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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!
Karol Sanches
Following a PhD in Brazil and postdoctoral time with Ray Norton at Monash, Karol has joined Joel's lab - bring expertise in protein biochemistry and structural biology (NMR even!) to dive into the mechanisms underlying transcriptional regulation. She also has the disctinction of being the first South American in the lab (though not the first Portuguese speaker...)! Bem-vinda!
Wanted: postdoc biochemist/structural biologist to work with Richard Payne, Sydney/US startup INSAMO (and me). Goal: use cyclic peptide mRNA display to design cell-permeable peptide-based protein degraders: https://usyd.wd105.myworkdayjobs.com/USYD_EXTERNAL_CAREER_SITE/job/Darlington-Campus/Postdoctoral-Researcher-in--Peptide-Based-Drug-Discovery_0131612-1
Email for more info: joel.mackay@sydney.edu.au
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?
This is supercool, but it does like folding everything, even things that are probably disordered... As always, use with caution, and consult your friendly structural biologist before investing too much in low confidence predictions.
Socks gets the official word on her PhD
...and the word is "congratulations!" - yes - that's right - the official letter from the Dean has arrived saying that Socks has qualified for the award of the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. Well done Socks - we will put the champers in the fridge for your graduation!
Nick scores Early Career Research Award from the ARC
In the recently announced ARC round, Nick won one of the inaugural DECRA (Discovery Early Career Researcher Award) grants - from a very competitive field - overall success rate of just under 13%. Storming effort Nick - I suppose you will be wanting my office now......
More lab grant success
In the recently announced ARC Discovery grant round, Joel was lucky enough to get his two applications funded (outcomes here) - one on zinc finger design and one on trying to figure out the function of our favourite RNA-binding protein A bit of a...
Now, *this* is a cupcake!
From UNSW School of Chem's 50th anniversary celebrations - cupcake par...
Joel sweet talks a grant from the NHMRC
In the recently announced NHMRC Project grant round, Joel managed to convince the NHMRC to part with a little of its moola for a project that is focused on the design of new zinc-finger-based proteins with a new binding function. Who would have thought there was...
David Jacques lands a postdoctoral fellowship
David is off to old Blighty with his recently awarded postdoctoral fellowship from the NHMRC - he will be working with [Leo James at the world-famous LMB - a young gun working in the area of structural immunology. Perhaps David will come back and be the next Jamie...
Eija hands in her thesis
Yay! Eija has handed in! Off to Tahiti for some well-deserved R+R (and, no doubt, to dream of printers jamming for a few nights...).
Classic highlights of Chu Wai’s cycling trip
I can see a theme emerging from Chu Wai and Chu Yook's recent cycling trip around Switzerland - I think the sausage one is the best... [photos]
Roland and Liza tie the knot
Roland and Liza have taken the plunge and become a married couple - and we have photographic evidence to prove it... Congratulations to them both!
Richard Grant in the news
Richard Grant - ex-Mackay-lab postdoc, is now an associate editor at the Faculty of 1000 - the group of experts that review papers across a range of different fields and make note of ones that seem worth a read - and has been in the news recently with F1000's...
Jacqui gets elected…
...to the Executive Council of the Protein Society. It is possible that she is the first person from down under to be elected to the Council! Expect a push for lab members to attend the Protein Society meetings! Actually, I went to one in Zurich not long ago and it...
Jacqui and Lorna’s latest paper comes out in PNAS
Lorna's paper describing the multi-protein complexes formed by LMO2, GATA-1, LDB1 and - thrown in for good measure - FOG1 has appeared in the latest issue of PNAS - check it out here. You can also have a look at the structure in our structure gallery - number...