Michael Prattes

Figure 1. Cryo-EM of abundant protein complexes in native membranes.

Figure 2. Cryo-EM of membrane proteins in vesicles.

Figure 3. 3D reconstruction of V-ATPase in native synaptic vesicle membranes.

Figure 4. Generation of membrane vesicles for structure determination of proteins in their native lipid bilayer.

I've written a review on what I think is an extremely exciting direction in cryo-EM:

Cryo-EM of endogenous membrane proteins in their native lipid bilayer

Open access in Quarterly Reviews of Biophysics:
doi.org/10.1017/S003...

Back in December 2025, we shared our very first piece of content. At the time, @pymig.bsky.social, @hexamergraphics.bsky.social, and I wanted to pull back the curtain on our lab lives.

Since then, we've grown beyond anything we originally anticipated. We owe that growth to you all, thank you!

WD-40 may not be a growth medium, but we're going to talk about it anyway.

We genuinely appreciate every stream, share, and DM.

Episode five is coming on Thursday (02/26/2026). Consider this your official heads-up: an early-2000s gangsta rap–inspired episode is headed your way.

👋 Welcome back to #ProjectThursday 💡
We collect latest biobanking news for you here every week in 1 article. Enjoy! 🤝

Today's news from #Bigpicture #CANDLE #canserv #EPPerMed #ERDERA #EU-CiP #QUANTUM #RI-SCALE #PROPHET @ericforum.bsky.social

‼️ Article: buff.ly/iVlosIh

👋 See you next week! 💙🧡

It also counts if you are just running from your responsibilities

Team work makes the dream work YouTube video by Life Unculturable

www.youtube.com/watch?v=SWjy...

Truely a milestone ...

👋 Final instalment of this series and we end with looking into a sustainable future for reliable cancer info 🔭

🔟 Building EU-CiP – Part 10/10: Building for the future

💡 The info Portal is part of a large vision to deal with rising cancer incidences and a sustainable solution needs planning.

🧵 1/4

They are people ... and they are alive ... 😅 doesn't quite narrow it down that much (but I think we can assume it's not Johannes 😅)

It's Episode Drop Week! This Thursday, episode 4 of Life Unculturable drops, and it is a special one: @microbemiller.bsky.social & @pymig.bsky.social have their first-ever interviews in the podcast chamber!

Drop a guess below if you think you know.

Have you ever wondered who wins the age old battle between the Beauty and the Beast? Or why a microbiology podcast judges people for their hairless cats? Tune in on episode 3 of Life Unculturable! Out on Spotify, Amazon, Apple, and YouTube

PDB101: Browse: Cancer PDB-101: Training, Outreach, and Education portal of RCSB PDB

February 4 is #WorldCancerDay
PDB structures reveal how cell growth is normally controlled, and how cancer cells circumvent these essential controls
Explore at PDB-101:

4️⃣ Building EU-CiP – Part 4/10:

Working as a European team

🤝 EU-CiP operates as a consortium of 40 partners from 18 European countries. These partners bring in expertise from many fields, including IT, ethics, health literacy, patient engagement, foresight planning and many more.

🧵 1/3

While Sam and Julia are debating whether to put resazurin in the media or not, their anaerobes are starving for some reductants...
Check out episode 3 of Life Unculturable to find out more about anaerobes, their weird preferences, and how Sam & Julia are fighting to keep them alive in the lab!

PDB101: Molecule of the Month: Histones Across the Tree of Life Uncovering the evolutionary diversity of histones

February's Molecule of the Month explores the evolutionary diversity of histones

👋 Welcome back to our "Building EU-CiP series"

2️⃣ Building EU-CiP – Part 2/10: What makes cancer information reliable?

🔎 To ensure reliability of the information provided in the EU Cancer information portal, we need clear quality criteria.

🧵 1/4

Europe Biobank Week (@biobankweek.bsky.social) 📝 Submit your #EBW26 oral/poster abstract: 🌟 Share your research and expertise 💬 Join meaningful discussions 🤝 Explore collaboration opportunities 🔬 Shape the future of #biobanking 🔗…

📝 Submit your #EBW26 oral or poster abstract and be part of the future of #biobanking

🌟 Share your research and expertise
💬 Join meaningful discussions
🤝 Explore collaboration opportunities

⏰ 31 January 2026

🔗 Session descriptions: buff.ly/7oyypwm
✍️ Submit: buff.ly/sCxx2rx

👋 Welcome back to #ProjectThursday 💡

We collect latest news from the biobanking world here every Thursday in one article

❗️🔗 Article: buff.ly/1RJfL2c

Today with #biobank.cy #EPND #EPPerMed #ERDERA @cancerinfoportal.bsky.social #PROPHET #QUANTUM #UNCANConnect @ericforum.bsky.social

Enjoy
👋 💙🧡

👋 We are starting a new series!

