Filip Van Petegem

Warum manche Menschen schneller frieren als andere - selbst die Wissenschaft tut sich schwer Temperaturwahrnehmung ist einer der ursprünglichsten Sinne des Menschen. Warum ist das so? Fragen an den Pharmakologen Jan-Erik Siemens.

I just did an interview in the Sueddeutsche Zeitung about how we detect cold temperatures — the journalist, Felix Hütten, did a nice job to make it accessible also for non-scientists.

www.sueddeutsche.de/gesundheit/m...

UBC researchers uncover how statins harm muscles—and how to stop it  - UBC News Study reveals how cholesterol-lowering drugs can trigger muscle damage—and point to a way to make them safer.

Thanks to the UBC media team for coverage of our statin : RyR1 work. Atorvastatins bind and trigger opening of a calcium release channel critical for muscle contraction.
news.ubc.ca/2025/11/ubc-...

@ubcmedicine.bsky.social

For the aficionados: we find that 3 statin molecules bind per subunit of RyR1 (12 for a full tetramer). The statins also interact with one another, highlighting an unusual binding mode.

Work spearheaded by Steven Molinarolo.

Special thanks to people at our in-house EM facility
@hrmem.bsky.social

Our latest work : Statins are used to lower plasma cholesterol but often come with muscle-related side effects. Using cryo-EM, we show how multiple statin molecules cooperate to bind RyR1, a calcium release channel mainly found in skeletal muscle.
nature.com/articles/s41...

PIP2-driven cytoplasmic domain motions are coupled to Kir2 channel gating, say Eva-Maria Zangerl-Plessl, Anna Stary-Weinzinger, Colin G. Nichols, and Sun-Joo Lee rupress.org/jgp/article/...

@colinnicholslab.bsky.social

#IonChannels #Phospholipids

Phosphorylation of RYR1 at Ser2902 decreases Ca2+ leak in skeletal muscle and susceptibility to malignant hyperthermia and heat stroke Reducing Ca2+ leak through mutant RYR1 prevents pathological heat production in skeletal muscle.

Very interesting paper from Susan Hamilton's lab, showing that phosphorylation of RyR1 by SPEG kinase can suppress pathological consequences of disease mutations.
www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

Our cryo-EM structure of the intermediate state of the KCNQ1 potassium channel is out. Collaborative effort with the David Fedida and Luca Maragliano labs. Cryo-EM work spearheaded by Efthimios Kyriakis, PhD

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

We have a preprint of a book chapter for you: Structural Analysis of Membrane Proteins in Cell-Derived Microvesicles.

We describe how to image membrane proteins in mid-sized vesicles using cryo-electron tomography

zenodo.org/records/1717...

Hope this isn't going to apply to anyone already on H-1B, but only future ones.

A robust expression system reveals distinct gating mechanisms and calmodulin regulation of NaV1.9 channels An expression system enables detailed study of NaV1.9 channel gating and its regulation by calmodulin.

www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

A study in collaboration with Frank Bosmans. Reproducible protocol to measure the elusive NaV1.9 currents, and revealing a big role for the preIQ region in gating properties.

unconscious bias...

Still a few days left to apply for a faculty position focused on cardiac arrhythmias at Simon Fraser University. Come join the greater Vancouver network on arrhythmia research!
www.academicwork.ca/jobs/assista...

seems you can definitely forget about BLAST with an entire RyR sequence...

hopefully not a symptom of funding cuts and resignations at NIH

Is it just me or is Pubmed down...??

Well done Kookjoo Kim on a great poster presentation, here visited by an RyR VIP, @filipvanpetegem.bsky.social!

And thanks @biophysicalsoc.bsky.social, @popstarlab.bsky.social & team for a great #BPS2025 under challenging circumstances - see you next year in SF!

Stress in action: our crystal structure of PKA bound to its preferred substrate in CaV1.2 (Ser1981 for the aficionados). Quantitative experiments on previously proposed sites in CaV1.2 and its regulator Rad shows that there are two tiers of substrates.

jbc.org/article/S002...

an invitation to talk on the Galapagos Islands?

seconding this. It also applies to presentations. The perfect way to throw off your audience is to use highly specific jargon and acronyms to an audience that is not (fully) in your field

Calcins are scorpion-derived peptides that can cross the plasma membrane and modulate the Ryanodine Receptor. Marvin presenting the latest cryoEM results from our lab at the 2024 Translational Arrhythmia Day (TADA) meeting.
(description also here: www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...)

#CryoEM

Every day since the late 1920s (except during WWII), the notes of the Last Post sound through the Menin Gate in Ypres, Belgium. Unfortunately, "never again" hasn't stuck. #ArmisticeDay

Elemental mapping in single-particle reconstructions by reconstructed electron energy-loss analysis - Nature Methods An approach combining electron energy-loss spectroscopy with image processing tools from single-particle cryo-electron microscopy enables elemental mapping in macromolecular complexes, paving the way ...

Can you find out which ion binds your protein using cryo-EM? This new method from Bonnie Murphy's lab combines electron energy loss spectroscopy and single particle imaging, showing this can become posssible. Test case on our favorite protein, the Ryanodine Receptor.

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

Our latest cryo-EM study, elucidating the type 3 Ryanodine Receptor (RyR3) in different conformational states
nature.com/articles/s4146…

Unexpected binding sites for ATP and chloride in the N-terminal region, affected by mutations linked to epileptic encephalopathy.

A new faculty position in cardiac arrhythmia in the greater Vancouver area.

sfu.ca/content/dam/...

Come join our local arrhythmia community.

Cryo-EM analysis on magnetic beads for scarce macromolecules in heterogeneous samples bioRxiv - the preprint server for biology, operated by Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, a research and educational institution

OK this is COOL i love it
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

the method has been applied to worm haemoglobin and to one of our favorite proteins, the Ryanodine Receptor.

A very cool method by Bonnie Murphy's lab to map elements for cryo-EM. The method, named REEL-EM, makes use of electron-energy loss spectroscopy. Honored to have contributed to this: www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

yeah, why Australia and not Canada..?