Alushin Lab

How cells move and change shape--and why it matters for our health - News Inside each of your cells, there's a microscopic scaffolding that helps determine what the cell looks like, how it moves, and how it responds to its surroundings. This internal structure, called the cytoskeleton, is constantly shifting and adjusting. It...

Greg Alushin (@alushinlab.bsky.social) is decoding how the body’s building blocks sense and respond to force, with implications for everything from cancer to developmental disorders. In this Q&A, he discusses where his work on the cytoskeleton could lead us:

Very excited that my final postdoctoral work is now online in Cell @cellpress.bsky.social.

www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

Using 16 (!) cryo-EM structures, we uncovered how the three proteins coronin, cofilin and AIP1 work together to rapidly disassemble actin filaments.

Early career group leaders We appoint researchers from across biology and biomedicine to set up their first groups at the Crick.

The @crick.ac.uk is recruiting Early Career Group Leaders

- Lab set-up, research costs, salaries for up to 5 researchers
- Support for up to 12 years
- Access to our core facilities
- Competitive salary
- Fantastic colleagues
- All areas of biology

Deadline 27 Nov

www.crick.ac.uk/careers-stud...

How cells move and change shape—and why it matters for our health - News Inside each of your cells, there’s a microscopic scaffolding that helps determine what the cell looks like, how it moves, and how it responds to its surroundings. This internal structure, called the c...

How do cells move, divide, & sense their surroundings? The answer lies in the cytoskeleton--and when it malfunctions, cancer & birth defects follow. @alushinlab.bsky.social at @rockefeller.edu is developing new tools to probe this tiny, dynamic cell scaffolding.
www.rockefeller.edu/news/38446-h...

Structure and Function of the Cytoskeleton The cytoskeleton, a dynamic and intricate network of protein filaments, is found within the cytoplasm of all cells, from bacteria and archaea to complex eukaryotes. This essential cellular component …

Learn all things #cytoskeleton #research in an interdisciplinary environment at EMBO Workshop "Structure and Function of the Cytoskeleton" in Paris, FR, 7–10 April 2026.

Deadline: 20 December 2025

https://meetings.embo.org/event/26-cytoskeleton
#EMBOCytoskeletalFunction #EMBOevents #conference 🧪

Mechanochemical waves in focal adhesions during cell migration Traction force and FAK signaling exhibit oscillatory temporal coupling in adhesive structures.

Garcia Lab did it again! Such a fantastic read if you are interested in FAs mechanics and biology. Congratulations to @garcialabgt.bsky.social

Molecular features of Myosin F adapted for driving actin flows in Toxoplasma gondii Toxoplasma gondii ( T. gondii ) is a single-celled Apicomplexan parasite that relies on a highly polarized endomembrane system for its invasion into and survival within host cells. Recent advancements...

Molecular features of Myosin F adapted for driving actin flows in Toxoplasma gondii

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

Molecular features of Myosin F adapted for driving actin flows in Toxoplasma gondii https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.10.02.679852v1

Mechano-osmotic signals control chromatin state and fate transitions in pluripotent stem cells - Nature Cell Biology McCreery, Stubb et al. show that mechano-osmotic changes in the nucleus induce general transcriptional repression and prime chromatin for cell fate transitions by relieving repression of specific differentiation genes.

How do #stemcells integrate information to coordinate fate decisions? Delighted to finally see our work showing how growth factors regulate the mechano-osmotic state of the #nucleus and #chromatin to control #pluripotency exit out! www.nature.com/articles/s41... see 🧵 👇

We are hiring an Assistant Professor of Biochemistry and Biophysics at Weill Cornell Medicine. Come join our collaborative research environment with state-of-the-art facilities in NYC! Application review starts Oct 22.
biochem.weill.cornell.edu/join-our-fac...

Mechanosensitive genomic enhancers potentiate the cellular response to matrix stiffness Epigenetic control of gene expression and cellular phenotype is influenced by changes in the local microenvironment, yet how mechanical cues precisely influence epigenetic state to regulate transcript...

And from other labs’ work this is really cool:
www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

Cryo-ET structure of the microtubule-associated autoinhibited LRRK2^I2020T.

