Shabaz Lab

I've made it! It's nice to be valued!

As a first-generation student, I didn’t have a clue what I was doing And that brought challenges and unexpected opportunites

From choosing unusual course combinations to a constant feeling of catching up – Ada McVean shares how she navigated university as a first-generation student.

What nanobodies can do for you - Nature Methods Since the chance discovery of nanobodies in the late 1980s, their uses and applications have kept growing. Researchers are now exploring new ways to harness nanobody versatility.

Researchers are exploring new ways to harness the versatility of nanobodies, which are smaller camelid antibodies. @vivienm.bsky.social asked scientists about some of their current and future nanobody work.

www.nature.com/articles/s41...
and rdcu.be/e1yTd

Humbled our work has prompted a News and Views article in Nature Chemistry by Omer Harel and @jbaram.bsky.social

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

Application of a sunlight-switched sugar signal increases wheat yield in the field - Nature Biotechnology Crop yield improvement has plateaued in the past three decades, owing largely to genetic bottlenecks in the germplasm of staple food crops. We used a chemical intervention method that increases yield ...

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

🎉Proud to present our latest paper, out now in Nature Communications: www.nature.com/articles/s41...

RNA Binding Proteins (RBPs) are often full of intrinsically disordered regions (IDRs), but what these regions do during RNA recognition is often unclear. 1/10
#RNA #IDR #RBP

Congratulations to the prize-winners from our recent Early Career Researcher Symposium and Poster Event in Organic Chemistry & Chemical Biology, sponsored by Pharmaron. Pictured are poster prize winners Stanley Oppong, Oskar Ford, Sara Borghi, Nandini Guzman and Maddison Lovell.

A baby Lorentz?!

Subcellular localization as a driver of protein function Nature Reviews Molecular Cell Biology, Published online: 18 February 2026; doi:10.1038/s41580-026-00947-3Proteins can localize to multiple cellular compartments and some exhibit distinct functions depending on their location. This Review discusses the mechanisms of protein localization, the control of specialized protein functions through subcellular localization, and how mislocalization is involved in cancer, neurodegeneration and autoimmunity.

New Online! Subcellular localization as a driver of protein function

Science and math and other technical fields, which seem to be based not on analogy, but on logic, are really secretly driven by analogy, and there's been a lot of work on trying to map out how that happens.
- Melanie Mitchell, on the Night Science Podcast
podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/n...

Our latest #proteomics product to top off our Lys-C and Trypsin offerings. A high quality optimal premix of Lys-C and Trypsin that enables reproducible proteomic analysis! Make sure to follow @kplaps.bsky.social for more exciting news and updates!

#TeamMassSpec

Poly-ubiquitylated proteins proved trickier to purify for LC-MS than expected. Non-specific background swamped isolations: with histones and uncertainty!

This led us to develop Ubi-SCAPE—for characterising the poly-ubiquitylome to unprecedented purity and depth.
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...

I thought so too! Yay for the banks! Always having the best interests for society in their forethought.

Just saw an advert for family backed mortgages. Well, that's one way for house prices to continue increasing. I guess that's the goal.

close enough?! (home made needle columns)

Generated illustration of a complex network connecting various professionals and symbols related to law and justice, including scales, buildings, and documents.

Who influences policy linked to your research – and who’s affected by it?

Join this interactive workshop for researchers and DPhil students on stakeholder mapping, policy audiences, and engagement strategies.

📅 Tuesday 17 February 2026
➡️ Find out more: https://tinyurl.com/mw4akvhz

Raymond stands at the centre of the picture next to the entrance to the seminar room. He is surrounded by five family members including his wife.

Yesterday we came together to honour Professor Raymond Dwek through the naming of the Raymond Dwek Seminar Room. Raymond's family (pictured) joined the celebration and Raymond was visibly touched, saying: "Thank you for this amazing gesture. I'm humbled by it, but I will treasure it."

Also, courtesy of FEBS, we can offer 8 lucky students in the FEBS community a discout of 500 Euros on registration.
Sometimes, we are offered additional scholarships to support students so please checkout our website for details of the above opportunities and an up to date picture.

IUBMB have awarded a Transcontinental-Youth Travel Fund Grant to us to facilitate the attendance of a selected participant from outside the FEBS area. The grant may be for a maximum of 2000 USD and will cover the full registration fee, including accommodation, (potentially travel) and meals.

In 2026 the established Brixen Proteomics Summer School FEBS Advanced Lecture Course

I am very pleased to announce that we have finalised the program for the @eupaproteomics.bsky.social Brixen Proteomics Summer School 2026 now also a @febsj.bsky.social advance lecture course.

www.brixenproteomics.org

Phosphoproteomics of aged insulin-resistant bone identifies P70S6K phosphorylation of AFF4 as a gene-specific transcriptional regulator - Nature Communications Insulin signaling plays a crucial role in coordinating skeletal development with whole‑body energy metabolism. Here, the authors use phosphoproteomics to show insulin-signaling rewiring in aged, insul...

Our #phosphoproteomics analysis of insulin signaling in bone uncovered a new mechanism of transcriptional activation via S6K phosphorylation of AFF4. It appears to play a role in regulating the expression of genes in ageing and insulin resistance. www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Really happy to see this work out!

Super fun project with a great team. For me the highlight was that we finally were able to show the O-linked glycosylation systems of H. pylori/C. jejuni are general glycosylation systems which target non-flagellin proteins (suggest >10 years ago by click chem).

#TeamMassSpec Question for XL-MS practitioners.. Looking for a suitable crosslinker to stabilise a protein complex in vitro.. What are the pros and cons for MS-cleavable vs non-cleavable cross-linkers?? Is PhoX a good choice?? Any recommendations for MS-cleavable cross-linkers?? Thanks very much..

First day of the year where solar makes enough electricity for the house for the whole day. February!

Viral Infections Drive Functional Remodeling of Ribosome-Associated Proteins https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.01.29.701737v1

I am embarrassed to say I had a small part in this fantastic study led by @marvintanenbaum.bsky.social

Yup.

Bleak. For the mas spec community, there was the additional blow that the recently funded C-Mass initiative was also cancelled. Not great times.

Yep, Ben @proteomicsnews.bsky.social and I finally got Bill Noble on #THEProteomicsShow. We had been wanting him on forever so he went and won an award to make it easier for us to meet. Enjoy the rambles (I hope), and mind the monkeys. Find it wherever you find fine podcasts.

Bacteriocin biophysics: From protein-protein interaction models to navigators of the bacterial cell envelope Bacteriocins are toxins deployed by bacteria to kill their competitors. Here, I reflect on my laboratory’s work on protein bacteriocins and their immunity proteins from Gram-negative bacteria. We unco...

From overturning 50 years of cell envelope dogma to weaponizing toxins, Colin Kleanthous’s career has been extraordinary. This JBC "Reflections" is a poignant final gift, taking his work to "unimagined destinations" as he says a moving farewell to the lab

tinyurl.com/4vmbwcw7

#Microbiology #SciSky