Stephan Hacker

Looking forward to engaging in a discussion on PhD supervision quality and fairer distribution of resources with De Jonge Akademie in the context of their #Profkip initiative.
www.dejongeakademie.nl/publicaties/...

@apnet.bsky.social position paper on the topic: ap-net.nl/position-pap...

We are happy that The Young Academy has made the quality of PhD supervision a priority topic for this year. We are very excited to engage with them in the discussion about their #Profkip initiative. www.dejongeakademie.nl/publicaties/...

Read our position paper here: ap-net.nl/position-pap...
(1/7)

LED3 Lectures The LED3 hub, consisting of researchers from the Leiden Institute of Chemistry (LIC), the Institute of Biology Leiden (IBL), the Leiden Academic Centre for Drug Research (LACDR) and the Leiden Institu...

If you are interested, make sure to come by! More information can be found here: www.universiteitleiden.nl/en/science/l...

#Antibiotics #DrugDiscovery #LPS #Bacteria #Zosurabalpin #Chemistry #ChemBio

We urgently need new antibiotics against the most devastating Gram-negative infections.
I am excited that Thomas Clairfeuille from Roche will visit us for a @led3hub.bsky.social Lecture on March 26th to talk about Zosurabalpin, a recent success story in the field.(1/2)
www.nature.com/articles/s41...

We are looking forward to the LED3 Lecture by Thomas Clairfeuille from Roche on March 26th. He will talk about "The discovery and mechanism of lipid transport inhibition by the antibiotic Zosurabalpin"

www.universiteitleiden.nl/en/science/l...

#ChemBio #ChemSky #Antibiotics #DrugDiscovery

I want to thank @mvdstelt.bsky.social for being their promotor as well as @mprothiwa.bsky.social, Alexander Speer, Laura Heitman, Nathaniel Martin and Sander van Kasteren for being on the opposition committee.

Julia, I wish you all the best for your future. (5/5)

It was always great to work with them and to see them grow even further into a highly independent researcher. (4/5)

Julia was absolutely instrumental to re-establishing our group in Leiden and was responsible for setting up all of our initial biochemical and microbiological experiments here. I am very happy that they showed the persistence and scientific skill to get all of this done. (3/5)

Their work “Discovery of novel antibiotic targets in bacterial priority pathogens” is the foundation for many of the chemoproteomics projects in our group and will be a starting point for the development of new antibiotics. Watch this space for updates on their publications in the near future.(2/5)

I am very excited and proud that Julia Pols very successfully completed their PhD in our group. They wrote an excellent PhD thesis and engaged in exciting in-depth discussions with all the opponents during the PhD defense. (1/5)
#PhDone #PhD #ProudPI #Antibiotics #ChemBio #ChemSky

I am very happy that @mprothiwa.bsky.social joined us today for a department visit and a lecture. She gave a very interesting lecture on "Chemical strategies to understand bacterial immune evasion".
link.springer.com/protocol/10....
#ChemBio #ChemSky #Bacteria #Proteases #Probes

ABPP2027 The 15th International Activity-Based Protein Profiling Meeting will be held in Naturalis, Leiden, The Netherlands from June 2nd to 4th, 2027. This meeting will discuss the latest advancements in prot...

Save the date! 15th Activity Based Protein Profiling meeting #ABPP2027 is in Leiden, 2-4th June 2027. Join the mailing list for program updates and rego: www.universiteitleiden.nl/en/science/led3/abpp2027
#chembiol #proteomics #ABPs #Chemicalprobes @led3hub.bsky.social @leidenscience.bsky.social

It was great to be part of the discussion about the faculty priority themes of @leidenscience.bsky.social and to represent the @led3hub.bsky.social alongside @mvdstelt.bsky.social, Laura Heitman and @kimmb1.bsky.social.

Our theme leader, @mvdstelt.bsky.social, introduces our LED3 hub at the meeting of all of our faculty priority themes of @leidenscience.bsky.social. Great discussions on the annual and communication plan and the outlook for the future. Exciting things ahead.
www.universiteitleiden.nl/en/science/l...

