Scott Rush
@scottrush.bsky.social
Scientist interested in structural biology, vaccine design, antibodies, protein engineering… pretty much everything
How did octopuses evolve novel traits? Rishav Mitra, Richard Han, Trey Scott, et al serendipitously discover a unique ribosome adaptation that increases the accuracy of protein synthesis and evolved alongside their elaborate nervous systems vs deep sea relatives. www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...
I will be hiring at all levels so if you are interested and want to learn more, please get in touch! 📻 ❄️ 🔬 🦠 🧬 #cilia #cryoet #proteomics #exm #protistsonsky
Please share this gift article from The New York Times with friends, family, sceptics, and People who think that studying weird things is a waste of money. Then follow up with meaningful discussion about what I call 'free range science'. Free without subscription. www.nytimes.com/2026/06/20/o...
Opinion | The Science That Turned Lizard Venom Into GLP-1s Is Under Attack
nytimes.com
Structural and kinetic insights into a metagenomics-derived Cas12a with high specificity https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.05.13.724879v1
Open and closed forms of assembled henipavirus nucleoprotein suggest structural basis of genome access www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...
Open and closed forms of assembled henipavirus nucleoprotein suggest structural basis of genome access
Henipavirus nucleoprotein assemblies exist in different conformations, indicating temporary release of genome for RNA synthesis.
science.org
📢 We are now recruiting a PhD student in Structural and Molecular Virology in Sweden 🇸🇪 Work on RNA viruses using cryo-EM and in situ cryo-ET, with access to world-class microscopy infrastructure Perfect for candidates with backgrounds in biochem, structural bio, and virology More info ⬇️
I am excited to share our most recent work collaborating with @centriolelab.bsky.social and @stearnslab.bsky.social to look at the ciliary base of mammalian multiciliated cells w/ cryo-ET, XL/MS, and U-ExM www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...
ROCKET 🚀 inference-time optimization of AlphaFold to fit structural data is published! rdcu.be/fa9YH Since our preprint, we’ve pushed it to regimes where other methods break: low resolution, weak signal, real experimental edge cases. Here’s what we learned: 1/15
AlphaFold as a prior: experimental structure determination conditioned on a pretrained neural network
Nature Methods - ROCKET improves experimental structure elucidation by integrating implicit structural knowledge from OpenFold, a trainable reimplementation of AlphaFold2, with X-ray...
rdcu.be
Structure of SARS-CoV-2 spike in complex with its co-receptor the neuronal cell adhesion protein contactin1 www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6... Check out our new preprint. Cool structure by Sabrina Krepel with Bert Janssen. Thanks to @danielhurdiss.bsky.social @utrechtvirology.bsky.social #covid #pais
#PostdocRecruiting: My group at the University of Texas at Austin is recruiting a Postdoc in virology and structural biology. Please see more details here: utaustin.wd1.myworkdayjobs.com/UTstaff/job/... Informal inquiries are encouraged, and see more lab info here: zunlongke-lab.org
Postdoctoral Fellow
Job Posting Title: Postdoctoral Fellow ---- Hiring Department: Molecular Biosciences ---- Position Open To: All Applicants ---- Weekly Scheduled Hours: 40 ---- FLSA Status: Exempt ---- Earliest Start ...
utaustin.wd1.myworkdayjobs.com
A bit late to post, but check out this peer-reviewed version at PNAS 2025 here: www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...
Structure and organization of full-length epidermal growth factor receptor in extracellular vesicles by cryo-electron tomography | PNAS
We report here transport of full-length epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR), Insulin Receptor, 7-pass transmembrane receptor Smoothened, and 13...
pnas.org
Zunlong Ke@zunlongke.bsky.social · 2y agoA fun journey of full-length EGFR with Dan Leahy and @edwardmarcotte.bsky.social at UT Austin @utaustin.bsky.social. See below: Structure and organization of full-length Epidermal Growth Factor Receptor in extracellular vesicles by cryo-electron tomography www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
Our fourth installment on prefusion herpesvirus gB proteins is available as a preprint: doi.org/10.64898/202.... Working with Ivelin Georgiev's group, we isolated and characterized prefusion-specific HSV gB antibodies from humans!
Question for the #cryoEM crowd: have you played with ModelAngelo, CryoAtom and EMProt, and would you care to offer thoughts/notes on the comparison? I have ModelAngelo installed and I love it, but the other two claim improved performance - which should I try first?
Prefusion-specific glycoprotein B human antibodies protect against neonatal HSV-2 infection https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.02.23.707514v1
One more trick pulled off by antibody-mediated feedback www.cell.com/immunity/ful...
Antibody-mediated feedback modulates interclonal competition in the germinal center
Antibodies generated by prior immune responses regulate B cell responses upon recall immunization. Barbulescu et al. examine whether antibodies produced by an ongoing immune response influence the out...
cell.com
The vault particle is enclosed by a C13-symmetric cap with a positively charged exterior pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/41706843/ #cryoEM
The giant viruses surprised us at almost every turn of this project, but ultimately led us down a very rewarding path. Happy to share this work is now available online 🧪
Cell - a Cell Press journal@cp-cell.bsky.social · 6mo agoNow online! Giant DNA viruses encode a hallmark translation initiation complex of eukaryotic life
The conch was blown at 5:00am. The 2026 Barkley Marathons begins in one hour. #BM100
Mosquitoes like Aedes aegypti spread viruses that cause major global diseases. We decided to have a closer look at a family of mosquito carbohydrate-binding proteins involved in infecting these vector species. We found some unexpected things 😁 Preprint out now 🦟🦟🦟 www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...
New paper from my group in @science.org : "A small polymerase ribozyme that can synthesise itself and its complementary strand" www.science.org/doi/10.1126/... Outstanding work by @edogia.bsky.social
I am excited to share our latest preprint - An evolutionarily divergent herpesvirus with a giant tail. Featuring symmetry breaking and genome annotation from structure using ModelAngelo. doi.org/10.64898/202...
A broadly protective antibody targeting gammaherpesvirus gB pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/41629701/ #cryoEM
Check out our new preprint! We uncover the full molecular mechanism of rotavirus membrane penetration and cytosolic escape using cryo-ET, live-cell imaging, and single-molecule assays. (1/3) 🔗 biorxiv.org/content/10.6...
Structure-based design of soluble prefusion-stabilized herpes simplex virus type 2 glycoprotein B antigens www.biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.01.26.701809v1 #cryoEM
🧬🔬@science.org A genetically encoded device for #transcriptome storage in mammalian cells | Science www.science.org/doi/10.1126/... @broadinstitute.org
A genetically encoded device for transcriptome storage in mammalian cells
Understanding how cells make decisions over time requires the ability to link past molecular states to future phenotypic outcomes. We present TimeVault, a genetically encoded system that records and s...
science.org
A neutralizing human antibody induces movement of the HCoV-229E receptor binding domain www.nature.com/articles/s42... @wrapplab.bsky.social
I am pleased to share our new paper in Molecular Cell: “Capsid restructuring activates semi-conservative dsRNA transcription in cystovirus ɸ6.” We visualized, in structural detail, how a double-stranded RNA virus switches from a quiescent to a transcriptionally active state. Link in the comments
