This is so cool:
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...
Discovery of a Genetic Toxin-Antidote System in Vertebrates
hat tip to @asaflevylab.bsky.social
11.03.2026 00:07
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This is so cool:
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...
Discovery of a Genetic Toxin-Antidote System in Vertebrates
hat tip to @asaflevylab.bsky.social
AI-designed proteins are advancing fast, but how do they perform in real biological systems? Bits to Binders found out…
We were thrilled to synthesize the DNA needed for the competition and extend our congratulations to the teams and organizers on such a fantastic event!
Read all the details in the preprint: www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...
@twistbioscience.com , @kosonocky.bsky.social
Fun new paper out today - a collaboration led by @stephkoe.bsky.social and @ettema.bsky.social found lots of new Euk-like proteins in Asgard Archaea
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
What to learn more about the enigmatic organism Prototaxites?? Have a read of our new Quick Guide in @currentbiology.bsky.social
It includes another great palaeo-reconstruction of the Rhynie ecosystem from @matt-humpage.bsky.social
Amazing work from Clay @kosonocky.bsky.social, Alex Abel and LEAH labs, and all the collaborators and participants in the Bits2Binders AI CAR-T therapy protein design competition. The results are in!
bsky.app/profile/koso...
I guess that's better than neurons without cilia?
We have started a project trying to predic the interactions/structures of all yeast protein pairs using an AlphaFold pooling approach. We are making the current dataset open and we welcome collaborations.
www.evocellnet.com/2026/03/mapp...
The Bits to Binders competition was created to evaluate AI-driven methods on their ability to create proteins that function in a realistic, cellular context; in this case CD20-targeting binders as Chimeric Antigen Receptor (CAR) binding domains that elicit a CAR-T response
Link to the preprint below!
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...
In summary, we find that most of the failures seem to have been caused by impaired translation and protein expression. We believe that optimizing sequence-level properties for expression is just as important as the structure-centric task of binding
If we removed seqs with:
≥60% GC and <1.9 DNA entropy
≥45 AA repeats (DNA)
≥8 EE repeats
≥30% K+E alpha helix
We would remove 4,600 designs, increase recovery from 57% to 81%, and CD20-specific proliferation from 5.9% to 7.6% while removing 2/3 non-functional top 10 designs
In summary, we have confirmed that at least three teams were able to create broadly functioning CD20-specific immunotherapies using the AI-driven tools of their choice. We gave our awards to these teams and others based on the functional assays released last September.
Team hits rates ranged from 0.6% to a staggering 38.4%!
And surprisingly, over half of the designs failed to proliferate in either condition, indicating that the designs interfered with CAR expression.
The results are finally in! 🏆💻🧬
I'm thrilled to announce that the manuscript for the Bits to Binders protein design competition is out on bioRxiv! Here's a summary of our findings, including some simple criteria that nearly *double* success rates when applied as a filter 🧵
a headshot of David Botstein
We are deeply saddened to share the news of the passing of David Botstein, a towering figure in modern #genetics and a foundational force behind SGD.
www.yeastgenome.org/blog/in-memo... #yeast #modelOrganism
I was sad to learn that my postdoctoral mentor, David Botstein, died yesterday. I started with David as a postdoc in 1998, and he had a profound effect on both my life and scientific career. He was a giant in the field of genetics, making seminal contributions in both yeast and human genetics. 1/
Ah, no. What a terrible loss. He was a wonderful scientist who touched so many of our lives.
This week's cover @thelancet.com
It's a very interesting approach. Is the code available?
🧬 New IRD gene identified!
IOB researchers (@abimoye.bsky.social, @mquinodoz.bsky.social, @carlorivolta.bsky.social) found pathogenic variants in SAXO6 (formerly MDM1) in families with a rare late-onset retinal degeneration.
🔗 www.cell.com/ajhg/fulltex...
#AcademicBlueSky
So what’s SAXO6 doing?
The vault particle is enclosed by a C13-symmetric cap with a positively charged exterior pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/41706843/ #cryoEM
Beyond thrilled to share that our study has been published!
This project encompasses years of work, including my thesis research on Asgard archaea in the @archaeal.bsky.social lab at @utmsi.bsky.social and
@texasscience.bsky.social!!!
#MicroSky #ArchaeaSky 1/12
One of the biggest questions in biology is how complex cells evolved about 2 billion years ago. Here's my new story on how scientists are solving the mystery of eukaryotes like us. Gift link: nyti.ms/4qMbo22
We are hiring a postdoc! The group has a funded opening to join our amazing team on the NCI's Frederick, MD campus.
This is an opportunity to train in cutting-edge chemical & RNA biology methods with a supportive, tight-knit group.
Link to posting below. Please share!
jobrxiv.org/job/national...
Postdoc position available!!! We are looking for a creative postdoc to develop independent research directions in tissue morphogenesis using embryos, stem cell/organoid systems, and quantitative imaging and/or biophysics. Here are the details: livejohnshopkins-my.sharepoint.com/:b:/g/person...
Its not cryoEM, but still happy for the shout out @cryoempapers.bsky.social 😆
A line graph showing the number of new and competitive renewal awards for fiscal years 2021-2026. The curve for fiscal year 2026 is essentially zero on this scale with 121 awards compared to close to 3000 awards to the same date in earlier years.
These are the curves for new and competitive renewal grants.
The number of new awards is increasing slightly, but only slightly.
17 out of 25 institutes and centers with funding authority have now made awards.
3/4
“In summary, 2 large, randomized, placebo-controlled clinical trials in highly relevant populations show that starting metformin at the time of acute infection with SARS-CoV-2 is safe and lowers the risk of developing long COVID.”
academic.oup.com/cid/advance-...
It has been two weeks since the unexpected death of Peer Bork, and all of us in his research group are deeply missing him. His scientific vision brought us together as a team, and we are immensely grateful for the time we spent together. 🧵