8–11 June 2026 | 📍 Heraklion, Crete 🇬🇷

Get ready for Machines on Genes 2026, the 94th Harden Conference by the @biochemsoc.bsky.social — four days of molecular mechanisms and friendly discussions! 🧬☀️🔬❄️

Organised by @lapassmore.bsky.social, Dana Branzei, me.

🌞✈️🇬🇷🏝️ 🧬 Machines on Genes 2026 🧬 🌞✈️🇬🇷🏝️

What an amazing list of speakers 🤩

@nynkedekkerlab.bsky.social
@dodonova-sveta.bsky.social
@yuanhejhu.bsky.social
@uwmadisonrna.bsky.social
@kowaeva.bsky.social
@fmattiroli.bsky.social
@aliciakmichael.bsky.social
@lisaracki.bsky.social
@yeeles-lab.bsky.social

We’re excited to share our latest preprint on the mechanism of excised linear intron stabilization in yeast! This work was led by PhD student @glennli.bsky.social and was a wonderful collaboration with @maxewilkinson.bsky.social. Link: www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6... (1/4)

El CNIO presenta su Plan de Actuación para orientar su futuro a las áreas hoy más prometedoras en la investigación del cáncer www.cnio.es/noticias/el-...

I’m very happy (and grateful!) to share that I’m featured in a Nature Cancer Viewpoint about starting my lab at CNIO.

In the Lab (www.rcglab.com) we’re combining AI, protein design and structural biology to study protein structures and design novel protein therapeutics for cancer. 🔬

Structural basis of T-loop–independent recognition and activation of CDKs by the CDK-activating kinase Cyclin-dependent kinases (CDKs) are prototypical regulators of the cell cycle. The CDK-activating kinase (CAK) acts as a master regulator of CDK activity by catalyzing the activating phosphorylation o...

Now out in Science! Cyclin-dependent kinases (CDKs) are key regulators of the cell cycle. In @vcushing.bsky.social's magnum opus, we use #cryoEM to figure out how the CDK-activating kinase recognises CDKs to fully activate them - a key step in cell cycle control.
www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

It always surprises me when I encounter scientists with a religious faith. Very rare amongst biologists in my experience, but more common amongst astronomers. I guess it’s possible to fantasise about a creator if you don’t understand evolution.

A comprehensive genetic catalog of human double-strand break repair The analysis of DNA sequence outcomes provides molecular insights into double-strand break (DSB) repair mechanisms. Using parallel in-pool profiling of Cas9-induced insertions and deletions (indels) w...

Kickstarting our Bluesky🦋 account with great news!
Our REPAIRome study finally out today in
@science.org
www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

Postdoctoral Research Assistant for the Biomolecular Design and Structural Nanomedicine Group DescriptionWe are looking for a Postdoctoral Researcher to join Roger Castells-Graells’ lab at the Spanish National Cancer Research Centre (CNIO). The successful candidate will work on innovative biom...

We’re looking for an enthusiastic postdoc to join our team. 😊

The project focuses on protein design and cryo-EM applied to cancer research. 🔬🧪

The position is fully funded for 3 years.

Please share 🙏

Job description and application details (deadline: October 11th): www.cnio.es/en/empleo/po...

Exciting new study from new-PI Mohinder Pal on the role of CCDC103 and it's links to PCD as the most recent dynein assembly factor (DNAAF19). Congratulations to the entire team.

@Mohinder Pal (currently not on Bluesky)
@mike-wieczorek.bsky.social
@laurencepearl.bsky.social

A team at #CNIOStopCancer finds a new cause for idiopatic pulmonary fibrosis: a mutation in gene POT1, which hinders tissue from regenerating. This makes breathing increasingly difficult in this potentially fatal disease currently without treatment 

http://bit.ly/41MPOAB

Thrilled that our work is now finally out in Nature Comms!
rdcu.be/eG3vP

We reveal cryo-EM structures of the MRN complex bound to DNA & TRF2 - showing how DNA breaks are sensed and regulated at telomeres.
Fantastic work by first authors @yilanfan.bsky.social @filizkuybu.bsky.social & Hengjun!

Cryo-EM structure of the vault from human brain reveals symmetry mismatch at its caps Lövestam and Scheres present a cryo-EM structure of vault particles, found during tau filament extraction from progressive supranuclear palsy (PSP) brain tissue. They reveal a symmetry shift at the va...

Sofia Lövestam's vault structure is now online in Structure @cellpress.bsky.social. 🥳

How beautifully explorative is #cryoEM! We never planned to do this. The vaults just came down with #amyloids from human brain tissue, and Sofia decided to have a closer look.

www.cell.com/structure/fu...

Highly collaborative efforts that involved 6 lab members and the labs of @yiliangding.bsky.social and @rdaslab.bsky.social. We uncovered a telomerase dimer and its potential role in telomere maintenance.

🧬 #CIDHD25 will bring together experts exploring how cells maintain genome stability & how these insights are driving new therapies.

4 days of exciting talks, plus lots of opportunity for networking!

