The ESCRT machinery mediates repair of damaged lysosomal membranes. But how does it recognise damage? Authors @nature report LASER, a fast-forming protein assembly that detects Ca2+-leakage from sites of lysosomal injury and recruits ESCRTs there. shorturl.at/T9zM6

LASER couples damage sensing to ESCRT assembly for lysosome repair - Nature

ATG8 conjugation on damaged lysosomes triggers rapid assembly of a protein complex containing TFG, which directs lysosomal membrane repair by recruiting ESCRT proteins to sites of damage.

shorturl.at

Fantastic work by Aakriti Jain @aakritijain.bsky.social in team with Claire Goul and the Laboratory for Genome Research reveals the LASER pathway and its core component TFG as critical for rapid ESCRT-dependent lysosomal membrane repair, pointing to a deep connection with neurodegeneration!

Aakriti Jain@aakritijain.bsky.social · 2mo ago

So excited to share our new paper out today in @nature.com - 'LASER couples damage sensing to ESCRT assembly for lysosome repair'. This was an amazing collaborative effort with Claire Goul during our time in @robzonculab.bsky.social : www.nature.com/articles/s41...

📝 Now online - the Review "Molecular and structural mechanisms of nutrient sensing in the mTORC1 pathway" from @robzonculab.bsky.social and co. #mTORC1 #PrimaryNutrientSensor #AminoAcidSensor #CholesterolSensor #Metabolites Read it here: authors.elsevier.com/a/1mrsu_M0e4...

Travelling home from the 2026 Autophagy GRC organized by Rushika Perrera and Oliver Florey, inspired to strive for an equally scientifically excellent and comprehensive 2028 Autophagy GRC in Italy together with Roberto Zoncu. Mark your calendars for March 12-17 2028! @robzonculab.bsky.social

A powerful piece by M. Gessen I can't do it justice by excerpt go read it (gift link) www.nytimes.com/2026/01/24/o...

Opinion | State Terror Has Arrived

nytimes.com

Join us in sunny California for the 2026 GRC Autophagy meeting! Excited to co-chair with Oliver Florey and vice chairs Helene Knaevelsrud and @robzonculab.bsky.social Keynote speakers incl. Eileen White, @idikic.bsky.social and Sharon Tooze- Registration is open: link⬇️ www.grc.org/autophagy-in...

Structural and cell biology NPG publication two-fer today: lysosome signaling structural biology tinyurl.com/mt3uc96k with @robzonculab.bsky.social and mitophagy initiation tinyurl.com/3rpjyfjt with @martenslab.bsky.social @lazaroulab.bsky.social and @hummerlab.bsky.social

Today, Nobel laureate (and former NIGMS Advisory Council member) gave an NIH-wide lecture. She enthusiastically signed the #BethesdaDeclaration. She was introduced by NIH Director Bhattacharya...(likely slightly awkward) 1/2

Please join the chorus of voices, including my own, in support of the talented, hardworking and dedicated scientists and staff at NIH. They serve their country by deploying their training and skills to improve the health and quality of life of all Americans 🙏 🇺🇸

Jeremy Berg@jeremymberg.bsky.social · last yr.

www.standupforscience.net/bethesda-dec...

Online today in @nature.com - our latest study led by superstar postdoc Gilles Rademaker detailing the role of PSCK9 in driving sterol dependent metastatic organ choice in pancreatic cancer nature.com/articles/s41... full text available here 👉 rdcu.be/em0VG and thread 👇

Fantastic MTx-Neuro seminar by Michael Ward @michael-e-ward.bsky.social, incredible science and full house! @mti-ucb.bsky.social

My advisor @baym.lol pointedly speaking with WBUR. “I think that reason is a pretense. I think that this is an attack on Harvard as a symbol of academia in the United States.”

Lynn Jolicoeur@lynnjolicoeur.bsky.social · last yr.

"I'm still in shock. I know that there have been political issues around Harvard in recent weeks, but antibiotic resistance isn't one of them." My conversation with Harvard microbiologist @baym.lol, one of many researchers there who just lost millions in fed. grants. www.wbur.org/news/2025/05...

It was great to collaborate with @jimhurley.bsky.social on the structural-functional dissection of Arginine sensing by mTORC1 via CastiGATOR

Jim Hurley@jimhurley.bsky.social · last yr.

mTORC1 is activated when cells are fed with amino acids. New preprint with @robzonculab.bsky.social led by Rachel Jansen shows how the massive "CastiGATOR" complex is formed when arginine-free CASTOR1 binds to the GATOR2 complex to antagonize mTORC1 starved cells. tinyurl.com/yr6en6f4

Spectacular structure-function study of a giant quality control E3 ligase by @micharapelab.bsky.social & team!

Micha Rapé Lab@micharapelab.bsky.social · last yr.

Excited that our work revealing the structure and function of the monster stress response silencing factor, the E3 ligase SIFI, is now out! Congratulations to the most amazing team of Zhi Yang, Diane Haakonsen, Michael Heider and Sam Witus! www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Excited to host @brentstockwell.bsky.social for a seminar tomorrow in the UC Berkeley Molecular Therapeutics Series! If you are on campus come by for an exceptional seminar on recent advances in our understanding and targeting of #ferroptosis! 😀

tinyurl.com/mrce6bbb Fun to write this N&V together with Regina @hrshin.bsky.social, on the several cryoEM papers that build on her discovery of the fascinating LYCHOS protein and its role in cholesterol sensing and mTORC1 regulation!

