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Efe takes to the great outdoors
Just had some correspondence with Efe Isilak, a bright spark who spent time in the lab a few years ago, who wanted to let us know that much as he loves science, he felt like he couldn't spend his life in an indoor job - so of course he bought a farm! Took him a while to respond to my reply as he was out harvesting olives. I have a strong feeling that this is going go to well - but I made the mistake of forwarding his email to the lab, which invited everyone to come for a lab retreat...
Our Peppy VR paper hits the airwaves!
Our great collaboration with David Doak, Jane Allison, Juliet Gerrard and Gareth Denyer is now out in Protein Science here . Peppy VR is a Unity application written by David (of Goldeneye fame), advised on by Juliet, Jane and myself and tested in real-life teaching classes by Gareth. You can get it free here for Oculus (Rift/Quest): Peppy VR.
Louise and the cloudy sea
Our RaPID collaborator from the Crick Institute in London - Louise Walport - was visiting this week (on her way to a speaking invitation at the Australian Peptide Conference) and she stopped in for a visit and to give a seminar. We managed to find a day with some good weather so that we could see a little of the Blue Mountains - and we were rewarded for our early start by getting a fantastic cloud formation in the valleys - not to mention plenty of signs on the route I chose that said something along the lines of "Abandon all hope ye who enter here"...
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.
Daniel and Belinda form collaboration
Recent Mackay lab alumnus Belinda Westman has entered what looks to be a very long term collaboration with current Matthews Lab member Daniel Ryan. Date of formalization of this collaboration to be announced... - update - looks like Jan 7 2006...
Daniel wins ASBMB Fellowship
Daniel Ryan has scored one of the 2005 ASBMB Fellowships, designed to allow PhD students to travel to an international conference of their choosing. Competition for these awards is fierce every year, so it is a great achievement for him to have won one of these. He...
Sharon incubates new prospective lab member!
Sharon has announced the impending arrival of a new prospective Hons student, although it might take a few years before they are able to hold a Gilson properly. We are all hoping that things go well for Sharon, and that she is able to find something stylish in the...
Philippa et al organize the East Coast Protein meeting
On 24-26 June this year, the SPG and QPG will be co-hosting the East Coast Protein meeting at the luxurious Opal Cove Resort in Coffs Harbour. This year, the meeting will be organized almost entirely by Philippa Stokes, Sharon Pursglove, Molly Clifton, Ann Kwan and...
Mike wins poster prize at Lorne Protein Conference
Mike Swanton capped off his PhD in the lab by winning one of the poster prizes at the 2005 Lorne Protein Conference for a presentation on the work he has been carrying out over the last couple of years on zinc-finger:DNA interactions. This work has been going well...
Structure of the GATA-FOG complex published in PNAS
After about 7 years of painstaking work (!), we have finally been able to solve and publish the structure of the complex formed between the N-terminal zinc finger of GATA-1 and a classical finger from FOG. This work was made very difficult by the weak nature of the...
New research fellow to come to the lab
Dr Roland Gamsjaeger from the University of Linz was awarded an Austrian Shroedinger Fellowship to come to the lab for two years - Roland will arrive in a couple of months and brings expertise in Biacore and AFM with him.
Janet’s structure of the LMO2:ldb1 complex published in EMBO J.
The structure of the complex formed between full-length LMO4 and the LMO4-binding region of ldb1 was published recently in EMBO J. This structure revealed a very unusual binding mode - a tandem beta-zipper, in which the ldb1 forms additional beta-strands to add on...
Janet wins Young Brilliance prize
Janet Deane was awarded the Young Brilliance prize from the Cure Cancer Australia Foundation last night. This prize is awarded annually to an Australian PhD student who has made an outstanding contribution to understanding and curing cancer. The award was presented...
Dave wins Applied Biosystems Edman Award
Dave Gell won the Edman Award from the ASBMB - a prize given to postdoctoral researchers with less than seven years experience after completing their PhD. Dave will present his work at ComBio 2004 (in Perth) and receive a big dollop of cash as well!
Ann and Janet win ASBMB travelling fellowships
Ann Kwan and Janet Deane were awarded Travelling Fellowships from the Australian Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology. These highly competitive awards provide funding for the recipients to attend an international conference in their field.
Philippa wins prize at Lorne Protein Conference
Philippa Stokes won a poster prize at the Lorne Protein conference last week for her work on the CtIP:BRCA1:LMO complex. She was pleased! She plans to not release the movie rights just yet, in order to increase interest among the larger studios.