Alexey Amunts

Sunday reset: nature and good company. Yangtai mountain park in heart of Shenzhen with clear spring water, lakes and evergreen forest. Great to spend the day with Shujia Zhu who recently moved her lab to Shenzhen. Back to work full of energy.

Wei Yang joins SMART after a postdoc with David Baker @uwproteindesign.bsky.social. He designs next generation binders for immune checkpoint receptors. At SMART, Wei's team will integrate algorithm development with high-throughput experimental validation to deliver selective protein therapeutics.

A delegation of German academic leadership and council visited Shenzhen labs. Strong interest in concrete collaborations @unibonn.bsky.social @unileipzig.bsky.social @uniheidelberg.bsky.social
@uni-freiburg.de @unituebingen.bsky.social
@lmu.de @unistuttgart.bsky.social @kit.edu
@tuda.bsky.social

Neuroscientist Arthur Konnerth from TUM launches a brain research lab in Shenzhen

Come visit and enjoy the weather and the local SMART cafe speciality '-86C dirty'

Upcoming symposia

Past events

'SMART Symposia' is a forum bringing together researchers for open discussion. Check out the upcoming meetings symposia.smart.org.cn

SMART campus began construction in June '25, and the first labs are expected to become operational already by end of '26. Until then, a temporary site is being used.

SMART campus expected to become operational in 2027

SMART is internationally oriented initiative on the order of ~$2B capital investment and ~$100M initial annual budget. It's formed to promote among others: methods across sciences, open databases, structural biology with BSL3 capacity, preclinical studies, and integration with hospitals.

Structural biologist Alexey Amunts launches new research lab in Shenzhen ‘Shenzhen adds another dimension; it is a place where ideas do not remain ideas for long,’ Amunts says of new position.

We're launching a research lab at SMART. Shenzhen Medical Academy for Research and Translation is a newly established institute with long-term funding mechanisms for internal and external investigators. At full capacity SMART aims to support up to 400 labs.
www.scmp.com/news/china/s...

Science highlight in Shenzhen: Galileo mapping lunar craters, watched by Pierre and Marie Curie, as if observation and discovery are in dialogue across time and disciplines. A bridge lined with 30 bronze statues of scientists turns walk to the library into a conversation with the history of science.

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

Mechanism of membrane-tethered mitochondrial protein synthesis Structural analysis of membrane-associated mitoribosomes illustrates the mechanism of protein synthesis in human mitochondria.

The science behind the art
www.science.org/doi/abs/10.1...

The image on the cover

The final result

The initiation complex piece was paired with a warm champagne-gold frame to balance the cool palette and echo the copper linework. The translating mitoribosome painting was matched with a cooler brushed silver-graphite frame to harmonize with the greys and keep the warm bokeh highlights.

Final adjustments are made to unify contrast, color temperature, and edge hierarchy across the whole composition. Once the paint layer is fully dry and stable, the work is finished with glossy varnish, which enhances saturation and contrast, evens the surface sheen and provides a protective topcoat.

Using paint the artist separates background and subject, establishing value relationships, then successive layers build depth and 3D volume by strengthening shadow-to-mid-tone-to-highlight transitions and controlling edges for spatial clarity. Fine structural details of the focal region are refined.

Working from the original reference images, the artist executed a light pencil outline on linen, matching the reference dimensions and proportions. The main compositional anchors are placed first, followed by secondary contours and internal structure lines to establish an accurate, paint-ready map.

Mitoribosomes in painting 🧵

authors share👍

Of course, everyone!

Then you’re in luck! it’s a coffee bar with plenty of non-coffee options

Yes, I came with a witness @dijiang319.bsky.social

“Nature’s Gift to Science” Sydney Brenner's 2002 Nobel lecture with remarkable opening and concluding remarks.

Indeed, scales with output. Also, SMART meetings are next door, and here are their upcoming symposia if anyone’s interested symposia.smart.org.cn/sym/articleL...

Ha, indeed, wonder what the selection criteria were

Only in Shenzhen: Science Nature coffee bar. If you’ve published in @science.org or @nature.com, they give you coffee for free. 100% real!

It's on the main campus - Hongō 本郷キャンパス, so beautiful this time of the year!

Tokyo University on the best day of the year. Autumn ginkgo in full gold, turning the campus into a magic.

The title seems higher than the paper.
They say “show individual nucleoporins” but Fig 1 is just public AlphaFold models.
Typical basket NUPs aren’t even identified.
“We present the AtNPC model” - you can’t model at 35Å.