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Xmas stroll in the Royal National Park
Joel and Jacqui took advantage of the cool weather to head down the RNP and see what the wildflower situation was like. It's still pretty impressive - and we even spotted some native orchids with amazing dappled petals. The bridge at Audley is very Monet-esque too... And plenty of wildlife on show, mostly in the lizard department. Then there were the Aboriginal carvings hidden away on the Uloola ridge...
You don’t get this aesthetic beauty from Alphafold…
We have just solved a structure working with SOLES colleague Tara Christie (not to mention Toby Passioura and Rich Payne). The structure determination was a bit of a wrestle for Tara (as you'd expect at 3.9 A!), but gee - you can't help but love the packing in the crystal (side-on and end-on views provided). Maybe we should be using this protein to make nanotubes!
Beautiful, but CruEL…
Well, it's one of those classic structural biology stories... Scientist (Anjumara) purifies and crystallizes protein, gets 3-A dataset at synchrotron (with Chandrika's help). Can't be solved, but scientists ask cryoEM colleagues kindly and they acquire some images (thanks Alastair and James!). Images are exquisite and quickly yield a 3-4 A map.....of GroEL. Scientists then have a good model for molecular replacement, and - lo and behold - can now solve crystal structure.... of GroEL... Hard not to admire the beauty of the structure though!
Have been off X for months but had to log in to see response to AF3. I am much less smart than the authors - but am I (and Erin) the only ones to think that the helical afros that it makes out of IDRs is totally weird? Am I missing something?
Amazing story from the lab down the corridor - @RezwanSidd working with Sandro Ataide and Ruth Hall in @SydneySOLES at @Sydney_Science - now they will be thrown into the gladiators' pit I suspect with the other protagonists that prowl this landscape! 🙂 Great piece of work!
Soumya is given the nod
The official word has come through that Soumya has now qualified for her PhD degree. Graduation will no doubt follow soon, but you can practise calling her Dr Joseph in the meantime... Congratulations Soumya!
Jason gets hitched
Recently, Jason tied the knot with Dr Melissa Erce in a ceremony in Pymble that was followed by a splendid and intricately organized reception at the Sergeant's Mess at Chowder Bay. Both events were attended by a number of lab members - but for those of you who...
Gracing the cover of JBC…
Dave Gell's latest paper, on which Mitchell and Joel made a small contribution, has been featured on the cover of JBC. The paper, which is built on fantastic work by Claire Dickson, Kaavya Krishna Kumar and David Jacques, shows the structure of a bacterial iron...
Latest lab paper
A small invited commentary in J Mol Biol on non-specific DNA-binding proteins...
NHMRC, ARC and Cancer Council success
The lab was lucky enough to pick up a few grants in this year's annual funding bunfight. Joel was awarded an NHMRC grant with Tom Gonda and Dave Segal aimed at looking at the nucleic-acid binding properties of human transcription factors and a second one (with Nick...
Joel advances to high school
Last week, Joel responded to a request from the science department at Ascham School in Edgecliff to visit and give a talk on protein folding - the same talk that he gave at MLC in Burwood a few months ago. Joel is talking with the teachers about additional...
Joel goes back to primary school (again).
Joel has been involved with the CSIRO's Scientists in Schools program for 5 or so years now, and recently visited his long-term partner school - Strathfield North Public School - spending 2 days with the year 5 and 6 students teaching them about the principles of...
Flyp and Lorna’s ECPM success
At the recent East Coast Protein Meeting, Philippa won the ComBio award based on her talk and CV - entitling her to travel to ComBio in Perth this year to present her work to a wider audience. At the same time, Lorna picked up the postdoc poster prize for...
Saad hands in!
Saad has just summited that seemingly gargantuan mountain of thesis writing and handed in a very nice looking PhD thesis on interactions within his favourite protein complex. Now, time to take a breather and try to remind his family what he looks like! Well done...
A blast from the past…
Look what turned up in a lab cleanup a little while ago. What is the probability of finding a gel that has lanes on it from both Jacqui *and* Joel being at the bench at the same time?!?! See it with your own eyes! I would note that the lanes with the best...
Lab retreat done and dusted for 2013
The annual lab retreat to Hyam's Beach (whitest sand in the world - and possibly the squeakiest too) went off without any significant hitches last weekend. Fantastic weather, and we even had some intrepid cyclists transporting themselves the 30 km from Nowra to...
Another boy off to Blighty
Morgan has fared us well now and headed off to the UK to work with Alessio Ciulli, who works on the structural biology of protein-protein interactions (sounds familiar!) and who is in the process of moving from Cambridge to Dundee. I hope Morgan has packed his...