BLOG
Joels NBD…
...which means New Bike Day in bike geek lingo... Joel has spent a bit of time (well, quite a bit of time) building up a new all-road touring bike based on a custom Ti frame built by titanproduct in China. Kitted out with an old Ultegra crankset (+38T Wolftooth chainring), 1x11 GRX (taking a risk with an out-of-spec 11-46 cassette that seems to be shifting smoothly) with Enigma C-six fork, GRX hydraulic discs, Chris King headset, SQlab saddle (very comfortable so far), Salsa Cowchipper bars (feel great), and Hunt wheels set up tubeless with a Son dynamo. And couplers of course...! Rides like a dream (around the block, at least) and - once the open the border to Victoria - there could...
Priya + 1
Priya Thaivalappil - who worked with Joel as a Research Assistant way back in 2014 - is now the proud mother of a bouncing (well, hopefully not bouncing too much) baby boy named Neil. He looks like a handful...! Congratulations Priya and thanks very much for keeping us up to date!
Our first mRNA display paper hits the internet in PNAS
A big paper for us - out now here! Working with Louise Walport and Toby Passioura, who were themselves working with Hiroaki Suga at the University of Tokyo at the time, we have used Suga's RaPID version of mRNA display to discover cyclic peptide inhibitors of the BRD3 and BRD4 bromodomains that have nM to pM affinities and - in some cases - very high specificity compared to small-molecule inhibitors. One of the cool things about the RaPID setup is that you can incorporate unnatural amino acids - and our peptides all had one or more acetyllysine residues. We see a wide range of binding modes, giving hints about ways that one could design much more specific bromodomain inhibitors than are...
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.
Is there something in the air?
The other day, Chu Kong became twice the father he was before, by virtue of Annabelle giving birth to their second child - a son - which will now ensure the continuation of the Liew lineage. Congrats Chu (although i would still recommend...
Fionna loses weight – 2.51 kg, to be precise…
On 30 July, Fionna gave birth to Toby Jasper Wai, who weighed in at a healthy but diminutive 2.5 kg (before promptly drinking himself to 3.6 kg!). Congratulations Fionna! Don't take him *too* close to the magnet - you just never...
Margie is on the move (even more than usual!)
Margie has just been appointed to an tenured academic position in the Department of Pharmacology here at USyd. Although we will miss her badly, it's great news for her - a continuing position *and* she doesn't have to put up with my jokes any more! Congratulations...
Belated news from Greece…
Somewhere amongst scootering between island beaches and late night clubbing while at the FEBS Analysis and Engineering of Biomolecular Systems lecture course on Spetses in Greece last year, Morgan found the time to win a talk prize for his work on LIM-homeodomain...
Check out our latest single at the iTunes store
Next time you are picking up new tracks at the iTunes store, just search for "Joel Mackay" to download our latest hit single. If you aren't an iPerson, you can get it from here. I'm sure it's going to go...
Light show at Circular Quay
There is an amazing light show on down at Circular Quay at the moment - well worth checking out what they have done to the Opera House and the Custom...
Paula hands in her thesis
Paula took her thesis off to the binder today - probably a bit of a relief, i reckon...
Liza steps into a new teaching+research academic role
Liza has secured a lectureship in the School of Biomedical and Health Sciences at UWS. That is great news for her - finally getting away from having to put up with us! 🙂 Roland will move out there too and work with Liza on single-stranded DNA-binding...
Socks hands in her thesis
Socks has won the 2011 PhD submission stakes, despite facing competition from Eija, Paula and Cuong. Presumably that means she doesn't have to buy the drinks! The added incentive of a booked international flight always focuses the mind! Who will be next....?...
Jacqui moves into the heady heights of professordom
Hooray yet again! Jacqui was successful with her promotion application and now is known as *Professor* Jacqui Matthews! She is thinking of wearing her gown and bonnet all the time now, not just for graduations. Going to be hot in the summer!
Double Doctor time!
Check out the photos of Dr Robyn and Dr Mugdha graduating with their PhDs. Don't they look all grown up and knowledgeable! Mugdha will be heading south to postdoc with Jamie Rossjohn at Monash and Robyn is going to go just a little way northwest to postdoc with Rob...
2010 NHMRC grant success
Hooray again! More grants, this time from the NHMRC. One to Jacqui, Joel and Mitchell Guss to work on LMO2 complexes, and one to Joel to try to figure out how the NuRD complex works. We will be able to continue doing *real* experiments next year instead of having...