@joshuapajak
American Cancer Society Postdoctoral fellow and structural biologist in the @briankelch.bsky.social lab at UMass Chan Medical school. I study ATPases and DNA replication/repair. Phage and MD simulations were my first scientific love. he/him/his
Our new paper is out in Viruses! Katya Knyazhanskaya and Pawel Bujalowski investigated whether the 3′ end of the dengue virus antigenome (negative strand) adopts a defined structure and is specifically recognized by the viral helicase and polymerase (NS3 and NS5).
www.mdpi.com/1999-4915/18...
Low resolution cryo-EM map that looks like Cuban's skull
When you still haven't solved the orientation bias of your protein sample #CryoEM
With Eugene Koonin, we propose a concept of “the selfish ribosome”, under which evolution of life is viewed as a ribosomal takeover, where the ribosome evolved to consume most of the cell’s resources, while other cellular componentry ensures the propagation of the ribosome. arxiv.org/abs/2602.23268
The savings we're getting here by annihilating decades of American science will pay for whole minutes of the operation to create decades of death, immiseration, and chaos in Iran.
This War Will Destabilize The Entire Mideast Region And Set Off A Global Shockwave Of Anti-Americanism vs. No It Won’t
YES. 68-63
I've been saying it a lot, but these deaths line up with what happened in early concentration camps during other regimes: Deaths from poor conditions, disease, or abuse. These deaths are not accidental. They are the direct result of a camp system that is designed to harm those being imprisoned.
Aarhus is perhaps my favorite city I’ve ever visited. I loved visiting the campus as well, there was a lot of construction (this was last April) and I would love to visit again once everything has been finished.
We are looking for Postdoctoral Fellows with expertise in Structural Biology. Expertise in CryoEM/CryoET is required. Come join us in St. Louis to work on some amazing enzyme complexes.
www.antonylab.org/positions.html
APPLY HERE: slu.wd5.myworkdayjobs.com/en-US/Career...
Welcome, piles of slop filling up the journals with clouds of useless wordy garbage. Case in point:
📣 The 2026 Midwest DNA Repair Symposium is coming to Kansas City (registration is open)
🗓 May 30–31, 2026
✨ Talks will be selected from abstracts, with a strong focus on trainees and new investigators.
Please RT & share with your labs!
🔗 sites.google.com/view/kumc-mi...
Dynamic DnaA–DnaB interactions at oriC coordinate the loading and coupled translocation of two DnaB helicases for bidirectional replication url: academic.oup.com/nar/article/...
Happy to share our deep characterization of #LLPS events modulating the DNA damage response (#DDR) through #53BP1 condensation promoted by #dincRNA
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...
So happy to see this out! I really enjoyed the preprint :)
Our third installment on prefusion stabilization of herpesvirus gB proteins is available as a preprint: doi.org/10.64898/202.... A great collaboration with colleagues at Merck. Our prefusion HSV-2 gB protein adopts a more closed conformation than has been observed for HSV-1 gB in recent papers.
Charley Harper, "Darwin's Finches", from "The Giant Golden Book of Biology", 1961
2025 was an incredible year of union organizing for grad workers and postdocs here at UMass Chan, and we're looking forward to another year of amazing wins for researchers on our campus! Thank you to all our members who helped keep our union strong in this past year!
95% of $100 is 95, which means you subtract $5 per $100. 3 $100 means you lose $15 total, $300 - $15 is $285.
Thanks for the info! I will look into it over the holiday break this year.
Read this whole thread and weep
My great grandparents were Romani who fled Poland and came to the United States, it would be great to have some opportunity for EU citizenship at a time like this.
❄️The 2026 Winter Session of GIIN Webinars is here! Join us on the first Tuesday of each month at 5 PM (Rome) / 11 AM (NYC).
No pre-registration needed, simply join via Zoom: uniroma1.zoom.us/j/95149984403
Want reminders? Subscribe here: docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1F...
What are some of your favorite molecular dynamics papers? I am compiling a reading list for a course on biomolecular simulations that I will lead next spring, and I am looking for papers that get at the "why" of performing MD sims. I have a shortlist now but the more the merrier!
What are some of your favorite molecular dynamics papers? I am compiling a reading list for a course on biomolecular simulations that I will lead next spring, and I am looking for papers that get at the "why" of performing MD sims. I have a shortlist now but the more the merrier!
POV: you are a young woman celebrating a recent academic success
We are seeking postdoctoral researchers to study viral RNA and macromolecular complexes using X-ray crystallography, cryo-EM, and biochemical methods.
Structural biology experience is required. Interested candidates should send a CV, a brief research statement, and 2–3 references to kaychoi@iu.edu.
2. We dramatically reworked both text and the figure explaining the setup and results from our MANT-ATP assay for improved clarity.
Thanks again to everyone involved in this project, and to the anonymous reviewers whose critique strengthened the final manuscript!
Onto the next one!
1. We now include a mutual information based analysis of our molecular dynamics data to predict how RFC subunits sense and respond to ATP hydrolysis. We highlight the "sensor II" arginine as a hub of allosteric communication.
My paper on nucleotide exchange in RFC is now available at PNAS! www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...
Should you read if you already read our preprint? Yes!
Two big updates made during peer-review include:
