The bureaucracy of science has grown so much, the system is collapsing upon itself: Scientists have become administrators of grants rather than spending time on science. Paid administrators are demanding even more administrative work from scientists. Administrators are eating the science budget.

Pick a color to control TRP channels - Check out the associated News & Views by Jana Volaric and Wiktor Szymanski on photoswitchable compounds that can agonize or antagonize TRPC4/5 channels depending on the color of light used www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Pick a color to control TRP channels - Nature Chemical Biology

Ideal efficacy photoswitching is introduced as a concept in controlling protein activity with light. Largely independent of the concentration of a light-responsive compound, it enables TRPC4 and TRPC5...

nature.com

Very happy that our group has been able to contribute to this fantastic study. @astburycentre.bsky.social @astbury-bsl.bsky.social

Nature Chemical Biology@natchembio.nature.com · 7mo ago

A new paper by @thornsesholdlab.bsky.social reports photoswitchable ligands with wavelength-dependent, and concentration-independent, control of TRPC4/5 channels in live tissues www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Time to sign up! Registration for the joint FEBS/EMBO course on ion channels and transporters in Erice, Italy (May 13-19th 2026) is now open: meetings.embo.org/event/26-ion... Please share and repost.

Had a great time at the first @rsc.org Peptide & Protein Science Group symposium. Thanks for organising @mitchellchem.bsky.social @louislukpeptide.bsky.social and Louise Walport. I hope there will be many more.

The latest from an honored member of the Royal Society. Every week he attacks the foundations of society in the UK and the EU and @royalsociety.org is apparently too worried about retribution to do anything about it.

We are looking for a PhD student in #chembio / #medchem to help progress our drug discovery project targeting incurable brain cancers. lnkd.in/eaGsgWVr You would use multi-parameter optimisation to improve drug leads and develop chemical probes to identify their (off-)targets and binding sites.

Thanks to the @proteinsociety.bsky.social for organising an excellent virtual seminar on structural biology of #TRPchannels at different temperatures. Inspiring talks by Alexander Sobolevsky, Juan Du and David Julius, chaired by Yifan Cheng.

Congratulations to former PhD student Dr Aidan Johnson on winning the VC Jordan/PR Radford Prize 2025 for the best @astburycentre.bsky.social PhD thesis. Also congratulations to PhD student Catalina Onel on passing her transfer viva yesterday.

It is very nearly the tenth anniversary of that brief moment when, for 2 or 3 days, British newspapers remembered refugees are desperate human beings who need our help, rather than scum that it's okay to threaten with violence.

Great opportunity to perform a #PhD in the field of #OrganicChemistry or #CellBiology / #Biochemistry with a great mentor in the group of Steven Verhelst (@verhelstlab.bsky.social) at KU Leuven! #ChemBio #Academia

Verhelst Lab@verhelstlab.bsky.social · 12mo ago

My lab has two open positions! One in Organic Chemistry (focus on carbohydrates), one in Cell Biology/Biochemistry. Deadline Sept 3rd, 2025! PhD student Organic Synthesis: www.kuleuven.be/personeel/jo... PhD student Cell Biology/Biochemistry: www.kuleuven.be/personeel/jo...

No matter how hard you try, you simply cannot guess the journal withe the highest “impact factor” in organic chemistry last year. Really. Nor will you guess many of the other “winners”:

Journal Impact Nonsense

science.org

(-)-Englerin A binds a conserved lipid site of TRPC5 and exposes a Met-aromatic motif in channel activation https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.07.09.663840v1

We are proud to share our latest preprint: "(-)-Englerin A binds a conserved lipid site of TRPC5 and exposes a Met-aromatic motif in channel activation". www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

To see all 16 articles, please follow this link: www.sciencedirect.com/special-issu...

Robin Bon@rsbon.bsky.social · last yr.

It has been great working with Matthew Langton to edit this themed issue of Current Opinion in Chemical Biology on Ion Transport across Biological Membranes. The collection of 16 articles is now complete. Thanks to all authors and reviewers! #ChemicalBiology authors.elsevier.com/a/1lHil4sz6M...

It has been great working with Matthew Langton to edit this themed issue of Current Opinion in Chemical Biology on Ion Transport across Biological Membranes. The collection of 16 articles is now complete. Thanks to all authors and reviewers! #ChemicalBiology authors.elsevier.com/a/1lHil4sz6M...

