The Ragusa Laboratory

Happy to share the latest from the lab, led by Daniel Alvarez, in collaboration with @lizconibear.bsky.social‬. In this AA-MD tour-de-force, we delve deep into the mechanism and energetics of lipid uptake by bridge-like lipid transfer proteins, and we learn a few interesting things along the way...

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The Trump administration has laid it out: comply with their ideological agenda or else…

This is how we lose free thought in American higher education.

Just a few days left to apply! If you do cool molecular/cell biology things and want to start a lab in a supportive department in New England please check out our ad.

Membrane composition-dependent patterning of Rho and F-actin in an artificial cell cortex Cortical excitability, a phenomenon in which the cell cortex is dynamically patterned with waves of F-actin assembly, has been described in a variety of animal model systems, including embryos of mamm...

📢 Pre-print alert 📢 We are excited to share the lab's first research article! We used our artificial cortex system to investigate how membrane composition regulates self-organized cortical dyanamics. Check it out here: www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

This paper looks super cool. Congrats Greg, Jen and the whole team. I can't wait to read this paper and think about the implications for other membrane systems.

Liver-specific loss of Atg9a perturbs lipid metabolism and hepatocyte integrity The autophagy-related protein ATG9A is integral to cellular autophagy and lipid mobilization, yet its importance in mammalian physiology remains underexplored. Using a liver-specific conditional At...

Excited to share the first paper from the lab! 🥳 The ATG9 and lipid droplets saga continues! Open source!

Thanks Lars.

Reconstitution of autophagic-like membrane tethering reveals that Atg11 can bind and cluster vesicles on cargo mimetics Macroautophagy (hereafter, autophagy) is essential for the degradation of mitochondria from yeast to humans. Mitochondrial autophagy in yeast is initiated when the selective autophagy scaffolding p...

I'm very excited to share out latest work now published in Autophagy.

www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....

This work was led by Dr. Devika Andhare and demonstrates the membrane binding and clustering capabilities of Atg11 using a new reconstitution system.

Structure and activation of the human autophagy-initiating ULK1C:PI3KC3-C1 supercomplex Nature Structural & Molecular Biology, Published online: 29 May 2025; doi:10.1038/s41594-025-01557-xAutophagy is initiated by the Unc-51-like kinase protein kinase complex (ULK1C) and class III phosphatidylinositol 3-OH kinase complex I (PI3KC3-C1). Here, the authors reveal the structure of the 2:1:1 core of ULK1C and its complex with PI3KC3-C1. ULK1C transitions to a 2:2:2 complex in the presence of PI3KC3-C1, suggesting a mechanism for autophagy induction.

ICYMI: New online: Structure and activation of the human autophagy-initiating ULK1C:PI3KC3-C1 supercomplex

Northwestern has not received any NIH funds since March. No written communication about why or what can be done. Thank you Ben Singer for raising awareness at #ATS2025

My ongoing request:

If your NSF or NIH grant was terminated--whether at Harvard or elsewhere--please report it here.

NSF: grant-watch.us/submit-nsf.h...

NIH: grant-watch.us/submit-nih.h...

Our trackers are actively used in lawsuits and are often the only record that terminations ever occurred.

As anticipated, the White House has officially requested an $18 billion cut to the FY2026 #NIH budget (among lots of other cuts). The full guidance from the White House to the appropriations committee is linked. NIH is on page 12. #braindrain #sciencexit

www.whitehouse.gov/wp-content/u...

In 100 days in office, US President Donald Trump has destabilized eight decades of government support for science.

This has included terminating more than 1,000 grants in areas such as climate change, cancer, and HIV prevention.

Will US science survive Trump 2.0?

www.nature.com/articles/d41...

Congratulations!!

Pallavi holding an award certificate.

