Castañeda Lab at SU

@berlowlab.bsky.social , that is so cool! Thank you!!!

STI1 domain engages transient helices to mediate Dsk2 phase separation and proteasome condensation - The EMBO Journal Ubiquitin-binding shuttle proteins are important components of stress-induced biomolecular condensates in cells. Yeast Dsk2 scaffolds proteasome-containing condensates via multivalent interactions wit...

Yeast ubiquilin Dsk2 scaffolds proteasome-containing condensates under stress via multivalent interactions – @castanedalab.bsky.social et al show how dynamic interactions among its STI1 domain & transient helices in its disordered region promote its phase-separation
link.springer.com/article/10.1...

Postdocs studying IDPs (disordered proteins) and heading to BPS, apply by Dec 15!

We just wrapped up the 7th Molecular & Cellular Pharmacology Retreat in the Florida Keys, and the energy was incredible.

Under the theme “Colab in the Cays,” scientists from 15+ labs shared 53 talks across two days, with every single participant presenting their work.

Talk titles for IDPSeminars on Dec 4th at noon central time. Alex Holehouse (Washington University in St. Louis): Sequence-to-ensemble with STARLING Birthe Kragelund (University of Copenhagen): Disordered protein complexes and the origins of life

We're back for our final seminar of 2025 with talks from @alexholehouse.bsky.social and Birthe Kragelund! 1 pm EST or 7 pm European time. If you're not already signed up, head on over to idpseminars.com to register!

As the Executive Editor of BBA Reviews on Cancer, I am pleased to announce Call for Nominations: *BBA Rising Stars in Biochemistry & Biophysics 2026*!Nominate outstanding scientists within 10 years of their PhD for this prestigious award. Deadline: Dec 1, 2025.
lnkd.in/dRzrNbJZ

Biological Laboratory | LEGO® Ideas This is a two-floor realistic Biological Laboratory building. In this design, I try to tell stories about biologists, introduce biology concepts to general publ…

I just made an account and voted for this biology laboratory made of LEGO to "promote biological research and inspire more people into the world of biology". They need 10K votes. Reposting and/or voting below would be helpful. 🤗
beta.ideas.lego.com/product-idea...

Research Scientist I Medical College of Wisconsin - Research Scientist I - Milwaukee WI 53201

Come work with us at MCW! This position is in the Translational Metabolomics-Preclinical Imaging Shared Resource. This position involves imaging mice, rats and other small animal models with multimodal imaging.

careers.peopleclick.com/careerscp/cl...

Super congratulations @alexholehouse.bsky.social ! Super excited for you and your research directions! Congrats!!!

So thrilled for you! Congratulations, @luciastrader.bsky.social !

Biomolecular phase boundaries are described by a solubility product that accounts for variable stoichiometry and soluble oligomers The solubility product is a rigorous description of the phase boundary for salt precipitation and has also been used to qualitatively describe the condensation of biomolecules. Here we present a deriv...

"What does this curved line mean?"
Like palm reading for your phase boundary.

Plus, when is your condensate actually an oligomer (or vice versa)?

A new preprint from the Schmit Group, in collaboration with Jonathon Ditlev, Les Loew, and @ani-chattaraj.bsky.social

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

If you are a researcher whose lab uses FlyBase, consider a tax-deductible personal contribution. A lot of $100 contributions would help bridge the gap until we can set up a user fee system, and even $10 donations send the folks there the message we're behind them. Please share

Opinion | America First? Not When It Comes to Your Health.

New York Times story with profiles of researchers whose grants were terminated.

[Gift Link]

www.nytimes.com/2025/08/24/o...

Fun times! Thanks @drhougs.bsky.social

A bar graph of the fraction of NIH non-competitive renewal awards received by month showing that fewer awards that expected to being given.

Update on NIH funding through July (August 1 budget start dates)

Non-competitive renewal awards by month for fiscal year 2025

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Happy RNA Day to those who celebrate! 🧪 It’s AUG 1: the day we Met 🤓

Senate appropriators approve Labor-HHS bill with NIH bump The vote and lawmaker comments show that most senators aren't going along with the White House's proposed 40% budget cut to NIH.

BIG NEWS:

“Senate appropriators on Thursday approved an FY26 Labor-HHS bill that included a slight bump in funding for the NIH, with a strong 26–3 bipartisan vote.”

Thank you to members of the Senate Appropriations Committee on both sides of the aisle!

www.axios.com/pro/health-c...

“With these considerations, we expect to fund through the 4th percentile.”

There it is, in black and white, the destruction of cancer research in the US.

Yes I believe so, although the announcement is not planned for a couple more months: grants.gov/search-resul...

New paper on transcription factor phase separation published from my colleague Aseem Ansari's and my lab: Reconciling competing models on the roles of condensates and soluble complexes in transcription factor function authors.elsevier.com/sd/article/S...

Major Research Instrumentation (MRI) Program:

As someone who has greatly benefited from the NSF MRI program, I'm sad to see that the 2025 submission window was canceled. www.nsf.gov/funding/oppo...

@jeremymberg.bsky.social to share to others - this is a forecasted NIGMS MIRA funding opportunity for established/new investigators as I know people have been asking (FOR-GM-27-002) - due date appears to be late Jan 2026: grants.gov/search-resul...

a woman in a black and white dress is making a funny face . ALT: a woman in a black and white dress is making a funny face .

This morning, courageous NIH workers shared a document they are calling the “Bethesda Declaration” with Dr. Bhattacharya, urging him to reverse some of the actions that are badly misaligned with progress toward the NIH mission.

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There is no replacement (yet) for animal models in medical research The NIH is “reducing animal use in research.” But there is no replacement for animal models.

It is beyond disturbing when the NIH and HHS Directors do not understand that animal models are essential in research

www.statnews.com/2025/05/19/a...

Yiling Lan (left), Heidi Hehnly (centre) and Yan Wu (right) in the zebrafish room at Syracuse University.

To learn more about the story behind the paper, we caught up with first authors Yan Wu and Yiling Lan, and the corresponding author Heidi Hehnly @lovelessradio.bsky.social‬, an Associate Professor and Associate Director of the BioInspired Institute at @syracuseu.bsky.social

This week in science: hawks hunting, infrared contacts and immunity through the day Berly McCoy and Regina Barber of Short Wave talk about a hawk's clever hunting strategy, contacts that allow wearers to see infrared light, and how immunity varies during the day.

Thanks to @npr.org and the Shortwave podcast for covering circadian research! It was very cool to be on the podcast and on All Things Considered. And Kudos to Chris Hall for the exciting work.

www.npr.org/2025/05/29/n...

www.npr.org/2025/05/30/1...

Fascinating new paper explaining why nucleoli have heterochromatin stacked around them.

Active transport enables protein condensation in cells The force generated by active transport modulates protein condensation.

Biomolecular condensates are critical for organizing cellular contents, but most studies focus on phase separation driven by salt, pH, or temperature.
But what if intracellular movement also matters?
Here, we explore motility-induced condensation in the cell.
www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

The power of collaborations! With @shaharsu.bsky.social, his PD @jessniblo.bsky.social and CALVADOS3 (thanks to @lindorfflarsen.bsky.social ) we show how STI1 (red) may engage with sequences that match transient helices within IDRs of Ub-binding shuttle protein Dsk2 www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...