Brett Collins

#MembraneTraffickers! Our next online seminar is this Thursday, Nov 6 at 5 PM CEST!
We’ll hear from @agatawitkowska.bsky.social on mechanical control of neurotransmission and @abdourachidthiam.bsky.social on lipid storage mechanisms in health and disease.
Spread the word and join the discussion!

Screenshot of ARC "network messages" webpage stating that Centres of Excellence outcomes are "postponed". Blue text on white background as a heading, above an image of concentric part circles, to make a sort-of whirlpool pattern, above black text on white background.

#CentresOfExcellence #CE26

ARC has "postponed" announcement of Centres of Excellence outcomes!

It says "due diligence checks" are still being carried out on some applications.

www.arc.gov.au/news-publica...

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHH

Hey Siri, show me the Frenchiest news story

I promised myself that when I next had a successful grant, I'd share a snapshot of my trail of unfunded submissions.

With gratitude to the ARC, looking forward to next several years of collaboration on effort motivation with @minzlicht.bsky.social, Deena Skolnick Weisberg, and Frederik Anseel!

Dad’s aggressive brain cancer vanishes after taking new drug The NHS is now looking for patients with glioblastoma to take part in a new drug trial

An extraordinary result for ipilimumab immunotherapy given as a first line therapy for glioblastoma

share.google/485XFZxmBm26...

What a gem from @dudinlab.bsky.social @gautamdey.bsky.social @centriolelab.bsky.social in Cell! Expansion microscopy atlas of >200 eukaryotes comparing cytoskeletal architectures revealing structures not seen before. Stunning visualisation! Exactly the kind of transformative cell biology we need.

Large female Australian sea lion with its head turned towards a baby sea lion, both on white sand with a few bushes nearby

Australian sea lion mum and pup at seal bay, kangaroo island. Fun fact: Gestation period 18 months!

Paul Nurse describing the main job of a PI

(From ‘The Thinking Game’, 2024)

Figure comparing runtime and VRAM utilization between Boltz-2 (baseline), and LMI4Boltz (+memory, and +chunk). Main plot: runtime (y-axis) versus token count (x-axis), showing that all methods scale similarly, with +memory and +chunk handling larger token counts. Inset scatterplot: PDB test lDDT scores from Boltz-2 versus LMI4Boltz, showing a strong linear correlation (values near y = x). Right panels: – Top bar chart: maximum tokens processable on a 24 GB GPU increase from 1596 (Boltz-2) to 2356 (+memory) and 2660 (+chunk). – Bottom bar chart: H200 runtime for 1596 tokens remains comparable across methods.

🧶🧬 We present LMi4Boltz:
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

Boltz-2 is an excellent open source alternative to AlphaFold3. However, high VRAM use restricts modeling large complexes. Using careful memory management, we increase the Boltz-2 size limit by >60% while maintaining execution speed.

#hiring #researchassociate #structuralbiology #proteinsciences #cryoem #biochemistry #biophysics #dnarepair #drugdiscovery | Stanislau Yatskevich We’re hiring a 𝐑𝐞𝐬𝐞𝐚𝐫𝐜𝐡 𝐀𝐬𝐬𝐨𝐜𝐢𝐚𝐭𝐞 (Contractor) to join our 𝐒𝐭𝐫𝐮𝐜𝐭𝐮𝐫𝐚𝐥 𝐁𝐢𝐨𝐥𝐨𝐠𝐲 team in 𝐏𝐫𝐨𝐭𝐞𝐢𝐧 𝐒𝐜𝐢𝐞𝐧𝐜𝐞𝐬 focused on the molecular mechanisms of DNA repair. 𝐖𝐡𝐲 𝐭𝐡𝐢𝐬 𝐫𝐨𝐥𝐞 𝐦𝐚𝐭𝐭𝐞𝐫𝐬 You’ll help purify and ...

my friend and wonderful colleague Stan is hiring at Genentech in South San Francisco! 🧬 🌉

Biochemist/structural biologist looking for your first position in industry? I can’t recommend working with Stan enough ☺️ please repost for visibility

www.linkedin.com/posts/stanis...

LMI4Boltz: Optimizing VRAM utilization to predict large macromolecular complexes with consumer grade hardware AlphaFold2 has revolutionized structural biology by enabling the prediction of protein structures approaching experimental quality. AlphaFold3 extends this framework to support modelling broad biomole...

This is amazing work lead by Tom (@tlitfin.bsky.social) in my team. Always trying to get more for less and making computing efficient. So satisfying making science resources go further. Boltz2 is great for protein structure prediction and hopefully LMI4Boltz extends its use. Code on GitHub… 🧶🧬

FSP1-mediated lipid droplet quality control prevents neutral lipid peroxidation and ferroptosis - Nature Cell Biology Lange et al. identify a lipid droplet quality control pathway in which FSP1 safeguards stored neutral lipids from lipid peroxidation, thereby preventing the induction of ferroptosis.

