Maria Polychronidou
@mpolychronidou.bsky.social
Life scientist. Head of EMBO Membership & Elections and Courses & Workshops @embo.org #EMBOevents previously: Editor at Molecular Systems Biology, EMBO Press Views my own
Our new paper is out in @nature.com! We uncovered how a naked mole-rat queen 👑 controls an entire colony: a natural contraceptive scent that suppresses reproduction in other females! A remarkable mammalian parallel to bees and ants! 🐝🐜 @garyrlewin.bsky.social youtu.be/enfv3zJrWKM?...
Naked mole-rats are ruled by a queen: this chemical puts her in power
YouTube video by nature video
youtu.be
New paper alert! Michal Dibus and team show tensin-1 forms reversible condensates that act as reservoirs for adhesion proteins, tuning adhesion turnover and cell migration - a cool new role for phase separation in cell adhesion dynamics! Congratulations to the team 🎉! Paper here: bit.ly/4y9E8Xr
Adhesion-derived condensates control component availability to regulate adhesion dynamics - Nature Communications
Integrin adhesions allow dynamic cell-matrix interactions to regulate cell behaviour. Here, the authors reveal that tensin 1, a multidomain adaptor protein, forms condensates in cells that act as reve...
bit.ly
Michal Dibus@midibu.bsky.social · 4w ago1/5 🎉 Finally, the results of my main postdoctoral project are out in @natcomms.nature.com! Adhesion-derived condensates control component availability to regulate adhesion dynamics bit.ly/4y9E8Xr Also excited to see the paper highlighted in Nat Comms Editors’ Highlights 🥳 bit.ly/44n4O9i
The @qedscience.bsky.social "impact" score generated a lot of discussion on ranking preprints, including ideas on multi-dimensional rankings that are user specific. Besides describing the ideas, we can now prototype them (with Claude in this case). Here is Salient salient-sgeu6fs5ua-uc.a.run.app
Rising — Salient
salient-sgeu6fs5ua-uc.a.run.app
Missed out on the early submission deadline for #CellBio2026? No problem. Late poster abstract submission is still open until 4 August: https://www.ascb.org/cellbio2026/ 🧪 American Society for Cell Biology
Rice plants have found a way to resist heatwaves go.nature.com/4wpm75C
Plant membranes shuffle lipids around to stay firm under heat stress
High temperatures make cell membranes weak and leaky. Rice plants rapidly counteract this effect by adjusting membrane lipid content, enabling them to resist heatwaves.
go.nature.com
Excited to share our preprint introducing ASHI: the Atlas of SLiM-mediated Human protein-protein Interactions. By screening 800+ domains against the human intrinsically disordered regions, we map 20,000 SLiM-mediated interactions. Many thanks to everyone involved! www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...
An Atlas of Short Linear Motif-Mediated Human Protein-Protein Interactions
Short linear motifs (SLiMs) within intrinsically disordered protein regions mediate transient interactions crucial for cell physiology. However, the global interaction landscape of human SLiMs remains...
biorxiv.org
Researchers from the DKFZ, HI-STEM Stem Cell Institute and Heidelberg University Hospital have developed "HemaGuide", an AI assistant that supports physicians in making difficult treatment decisions for complex blood cancers. @natmed.nature.com t1p.de/gs2ez
New AI System Provides Treatment Recommendations for Complex Blood Cancers
Researchers from the German Cancer Research Center (DKFZ), the HI-STEM* Stem Cell Institute, and the Heidelberg University Hospital (UKHD) have developed “HemaGuide,” an AI assistant that supports phy...
t1p.de
„When you work on methods, they're only really successful if someone else uses them” — Steven Henikoff #openscience
Harmit Singh Malik@harmitmalik.bsky.social · last mo.Open science before it had a name: An interview with molecular biologist Steven Henikoff (who is not on social media) @fredhutch.org @basicsci.fredhutch.org @hhmi-science.bsky.social @natprot.nature.com www.springernature.com/gp/researche...
Congratulations to Prof. Sebastian Hiller and all newly elected EMBO members! This lifelong membership recognizes outstanding scientific achievements. 🧪 #EMBOMembers2026 @hillerlab.bsky.social @unibas.ch @embo.org www.biozentrum.unibas.ch/news/detail/...
Sebastian Hiller elected EMBO member
The prestigious European Molecular Biology Organization (EMBO) has elected Prof. Sebastian Hiller from the Biozentrum as a new member.
biozentrum.unibas.ch
🎉 Delighted to have been elected a Member of EMBO! Huge thanks to my nominator, supporters, collaborators — and all incredible members of my lab. 👏 🙏 Thrilled to join such an extraordinary community and contribute to its mission @embo.org ! 🇪🇺 🔬🧪 #EMBOMembers2026 @kingslsm.bsky.social
EMBO@embo.org · last mo.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
Congratulations to Prof. Michal Sharon of the Department of Biomolecular Sciences, upon being awarded the a member of @embo.org #EMBOMembers2026
Off to @embl.org in Heidelberg for the 6th edition of the hands-on SynBio @embo.org Course share.google/Dg0qMdsNQl55... that I initiated in 2015. Glad to see that many of its earlier students now star senior PI positions in some the best research centers & universities 😀
Synthetic biology in action: maturing tools and their potential
share.google
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 · last mo.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
Honored and delighted to be elected an EMBO Member. A huge thank you to our amazing team, this recognition wouldn't be possible without you. Perfect day to celebrate together during our lab outing! 🎉 - Virginie
EMBO@embo.org · last mo.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
Very happy and honored to be elected as an EMBO member. Looking forward to contributing to this great European society. Thanks for being nominated and the trust of the members.
