Abul Tarafder

Looking for a PhD? 🚀 MIBTP projects are out lots to explore!
🔬 #Bacteria • #AMR • #Interdisciplinary • FUN!
My projects explore how Gram-negative bacteria build and maintain their three-layered cell envelope, using cryo-EM, fluorescence microscopy and biochemistry.
warwick.ac.uk/fac/cross_fa...

Structural and functional characterisation of the Crimean-Congo Haemorrhagic Fever Virus RNA Dependent RNA Polymerase Crimean-Congo Haemorrhagic Fever Virus (CCHFV) is found across Africa, Asia, and the Middle East where it can cause Haemorrhagic outbreaks with high case fatality rates. Central to the viral life cycl...

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

Really excited to have our work out in the world. CCHFV has a 450kDa L-Protein, about twice the size of L-Proteins from other segmented RNA viruses. We have used cryoEM and functional assays to begin to understand it this massive multifunctional protein works.

We are looking for motivated #postdocs to join the lab! Biochemistry/microbiology/cryo-EM experience? Excited by #cryo-EM/ET, #chromatin? ❄️🧬🧫
Interdisciplinary projects, top EMBL facilities!
Email CV + short cover letter → svetlana.dodonova@embl.de
Info about the group: www.embl.org/groups/dodon...

EMBL’s 2025 Kendrew alumni award recipient may know how to make fairy tales come true.

Irma Querques (@irmaquerques.bsky.social) repurposed the ‘Sleeping Beauty’ transposon as a genetic tool for new therapeutics, particularly against cancer.

www.embl.org/news/people-...

Independent research fellowships leading to tenured positions at the John Innes Centre.

Repost = nice. Thank you very much!!!

Applications now open for our PhD studentship programme - Dunn School Applications are now open to apply for our four year, fully-funded PhD programme in Molecular Cell Biology in Health and Disease.

Our PhD studentship programme is officially open; pass it on

If you are looking for a fully-funded PhD in the mechanisms underlying human disease, here are the details...

Great science and a great environment!

www.path.ox.ac.uk/news-article...

Together with colleagues at the Dept. of Microsystems Engineering, we are looking for a PhD student to develop methods for femtoliter-scale sample dispensing in cryoEM sample preparation.

edu.nl/h436k

If you like interdisciplinary research & fascinating physics at ultrasmall scales, please apply!

Excited to share our latest work, driven by my recently graduated PhD student Kaitlyn Barrack, exploring the mechanisms of bacterial dysbiosis in the CF gut - including a role for a colorectal cancer-associated genotoxin in this competition.
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
@kbarrack.bsky.social

Sub-cellular chemical mapping in bacteria using correlated cryogenic electron and mass spectrometry imaging

Congrats Hannah Ochner and authors on this important paper! Strong collaboration with @kiranrpatil.bsky.social

www.biorxiv.org/cgi/content/...
@mrclmb.bsky.social @wellcometrust.bsky.social

Our newest manuscript on the gut-lung axis in CF, lead by Rebecca Valls, explores sex and intestinal regional differences in response to Bacteroides. Check it out!
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

We are excited to be a part of a collaboration lead by Tarafder and Bharat titled "Targeted disruption of phage liquid crystalline droplets abolishes antibiotic tolerance of bacterial biofilms" - this work has exciting implications for biofilm-targeted therapeutics.
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

Targeted disruption of phage liquid crystalline droplets abolishes antibiotic tolerance of bacterial biofilms

led by @abultarafder.bsky.social

Great collaboration with @pearce-maths.bsky.social and @geiselbiofilm.bsky.social

www.biorxiv.org/cgi/content/...

Highly collaborative efforts that involved 6 lab members and the labs of @yiliangding.bsky.social and @rdaslab.bsky.social. We uncovered a telomerase dimer and its potential role in telomere maintenance.

Exciting study from @kiranrpatil.bsky.social and colleagues. Hannah Ochner from the group performed cryo FIB imaging.

Congrats!

Excited to share our latest review on histone-mediated chromatin organization in prokaryotes and viruses! 🧬 @mpi-bio-fml.bsky.social

Structural and functional analysis of the Mycobacterium tuberculosis MmpS5L5 efflux pump presages a pathway to increased bedaquiline resistance Bedaquiline, an antitubercular drug that targets ATP-synthase, is a key component of a new oral drug regimen that has revolutionized the treatment of multi drug resistant tuberculosis. Clinical bedaqu...

Bedaquiline resistance driven by the MmpS5L5 efflux pump is threatening the drug regimens used to treat MDR-TB.

In our new preprint, we used structural and genetic approaches to better understand how MmpS5L5 effluxes bedaquiline and how future resistance may evolve. 🧵🔽

#TBsky #MicroSky #TB

Joe Greener

Excellent opportunity for a postdoc to join @jgreener64.bsky.social’s group at the LMB.
You’ll help develop novel molecular simulation methods to optimise sequences for diverse design tasks in computational protein design.
See: www.nature.com/naturecareer...
Apply by 13 JUL
#PostdocJobs #ScienceJobs

Postdoctoral Scientist - Structural Studies - Dr Sjors Scheres - LMB 2640 - Cambridgeshire job with MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology (LMB) | 12840844 Postdoctoral Scientist Starting Salary: £41,344 Fixed term: 3 years MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology, Cambridge, UK We are looking for a postdoc...

