Leon Walther

Registration is open for our next TrypsClub Journal Club! 😊
If you fancy some cool Trypanosome science and a friendly supportive environment to discuss science then join us!

Save the dates!! @bspparasitology.bsky.social Spring Meeting 2026 will be in Bonnie Glasgow! 7-9 April 2026, with a drinks reception in Glasgow City Chambers on the 6th of April 2026!
Keep an eye on the BSP website for registration and abstract submission!
Logo by @shannaraeilean.bsky.social! 🦟

3D-Animation of the nanobody (light yellow/semi-transparent) inhibiting HSV-2 glycoprotein B. The different domains of gB are color-coded. Three domains are held together by the footprint of the nanobody. IMAGE: Benjamin Vollmer / Centre for Structural Systems Biology

Researchers from CSSB & @mpi-nat.bsky.social have generated a highly potent nanobody that neutralizes a protein essential for the herpes virus infection. Published in @nature.com, the findings promise new therapies to treat & prevent infections @leibnizliv.bsky.social @uni-hamburg.de

t1p.de/cxt7a

Join us for the first Career Talk of the 2025–2026 Tryps Club season!

Prof. Paul M. Selzer will give us an insight into anti-parasitic drug development in industry.

📅 Date: 24.09.2025
🕒 Time: 12:00 pm BST
📍 Location: Zoom

Register following link or the QR code on the poster
lnkd.in/eA7b9QRx

28 May 2026 – Book Session with Dr. Lina Pinto-García - Maraña: War and Disease in the Jungles of Colombia.
A discussion about the relationship between war and disease, focusing on Colombian armed conflict and cutaneous leishmaniasis
lnkd.in/eAGhGnjD

(5/5)

26 March 2026 – Journal Club (Community to pick)

30 April 2026 – Career Talk with Dr. María-Jesús Pinazo Delgado - Head of Chagas disease DNDi

(4/5)

27 November 2025 – Career Talk with Dr. Dan Masiga - Head of Global Health Thematic Research Programme at the International Centre of Insect Physiology and Ecology, Nairobi, Kenya

29 January 2026 – Journal Club (Community to pick)

26 February 2026 – Career Talk (Community to pick)

(3/5)

24 September 2025 – Career Talk with Prof. Paul M. Selzer - Principal Fellow Research Parasitology at Böhringer Ingelheim Animal Health

30 October 2025 – Journal Club with Dr. Kirsty McWilliam - Genomic determinants of antigen expression hierarchy in African trypanosomes
lnkd.in/eMgPjpur

(2/5)

The British Society for Parasitology (BSP) Tryps Club is pleased to share our upcoming series of events. These sessions will bring together leading experts and the wider community to exchange knowledge, highlight research, and foster collaboration in parasitology. (1/5)

Leishmania major chromosomes are replicated from a single high-efficiency locus supplemented by thousands of lower efficiency initiation events DNA replication initiates at genome sites termed origins. Previous origin mapping approaches in the populations of the protozoan parasite Leishmania m…

We’re pleased to share our new study, led by @jezieldamasceno.bsky.social, that used long-read, single molecule sequencing to reveal the full (?) picture of Leishmania DNA replication. Thanks, Mike Boemo and helpful reviewers @uofgsii.bsky.social

www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

Drs @singh-parul.bsky.social @trypsleon.bsky.social‬ Maureen Cabahug @fariatrypslab.bsky.social & @jessmbryant.bsky.social review #Plasmodium & #Trypanosoma #genome organization.

#Trypanosome #Transcription #Chromatin #Epigenetics #Nuclear #Compartment

www.cell.com/trends/paras...

How do parasites strategically organise their genomes to influence gene expression? If you’re curious, check our latest review in @cp-trendsparasitol.bsky.social !

@biologyatyork.bsky.social @ybri-uoy.bsky.social @pasteur.fr

www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

What a great first experience to take part in a review with such awesome fellow scientists!

A new protein-dependent riboswitch activates ribosomal frameshifting Programmed -1 ribosomal frameshifting (PRF) is a ubiquitous translational control mechanism in RNA viruses, allowing them to change the relative abundance of proteins encoded in different reading fram...

New preprint alert! 🚨👇 I'm delighted to share the latest research from @jemmabetts.bsky.social
in our group: ‘A new protein-dependent riboswitch activates ribosomal frameshifting’. Huge congratulations to Jemma for the first manuscript of her PhD! ✨

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

Postdoc in Structural Biology of RNA processing complexes Postdoctoral positions in structural biology of macromolecular complexes are available in the laboratory of Dr. Eva Kowalinski at the EMBL Grenoble, France. We are looking for highly motivated and amb...

Postdoc positions in structural biology of RNA processing complexes.

