How do hundreds of proteins grip the cell’s actin skeleton? After 4 years of work, we discovered a tiny, 9-amino-acid conserved motif that acts as a universal molecular anchor—defining a whole new class of actin-binding proteins! Read it here: www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Evolutionarily conserved short linear motifs drive actin filament binding - Nature Cell Biology

Paraschiakos, Yuan et al., using a computational pipeline, identify the short linear actin filament-binding motif (SFM) as an evolutionarily conserved actin filament-binding motif present in 103 human...

nature.com

An evolutionarily conserved, short linear actin filament-binding motif (SFM), present in >100 proteins. Great collaboration with the Windhorst and Marlovits labs. Happy to have contributed, by using macrophage podosomes as a readout. Publication in Nat Cell Biol: www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Very excited to be sharing our new paper, just out in Nature Cell Biology! The big question we investigate: How do migrating cells put their front 🔴 and back 🔵 in the right place?

Nothing better for procrastination than going through some live cell imaging of Endosomes... Today we have the fusion of two equally sized PI(3)P positive endosomes. This is at 5s framerate, wish I had taken it at higher temporal resolution but still super cool to see

onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/... "Dr. Pollard reflects on key discoveries that shaped the actin field and on the role of quantitative thinking in biology."

Foundational Discoveries in Actin Regulation: An Interview With Tom Pollard

Dr. Thomas D. Pollard's work transformed cytoskeleton research into a quantitative, mechanistic science. Over five decades, he established core principles of actin dynamics, including filament polari...

onlinelibrary.wiley.com

That’s a wrap for #JCSimaging, organised by @franbottanelli.bsky.social, @guijacquemet.bsky.social, @drmichaelway.bsky.social & Giulia Zanetti. Thanks to everyone who joined us and made the conference such a wonderful community event. journals.biologists.com/jcs

Beautiful location here at #JCSimaging

@jcellsci.bsky.social @biologists.bsky.social team ready to welcome everybody and the sun is shining! #JCSimaging

Target cell adhesion limits macrophage #phagocytosis and promotes #trogocytosis, say @kirstin-rollins.bsky.social, @mmorrissey.bsky.social and colleagues: rupress.org/jcb/article/... 📕 Part of JCB Immune Cell Biology collection 👉 rupress.org/jcb/collecti... #AAI2026

Phagocytic podosomes enable efficient uptake of Candida auris by primary human macrophages

Phagocytic podosomes enable efficient uptake of Candida auris by primary human macrophages

The yeast Candida auris is an emerging health threat. Sopelniak et al. show that uptake of C. auris cells by primary human macrophages involves the formation of phagocytic podosomes, highly dynamic actin structures that enable close adhesion to C. auris cells and are associated with proper maturation of respective phagosomes.

dlvr.it

Podosomes in phagocytosis! 😋 + Candida auris Our new paper "Phagocytic podosomes enable efficient uptake of Candida auris by primary human macrophages" has now been published in Cell Reports: pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/41863801/

Podosomes in endocytosis! 🔬 Check out our new preprint "Drebrin forms a cortical hub that connects actin, microtubules, and clathrin for endocytic transport of β2 integrin" www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...

New publication: Live Biological Imaging Across Scales 10 chapters on live imaging from molecules to organisms, written by leading experts and edited by Claire Wells and yours truly Can now be pre-ordered by your online or brick-and-mortar vendor of choice 🔬

Ho ho ho 🎄🎅

A warm welcome to our new PhD student Emma Lautenbach, who will work on the intricacies of the podosome cap 🧢

A warm welcome to our new lab member Canberk Yesilada, who will be/is already working on his PhD thesis on Borrelia phagocytosis by macrophages 🤗

Macrophages are super! SoRA (superresolution after optical reassignment) microscopy video of a primary human macrophage transfected with Lifeact-GFP to visualize actin-rich podosomes. Star-like appearance is due to connecting cables linking individual podosomes into a cell-wide superstructure ✨

On our way to Heidelberg to the meeting of the German Society for Cell Biology 🧫

New preprint: Phagocytic podosomes enable efficient uptake of Candida auris by primary human macrophages 🦠👄 www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

Our paper on podosome regulation by myosins 1e/f is now online. We introduce the concept of the podosome base, a region of plasma membrane-associated components 🔬 Cool collaboration with @renaudpoincloux.bsky.social‬ and Krendel labs www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

Congratulations to our lab member Bryan Barcelona to a super fancy defense on software-based analysis of cell and podosome parameters 👨‍🎓

Cellular fireworks (in a primary human macrophage): Microtubule +tips, labeled by CLIP170-GFP, move from the microtubule organizing center (MTOC) to the cell periphery ✨

This is why we love #cellmigration #Leukocytes: #Neutrophils (cyan) #Macrophages (orange) chemotaxis. I couldn't share it before the retirement of @zebrafishrock.bsky.social, but cool #microscopy in #zebrafish continue to rock ! #scicomm #scisky @cellcommlab.bsky.social @focalplane.bsky.social 🧪🔬

A warm welcome to our new master student Mahmood Tarmom, who will work on podosome proteins of (yet) unknown function 🔬

Coming up: "Live Biological Imaging Across Scales", part of the Royal Microscopic Society line of Wiley books. Featuring 10 chapters from international experts on live imaging from molecules to organisms. Edited by Claire M. Wells and yours truly 📘🧬🐭

Our preprint on podosome regulation by unconventional myosins in now on BioRxiv. Great collaboration with the @renaudpoincloux.bsky.social and Krendel labs. www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1... We introduce the concept of the "podosome base", a region of plasma membrane-associated podosome components.

My latest @newscientist.com cartoon

Interesting preprint from the Windhorst, Marlovits and Linder (@linderlab.bsky.social) groups: They investigate the spectrum of actin binding motives that may exist in many proteins. www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

Discovery of a new evolutionarily conserved short linear F-actin binding motif

Regulation of the actin cytoskeleton by actin binding proteins (ABPs) is essential for cellular homeostasis, and the mode of actin binding determines the activity of ABPs. Here, we discovered a novel ...

biorxiv.org

Interested in cutting edge Microscopy Techniques? Check out the latest special issue of Journal of Microscopy, edited by yours truly 🔬 onlinelibrary.wiley.com/toc/13652818...

Special Issue: Microscopy Techniques: Journal of Microscopy: Vol 298, No 2

The <em>Journal of Microscopy</em> is the oldest journal dedicated to the science of microscopy, publishing the latest advances in microscopy techniques and novel areas of application.

onlinelibrary.wiley.com

🧑‍🎓👩‍🎓We are hiring: PhD student positions in Molecular Infection Biology in DFG Research Training Group Humans and Microbes @cssbhamburg.bsky.social @leibnizliv.bsky.social @bosse-lab.bsky.social @linderlab.bsky.social @itzenlab.bsky.social #UKE #UHH #BNITM 📬Apply until June 20, 2025. grk2771.de