MRC-LMB Cell Biology Division

DETERMINATION OF THE TRANSBILAYER DISTRIBUTION OF PLASMA MEMBRANE CHOLESTEROL https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.11.13.687888v1

Yesterday, we lost a giant of twentieth century genetics, Antonio Garcia Bellido. His legacy will remain deeply rooted in the history of biology. Rest in peace.

Just published! We share an open-source workflow to measure membrane thickness from tomograms, including a tutorial with 3D visualizations. We analyze thickness variations across organelles and reflect on where to define a membrane boundary. @becklab.bsky.social #teamtomo rupress.org/jcb/article/...

Glushkova, Böhm, & Beck @maxplanck.de develop a publicly available computational method to measure the thickness of biological membranes in cryo-electron tomograms. Analysis of algae & human cells reveals systematic membrane thickness variations within & across organelles rupress.org/jcb/article/...

Volume 138 Issue 20 | Journal of Cell Science | The Company of Biologists Journal of Cell Science publishes cutting-edge science encompassing all aspects of cell biology. It is published by The Company of Biologists, a not-for-profit organisation.

Our special issue on ‘Cilia and Flagella’ is now out! Huge thanks to all (authors + reviewers) who contributed, and to our wonderful Guest Editors (@cilialab.bsky.social + @lottepedersen.bsky.social) for pulling it together.
Happy reading!
#cilia #flagella

journals.biologists.com/jcs/issue/13...

Look what the dog fetched up! @matthewcobb.bsky.social’s new biography of Francis Crick.

Folks, it’s like no other Crick biog. Full of new research, fresh insights, juicy stories, & it’s a romp.

Having watched this develop from the larval stage, it’s a thrill to hear it thunk! on my table

LMB prize winners with certificates in the Max Perutz Lecture Theatre with clapping audience

Congratulations to the 2025 recipients of the Perutz Student Prize and the Joan Steitz Postdoc Prize: Claudia De Miguel, @lucaschwarz.bsky.social, Tom Dendooven, Sofia Lövestam, Katerina Naydenva & Tomke Stürner.

Find out why they won here: www2.mrc-lmb.cam.ac.uk/lmb-prizes-2...

#LMBNews 👏

The Golgi vesicle tether p115/USO1 can bind directly to the ER exit site organiser Sec16A Newly-made secretory and membrane proteins exit the endoplasmic reticulum (ER) in COPII vesicles that form at specialised ER exit sites. These exit sites are typically near to the early Golgi compartm...

New preprint from Sean Munro @cellbiol-mrclmb.bsky.social! Golgi tether p115 directly binds Sec16A at ER exit sites. Mutations blocking this binding reduce secretion. A rich new mechanistic insight into physical coupling of ERES–ERGIC/Golgi.
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

Postdoctoral Research Assistant - MCDB - UOD2016 Closing date: Thursday 6 November 2025, 23:59

Attention membrane traffickers! I'm recruiting a post-doc to my lab in Dundee. We're dissecting the functions of intrinsically disordered domains of COPII coat proteins. We think they control timing of coat assembly and morphology of carriers.

www.dundee.ac.uk/work-for-us/...

#ICYMI, @jefferis.bsky.social’s group recently published the first complete connectome of an entire male Drosophila central nervous system with @hhmijanelia.bsky.social and other collaborators.
Read more about the work here: www.janelia.org/project-team...
#LMBintheNews 🧪🪰

Poster of the 100-year history of The Company of Biologists.

1925: On this date, 100 years ago, The Company of Biologists is founded by George Parker Bidder III. Throughout today, we will be posting some of our key milestones. Read more about the past 100 years at bit.ly/3WnTVA1.

Reaffirming the value of model organisms in training scientific minds - Nature Cell Biology As biomedical research prioritizes human models and translational promise, classic model organisms are increasingly dismissed. Here we argue that they have a lasting value, both in enabling discovery and in cultivating scientific thinking, by training researchers in systems reasoning, integrative thinking and independent inquiry.

PREACH!

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

The mechanistic basis of cargo selection during Golgi maturation Resident proteins of the Golgi recycle in vesicles and the protein GOLPH3 enables the COPI vesicle coat to accomplish this.

The mechanistic basis of cargo selection during Golgi maturation. From Rebecca Taylor, @katciazynska.bsky.social, @jggkaufman.bsky.social & @grigorytagiltsev.bsky.social at @mpibiochem.bsky.social with David Owen and Sean Munro's group @cellbiol-mrclmb.bsky.social | www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

Nobel Laureate Professor Sir John Gurdon dies aged 92 It is with great sadness that the University shares the news of the death of Professor Sir John Gurdon, founder of the Gurdon Institute.

So sad to hear the news - John truly was an inspiration to so many, and one of a kind.

www.cam.ac.uk/research/new...