An ERC-funded position will dissect pre-mRNA processing pathways in the infective organism Trypanosoma brucei. An ANR-funded position will characterise large complexes in RNA modification.

Details: tinyurl.com/postdoc-RNA-...

🧬 Join us for the 3rd Journal Club hosted by the BSP TrypsClub! 🧬

Everyone is welcome — whether you're deep into Trypanosomatid research or just curious to explore fascinating biology, this is a great space to connect, learn, and discuss exciting new science!

Specialised RNA decay fine-tunes monogenic antigen expression in African trypanosomes Antigenic variation is a sophisticated immune evasion strategy employed by many pathogens. Trypanosoma brucei expresses a single Variant-Surface-Glycoprotein (VSG) from a large genetic repertoire, whi...

So happy to share the first preprint from our lab on post-transcriptional regulation at the VSG expression-site body in trypanosomes. @ybri-uoy.bsky.social @york.ac.uk

Join us in our first TrypsClub Career Talk featuring Julius Lukeš! Everyone interested in Trypanosomes is welcome (except PI's - sorry)!

🎬 This #WorldChagasDay, we're excited to announce our next short film, 'The Children of the Sierra,' about working with Indigenous Wiwa communities in #Colombia to test and treat people affected by #ChagasDisease. 📽️ Moronga Films

WHAT IS CHAGAS DISEASE? A potentially life-threatening illness, transmitted through contact with the faeces or urine of a triatomine bug (kissing bug) found mainly in Latin America.

#ChagasDisease has the most severe impact among Latin America's impoverished communities but it is increasingly detected in other parts of the world. 100M people are at risk of infection.

bit.ly/3vFipLv

A GRIP-ing and Tryp-ing seminar tomorrow - Joana Faria from the University of York!
2 pm (GMT) | 3 pm (CET) | 9 am (EDT)
Link - uofglasgow.zoom.us/j/8897218018...
Passcode: 987702

Join us for our next TrypsClub Journal Club!

Precision-edited histone tails disrupt polycistronic gene expression controls in trypanosomes Transcription of protein coding genes in trypanosomatids is atypical and almost exclusively polycistronic. In Trypanosoma brucei, approximately 150 polycistrons, and 8000 genes, are constitutively tra...

Delighted to have been part of this great work driven by @marketanovotna.bsky.social in the Horn lab, showing the power of precision editing to study the direct role of histone modifications on gene expression regulation! Check it out!

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

Structurally heterogeneous ribosomes cooperate in protein synthesis in bacterial cells - Nature Communications Cells can simultaneously produce structurally dissimilar ribosomes, suggesting functional specialization of distinct ribosome populations. Here, the authors show that distinct ribosomes cooperate rath...

New cryo-EM/ET story - a brilliant collaboration with Sergey Melnikov's lab in Newcastle @sergeymelnikov.bsky.social and Stefan Pfeffer's lab in Heidelberg @pfeffercryolab.bsky.social. Great work in particular by Karla Helena-Bueno and @sophiekopetschke.bsky.social

www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Uncovering the adaptation mechanism that generate dormant forms of Leishmania microbes with omics approaches at Newcastle University on FindAPhD.com PhD Project - Uncovering the adaptation mechanism that generate dormant forms of Leishmania microbes with omics approaches at Newcastle University, listed on FindAPhD.com

Funded PhD project with myself, Prof. Paul Denny at Durham University and Dr Kalesh Karunakaran at Teeside University now open for applications!

www.findaphd.com/phds/project...

Happy to share this highlight of our latest work on the minor spliceosome structure

Attention fellow Trypanosomatid researchers! Join the first Journal Club hosted by the newly founded TrypsClub. It's a fantastic opportunity to connect with fellow Tryps researchers, discuss exciting science, and network with peers from around the world!

Open letter to the President of the Royal Society – time to stand up for your values If you wish to show your support for the letter below regarding apparent inaction by the Royal Society in the face of breaches of its code of conduct by Elon Musk FRS, please sign below. I invite anyo...

Now almost 450 signatories to my open letter calling on the @royalsociety.org to stand up for its values & deal with the widespread concerns raised by Elon Musk's Fellowship. Please consider signing & sharing: forms.gle/miDciq35oxyw...

List of signatories here: occamstypewriter.org/scurry/2025/...

Are you interested in #trypanosomes #biomolecularcondensates and/or #geneexpression? We are looking for a highly motivated postdoc to work with with us in the beautiful city of York!

Please share!

jobs.york.ac.uk/vacancy/post...

TransLeish: Identification of membrane transporters essential for survival of intracellular Leishmania parasites in a systematic gene deletion screen Nature Communications - A systematic gene deletion screen targeting all predicted transmembrane transporters of the protozoan parasite Leishmania identified forty mutants that had a significant...

rdcu.be/d5o3U it's out!!