Alex Guseman
@alexguseman.bsky.social
Assistant professor at UCSD Chemistry and Biochemistry. Pens fan & bbq enthusiast.
Me: ordering Girl Scout cookies online feels so wrong
Also me: oh (grad students kid) has a link to order send it my way…
Also me: oh (grad students kid) has a link to order send it my way…
February 6, 2026 at 1:41 AM
Me: ordering Girl Scout cookies online feels so wrong
Also me: oh (grad students kid) has a link to order send it my way…
Also me: oh (grad students kid) has a link to order send it my way…
Really cool work from Eugene’s group. I got to hear about it straight from the source at the protein folding dynamics conference this week!
Proud to share our newest preprint. We introduced conformational constraints (disulfides) into alpha-synclein and measured effects on aggregation. There were surprises, including a possible new amyloid polymorph and a substoichiometric chaperone-like aggregation inhibitor.
doi.org/10.64898/202...
doi.org/10.64898/202...
Disulfide engineering reveals unexpected pro- and anti-aggregation conformers of human α-synuclein
Intrinsically disordered proteins can aggregate in many distinct conformations (polymorphs). Polymorphs are a striking example of fold-switching: one primary structure able to form distinct tertiary s...
doi.org
January 9, 2026 at 8:55 AM
Really cool work from Eugene’s group. I got to hear about it straight from the source at the protein folding dynamics conference this week!
Some Pielakers past and present and honorary took Gary to an airplane museum today during the GRC! What a thrill!
January 8, 2026 at 12:35 AM
Some Pielakers past and present and honorary took Gary to an airplane museum today during the GRC! What a thrill!
My postdoc advisor is an advocate for the “post faculty fellow” positions and in theory it sounds like a super cool idea.
That being said if anyone is wanting to do one in my lab, Please email me a CV and cover letter.
That being said if anyone is wanting to do one in my lab, Please email me a CV and cover letter.
Jonathan Hodgkin retired a while ago, and is working at the bench as an emeritus fellow in his former trainee's lab
January 7, 2026 at 4:03 PM
My postdoc advisor is an advocate for the “post faculty fellow” positions and in theory it sounds like a super cool idea.
That being said if anyone is wanting to do one in my lab, Please email me a CV and cover letter.
That being said if anyone is wanting to do one in my lab, Please email me a CV and cover letter.
Successful Christmas in the Guseman household as we experimented with new recipes! Dinner for five !
December 26, 2025 at 7:47 AM
Successful Christmas in the Guseman household as we experimented with new recipes! Dinner for five !
Really excited to share a manuscript from the group. Here we worked with Julia Staubers group to look at Fe(II) based glycan displays as glycomimetics for high mannose glycans.
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...
Tunable multivalent Fe(II)-based glycoassemblies as mimetics for native high-mannose glycans.
High Mannose Glycans (HMGs) play key roles in eukaryotic biology, regulating processes ranging from protein folding to host pathogen defense. Lectins have evolved to interact with these glycans throug...
www.biorxiv.org
December 20, 2025 at 11:45 PM
Really excited to share a manuscript from the group. Here we worked with Julia Staubers group to look at Fe(II) based glycan displays as glycomimetics for high mannose glycans.
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...
This one is probably the best conference view …
December 14, 2025 at 3:01 AM
This one is probably the best conference view …
i received my first "hate mail" this week from a retired big name in my field. Essentially he said my recent work was trash and I didnt read/cite one of his papers from the year i graduated high school (shockingly it was irrelevant to the story). Do I respond or nah?
*bsky needs polls
*bsky needs polls
December 12, 2025 at 5:36 PM
i received my first "hate mail" this week from a retired big name in my field. Essentially he said my recent work was trash and I didnt read/cite one of his papers from the year i graduated high school (shockingly it was irrelevant to the story). Do I respond or nah?
*bsky needs polls
*bsky needs polls
I didn’t have an ER trip on my turkey day plans…. Thanks to the folks at ucsd med she’s all patched and we are ready to go host thanksgiving!
November 27, 2025 at 11:49 PM
I didn’t have an ER trip on my turkey day plans…. Thanks to the folks at ucsd med she’s all patched and we are ready to go host thanksgiving!
Was in downtown San Diego tonight while SfN was going on. I was in line behind a group of students who had UNC on their SfN badges and struck up a convo. They told me they were the last UNC imsd class, because it was cancelled. That shook me. UNC IMSD is the reason I didn’t quit and am still here.
November 17, 2025 at 7:43 AM
Was in downtown San Diego tonight while SfN was going on. I was in line behind a group of students who had UNC on their SfN badges and struck up a convo. They told me they were the last UNC imsd class, because it was cancelled. That shook me. UNC IMSD is the reason I didn’t quit and am still here.
Reposted by Alex Guseman
Not every mentor is for every person. I always tell grad students to listen to what folks in the lab say about a mentor, but it’s okay to also see it for yourself in a rotation. It’s about the match - finding the person who can meet your needs (which are unique!).
November 13, 2025 at 8:56 PM
Not every mentor is for every person. I always tell grad students to listen to what folks in the lab say about a mentor, but it’s okay to also see it for yourself in a rotation. It’s about the match - finding the person who can meet your needs (which are unique!).
This was a topic discussed in my group this week. anyone who might have a decent answer for this and or how to show an official transcript when they have not completed a semester yet ... we are all ears on suggestions...