Interested in Activity-based Protein Profiling?

We are excited to host the 15th Activity-based Protein Profiling meeting (@abpp2027.bsky.social #ABPP2027) on June 2nd to 4th, 2027, at Naturalis in Leiden.

Save the date and sign up for our mailing list: www.universiteitleiden.nl/en/science/l...

Great presentation by Andrea Chicca from Synendos Therapeutics. He talked about the development of endocannabinoid reuptake inhibitors from basic science to phase 2 clinical trials. He gave great insights, how to translate exciting science into societal impact.

www.synendos.com/post/septemb...

"Chemical strategies to understand bacterial immune evasion"

I am very happy that @mprothiwa.bsky.social will visit us on March 3rd to give a lecture on this topic at 15:00 in the Gorlaeus building, room CM3.23. If you are interested, make sure to come by.

#Bacteria #ChemBio #ChemSky #ImmuneSystem

We hope you all enjoyed Christina's talk as much as we enjoy sharing our science! Seems like it was a packed house 🫡

Identification of an allosteric site on the E3 ligase adapter cereblon - Nature An allosteric site on the E3 ligase adapter cereblon can be targeted to modulate the efficacy of cereblon in targeted protein degradation applications.

She also talked about the identification of an allosteric binding site on cereblon to regulate protein degradation and modulate the potency of small molecule degraders. (3/3)
www.nature.com/articles/s41...

PCMT1 generates the C-terminal cyclic imide degron on CRBN substrates - Nature Chemical Biology The enzyme PCMT1 was found to install a C-terminal cyclic imide modification on proteins that marks them for degradation by CRBN, uncovering a conserved protein turnover pathway with implications in m...

Great insights into function and biosynthesis of cyclic imids with important implications for therapeutic degraders. (2/3)
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...

Amazing @led3hub.bsky.social Lecture by @thewoolab.bsky.social! She talked about her group's exciting work on protein C-terminal cyclic imids as natural ligands of cereblon for protein degradation. (1/3)
www.nature.com/articles/s41...

#TPD #DrugDiscovery #ChemBio #ChemSky #Degron

We are very happy that Christina Woo (@thewoolab.bsky.social) visited us for a very well-attended LED3 Lecture. She talked about the importance of C-terminal cyclic imides as natural #degrons for protein degradation with important implications for targeted protein degradation.
#TPD #ChemBio #ChemSky

@thewoolab.bsky.social at @led3hub.bsky.social seminar series on Rewriting Protein Modifications
#LED3

Very excited to be working on the planning of #ABPP2027 with including @mads-chem.bsky.social, @mverdoes.bsky.social, Daan van der Es, Paul Geurink and Marta Artola.

#ABPP2027 will be happening in Leiden on June 2nd to 4th, 2027.

I am excited to be part of the organization together with an amazing team.

Sign up for our mailing list here: www.universiteitleiden.nl/en/science/l...

#ABPP #ChemoProteomics #ChemPro #ProteoProbes #ChemSky #ChemBio #DrugDiscovery

New preprint from our LED3 hub on ChemRxiv!

The labs of @sebastianpomplun.bsky.social , @gjpvwesten.bsky.social and Laura Heitman with first author @seanmckenna.bsky.social present COMBINAUT: an automated parallel synthesis platform for rapid access to 22.9M-compounds.

chemrxiv.org/doi/full/10....

Congratulations, Claudia! Very well deserved!

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

Great opportunity to work as a #PhD or #postdoc with a great PI (@mlakemeyer.bsky.social), at @uni-jena.de.

Interested in #ChemBio, #Biochemistry, #Chemistry, #Microbiology and/or pharmaceutical sciences? Check it out:

PhD: jobs.uni-jena.de/jobposting/8...
Postdoc: jobs.uni-jena.de/jobposting/c...

We had a great #TuesdayTalk at @leidenscience.bsky.social this week by Sebastiaan Haffert. He talked about the various technological and scientific challenges of building extremely large telescopes that allow them to look for exoplanets and hopefully find proof for extraterrestrial life.