@paulschanda.bsky.social
Passionate for integrated structural biology, including NMR and many more. Particularly interested in protein dynamics, and therefore chaperones, enzymes and mitochondrial protein import. Fortunate to lead a great research team at IST Austria.
New preprint, a technical paper showing how 19F #NMR of proteins in solids can be accelerated, lead by Lea Becker at @istaresearch.bsky.social.
mr.copernicus.org/preprints/mr...
Magnetic Resonance has an open interactive public peer reviewing system, where anyone can contribute to the discussion.
Very nice preprint that shows that protein crystallographic structures can be used to reveal the entropy of ligand binding.
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...
A recent podcast by Stephanie Wankowicz and James @fraserlab.com picked up our work (with Alex Bronstein & coworkers) on Guiding AlphaFold3 with experimental data (cryoEM, X-ray, NMR) to generate protein ensembles. (Thanks for the kind words 🙂)
👉 creators.spotify.com/pod/profile/... (from 35:50)
Ben will talk about his recent work on relaxation-dispersion MAS NMR, including published work )https://pubs.acs.org/doi/full/10.1021/jacs.5c09057) and some new ideas on analysis of relaxation-dispersion NMR to probe microsecond dynamics.
20.01.2026 08:08 — 👍 2 🔁 1 💬 0 📌 0📢 Check out Ben Tatman's talk in the Magnetic Resonance Seminar series online (see details below). He will talk about methods to probe protein dynamics by magic-angle spinning #NMR. Friday, Jan 23, noon CET.
20.01.2026 08:06 — 👍 2 🔁 2 💬 1 📌 0
Thanx & congrats @ivasucec.bsky.social Undina Guillerm, Jakob Schneider for a heroic effort. (No doubt: this is the paper with the biggest NMR set from our lab) And Francois Dehez for lots of MD simulations, Nils Wiedemann’s lab for yeast work and Karin Busch’s lab for single-molecule tracking.
🧵8/8
Collectively, our data reveal a new functional mechanism, which nature came up with to deal with the contradictory requirements of preprotein binding to the receptors, but also efficient release for translocation. This dynamic mechanism is likely in place at many similar systems.
🧵7/8
Moreover, with lots of methyl-TROSY #NMR spectra — overcoming substantial challenges related to studies of large proteins by NMR — we also resolved, for the first time, how preproteins bind Tom70.
🧵6/8
These data suggest another role: keeping Tom20 and Tom70 in vicinity of the TOM gate. We used single-molecule tracking experiments in live cells to investigate this role. Indeed: Tom22’s transient helix is a key element that keeps the receptor proteins close to the import gate.
🧵5/8
We deciphered Tom22 ’s actual role: its transient helix competes with precursor proteins for binding to the two “real” receptor (Tom20, Tom70). In doing so, Tom22 acts as a precursor-protein displacement element, right above the TOM pore, to release precursor protein for translocation
🧵4/8
We found that the cytosolic domain of Tom22— traditionally called a “receptor” — is mostly unfolded, with a short transient helix. MD simulations show the range of states. But how does a receptor interact with the incoming precursor proteins? And is this preprotein-bining even its actual role?
🧵3/8
Almost all mitochondrial proteins are imported through the TOM complex: a beta-barrel pore and “receptor proteins” on the cytosolic side. The “central receptor” protein, Tom22, has remained enigmatic. In cryoEM structures, Tom22 was mostly unresolved, or in contradictory conformations.
🧵2/8
📢 New preprint alert!
How do proteins enter mitochondria? We uncovered a surprising mechanism at the mitochondrial entry gate—using #NMR, in vivo single-particle tracking, yeast experiments, and MD simulations to crack the code.
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...
#StructuralBiology #Mitochondria
🧵 1/8
📢 Join us at the first Austrian #NMR meeting.