EMBO@embo.org · last mo.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
It is a huge honor to become an EMBO Associate Member. I am grateful to my mentors and to all the brilliant trainees in my lab.
EMBO@embo.org · last mo.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
Congratulations to Iñigo Martincorena, who has been elected as an EMBO member for his contribution to the understanding of somatic evolution and its role in disease. 👏 Read more: https://www.sanger.ac.uk/news_item/sanger-scientist-recognised-by-embo/
Interested in Genome-scale Metabolic Models for Gut microbes? Check out our latest preprint on automated model reconstruction. Carved by @ariannabasilecc.bsky.social, in teamwork with Aditi, @indraroux.bsky.social, @metagenomez.bsky.social, and @skamrad.bsky.social. www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...
CarveMe-GutMicrobes: Automated Metabolic Model Reconstruction for Gut Microbial Species and Communities
Genome-scale metabolic models (GSMMs) are important aids towards system-level understanding of the metabolic physiology of the gut microbes and for rational microbiome engineering. While large-scale r...
biorxiv.org
Congratulations to our managing director, Moritz Helmstaedter @mhlab.bsky.social and all newly elected EMBO members! The EMBO membership recognizes outstanding scientific achievements. #EMBOMembers2026 #scientificexcellence 🔗 bit.ly/3Quq61B
Moritz Helmstaedter Elected to the EMBO Membership
bit.ly
EMBO@embo.org · last mo.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
🏅Thrilled to see @yehumoran.bsky.social elected to the membership of @embo.org! Yehu was instrumental in forming an #ecology & #evolution advisory board for our journals while serving as Academic Editor, where he now continues as an advisor. #EMBOMembers2026 www.embo.org/press-releas...
Seventy-one leading scientists elected to the EMBO Membership – Press releases – EMBO
The new EMBO Members and Associate Members are recognized for their outstanding achievements in the life sciences
embo.org
🎉 Congratulations to Leila Akkari, who has been elected as an EMBO Member. A wonderful recognition of her research excellence, scientific leadership, and the inspired team behind her work on the tumor microenvironment in cancer. #EMBOMembers2026
👏 Warm congratulations to Domna Karagogeos, Prof.Emerita at the University of Crete & collaborating faculty member of @imbb-forth.bsky.social, who has been elected as a member of the European Molecular Biology Organization @embo.org 👉 bit.ly/FORTHPressRe... #EMBOMembers2026 #LifeSciences #Research
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
Archaeaophiles! Last chance to sign up as a virtual attendee for MBoA2026. It’s cheap and you will have access to all the talks include our archaea@50 celebration with a special guest: meetings.embo.org/event/26-arc...
Molecular Biology of Archaea: Life Through the Prism of Archaea
In 1977, Woese and colleagues revealed Archaea as a distinct domain of life. Building on this insight, the discovery of Asgard archaea has strengthened the view that many hallmarks of eukaryotic cell…
meetings.embo.org
For those wanting the key insights without the deep methods dive, we published a research briefing in @NatureCVR nature.com/articles/s44... #SpatialProteomics #CardiovascularResearch
Deciphering molecular heterogeneity of carotid plaques using spatial proteomics - Nature Cardiovascular Research
We applied an ultra-sensitive, histomorphology-guided spatial proteomics workflow to advanced atherosclerotic carotid plaques to define molecular changes associated with minimum fibrous-cap thickness....
nature.com
Mann Lab@mannlab.bsky.social · last mo.Our proteomics study of carotid plaque vulnerability is out in @natcardiovascres.nature.com — with Ankit Sinha & Lars Maegdefessel @tum.de. Our unique methodologies and integrative analysis highlight molecular and spatial diversity present in plaque tissues. www.nature.com/articles/s44...
Community reactions range from enthusiastic to v. negative... Does this system once again show the desire of scientists for a classification system &for belonging to an "elite %"? Is ranking preprints by AI different/better than ranking using human reviewers &journals? Following with interest!
QED Science@qedscience.bsky.social · last mo.Most breakthrough science sits in preprints, unread. 57,455 last year alone. 574 exceptional. We found them. the-one-percent.qedscience.com
Antibiotics trigger protein transfer via membrane-bound vesicles, helping dormant “persister” cells (that normally switch off protein synthesis) to survive the antibiotic treatment ➡️ www.science.org/doi/10.1126/... #antibioticresistance #microbiology #infection #persisters #antibiotictreatment
Antibiotics stimulate protein transfer to persister cells
The exchange of biological matter between bacterial cells drives adaptation and evolution. However, whether bacteria can exchange functional proteins remains unclear. In this work, we found that antib...
science.org
