🚀 CryoSPARC v5.0 BETA is here!

We’re excited to deploy another major #CryoSPARC release to help enable and accelerate #cryoEM data analysis. v5 has a redesigned underlying software system and many new features - highlights in thread!

Full changelog: cryosparc.com/updates/v5.0.0

Don't have skis here but there was snowboarding in central park lol

Frozen Bryant Park fountain in snowy NYC!

Tightening the focus of subcellular snapshots: Combined approach yields better cell slices for cryoET imaging Taking images of tiny structures within cells is tricky business. One technique, cryogenic electron tomography (cryoET), shoots electrons through a frozen sample.

A combined approach using light microscopy and ion beam milling enhances the precision of cryoET sample preparation, enabling more accurate targeting of small, rare structures within cells. doi.org/hbkb94

Reversible lipid-mediated pH-gating of connexin-46/50 by cryo-EM pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/41526355/ #cryoEM

Amyloid-mediated RNA uptake by sperm for embryonic delivery https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2025.12.10.693493v1

Excited to share our latest research, out today in Cell (@cellpress.bsky.social)

Using cryo-EM and cell-based studies, we reveal how large nutrient sensing protein complexes form at the lysosomal membrane to turn off mTORC1 and halt anabolic signalling.

Read the paper here: doi.org/10.1016/j.ce...

Another member of the Fitzpatrick/Shapiro quad @zuckermanbrain.bsky.social embarks on setting up his lab!

If you wish to use #cryoEM #cryoET to study how viruses enter & evade the immune system, & design antibody-based vaccines, check out the Roark lab:

isb.med.upenn.edu/research/cryoem-and-cryoet

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

Thrilled to see our review article "The evolutionary origins of synaptic proteins" highlighted on the cover of Nature Reviews Neuroscience 🤩.

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

@msarscentre.bsky.social 🧠✨🧬🌊🪼🧽

YouTube video by Kihara Bioinformatics Lab DAQ-Score: Automatic AI-based Cryo-EM Structure Model Validation!

A quick tutorial on the DAQ structure validation score for protein models derived from cryo-EM. DAQ evaluates amino acid–level accuracy in your model. Consider including a DAQ validation report in your next publication!
www.youtube.com/watch?v=YRAT...

I’m very happy (and grateful!) to share that I’m featured in a Nature Cancer Viewpoint about starting my lab at CNIO.

In the Lab (www.rcglab.com) we’re combining AI, protein design and structural biology to study protein structures and design novel protein therapeutics for cancer. 🔬

🔬 Just out in @NatureComms!
Using cryo-CLEM and cryo-ET, we reveal the unique ultrastructure of dopaminergic varicosities in the striatum.
Amazing collaboration with @davip-bdx.bsky.social and Etienne Herzog @iins-bordeaux.bsky.social
Congratulations to Paul and Robin for this fantastic work! 🎉

December Update of DAQ-Score DB! Quality evaluations of protein models from cryo-EM. Now includes evaluation of 258,956 protein chains.
Check at daqdb.kiharalab.org
It's very easy to compute DAQ for your protein model. Add the validation result in your publication: em.kiharalab.org/algorithm/da...

Holy cow the Zhou lab at UCLA is cooking with Isonet 2 - www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...

Averaging-free direct visualization of ribosome translational state! #teamtomo #cryoet

😍 Zhou Lab on fire!!! 🔥🔥🔥 #cryoet #teamtomo

Love the caption of Fig. 3 in this impressive preprint:
"A Goodsell-esque 3D orthogonal rendering of an IsoNet2-processed FIB-milled tomogram of C. reinhardtii"
doi.org/10.64898/202...
Since I am no expert, what does the cryoET community think of IsoNet? @cellarchlab.com
doi.org/10.1038/s414...

IsoNet2 determines cellular structures at submolecular resolution without averaging www.biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2025.12.09.693325v1 #cryoEM

Our authors in 2025 As 2025 comes to an end, we want to highlight some of the rising young faculty members who have published their exciting work from different areas of structural biology in Structure this year. We have...

Many thanks to @cellpress.bsky.social for highlighting our #cryoEM research:

cell.com/structure/fu...

cryo-EM map at 1.9 Å resolution...

I wrote a bit about practical considerations for using #cryo-ET labels and some things to work on if we want to find any protein in any cell.

authors.elsevier.com/a/1mA6h,LqAr...

Delighted to have contributed to this paper and amazing resource. In-silico protein-protein interaction screening has huge promise for generating novel hypotheses and building models into low-res #cryo-EM and #teamtomo maps.

Seeing is believing-Plasmodium falciparum translation in action pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/41202797/ #cryoEM

Excited to share our latest @nature.com: How does naloxone (Narcan) stop an opioid overdose? We determined the first GDP-bound μ-opioid receptor–G protein structures and found naloxone traps a novel "latent” state, preventing GDP release and G protein activation.💊🧪 🧵👇 www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Please RT. Post-doc opportunity alert! 💥 closing 10th December.. Come join our team (www.thelowlab.org) at Imperial, London, working on the structure and mechanism of bacterial secretion systems.

For more details and to apply please see

www.imperial.ac.uk/jobs/search-...

Endogenous structure of antimalarial target PfATP4 reveals an apicomplexan-specific P-type ATPase modulator Nature Communications - Here, the authors present the 3.7 Å cryoEM structure of native sodium efflux pump PfATP4 from Plasmodium falciparum, revealing a bound protein that they term...

Learn how our hunt for the native structure of top antimalarial target PfATP4🧂led to the discovery of PfABP, an unknown essential binding partner, out now! @natcomms.nature.com 👉 rdcu.be/eLRlH 🦠🔬❄️

A team effort led by @mehsehret.bsky.social & Anurag Shukla @akhilvaidya.bsky.social! #cryoEM #malaria

Antiviral reverse transcriptases reveal the evolutionary origin of telomerase Defense-associated reverse transcriptases (DRTs) employ diverse and distinctive mechanisms of cDNA synthesis to protect bacteria against viral infection. However, much of DRT family diversity remains ...

1/10 Genome maintenance by telomerase is a fundamental process in nearly all eukaryotes. But where does it come from?

Today, we report the discovery of telomerase homologs in a family of antiviral RTs, revealing an unexpected evolutionary origin in bacteria.
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

A beautiful piece of work from @ruixuan3.bsky.social and @supgokul.bsky.social presenting a light-based slicing method using a photosensitive hydrogel to image large biological samples layer by layer, preserving fine structure for full 3D reconstructions.

“Kiss-shrink-run” unifies mechanisms for synaptic vesicle exocytosis and hyperfast recycling Synaptic vesicle (SV) exocytosis underpins neuronal communication, yet its nanoscale dynamics remain poorly understood owing to limitations in visualizing rapid events in situ. Here, we used optogenet...

As ever, beautiful #cryoEM work from the lab of Hong Zhou with field-defining insights using #cryoET:

“Kiss-shrink-run” unifies mechanisms for synaptic vesicle exocytosis and hyperfast recycling | Science

www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

Structural basis of K11/K48-branched ubiquitin chain recognition by the human 26S proteasome - Nature Communications K11/K48 branched ubiquitin chains regulate protein degradation and cell cycle progression. Here, the authors report the structural basis of how such a branched ubiquitin chain is recognized by the hum...

If you're curious about how cells quickly eliminate misfolded proteins produced under proteotoxic stress or mitotic substrate during cell cycle progression, check out our latest article in Nature Communications:
doi.org/10.1038/s414...