Alex Holehouse

Addendum - ~1 week after I posted this, Google fixed it 🤯 Coincidence???? Yes.

Talk titles for IDPSeminars on Dec 4th at noon central time. Alex Holehouse (Washington University in St. Louis): Sequence-to-ensemble with STARLING Birthe Kragelund (University of Copenhagen): Disordered protein complexes and the origins of life

We're back for our final seminar of 2025 with talks from @alexholehouse.bsky.social and Birthe Kragelund! 1 pm EST or 7 pm European time. If you're not already signed up, head on over to idpseminars.com to register!

Love this; inspired by early experiences and cemented by the incomparable @jiwasa.bsky.social at an incredible workshop she and @theroglab.bsky.social organized in '22, I've become thoroughly convinced that - at least for me - developing figures from scratch is a key part of scientific inquiry.

Brief interruption to science:

For the four folks reading this who may be interested, death metal band Emperor is touring the US next spring. If you care, you care 🤘.

New preprint! We measured temperature- and pH-induced aggregation for over 18,000 natural and de novo designed protein domains!

Safe travels!

How to tackle emerging questions in cellular organisation, adaptation, and robustness? Join #EESPhaseSeparation! 🧬🦠

Bringing together scientists from diverse fields to foster new discoveries in condensate biology.

Submit your abstract by 10 Feb: s.embl.org/ees26-08-bl

📅 19 – 22 May 2026

Promotional image of a plant growing in the desert for the First Annual WALII Symposium: Exploring Life Without Water. The graphic includes the date and time of the event and information on how to register.

The First Annual Virtual WALII Symposium: Exploring Life Without Water is ONE WEEK AWAY! 🗓️💧

Register now to join us on November, 18!
www.walii.science/virtual-symp...

The fact that if you search for something on Google with a typo, it suggests a correct spelling (good!), and you select that spelling to search (also good!), but then click on the search bar, it RETAINS THE WRONG SPELLING is among the most bizarre UI/UX decisions I've seen in many years.

A university that signs the “compact” is one that acknowledges its own inability to compete and succeed based talent and merit. It would signal insecurity and mediocrity to current and future students and faculty. Say no. Recruit the best people, protect their freedom and support their hard work.

Molecular Armor: Simple Rules to Keep Proteins (Re)Soluble💧
Check our preview of a cool study on how proteins stay soluble (or not) after desiccation—from the labs of S. Fried, @alexholehouse.bsky.social and @shaharsu.bsky.social in @cp-cellsystems.bsky.social
www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

UT Southwestern researcher receives NIH Director’s New Innovator Award David Sanders, Ph.D., Assistant Professor in the Center for Alzheimer’s and Neurodegenerative Diseases and Molecular Biology at UT Southwestern Medical Center, has been awarded $2.4 million over five ...

Humbled to announce that we received a New Innovator award. I thank the NIH’s civil servants for their hard work during a stressful funding cycle. I thank the leadership (and chair, Marc Diamond) at UTSW for betting on my lab’s high risk, high reward research. www.utsouthwestern.edu/newsroom/art...

Musk FRS.

Also needs to be said that (as some folks know) our software packages are named after birds, so while I was away, the lab filled my office with birds... ...but honestly... *very* tastefully.

Will stay for the foreseeable future!

Thanks Martin! Also I'm so sorry I owe you note one but TWO emails!!

Thanks Natalie - hugely appreciated... Caipirinhas soon!!!!🍹🍹🍹

Thanks Michelle! Hope you're doing well!!

Thanks Professor Lohman!!

He is 😂. Never misses a day, works late, and is in early. Perfect colleague.

Protein surface chemistry encodes an adaptive tolerance to desiccation Desiccated cells lose over 85% of their water content and experience widespread biomolecular dysfunction. Romero-Pérez et al. show that the yeast proteome contains a subset of proteins that are desicc...

Thanks Gabriel!! Also, that paper I mentioned in Ascona, looking at surface chemistry of proteins in desiccation, came out like, 30 minutes ago (literally)!
www.cell.com/cell-systems...

Thanks Seema!

Thanks!

Thanks Charlotte!

Who are you? 😆

The ultimate endpoint is an acronym where none of the letters in the acronym are in any of the words. This is the final boss. We are trying.

Hahaha thank Marcin - feels like a long time ago we were sat in first year undergraduate tutorials (because, I suppose, it was a long time ago 😭). REALLY hope we get to catch up in person again soon!!

Thanks Alexis!

Thanks Kaushik! Much appreciated!

Thanks Mark!!

Thanks Trevor!! Email response re: meeting up, coming in 3...2...1...