Peter Back

Targeted CRISPR screens reveal genes essential for Cryptosporidium survival in the host intestine - Nature Communications Cryptosporidium is an important threat to public health, yet it lacks a robust genetic toolkit. Here, Watson et al. introduce a targeted CRISPR-based screening method to identify parasite genes that a...

Now available in a polished format! An important step toward accelerated functional genomics for the Cryptosporidium parasite. Brought to you by the incomparable @lucy-watson.bsky.social
www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Integrated structural biology of the native malarial translation machinery and its inhibition by an antimalarial drug Nature Structural & Molecular Biology - Integrated structural biology approach leveraging in situ cryo-electron tomography reveals molecular details of the native malarial translation...

Our #CryoET story on how a top antimalarial drug candidate perturbs the native malarial translation machinery is out @natsmb.nature.com🥳 rdcu.be/eBbrH

A massive team effort led by @leonieanton.bsky.social Meseret Haile & Wenjing Cheng in collaboration with Jerzy Dziekan & the Alan Cowman! #TeamTomo

Hi, are you an academic biology lab in the Boston area? I am a lab manager at a local biotech and I will be getting rid of a lot consumables in the near future (as will many of my colleagues, unfortunately). If you would be interested in free consumables, please reach out to me!

These are the most challenging times for early-career scientists and engineers.

My team is doing its bit to help by maintaining and even expanding our database of funding opportunities for early-career researchers.

We found 437 of them.

Download it freely here: research.jhu.edu/rdt/funding-...

🚨 New preprint!
Using U-ExM + in situ cryo-ET, we show how C2CD3 builds an in-to-out radial architecture connecting the distal centriole lumen to its appendages. Great collab with @cellarchlab.com @chgenoud.bsky.social @stearnslab.bsky.social 🙌. #TeamTomo #UExM
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

Finally published: discovery of an unusual Arp2/3 complex with surprising new function in transmission of #malaria #parasites. Great work by Franzi Hentzschel, Yvonne Sokolowski + David Jewanski + fantastic collaboration with Matthias Marti: www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Per source, NIH has been instructed to hold off from issuing ALL awards to Harvard, Cornell, Columbia, Brown, and Northwestern (including med schools)

Agency staff have also been instructed to not speak about this funding freeze to grantees and applicants

An Essential Adaptor for Apicoplast Fission and Inheritance in Malaria Parasites Blood-stage Plasmodium falciparum parasites rely on a non-photosynthetic plastid, the apicoplast, for survival, making it an attractive target for antimalarial intervention. Like the mitochondrion, th...

🚨 New preprint alert! 🚨
We’ve uncovered a key player in malaria parasite cell division—meet PfAnchor, the first apicoplast-specific dynamin adaptor protein! Check the thread below 🧵for more details. #U_ExM #Malaria #Apicoplast
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

🔊 Calling all parasite enthusiasts - come join us to study Toxoplasma and Plasmodium organelle biology 🔬
www.jobs.gla.ac.uk/job/research...

Cryptosporidium modifies intestinal microvilli through an exported virulence factor Cryptosporidium is a common intestinal infection of vertebrates and a significant threat to public health. Within the epithelial layer of the intestine, the parasite invades and replicates. Infected cells are readily detected under the microscope by the presence of elongated microvilli, particularly around the vacuole where the parasite resides. Here, we identify a family of Cryptosporidium virulence factors that are exported into the host cell during infection and localise to the microvilli. We examine the trafficking and function of the most highly expressed family member, MVP1, which appears to control the elongation of microvilli through engagement of host EBP50 and CDC42. Remarkably, this mechanism closely mirrors that of an enteropathogenic Escherichia coli virulence factor, MAP, which is also known to drive host microvilli elongation during infection. This highlights a unique instance where eukaryotic and prokaryotic virulence factors have convergently evolved to modulate host actin structures through a similar mechanism. ### Competing Interest Statement The authors have declared no competing interest.

Cryptosporidium modifies intestinal microvilli through an
exported virulence factor!! Phenomenal work from the newly DR’ed Elena Rodrigues
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

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ATTENTION (PLEASE SHARE)

If anyone has or knows of any positions that might be appropriate for the NIH staff members who were terminated, please post the information in this thread.

There are lots of talented and accomplished people who may be looking for new opportunities.

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F99/R00 AND K99/R00 DIVERSITY AWARD APPLICANTS

If you have applied for a F99/R00 or K99/R00 Diversity award and the study section for review is not listed on your eRA Commons page, please reach out to me.

DM me, email berg.grants.2029@gmail.com, Signal jeremymberg.78

THANK YOU

📢Postdoc opportunities - deadline Dec 31st
We are seeking two experienced and motivated researchers to join MRC and a WT (below) funded projects on mitochondrial biology in Plasmodium and Toxoplasma shared between Glasgow and Helsinki.

www.jobs.ac.uk/job/DKW033/r...