🗓️ Poster & Reg Deadline: 14 Aug
🔗 bit.ly/44mBPU2

#FusionCellBio #FusionDNA

Very grateful for receiving a Short Talk Award at #CFM_MolMech

Thanks to the organisers for putting together such an amazing conference! @oscarllorca.bsky.social @rfleiro.bsky.social @nogaleslab.bsky.social @cniostopcancer.bsky.social

AlphaFold predictions are valuable hypotheses and accelerate but do not replace experimental structure determination - Nature Methods An analysis of AlphaFold protein structure predictions shows that while in many cases the predictions are highly accurate, there are also many instances where the predicted structures or parts of pred...

Great work highlighting how important it is to carry out experimental structure determination instead relying on AlphaFold predictions. #crystallography #structure #biology #chemistry

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

Muñoz-Hernández, Xu, et al. @mike-wieczorek.bsky.social @ethz.ch report #cryoEM structures revealing how NEDD1’s C terminus forms an α-helical tetramer that docks onto the γ-TuRC without inducing major conformational changes in the complex during its recruitment to MTOCs rupress.org/jcb/article/...

Speakers at #CNIOSeminars share innovative advances from the fields they lead. We have recently wellcomed:👇

1️⃣ Raman van Wee, from @oxfordchemistry.bsky.social. As @oscarllorca.bsky.social 's guest, he talked about the rol of protein Ku7080 in repairing double strand breaks in DNA

Structural and functional insights into the interaction between Ku70/80 and Pol X family polymerases in NHEJ - Nature Communications The molecular basis for the enrollment of X family DNA polymerases in non-homologous end joining (NHEJ) is unclear. Here the authors elucidate the structure of Pol λ within the DNA-PK long-range compl...

Structural and functional insights into the interaction between Ku70/80 and Pol X family polymerases in NHEJ @natcomms.nature.com BRCT domain in recruitment and activity of two Pol X members in NHEJ: a unified model for the interaction of Pol X with Ku70/80.
www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Europe will always stand for science and the freedom to learn and invent.

As of 11 am, tune in, and discover how the @ec.europa.eu wants to help the best and brightest ‘Choose Europe’.

→ europa.eu/!Tx43kH

The fourth session of #CFM_MolMech at #CNIOStopCancer will bring latest research on the specifity of RNA decay, the RNA exosome and macromolecular complexes in DNA processing.

With @lapassmore.bsky.social , @cellbiol-mrclmb.bsky.social 
Gina Buchel, @yale.edu 
Elena Conti, @mpibiochem.bsky.social

The registration deadline for #CFM_MolMech is around the corner!

🔴May 5th, 20205🔴

📅Join us on May 28th - 30th at #CNIOStopCancer

🏃‍♀️Don't miss the opportunity! Read about the 4th session on the 🧵👇

With the support of CaixaResearch.

🔗More info: bit.ly/42hyRh0

📅 #CFM_MolMech will take place on May 28-30th at #CNIOStopCancer.

🔴Abstract Submission Deadline: April 24th

🏅Awards for:
▪The three best posters
▪The three best short talks

🤝With the support of CaixaResearch

🔗More info: https://bit.ly/42hyRh0

Nice! Our CAK-inhibitor #cryoEM paper with @NogalesLab and @simakali1 not only graced the cover of @BiophysJ but was also named the editor's pick and featured on the journal's blog:
https://www.biophysics.org/blog/future-cancer-therapeutics-under-the-looking-glass

Structural basis for DNA double-strand break sensing by human MRE11-RAD50-NBS1 and its TRF2 complex The MRE11-RAD50-NBS1 (MRN) complex is a central, multifunctional factor in the detection, signaling and nucleolytic processing of DNA double-strand breaks (DSBs). To clarify how human MRN binds generi...

Happy to share our latest pre-print!
We solved the cryoEM structures of human DNA repair factor MRN bound to DNA and to TRF2. Main work of Yilan, Filiz @filizkuybu.bsky.social and Hengjun. Great collab within the @sfb1361.bsky.social and @genecenter-lmu.bsky.social 🧬🔨
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

Conference alert: Machines acting on DNA and RNA
Madrid, May 28-30
Abstract deadline: April 24
Organised by @cniostopcancer.bsky.social. Come to share your research with experts in the molecular mechanisms of DNA & RNA machines. See the list of speakers below.
Please repost.

Machines acting on DNA and RNA, a molecular mechanistic perspective (#CFM_MolMech)

See you in Madrid! Speakers include:
@costalaboratory.bsky.social @piratefernandez.bsky.social @nhoitsma.bsky.social @kellythd-nguyen.bsky.social @lapassmore.bsky.social @alessandrovannini.bsky.social @oscarllorca.bsky.social @rfleiro.bsky.social @nogaleslab.bsky.social
www.cnio.es/en/eventos/m...

👉Today we present Session 1 of #CFM_MolMech: Chromatin structure and remodelling.

🗣With: @kellythd-nguyen.bsky.social from @mrclmb.bsky.social, from @colorado.edu, and Siddhant Jain from @harvardmed.bsky.social

🔗Info and registrations: https://bit.ly/MolMech

The structure of the R2T complex reveals a different architecture from the related HSP90 cochaperone R2TP Palacios-Abella, López-Perrote et al. characterized the cochaperone R2T complex from Arabidopsis and determined its cryo-EM structure. R2T is organized as a double ring of hetero-hexameric AtRuvBL1/2a...

The structure of the R2T complex reveals a different architecture from the related HSP90 cochaperone R2TP: www.cell.com/structure/ab...