The Guna lab (www.gunalab.org) is expanding and looking for a lab tech and a post doc to start working on exciting mitochondrial biology!
Lab techs: aprecruit.ucsf.edu/JPF05953
Post docs please reach out with:
1) cover letter
3) curriculum vitae
3) contact information for three references
Congratulations, Bill! Wonderful news! π
SPOILER: Bordetella sticks to #cilia
Bacteria deliver a microtubule-binding protein into mammalian cells to promote colonization | Science www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...
Photo of Gail R. Martin
SDB is sad to announce the passing of Gail R. Martin (1944-2026) after a short illness in San Francisco. Martin served as SDB President in 2007 and was the recipient the Conklin Medal in 2002 and the @FASEBorg Excellence in Science Award in 2011. bit.ly/4aIfu5d
Asgardian archaea have a tubulin that can make microtubule-esque structures? Wow!
Will phylogenetics or AF3 be the first to find Asgardβs microtubule motors, nucleators, MAPs or MIPs?
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...
Iβve been thinking about Gail this past week. Hurrah to Denisβ words. In addition to all of the above, a passionate mentor, a builder of the developmental biology community, a fearless pioneer in genetics, a careful communicator. Her absence is palpable.
Very sad news. Gail Martin (1944-2026) was a figure in developmental biology. She pioneered the field of ES cells.
A great colleague, a friend and a lovely person.
New, exciting insights into INPP5E, a ciliary PtdIns phosphatase, mutated in a ciliopathy: www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...
Registration is OPEN for the 2026 Santa Cruz Meeting on Developmental Biology!!! Please spread the word!
@mads100tist.bsky.social @socdevbio.bsky.social @bsdb.bsky.social @xenbase.bsky.social @isdb.bsky.social @devbiol.bsky.social @the-node.bsky.social
scdb2026.sites.ucsc.edu
Neat! Iβm excited to read this!
Hey Bryan! Lots of good reviews about cilia/outer segments in the retina. Wheway et al 2013 and Chen et al 2021 are both a bit disease focused but are great! As for neurons, the recent Jurisch-Yaksi et al 2024 is a nice overview. Anything youβre interested in, in particular?
The once-in-a-lifetime comedic queen Catherine O'Hara had situs inversus
#cilia #ciliopathy
www.usatoday.com/story/entert...
Cilia alert! Stoked to have the new paper from Juyeon Hong about a new domain at the extreme distal tip of motile cilia! (The EDT, y'all!) It's out now @natcomms.nature.com.
Check it out!
#cilia
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
Color photograph of Joan Steitz (Joan Argetsinger Steitz), the distinguished American molecular biologist and biochemist renowned for her groundbreaking discoveries in RNA biology, including the identification of small nuclear ribonucleoproteins (snRNPs) essential to RNA splicing. She is pictured in a close-up portrait within a laboratory or research setting, smiling warmly and directly at the camera with an engaging, approachable expression that conveys enthusiasm and expertise. Steitz has gray hair pulled back, striking blue eyes, and is wearing large, elaborate dangling earrings adorned with purple gemstones and metallic accents. She is dressed in a rich purple blouse. The softly blurred background includes scientific elements such as lab benches, equipment, monitors, charts, and partial signage, evoking the environment of her long career at Yale University where she served as Sterling Professor of Molecular Biophysics and Biochemistry. #JoanSteitz #MolecularBiology #WomenInScience #Biochemistry #RNA
Biochemist/molecular biologist Joan Steitz was born #OTD in 1941.
She (& team) figured out how our cells read/use genetic instructions to make proteins. A key person who helped crack the code on RNAβthe molecule that acts like a messenger between DNA & and the proteins our bodies need. #WomenInSTEM
Vibrant color portrait of Jane S. Richardson, the visionary biophysicist and artist who revolutionized structural biology with her invention of ribbon diagrams. She gazes warmly at the camera with a bright, knowing smile that radiates quiet brilliance and decades of curiosity. Her silver-blonde hair woven with gentle waves. Large, elegant dangling earrings catch the light, and she wears a richly patterned brown blouse embroidered with intricate turquoise paisley motifs and delicate beadwork that echoes the molecular elegance she has spent her life depicting. Behind her floats a luminous, dreamlike backdrop of glowing molecular structures--interlocking hexagonal and ribbon-like forms in electric blues, teals, and greens--blending science and art in a single, living canvas.
