Saikat's_Lab@CSIR-CCMB

Congratulations 🏆 Justus Francis @justusfrancis.bsky.social @sc-lab.bsky.social, winner of the @jcb.org 2025 Alan Hall Travel Award!

📸 Justus with JCB Executive Editor Tim Spencer at #CellBio2025

My lab at UMass Chan Med School uses a variety of approaches to elucidate the molecular mechanisms of membrane traffic. Striving to make academic science a more diverse, equitable, welcoming and inclusive place. Incoming President for the American Society for Cell Biology (ASCB)! Opinions are mine.

Thanks a lot @peiferlabunc.bsky.social for the positive feedback of @justusfrancis.bsky.social talk. Happy to see this.

For those attending @ascbiology.bsky.social #CellBio2025 please attend the short talk by our ( @sc-lab.bsky.social ) grad student @justusfrancis.bsky.social in Room #115 TODAY at 10AM - 12PM. He is in the look out for potential postdoc labs and opportunities that can start from Fall 2026.

🎉 Congratulations to Justus Francis (@justusfrancis.bsky.social), winner of the 2025 Alan Hall Travel Award! Justus is a graduate student in @sc-lab.bsky.social. Be sure to catch Justus’s talk during #CellBio2025!
Read about this year's winners 👉 rupress.org/jcb/pages/al...

🎉 Congratulations to Justus Francis (@justusfrancis.bsky.social), winner of the @jcb.org 2025 Alan Hall Travel Award! Justus is a graduate student in @sc-lab.bsky.social. Be sure to catch Justus’s talk during #CellBio2025!
Read about this year's winners 👉 rupress.org/jcb/pages/al...

Congratulations to @justusfrancis.bsky.social for receiving the Alan Hall Travel Award from @jcb.org. This is a great support for him to present at the @ascbiology.bsky.social #CellBio2025 meeting. #CSIR India #CSIR-CCMB

Nice work @cryoet.bsky.social and congratulations to you and your group

Activation of Arp2/3 complex by a SPIN90 dimer in linear actin-filament nucleation - Nature Structural & Molecular Biology Francis et al. used cryo-electron microscopy to show how a SPIN90 dimer activates the metazoan Arp2/3 complex to nucleate linear actin filaments for unidirectional and bidirectional growth, forming po...

Congratulations @drmichaelway.bsky.social , Carolyn and @tianyang22.bsky.social for the wonderful work. Happy to see that this is similar to our observations @natsmb.nature.com bit.ly/41T60R2 . Happy that both the independent studies came out together.

A SPIN90 dimer can either interact with a single Arp2/3 complex or two Arp2/3 complexes there either nucleating uni or bidirectional actin filaments, that can lead to multidirectional actin networks in cells for various processes. #cytoskeleton, #actin, #cellbiology

This study highlights the importance of the middle segment of SPIN90 and how it helps in its dimerisation. This is critical for each SPIN90 molecule to make unique activating interactions with different Arp2/3 complex subunits.

Also thanks to our collabotors Heidy Ortiz and Brad Nolen from @universityoforegon.bsky.social. This work would not have been possible without the support of #CSIR-India and #CSIR-CCMB.

Happy to share our lab's recent #cryoEM studies that show how a SPIN90 dimer activates Arp2/3 complex to form either uni or bidirectional actin filaments. Congrats🎉👏 @justusfrancis.bsky.social @achyutha-kp.bsky.social @tejashyamk.bsky.social @sridharskulkarni.bsky.social @kiranvyshnav.bsky.social

We have now migrated from X (@SaikatLab) to the blue zone.

Congrats! That is a big move. Wish you all the best!