We have a 3-year funded postdoc position to work on structures of #amyloid filaments. If you are an expert in protein biochemistry, structural biology or #cryoEM / #cryoET, this could be for you! Feel free to email me with any questions. Come join us! 🤩

www.nature.com/naturecareer...

Structural and functional analysis of the Mycobacterium tuberculosis MmpS5L5 efflux pump presages a pathway to increased bedaquiline resistance

Exciting paper by Adam Fountain and Lalita Ramakrishnan. Cryo-ET by @janboehning.bsky.social

Congrats!

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

A self-assembling surface layer flattens the cytokinetic furrow to aid cell division in an archaeon | PNAS The surface layer or “S-layer” is a two-dimensional lattice of proteins that coats a wide range of archaea and bacteria in place of a cell wall or ...

The mechanics of a continuous self-assembling surface-layer aids cell division in an archaeon

out in @pnas.org

Tight collaboration with Sherman Foo, Alice Cezanne and @buzzbaum.bsky.social, Sulfolobus cryo-ET from @idocaspy.bsky.social

www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...

Structure of the virulence-associated Neisseria meningitidis filamentous bacteriophage MDAphi

Out in @pnas.org

Congrats @janboehning.bsky.social @abultarafder.bsky.social Miles Graham @mathieucoureuil.bsky.social
@mrclmb.bsky.social @hopitalnecker.bsky.social

www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...

Portrait photo of Tanmay Bharat

Congratulations to @tbharat-lab.bsky.social, Group Leader in the LMB’s Structural Studies Division, who has received the Gold Medal from @embo.org for his research on prokaryotic surface molecules.

Read more here: www2.mrc-lmb.cam.ac.uk/tanmay-bhara...

#LMBNews

A snapshot of the HLp tetramer (purple) wrapping ~60 bp of DNA (green).

Excited to share our new preprint on HLp—a bacterial histone from Leptospira perolatii that forms stable tetramers and wraps ~60 bp of DNA: "DNA Wrapping by a Tetrameric Bacterial Histone" www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

@mpi-bio-fml.bsky.social

Latest news from Dept of Protein Evolution. This preprint reveals the first structurally detailed look at how a bacterial histone wraps DNA, offering new insights into genome organization in bacteria. Check it out: shorturl.at/GTIpA
Findings & author info in @vikramalva.bsky.social thread below.

Exciting job opportunities!

Two postdoc positions are available in the Fodor Lab at
@dunnschool.bsky.social to study influenza virus transcription, genome replication, nuclear export and assembly.

More info: my.corehr.com/pls/uoxrecru...

Finally in peer-reviewed form: Mapping the ultrastructural topology of the corynebacterial cell surface. @bupbuse.bsky.social @vikramalva.bsky.social

Please also see concurrent beautiful work from @adriasogues.bsky.social and Han Remaut.

The electron cryo-microscope adapted for use at liquid nitrogen temperatures within its custom-made black box.

A colder frontier in cryo-EM 🧪🔬

Chris Russo’s group, inc. Joshua Dickerson, adapted #cryoEM to work at liquid helium temperatures (13 kelvins), where every frame captured contains more information than the equivalent using liquid nitrogen (81 kelvins).

Read more: tinyurl.com/mwwcunkc

#LMBResearch

#MicroSky

Left: The atomic model of the PS2 lattice is shown in top and side views. PS2 hexamers are repeated in the 2D sheet with a lattice constant of 176 Å. Each PS2 monomer is colored and labeled separately within the hexamer, which repeats throughout the lattice (with pore dimensions highlighted). The side view of the lattice shows the smooth surface facing the extracellular space and rough surface with coiled-coil segments protruding towards the MM. Top right: Interactions at the hexameric and trimeric interfaces are stabilized by both hydrophilic and hydrophobic residues. Bottom right: A cell envelope tomogram was used to overlay the cryo-EM structure of the S-layer onto the in situ S-layer tomographic density. A single slice of the tomogram is shown, with the overlayed PS2 S-layer lattice in green and the tomogram in grayscale. The S-layer (surface layer), MM (mycomembrane), IM (inner membrane), and Cytosol are labeled.

The unique #CellEnvelope of #corynebacteria: @tbharat-lab.bsky.social &co map the C. glutamicum cell surface, revealing a patchy S-layer & specific assembly of the PS2 protein, thereby informing our understanding of cell envelopes that contain #MycolicAcids @plosbiology.org 🧪 plos.io/3Y6JNgw

We are looking for a postdoctoral fellow to join us to explore telomerase regulation by histones. Please get in touch if this may interest you.