Julian Kompa

Interested in cell-cell communication and microscopy? We are searching for a motivated postdoctoral researcher to join Münster! Please Apply! @uni-muenster.de

Lead a lab at Janelia Pioneer next-generation tools for biological discovery Apply by Feb. 3, 2026 janelia.org/groupleader

Apply by Feb. 3 to become a Janelia Group Leader!

Group Leaders drive breakthroughs & experimental approaches in imaging, molecular engineering, protein chemistry, mass spectrometry, & methods that don't yet exist. Learn more: janelia.org/groupleader 🧪

My team at Deep Piction (Munich) is hiring a Senior Director, Drug Discovery (Long Covid) to build and lead our early discovery engine. If you have 10+ years in early-stage biotech/pharma, let’s talk.
www.linkedin.com/jobs/view/43...

Oh where, oh where does my protein localize? Oh where, oh where can it be?🎵
Check out our Subcellular Localization Collection page, with fluorescent protein markers for organelles and cellular structures to help you find your way 🔬

Expression of H1R, H2R and H3R tagged with p2A-mCherry-N1 or p2A2-mCherry-N1 in HELA cells. A) H1R_p2AmCherry-N1 B) H2R_p2AmCherry-N1 C) H3R_p2AmCherry-N1. D, E and F show the H1R, H2R and H3R with p2A2mCherry-N1 respectively.

A reminder to use the right P2A sequence to produce separate proteins - the images are from a GPCR-P2A-mCherry construct using a P2A variant without (upper row) and with (lower row) a preceding GSG linker.

ERC Synergy Grant for MPI Director Kai Johnsson

🎉🌟Big news! Our Director @kjohnsson.bsky.social has received an @erc.europa.eu Synergy Grant, together with teams from EPFL @sulianamanley.bsky.social and @unibe.ch! 👏They’ll explore how mitochondria communicate with other cell parts🔬 #ERCSyG #maxplanck #mpimr #science
www.mr.mpg.de/14662972/erc...

Synthetic fluorophores for live-cell fluorescence microscopy and biosensing - Nature Chemical Biology Performing live-cell microscopy experiments with high spatial and temporal resolution requires fluorophores with highly optimized properties. This Review examines the progress in developing synthetic ...

🚨Curious how synthetic fluorophores simplify microscopy? Our review covers applications such as super-resolution microscopy and biosensing. 🎉👩‍🔬Congrats to my first PhD student, Agnese Nicoli, for the fearless deep dive! 🔬 ⚗️
D-CHAB @ethz.ch
www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Chemically Induced Dimerisation, modular & on-demand:

=> Fast, stepwise reagents for HaloTag-to-SNAP-tag heterodimerisation without a hook effect

Now preprinted: doi.org/10.1101/2025...

Congratulations to Philipp Mauker & the CHalo Crew for programming with HaloTag!
#chembio #fluorescence #friday

My initial assessment of this paper ⬇️ was brief, so let’s have a better look at it:
🧵

Don’t miss the chance to learn about MINFLUX sample preparation!
Register now for our webinar on Wednesday, October 1, 15:30 CEST: link.abberior.rocks/sampleprep
#MINFLUX #SMLM #superresolution #SamplePrep

Order, chaos & complexity

#Mitochondria in #muscle cells 💪🔬, color-coded by 3D depth 🧪

Extracting biological structure and heterogeneity from the nano to the macro scale Fluorescence microscopy is an essential tool in biology. It has revealed great variability at multiple scales, in macromolecular complexes, cells, and organisms. Understanding this variability will re...

How do you quantify cell structures which are deformed between different observations? Our preprint shows how to perform Simultaneous QUAntification of Structure and Structural Heterogeneity (SQUASSH) on 3D fluorescence microscopy data. (1/5)
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

We are searching for a talented master student to join our team! Please apply

Associate Editor or Senior Editor, Nature Methods Title: Associate or Senior Editor, Nature Methods Organization: Nature Portfolio Locations: New York, Jersey City, Shanghai or Beijing Closing Date: August 3, 2025    About Springer Nature Springer Na...

Nature Methods is also hiring to replace me (applications close August 4th!!!) and I will do everything I can to support their next bioimaging editor (ask me anything!). springernature.wd3.myworkdayjobs.com/SpringerNatu...

