Schmitt-Lab@HHU

Job opening for Research Group Leader in Structural Studies at MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology, focusing on macromolecular structures.

Are you a structural biologist pushing the boundaries of molecular science with an ambitious research programme?
Join our Structural Studies Division as a tenure-track Group Leader, with core funding, world-leading facilities & enthusiastic colleagues.
Apply by 16 MAR
www.nature.com/naturecareer...

Super happy to share that our Chemical Science article ‘Structural control of dynamic covalent cages: kinetic vs. thermodynamic assembly and PFAS removal from water’ (pubs.rsc.org/doi/D5SC02247A) has been selected for the 2025 most popular supramolecular articles collection 🎉

Introducing The Structural History of Eukarya (SHE): The first proteome-scale phylogeny constructed entirely from 3D structure.
We computed 300 trillion alignments across 1,542 species to map the tree of life. 🧵👇 (1/5)

DeepMind just dropped a paper in @Nature unveiling AlphaGenome.

AlphaFold solved protein folding. AlphaGenome tackles what comes next: how DNA actually controls genes. 🧵

New AI tool “Helixer” identifies genes in newly sequenced organisms. Helixer identifies genes directly from DNA sequences.

Developed by team around @usadellab.bsky.social @fz-juelich.de, @apmweber.bsky.social , @sebtriesch.bsky.social @hhu.de et al. www.fz-juelich.de/en/news/arch...

Beim Neujahrsempfang der @hhu.de spielen gerade die abgezocktesten 12-jährigen Jazzer*innen die ich je gesehen und gehört habe! ❤️
Ganz viel Earworms-Liebe!!!

www.die-earworms.de

We Are very happy that our Paper was published. Thank to everyone involved

pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/...

@mibinet.bsky.social @mfeldbruegge.bsky.social @frunzkelab.bsky.social

MemPrO: A Predictive Tool for Membrane Protein Orientation Membrane proteins play a vital role in numerous cellular processes, including ion transport, intercellular communication, and antibiotic resistance. Ensuring their accurate orientation within lipid bi...

🌟 New Tool Alert!

We present MemPrO – a toolkit for orienting and building membrane protein systems:

✅ Membrane protein orientation 
✅ Mixed membrane building 
✅ Double membranes & curvature 
✅ Peptidoglycan cell wall support

🔗 github.com/pstansfeld/mempro 
📖 pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/...

Atomic resolution structure of spinach rubisco reveals protons and dynamics www.biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2025.12.22.696010v1 #cryoEM

We are looking for a team leader to join the cryo-EM facility work at the new Ernst Ruska-Centre 2.0 at the Forschungszentrum Jülich. We have a series of microscopes used by (@irene-vercellino.bsky.social, Schröder, @sachsegroup.bsky.social) and external users.
www.fz-juelich.de/de/karriere/...

We’re hiring 2 Postdocs (f/m/d) in Drug–Microbiome–Host Interactions 🦠💊

Focus: how non-antibiotic drugs shape the gut microbiome, drug efficacy & side effects.

#PostdocJobs #Microbiome #AcademicJobs

Full job ad:
lisamaierlab.com/wp-content/u...

AlphaFold predictions are valuable hypotheses and accelerate but do not replace experimental structure determination - Nature Methods An analysis of AlphaFold protein structure predictions shows that while in many cases the predictions are highly accurate, there are also many instances where the predicted structures or parts of pred...

So structural biology is not dead after all 😋 Not a big surprise The title of this article is exactly in line with what I think.
Same applies to LLMs for scientific writing.

copyright Palina Nepachalovich of ZML Dresden

Ups we did it again! Please mark your calender. EMBO Workshop “Lipid Code to Life”, taking place September 7–11, 2026, in Dresden, organized by Maria Fedorova, @lipid.bsky.social, Valerie O'Donnell, @holthuislab.bsky.social and @molcellbiophys-lab.bsky.social 🥳 Retweets = lipidlove

AlphaFold predictions are valuable hypotheses and accelerate but do not replace experimental structure determination - Nature Methods An analysis of AlphaFold protein structure predictions shows that while in many cases the predictions are highly accurate, there are also many instances where the predicted structures or parts of pred...

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

📣Interested in doing your PhD in Plant Sciences 🌱, Microbial Sciences 🦠 or Computational Biology 👩‍💻? @ceplas.bsky.social offers 10 fully funded PhD 🎓fellowships. Pls repost and forward to interested candidates holding BSc degree.

