Michael Murphy

I miss these pieces so much...sigh...

Our new book "Self-Doubt" is written by scientists for scientists. You might think you are alone when you doubt your ability or suitability for science - you aren't. We all question ourselves and carry doubt with us daily.

www.amazon.co.uk/Self-Doubt-A...

Yeast elongation factor homolog New1 protects a subset of mRNAs from degradation by no-go decay Abstract. New1 is a homologue of the essential yeast translation elongation factor eEF3. Lack of New1 has been shown to induce ribosome queuing upstream of

4 - Still lots to learn about this mysterious factor.
🔗 Read the paper: academic.oup.com/nar/article/...
Funded by @dfg.de via SFB TRR319-RMaP 🙏
#RibosomeBiology #TranslationQC #RNA #Nanopore #Yeast #PhDPosition #DFG #RMaP #New1

Finally comms from UKRI - on a Sunday evening. No mention of the hundreds of ECRs who will see their careers ended by these decisions and notably no explanation for MRC retrospectively applying cuts and wasting all the work that went into writing, reviewing and scoring applications - £millions

Does the noncoding genome actually carry more genetic information than coding seqs? Motivated by this question we mutated every bp in the 10kb MYC locus. Results are even more exciting: Decoding the MYC locus reveals a druggable ultraconserved RNA element www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...

Circularization of 23S rRNA but not 16S rRNA within archaeal ribosomes - Genome Biology Background Processing of archaeal 16S and 23S rRNAs is believed to involve excision of individual rRNAs from polycistronic precursors, circularization of excised rRNAs, and re-linearization before the...

Very interesting observation on the ribosomes of our distant relatives!

link.springer.com/article/10.1...

Genetically engineered ‘stinkweed’ comes up roses for making seed oil Field pennycress could become a valuable winter crop, with benefits for both carbon storage and farm profitability.

A pungent weed has been genetically edited to become a potentially profitable winter crop

go.nature.com/4khfxcv

Structures of naked mole-rat, tuco-tuco, and guinea pig ribosomes—is rRNA fragmentation linked to translational fidelity? Abstract. Ribosomes are central to protein synthesis in all organisms. In mammals, the ribosome functional core is highly conserved. Remarkably, two rodent

now online:
academic.oup.com/nar/article/...

Mitochondria as sources and targets of cellular signaling Meichsner et al. review recent insights into mitochondria as dynamic signaling hubs. The authors describe how structural plasticity and interorganellar communication enable mitochondria to serve as both sources and targets of signaling, coordinating stress responses, metabolic adaptation, and innate immune pathways to safeguard cellular homeostasis.

Online Now: Mitochondria as sources and targets of cellular signaling Online now:

Signaling to make human ribosomes: Connections between the cytoplasm and the nucleolus Lawrence et al. examine how ribosome production in the eukaryotic nucleolus is coordinated by cytoplasmic processes to maintain appropriate ribosome numbers. The authors highlight regulatory inputs from cytoplasmic signaling, mitosis, and cytoplasmic organelles that converge on nucleolar function, and they discuss how disruption of these pathways contributes to human disease.

Online Now: Signaling to make human ribosomes: Connections between the cytoplasm and the nucleolus Online now:

Why m⁶A? An RNA surveillance model Dierks and Schwartz discuss the m6A surveillance model, proposing that m6A flags “undesirable” intron-less RNAs (e.g., transposons) for decay. This provides a mechanism to distinguish “legitimate” spliced mRNAs and potentially suppress harmful RNA.

Online Now: Why m⁶A? An RNA surveillance model Online now:

Complexity at the ribosomal polypeptide tunnel exit. The major N-terminal acetyltransferase NatA may form different complexes on the ribosome to facilitate protein maturation. By Marius Klein & Klemens Wild in Irmgard Sinning's lab BZH & Nina McTiernan in my lab. www.nature.com/articles/s41...

METTL3-mediated m6A on nascent RNA coordinates translational and transcriptional programs to activate the NLRP3 inflammasome in macrophages Fu et al. show that METTL3 installs m6A on nascent Jak1/Nlrp3/Il1β RNAs to activate the JAK1-STAT3-C/EBPβ axis, thereby driving NLRP3 inflammasome activation. Myeloid Mettl3 deletion or STAT3 inhibition reduces inflammation in LPS sepsis, MSU arthritis, and HFD-induced obesity models.

METTL3-mediated m6A on nascent RNA coordinates translational and transcriptional programs to activate the NLRP3 inflammasome in macrophages

A comprehensive view on r-protein binding and rRNA domain structuring during early eukaryotic ribosome formation Abstract. Formation of the eukaryotic ribosomal subunits follows a strict regime to assemble ribosomal proteins (r-protein) with ribosomal RNAs (rRNA) whil

And the 4th paper in this week contribution from our lab tells about ribosome biogenesis in yeast. A follow-up story from our wonderful collaborators in Graz - the Bergler Lab. Structural work was again done by the amazing @lgrundmann.bsky.social: academic.oup.com/nar/article/...

