Lars-Anders Carlson

Graph of award probability of R35 and R01 from NIH factbook as a function of review rank percentile. As is apparent, 2025 is a significant departure, with lower award probabilities at all scores <40 and significant departures from norm, where even being in the top 10% is no longer a nearly certain indicator of success. Data source: https://report.nih.gov/nihdatabook/report/302

The data is in: the NIH goalposts have shifted.

What were once almost certain fundable scores have become coin flips and what used to be likely grants have become aspirational, leading to fewer awards.

Another manifestation of how HHS policies have led to fewer awards and less science.

Figure 1. Cryo-EM of abundant protein complexes in native membranes.

Figure 2. Cryo-EM of membrane proteins in vesicles.

Figure 3. 3D reconstruction of V-ATPase in native synaptic vesicle membranes.

Figure 4. Generation of membrane vesicles for structure determination of proteins in their native lipid bilayer.

I've written a review on what I think is an extremely exciting direction in cryo-EM:

Cryo-EM of endogenous membrane proteins in their native lipid bilayer

Open access in Quarterly Reviews of Biophysics:
doi.org/10.1017/S003...

Original (left) and corrected (right) Fig. 4a in the paper https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-026-10305-0 showing the chemical structures of amino acids (only the right one) the left figure is just an embarrassment

I wonder... 🤔🤔🧪 #chemsky

a) what program did the authors use to make the original (left) figure in the paper? Wild guess, ChatGPT

b) how such high school science level of disgrace pass peer review in @nature.com?

Note this was Fig.4.a NOT in SI

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

Then you shortcircuit Deutsche Bahn?

Train booking in Germany!

A scientist is never certain.

Structural remodeling of the mitochondrial protein biogenesis machinery under proteostatic stress Cryo–electron tomography reveals how mitochondria reorganize their translation and folding systems under proteostatic stress.

Check out this beautiful study, spearheaded by Kenny @denkenny.bsky.social, on mitochondrial remodeling. Some of the prettiest organelle segmentations I have seen 😍😍😍

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

World map highlighting countries where polio has been detected in the last 12 months

CDC issued a Global Polio Level 2 Travel Health Notice advising enhanced precautions

Tragic. We had polio almost eradicated, but disruption to vaccination campaigns due to COVID, global instability, defunding & vaccine hesitancy have led us here

#VaccinesWork
🧪

wwwnc.cdc.gov/travel/notic...

A research team from the Max Planck Institute for Multidisciplinary Sciences, the Institut Pasteur, and EMBL has shown in a Nature paper how the influenza polymerase, a molecular thief, uses the host RNA to replicate.

Check out the MPI press release: www.mpinat.mpg.de/5179649/pr_2...

Students (and scientists) seem to hate saying “I don’t know.” It’s viewed so negatively. But I have long believed that thinking of “I don’t know” as a negative is wrong. It’s an *opportunity*.

Remise d'un doctorat honoris causa à Françoise Barré-Sinoussi

Françoise Barré-Sinoussi, Prix Nobel de médecine 2008 pour la découverte du VIH, reçoit un doctorat honoris causa de l'Université de Montréal.

Cette scientifique d'exception continue d'inspirer la lutte mondiale contre le #VIH.

@umontreal.ca Crédit image : André Caty

PDB101: Learn: Paper Models: Human Papillomavirus (HPV) The capsid protein of papillomavirus is used in vaccines that prevent cervical cancer.

March 4 is International HPV Awareness Day
Build a paper model of the capsid protein used in vaccines that prevent cervical cancer.

A jumbo cyanophage encodes the most complete ribosomal protein set in the known virosphere www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

Extended follow-up of invasive cervical cancer risk after quadrivalent HPV vaccination: nationwide, register based study Objectives To evaluate the long term risk of invasive cervical cancer after receiving the quadrivalent human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccine, how risk varies by time since vaccination, and to assess the ...