Finally out – It is all about cholesterol
Thanks to all for this excellent collaboration

PanBGC: A pangenome-inspired framework for comparative analysis of biosynthetic gene clusters Abstract. Bacterial secondary metabolites are a major source of therapeutics and play key roles in microbial ecology. These compounds are encoded by biosyn

PanBGC: A pangenome-inspired framework for comparative analysis of biosynthetic gene clusters

#ISMEComms from @nadineziemert.bsky.social

academic.oup.com/ismecommun/a...

Helixer: ab initio prediction of primary eukaryotic gene models combining deep learning and a hidden Markov model - Nature Methods By leveraging both deep learning and hidden Markov models, Helixer achieves broad taxonomic coverage for ab initio gene annotation of eukaryotic genomes from fungi, plants, vertebrates and invertebrat...

AI model Helixer predicts eukaryotic genes ab initio, directly from a plain text FASTA file.

No RNA-seq.
No protein homology.
No repeats, hints, or curated evidence.

Raw genome → accurate gene models.
Deep learning + HMM, published in @natmethods.nature.com

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

Postdoc (m/f/d) in Endosymbiosis Research

📢Postdoc position available!🧪🧫🧬
Our group is seeking a motivated researcher to investigate the molecular mechanisms driving host–endosymbiont interactions.
Full details & application: karriere.hhu.de//index.php?a....
Please help us get the word out!

crTP X-ray structure

✨X-ray crystallography reveals surprising twist in how proteins enter the unique photosynthetic organelles of Paulinella. The chromatophore targeting peptide (crTP) folds into a 3D structure, hinting that folded proteins cross peptidoglycan and inner membrane. (1/2)
academic.oup.com/plphys/artic...

New publication in J Mol Biol
New insights in to the function of the CLD and the entire hemolysin secretion machinery. Thanks to Holger Gohlke’s lab and CSS for the wonderful collaboration. Congrats to Sakshi and Cigdem!

Hijacking a bacterial ABC transporter for genetic code expansion - Nature Bacterial ATP-binding cassette (ABC) transporters can be utilized and engineered to transport non-canonical amino acids into Escherichia coli for highly efficient synthesis of proteins with novel func...

🚨Our paper is out! 🥳
Hijacking a bacterial ABC transporter for efficient genetic code expansion.
Many congrats to everyone involved - a multi-year effort led by @taruniype.bsky.social @maxfottner.bsky.social
www.nature.com/articles/s41...

it all started years ago with a failed experiment
🧵👇 1/9

The text reads: “Resistance to antibiotics is widespread and increasing, threatening treatment of common infections. 1 in 6 bacterial infections worldwide were resistant to antibiotics in 2023.”

New WHO report finds 1 in 6 bacterial infections were resistant to antibiotic treatments.

Data from over 100 countries warns that rising resistance to essential antibiotics poses a growing threat to global health.

Read more 👉bit.ly/438Ta1u

This is going to be fun - we are really pleased with the program - there is some really exciting science on the menu! Do sign up!

Photo of a lab tour. Kids are wearing lab coats and glasses and Sophie is showing agar plates

Picture of a lecture hall, two people in lab coats are experimenting. White smoke can be seen

Picture of lecture hall. One person is standing on a table with a star firecracker

The team behind Türen auf mit der Maus. 11 people smiling for a selfie, plush animals are shown into the camera

Successful #türenauf mit der Maus Event 2025 @hhu.de done and dusted! Thanks to all the helpers @sophieguti.bsky.social @joguti.bsky.social Theo, Sarah, Suny, Lukas, Tom, Rachel, JJChemistry, Hannah and to @markussuta.bsky.social for lending some of his group members to give additional lab tours!

Molecular structure of the ESCRT III-based archaeal CdvAB cell division machinery www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.09.15.676241v1 #cryoEM

Leaflet-specific phospholipid imaging using genetically encoded proximity sensors - Nature Chemical Biology An approach combining bioorthogonal chemistry with genetically encoded fluorogen-activating proteins enables subcellular imaging of phospholipids and glycans, as well as the visualization of lipid tra...

Very excited to share new work out today in @natchembio.nature.com on a new approach - FACES - for selectively imaging of phospholipids and other biomolecules at spatial resolutions down to individual membrane leaflets (1/n) www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Science is real

New endowed professorship strengthens climate research at the University of Basel The University of Basel is setting up a new endowed professorship at the Biozentrum to make fundamental discoveries at the interface between biophysics and climate-relevant environmental biology. This...

🧪 The University of Basel is setting up a new endowed professorship in #ClimateBiophysics at the @biozentrum.unibas.ch, funded by the Georg H. Endress Foundation. This new professorship strengthens climate research @unibas.ch. www.biozentrum.unibas.ch/news/detail/...

Was lucky to see this presented at the NYC cryoEM meeting earlier this year - super cool stuff!