Using cryo-ET, CRN Team Reck-Peterson showed that full-length LRRK2 can oligomerize on microtubules in its autoinhibited state. Both WT-LRRK2 and PD-linked LRRK2 mutants formed filaments on microtubules.

🔗 Read the full #preprint to learn more about their recent research: bit.ly/3VrVNaB

Huntingtin binds and bundles F-actin!
Thrilled to team up with the Humbert (Sorbonne Université) and Song (KAIST) labs on this discovery.
We had a blast doing cryo-ET on this unexpected complex — and now so many new questions lie ahead!
#TeamTomo #CryoET #HTT #actin

doi.org/10.1126/scia...

Arp2/3-mediated bidirectional actin assembly by SPIN90 dimers Nature Structural & Molecular Biology - Liu et al. show that SPIN90 dimerizes and binds two Arp2/3 complexes to nucleate two bidirectional actin filaments and the dimerization domain is...

And now for something completely different @tianyang22.bsky.social & #YanCao uncover of how SPIN90 dimers activate Arp2/3 to nucleate bidirectional linear actin filaments. Great collaboration with @romet-jegou-lab.bsky.social & @carolynmoores1.bsky.social #Cryo-EM #Arp2/3 rdcu.be/eGoH4

Some good news: the NIH has now reinstated my R35 since the termination was found unconstitutional (still waiting on NSF), though the government continues to withhold the contractually obligated funds

A. James Hudspeth, Who Unlocked Mysteries Behind Hearing, Dies at 79

A. James Hudspeth, Who Unlocked Mysteries Behind Hearing, Dies at 79 www.nytimes.com/2025/09/05/s...

My recent postdoctoral work is out today in @nature.com! We found that physical confinement makes melanoma cells more invasive and drug tolerant. Thanks to all who made this work possible @whitefishlab.bsky.social @mskcancercenter.bsky.social #NIH #NCI www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Rockefeller is conducting a faculty search; apply to become our colleague!

Interested in #mechanobiology of the cell nucleus? The submission deadline for the first ever FASEB Science Research Conference on the Mechanobiology of the Nucleus is August 31, 2025. Submit your abstract to be considered for a platform presentation.
#MBNSRC

events.faseb.org/event/Mechan...

A. James Hudspeth, neuroscientist who unlocked secrets of hearing, has died - News A. James Hudspeth, a Rockefeller neuroscientist who discovered how sound waves are converted into electrical signals in the ear's cochlea, died Saturday at his home in Manhattan. A pioneering scientist and dedicated mentor, he was the university's F.M. ...

We are deeply saddened to share that our friend and colleague Jim Hudspeth passed away on Saturday. We will remember and continue to be inspired by Jim’s integrity, his humility, and his unwavering commitment to discovery.

Han, Connolly, Ohi, Kenworthy et al. explore the evolutionary history of #caveolins. Using computational predictions & #CryoEM, the authors show both animal & choanoflagellate caveolins assemble into amphipathic disks composed of seven conserved structural elements. rupress.org/jcb/article/...

Department of Health and Human Services—National Institutes of Health—Application of Impoundment Control Act to Availability of Funds for Grants Congress appropriated amounts to the National Institutes of Health (NIH) to carry out various research objectives for fiscal year 2025. In accordance...

BREAKING: Watchdog government agency finds the NIH and the Trump administration have illegally withheld funds in violation of the Impoundment Control Act, and rips into HHS for failing to justify its slow-walking of funds.

www.gao.gov/products/b-3...

We are excited to announce the first in-cell structure of a LINC complex within a native nuclear envelope at subnanometer resolution!! #In-cell cryo-ET + #atomistic MD simulations! @tomdendooven.bsky.social et al!!
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

New preprint: In situ Architecture of #Plasmodesmata.

Using #cryoET, #AlphaFold & proteomics, we uncover the native organization of plant intercellular nanopores.

🔗 doi.org/10.1101/2025...

