf den Stand der Forschung und auf die Herausforderungen, die noch vor uns liegen.👇 www.tagesschau.de/wissen/gesun... #HIV #AIDS (HMB)

So steht es um die weltweite Aids-Bekämpfung

In Rio de Janeiro treffen sich von heute an Tausende Menschen zur internationalen Aids-Konferenz - dem größten und wichtigsten Forum zum Thema HIV und Aids. Wie steht es um die Forschung? Ein Überblic...

tagesschau.de

Small new user-requested feature in 2.0 beta 5 - Surface Morphometrics can export obj in arbitrary voxel coordinates to make tools like Surforama easier to use.

Rand Paul swiftly moved from wet markets to "natural immunity". Rambling. Quoting Martin Kulldorff. Time to post one of my favorite xkcd drawings xkcd.com/2557/ ▫️42/ #faucihearing

Electron counting enables cryo-electron ptychography for near-atomic-resolution cryo-electron microscopy https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.07.25.736262v1

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...

Congratulations to Ellen Zhong, Princeton University, for receiving the 2026 K.H. Kuo Award for Outstanding Young Scientist in Structural Biology www.bsc.org.cn/KuoSymposium...

Congratulations to Chris Russo, MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology, for receiving the 2026 K.H. Kuo Award for Distinguished Scientist in Biological Electron Microscopy www.bsc.org.cn/KuoSymposium...

Breaking news: Shanghai Jiao Tong University School of Medicine will launch a “comprehensive investigation” into the previously undisclosed death last year of a 6-year-old girl who had received an experimental gene therapy from one of its scientists. Learn more: https://scim.ag/4yJXPoU

A question: does anyone know about communities or groups for scientists who are committed to writing without the use of LLMs / genAI?

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 · 6mo 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 🧵

Just uploaded a new Geopickr version with improved oversampling on surfaces, including automatic even/odd splitting by connected component when using a morphometrics surface. This is much less prone to half set particle overlap leading to overfitting. cxtoolshed.rbvi.ucsf.edu/apps/chimera...

I don't think people fully appreciate how apocalyptic things are for US science. I haven't had any new funding since 2024, but I'm still ok since typical grants are for three years. This means next year I will be completely out of funding and will have to fire everyone in the lab. It's not great.

Jeremy Berg@jeremymberg.bsky.social · 5mo ago

NSF Update through March 13, 2026 1/2

Thoughts? #philosophy

The Cure Hepatitis C Act, bipartisan legislation introduced Tuesday in the US Congress, will provide critical access to hepatitis C treatment and cure to millions of people. If passed, we know this bill will save money and lives. It's time to #EndHepC in the USA. degette.house.gov/media-center...

DeGette Moves to Eradicate Hepatitis C with Bipartisan Legislation

WASHINGTON, D.C. — Today, Congresswoman Diana DeGette (CO-01), Congresswoman Mariannette Miller-Meeks (IA-01), Congressman Henry C. “Hank” Johnson (GA-04), and Congressman Don Bacon (NE-02)…

degette.house.gov

Think converting meters to feet is hard? Try measuring a bridge in smoots. There's a full list of unofficial, joke-based units of measurement. Some have entered genuine use in science, engineering, and daily life. Others are less helpful (but still interesting!).

As an academic, I have decided to pre-empt AI taking my job, so I am going to take ITS job! I am going to start hallucinating, lying to my students, and drinking 700,000 litres of water