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Parenthood comes knocking again for Jason!
We welcome Isabelle into the world - and more specifically into Jason and Mel's house. They are currently trying to work out a routine that allows all five members of the household to achieve their goals (e.g., getting fed, sleeping, doing mass spectrometry etc) in an efficient manner. I must confess that I'm not entirely convinced that Matthew (behind) has signed on to give the enterprise his full support yet. 🙂
Charlotte’s farewell
Last Thursday we celebrated Charlotte leaving. Well, I mean we celebrated the time that she had with us, if you see what I mean. Brewdog in Everleigh was a great location - good beers, good (vegetarian) food and very long tables (just what we needed). We managed to grab a photo with Hakimeh, Chandrika, Charlotte, yours truly and Karishma too - for posterity! Charlotte is moving on to industry (nearby!) - working in a great local startup company - they are definitely going to boost their productivity now! Has been great having Charlotte in the lab - always positive and always looking for ways to get past thorny problems in her work (and a mean...
Jacqui spins it up!
Jacqui has been training at The Movement Academy in Alexandria, and demonstrated her latest act in their December 2022 showcase. Check it out if you want to see what she's been spending her spare time doing! Autograph requests accepted...
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.
Mehdi funds his Lorne conference visit through the SPG
At the Sydney Protein Group's recent Thompson Prize evening, Mehdi picked up the ATA Scientific Lorne Travel Award (presented by Mark Larance), which will help him attend the 2019 Lorne Conference on Protein Structure and Function. Well done...
Joel’s tenth anniversary of Scientists in Schools
Earlier this week, Joel visited his favourite primary school - Strathfield North Public School - where he worked with ~100 year 6 students to get them making electric motors and looking at a dodgy hand-made generator that he has made from a Falcon tube, a film...
Ida ties the knot
Ida Lindstrom, who visited Joel's lab from Sweden during her Masters, has returned home and has been busy both starting a PhD in the area of protein interactions involving intrinsically disordered proteins in gene regulation - and getting married. Here is one shot...
Kyrgyzstan on two wheels
Joel ventured out recently for a week of bike touring in Kyrgyzstan - place of wide open spaces, friendly people and spectacular mountain scenery (and yaks). You can read all about it (and look at the pictures)...
Steph gets the “all clear” on her thesis!
The official letter came today stating that Steph had "satisfied the requirements for the award of the degree of Doctor of Philosophy (Science)". Done and dusted! Congratulations from everyone in the lab Steph - here's hoping it leads to great things...!
Lab Retreat 2018: Nelson Bay
The lab just returned from our annual lab retreat- this year in a new location! Traditionally the retreat is held amid the white sands of Hyams beach, but this year we opted for a trip up north to Nelson Bay. In the spirit of new traditions, Jacqui and Ann invented...
Taylor graces the small screen again
In the latest installment of her hit show on Channel 7 - Get Clever - Taylor shows off her fire-making skills for Australia's youth. You can check it out here (click the photo to access the link...) - look at about...
Marylène has been extra busy…
Not only has she been planning a wedding, but she's been publishing senior author papers too. Here is her paper in J Mol Biol describing the combinatorial design of a nanobody that can recognized structured RNA molecules: Marylène's paper! A nice piece of...
Marylène et Mathieu se marient
Lab alumnus and phage display aficianado Marylène - who has returned to her native Belgium to forge her research career - recently married her beau Mathieu in what looks to have been a very stylish event. Marylène looked even happier than she was in the lab - which...
New PNAS Paper for Neil, Ngaio, and Athina!
Two papers in two days! Neil, Ngaio, and Athina just had some very exciting binding findings published in PNAS! This work includes Neil's crazy binding kinetics equations, some gorgeous EMSA data from Ngaio, and other data from Athina, Matt, and Ann. The paper...
New JBC Paper for Dorothy and Taylor!
Hot off the presses! Dorothy and Taylor's new ET paper just came out in JBC! This work features two solution NMR structures of the ET domain of Brd3 bound to peptides from chromatin remodelling proteins CHD4 and Brg1. This work also includes SPR data from Lorna and...
Graduation March 2018
Another successful graduation is in the books! This time around it was Ashley, Max, Grace, and Spencer graduating with their Hons. Even though the rain didn't dampen anyone's spirits, it did mess with our usual photoshoot and we only managed to capture Ashley and...