Komander Lab

After a long (but fun!) postdoc journey, I am very excited to share that I will start my own lab in the Ubiquitin Signalling Division at WEHI. We will study how ubiquitin controls mitochondrial health and its role in neurodegenerative disease. Hiring soon!

And more cool papers in the pipeline, so looking forward to an exciting 2026!

A big year for the lab!
We hosted Australia’s first ubiquitin summit in Lorne,
Published the structure of PINK1 on a mitochondrial translocase array,
Reported a new PLpro inhibitor for long COVID,
Celebrated 3 PhD and 1 honours completions,
Went on a lab footy trip, 🏈
Won the Eureka prize!! 🏆

It’s hard to believe that #AusUb2025 has already come to an end 😢. Don’t worry though - we’ll still be posting our speaker interviews in the next couple of days.

Here’s what Sonja Lorenz thought of the Australian Ubiquitin Summit. 👇

Today we have Brenda Schulman, Director of the Department of Molecular Machines and Signalling at Max Planck Institute of Biochemistry, as our interviewee at #AusUb2025. Jump in to find out her research focus and conference tips!

‼️Have a listen to a little about Kylie Walter’s exciting new research, conference talk, and her experience at #AusUb2025. What did she enjoy most about the conference?
More interviews to come in the next week so stay tuned 😁

‼️It was wonderful to have Professor Kay Hoffmann at the #AusUb25 - and even better to get the chance to interview him! Hear about his experiences in industry and academia as well as his love for proteins😁

‼️ Following on from our “M1 chains everywhere!” session at #AusUb25 we took the chance to interview one of the pioneering researchers in this field, Kazuhiro Iwai. Have a look below! ✨✨✨

‼️Towards the end of #AusUb25, we caught up with Jonathan Pruneda to discuss ubiquitin signalling and its relationship with host-pathogen interactions. It was an amazing conference and such a great chance to meet people from across the ubiquitin field 🤩

‼️For our final invited speaker interview, we talked with the amazing Titia Sixma about her work on the role of ubiquitin in DNA regulation, and some #AusUb2025 highlights. Thank you to everyone who came, it was an amazing conference and a great chance to see the breadth of global ubiquitin research!

Is there any biomolecule thats not #Ubiquitinated ? 🫣

It was super fun to chair my fav session on 'Ubiquitinating EVERYthing' during the kickstart event of #AusUb2025

Today is the day! The Inaugural Australian Ubiquitin Summit #AusUb2025 was officially opened by committee chair David Komander.

Really excited for the first Australian Ubiquitin Summit starting tomorrow!

Some of us got an early start at ISA11 Lorne. Awesome presentations from @simoncobb.bsky.social, Laura Fielden and @sylviecallegari.bsky.social

See you in Lorne!
@ausub.bsky.social

⏳Four days to go until #AusUb2025! Check out the video below to hear some conference tips and tricks from our committee chair David Komander (and some potentially controversial interest rankings!?!?).

More interviews to come in the next few days so watch this space 😉

Stay tuned for some ✨exclusive✨ interviews from our organising committee members (including committee chair David Komander!).

Looking forward to seeing everyone in Lorne!! Only three weeks to go!

Very exciting to see the @wehi-research.bsky.social PINK1 Parkinson’s Disease research team win the Eureka Prize for Scientific Research. Amazing achievement by a brilliant team! @eurekaprizes.bsky.social

YouTube video by Australian Museum PINK1 Parkinson's Disease Research Team – Finalist, 2025 Eureka Prize for Scientific Research

🎉 What an honour to be a finalist in the 2025 Australian Museum Eureka Prizes for Scientific Discovery!! With David Komander, @zhongyangan.bsky.social, Alisa Glukhova and @nskirk.bsky.social.

Excited for the awards ceremony on Sept 3rd!

@eurekaprizes.bsky.social
@wehi-research.bsky.social

📣📣 Abstract deadline extension to Friday 1st August 📣📣
If you missed the last deadline, then don't miss out again!! Join us for sun, surf and ubiquitin in November at Lorne, Australia.

Grateful for the support from the Parkinson's Research Foundation!

📣 Calling all ubiquitin aficionados - one week to go before abstract deadline (July 18th)!! Join us on the coast in Lorne, Australia. www.lorneubiquitin.org
#ubiquitin

Two weeks to go before the abstract deadline (July 18th)! Looking forward to seeing you all there!

Excited to share our latest work, now out in @lsajournal.org. we show that the E3 ligase HOIL-1 can ubiquitinate many different saccharides and describe a chemoenzymatic platform to generate ubiquitinated sugars as tools for studying non-proteinaceous ubiquitination.

Could this breakthrough research lead to the first treatment for #longCOVID? A world-first milestone made possible through the advanced technologies of the National Drug Discovery Centre.

Find out more: www.wehi.edu.au/news/tacklin...

A novel PLpro inhibitor improves outcomes in a pre-clinical model of long COVID - Nature Communications A novel antiviral targeting the SARS-CoV-2 PLpro protease shows strong efficacy in a mouse model, preventing lung pathology and reducing brain dysfunction. The study provides proof-of-principle that P...

Excited to share news from the lab out in Nature Communications – A novel PLpro inhibitor improves outcomes in a pre-clinical model of long COVID
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
@wehi-research.bsky.social

Early and mid-career researcher travel grants are available!

Join us at the beach for the first Australian Ubiquitin summit from 20-23 Nov! 🏄‍♀️ Check out the amazing speakers here: www.lorneubiquitin.org

And, why not stay a little longer and join the International Symposium on Autophagy from 16-20 Nov, also in beautiful Lorne ☀️. www.isa11.org

See you there!

Exciting news from the lab out today in Science - the structure of human PINK1 on a TOM-VDAC complex!
@wehi-research.bsky.social