Mitosis Lab

Check out our new preprint on the discovery of a molecular switch in NAC that mediates nascent chain sorting on the ribosome and prevents mitochondrial protein mistargeting by SRP. A great collaboration with the Shan Lab @Caltech and the Qi Lab @UVA: www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

Sub-3 Å resolution protein structure determination by single-particle cryo-EM at 100 keV Cryoelectron microscopy (cryo-EM) has transformed structural biology by providing high-resolution insights into biological macromolecules. We report s…

Now out in Structure: Paper on high-resolution #cryoEM using the 100 kV Tundra cryo-TEM by Dimple Karia, Adrian Koh, @abhaykot.bsky.social, @lingboyu.bsky.social, @landerlab.bsky.social and many others. Happy to have contributed to this effort. Check it out:
www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

Global inhibition of deadenylation stabilizes the transcriptome in mitotic cells In the presence of cell division errors, mammalian cells can pause in mitosis for tens of hours with little to no transcription, while still requiring continued translation for viability. These unique...

New preprint! We solve a mystery you didn't know existed. Mitotic cells lack new transcription but require ongoing translation. Interphase mRNA half life is only 2-4 hrs. So how do cells arrest in mitosis for hours without depleting their transcriptomes?

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

And here it is now in print! www.cell.com/cell-reports...

With a front cover splash 😍

This seems like a really important paper comparing chromosome tracing methods, demonstrating that classical denaturing DNA-FISH and chromosome tracing leads to substantial distortion of 3D genome structure, likely due to the high-temperatures involved (70-90C):
www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Happy to share our latest work on the structure and assembly of holocentric kinetochores! Huge thanks to Ines for a very fruitful collaboration, Claudio for all the support, and congratulations to Christine and all co-authors!

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

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Cryo-EM structure of human telomerase dimer reveals H/ACA RNP-mediated dimerization Telomerase ribonucleoprotein (RNP) synthesizes telomeric repeats at chromosome ends using a telomerase reverse transcriptase (TERT) and a telomerase RNA (hTR in humans). Previous structural work showe...

Proud to share our work where we resolved a longstanding question regarding the existence of a human telomerase dimer and provided insights into its function. Led by 3 amazing lab members in collaboration with @yiliangding.bsky.social and @rdaslab.bsky.social.
www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

CryoET tomogram with the gap junction (green), ribosomes (cyan) and microtubules (pink)

In our latest preprint on bioRxiv, we present the in situ structure of
the human gap junction at 14 Å resolution using cryo-ET.

The structure provides a blueprint for investigating how connexin
regulation shapes intercellular communication in health and disease.

Awesome! Congrats!

Excited and honored to be joining the EMBO Member community 🥳 Congratulations also to all the other newly elected members! -Martin

Whoever gets the resolution of raw tomograms to <10 Å within the sampled parts of Fourier space would probably deserve a Nobel. Or they'd get one anyway for the crazy new physics they discovered to achieve that.

Proposed cuts could have ‘catastrophic effect,’ 110 biomedical, health sciences industry leaders tell Congress Proposed cuts will have “a catastrophic effect on the advancement of biomedical and biotechnology capabilities in the United States,” more than 100 leaders of biomedical/health sciences companies tell...

Much appreciated support from biotech execs and investors 🙏

www.statnews.com/2025/06/27/b...

Truly honoured to be awarded a Lister Prize this year. I am grateful for all the lab members and collaborators for their amazing work in the last nearly 6 years. More exciting science to come with this support.

Pit stop for our Aquilos dewar got even easier with the 3D printed funnel from friendly Zurich team (shout-out to blueskyless Piotr Szwedziak)!

Very cool (pun intended)! Would you or Piotr be willing to share what kind of filament / resin is safe for cryogenic tools such as this one? Thanks!

🚨 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...

Our new review paper is out@JMB!🧬
@katsuminami.bsky.social‬ @semeigazin.bsky.social‬ ‪@kakonakazato.bsky.social‬ discuss DNA accessibility in euchromatin and heterochromatin of live cells.
Free access: authors.elsevier.com/a/1lHgb54HFZ...
Also check our previous work: www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

A checklist for designing and improving the visualization of scientific data Nature Cell Biology - Creating clear and engaging scientific figures is crucial to communicate complex data. In this Comment, I condense principles from design, visual perception and data...

I gave in! After students asking for it, I now made a simple figure design checklist.
To help all scientists w/o graphic skills create clear, accessible, and truthful charts!
-> Out in @nature Cell Biology: rdcu.be/erwl4

#DataVisualization #PhD #SciComm

Thx for review @bethcimini.bsky.social + 2

Proud to share our latest paper. doi.org/10.1016/j.cr...

Through the dedication of @glynnca.bsky.social and @cryingem.bsky.social we report a thorough method to image molecular organisation within hippocampus tissue.

Structural biology in tissue is well and truly here!

@rosfrankinst.bsky.social

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...

We have a preprint for you

EHD2 forms rings on caveolae necks, in contrast to most EHDs forming helices. We determined its structure on membranes and show that N-term acts as a spacer

By Elena, Vasya @vasiliimikirtumov.bsky.social, Jeff &Oli Daumke www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

Portrait photo of Tanmay Bharat

Congratulations to @tbharat-lab.bsky.social, Group Leader in the LMB’s Structural Studies Division, who has received the Gold Medal from @embo.org for his research on prokaryotic surface molecules.

Read more here: www2.mrc-lmb.cam.ac.uk/tanmay-bhara...

#LMBNews

Multiple structures of RNA polymerase II isolated from human nuclei by ChIP-CryoEM analysis - Nature Communications The authors establish the ChIP-CryoEM method, which combines chromatin immunopurification coupled with cryo-electron microscopy, to visualize native human RNAPII elongation complexes in action, with a...

Nice work by the Kurumizaka Lab in @natcomms.nature.com

Multiple structures of RNA polymerase II isolated from human nuclei by ChIP-CryoEM analysis

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

ERC grantee wins the Shaw Prize in Life Science and Medicine 2025 Shaw Prize honours ERC-funded research in molecular imaging

🎉 Congratulations to Wolfgang Baumeister @maxplanck.de, awarded the 2025 #ShawPrize in Life Science & Medicine for pioneering work in cryo-ET!

Learn more 👉 europa.eu/!JBXDBG
#FrontierResearch #ERCSyG #CryoET #StructuralBiology #shawprize2025

We’ve uncovered Asgard chromatin structures formed by a Hodarchaeal histone : closed hypernucleosome conserved in archaea and an open form resembling the H3-H4 eukaryotic octasome. Fantastic work by @harshranawat.bsky.social!
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
#Chromatin #Asgard #Archaea #cryoEM

🧬My retrospective chromatin review is out @Proc Jpn Acad:
doi.org/10.2183/pjab...
The textbook view of #chromatin as 30-nm fibers is fading.
A new paradigm: chromatin forms #liquid-like domains—locally dynamic, yet globally stable at the chromosome level (viscoelastic)—supporting genome function. ✨

We are looking for a postdoctoral fellow to join us to explore telomerase regulation by histones. Please get in touch if this may interest you.

Very impressive and beautiful! I found Fig. 3E and 4C to be very convicing! Hopefully the laser phase plates get commercialized soon so that this type of contrast becomes the defaulf ro cell tomo.

A question for the experts: Can you recognize nucleosomes and linker DNA in this data?
Find an updated version of our manuscript in
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...