Hand-drawn and hand-colored (by Jane Richardson) scientific artwork known as a Richardson ribbon diagram (or βribbon modelβ), one of the iconic visual inventions of Jane Richardson that transformed the way we see and understand protein structures. A graceful, three-dimensional tangle of protein backbone ribbons twists and spirals through space, rendered in soft pencil lines and luminous watercolor hues. Smooth golden-brown coils represent Ξ±-helices that curl like elegant ribbons, while broad teal-green arrows trace the flat, pleated strands of Ξ²-sheets slicing through the molecule with directional purpose. Thin, looping golden threads connect the secondary structures, creating a delicate, almost dance-like choreography of biologyβs hidden architecture. The entire form is framed by a simple olive-green mat and dark border, giving the drawing the quiet dignity of both fine art and precise scientific illustrationβa timeless bridge between molecular reality and human imagination.
Jane Richardson was born #OTD in 1941
+ Developed the Richardson (ribbon) diagram to represent proteins' 3D structure (becoming a standard representation for protein structures)
+ MacArthur Fellow, 1985
+ Elected, Nat'l Academy of Sciences, 1991
+ President, Biophysical Society, 2012
#WomenInSTEM
AK7 deletion causes an impairment of fluid flow and ciliary function. (A) Representative images of MCCs stained with anti-AK7 (magenta, white) and anti-acetylated tubulin (cyan) antibodies together with phalloidin (green) showing strong ciliary staining in controls (Cas9 alone or gRNA alone) that is missing in AK7 KO cells (Cas9 + gRNAs). Scale is 5 ΞΌm.
#DBfeature
Centriolar defects underlie a primary ciliary dyskinesia phenotype in an adenylate kinase 7 deficient ciliated epithelium
By Jennifer Sheridan, Aline Grata, Julia Dorr, Eve E. Suva, Enzo Bresteau, Linus R. Mitchell, Osama Hassan, Brian Mitchell
tinyurl.com/c88cax5z
Amazing to hold @lottepedersen.bsky.social & my @jcellsci.bsky.social Special Issue on #Cilia and #Flagella in all its glossy glory & muscle-engaging brain-boosting weight! So much fabulous content from the community! Fab cover @centriolelab.bsky.social π₯°π₯° journals.biologists.com/jcs/pages/ci...
Excited to have my first senior author publication out in the world! An awesome collab between myself in @reitergroup.bsky.social's lab and the Berbari lab at IU. We found primary cilia are necessary for postnatal pituitary development. 1/n.
www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
Today is a big day.
After many years of work, Iβm excited to finally share a paper describing a novel approach to identifying potential breakthroughs in biomedical research, up to twelve years before the breakthrough itself occurs. 1/15
Just over a week to our FIRST event for 2οΈβ£0οΈβ£2οΈβ£6οΈβ£- 13/01/2026 15:00-17:30 GMT. What better way to fire up those neural circuits than dipping into the latest breaking #Cilia and #Centrosome science π§ͺ? Free and open to everyone- /1
You may well be right re moc-1/lin-46. I take no credit nor blame for the vagaries of GO analyses.
And, S. cerevisiae genes that are widely conserved but absent in humans also include those involved in transsulfuration for cystathionine gamma-synthase (YML082W, YHR112C, YLL058W)...
I gotta stop obsessing over this cool stuff and get back to the stuff I'm supposed to be doing... π€ͺ
Again, I'm out of my depth, but maybe correlating with differences between lots of organisms that make cysteine from sulfur and serine, and humans which need methionine to make cysteine?
Great question, Piali. I delved into the nematode-conserved (human-lost) group. Overrepresented are ammonium transport (amt-1, -2, -3, -4), cysteine biosynthesis (cbl-1, cysl-1, -2, -3, -4), chromatin silencing by small RNA (rrf-1, -2, -3, ego-1), GABA receptor clustering (moc-1, lin-46)... HNY!
Done! Please critique, Benoit. And have a great 2026, man!
Sent! Happy new year, Vijay!
I was highlighting the genes encoding enzymes because, given that almost all of these are understudied, it's harder to predict the function of the structural genes (although the pattern of their phylogenetic distribution gives some clues).
Happy new year, Mustafa! No, the genes that may be missing from humans are certainly not just metabolism-related. There are a bunch that are probably structural. For example, A0A8J1JKU6 is a 4xLRR protein present in primates but not us. Or A0A7M7NBT8 is a 13xWD40 protein present in frogs but not us.
Sent, Elphege! Check your DMs. And please provide critiques!
Thanks again, Bruce. Upon a bit of investigation, the analysis did find that CMAH was missing in humans. CMAH appears to be pretty restricted to metazoa (although Ostreococcus may have a homolog). The genes I spotlighted are all conserved more widely than just metazoa.