Many congratulations to @pallavisgadgil.bsky.social for being awarded the Lucille Smith award for excellence in Biochemistry. This award is in honor of the memory of Dr. Lucille Smith. The first woman at Dartmouth to attain the rank of full professor!

the word alert is in a purple circle ALT: the word alert is in a purple circle

ACTION ITEM-----ACTION ITEM

Implementation of Schedule F

This is what a lot of us have been worried about.

This allows for many civil service positions to replaced with political appointees. This could include NIH institute directors and even POs.

BUT THERE IS A COMMENT PERIOD...

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UMass Chan Medical School lays off or furloughs about 200 employees after NIH funding shortfall - The Boston Globe The cuts come after the school saw a $30 million funding shortfall from long delays in funding new research grants from the National Institutes of Health.

Over 200 people laid off or furloughed on my campus due to ongoing uncertainty surrounding NIH funding. We can expect this number to grow. I warned people of this in an op-ed in February, but was told I was being alarmist.

www.bostonglobe.com/2025/04/16/b...

NIH freezes all research grants to Columbia University Amid negotiations with Trump, the university could risk losing nearly $700 million

Exclusive: Weeks after President Donald Trump’s administration ordered NIH to pull $250 million in biomedical research grants to Columbia University, the agency is freezing all remaining grant money owed to the university until further notice. scim.ag/4if5Rg1

I have learned that the directors of ALL: PREP, IMSD, and IRACDA programs across the country have received similar cancelation notices. This follows previous cancellations of MARC and URISE programs. This further dismantles the mechanisms that enable scientific training opportunities for SO MANY.

Today I received notice that our IMSD T32 has been terminated. This program was the culmination of ~10 years of work we put into building our community. I don’t quite have the words. 💔

Dr. Richard Youle was fired today. He is an eminent scientist who has done important work on brain diseases like dementia and Parkinson’s.

Musk and Trump are stopping NIH research into cures, for diseases from cancer to Alzheimer’s. Americans did not vote for this.

In situ cryo-ET visualization of mitochondrial depolarization and mitophagic engulfment https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.03.24.645001v1

We just had our first grant terminated. This was a U19 AViDD grant (grants.nih.gov/grants/guide...). It was set to end next month, although many in the consortia were hoping for NCEs.

NEW: Baldwin, Welch Announce Former NIH Director, Researchers, Clinical Trial Patients as Witnesses for Forum on Trump’s NIH Cuts | U.S. Senator Tammy Baldwin of Wisconsin WASHINGTON, D.C. – Today, U.S. Senators Tammy Baldwin (D-WI) and Peter Welch (D-VT) announced the...

www.baldwin.senate.gov/news/press-r...

To stop intimidation, Eisgruber needs your help When targeting one institution is a bald attempt to divide and conquer, as is the case with Columbia, it is essential for a coalition or group of institutions and individuals to stand up together.&nbs...

All institutions across the U.S. should band together now to protect freedom of speech and scientific integrity. We can not wait any longer we have already lost so much.
www.dailyprincetonian.com/article/2025...

To stop intimidation, Eisgruber needs your help When targeting one institution is a bald attempt to divide and conquer, as is the case with Columbia, it is essential for a coalition or group of institutions and individuals to stand up together.&nbs...

Here at Princeton, we’re amplifying our university president’s leadership. It’s time for everyone - faculty, students, staff - to speak out.

tl;dr: rights can’t be blackmailed.

From me and science colleagues:
www.dailyprincetonian.com/article/2025...

Rescinded NIH Grants

Major update over the weekend to our spreadsheet tracking terminated NIH grants. 👇

Improvements include:
- more grant metadata, including Congressional reps and their phone numbers
- data from more sources to complement PI-submitted information
- better data integrity and reproducibility

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Opinion | Universities Gave Us the iPhone, the Jet Engine and Gatorade. We’re Tossing That Away. (Gift Article) The postwar compact on research that powered America’s economic and military dominance is under threat.

Columbia’s Capitulation Will Hurt Us All

www.nytimes.com/2025/03/24/o...