Xuebing Wu

📢 Our Dept. of Systems Biology at Columbia University has an open tenure-track Assistant Professor position in the broad area of quantitative biology. Come join our awesome department in NYC! Please circulate.
apply.interfolio.com/177622
Suggested deadline: 12/15/2025.
@columbiasysbio.bsky.social

Check out the latest study from our lab, led by @mhall98.bsky.social :
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1... (1/2)

It’s been a tough few weeks. My 10yo daughter was diagnosed with a very rare, aggressive cancer called interdigitating dendritic cell sarcoma (IDCS). I’m reaching out to identify clinicians/patients who have encountered pediatric IDCS or other (non-LCH) dendritic or histiocytic sarcomas cases.

very interesting work on ribosome cooperativity

wonder if we should replace 'coding' with 'canonical', i.e., lncRNA = long non-canonical RNA, as compared to long canonical RNA (mRNA)

Glad to be in the "conversation" about microproteins and other non-canonical proteins arising from noncoding translation. I look forward to continuing the discussion at the upcoming keystone symposium on microproteins

congratulations! @nadavahituv.bsky.social and @vagar.bsky.social

sorry for steering off-topic but I think it's going to be very distant in the future for humans to escape death. and likely long before that, they will figure out how to solve the issue you brought up

the global cultural shift was in turn driven by industrial revolution. slavery existed for 1000s years around the world. there are many cultures that do not tolerate slavery. they did not end slavery globally. without Industrial Revolution to connect the world, I bet slavery still exists somewhere

To me ultimately it is new technology that drives societal progress, doesn't matter whether it's the old or the young invents those technologies. It's unclear to me whether extending health-span will slow down technology innovation. It could be the opposite.

Dear meeting organizers:

Picking the same senior PIs to keynote/give talks at meetings, who's talks I've seen a dozen times already, is not a great use of everyone's time. Nor does it highlight all of the rich talent in your field from more junior folks and peeps not at "elite" institutions.

6, I was really surprised to find that most refseq annotated microproteins remain uncharacterized. This includes 11 out of the 13 proteins shorter than 30 amino acids, many if which are highly conserved. To me, these are low hanging fruit for function studies.

5, should the field pivot from riboseq annotated microproteins to those annotated by mass spec? While fewer in number, ms supported microproteins still total in the 100s and could expand significantly through targeted proteomics in diverse samples.

4, for most hits, DNA or RNA based noncoding functions have not been ruled out, which should be the default hypothesis for KO phenotypes. Most studies did not adequately rule out translation dependent but protein independent functions, ie only the act of translation is functional

3, eg for lncRNA derived microproteins that show KO phenotypes, the majority do not have CRISPRi KD phenotype. I'm still trying to understand this. If this observation holds, it may point toward a DNA based function rather than one mediated by the encoded microprotein.

2, >90% cannot be detected by conventional mass spec but many are detected as MHC-I antigens, hinting at rapid degradation. While protein roles cannot be ruled out, most effects may arise from DNA, RNA, or the act of translation. KO screen cannot distinguished those.

1, >1000 microproteins have been identified as functional hits across six CRISPR KO screens. However, large-scale complementary validation screens to rule out false positives are lacking. My estimate is that a large fraction of these hits are false positives, for several reasons.

We hope this review stimulates interest and sparks discussion in functional studies of microproteins. While we tried to be balanced in the review, there were some potentially controversial opinions that I intentionally left out. Here is a short thread to share those thoughts:

who said scientists are smart?

Excited to share our review article "Finding functional microproteins", published in @TrendsGenetics. It was fun writing it together with Alex and @FeiyueYang1 in the lab. #microprotein authors.elsevier.com/a/1kNCscQbJB...

somehow this was the first thing came to my mind:

Interviewer: Can you explain this gap in your resume?

Me: I was updating my biosketch to the new format

congratulations! great to see this very interesting work in print

I also believe that the current system of peer review and journal publishing is not working. I hope to witness and experience a system without those in my lifetime

The total length of human DNA on the planet right now is thus: (3.4x10^-10) • (2 x 3.055x10^9) • (3x10^13) • (8.2x10^9) = 5.11 x 10^23 meters

Time to call in NASA!

1 *light-year* – the distance light travels in one year – is 9.46x10^15 meters...

So: 54 million light-years of human DNA!

We are hiring a technician to help with CRISPR screens. Prior experience with CRISPR screens and large-scale cell culture is preferred but not required. Please feel free to share: jobrxiv.org/job/columbia...

I don't usually give feedback during the interview, in part b/c I need all the 30 min to evaluate the candidate. Now I feel like this is not right. Our feedback will be super useful for them. It's like grant review, reviewers did the assessment but comments are not shared with applicants.

Question for faculty interviewing students for PhD admission: do you give feedback at the end to help them do better in future interviews? eg things they should change/clarify in personal statement/CV, that they need to prepare better/more questions for faculty, their weakness compared to peers, etc

Honored to receive the inaugural Glenn Foundation Discovery Award from @AFARorg! Also congrats to the other awardee Dr. Ya-Chieh Hsu @HSCRB. Come work with us if you are interested in testing new ideas in aging biology! www.afar.org/news/announc...

This has to be a great conference, just look at the speaker list! - Katalin Karikó, David Liu, John Maraganore, Chuan He, Melissa Moore, Georg Seelig, and of course my favorite, Phillip Sharp!

Cracking the Code: The Dawn of Nucleic Acid Medicines

conferences.nature.com/event/27e02c...