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Lab walk in the Blue Mountains
We ventured out into the lower Blue Mountains for a day hike on Sat 24 Feb. The forecast was that there might be some rain. And there was. The first couple of hours were persistent - though not heavy - rain. Fortunately the canopy protected us from some direct rainfall, but all of the surrounding shrubbery was saturated, and so we all were too. Still, it was warm enough that it didn't feel too miserable! The leeches were pretty happy about the weather though - and they were very keen to join us on our walk. In the end, I think Lucien might have won the prize for the most leech-friendly hiker, with about 20 bites - not that it was a competition. First, we headed down from Springwood on...
The lab hits the big time on Youtube
We recently had a camera crew in the lab from Horticultural Innovation Australia. They are providing some funding for our work to design new, selective pesticides targeting the Varroa mite that has made its way to Australian in the last year or so and is causing much concern (it's already been causing much concern in the rest of the world for some years!). They spent a long time taking footage and in the end we made the cut to their 2023 annual report video...which you can see here. Today, the Hort Innovation annual report, tomorrow Hollywood...!
Lucien picks up a poster prize at the annual meeting of the ANZSCDB – not our usual hunting ground!
Several lab members took the opportunity to attend the annual meeting of the NSW chapter of the Aus and NZ Society for Cell and Molecular Biology - which was held at Uni of Sydney a couple of weeks ago. Posters were presented and Lucien impressed them sufficiently with his work on the chromatin remodelling enzyme CHD4 to pick up one of their poster prizes (and spread some protein biochemistry to the cell biologists!). Well done Lucien...!
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.
Dave Gell’s new paper featuring old-school biochemistry
Molecular Microbiology has now published the epic piece of work spearheaded by ex-lab member Dave Gell, who is now resident at the University of Tasmania. Dave had been approached by local microbiologists who noted that some strains of Haemophilus haemolyticus...
Our RaPID screening manuscript is up on bioRxiv
The project that Karishma has been hammering away at for the last couple of years - with substantial input from collaborators Louise Walport (Crick Institute, London) and Toby Passioura (now USyd) - has been somehow condensed into a manuscript and posted on bioRxiv...
Jessica takes home the SPG Thompson Prize!
The Sydney Protein Group ran its annual Thompson Prize symposium last week - in which 5 PhD students duke it out by giving a talk on their work, and then the best presenter is chosen by a panel of judges to win the Thompson Prize (which brings with it glory *and*...
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...
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...
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...
Marylène est maintenant une mère
Congratulations to former postdoc Marylene Vandevenne and her husband Mathieu, who have become the proud parents of baby Alice on 27 March. I've been informed that she (Alice that is) is sleeping soundly from 10 pm till 7 am - which sounds like a great start to...
Xavier and Betsy’s graduation
Xavier and Betsy, who did Honours with Joel and Ann, respectively, graduated in May in full pomp and ceremony - and Jason got his chance to stand in for Joel on the stage - with the special floppy hat...
Michael Webster wins EMBO Fellowship
Michael, who has just recently finished his PhD at the LMB in Cambridge with Lori Passmore, has been successful in winning an EMBO postdoctoral fellowship to fund his work in Albert Weixlbaumer's lab in Strasbourg. Here, he will investigate how translation is...
Mehdi gets the big tick!
Congratulations to Mehdi, who has just received the official letter saying he has fulfilled all the requirements for a PhD! Hooray! Now, just the graduation ceremony to come!
Update from Antonia
Antonia Zech - who worked with Ana for 5 months in 2013-4 as part of her Masters degree in Hamburg - has sent us an update on her activities. She has been doing a PhD at the Institute of Experimental Pharmacology and Toxicology at the University Medical Center...