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Varroa work in the spotlight
Our work to design safer insecticides - particularly ones targeting honeybee pests (which was funded recently by Horticultural Innovations Australia) - has become more immediately topical overnight with a report (and followups 1 2) that the dreaded Varroa mite has been detected in beehives in Newcastle, near Sydney. Australia is one of the only countries left in the world where this pest has been kept at bay, and there are concerns that it is only a matter of time before the mite finds its way in and takes hold. Yesterday Joel talked with Sarah McDonald on ABC Drive Sydney radio about the issue. You can listen here (5 min 15 s through to 15 min or so), and today talked with ABC Rural...
Rogaine outing with collaborator Alyson Ashe
Joel and Alyson participated in the 2022 Paddy Pallin 6-hour rogaine yesterday - organized by the NSW Rogaining Association. Weather was perfect and had a fantastic outing - Alyson's first ever rogaine, but she smashed it - a complete natural. Running strongly the whole way *and* keeping in contact with the map (very hard to do at the same time...). Finished up 5th of 150 teams (second mixed veterans team...) - a first outing to be pleased with!
New lab preprint – on the mechanism of CHD4-driven chromatin remodelling
Our new preprint has taken forever but is now on biorxiv - WHEW! We (Jessica, Hakimeh, and Bishnu - with great support from Jason, Ana, Stefan, Chandrika - and Santosh at the Synchrotron) examine the auxiliary domains of chromatin remodeller CHD4, finding an IDR that promotes remodelling in a way that is dependent on its amino-acid composition but not the sequence, an autoinhibitory domain that binds the DNA translocase domain and a SANT-SLIDE that binds DNA and relieves autoinhibition. Now to see if a journal likes it! Wish us luck... Set featured...
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?
Amazing story from the lab down the corridor - @RezwanSidd working with Sandro Ataide and Ruth Hall in @SydneySOLES at @Sydney_Science - now they will be thrown into the gladiators' pit I suspect with the other protagonists that prowl this landscape! 🙂 Great piece of work!
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...
New lab baby!
After 34 hours of labor and a helpful push from some halal KFC, Maryam and Hassan welcomed their first child yesterday! We can't wait to meet him and wish nothing but the best to their little family!
Congratulations Neil!
Congratulations are in order! Neil was selected as the Sydney Protein Group's ComBio Early Career Researcher speaker! He won a slot to give a talk at the meeting as well as $800 toward Opal card fare to go to the conference in October. The award is very...
Lorne Proteins 2018
Our structural biology contingent headed down to Lorne for this year's proteins meeting at the new Cumberland venue! Not only did the meeting have the stunning views and great talks that Lorne is known for, but Pathtech was giving out inflatable monkeys providing...
SOLES Ball 2017
This was the first year of the SOLES ball (formerly known as the Amoeba ball). Inspired by its location (the rather ritzy Australian Museum), the theme was "Night at the Museum" and everyone got the "dress like an ancient Egyptian" memo. Here are a few photos of...
Showing off the Royal National Park
Tanja Mittag from St Judes in Memphis stopped off in Sydney to give a seminar after being an invited speaker at the Lorne Protein Conference this week. Her work on liquid droplets is very interesting indeed - and it's a field that is really just beginning I think....
Graduation May 2017
Today we celebrated 4 lab graduates! Dorothy graduated with her PhD, hard-earned and well deserved! Matt, Anthony, and Gabrielle all graduated with their Hons, again well deserved! Check out some of the photos from the celebrations!
Paper featured in special edition of JBC!
JBC is putting out a special virtual issue with a focus on protein science in Australasia to honour the Lorne Protein conference and we received word that one of our papers is featured! "CHD4 Is a Peripheral Component of the Nucleosome Remodeling and Deacetylase...
Lab Retreat 2017- Hyam’s Beach
The lab headed down to Hyam's for the weekend for our annual retreat! Games were played, a delicious group dinner was had, sights were taken in, and many kangaroos were spotted (sadly after Mehdi and Diba left).