The HPV vaccine is durably AMAZING.A massive Swedish registry study w 18 years of follow-up found no waning protection against invasive cervical cancer. If vaccinated before age 17, cancer risk is cut by ~80%. Even those vaccinated later still had substantial protection.
www.bmj.com/content/392/...

A titan of vaccine development sees his field’s achievements slip away Stanley Plotkin, the 93-year-old "godfather of vaccines," is watching his field’s achievements slip away.

A titan of vaccine development sees his field’s achievements slip away www.statnews.com/2026/03/02/s... via @statnews.com

PDB101: Molecule of the Month: Lenacapavir A potent and long-acting drug that targets the HIV capsid

The March Molecule of the Month looks at Lenacapavir, a potent and long-acting drug that targets the HIV capsid #ASBMB2026

Cryo-EM structures of prefusion HSV-2 gB in complex with human antibodies.

Our fourth installment on prefusion herpesvirus gB proteins is available as a preprint: doi.org/10.64898/202.... Working with Ivelin Georgiev's group, we isolated and characterized prefusion-specific HSV gB antibodies from humans!

Dorothy Crowfoot Hodgkin, biochemist & a trailblazer in crystallography, she established the biomolecular structures of insulin, vitamin B12, & penicillin winning the Nobel in Chemistry in 1964 #WomensHistoryMonth #WomenInStem #WomenInScience

A line graph showing NSF grant awards made through 2/27/26 for fiscal year 2026 compared with grant awards for fiscal years 2021-2025.

NSF Update (Awards through 2/27/26)

Directorates to follow

1/10

The deadline for applying to the open postdoc position in our lab is coming up!

Reach out if you have questions about the project, our lab and ISTA!

Glad to hear that.

Next year, two viral teams? :)

Next year, we should perhaps take it to the next level by skiing in costumes. There was plenty of inspiration. The "wrong sport" team had one skier in swimsuit! And the pic below is worth more than a thousand words....

Yesterday, we experienced one of the highlights of the academic year in Umeå: the annual KBC cross-country ski relay race. It's very hard to win (some scientists are seriously good skiers) and also very hard to lose (there are plenty of beginners). We did neither, but had a great time!

Cases of #measles have surged in 2026 with 1,270 cases reported, new detections in wastewater across states in areas without confirmed cases showing signs of spread.

Check out this week's #TrackingReport to learn more about measles and other outbreaks from this week.

mailchi.mp/messages/pan...

Here we can only access our email through Outlook. And logging in to almost anything requires MS Authenticator. On top, our university introduced mandatory "sensitivity classifications" of all MS Office documents, requiring several extra clicks to open anything. There are circles in MS hell... :)

PDB101: Take the PDB-101 User Survey and Win PDB-101: Training, Outreach, and Education portal of RCSB PDB

Take the PDB-101 User Survey and Win
Share your feedback and enter into a drawing for a Molecule of the Month-themed sticker set

Onfim’s drawing of himself on horseback as a warrior defeating an enemy.

Two of Onfim’s works. On the left is a copy of a passage from the Book of Psalms he did for schoolwork. On the right is an apparently autobiographical depiction of a monster labeled with “I am a wild beast.”

Some more spelling practice by Onfim with some human figures who have round heads and varying numbers of fingers on their big hands.

Onfim’s writing practice accompanied by 7 little people in his particular drawing style, who tend to have very big hands with many fingers.

Nice AI-image-generating tool, but it will never be as great an artist as Onfim, a child who lived in the Novgorod Republic in the mid-1200s and who scribbled these drawings and schoolwork writings on birch bark at the age of 6 or 7.

Question for the #cryoEM crowd: have you played with ModelAngelo, CryoAtom and EMProt, and would you care to offer thoughts/notes on the comparison? I have ModelAngelo installed and I love it, but the other two claim improved performance - which should I try first?

Alternatively, you could read the teaching material and try to figure it out using your brain.