#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
A bit late to post, but check out this peer-reviewed version at PNAS 2025 here: www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...
Cryo-EM structures of prefusion HSV-2 gB in complex with human antibodies.
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...
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 🧪
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
Image of a herpesvirus structure
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 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
Video introduction to our new “Conformational Biasing” method for computational design of mutations that bias proteins towards desired conformational states
CB part starts at 14:55
Thanks to Peter Cavanagh and Andrew Xue – amazing graduate students who co-led this work
Can we design mutations that bias proteins towards desired conformational states?
Today in @science.org, we introduce Conformational Biasing (CB), a simple and scalable computational method that uses contrastive scoring by inverse folding models to identify conformation-biasing mutations.
Structure and immunogenicity of an engineered soluble prefusion-stabilized EBV gB antigen pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/41484092/ #cryoEM
Structural basis for childhood antibody recognition of the human metapneumovirus fusion protein pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/41455691/ #cryoEM
De novo design of protein nanoparticles with integrated functional motifs https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2025.12.19.695620v1
It’s out! Using cryo-ET in Dicty cells, we take a fresh in situ look at vaults. Surprisingly, we uncover vaults associated with ER and NE membranes, and find that many vaults enclose ribosomes in defined orientations, opening new avenues to their cellular function! www.biorxiv.org/lookup/conte...
Now online! Generation of antigen-specific paired-chain antibodies using large language models
Our new preprint is out 🥳🥳🥳
Henipaviruses, like Nipah and Hendra, package their genomes inside helical shells built by thousands of nucleoproteins. These nucleocapsids are essential to protect the viral RNA, but how do they ever let the polymerase in to read the sequence?
👇
B lymphocytes that enter the germinal center late preferentially differentiate into memory cells that recognize subdominant epitopes https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.10.30.685663v1
Cryo-EM maps and atomic models of the biotin-containing 3-methylcrotonyl-CoA carboxylase (MCC) complex and long-chain acyl-CoA carboxylase (LCC) complex
New lab preprint!
@zestytoast.bsky.social tagged a scarce mycobacterial protein in M. smegmatis with TwinStep but got… something? @kjamali.bsky.social's ModelAngelo built models & @martinsteinegger.bsky.social's FoldSeek IDed them as the biotin-containing MCC & LCC complexes
🧵
tinyurl.com/ukny4ptz
Antibodies blocking PlGF or VEGF interactions with the NRP1 receptormediate anti-proliferative effects https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.10.25.684565v1
Mysteries of trafficking of the vRNP segmented genome and assembly of influenza A virus revealed by in situ cryo-ET!
🔗 rdcu.be/eMmct
We are very excited that our paper is finally out!
🎉 Big congratulations to Moritz Wachsmuth-Melm and to everyone involved.
