Marko Kaksonen

Multi-scale Molecular Imaging of Human Cells reveals COPI and COPII Vesicles at ER Exit Sites Trafficking from the endoplasmic reticulum to the Golgi apparatus comprises the first steps toward the correct localization of 30% of eukaryotic proteins. Coat protein complexes COPII and COPI are inv...

Go check out the latest preprint from Giulia Zanetti's lab. @dr-downes.bsky.social used cryo-tomography to directly visualize COPI and COPII coated vesicles in situ at unprecedented resolution in human cells. Amazingly beautiful, rigorous, insightful work.
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

I was looking through my old microscopy videos, and found this perfect shot of a macropinosome forming through the collapse of an actin-driven membrane ruffle (cyan). Immediately, CRYI-A (orange) is recruited to the vesicle to finish the job. Still in awe with this process after all those years!

Screenshot of article summary of: Toward Science-Led Publishing by Damian Pattinson, George Currie published as an opinion piece, in Learned Publishing Summary The current dynamic of scholarly publishing prioritises the wants of the publishing industry over the needs of the research community. This article explores this theme through the lens of ‘publisher-led science’ as a description of our current status quo, and through ‘science-led publishing’ as an improved future state. We argue that financial motivations central to most publishing distort how research is presented, how it is assessed and even what research is undertaken, leading to a system that hinders, rather than facilitates, scientific progress. We propose three elements of a science-led publishing approach that would accelerate research communication, incentivise collaboration between authors, editors and reviewers, and create a more transparent and equitable research landscape. We believe that research funding and research assessment are two of the primary levers for wider change in research and research culture and consider the future purpose of scholarly publishing in a world where these proposals have been widely adopted.

While academic publishing may not be broken, it isn’t built to serve science either. It runs on a chain of perverse incentives, but everything we need to rebuild it is already in our hands.

#OpenScience #AcademicSky
buff.ly/oSesI1s

Mosaic evolution of clathrin-mediated endocytosis in fungi Picco et al. take an evolutionary approach to study clathrin-mediated endocytosis in a fungal clade and discover that the process is evolving in a mosaic fashion. The early phase of endocytosis has sh...

How does evolution shape ancient cellular processes? Our new paper uncovers the mosaic evolution of conserved and diverging endocytic traits in fungi!

www.cell.com/current-biol...

The "reproducibility crisis" in science constantly makes headlines. Repro efforts are often limited. What if you could assess reproducibility of an entire field?

That's what @brunolemaitre.bsky.social et al. have done. Fly immunity is highly replicable & offers lessons for #metascience

A 🧵 1/n

Intersectin and endophilin condensates prime synaptic vesicles for release site replenishment - Nature Neuroscience Time-resolved electron microscopy reveals that intersectin-1 and endophilin A1 condensates hold replacement synaptic vesicles close to release sites. Without this, replacement vesicles are unavailable...

Intersectin and endophilin condensates prime synaptic vesicles for release site replenishment

@watanabelab.bsky.social

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

Hello microscopy and imaging experts and enthusiasts!
We are looking for a staff scientist to join us here in Geneva to work on microscopy and image analysis projects! See the link for the job announcement (in French and in English).

Please apply and/or repost!

jobs.unige.ch/www/wd_porta...

Postdoc Research Group Schur The Schur lab at the Institute of Science and Technology Austria (ISTA) has an open postdoc position for a highly motivated candidate to be part of our ERC-funded project ActinID. Our Group ...

We're hiring a postdoc!
Join our ActinID project to explore an uncharacterized actin-binding protein.

- Background in cell and/or structural biology?
- Eager to bridge both fields?

Get in touch if you're curious or have questions!
#cellbiology #cryoEM #cryoET #actin

ista.ac.at/en/job/postd...

Evolutionary repurposing of a DNA segregation machinery into a cytoskeletal system controlling cyanobacterial cell shape Bacteria, despite their diversity, use conserved cytoskeletal systems for their intracellular organization. In unicellular bacteria, the ParMRC DNA partitioning apparatus is well known for forming act...

One of the most exciting discoveries from our lab so far is now online as a preprint!

Read a story on how the ParMR and Min systems started to collaborate to create the CorMR cytoskeleton, which now controls cell shape in multicellular cyanobacteria:
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

Sense, plug and seal: Proteins as both rapid responders and constitutive barriers supporting organelle compartmentalization | Molecular Biology of the Cell While organellar compartmentalization is primarily established by the delimiting phospholipid bilayer membranes, the contribution of proteins has been less appreciated. Recently, studies across many r...

Membranes are the bags that hold cells together. But, sometimes you need to patch a hole in that bag.

Megan King (@luskinglab.bsky.social), Patrick Lusk and I, provide perspective on how proteins contribute to supporting organelle compartmentalization

www.molbiolcell.org/doi/10.1091/...