Organised by a fantastic group of young international NMR researchers, this meeting is great opportunity for postdocs and students to contribute their science with a talk or poster. And to see great invited speakers.
austrian-nmr-meeting.pages.ist.ac.at
There are many opportunities in many groups. Check the research on the ISTA web site ista.ac.at
In our group we specifically look for candidates with a strong interest in structural biology and NMR. Experience in protein production, and/or NMR, possibly also in ML and EM, are particularly welcome.
The PhD call at @istaresearch.bsky.social is open.
Get a glimpse on the work of Jakob, a PhD student in our group www.instagram.com/reel/DSjvCo4...
Applications:
phd.pages.ista.ac.at/phd-applicat...
#NMR spectroscopists in and around Austria: join us for this meeting.
A few great keynote speakers, and lots of space for contributed talks from students and postdocs. Taking place at ISTA @istaresearch.bsky.social in February 2026
So excited to announce the first 🧲 Next Austrian NMR Meeting 🧲, happening @ ISTA, Feb 26–27, 2026! Plus a satellite workshop, 💊 “ #NMR in #DrugDiscovery” 🧭 on Feb 25!
📅 Registration: Dec 1, 2025
🌐 Program, venue: austrian-nmr-meeting.pages.ist.ac.at
#NMRchat #Austria 1/4
Wichtig für Klosterneuburg. Und auch für alle am @istaresearch.bsky.social
Bitte hier unterzeichnen: mein.aufstehn.at/petitions/ra...
The course results were not only presented in our Institute Colloquium, but we worked on a detailed analysis of NMR conferences and published the results mr.copernicus.org/articles/6/2...
See also:
ista.ac.at/en/news/carb...
2) Trains do emit much less CO2 than planes per km and person, also when considering all the infrastructure. The savings can be an order of magnitude (and in most cases 3-4x, depending on the travel start/destination)
3) Per-person CO2 emissions to travel to a #EUROMAR #NMR conference is above 1 ton
In brief:
1) yes, carbon emissions due to conference travel are substantial (can be tens of tons of CO2 per year for some colleagues -- >10-fold more than the per-person "budget" to stay within a 2°C warming "goal", which in itself leads already to massive changes to our daily lives.
I had the pleasure to work with amazing students at @istaresearch.bsky.social on a nice "side project": Understanding the travel-related carbon emissions of our institute, and how much planes pollute (compared to trains) -- and then applying all this to analyze the footprint of #NMR conferences.
->🧵
Looking forward to hosting Kresten Lindorff-Larsen's talk tomorrow.
I am looking forward to seeing ISTA's main lecture hall of full, and hearing the latest developments of tools to predict, design and study intrinsically disordered proteins.
@istaresearch.bsky.social
here is the correct link: ista.ac.at/en/job/tenur...
15.10.2025 12:44 — 👍 2 🔁 6 💬 0 📌 0
Preprint
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
Data
doi.org/10.7910/DVN/...
Code
github.com/sai-advaith/...
8/8
All the credit goes to Alex Bronstein's team at @istaresearch.bsky.social. Amazing collaboration, largely driven by an amazing group: Advaith Maddipatla, Nadav Sellam Bojan, Meital Bojan, Volodymyr Masalitin, Sanketh Vedula, Ailie Marx and Alex. (thanx)
Preprint, data and code available👇
7/8
Guided AF3 may make ensemble-centric modeling routine in crystallography, NMR, and cryo-EM.
This includes proposing altlocs in X-ray, rapid ensemble interpretation in NMR, and injecting atomic detail into flexible cryo-EM regions.
6/n
2. X-ray/Cryo-EM: Electron density guidance can uncover previously unmodelled alternate conformations and restores structural accuracy in regions poorly predicted by unguided AF3, such as short peptides and flexible loops.
This methodology paves the way for experimentally aware predictive models
5/n
Guided AlphaFold3 resolves accurate ensembles from different experimental modalities:
1. Guiding with #NMR NOE distance or even order parameters (=atom-wise motional amplitudes) produces ensembles with less distance restraint violations and better replicates dynamic behavior.
4/n