How does molecular valency shape condensate assembly and function? We used the CO2-fixing organelle in algae—the pyrenoid—to find out… 🧵
Preprint here!:
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...
@cellarchlab.com @phaips.vd.st @biologyatyork.bsky.social
#Rubisco #PhaseSeparation #Condensates #Pyrenoid
So excited to share the preprint with the bulk of my PhD work in the Beach @myosincity.bsky.social and Oakes @pwoakes.bsky.social Labs at Loyola University Chicago! We investigate the structure, recruitment, and function of septin networks around the nucleus. A thread:
doi.org/10.64898/202...
Medina, Chang et al. of the @nanigrotjahn.bsky.social lab introduce a new method based on the Surface Morphometrics pipeline to measure global and local thicknesses of organellar #membranes from cellular cryo-electron tomography data. rupress.org/jcb/article/...
#CryoET
Online today, the journal version of our ( @nanigrotjahn.bsky.social @attychang.bsky.social @mmedina300kv.bsky.social) manuscript from earlier this year describing membrane thickness measurement in cells with #teamtomo! rupress.org/jcb/article/...
Honored to be featured in the current issue of Cytoskeleton as a part of the Cytoskeleton Scholars program! Many thanks to @justinparreno.bsky.social for coordinating this profile
onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/...
Organelles do NOT have a single uniform pH.
And if you think they must, because “protons diffuse fast,” this paper is for you.
A thread on why that assumption is wrong; and what we found instead. 🧵 1/n
New paper from @zhixingchen2.bsky.social's lab!
It turns out that, in addition to its very low phototoxicity, PKmito Deep Red (PKMDR) directly reports on mitochondrial membrane potential (MMP) in live cells through its lifetime!
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
Using photoconversion, volumetric imaging, mitochondrial segmentation, and network simulations, we identified a distinct, proliferative mitochondrial subpopulation positioned around the nucleus. From there, single mitochondria scatter new material across the cell, maintaining network in balance
@attychang.bsky.social, @nanigrotjahn.bsky.social et al. show that cytoplasmic #ribosomes on #mitochondria alter the local membrane environment for protein import. rupress.org/jcb/article/...
📕 From The Year In Cell Biology: rupress.org/jcb/collecti...
#CellBio2025
New paper from the @rouxlab.bsky.social on Nature Communications! We study how membrane tension is spatially organized in cells. Using the mechanosensitive probe Flipper-TR to visualize tension across the plasma membrane of adherent cells and to dissect the conditions needed for a gradient to happen
What a privilege it is to be a younger disabled person in a community shaped by Alice Wong. Rest in peace, Alice.
New preprint 🥳! We made photoclickable HaloTag ligands to precisely control protein labeling on living cells. With it, we can do some cool multicolor stuff. Huge congrats to Franzi and all co-authors! Check it out 👇
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
close-up of a by-the-wind sailor on a white background
Kailua Beach, Hawai’i: The first time I laid eyes on a By-the-wind sailor, I stopped dead in my tracks, dusted the sand off my hands, grabbed my iphone and...
Many sea stars begin life as young fairy-like creature (called a brachiolaria) that float through the open ocean. Eventually, a small star forms within them (here in yellow). The fairy-like brachiolaria sinks under the star’s weight, and the star pops out!
🎥@the_story_of_a_biologist (on Insta)
Sketches of six stages of cytokinetic development of the intercellular bridge are illustrated with exmaple U-ExM fluorescence microscopy images. Septin2-GFP shown in green. Tubulin shown in magenta. A shortened workflow illustrates the image alignment and averaging process to generate average 2D reconstructions of cytokinetic stages.
It is out! 🦚 I recorded hundreds of #ExM 🔬images of cytokinetic bridges and averaged them into 6 stages. How? With help from our fantastic collaborators @zacsimile.bsky.social and @jonasries.bsky.social in Vienna 😇. Check out the full atlas here: doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.17232370
🌟 Thrilled to share that my lab’s first publication is now out in @natmetabolism.nature.com. Congrats to the team 🎉
🧠 We discovered that neurons use endogenous fatty acids as an energy fuel, challenging long-standing models of sugars being the exclusive energy source for neurons. 1/3
In this week's preprint list we highlight a jumbo crop of #preprints focussed on new tools and techniques in imaging🔬.
Check it out here, and let us know if you’ve come across a preprint that we’ve missed: focalplane.biologists.com/2025/09/05/m...
Excited to share my postdoc work from the Eggeling lab in Jena (@leibnizipht.bsky.social, #FSUJena, #KTHuniversity) on bringing smart microscopy to super-resolution MINFLUX: event-triggered MINFLUX microscopy.
Trump admin planning to change student visas from lasting for duration of academic program to fixed 4-yr term, and then much harder to renew
Could destroy US ability to attract global talent, particularly those seeking advanced degrees in STEM. The median time to complete a PhD is 5.7 yrs per NSF.
Feeling mitochondrially challenged lately?
Here are two classic reviews on #mitochondria that should help.
www.cell.com/current-biol...
www.cell.com/current-biol...
This is an airyscan confocal movie of mitochondria (white) moving around in a mouse astrocyte. Actin filaments are in orange and microtubules are in blue.
Spreadsheet documenting the administration's systematic attacks on biomedical research (currently focused on NIH). Given the revolving set of pretexts deployed for each attack, keeping tabs on the big picture may help cut through the noise.
docs.google.com/spreadsheets...
It's #MicroscopyMonday, so let's take a look into the microscope! 🔬
This image shows muscle detail in the arms of the California two-spot octopus (Octopus bimaculoides), color-coded for depth. It was also the winner of the 2019 MBL Photo Contest!
📷: Allan Carrillo-Baltodano
Journal of Cell Science Meeting 2026 Imaging Cell Dynamics Date: 11 – 14 May 2026 Venue: Montanyà Hotel, Catalonia, Spain Register your interest
After the success of our 2023 Imaging Cell Dynamics conference, we’ll be hosting a second #JCSImaging meeting in 2026, organised by @franbottanelli.bsky.social, @guijacquemet.bsky.social, @drmichaelway.bsky.social & Giulia Zanetti.
To register your interest: www.biologists.com/meetings/jcs...
🚨New preprint!🚨 #teamtomo
We expanded Surface Morphometrics to quantify membrane thickness from cryo-ET—revealing local variation across organelles.
Led by the lab’s first grad student, @mmedina300kv.bsky.social (defending Monday! 🍾) w/ @attychang.bsky.social @hamid13r.bsky.social & @tomo.science
Feeling so honored and thrilled to see our work make it to the cover—what a milestone in my career! I can’t wait to receive the poster from JCB🤩
Labs that clay together, stay together 🩶🌪️🥣
@hamid13r.bsky.social @mmedina300kv.bsky.social @callmemich.bsky.social @nitishdua.bsky.social
An excellent primer on co-localization analysis from Federico Gasparoli! youtu.be/Mv4M1HaYdBc @fedegasparoli.bsky.social
#StarterPack for the #Mitochondria research community! Very much a work in progress, comment below/reach out to be added!
#Mito #Mitochondriac
go.bsky.app/J6Bu5fL
