James A. Letts

very cool stuff and interesting note re the importance of linker length in isolation of the complex

Team bioenergetics in divergent organisms is ready to go! #ICOP25 @macleanlab.bsky.social @lettsscience.bsky.social

Woo! Very excited to share our collaborative work on the centriole's Luminal Distal Ring ⭕. This project started 13 years ago with @hugovdhoek.bsky.social & @stearnslab.bsky.social, and then beautifully came together with @computingcaitie.bsky.social & @centriolelab.bsky.social.
#TeamTomo #UExM 🧪🧶🧬🔬

Our new preprint revealing a new mechanism of mitochondrial disease pathophysiology: the accumulation of toxic complex I intermediates bound to complex III

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

Freeze frame: cracking molecular motion Time-resolved cryo-electron microscopy can resolve protein motion on millisecond or even microsecond timescales, but the need for highly specialized tools and skills limits the method’s reach.

Proteins operate on a short timescale — on the order of a millisecond, or even faster

https://go.nature.com/4l7qAEm

At left, a reconstruction of the vault cap with C39 symmetry imposed; at right, the reconstruction after identifying the correct symmetry, with the three non-equivalent protomers highlighted.

1/x New story - the structure of the Vault cap, at 2.3Å! Matching a beautiful preprint from @sjorsscheres.bsky.social, we show that the cap of the vault particle has C13 symmetry, in contrast to the 39-fold symmetry of the body. Study lead by talented postdoc @huanli00.bsky.social from my group! ⬇️

Awesome plant root #CryoET (native Casparian strip) and a detailed methods paper (silver needle cryo-lift out) all in one-- 13 figures! Jean is a machine! Congrats @chgenoud.bsky.social @nikogeldner.bsky.social and the DCI team. 🧪🧶🧬🌾🔬

Proud to present the lab's latest work. The full structure of the sodium translocating methyltransferase (Mtr) bound to a small oxygen-responsive small protein MtrI. Work by Tristan and together with @schmitzstreitslab.bsky.social .

www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.06.02.657420v1

It’s the @schullerjm.bsky.social awesome structure of the week🤩. This cool pump helps certain archaea make methane. Jan— you and your team are on one hell of a roll! Unstoppable! 🧪💪 #ArchaeaSky

SLAC, Stanford researchers discover large protein-free RNA structures Cryogenic electron microscopy showed for the first time that large RNA complexes can assemble without the help of proteins. 

Cryogenic electron microscopy showed for the first time that large RNA complexes can assemble without the help of proteins, expanding our understanding of RNA folding and function.
www6.slac.stanford.e...

A covalent recognition strategy enables conspecific mate identification The olfactory system can detect an uncountable number of volatile molecules while retaining the ability to discriminate amongst very similar ones. We identified a unique mechanism employed by insect o...

New preprint in the lab combining what we like best: insects, love, chemistry and the olfactory system! 1/8
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

Unicore identifies single-copy protein structures across genomes using Foldseek, bypassing slow structure predictions by utilizing 3Di predictions from ProstT5, enabling rapid phylogenetic inference at the tree-of-life scale. 1/n
📄 www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
💾 github.com/steineggerla...

Mitochondria-organelle crosstalk in establishing compartmentalized metabolic homeostasis Mitochondria are metabolic hubs that communicate with other organelles via metabolite-, lipid-, and signaling-molecule exchange facilitated by membrane contact sites (MCSs). MCSs, regulated by tetheri...

Huge details are here about compartmentalized metabolic connection. Mitochondria-organelle crosstalk in establishing compartmentalized metabolic homeostasis: Molecular Cell www.cell.com/molecular-ce...

We’ve uncovered Asgard chromatin structures formed by a Hodarchaeal histone : closed hypernucleosome conserved in archaea and an open form resembling the H3-H4 eukaryotic octasome. Fantastic work by @harshranawat.bsky.social!
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
#Chromatin #Asgard #Archaea #cryoEM

The final version of our work on the in-cell architecture of the mitochondrial respiratory chain is now online in @science.org 🎉
You can find the full story here www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...
@verenaresch.bsky.social did a wonderful job on the cover and animation, she really brought it to life 👩‍🎨

Silencing mitochondrial gene expression in living cells Mitochondria fulfill central functions in metabolism and energy supply. They express their own genome, which encodes key subunits of the oxidative phosphorylation system. However, central mechanisms u...

Researchers in Science have developed a tool to silence specific mitochondria-encoded mRNAs in living cells, which could help scientists understand the origins of certain mitochondria-related diseases. scim.ag/3F6Wm5d

Electric field–induced pore constriction in the human Kv2.1 channel | PNAS Gating in voltage-dependent ion channels is regulated by the transmembrane voltage. This form of regulation is enabled by voltage-sensing domains (...

A new paper from the #MacKinnonLab in @pnas.org finds that while Kv2.1 and EAG1 are from distinct architectural classes of voltage-dependent ion channels, the way the voltage sensors gate their pores is very similar. #RockefellerScience

NSF’s grant cuts fall heaviest on scientists from underrepresented groups Projects to broaden participation were cut disproportionately—and were often led by Black scientists, women, and those with disabilities

More than half of the 1500 research grants that NSF has terminated in the past month under orders from President Donald Trump’s administration aimed to bring groups historically underrepresented in science into the mainstream. scim.ag/4jYhB8e

AI conjures up potential new antibody drugs in a matter of months Company finds candidates that bind to tricky proteins that deliver chemical messages in and out of cells

Researchers report that their new #AI has, in a matter of months, conjured up dozens of GPCR-targeting antibody candidates, which promise to work as well as drugs that have spent years in the traditional pipeline. scim.ag/3S4gjwb

AI-designed proteins tackle century-old problem — making snake antivenoms Machine learning has supercharged the field of computational protein design.

Proteins designed using AI can block the lethal effects of toxins delivered in the venom of cobras, adders and other deadly snakes

https://go.nature.com/3E1jvVK