Ute Hellmich

Thank you so much Peter Zygmunt and team for the invitation to Lund and two fantastic days of ion channels galore!😍

So glad I made the TRP and that we all agree mint ice cream is the best, even if TRPVs rule 😋🧊🌶
#LipidLove #TRPVanilloid

It's a date! ☺️

We were featured in C&EN! 🤯🥳🧪
Amazing experience with @pstallforth.bsky.social & @mlakemeyer.bsky.social! 😍

More on bacterial cooperation, D,L-peptidases, natural product structure determination & backstory:
cen.acs.org/biological-c...
@microverse.bsky.social @lifeprofile.bsky.social
@uni-jena.de

We will make up for it in Italy... TWICE! ✌️

Suffering through some serious #BPS2026 FOMO right now... 🥲🧪
So sad I coukdnt make it, but to everyone attending, I hope you have a fantastic week!!!!!!
(And keep posting, please! ☺️)

"Here, we measure the sensitivity of the force-gated ion channel Piezo2 and demonstrate that it is modulated by alternative splicing."

New preprint: www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...

😊

Microbial dl-Peptidases Enable Predator Defense and Facilitate Structure Elucidation of Complex Natural Products Peptidases are indispensable tools in biotechnology and chemical biology. However, the enzyme repertoire for the selective hydrolysis of dl-amide bonds in peptides is small. Here, we describe novel dl-peptidases that mediate complex microbial interactions. These enzymes, Lip3 and Lip7, convert lipopeptides into potent amoebicidal agents via selective dl-peptide bond cleavage. Using structural analyses and mutagenesis, we identified an unusual Ser–Lys–Lys–Tyr catalytic tetrad required for dl-specificity. Despite their high structural similarity, both enzymes show distinct substrate preferences: Lip3 acts primarily as a carboxypeptidase, removing a single C-terminal residue, while Lip7 excises a tripeptide. Although their substrate scopes are broad, they are highly specific with regard to their respective cutting sites. These features make these dl-peptidases powerful tools for elucidating the structure of complex peptide-based natural products, including tensin and WLIP. Overall, this work elucidates the molecular mechanisms of cooperative microbial defense and provides a new enzymatic toolbox for biocatalysis and natural product discovery.

Great paper by the groups of Pierre Stallforth, @hellmichgroup.bsky.social and @mlakemeyer.bsky.social of @uni-jena.de in @jacs.acspublications.org . Microbial DL-peptidases with an important role in predator defense.
pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/...
#ChemSky #ChemBio #Biochemistry #Bacteria #Microbes

Wie der gemeinsame Verteidigungsmechanismus zweier Bakterien funktioniert haben das Team von Pierre Stallforth, Ute Hellmich @hellmichgroup.bsky.social und Markus Lakemeyer von @leibniz-hki.de herausgefunden.
doi.org/10.1021/jacs...

Bild: © Leibniz-HKI

In a darkened room, minerals can be seen under ultraviolet light at the Mineralogical Collection of the University of Jena. Image: Nicole Nerger (University of Jena)

UV radiation was discovered in Jena 225 years ago. To honour Johann Wilhelm Ritter's experiment, our University is holding an interdisciplinary symposium from 21 to 22 Feb with a focus on this historic leap in knowledge and its relevance to contemporary research. ➡️ www.uni-jena.de/en/387508/jen…

When it's the student's birthday AND the experiment they worked at so tirelessly finally worked out!!!
🥳🥳🥳 🍾🎁

Microbial dl-Peptidases Enable Predator Defense and Facilitate Structure Elucidation of Complex Natural Products Peptidases are indispensable tools in biotechnology and chemical biology. However, the enzyme repertoire for the selective hydrolysis of dl-amide bonds in peptides is small. Here, we describe novel dl...

🧪Bacterial DL-peptidases are key in coordindated predetor defenses AND powerful tools for natural product structure elucidation! 🦠✂️
New JACS paper with @pstallforth.bsky.social
@mlakemeyer.bsky.social @en-hxnu-enment.bsky.social & Hertweck labs
@microverse.bsky.social
pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/...

Thank you for the great talk @hellmichgroup.bsky.social 👏
Her lecture “Regulation through disorder” @mpip-mainz.mpg.de showed how IDPs are central to TRP channel regulation: example of how structural “disorder” is key to biological function. Wonderful to see Ute pushing this field forward in Jena.

Forschung zu resistenten Keimen macht Fortschritte | MDR.DE Seit 100 Jahren können Bakterien mit Antibiotika gut behandelt werden. Doch inzwischen sind auch multiresistente Keime im Umlauf, die immun gegen die Medikamente sind. An der Uni Jena forscht man an e...

TV feature alert! 📺 Great to see our PIs @hellmichgroup.bsky.social & Michael Bauer on MDR. They explain why understanding microbial balance is crucial for our future. 🦠

Catch the full clip here: www.mdr.de/video/mdr-vi...

🤝 @lifeprofile.bsky.social & @uni-jena.de

Bidirectional communication between nucleotide and substrate binding sites in a type IV multidrug ABC transporter - Nature Communications The communication hinge, found in type IV ABC transporters, forms a bidirectional communication between ATP- and substrate-binding sites. This is an unexplored allosteric pathway critical for function...