Assistant Professor with tenure-track for Quantitative Cell Biology (80-100%) - Bern, Switzerland job with University of Bern, Institute of Cell Biology | 12840798 Assistant Professor with tenure-track for Quantitative Cell Biology (80-100%) at the University of Bern, Switzerland.

We’re hiring! Join us as a TT assistant professor in quantitative cell biology @UniBE. We’re looking for an experimentalist (bonus: modeling/ML/computer vision). Vibrant research, Alps nearby. 🏔️ Details: shorturl.at/PKUDU
DM me with questions!
#AcademicJobs #QuantBio #CellBiology

Exactly what we thought!! 😆

The first author, Juliette Sebellin, was a MSc student here in Geneva, and is now working towards her PhD at EMBL.

Localization of WDS proteins and fimbrin in three fungal species.

How do cells switch on the actin assembly at endocytic sites? How can this on-switch evolve? Check out our new preprint!
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

A picture of 3 rows of people on steps at the MRC LMB. From left to right - top row: Akaash, Vic, Lara - Middle row: Kerrie, Manu, Paddy - bottom row: Meg and Julie

🚨 JOB ALERT 🚨
We're hiring a Research Assistant – no PhD needed!
Join us to explore the molecular mechanisms of receptor sorting in endosomes.
Experience in protein expression/purification, cloning & cell culture desired 🧫🔬
Apply now 👉 www.nature.com/naturecareer...

#STEMCareers #ResearchJobs

RCF winter call results: funding decisions in biosciences, health and environmental research The Research Council of Finland’s Scientific Council for Biosciences, Health and the Environment has granted funding for 38 Academy Research Fellowships, 12 Clinical Researchers and 76 Academy P...

I'm grateful for the Research Council of Finland for granting me the Academy Research fellowship! After getting over the shock I will soon move back to Finland to start as a group leader at the Institute of Biotechnology @helsinki.fi. Looking for a PhD student soon! www.aka.fi/en/about-us/...

Preprint: IntAct-U-ExM enables robust, isoform-specific expansion microscopy of actin networks in yeast and mammalian cells. A cool study led by @anubhavdhar.bsky.social in collaboration with Sudarshan and Deepak Nair. www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

Our latest research is out 📄 !

This study provides an interaction map of Sla2 & the regulatory proteins Sla1 & Pan1, predicted by AI modeling & confirmed by molecular biophysics.

@lucasdefelipe.bsky.social @meytallandau.bsky.social
@emilgustavsson.bsky.social
@embl.org
@cssbhamburg.bsky.social

ONCE a medicine is approved by the FDA after said clinical trials, that medicine is available.

SOMETIMES there are updates to a medicine, like:

Adding an enteric coating.
Changing manufacturing facility.
Making a generic version.
Altering a stabilizer.
Updating a virus strain in a vaccine.

3/

Schematics of the actin fusion focus

New lab preprint! High resolution mapping of the actin fusion focus reveals myosin V-dependent transport of formin for actin aster compaction.

A very cool work led by @valthomas.bsky.social and nice collaboration with Andrea Picco and @kaksonen.bsky.social!

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

Horizontal acquisition of prokaryotic hopanoid biosynthesis reorganizes membrane physiology driving lifestyle innovation in a eukaryote - Nature Communications Horizontally transferred genes must be integrated into host biology. Here, the authors show that the domestication of bacterial hopanoid synthesis has rewired lipid metabolism of a eukaryote leading t...

OMG IT IS OUT EUKARYOTIC HOPANOIDS DESERVE ALL CAPS

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

Our work on HIV-1 matrix, led by James Stacey and @dhrebik.bsky.social, is in this week's @nature.com. Extended explanatory video from @margotriggi.bsky.social.

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

I am recruiting a research assistant. Please send to anyone you know who is interested in gaining more lab experience in host:pathogen interactions of bacterial infections.

www.jobs.cam.ac.uk/job/50738/

With Guillermina Ramirez-SanJuan we are very happy to announce the upcoming Latsis Symposium " Shaping microbial life in a changing environment" over July 8-10 at #EPFL
Registrations are open til May 23rd.

LINK: www.epfl-latsis-2025.org

We got to tackle three major questions in biology. So if you are interested in...
A) The nature of LECA
B) The relevance of patchy proteins for cellular models
C) The trafficking machinery present in diplonemids
have we got a paper for you!
authors.elsevier.com/a/1km493QW8S...

#protistsonsky

Thanks for the encouragement! 👍

Accidental art! 😄

I started learning R programming for data analysis and visualization.
I think it is going well. Here is a plot I made...

Unique opportunity to join the CytoMorpho Lab (in Paris ❤️) as a postdoc to work on the self-organization and polarization of reconstituted networks made of microtubules, motors and actin filaments in vitro. Experience required.
Please Repost 🙏 thanks !

Don't miss the opportunity to come and work with us, as this is the last week to apply for our cell biology group leader position.

Application deadline: Feb 28, 2025