Lena Steckelberg

So excited to see our newest study out in print! Led by the brilliant @jgezelle.bsky.social and @sophiekorn.bsky.social, we discovered how viruses from highly divergent families converge on a shared RNA structure mechanism to inhibit cellular nucleases. #RNAsky #LoveVirology

A conserved viral RNA fold enables nuclease resistance across kingdoms of life Abstract. Viral exoribonuclease-resistant RNA (xrRNA) structures block cellular nucleases to produce subgenomic viral RNAs during infection. High sequence

Our study from the Steckelberg lab is out now in @narjournal.bsky.social !! We dove into a new nuclease-blocking viral #RNA structure important for viral infection, which provided evidence of similar structure-based strategies across diverse viral families. academic.oup.com/nar/article/...

Excited to be back in the Rhineland this week to celebrate #RNAday with all the other RNA lovers!

The most important story in the world right now.

Registration is now ✨open✨ for the 2025 Eukaryotic RNA turnover meeting, this year in Brighton, UK 🏖️☀️ www.biochemistry.org/events-and-t... Lots of great invited speakers and @biochemsoc.bsky.social bursaries for student/postdoc attendees who register early!

Sad that #RNA2025 is almost over? Join us in August in the UK for another fun meeting on RNA! #RNAsky #RNAdecay

Save the Date: 2025 NYC RNA Symposium — Tuesday, October 21, 2025
more @ www.nycrnasymposium.com

It was so much fun being part of this project. Much progress on the RNA structure modeling front, but so much more left to be done! Can’t wait to see when RNA structure predictions finally catch up to AF and co!

TV watching recommendations

The lead story on 60 Minutes tonight is about NIH and concerns about damage done and continuing during the current administration.

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Can confirm: 60 Minutes will be worth watching tonight about #NIH.

Out in today's @science.org: Rallying for US science! I wrote about speaking at Stand Up for Science in DC. "Science delivers breakthroughs even though its path is unpredictable. I emphasized the importance of investing in science & warned that trust in science is under threat.

#RNAsky

This meeting is a particularly great opportunity for early career #RNA scientists to present their work!

Please join us for an exciting meeting on "Eukaryotic RNA turnover: from fundamentals to applications" in Brighton, UK this August! We have an exciting lineup of speakers, and will feature many selected talks. Abstract deadline is June 27! www.eventsforce.net/biochemsoc/f...

US map via scienceimpacts.org visualization of economic loss due to IDC cuts to 15% as part of Feb 7, 2025 executive order, with shading denoting intensity of cuts.

Working with an interdisciplinary team, we have developed a website to communicate how the White House's proposed cuts to health research would cause losses of $16B and 68,500 jobs.

Find out how your community may be impacted.

Explore more at SCIMaP: scienceimpacts.org

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Portraits: A 10-year-old, a house painter and a mom who are running out of HIV pills HIV medications were supposed to be exempt from U.S. aid cuts. In Zambia, for example, those on the ground say otherwise.

Sobering portraits of some of the people facing the dire consequences of disruptions to HIV treatment as a fall out in cuts to US foreign aid. It's easy to erase dehumanize human lives when framed as "DOGE cuts and reducing the size of government".
www.npr.org/sections/goa...

A tragic turn of events for understanding the health of 50.5% of our population. This has been a landmark study and such a waste to end it early and disassemble the massive infrastructure built to yield new insights into women's health.

What an incredibly good idea! At UNC alone PhD students come from hundreds of hometowns across the nation. If you're a scientist help your home community see the value of your work & the importance of supporting the next generation of scientists by bring it home to them. Happy to share an example RT

Abstracts for poster sessions at the RNA Society meeting are due March 31st! This includes the first education session - see here for more! www2.rnasociety.org/conferences/... #RNASky #RNA2025 #RNA@PUI #RNASociety

NIH Grants Fueled $95 Billion In FY 2024 Economic Activity, Finds New Report National Institutes of Health grants generated almost $95 billion in economic activity nationwide in FY 2024 according to a new report by United for Medical Research.

New report shows that NIH grants fueled $95 billion in economic activity and 407,782 jobs in 2024.

That's not to mention the countless lives that biomedical research has saved.

Show me a better investment than that.
www.forbes.com/sites/michae...

We are in a biotech space race, cutting off basic science via slashing NIH and NSF funding robs the US of our competitive advantage: early innovation.

Ann Carol Palmenberg, Ph.D Obituary February 20, 2025 - Cress Funeral and Cremation Services View Ann Carol Palmenberg, Ph.D's obituary, find service dates, and sign the guestbook.

A massive loss to the virology community. Ann was an amazing scientist and mentor, whose service to UW and the virology community in general will be sorely missed.
www.cressfuneralservice.com/obituaries/a...

In Early-Phase Pancreatic Cancer Clinical Trial, Investigational mRNA Vaccine Induces Sustained Immune Activity in Small Patient Group Learn how MSK researchers are deploying mRNA vaccines against pancreatic cancer.

I wonder if spreading extremely encouraging experimental results on helping treat pancreatic cancer with *gasp* mRNA vaccines may help people who have villainized them come around. This is a good press release on the study and links to the Nature paper. www.mskcc.org/news/can-mrn...

Interested in RNA education&efforts to engage students in RNA research? RNA2025 will feature two education-related events this year - a PRE-MEETING WORKSHOP and a NEW IN-MEETING SESSION with oral and poster presentations. See below links to learn more! #RNAsky #RNA2025 #RNASociety #RNA@PUI #RNA

Only one more week until the abstract submission deadline of RNA2025!

I’m looking forward to chairing a session on „Viral RNA and innate immune responses“. If you have some exciting new science to share, don’t forget to submit your abstracts! #RNAsky #lovevirology

Excited to share our review article "Finding functional microproteins", published in @TrendsGenetics. It was fun writing it together with Alex and @FeiyueYang1 in the lab. #microprotein authors.elsevier.com/a/1kNCscQbJB...

Thanks Kathrin!

Enhancement of prime editing via xrRNA motif-joined pegRNA - Nature Communications The prime editors (PEs) have shown great promise for precise genome modification. Here the authors place a stabilizing viral xrRNA motif to the 3′ of pegRNAs to enhance editing efficiencies.

There have been a few attempts to use them for RNA therapeutics (nature.com/articles/s41...) &to visualize RNA decay intermediates (pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/31019309/) - but keep in mind that xrRNAs will protect de-capped RNAs, so you need an also IRES or 3'CITE to make translationally active mRNAs!

Hey #RNAsky check out our new preprint! we solved a new nuclease-blocking viral #RNA structure and found some illuminating similarities across diverse viral families. Thread below ⬇️ biorxiv.org/content/10.110…