Nicolas Lux Fawzi

Visualizing TERRA RNA G-quadruplex unfolding in FUS biomolecular condensates RNA G-quadruplexes (rG4s) are remarkably stable secondary structures with critical regulatory roles in gene expression, RNA metabolism, and telomere maintenance. However, their behavior within cells r...

New preprint from Tongyin Zheng in the lab about how FUS condensates can unfold RNA G-quadruplex structure www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

Fantastic development from AC Immune: 2 promising small molecules for detecting TDP-43 pathology using PET imaging. There's currently no way to detect TDP-43 pathology in living patients with dementia or ALS. Could have a huge impact on future clinical trials.

pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC...

Contact Hongyang! bmrb.io/bmrb/staff.s...

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

Patrick's paper is finally out, a label-free method to measure the composition of multicomponent biomolecular condensates!

Amazing new work with NMR characterization of ER condensate proteins and elegant cell biology to test the models. congratulations @annaleder.bsky.social

If the paylines go lower, we might need to start getting percentile scores with a decimal point!

I get emails from people I do not know and wonder "Was this written by AI?"
Given this, will we start ignoring emails more than we already do and place more value on face-to-face and phone conversation (I guess you could get an AI voice to have a conversation for you!), going back in time?

Tofersen (Qalsody®) - Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) is a progressive and ultimately fatal neurodegenerative disorder that affects motor neurons responsible for initiating and controlling voluntary muscle movement and...

Over 3 decades of NIH-supported research enabled the FDA approval of Tofersen (Qalsody®), offering new hope for people with SOD1-related ALS. This breakthrough was made possible by unwavering, long-term societal commitment!
Timeline here: www.ninds.nih.gov/about-ninds/...

Join the Hallegger Lab in Oxford for this highly collaborative project at the interface of molecular modelling, biophysics, biochemistry and stem cell biology funded by My Name'5 Doddie Foundation.
@mndoddie5.bsky.social‬
Apply before 12 noon on 24 June 2025.

We are very happy that XiaoYan's (Andy!) paper is out, congratulations to all authors
@cellpress.bsky.social
@xiaoyan52802927.bsky.social
www.cell.com/cell/fulltex...
Demixing of TDP-43 inside stress granules generates pathological aggregates linked to ALS/FTD
@mpi-cbg.de @biotec-tud.bsky.social

This cover highlights the article Molecular insights into the effect of 1,6-hexanediol on FUS phase separation by Tongyin Zheng, Noah Wake, Shuo-Lin Weng, Theodora Myrto Perdikari, Anastasia C. Murthy, Jeetain Mittal, and Nicolas L. Fawzi. 1,6-hexanediol disrupts many phase-separated condensates in cellula and in vitro much better than other similar alkanediols. Biophysical and biochemical experiments probe how 1,6-hexanediol decreases phase separation of the RNA-binding protein FUS through hydrophobic disruption and show why similar alkanediols have less potency. Conversely, 1,6-hexanediol does not disrupt charge-mediated condensates. The image represents contacts that 1,6-hexanediol (red mesh) forms with disordered domains of FUS (orange tubes) that discourage FUS-FUS interactions and phase separation into condensates (background). Scientific image by Busra Ozguney (Texas A&M University) and Tongyin Zheng (Brown University) with technical assistance from Gianluca Tomasello (3D Protein Imaging) using The Protein Imager (Tomasello et al. Bioinformatics, 2020. https://3dproteinimaging.com/))

On the cover of issue 10: 1,6-hexanediol scrutiny by @nicolasluxfawzi.bsky.social et al
Interferon-induced ADP-ribosylation by PARP14
Nuclear envelope-associated lipid droplets & inflammation
Ancient cyanobacterial proto-circadian clock system reconstruction
...
www.embopress.org/toc/14602075...

Thanks for representing our research communities in discussion with members of Congress and their offices.

