Steven Boeynaems

I am excited to share the second half of my postdoctoral work in the Yeo lab at UCSD! We found that neuronal aging leads to the accumulation of mitochondrial double-stranded RNA, which triggers the chronic stress response. 1/ www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

Our latest work, in collaboration with the terrific @kashishsingh.bsky.social in the Carter lab @mrclmb.bsky.social is out. So proud of this study and everyone involved...

The intrinsically disordered regions of organellophagy receptors are interchangeable and control organelle fragmentation, ER-phagy and mitophagy flux Nature Cell Biology - Rudinskiy et al. examine organellophagy receptor features, finding modules of functionally conserved intrinsically disordered regions and defining shared features despite...

Selective autophagy of organelles: the “disorder” is key. Intrinsically disordered regions of organellophagy receptors are interchangeable, required, and sufficient for organelle fragmentation and lysosomal delivery … and all about ORGATACs 😉
rdcu.be/ey8iL

New preprint: In situ Architecture of #Plasmodesmata.

Using #cryoET, #AlphaFold & proteomics, we uncover the native organization of plant intercellular nanopores.

🔗 doi.org/10.1101/2025...

🧪🧵1/n
#teamtomo #PlantScience #Physcomitrium #Arabidopsis #cryoEM

Cell state-specific cytoplasmic density controls spindle architecture and scaling - Nature Cell Biology Kletter et al. show that cell state-specific cytoplasmic density controls spindle architecture and scaling in neural differentiation, suggesting that the physical properties of the cytoplasm are a det...

🍹Kletter et al. show that cell state-specific cytoplasmic density controls spindle architecture and scaling in neural differentiation, suggesting that the physical properties of the cytoplasm are a determinant in #organelle size control.
bit.ly/4mhMvsU

We have revised our preprint on #PAD12 tau.

We have included new data on obtaining 95+% pure #Alzheimers PHFs, and further data to support our mechanistic model how phosphorylation in tau's fuzzy coat facilitates its assembly into #amyloid filaments.

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

Go work with Chloe. She's the real deal. All-round wonderful scientist and mentor.

Artwork by Gabriel Ugueto

I am proud and grateful to present a dream project today in @nature.com www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Meet #Mirasaura grauvogeli, a #wonderreptilewith skin appendages that rival feathers and hairs, challenging our view of reptile #evolution🪶🦎

How do chromatin remodelers use #IDRs to find TF binding partners? In our new Molecular Cell paper, we show that β-catenin is an adaptor that links SWI/SNF (cBAF) subunit ARID1A with binding partners via IDR-domain interactions.
www.cell.com/molecular-ce...

Biomolecular condensates as regulators of enzymatic reactions - Nature Chemical Engineering Open compartments, termed biomolecular condensates, are involved in cellular reactions. This Comment highlights their ability to enhance robustness and control of reactions in space and time, going be...

Glad to share our latest comment published in @natchemeng.nature.com
Here, we discuss the role of biomolecular condensates as regulators of enzymatic reactions.
I hope you enjoy it!
www.nature.com/articles/s44...

New paper:
More than 2700 human 3′UTRs are highly conserved. These 3′UTRs are essential components in mRNA templates, as their deletion decreases protein activity without changing protein abundance. Highly conserved 3′UTRs help the folding of proteins with long IDRs.

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

Mitochondrial presequences harbor variable strengths to maintain organellar function Hundreds of mitochondrial-destined proteins rely on N-terminal presequences for organellar targeting and import. While generally described as positively charged amphipathic helices, presequences lack ...

Very excited to share our latest work, “Mitochondrial presequences harbor variable strengths to maintain organellar function,” led by the fantastically talented @washubbsb.bsky.social graduate student Youmian Yan. A 🧵

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

Functional amyloid proteins confer defence against predatory bacteria Nature - Escherichia coli uses curli fibres, oligomers of the functional amyloid CsgA, as a barrier to protect against the predatory bacteria Bdellovibrio bacteriovorus and Myxococcus xanthus in a...

Words cannot describe how excited I am to share the findings from the second half of my postdoc in @aaronwhiteley.bsky.social's lab where we discover that bacteria use functional amyloids to defend themselves from predatory bacteria. rdcu.be/euu5Y. See thread for details on this epic adventure 1/.

Pseudouridine RNA avoids immune detection through impaired endolysosomal processing and TLR engagement Toll-like receptors (TLRs) 7 and 8 detect RNA degradation products to sense infection. However, modified nucleosides common in self-RNA—most notably pseudouridine—evade recognition. This study finds t...

I am very excited to share the second paper of my PhD published in @cp-cell.bsky.social.
Many thanks to all co-authors, especially from Thomas Carell's group, and my supervisor @v-hornung.bsky.social for their great support and collaboration!

www.cell.com/cell/fulltex...

In situ foliar augmentation of multiple species for optical phenotyping and bioengineering using soft robotics A soft robotic gripper enables nondestructive delivery of nanosensors and genes into leaves of diverse plant species.