🧪🧵1/n
#teamtomo #PlantScience #Physcomitrium #Arabidopsis #cryoEM

Regulation of YAP activity by nuclear G-actin binding The Yes-associated protein YAP belongs to the TEAD (TEA/ATTS domain) transcriptional co-activators that shuttle between cytoplasm and nuclear compartment. YAP and its paralog TAZ (transcriptional co-a...

Hi all, check out our new preprint where we uncover:"Regulation of YAP activity by nuclear G-actin binding", www.biorxiv.org/cgi/content/...
#actin #YAP/TAZ #transcription #nucleus with help from Sonja-Verena Albers
‪@archaellum.bsky.social‬

Trump Administration Scraps Effort to Pause Health-Research Funding The administration halted and then restarted billions in new research grants flowing from the National Institutes of Health.

Russell Vought wanted to shut down all extramural grants from NIH in this current fiscal year, putting stop to ALL research across the US. Someone in the White House had better sense. But Vought is a dangerous man, who will stop at nothing to destroy science in America. www.wsj.com/politics/pol...

Trump Administration Puts New Chokehold on Billions in Health-Research Funding The National Institutes of Health can’t award grants to outside researchers under a new White House restriction.

The NIH can’t award ANY grants to outside researchers under new WH restriction, reports @wsj.com.

The pause came in the form of a footnote from OMB Director Vought, in a document that doles out federal funds to the NIH.

Prelude to rescissions, especially after his comments over the weekend?

Director Vought: We write to ask you to fully implement the Fiscal Year (FY) 2025 Full-Year Continuing Appropriations and Extensions Act, including funds appropriated for the National Institutes of Health (NIH). The continuing resolution supp011s NIH initiatives across a range of critical research areas­cancer, cardiovascular disease, rare pediatric disorders, and more. These vital efforts are not only necessary to Make America Healthy Again, but also have a direct impact on American families, biomedical innovation, our economy, and competing with Communist China. We are concerned by the slow disbursement rate of FY25 NIH funds, as it risks undermining critical research and the thousands of American jobs it supports. Suspension of these appropriated funds - whether formally withheld or functionally delayed - could threaten Americans' ability to access better treatments and limit our nation's leadership in biomedical science. It also risks inadve11ently severing ongoing NIH-funded research prior to actionable results. We share your commitment to ensuring NIH funds are used responsibly and not diverted to ideological or unaccountable programs. We are confident Secretary Kennedy and Director Bhattacharya are well positioned to uphold gold standard research by ensuring that NIH awards are grounded in transparency, scientific merit, and a clear alignment with national interests. Our shared goal is to restore public trust in the NIH precisely because its work is focused on results, accountability, and real-world impact. Withholding or suspending these funds would jeopardize that trust and hinder progress on critical health challenges facing our nation. Ultimately, this is about finding cures and seeing them through to fruition. We respectfully request that you ensure the timely release of all FY25 NIH appropriations in accordance with congressional intent. Doing so will ensure continued momentum in curing disease, supp011ing American innovation, and delivering result…

Sincerely, Katie Boyd Britt John Boozman Shelly Moore Capito Bill Cassidy Susan Collins Lindsey O. Graham David H. McCormick Mitch McConnel Jerry Moran Lisa Murkowski Thom Tillis Todd Young Dan Sullivan Tim Scott

From @aaas.org check-in with Sudip Parikh: a letter by 14 Republican senators urge the Office of Management and Budget to release NIH funding. If this includes your state (AL, ME, WV, SC, KY, KS, AR, PA, NC, IN, AK), Sudip recommends contacting & thanking them for being American science leaders.

I am pleased to announce Reactor—the complex formation calculator for multi-component protein complex formation experiments. Developed by the Farnung Lab @harvardmed.bsky.social.
reactor-farnunglab.pythonanywhere.com 1/n

AlphaFold developer Google DeepMind to fund CASP as NIH funding falls short Protein structure prediction contest CASP gets temporary funding from Google DeepMind as NIH grant runs out.

NEW from me at STAT:

We've learned that DeepMind is going to fund CASP, the protein structure competition that brought Google DeepMind's #AlphaFold to prominence (and a Nobel Prize), as its NIH funding runs out.

More @statnews.com:
www.statnews.com/2025/07/21/c...

🖥️🩺🧪🧬 #bioML