Eilika Weber-Ban Lab

Asgard archaea were first found in mud at the bottom of the North Sea. Today, cellular biologists Martin Pilhofer and Christa Schleper are exploring one of their more elusive structural elements: a totally tubular system that looks a lot like our own.
www.quantamagazine.org/tiny-tubes-r...

A good moment to remember this quote: “The world is in greater peril from those who tolerate or encourage evil than from those who actually commit it.” Albert Einstein

We are currently witnessing the complete succumbing to blackmail of the so-called civilized world. The speed of general moral and ethical decline in the name of economic constraints and reasoning is shocking. We must be aware that scientific integrity will not escape untouched.

Proud of my doctoral student Charlotte Schilling who successfully defended her thesis today! Congratulations, ⁦‪Charlotte, on an excellent job! 👏🥂

Check out our latest preprint with the Qi lab on the structure and disease physiology of the human ERAD complex. Outstanding work by Leo, a cell physiologist whom we successfully tempted into structural biology! Preprint: www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

Structures of the Escherichia coli type 1 pilus during pilus rod assembly and after assembly termination - Nature Communications Adhesive, filamentous type 1 pili are critical virulence factors in urinary tract infections. Here, the authors describe the cryo-EM structures of the entire type 1 pilus with all its structural compo...

The type 1 pilus in its full glory! 👏

Muñoz-Hernández, Xu, et al. @mike-wieczorek.bsky.social @ethz.ch report #cryoEM structures revealing how NEDD1’s C terminus forms an α-helical tetramer that docks onto the γ-TuRC without inducing major conformational changes in the complex during its recruitment to MTOCs rupress.org/jcb/article/...

Jung-Stiftung zeichnet wegweisende Forschungsansätze aus

Congratulations to our colleague Jörn Piel and the other awardees! nachrichten.idw-online.de/2025/05/15/j...

ETH microbiologist honoured with prestigious European medical award Chemist and microbiologist Jörn Piel combs through the vast world of bacteria for new natural substances to combat the antibiotic crisis. The ETH professor has now been honoured for his research with ...

Breaking news and a great honour for D-BIOL professor Jörn Piel: he wins the very prestigious Jung Prize for Medicine! Our congratulations! ethz.ch/en/news-and-...

Congratulations, Jörn! 👏 A well-deserved recognition!

🧵5 Top Free Alternatives to BioRender for Scientific Illustrations!

These five websites offer free scientific illustrations for biologists. Great for presentations, research papers and other research communication needs.

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As scientists we must be ready to communicate the importance of vaccination wherever the discussion may come up, with family, friends or at the hair dresser. Be prepared to explain in a fact-based and accessible manner.

Substrates bind to residues lining the ring of asymmetrically engaged bacterial proteasome activator Bpa - Nature Communications Mycobacterium tuberculosis has a proteasome similar to eukaryotes. This study reveals how the activator Bpa recruits its substrate HspR, providing structural and mechanistic insights. The authors iden...

Check out our new study revealing how ATP-independent activator Bpa binds asymmetrically to the Mtb #proteasome — and pinpointing key Bpa residues involved in substrate interaction.
👏 Tatjana v. Rosen, Rafal Zdanowicz & @yasser-elhadeg.bsky.social
🔗 www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Credit: Margot Riggi (@margotriggi.bsky.social), Max-Planck Institute of Biochemistry (@mpibiochem.bsky.social)

Asgard archaea have actin - but what about microtubules? Where do they come from? 🧐 Our new paper www.cell.com/cell/fulltex... by @xujwet.bsky.social & @florianwollweber.bsky.social, in collaboration with the Schleper & Wieczorek labs, describes tiny Asgard microtubules! #TeamTomo #ArchaeaSky 1/6

More than 2 decades ago the PINK1 protein was found to be linked to Parkinson's disease, but its structure and how it was activated was not known. Until @science.org today. A triumph for cryo-EM and structural biology, introducing new targets for drug intervention.
www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

Measles virus targets certain immune cells in the body: What to know about complications The virus targets certain types of immune cells in the body, destroying them in the process.

In case you've forgotten about measles induced immune amnesia
www.nbcnews.com/health/healt... w/ @michaelmina.bsky.social @virusesimmunity.bsky.social

Thank you, Annette, for taking on this important responsibility!

Cell-autonomous innate immunity by proteasome-derived defence peptides - Nature Proteasomal degradation of cellular proteins generate defence peptides constitutively and in response to bacterial infection. Such peptides might provide a source of natural antibiotics that...

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

Fully agree! “Peer” review being the important aspect here. And yes, reviewing takes time, as it should.

Scientists aiming to bring back woolly mammoth create woolly mice Genetically modified mice have traits geared towards cold tolerance, in step towards modifying elephants

Babysteps-we’ve all been there… 😂

www.theguardian.com/science/2025...

Some good news! The final program for the inaugural #GRCBiologyofMycobacteria is up! We are also officially oversubscribed but cancellations happen... www.grc.org/biology-of-m...

Structural basis for the midnolin-proteasome pathway and its role in suppressing myeloma The midnolin-proteasome pathway degrades many nuclear proteins without ubiquitination, but how it operates mechanistically remains unclear. Here, we present structures of the midnolin-proteasome compl...

👏 Another chapter in the midnolin proteasome story from @xingulab.bsky.social www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

A new study from the Weber-Ban lab led by Charlotte Schilling @cm_schilling with support from @rafal_Zdanowicz @Glockshuber_lab reveals the signal linking DNA damage to the activation of the mycobacterial DNA damage response. More: biol.ethz.ch/en/news-and-...