An absolute pleasure to host @thornsesholdlab.bsky.social in Leeds today for an amazing @astburycentre.bsky.social seminar.

Couple trying unsuccessfully to use the self-scan passport gates at Schiphol, holding up the queue. Border guard over intercom: "Mr and Mrs Campbell, this is for European passports only - you voted for Brexit".

Interesting paper that we discussed in a recent group meeting. A lot of the things we like: ROS, reactive Cys, S-palmitoylation, nicely designed bioresponsive probes, mitochondrial targeting, cell imaging.

Cell Chemical Biology@cp-cellchembiol.bsky.social · last yr.

Online now! Dynamic PRDX S-acylation modulates ROS stress and signaling by Tian Qiu, Saara-Anne Azizi, @shubha-pani.bsky.social, @chembiobryan.bsky.social et al at @uchichemistry.bsky.social @czbiohub.bsky.social http://dlvr.it/TJCBDQ

RSC Chem. Biol. and @orgbiomolchem.rsc.org are proud to offer our support to the 2025 RSC Chemical Biology & Bioinorganic Group Postgraduate Symposium. Taking place 13 June in Aberdeen, United Kingdom, this meeting features exciting work from early career researchers: www.rsc.org/events/detai...

Nominations for the CBBG Lectureship Award are now open! Get your nominations in by 30th April, to recognise individuals who have made excellent contributions to both research and the UK chemical biology community. www.rsc.org/membership-a...

Chemical Biology and Bioorganic Group Awards

Our community recognising scientific excellence.

rsc.org

RSC CBBG Interest Group@rsc-cbbg.bsky.social · last yr.

Nominations for this year's CBBG Lectureship Award will be opening in March - so get thinking of scientists who have made major scientific and community contributions to our chemical biology community! Self-nominations are permitted, we'll be back with further details when nominations open

🚨 Chemical Biology & Probes study section (formerly SBCB, one of two NIH panels that reviews chemistry #chemsky 🧪) was abruptly POSTPONED w/no specific plans for rescheduling, less than 24h before start. If this affects you call your reps & senators, talk to local news, make your voice heard 📢 👩‍🔬

How have I managed without these for 46 years?

Nominations for this year's CBBG Lectureship Award will be opening in March - so get thinking of scientists who have made major scientific and community contributions to our chemical biology community! Self-nominations are permitted, we'll be back with further details when nominations open

Amazing speaker lineup (Imperiali, Seeberger, Aye, Gonzalez Bello, Walport, Walport, Vendrell, Kele, Zeymer, Green, Thorn-Seshold, Biber) and beautiful venue - join us at #ESBOC58 in Gregynog/Wales on 28th-30th May for amazing #chembio and #bioorganic. Speaker/poster slots, registration 14th March!

Ben Schumann@drglycoben.bsky.social · 2y ago

#Chembio crowd! Come and join #ESBOC25, the oldest Chemical Biology Symposium in Europe, in its 58th (!) instalment, on 28th-30th May 2025 - in beautiful and scenic Gregynog/Wales! Chaired by none other than Olalla Vazquez and with a rockstar lineup: www.esboc.org.uk

This one is mostly about the title subject (featuring a very interesting compound from academia) but it’s also about attacking the NIH:

Attacking Estrogen-Receptor-Positive Breast Cancer

science.org

There goes a giant... www.theguardian.com/film/2025/ja...

David Lynch, Twin Peaks and Muholland Drive director, dies aged 78

Film-maker who specialised in surreal, noir style mysteries made a string of influential, critically acclaimed works including Wild at Heart and Eraserhead

theguardian.com

Interested in applying a chemical biology approach to ubiquitin signalling? Elton Zeqiraj and I are currently recruiting a postdoctoral researcher in this area! jobs.leeds.ac.uk/vacancy.aspx...

Job Opportunity at University of Leeds: Research Fellow in Chemical Biology and Drug Discovery

Are you an ambitious researcher looking for your next challenge? Do you have an established background in biochemistry or drug discovery? Do you want to further your career in one of the UKs leading r...

jobs.leeds.ac.uk

😱 For every researcher at the ~420 German universities (nr includes applied science unis), there are certainly many respectable publishing options available, with serious peer review, both in the form of society journals or even with "commercial" publishers... 😥🧪

Graham Kendall@grahamkendall.bsky.social · 2y ago

Over 100 German Universities Partner with #MDPI in New National Agreement