Schematic showing the experimental outline for a full genome arrayed CRISPR screen. 384-well plates containing cells with an arrayed crRNA library are infected with Cryptosporidium parasites, which undergo asexual rounds of replication intracellularly, followed by sexual development to male and female forms. Plates are then fixed and immunolabeled to detect all parasites, female parasites, host actin recruited to parasite vacuoles, and host nuclei. Three z-stacks were imaged by high content microscopy to detect apically located parasites as well as host cell actin and nuclei.

Have you ever wondered how knocking out every single gene in the human genome, one by one, might affect your intracellular pathogen of interest? We did, & boy was it a wild ride! Happy to share our preprint discovering the essential host genome for Cryptosporidium -

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

I'm looking for a research technician! If you're interested in studying how malaria gametocytes remodel their host cell come join us on a @wellcometrust.bsky.social funded project at GIMM by applying here: gimm.pt/jobs/laborat...
Deadline 20th December. Please share!

We developed #RESI (Resolution Enhancement by Sequential Imaging), a #DNAPAINT based single-molecule method that achieves 1-2 Å localization precision and sub-nm resolution using a conventional fluorescence microscope and standard reagents. 1/13

A Chaperonin Complex Regulates Organelle Proteostasis in Malaria Parasites The apicoplast of Plasmodium parasites serves as a metabolic hub that synthesize essential biomolecules. Like other endosymbiotic organelles, 90% of the apicoplast proteome is encoded by the cell nucl...

🚨🖨️👩‍🔬New Preprint alert! Please have a look to learn about organelle proteostasis in malaria parasites🩸 An apicoplast-biogenesis mutant that dies☠️on the first cycle! 🧪🦟So proud in 1st author Amanda Tissawak for the first major research article from our lab!
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

How come we know so little about a protein that is the basis for the currently available malaria vaccines? New review on the Plasmodium circumsporozoite protein, with Photini Sinnis and Mirko Singer out now: authors.elsevier.com/c/1k7sK5Eb1x...

Cryptosporidium is an important public health threat, and it deserves better genetic tools to study it! Here we’ve developed a targeted in vivo CRISPR genetic screen to identify parasite genes required for survival and virulence…
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

The malaria parasite Plasmodium falciparum prepares for life within the host cell by activating a complex gene network The intraerythrocytic developmental cycle (IDC) during which the malaria parasite Plasmodium falciparum multiplies asexually within the human host red blood cell is the symptomatic stage of the malari...

All you ever wanted to know about gene expression in malaria merozoites

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

Reminder for newcomers that bioRxiv has Bluesky accounts in every subject category - great way to keep up (please re-skeet) connect.biorxiv.org/news/2023/09...

Woohoo! We have a new job posting for TWO Neuroscience colleagues in the Dept. of Cellular Biology at
@universityofga.bsky.social! Please apply (I'm on the search committee if you have questions) and share with other folks who might be interested! #Neuroscience
www.ugajobsearch.com/postings/404...

Can colleagues amplify this appeal to journals and journal editors to open accounts on Bluesky, please? @MicrobioSoc @TrendsMicrobiol @CellCellPress @JBacteriology @jbiolchem @Nature @ScienceMagazine @PNASNews @MolMicroEditors @NAR_Open @NatureMicrobiol @NatureComms @ASMicrobiology 🙏
🦠🧪🧫🧬

Alveolin proteins in the Toxoplasma inner membrane complex form a highly interconnected structure that maintains parasite shape and replication Picomplexan parasites require specialized structures like the inner membrane complex to invade host cells and replicate. This study shows that the alveolin protein IMC6 is crucial for maintaining cell...

Congratulations to @petersmback.bsky.social on fantastic work on the Toxoplasma alveolin network and its interactions via UAA photocrosslinking. A really detailed study with great help from the Ward and Zhou labs! journals.plos.org/plosbiology/...

50 years after the discovery of the #Toxoplasma life cycle by Frenkel et al. we have reached a milestone by producing pre-gametes in vitro - a feat previously only possible by infecting cats. Exciting details in our latest Nature study:
 
www.nature.com/articles/s41...

My department is hiring an assistant professor of fungal biology! All aspects of Mycology welcome 🍄 microplantpath.ucr.edu/job-opportun...

These are amazing!!

The current v1 Bluesky system is designed to scale to 1M users. And today we're going to hit 1M users!

We will, of course, keep pushing things and *try* to smoothly transition to the v2 Bluesky system later this year. It's designed for >10M users.

We just have to finish building the v2 system!