Excited to share our study out in @natcellbio.nature.com! Led by @mikelangelipid.bsky.social, we identify the first #LipidDroplet lipid quality control pathway: LD-localized FSP1 protects stored lipids from oxidative damage and prevents LD-initiated #ferroptosis.
www.nature.com/articles/s41...

We have a great growing cryo-EM community with new instruments coming. Apply to work in the happiest country!

February 2026 is shaping up to be the month for protein science down under!

Lorne (Feb 8–12) @lorneproteins.bsky.social

APSPM 2026, Brisbane (Feb 15–18)
biosig.lab.uq.edu.au/strphy26/str...

Two meetings and a summer of great science!

@strphy.bsky.social

@official-smbe.bsky.social

Cryo-EM maps and atomic models of the biotin-containing 3-methylcrotonyl-CoA carboxylase (MCC) complex and long-chain acyl-CoA carboxylase (LCC) complex

New lab preprint!
@zestytoast.bsky.social tagged a scarce mycobacterial protein in M. smegmatis with TwinStep but got… something? @kjamali.bsky.social's ModelAngelo built models & @martinsteinegger.bsky.social's FoldSeek IDed them as the biotin-containing MCC & LCC complexes
🧵
tinyurl.com/ukny4ptz

How the first animals evolved – a new clue from a tiny relative Meet the choanoflagellates - the microscopic cousins of animals.

I've written a piece about great new article by @thibautbrunet.bsky.social, Chantal Combredet & Mylan Ansel. (www.cell.com/cell-reports... )

theconversation.com/how-the-firs...

FSP1-mediated lipid droplet quality control prevents neutral lipid peroxidation and ferroptosis - Nature Cell Biology Lange et al. identify a lipid droplet quality control pathway in which FSP1 safeguards stored neutral lipids from lipid peroxidation, thereby preventing the induction of ferroptosis.

Excited to share my postdoc work @olzmannlab.bsky.social! We found lipid droplets, the cell’s lipid storage depots, are subject to oxidative damage and are protected by FSP1. Loss of FSP1 triggers droplet peroxidation and cell death, revealing a new layer of lipid quality control!

shorturl.at/B5XYD

Important article from @marymunson4.bsky.social @joann-trejo.bsky.social @needhibhalla.bsky.social

We are looking for a computational postdoc to work with us on new optimisation algorithms to make #RELION even better. Join our bubbly team at the @mrclmb.bsky.social in Cambridge, UK. 🤗 RTs appreciated.

mrc.tal.net/vx/appcentre...

🚨 #LinkageProjects #LP25r1 announcement:

❗️Outcomes announced publicly for Linkage Projects 2025 round 1❗️

See ARC's RMS for list ➡️ rms.arc.gov.au/RMS/Report/D...

/bot

OpenFold3-preview (OF3p) is out: a sneak peek of our AF3-based structure prediction model. Our aim for OF3 is full AF3-parity for every modality. We now believe we have a clear path towards this goal and are releasing OF3p to enable building in the OF3 ecosystem. More👇

#LinkageProjects #LP25r1

My poor old bot is feeling poorly today*, so I've switched to my backup system & will post ASAP (probably within 2mins) when outcomes are released on RMS.

It's possible there'll be duplicate posts. Apologies.

(*It's run almost non-stop on a $10 computer for 10 years, so…)

Ascidians (Ciona intestinalis)🪸Our distant chordate cousins! 🌊 Simple sea squirts that reveal how vertebrate body plans evolved 🧬 A key model for notochord formation, neural induction, and cell lineage mapping 📸 Video by MBL Embryology 2019 #ModelMonday #DevBio #EvoDevo

From a crewmember on yesterday's Teal 74 mission into now-Category 5 Hurricane #Melissa. As clear of an eye as you will see in the Atlantic basin.

Our ultimate goal: exploring biology beyond well established research organisms, by building tools that will make new things visible

Ending 🧵 with a marker for visualising chanoflagellates, closest unicellular relatives of animals, by @jujumathieu.bsky.social and @thibautbrunet.bsky.social

🎉Wrap up 2025 with the APG at Proteins in the Pub!

⚡Lightning talks, networking & good vibes.

📅Nov 19 | 6 PM | Seven Stars Hotel
🎟️Free entry + snacks | $100 prize for best talk

👉Register: events.humanitix.com/proteins-in-...
👉Lightning Talk Registrations: shorturl.at/xMP57

A general system for targeting MHC class II–antigen complex via a single adaptable loop - Nature Biotechnology Specific binders to peptide–MHC class II are rapidly generated without laborious screening.

Specific binders to peptide–MHC class II are rapidly generated without laborious screening go.nature.com/4gj5OQk
rdcu.be/eMYFS

Working on the protein-hunter-chai google colab notebook. 😈

@yehlincho.bsky.social

November'25-February'26 membrane trafficking online seminars program

Calling all #Membrane enthusiasts!
Our #MembraneTrafficking online seminar series is back for the 2025-26 season: 8 fantastic speakers from Nov'25 to Feb'26.
The first talks are already next Thursday (Nov 6, 5pm CET) with @agatawitkowska.bsky.social and @abdourachidthiam.bsky.social !