Quentin Smith

Presenting our research tomorrow @aicc-ireland.bsky.social Please join via Zoom!

I’m honored to be part of the next GRS Single Molecule Approaches to Biology, thanks Chairs @qmsmith.bsky.social and Alba Gomez Segalas for organizing this great event! The GRS is a wonderful opportunity for young scientists to share their exciting science and build communities. See you there!

🗣️ Keynote Speaker: @sulianamanley.bsky.social

👥 Mentoring Session: Careers Across Biophysics featuring @valdavinson.bsky.social @timcraggs.bsky.social @sulianamanley.bsky.social @esisamakis.bsky.social

📈 Selected talk and poster presenters: You!

☀️ Please repost, share and we'll see you in June!

Visual advertisement providing details for the 2026 Single Molecule Approaches to Biology GRS in Les Diablerets, Switzerland in June 27-28, 2026. Two-day event for early-career single-molecule biophysicists, with a keynote session, 12 selected talks, 2 poster sessions, and mentorship component. For more information contact Alba or Quentin or see the official GRS website.

🔬 Calling all early-career researchers (ECRs) for the GRS Single Molecule Approaches to Biology!

🌎 Location: Les Diablerets, Switzerland

📆 Save the date: June 27-28, 2026

🔗 More information: www.grc.org/single-molec...

#biology #biophysics #single-molecule #microscopy #ECR

We have an opening for a research support officer. Come and join us! Please share.

Application to speak in the Fragile Nucleosome series Thank you for your interest in our seminar series! We use a variety of different session formats but, in general, trainees can plan for a ~15 min talk + 5min Q/A and PIs can plan for a ~25min talk +...

Do you have an exciting new chromatin/transcription story that you'd like to share with the #FN community?

Fill out this form to be considered for a talk in our Jan-June 2026 schedule! forms.gle/TBi38UgYxPAB...

Please repost and share!

We are recruiting! PDRA to work on a BBSRC funded position with Prof. Yiliang Ding and Dr. Tim Craggs. We are looking for someone with experience with cell culture and gene expression analysis - Please do share. Happy to answer any questions. Details below:
www.ucl.ac.uk/work-at-ucl/...

Exciting project!Great opportunity!

It’s an honor to be awarded the LMS PhD Prize, I am truly grateful for the kind comments made by my examiners and for the MRC LMS acknowledging my graduate studies as an achievement! 🥳

Quentin Smith awarded LMS PhD Prize We’re delighted to announce that Quentin Smith has been awarded the latest LMS PhD Prize for his outstanding thesis and viva performance.

Congratulations to @qmsmith.bsky.social for winning the LMS PhD Prize in recognition of his outstanding thesis and viva performance!

We wish him the best of luck in his new role as a joint postdoctoral research fellow at Boston Children's Hospital and Harvard Medical School.

Happy to see our latest work online. Here we present a new method for microsecond time-resolved cryo-EM based on jet vitrification! Details in the 🧵 below... we hope you enjoy reading! (Hint, there's some fun videos...) #cryoEM #structuralbiology

Cryo-EM reveals open and closed Asgard chromatin assemblies Ranawat et al. show the cryo-EM structures of Asgard archaeal chromatin assemblies, revealing that the histone HHoB assembles into both compact closed and extended open hypernucleosomes. The closed co...

Let’s wrap things up: my commentary on the Asgard hypernucleosomes.

Congratulations to all the authors of the paper 🍾!

kwnsfk27.r.eu-west-1.awstrack.me/L0/https:%2F...

Cryo-EM reveals open and closed Asgard chromatin assemblies: Molecular Cell www.cell.com/molecular-ce...

Thank you, Daniela, @danielabarilla.bsky.social, for a wonderful commentary! 🤗🤗 More spotlight on the Asgards and their chromatin! ❤️ #archaea #chromatin

Me in front of the ABRCMS sign

16 (! What?) years ago I went to my first ABRCMS and was welcomed and encouraged to pursue my scientific dreams. I met folks that provided direct feedback on my graduate school applications and served a pivotal role in my career. I am honored return and give back again as faculty.
#ABRCMS2025

Happy to share our latest preprint.

We uncover a previously uncharacterised and evolutionarily conserved chromatin architecture in premeiotic gonadal germ cells, revealed through integrated cytological and high-resolution Hi-C approaches.

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

Thread🧵🔽

Please join us on November 20th! We are very grateful for our first sponsorship - Molecular Instrument!

Independent research fellowships leading to tenured positions at the John Innes Centre.

Repost = nice. Thank you very much!!!

Congratulations Ishmail Abdus-Saboor, PhD Freeman Hrabowski Scholar National Institutes of Health Director's Pioneer Award Image of Ishmail in his lab

🎉Congrats to Freeman Hrabowski Scholar @ishmailsaboor.bsky.social on receiving the NIH Director’s Pioneer Award! His research will explore how sense of touch contributes to communal behaviors.

🧬 Meet ORF Verifier (orfverifier.farnunglab.com) 🧬

Validating ORFs from plasmid sequences—such as those from @plasmidsaurus.bsky.social —can be tedious and error-prone. Manual inspection and alignments in tools like SnapGene take time and attention.

ORF Verifier automates sequence verification.

Farnung Lab with newly minted Dr. Della Syau!

Della Syau successfully defended her PhD thesis today. Congrats, Dr. Syau. Strike #3!

NEB remains undefeated. Truly the GOAT of biotech. Wait time for live chat was mere seconds near EOD on a friday. Sorted my order in less than 3 mins. Why would I buy from anywhere else?

1/10 New pre-print(s) from the Sternberg Lab in collaboration with Leifu Chang's Lab! We uncover the unprecedented molecular mechanism of CRISPR-Cas12f-like proteins, which drive RNA-guided transcription independently of canonical promoter motifs.
Full story here:
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

Don’t forget to register for #BIBPSTutorial❗️❗️❗️

#BIBPSWeek

Celebrate Black in Biophysics Week! #BIBPStutorial
Biophysics 101: Visualizing proteins with ChimeraX
Tuesday, May 27, from 3:00 PM to 4:00 PM US Eastern

Learn how to visualize and analyze complex molecular structures with presenter Bryan Nicholson-Dews buff.ly/faiCWTj

Beautiful structures and story - well done all! 🥳

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

LocScale-SURFER is now also available for quick install via the ChimeraX toolshed:

cxtoolshed.rbvi.ucsf.edu

We are happy to release LocScale2.0: a tool for context-aware, confidence-weighted cryoEM map optimisation.

Taking two half maps as input, LcoScale-2.0 produces feature-enhanced maps along with a robust confidence score that guides objective map interpretation.

cryotud.github.io/locscale/

Welcome to #BlackInBiophysicsWeek 2025!!!

We hope you are enjoying the holiday and long weekend. 😊

Today we are celebrating ✨#BlackExcellence✨ in biophysics! Use our #BIBPSRollCall hashtag or tag us and tell us about yourself. We want to hear all about you! 🤩

#BIBPSWeek

#BIBPSRollCall Hi I’m J! I study intrinsically disordered proteins using single-molecule and computational techniques with a particular focus on IDRs in transcription factor fusion proteins like PAX3-FOXO1. Excited for Black in Biophysics week and looking forward to meeting new faces!