Building a digital home for reliable information for cancer patients, health care professionals, families and caregivers is a task where many gears need to work together smoothly.

🧵 1/3

A glimpse into Julia's mind whenever she listens to Sam talk about the Bacteria he successfully revived after tossing them in the fridge 6 months ago, or about the culture collections that readily accept his strain submissions...
But she would never! #AnaerobicGutFungi4ever #Eukaryotes>Prokaryotes

"We suggest that the scientific community needs to think carefully about where we find worth in what we do. LLMs are eroding that space."

#writingstudies #cdnwrds #teamrhetoric #genai+writing

A comprehensive view on r-protein binding and rRNA domain structuring during early eukaryotic ribosome formation Abstract. Formation of the eukaryotic ribosomal subunits follows a strict regime to assemble ribosomal proteins (r-protein) with ribosomal RNAs (rRNA) whil

🤝 Thanks to everyone working on it especially Maggi Lorenz and Helmut

🔗 Check out the full text here: doi.org/10.1093/nar/...

It’s got cryo-EM, a clever SILAC approach and more cool stuff!

Enjoy 👋

-------

Music: Fields Of Dust | Relaxing spheric background track – Acidic Void (Pixabay)

6/6

A comprehensive view on r-protein binding and rRNA domain structuring during early eukaryotic ribosome formation Abstract. Formation of the eukaryotic ribosomal subunits follows a strict regime to assemble ribosomal proteins (r-protein) with ribosomal RNAs (rRNA) whil

🥳 On that note I’m happy to share that the last project I was working on at the University of Graz now got published in @narjournal.bsky.social

“A comprehensive view on r-protein binding and rRNA domain structuring during early eukaryotic ribosome formation”

5/6

A comprehensive view on r-protein binding and rRNA domain structuring during early eukaryotic ribosome formation Abstract. Formation of the eukaryotic ribosomal subunits follows a strict regime to assemble ribosomal proteins (r-protein) with ribosomal RNAs (rRNA) whil

💪 That’s why we need to keep working to get the ribosomal blueprint as complete as possible to understand what's happening.

4/6

A comprehensive view on r-protein binding and rRNA domain structuring during early eukaryotic ribosome formation Abstract. Formation of the eukaryotic ribosomal subunits follows a strict regime to assemble ribosomal proteins (r-protein) with ribosomal RNAs (rRNA) whil

😵 And quite a lot depends on ribosomes to be built correctly.

Ever built a tricky IKEA piece and wondered where those extra parts should have gone?

When our cells build new ribosomes (and we 1 Mio of them per cell), mistakes are fatal. Developmental delay, anaemia and clear links to cancer.

3/6

A comprehensive view on r-protein binding and rRNA domain structuring during early eukaryotic ribosome formation Abstract. Formation of the eukaryotic ribosomal subunits follows a strict regime to assemble ribosomal proteins (r-protein) with ribosomal RNAs (rRNA) whil

🏗️ And we still don’t have a complete picture of how those individual parts are assembled correctly in a cell.

The ribosomal blueprint we are reverse engineering for quite a while now still has a lot of white spots – especially when it comes to the very early steps of ribosome formation.

2/6

🔬 Ribosomes are hands down one of the most intricate molecular machines we know. Huge (for a cellular scale at least) complexes made of long RNAs (rRNAs) and proteins … a lot of different proteins.

1/6

(❗️Sound on!)

@narjournal.bsky.social

Europe Biobank Week (@biobankweek.bsky.social) ✨🚀 #EBW26 Special Sessions: Continuing with 9 - Disease domain-specific biobanks: 📌 9A – Rare disease insights: explores domain-specific biobanks for rare diseases, emphasising the importance of…

📣 Discover #EBW26 Special Sessions: Pitch your ideas & disease domain-specific biobanks. Continuing with 9 - Disease domain-specific biobanks:

📌 9A – Rare disease insights
📌 9B – Oncology insights
📌 9C – Neuroscience insights
📌 9D – Infectious disease insights

✍️ buff.ly/lJTBmgr
🔗 buff.ly/slOVuI4

👋 Welcome back to our #ProjectThursday 💡

We collect the latest news from the biobanking world for you here every Thursday in one LinkedIn article.

❗️🔗 To the article: buff.ly/4z1qh2O

Today with #AHEAD #Bioindustry40 #IMIConcePTION #EPPerMed #ERDERA #PERIFORMANCE #UNCANConnect

👋 💙🧡

That's easily the top tip of the year 🧐 hop over to @lifeunculturable.bsky.social everything else can wait.