You can read more about Victor's recent study in coupling ATP and substrate binding in ABC transporters in collaboration with the Neuweiler, Marcoux, Orelle and Jalut labs here:
www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Spying on ABC multidrug transporters in action, gently nudged by our Victor! 😍

ZDF Mittagsmagazin visited us & co-LIFE speaker Michael Bauer to discuss antibiotic resistance: mechanisms, why basic research matters, & clinical challenges
@microverse.bsky.social @uni-jena.de @lifeprofile.bsky.social

You never disappoint, André 😉

🧪If you love lipids,cell biology & chemical bioloy and wonder about the fundamental mechanisms of life, you'll be in for a treat! 🤩🥳

Don't miss the next @gbmev.bsky.social Lunch Seminar by @nadlerlab.bsky.social & Kristin Böhlig!

#ChemBio #LipidLove

Preregister for free
@gfg-chembio.bsky.social

Forschende der Uni Jena haben einen Mechanismus entdeckt, wie Bakterien sich gegen Antibiotika wehren. Diese Entdeckung soll im Kampf gegen Resistenzen helfen.
💊💊💊
Es gibt zu viele negative News, deswegen poste ich jeden Tag eine #guteNewsdesTages.

Have you registered yet? Early bird registration and abstract submission are open until January 31.
mosbacher-kolloquium.org

Specific activation instead of continuous operation: How bacteria save energy and what this means for antibiotic resistances Researchers in the Cluster of Excellence “Balance of the Microverse” at the University of Jena decipher a key mechanism of antibiotic resistance pumps

Researchers of @hellmichgroup.bsky.social at #UniJena Cluster of Excellence @microverse.bsky.social have deciphered a key mechanism of antibiotic resistance. They showed how the bacterium applies the energy required to transport the drug out of its cell.

➡️ www.uni-jena.de/en/381040/sp...

Consider joining us and many others at the German Peptide Symposium in Essen! Exciting talks in synthetic biology, natural products, antimicrobials, method development, chemical biology... 🧪🥽

POV: you don't need an entire protein to be happy 😜

www.uni-due.de/17gps/

The Taste of Carbonation The enzyme carbonic anhydrase mediates the taste sensation of carbonated drinks.

🧪HAPPY 2026 EVERYONE!!!! 🥂🍾🥳

When you enjoy your bubbly this evening, do spare a thought about carbonic anhydrase - it's an amazing enzyme (almost as fast as 2025 felt! 😜), and it turns out, it's also responsible for tasting CO2's "fizziness"!!! 🍾

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

Lego mission 2025 successfully completed!!! 🦖🥳

THREE QUESTIONS FOR: Pierre Stallforth YouTube video by Universität Jena

📽️ 3 Questions for Pierre Stallforth

A cluster perspective on chemistry, microbiomes, and the distant past. From microbial interactions to natural products reconstructed from ancient DNA, including Neanderthal dental calculus.

▶️ Watch the clip: www.youtube.com/watch?v=-Ei0...

Sorry, the second post was not sent earlier: with invaluable input from @christinawarinner.bsky.social lab and presenting a new platform, AMPcombi, to uncover evolutionary trajectories of bacteriocins and elucidate ecological functions!
Congrats to lead author Rosa Herbst and everyone involved!

Actifensin Evolution in the Human Oral Cavity over the Past 100,000 Years Bacterially produced antimicrobial peptides (AMPs), or bacteriocins, play key roles in shaping microbial communities via interspecies competition. Unlike the more temporally dynamic gut microbiome, the oral microbiome exhibits long-term stability and is preserved into deep time in dental calculus, enabling evolutionary analysis across time. Here, we combine metagenomics, structural modeling, and experimental validation to investigate AMP diversity in ancient and modern dental biofilms from humans, Neanderthals, and nonhuman primates spanning 100,000 years. Using our newly developed platform, AMPcombi, we uncover evolutionary trajectories of bacteriocins and elucidate their ecological functions. Among these, we identify a conserved family of Actinomyces-derived defensin-like peptides, termed actifensins, present across all time periods. Phylogenetic, structural, and functional analyses revealed shared ancestry and adaptive diversification between ancient (paleo-) and modern actifensins, with evidence of positive selection and maintained antimicrobial activity. Our findings position the oral microbiome as a valuable reservoir for natural product discovery. In the face of rising antimicrobial resistance, evolutionary insights into AMP function open a door to next-generation therapeutics. AMPcombi streamlines this process, linking ancient biomolecules with biotechnology.

Wonderful @microverse.bsky.social collaboration led by Stallforth lab on the diversity of AMPs in ancient and modern dental biofilms from humans, Neanderthals, and nonhuman primates spanning 100,000 years 🧪🥳
We'll call it a paper wrap for 2025... maybe 😉
pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/...

Congratulations, lieber Bela!!! 🥳🥳🥳

PROFILING THE TRPV4 ANKYRIN REPEAT DOMAIN INTERACTOME AND ITS DISRUPTION BY NEUROMUSCULAR DISEASE-CAUSING MUTATIONS The ankyrin repeat is one of the most abundant protein-protein interaction motifs in eukaryotes yet occurs in only a small number of ion channels. These channels are all members of the transient recep...

🧪 TRPV4 likes to play and its ARD is where other proteins hang out to party!!!! 🥳🥰
We found old & new friends in this systematic study on the V4-ARD interactome and its disruption by disease mutants
led by Sullivan/Sumner labs. So happy we could contribute!

www.jbc.org/article/S002...

Bidirectional communication between nucleotide and substrate binding sites in a type IV multidrug ABC transporter - Nature Communications The communication hinge, found in type IV ABC transporters, forms a bidirectional communication between ATP- and substrate-binding sites. This is an unexplored allosteric pathway critical for function...

Super nice to wake up to the news that our paper on bidirectional communication in an ABC transporter has been selected as a Nature Communications Editors’ Highlight in “Structural biology, biochemistry and biophysics"! 🥳 🥳 🥳
www.nature.com/articles/s41...

@microverse.bsky.social