Susan Shao

Translational activators align mRNAs at the small mitoribosomal subunit for translation initiation Nature Structural & Molecular Biology - Mitochondrial translational activators (TAs) facilitate transcript-specific translation. Using selective ribosome profiling and cryo-electron microscopy,...

Our study on the molecular function of translational activators for mitochondrial protein synthesis is published:
rdcu.be/eSWxT
A great collaboration with @stirlingchurchman.bsky.social and @sshaolab.bsky.social with structural work from our @pelleeas.bsky.social
Funded by @kawresearch.bsky.social

Our lab is seeking a Postdoctoral Fellow. The position is intentionally broad, as we are looking for outstanding researchers from diverse scientific backgrounds to advance our understanding of cilia and ciliopathies: academicpositions.harvard.edu/postings/15526

Global analysis of translocon remodeling during protein synthesis at the ER - Nature Structural & Molecular Biology The authors use selective ribosome profiling to define how and when factors for N-glycosylation and membrane insertion engage and disengage from the core Sec61 translocation channel during biogenesis ...

This was a fun new collaboration using selective ribosome profiling to understand how the subunit composition of the ER translocon is tailored by the nascent chain. Congratulations to everyone involved!

www.nature.com/articles/s41...

GCN1 couples GCN2 to ribosomal state to initiate amino acid response pathway signaling During nutrient deprivation, activation of the protein kinase GCN2 regulates cell survival and metabolic homeostasis. In addition to amino acid stress, GCN2 is activated by a variety of cellular stres...

Beautiful reconstitution of amino acid stress-dependent ISR activation by my @harvardcellbio.bsky.social colleagues presenting a unifying mechanism for GCN2 activation, which requires ribosome collisions and is enhanced by cognate uncharged tRNA in the A site! www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

“Revolutionary Science Comes from Unexpected Angles”

Thoughts from our own Tom Rapoport on the role of basic science in curing disease. magazine.hms.harvard.edu/articles/rev...

NIH funding supporting the HMMER and Infernal software projects has been terminated. NIH states that our work, as well as all other federally funded research at Harvard, is of no benefit to the US.

EndoMAP.v1 charts the structural landscape of human early endosome complexes - Nature A study presents EndoMAP.v1, a resource that combines information on protein interactions and crosslink-supported structural predictions to map the interaction landscape of early endosomes.

New work @harvard by Miguel Gonzalez-Lozano @harperlabhms.bsky.social & @ernstschmid.bsky.social in Johannes Walter lab charts structural interactome of endosomes. #XL-MS #Alphafold Funded by @asapresearch.parkinsonsroadmap.org & NIH. Science continues-despite attacks www.nature.com/articles/s41...

I appreciate the offers from other scientists to help Harvard (students, labs, etc) through this attack, but what would be most helpful is for you to use your position to contact your elected representatives and make it clear this fight isn't just Harvard, it will affect you, and their districts too

Feds yank funds from Harvard breast cancer, fertility, antibiotics research The Trump administration is following through on threats to terminate $2.7 billion dollars in federal grants and other funding at Harvard University, punishment for alleged antisemitism on campus. One...

Trump administration is terminating $2.7 billion in research funding to Harvard:

Work on breast cancer, impact of nutrition on fertility, antibiotic resistance and hundreds of other topics all dead

“It feels like the academic equivalent of nuclear war"

www.wbur.org/news/2025/05...

Exactly - @embo.org RNA Meets Protein Decay was a much-needed scientific hurrah! Thanks to all the participants for the exceptional quality of presentations and active engagement! And to @pauligroup.bsky.social, Manuela, and the @impvienna.bsky.social for being amazing hosts!!

Structural basis for prohibitin-mediated regulation of mitochondrial m-AAA protease Mitochondrial function critically dependents on protein quality control systems, with the m -AAA protease plays a key role at the inner mitochondrial membrane (IMM). The evolutionarily conserved prohi...

...which nicely complement prohibitin structural work from the Guo and Gao labs! www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

Cup? Platter? Stained glass? Our imaginations were inspired (even during uncertain times!) by these beautiful molecular complexes: the Erlin and prohibitin complexes implicated in quality control at the ER and mitochondria, respectively. Check them out here: www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

Opinion | Science Suffers With Trump’s Funding Freeze America’s scientific enterprise demands reliable stewardship, not destabilizing political intervention.

My father-in-law, Jack Strominger, and I wrote a letter to the @wsj.com editor about the current threats to science due to Trump's funding freeze. Please repost! www.wsj.com/opinion/scie...

ARMC1 assembles into a complex with MIRO that antagonizes retrograde mitochondrial movement. In another complex, ARMC1 associates with DNAJC11, which promotes ARMC1 removal from the mitochondrial surface. This balanced partitioning is important for steady-state mitochondrial distribution.

We find that the assembly/abundance control of a complex containing the mitochondrial trafficking adaptor MIRO depends on the spatial partitioning of the ARMC1 protein between the cytosol and distinct mitochondrial complexes.

ARMC1 partitions between distinct complexes and assembles MIRO with MTFR to control mitochondrial distribution ARMC1 partitions between distinct outer mitochondrial membrane complexes and the cytosol to control mitochondrial distribution.

How do cells achieve an optimal mitochondrial distribution? Excited to share a piece of this puzzle: www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

RNA meets protein decay Establishing the composition of RNAs and proteins that defines the identities and functions of cells relies not only on the regulated biosynthesis of these molecules, but also equally importantly, on…

~1 week left to register for the EMBO workshop on RNA meets protein decay! #EMBOrnaDecay
Come join us for a fun time and invigorating scientific discussions in Vienna!

meetings.embo.org/event/25-rna...

Amazing meeting last week in Germany: 130th International Titisee Conferences on Stress Signalling in Development and Disease organized by Brenda Schulman & @micharapelab.bsky.social !

My thesis work on codanin-1/CDAN1 and the histone chaperone ASF1 is officially out! Take a look here:

@samanthasedor.bsky.social's pet project taking us into completely new directions is out in print form!

rdcu.be/edKuA

Check out these insights into (and the importance of) delivering ubiquitin-independent proteasomal substrates for degradation in the nucleus!

Congratulations to our own Spyros Artavanis-Tsakonas for recieving the Wiley Prize for his work on the Notch Signaling pathway! We deserved recognition for a pioneer in developmental biology. newsroom.wiley.com/press-releas...

Quantitative Imaging: From Acquisition to Analysis Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Meetings & Courses -- a private, non-profit institution with research programs in cancer, neuroscience, plant biology, genomics, bioinformatics.

Join me, @talleylambert.bsky.social, @bethcimini.bsky.social, @florianjug.bsky.social & Hunter Elliott for our two week CSHL course on microscopy & image analysis starting March 24, 2025! Applications are due 1/31/25. meetings.cshl.edu/courses.aspx...

A reminder that the Brown lab has an opening for a postdoc fellow: brown.hms.harvard.edu/jobs/242. This might suit someone from the #cilia community interested in learning structural biology. Deadline extended to the 10th Jan.

Introducing Dr. Samantha Sedor! #PhDone

Structural landscape of AAA+ ATPase motor states in the substrate-degrading human 26S proteasome reveals conformation-specific binding of TXNL1 The 26S proteasome targets many cellular proteins for degradation during general homeostasis, protein quality control, and the regulation of vital processes. A broad range of proteasome-interacting co...

Also see related work from the Martin lab:

www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

Structure of the TXNL1-bound proteasome Proteasomes degrade diverse proteins in different cellular contexts through incompletely defined regulatory mechanisms. Here, we report the cryo-EM structure of thioredoxin-like protein 1 (TXNL1) boun...

So many things happen on proteasomes! It was fun to dig into how a the active thioreductase TXNL1 engages the regulatory particle!

www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

Happy to be making our first post on bluesky - a photo from our recent departmental retreat. Looking forward to sharing new discoveries and news from our trainees and faculty, as we continue to build a cell biology community here - check us out at cellbio.hms.harvard.edu

A small molecule degrader of the translation termination factor eRF1 = a metal-dependent molecular glue on ribosomes
Learn more here! rdcu.be/du2ZX

Check out the protein compartmentalization and sorting minisymposium at #cellbio2023 today starting at 3:30 pm in Room 254A!