Any advice on what first year grad students should enter for their GPA as they do not yet have grades? 0.0? (NA is not accepted by system)
November 7, 2025 at 7:51 AM
This was a topic discussed in my group this week. anyone who might have a decent answer for this and or how to show an official transcript when they have not completed a semester yet ... we are all ears on suggestions...
Reposted by Alex Guseman
The Leading Edge Fellows gathered this week to celebrate Zara Weinberg, a beloved member of our community. Our 7th cohort of Leading Edge Fellows (2026) will be named in her honor.
The Zara Weinberg Leading Edge Cohort application is now open! Due Feb 2.
www.leadingedgesymposium.org/apply/
The Zara Weinberg Leading Edge Cohort application is now open! Due Feb 2.
www.leadingedgesymposium.org/apply/
November 5, 2025 at 5:48 PM
The Leading Edge Fellows gathered this week to celebrate Zara Weinberg, a beloved member of our community. Our 7th cohort of Leading Edge Fellows (2026) will be named in her honor.
The Zara Weinberg Leading Edge Cohort application is now open! Due Feb 2.
www.leadingedgesymposium.org/apply/
The Zara Weinberg Leading Edge Cohort application is now open! Due Feb 2.
www.leadingedgesymposium.org/apply/
I just realized frank the bunny was the original labubu... not sure if it's kind of funny or kinda sad?
November 3, 2025 at 6:49 AM
I just realized frank the bunny was the original labubu... not sure if it's kind of funny or kinda sad?
April did a cake swap! Which resulted in a post swap cake picnic!
November 2, 2025 at 9:25 PM
April did a cake swap! Which resulted in a post swap cake picnic!
When 6 biochemically oriented PIs go out for cocktails and this is the page of the guest book the check comes out in.
November 1, 2025 at 7:27 AM
When 6 biochemically oriented PIs go out for cocktails and this is the page of the guest book the check comes out in.
Just a totally normal Halloween lecture I swear…
October 31, 2025 at 7:41 PM
Just a totally normal Halloween lecture I swear…
April and I went to a Wizard of Oz themed party tonight, she went as the beautiful and elegant glinda, and I decided to be the yellow brick road. It was a fan favorite.
October 31, 2025 at 4:58 AM
April and I went to a Wizard of Oz themed party tonight, she went as the beautiful and elegant glinda, and I decided to be the yellow brick road. It was a fan favorite.
This is absolutely heartbreaking, Zara was an absolutely wonderful person and wonderful scientist. She also had a great taste in cocktails bar as we realized we were both regulars at Butterjoint in Pgh during different timeframes. She will be dearly missed.
Zara Weinberg was a brilliant light both in and out of science. She changed the lives of everyone she interacted and loved for the better. Her legacy will live on through all of us and we will fight for a better world on behalf of her memory.
October 30, 2025 at 5:46 PM
This is absolutely heartbreaking, Zara was an absolutely wonderful person and wonderful scientist. She also had a great taste in cocktails bar as we realized we were both regulars at Butterjoint in Pgh during different timeframes. She will be dearly missed.
Whenever Angela talks about our work on y-crystallins/cataracts she prefaces it by showing Monet's work pre and post cataracts.
In 1911, Impressionist painter Mary Cassatt was diagnosed with cataracts, where lenses in the eye become clouded with protein deposits as we age.
A failed cataract surgery left her essentially blind. Her last painting was 1914.
Claude Monet was diagnosed with cataracts in 1912...
A failed cataract surgery left her essentially blind. Her last painting was 1914.
Claude Monet was diagnosed with cataracts in 1912...
October 29, 2025 at 12:22 AM
Whenever Angela talks about our work on y-crystallins/cataracts she prefaces it by showing Monet's work pre and post cataracts.
When you get given a box full of Shigemi tubes 😀
When you realize most of them a varian Shigemis 😭
When you realize most of them a varian Shigemis 😭
October 17, 2025 at 11:30 PM
When you get given a box full of Shigemi tubes 😀
When you realize most of them a varian Shigemis 😭
When you realize most of them a varian Shigemis 😭
nows that MoFs have won the Chem Nobel we can get back to real (bio)chemistry prizes!
a black cat sitting on top of a cauldron with a stick sticking out of its mouth .
ALT: a black cat sitting on top of a cauldron with a stick sticking out of its mouth .
media.tenor.com
October 8, 2025 at 7:27 PM
nows that MoFs have won the Chem Nobel we can get back to real (bio)chemistry prizes!
I know of a lot of high powered magnets in Pittsburgh…. But I didn’t know I could use them to move furniture !!
Lawrenceville. 46th Street. Caller says that his neighbors have a high powered magnet and are using it and other dark arts to move his furniture. Happy Halloween season.
October 1, 2025 at 7:33 PM
I know of a lot of high powered magnets in Pittsburgh…. But I didn’t know I could use them to move furniture !!
🐧🐧🐧🌸🌸🌸🐧🐧🐧
Thank you Marc Andre for all the memories!!!! (Picture courtesy of Father in law)
Thank you Marc Andre for all the memories!!!! (Picture courtesy of Father in law)
September 28, 2025 at 8:05 AM
🐧🐧🐧🌸🌸🌸🐧🐧🐧
Thank you Marc Andre for all the memories!!!! (Picture courtesy of Father in law)
Thank you Marc Andre for all the memories!!!! (Picture courtesy of Father in law)
anyone ever have a cytiva column valve confuse upflow and downflow?
September 18, 2025 at 12:22 AM
anyone ever have a cytiva column valve confuse upflow and downflow?