I am recruiting postdoctoral fellows to develop new research directions in the lab. We study transcriptional regulation through biomolecular condensates in development and disease, with an emphasis on first-principles and mechanistic discovery. Please repost or share with colleagues.

Endogenous retroviruses synthesize heterologous chimeric RNAs to reinforce human early embryo development Zygotic genome activation (ZGA) failure leads to developmental arrest and poses a clinical challenge to women’s fertility. We observed that human embryos arresting at the eight-cell ZGA stage exhibite...

Out now in @science.org Endogenous retroviruses synthesize heterologous chimeric RNAs to reinforce human early embryo development | Science www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

new paper from the Lai lab! Renfu Shang performs careful mechanistic dissection of miRNA cluster assistance and reveals many insights and surprises to this enigmatic regulatory strategy that gives suboptimal miRNAs a boost. if you love Northerns, you'll ♥️ this! 🧬

genesdev.cshlp.org/content/earl...

When two years of academic work vanished with a single click After turning off ChatGPT’s ‘data consent’ option, Marcel Bucher lost the work behind grant applications, teaching materials and publication drafts. Here’s what happened next.

After turning off ChatGPT’s ‘data consent’ option, Marcel Bucher lost the work behind grant applications, teaching materials and publication drafts

go.nature.com/4qLPpcb

Reducing the variant of uncertain significance burden in inherited cardiac disorders: from variant to function to action? This editorial refers to ‘Automated patch clamp data improve variant classification and penetrance stratification for SCN5A–Brugada syndrome’, by M.J. O’Ne

A nice editorial about our recent SCN5A automated patch clamp paper. @chaiannng.bsky.social academic.oup.com/eurheartj/ad...

Committee Releases Conferenced Defense, Homeland Security, Labor, Health and Human Services, Education, and Related Agencies, and Transportation, Housing and Urban Development, and Related Agencies Bi... United States Senate Committee on Appropriations

The conference (agreement between House and Senate) appropriations bill that includes HHS and NIH was released this morning.

www.appropriations.senate.gov/news/majorit...

1/5

Discuss #RNA 3' ends and their regulation at the EMBO Workshop "RNA 3' ends and beyond" in #Oxford, United Kingdom, 7–11 September 2026.

Deadline: 4 May 2026

https://meetings.embo.org/event/26-rna3
#EMBORNA3EndsBeyond #RNAsky #LifeSciences #meeting #EMBOevents 🧪

"Use it or lose it." This is great advice for exercise, but when cells need to slow down or go dormant, they need to store ribosomes to recover growth in the future. They use hibernation factors to do this. Here is our latest story on how archaea hibernate ribosomes (1/7):
doi.org/10.64898/202...

Excited to share our new paper! We developed a method to visualize proteasomal degradation at the single–molecule level in live cells, enabling us to dissect distinct modes of substrate engagement, probe co-factor dependence, and study proteasome–ribosome collisions.
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...

The ribosome synchronizes folding and assembly to promote oligomeric protein biogenesis Large oligomeric proteins constitute a major fraction of proteomes, but are difficult to refold in vitro, raising the question of how cells direct their biogenesis. Roeselová and Shivakumaraswamy et a...

Our latest cotranslational folding story is now published @cp-molcell.bsky.social. Really cool (I think) new ideas about how exactly the ribosome directs folding and assembly to make sure complicated proteins mature efficiently in cells.
www.cell.com/molecular-ce...

We are looking for a postdoc to work on mechanisms of #RNA decay in cancer using #cryoEM with #nanobodies and #minibinders! Please RT

CHAMP1 is an essential regulator for human myoblast fusion and muscle development - Nature Communications Here, the authors investigate the molecular role of the CHAMP1 gene/protein in preclinical models of human muscle development and disease.

CHAMP1 is an essential regulator for human myoblast fusion and muscle development
www.nature.com/articles/s41...

A genetically encoded device for transcriptome storage in mammalian cells Understanding how cells make decisions over time requires the ability to link past molecular states to future phenotypic outcomes. We present TimeVault, a genetically encoded system that records and s...

Amazing: TimeVaults!

www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

Check our latest collaboration with the Kleaveland Lab (kleavelandlab.org), led by Joanna Stefano and Lara Elcavage: academic.oup.com/nar/article/... (1/2)

This ribosome goes to 11 In this issue of Molecular Cell, Ishiguro et al.1 describe new RNA modifications near the active site of the E. coli ribosome that appear only under anaerobic conditions. These modifications enhance ribosome activity and increase anaerobic growth rates.

This ribosome goes to 11

An illustration of a man at a podium talking to people in different towers, with the hedline: What business school taught me about running a research lab

"… what I took from the MBA wasn’t a corporate playbook—it was a mindset. It taught me to view the lab as a dynamic organization whose success depends as much on trust, motivation, and leadership as on technical expertise." #ScienceWorkingLife https://scim.ag/4swOBJz