Laurence Pearl is blocking me so I cannot see or reply to his messages. I suggest you read the article. We don't judge if hexanediol is "good" or "bad" - that's not science. We show what is does (it really is hydrophobic contacts) and why (1,6 isomer is more hydrophobic but the geometry contribtues)

Did you read the article?

In New England, that is how we pronounce "bar" anyway.

Very excited and grateful to get this opportunity to study new aspects of TDP-43 with
@nicolasluxfawzi.bsky.social

@ayalalab.bsky.social
and Jeetain Mittal!

STI1 domain dynamically engages transient helices in disordered regions to drive self-association and phase separation of yeast ubiquilin Dsk2 Ubiquitin-binding shuttle proteins are important components of stress-induced biomolecular condensates in cells. Yeast Dsk2 scaffolds proteasome-containing condensates via multivalent interactions wit...

#preprint Postdoc Nirbhik Acharya used NMR to find three transient helices within intrinsically-disordered regions of shuttle protein Dsk2 -- these interact with STI1. The STI1 is important for phase separation and proteasome condensates in yeast. Comments welcome!
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

In lab’s #FIRSTPREPRINT, we present methods to measure nanometer-scale organization around & between specific proteins in condensates in live cells. We uncover unexpected heterogeneity for a liquid-like phase with local meshwork spanning 10-50nm, stemming from ribosome biogenesis in the nucleolus.

Nuclear speckle proteins form intrinsic and MALAT1-dependent microphases Nuclear speckles are enriched in serine / arginine rich splicing factors (SRSFs), such as SRSF1. Splicing factors and proteins such as TDP43 concentrate into distinct speckle territories to enable pre...

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

Proud to share:

"Ensemble docking for intrinsically disordered proteins"

from Dartmouth undergrad Anjali Dhar 24' and grad student Tommy Sisk. We present ensemble docking strategies for IDPs that, remarkably, seem to work!

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

Code: github.com/paulrobustel...

Sounds cool, I checked out the abstract. But from the title, I didn't get it. All proteins are RNA dependent - they depend on RNA for their existence! (RNA interacting proteins? whether direct or indirect)

Endosome maturation is orchestrated by inside-out proton signaling through a Na+/H+ exchanger and pH-dependent Rab GTPase cycling https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2024.12.09.627558v1

Black background and gold stars, with title "BMA Rising Star November" and featuring Savannah Lewis in a photo where she has hair in a curly afro style and is wearing a pink shirt, smiling into the camera, with the sea in her background. Details of what projects she is working on and her achievements to the right (this text is included in the threaded post)

Introducing our last #BlackInMicro Rising Star of 2024: Savannah Lewis! Savannah is a PhD Candidate at Stanford University’s School of Medicine, where she focuses on how natural killer cells adapt due to endemic malaria exposure, demonstrating their protective role against
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Amino Acid Transfer Free Energies Reveal Thermodynamic Driving Forces in Biomolecular Condensate Formation The self-assembly of intrinsically disordered proteins into biomolecular condensates shows a dependence on the primary sequence of the protein, leading to sequence-dependent phase separation. Methods ...

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

Our work on how CPEB4 mis-splicing leads to its aggregation in autism spectrum disorder is now published in Nature.

rdcu.be/d2qjW

I would like to thank the collaborators who joined the team during the revision process as well as the funders who supported us.

The two Network for Advanced NMR 1.1 GHz NMR spectrometers are open for use!
1.1 GHz solids at NMRFAM, UW-Madison
1.1 GHz solution at CCRC NMR Facility, UGA
Submit time requests at usnan.nmrhub.org/access-uhf
#NMR #NMRchat

Arturo Falaschi Conference “2nd biennial conference on TDP-43 function and dysfunction in disease” Trieste, Italy 9 – 11 September 2025

2nd biennial conference on TDP-43 function and dysfunction in disease"
9-11 September 2025 | Trieste, Italy www.icgeb.org/tdp43-confer...