Madeline Lancaster and Julian Sale

The LMB is delighted to announce Madeline Lancaster as Joint Head of @cellbiol-mrclmb.bsky.social and Julian Sale as Joint Head of the PNAC Division!
Read more below.
Madeline (@lancasterlab.bsky.social): www2.mrc-lmb.cam.ac.uk/madeline-lan...
Julian: www2.mrc-lmb.cam.ac.uk/julian-sale-...
#LMBNews

Providing order amongst constant traffic: #LMBResearch from Sean Munro (@cellbiol-mrclmb.bsky.social) with John Briggs (@mpibiochem.bsky.social) reveals how GOLPH3 allows COPI vesicles to distinguish between Golgi residents & ER-bound proteins.
Read more: www2.mrc-lmb.cam.ac.uk/protein-sort...

The advent of confocal laser scanning microscopy in biological research Nature Reviews Molecular Cell Biology, Published online: 01 October 2025; doi:10.1038/s41580-025-00905-5The advent of laser-scanning confocal microscopy revolutionized cell biology, offering unprecedented resolution and depth and enabling scientists to visualize cellular structures in 3D.

ICYMI: New Online! The advent of confocal laser scanning microscopy in biological research

Excellent opportunity for an enthusiastic #postdoc to join Kate McDole in @cellbiol-mrclmb.bsky.social, using interdisciplinary approaches to investigate tissue formation during early organogenesis in mouse embryos.
More info: www.nature.com/naturecareer...
Closes 20 OCT
#ScienceJobs #PostdocJobs

When BCE (before the confocal era) turned into CE (confocal era) - 1987

The importance of basic research – People – EMBO Meet Rita Sinka, associate professor and head of the Department of Genetics at the University of Szeged, and former EMBO Installation Grantee

"EMBO support is very important – not only for the young scientists here in #Hungary, but also the more established scientists, as well as the connection you get with EMBO and with EMBO-related institutes,” says Rita Sinka, former EMBO Installation Grantee: www.embo.org/people/the-i... #research 🧪

Many thanks to Sean (@cellbiol-mrclmb.bsky.social) for writing this Journal Club for us!

⚠️ Half of commercial antibodies miss their target!
So how do you pick the right one for your experiment?

Here’s the solution 👉
Antibody characterization data (all tested in KO cells) are now available at:
🔗 onlygoodantibodies.co.uk

Tested by @ycharos.bsky.social & @oga-community.bsky.social

Join the LMB's PhD programme! Applications now open for October 2026 Deadline 2nd December 2025

Calling all prospective PhD students! Why not consider the LMB for your PhD?
Applications are now open!
www2.mrc-lmb.cam.ac.uk/students/int...
General deadline: 2nd DEC
US Gates Scholarship deadline: 15th OCT

Cover and spine of CRICK, my biography of Francis Crick

Endpapers and inside flap of book

Double page photo of Crick at blackboard with section title The Central Problem

Colour plate showing Crick at Cold Spring Harbor in 1954.

And here we are. Another damn’d thick, square book. A real wrist-sprainer. UK edition (pictured) has endpapers showing Crick and Brenner’s blackboard and colour plates. Both U.K. and US editions have sections heralded by a double page photo as here. Loads of illustrations. Out in November!

Congratulations to Dirk Görlich and Steven L. McKnight, 2025 #LaskerAward winners! - “for discoveries that exposed the structures and functions of low-complexity domains within protein sequences” 🧪
@mpi-nat.bsky.social
#Lasker2025 #LaskerLaureate #structuralbiology #phaseseparation

Congratulations Melina! Glad to see another great piece of work being recognised.

Crick: A Mind in Motion|Hardcover A "thrilling biography of one of the 20th century’s greatest minds" (David Eagleman): Francis Crick, codiscoverer of the structure of DNA, pioneering neuroscientist, and audac...

US folk! If you a Barnes & Noble Rewards Member you can get 25% off your pre-order of my forthcoming biography CRICK (an extra 10 if you are a Premium member!). Offer applies to hardback, ebook and audio, and ends 5 September. Use code PREORDER25.

Katherine Brown, Razina Kazi and Anna Edmondson

LMB PhD students in @cellbiol-mrclmb.bsky.social Razina Kazi @dr-anna-edmondson.bsky.social and Katherine Brown share their experiences completing policy internships at @acmedsci.bsky.social‬ and ‪@senseaboutsci.bsky.social‬
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www2.mrc-lmb.cam.ac.uk/exploring-sc...
#LMBNews

Supracellular actomyosin assemblies: master coordinators of development

In this Review, Katja Röper @katjaroeper.bsky.social discusses supracellular actomyosin structures, tissues where they function, their known roles as well as potential properties

journals.biologists.com/dev/article/...

Supracellular control and coordination of tissue morphogenesis, through supracellular actomyosin assemblies, that is what my lab @cellbiol-mrclmb.bsky.social @pdncambridge.bsky.social and I like to dig into at the moment! Fascinating and beautiful! journals.biologists.com/dev/article/...