Christian Baumann

Is it a flagellate? A tiny ball with tentacles? Contamination in my ciliate culture? NEW SUPERGROUP OF EUKARYOTES? Yes to all 4! Meet Solarion - just out in #Nature doi.org/10.1038/s415... Huge congrats to Marek Valt, Cepicka Lab & the star team! Very happy to be part of this project. #ProtistsOnSky

Microtubule-based vacuum cleaner 👀

The sequence and structural integrity of the SARS-CoV-2 Spike protein transmembrane domain is crucial for viral entry - Communications Biology A study using SARS-CoV-2 pseudotyped viruses and testing Spike protein fusion capacity demonstrates that its transmembrane domain is essential for viral entry and suggests the presence of an intramemb...

The first chapter of my PhD is finally out on @commsbio.nature.com

We show that the transmembrane domain of SARS-CoV-2 Spike protein is not just a passive anchor to the virion surface, but a key player in the viral entry process.

We have wondered what a complex archaeal cell might look like ever since 2014. It’s been a long road (and the journey is far from over), but it’s a good time to pause for breath and look. These Asgard archaeal cells are a surprise! And that is the joy of being a cell biologist.

And just when you thought things were settling down, the enigmatic Asgard archaea have another surprise in store! Cell cycle/life cycle stage-specific internal compartments with almost no eukaryote-derived clues as to how they might function.

Beautiful tomography and microscopy - congrats all 🤩

Just published! We share an open-source workflow to measure membrane thickness from tomograms, including a tutorial with 3D visualizations. We analyze thickness variations across organelles and reflect on where to define a membrane boundary. @becklab.bsky.social #teamtomo rupress.org/jcb/article/...

Glushkova, Böhm, & Beck @maxplanck.de develop a publicly available computational method to measure the thickness of biological membranes in cryo-electron tomograms. Analysis of algae & human cells reveals systematic membrane thickness variations within & across organelles rupress.org/jcb/article/...

Dynamic interactions in the human β1AR signalling complex with mini-Gs revealed by NMR A wealth of insights into the mechanisms of GPCRs have been gained from biophysical studies of thermostabilized β1 adrenergic receptors (β1AR) from tu…

New paper from the Gossert lab: Dynamic interactions in the human β1AR signalling complex with mini-Gs revealed by NMR www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

“Kiss-shrink-run” unifies mechanisms for synaptic vesicle exocytosis and hyperfast recycling Synaptic vesicle (SV) exocytosis underpins neuronal communication, yet its nanoscale dynamics remain poorly understood owing to limitations in visualizing rapid events in situ. Here, we used optogenet...

As ever, beautiful #cryoEM work from the lab of Hong Zhou with field-defining insights using #cryoET:

“Kiss-shrink-run” unifies mechanisms for synaptic vesicle exocytosis and hyperfast recycling | Science

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

Fwd: Fwd: “I hope this email finds you well”

This comic is becoming increasingly realistic.
m.xkcd.com/3056/

I am excited to share our new preprint on the CAGE complex, a mysterious hollow protein complex that I first saw years ago while surveying Tetrahymena ciliary lysate www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1... #cilia #protistsonsky 🧬🧪

Extensive lateral gene transfer between proto‐eukaryotes and Heimdallarchaeia suggests their close association during eukaryogenesis It has been proposed by Ettema and colleagues, in the two-domain framework for the tree of life, that Eukarya emerged from Heimdallarchaeia, as sister group to Hodarchaeales. Looking at the individua....

Are Asgard archaea the ancestors of eukaryotes? Likely not. Very insightful paper by @pforterrr.bsky.social

Getting closer to the year 3000

Did you know your MacBook has a sensor that knows the exact angle of the screen hinge?

It’s not exposed as a public API, but I figured out a way to read it and make it sound like an old wooden door.

Source code and a downloadable app to try it yourself […]

[Original post on hachyderm.io]

OPRLM: A Web Tool and a Database for Positioning and Simulations of Proteins in Realistic Lipid Membranes Molecular dynamics (MD) simulations in explicit lipid bilayers enable modeling of protein-lipid interactions essential for membrane protein functions …

Sounds very neat:

OPRLM: A Web Tool and a Database for Positioning and Simulations of Proteins in Realistic Lipid Membranes - ScienceDirect share.google/yPJkioKNph4m...

Happy to share the latest work from the lab, led by @mudgal17.bsky.social‬, in collaboration with the Weis lab @ethzurich.bsky.social.
How do nuclear membranes fuse during NPC assembly? We answer this question in our latest work, where we identify a new mechanism for membrane fusion… (1/13)

The peer review process is a flawless system that has no issues whatsoever /s

Fresh off the press from the @lek-lab.bsky.social: Modulation of histone tail electrostatic potentials in nucleosome core particles by acetylation and PARylation
#NMRchat
www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...

Made an attempt at generating a video of protein unfolding with #veo3 😹

The Vatican now takes a stronger stand for science than the US government:
www.nature.com/articles/d41...

www.pas.va/en/events/20...

Complexity myths and the misappropriation of evolutionary theory | PNAS Recent papers by physicists, chemists, and geologists lay claim to the discovery of new principles of evolution that have somehow eluded over a cen...

Complexity myths and the misappropriation of evolutionary theory

www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...

David R. Hagen just solved a small mystery that I mentioned 13 years ago in the mouseover text of a comic drhagen.com/blog/the-mis...

Membranes are functionalized by a proteolipid code - BMC Biology Membranes are protein and lipid structures that surround cells and other biological compartments. We present a conceptual model wherein all membranes are organized into structural and functional zones...

#lipidtime The proteolipid code is the ultimate membrane model. It accommodates all observations while also being a falsifiable scientific theory that rejects the status quo (lipid rafts, picket fences, etc.)
doi.org/10.1186/s129...
Please read it.

I wasn’t aware of this. The concept sounds really cool. I like how it gives proteins a more active role in membrane formation. I’ll have to take a closer look with a fresh mind.

For everyone interested in how membrane thickness differs between and within organelles, by @deglushk.bsky.social, S. Böhm & M. Beck: www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

The side of a box of Parafilm that features the flask, dish, and beaker. Text has been added under them. The flask is labelled chemistry, the dish biology, and the beaker jam making. Jam making is written in a different handwritten font

At times like these it's important to remember the 3 branches of science

It’s Mary Anning’s birthday, so time to share @katebeaton.bsky.social’s brilliant cartoon again.

Huge congrats to the authors for pulling this off:

Activation dynamics traced through a G protein–coupled receptor by 81 1H-15N NMR probes | Science www.science.org/doi/full/10....

After years, I finally read this great paper on what the success of trial-and-error methods and AI tells us about emergent properties and reductionism in bio sciences: rdcu.be/emtBS