Cholesterol finds its pocket in LYCHOS - Nature Structural & Molecular Biology

The lysosomal transmembrane protein LYCHOS enables activation of the master growth regulator mTORC1 kinase by cholesterol. Here we summarize recent structural findings that shed light on the LYCHOS ch...

tinyurl.com

This structure is absolutely _nuts_. Lipids are captured marching through the tunnel

cryoEM papers@cryoempapers.bsky.social · last yr.

Structural basis of lipid transfer by a bridge-like lipid-transfer protein pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/40269155/ #cryoEM

Our PKA-autophagy story by outstanding graduate student Ashley Segura (co-led with Rose Citron) published in @embojournal.org, dissects a deep connection between autophagy and PKA in neuronal signaling, with implications for neurological disease. Great collaboration with @manciaslab.bsky.social!

The EMBO Journal@embojournal.org · last yr.

AKAP11 recruits PKA holoenzymes to #autophagosomes in a bidirectional functional association, both promoting downstream PKA signaling and increasing AKAP11-PKA complex degradation @robzonculab.bsky.social @ucberkeleyofficial.bsky.social www.embopress.org/doi/full/10....

thank you for the fun interview and a wonderful visit overall Hanieh!

Hanieh Falahati@haniehfalahati.bsky.social · last yr.

Earlier this month I had the honor of interviewing Dr. Zoncu @robzonculab.bsky.social during his visit to Yale. It was so inspiring- and also fun! Here is a link: medicine.yale.edu/cellbio/news...

America will be less healthy & less safe as a result of Peter Marks' forced resignation from FDA. He & FDA protected us from people who enrich themselves selling snake oil: unproven stem cell therapies, vaccine alternatives, other fake treatments. Thank you for all you did for public health Peter.

An incredible tour de force in biochemistry and cell biology by superstar @robzonculab.bsky.social lab postdoc @aakritijain.bsky.social LyLAP - a new lysosomal protease responsible for degrading integral membrane proteins in highly phagocytic cells like #PDAC cells. www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

Leucine aminopeptidase LyLAP enables lysosomal degradation of membrane proteins

Breakdown of every transmembrane protein trafficked to lysosomes requires proteolysis of their hydrophobic helical transmembrane domains. Combining lysosomal proteomics with functional genomic dataset...

science.org

Congrats to @jeremybaskin.bsky.social for receiving the ACS Chemical Biology young investigator award…plus organizing a fantastic session capped off with a tour de force talk on phosphatidic acid dynamics

Exciting new work by phenomenal postdoc Aakriti @aakritijain.bsky.social uncovering a key mechanism for membrane protein degradation in the lysosome. Aakriti’s research is already making a major impact, and she’s ready to launch her own lab. Departments hiring in this area—she’s one to watch!

PINK1/Parkin-dependent mitophagy caught in situ by cryo-ET! New preprint www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1... led by @kev-in-situ-et.bsky.social. This has been a long-standing goal of team @mito911.bsky.social within the @asapresearch.parkinsonsroadmap.org initiative.

If you are immigrant into the US and work in the biomedical sciences (like me) and are still young (not like me), please apply for the Vilcek prizes for Creative Promise founded by an inspiring immigrant couple, Marica and Jan Vilcek. vilcek.org/prizes/vilce...

Vilcek Prizes for Creative Promise - Vilcek Foundation

The Creative Promise Prizes are awarded to young immigrant professionals who have demonstrated outstanding achievement early in their careers.

vilcek.org

CNBC is calling it the Tesla Chain Saw Massacre. 🤣

I'm co-organizing a Cell Symposia on Metabolites in Organellar Communication with @robzonculab.bsky.social, Kivanc Birsoy, and Allyson Evans (@cp-cellmetabolism.bsky.social). It will be in Sitges May 11-13. Submit an abstract by Feb 14. Hope to see you in Spain! cell-symposia.com/metabolites-...

Really cool work from @zampierilab.bsky.social Congratulations all!! www.nature.com/articles/s41...

A human metabolic map of pharmacological perturbations reveals drug modes of action - Nature Biotechnology

Mapping the metabolic effects of drugs helps define their mode of action.

nature.com

I'm thrilled to share our latest research, published in Nature Communications. This work highlights how pancreatic cancer cells hijack cell polarity proteins to regulate macropinocytosis and tumor metabolism, shedding light on potential therapeutic vulnerabilities. www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Cell polarity proteins promote macropinocytosis in response to metabolic stress - Nature Communications

Cancer cells rely on macropinocytosis to survive in a nutrient-deprived environment. Here, Lambies et al. identified various members of the cell polarity protein network as essential regulators of mac...

nature.com

In case you missed it.. New preprint! Our latest study identifying how MHC-I is captured by autophagy and targeted for degradation in #PDAC - It all happens at the ER ! Congrats to co-first authors Marine Berquez, Alex Li & Matthew Luy. www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

A multi-subunit autophagic capture complex facilitates degradation of ER stalled MHC-I in pancreatic cancer

Pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDA) evades immune detection partly via autophagic capture and lysosomal degradation of major histocompatibility complex class I (MHC-I). Why MHC-I is susceptible to ...

biorxiv.org