🚨 2 × PhD positions @EPFL! 🚨
Help us push the boundaries of fluorescence microscopy - DNA nanotech, custom optics & spatial omics in Lausanne 🇨🇭. Start Jan 2026. Send CV + motivation + 2 refs → fschueder@ethz.ch
#PhD #Hiring #microscopy #SuperResolution #SpatialOmics #DNAPAINT #FLASHPAINT

Opening for a professorship in multimodal imaging in the context of our cluster of excellence #3DMM2O. Here is the full advertisement with all details: tinyurl.com/2ksy2b2s

Thioether editing generally increases the photostability of rhodamine dyes on self-labeling tags | PNAS Self-labeling protein tags are widely used in advanced bioimaging where dyes with high-photon budgets outperform their fluorescent protein counterp...

We propose the elimination of thioethers as a general strategy to enhance the photostability of self-labeling protein tags. Happy that we could support this mechanism with a MS analysis. The M175L mutation of HaloTag yields up to 4-fold more photons. 🎇 (4/4)

www.pnas.org/doi/abs/10.1...

Molecular recording of cellular protein kinase activity with chemical labeling - Nature Chemical Biology Molecular recorders based on kinase activity-dependent protein labeling track specific kinase activities to understand their link to cellular phenotypes in heterogeneous cell populations and in vivo.

Kinprola is based on split-HaloTag and records the activity of, for instance, PKA via chemical labeling in live cells. 📈

The kinase activity is reflected by the accumulation of a permanent fluorescent signal and can be correlated with transcriptomics. (3/4)

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

SNAP-tag2 for faster and brighter protein labeling - Nature Chemical Biology SNAP-tag is a widespread tool for labeling protein for bioimaging. Now, Kühn et al. report SNAP-tag2 with increased labeling kinetics and brightness, which translates into a better performance in live...

SNAP-tag2, combined with its novel substrate TF, enabels faster and brighter protein labeling with synthetic dyes. 💡 Thereby we close the performance gap to HaloTag, making SNAP-tag more attractive for super-resolution microscopy. (2/4)

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

Productive weeks at the Chemical Biology department at @mpi-mr @kjohnsson 🎉
Check out the fantastic work by @steffi-k on SNAP-tag2 and @deensun3 on KinProLa in @natchembio.nature.com ⏬

We also released a great collab with @zhixingchen2 on the photophysics of self-labeling tags in @pnas.org. (1/4)

Transitioning to PDBx/mmCIF and Extended PDB IDs
PDB users are strongly encouraged to make changes to software; use the full 12-character ID in all communications; and encourage others to adopt ASAP

Details at wwPDB: www.wwpdb.org/news/n...

Hello microscopists!! Help needed - does anybody know of any good Mn2+ indicators that are good in live cell microscopy assays ?

Never worked with them before and not sure if there are any reliable & affordable ones out there..? Reposts appreciated 🙏🙏

Fast, Bright and Reversible Rhodamine Tags for Live-Cell Imaging We present Rho-tag and SiR-tag, engineered protein tags derived from bacterial multidrug-resistance proteins that bind unsubstituted (silicon-) rhodamines with nanomolar affinity, enabling fast, rever...

Teaching an old bacterial protein new tricks: Fast, bright and reversible rhodamine tags for live-cell imaging:

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

Congratulations to Julian Kompa and the entire team.

SNAP-tag2 for faster and brighter protein labeling - Nature Chemical Biology SNAP-tag is a widespread tool for labeling protein for bioimaging. Now, Kühn et al. report SNAP-tag2 with increased labeling kinetics and brightness, which translates into a better performance in live...

📣Paper alert! Interested in faster and brighter protein labeling than before? 👀 @steffi-k.bsky.social & other colleagues have developed an improved tool for labeling proteins with synthetic fluorophores for bioimaging. Also works in STED microscopy 🤩🔬 Congratulations!🥳
www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Please check out our new high-affinity split-HaloTag for live-cell protein labeling www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
Congratulations to Yin-Hsi Lin!

Applications are now open for the 4th edition of the “Ecole de Physique des Houches” on Fluorescence Markers for Advanced Microscopies, a WE-Heraeus seminar.
March 15th-20th 2026
Join us to learn everything you wanted to know about Fluorescent Markers for advanced microscopies.

The next generation of bright rhodamine probes (BD dyes) from @zhixingchen2.bsky.social's lab raises the bar for photostability 🤩

Congrats on opening your own lab in Frankfurt @goetheuni.bsky.social , Till 👏🏼
Looking forward to future fancy images and interesting biology! 🦠🔬