Scientists have developed a soft robotic gripper that can “stamp-inject” leaves gently to introduce probes and genes for precision agriculture.

Read more in #ScienceRobotics:

Our paper demonstrating that within-species warfare interactions are ecologically important on human skin is now published in Nature Micro! www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Giant KASH proteins and ribosomes synergistically establish cytoplasmic biophysical properties in vivo Understanding how cells control their biophysical properties during development remains a fundamental challenge. While cytoplasmic macromolecular crowding affects multiple cellular processes in single...

Amazing talk (and videos) in plenary 2 from Xiangyi Ding ( @danstarrucdavis.bsky.social ) about biophys constraints in cytoplasm. #Celegans cytoplasm is more like jelly than honey (human cells), plus found gene that constrains this mess particle diffusion. #worm25

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

Manipulating condensation of thermo-sensitive SUF4 protein tunes flowering time in Arabidopsis thaliana Meyer et al. present evidence that protein liquid-liquid phase separation may serve as a physical mechanism for coordinating plant development and flowering time with environmental seasonality.

Our SUF4 condensation paper is finally out! cell.com/cell-reports... Thank you to everyone who has scientifically, mentally, and emotionally supported my co-authors and me over the years. Below is a summary of the work-- we hope you enjoy our findings!

1/27 We have a new paper out! Turns out that snowflake yeast have been hiding a secret from us - they've evolved a (very!) crude circulatory system. Not with blood vessels or a heart, but through spontaneous fluid flows powered by their metabolism. 🧪🔬

www.science.org/doi/full/10....

Characterizing protein sequence determinants of nuclear condensates by high-throughput pooled imaging with CondenSeq Nature Methods - CondenSeq is an imaging-based, high-throughput platform for characterizing condensate formation within the nuclear environment, uncovering the protein sequence features that...

In the nucleus, many intrinsically disordered proteins (IDPs) form condensates. What IDP sequence features drive this behavior? We developed CondenSeq, a high-throughput approach to measure nuclear condensate formation, and applied it to ~14,000 IDPs to find out!

rdcu.be/eq975

If heterochromatin is really a liquid-like condensate, why is it not spherical?
We investigated whether mechanical interactions between a condensate and a fiber network can explain the variety of morphologies seen in phase-separated nuclear compartments
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

@jerelleaj.bsky.social, master painter 👩🏽‍🎨 of the blackboard 👩🏽‍🏫, in action! 🤩 She is amazing at capturing the essence of our complex, meandering (and sometimes contentious) discussions @kitp-ucsb.bsky.social

Cell state-specific cytoplasmic density controls spindle architecture and scaling Nature Cell Biology - Kletter et al. show that cell state-specific cytoplasmic density controls spindle architecture and scaling in neural differentiation, suggesting that the physical properties...

✨Thanks to amazing students @tobiaskletter.bsky.social, postdocs @biswashere.bsky.social & collaborators @vasilyzaburdaev.bsky.social‬ & ALMF @embl.org ✨

👉Cytoplasmic material properties control spindle architecture and scaling 👉 out today @natcellbio.nature.com rdcu.be/eqPr8

I am excited to share that I will be starting my lab @uarizona.bsky.social this summer! Our research will focus on how aging impacts neuronal resilience and RNA biology; we will be part of the Coit Center for Longevity & Neurotherapeutics. sites.arizona.edu/rhine-lab/

Neuronal aging causes mislocalization of splicing proteins and unchecked cellular stress - Nature Neuroscience Rhine et al. find that neuronal aging leads to widespread dysregulation of RNA biology, including mislocalization of splicing proteins like TDP-43, chronic cellular stress and reduced resiliency.

Excited to share my postdoctoral research on how neuronal #aging contributes to RNA dysfunction is now online at Nature Neuroscience! Here we find that aged neurons suffer from chronic cellular stress that compromises resiliency to new stressors🧪 www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Super excited to release a huge evolution project on the works for many years:

Evolution experiments synchronized across climates to understand rapid adaptation

Preprint: doi.org/10.1101/2025...
All data available: www.grene-net.org/data

#MOILAB
@ucberkeleyofficial.bsky.social
@hhmi.org

🧵👇

Nuclear Phase Separation Drives NPM1-mutant Acute Myeloid Leukemia During cancer development, mutations promote gene expression changes that cause transformation. Leukemia is frequently associated with aberrant HOXA expression driven by translocations in nucleoporin ...

www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1... from @superscijew.bsky.social

Cryo-EM structure of the vault from human brain reveals symmetry mismatch at its caps The vault protein is expressed in most eukaryotic cells, where it is assembled on polyribosomes into large hollow barrel-shaped complexes. Despite its widespread and abundant presence in cells, the bi...

The amazing Sofia Lövestam initiated the below project, when she became interested in the vault particles that we sometimes observe in #cryoEM images of brain-derived #amyloid filaments.
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

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/...

Now published! Big congrats to first author @gginell.bsky.social

We are actively working improving/updating various aspects of FINCHES; don't hesitate to reach out if you run into issues, have questions.
www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...