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brettcollins.bsky.social
Brett Collins
@brettcollins.bsky.social
2.3K followers 2.9K following 190 posts
Structural biologist studying proteins that move things from A to B. University of Queensland, Institute for Molecular Bioscience. Centre for Cell Biology of Chronic Disease.
He/Him.
https://imb.uq.edu.au/research-groups/collins
Posts Replies Media Videos
Reposted by Brett Collins
events.embl.org
2026 has just begun and we are looking forward to welcoming you to EMBL for another year of groundbreaking science.

Our programme now features even more events, check it out ➡️ s.embl.org/2026-poster
January 27, 2026 at 11:40 AM
Reposted by Brett Collins
cyntiat.bsky.social
Finally out 🎉
New paper in Nature Chemical Biology!

Using RF-diffusion, we designed protein inhibitors that bind the CRISPR Cas13a active site, something very hard to find in nature.

Thanks to everyone involved for the hard work! 👏

www.nature.com/articles/s41...
De novo design of potent CRISPR–Cas13 inhibitors - Nature Chemical Biology
Taveneau et al. leverage artificial-intelligence-driven protein design to create inhibitors that control RNA-targeting enzymes in cells, revealing a strategy to rapidly design off-switches for RNA-edi...
www.nature.com
January 27, 2026 at 10:20 AM
Reposted by Brett Collins
admirablewomen.bsky.social
Biochemist/molecular biologist Joan Steitz was born #OTD in 1941.

She (& team) figured out how our cells read/use genetic instructions to make proteins. A key person who helped crack the code on RNA—the molecule that acts like a messenger between DNA & and the proteins our bodies need. #WomenInSTEM
Color photograph of Joan Steitz (Joan Argetsinger Steitz), the distinguished American molecular biologist and biochemist renowned for her groundbreaking discoveries in RNA biology, including the identification of small nuclear ribonucleoproteins (snRNPs) essential to RNA splicing. She is pictured in a close-up portrait within a laboratory or research setting, smiling warmly and directly at the camera with an engaging, approachable expression that conveys enthusiasm and expertise. Steitz has gray hair pulled back, striking blue eyes, and is wearing large, elaborate dangling earrings adorned with purple gemstones and metallic accents. She is dressed in a rich purple blouse. The softly blurred background includes scientific elements such as lab benches, equipment, monitors, charts, and partial signage, evoking the environment of her long career at Yale University where she served as Sterling Professor of Molecular Biophysics and Biochemistry. #JoanSteitz #MolecularBiology #WomenInScience #Biochemistry #RNA
January 26, 2026 at 7:08 PM
Reposted by Brett Collins
cdelawalla.bsky.social
Wow. This is devastating.

www.science.org/content/arti...
U.S. government has lost more than 10,000 STEM Ph.D.s since Trump took office
A Science analysis reveals how many were fired, retired, or quit across 14 agencies
www.science.org
January 27, 2026 at 2:14 AM
Reposted by Brett Collins
extremetemps.bsky.social
HISTORIC:NEARLY 50C IN SOUTH AUSTRALIA
A deadly heat wave is rewriting climatic history

Many all time records
49.5 Ceduna
48.6 Wudinna
47.9 Cummins
46.1 Dubbo
etc
monthly
42.9 Mudgee
37.8 Stanthorpe

Tomorrow will be a madness
Nearly 50C between Victoria and New South Wales‼️
January 26, 2026 at 11:05 AM
Reposted by Brett Collins
admirablewomen.bsky.social
Jane Richardson was born #OTD in 1941

+ Developed the Richardson (ribbon) diagram to represent proteins' 3D structure (becoming a standard representation for protein structures)
+ MacArthur Fellow, 1985
+ Elected, Nat'l Academy of Sciences, 1991
+ President, Biophysical Society, 2012

#WomenInSTEM
Vibrant color portrait of Jane S. Richardson, the visionary biophysicist and artist who revolutionized structural biology with her invention of ribbon diagrams. She gazes warmly at the camera with a bright, knowing smile that radiates quiet brilliance and decades of curiosity. Her silver-blonde hair woven with gentle waves. Large, elegant dangling earrings catch the light, and she wears a richly patterned brown blouse embroidered with intricate turquoise paisley motifs and delicate beadwork that echoes the molecular elegance she has spent her life depicting. Behind her floats a luminous, dreamlike backdrop of glowing molecular structures--interlocking hexagonal and ribbon-like forms in electric blues, teals, and greens--blending science and art in a single, living canvas. Hand-drawn and hand-colored (by Jane Richardson) scientific artwork known as a Richardson ribbon diagram (or “ribbon model”), one of the iconic visual inventions of Jane Richardson that transformed the way we see and understand protein structures. A graceful, three-dimensional tangle of protein backbone ribbons twists and spirals through space, rendered in soft pencil lines and luminous watercolor hues. Smooth golden-brown coils represent α-helices that curl like elegant ribbons, while broad teal-green arrows trace the flat, pleated strands of β-sheets slicing through the molecule with directional purpose. Thin, looping golden threads connect the secondary structures, creating a delicate, almost dance-like choreography of biology’s hidden architecture. The entire form is framed by a simple olive-green mat and dark border, giving the drawing the quiet dignity of both fine art and precise scientific illustration—a timeless bridge between molecular reality and human imagination.
January 26, 2026 at 12:06 AM
Reposted by Brett Collins
mon4kooyong.bsky.social
Right now, the Government is starving medical research of full funding, even as it claims that science and research are national priorities. If our leaders truly value science as much as they say, then they must back their words with action—and fund it properly.

Join the campaign!
Medical Research Matters
www.moniqueryan.com.au
January 23, 2026 at 5:23 AM
Reposted by Brett Collins
drnatsampaio.bsky.social
Australians! Please get behind this campaign to release more funds for research!!!! Share with your mates and family! Let’s pressure the gov to release the extra MRFF funds. Can you imagine what a difference this could make? 🇦🇺🦘🧬🔬🧪🧫
mon4kooyong.bsky.social Dr Monique Ryan @mon4kooyong.bsky.social · 4d
Right now, the Government is starving medical research of full funding, even as it claims that science and research are national priorities. If our leaders truly value science as much as they say, then they must back their words with action—and fund it properly.

Join the campaign!
Medical Research Matters
www.moniqueryan.com.au
January 24, 2026 at 8:52 AM
Reposted by Brett Collins
clairesnaylor.bsky.social
WEBINAR: Dr. Danielle Grotjahn, Scripps Research discusses how #cryoET shapes our understanding of cellular architecture, and analyzing data to extract quantitative insights: 10 Feb, 5 PM CET | 11 Feb, 5 AM CET

Register here: ter.li/zfiv48

#CellBiology #StructuralBiology #ElectronMicroscopy
January 23, 2026 at 11:21 AM
Reposted by Brett Collins
grogsgamut.bsky.social
Mildura with 43C today, and that could be as cold as it gets until next Saturday
Mildura forecasts Sunday: 44 M: 46 T: 48 W: 45 T: 44 F: 46 S: 41
January 24, 2026 at 9:04 AM
Reposted by Brett Collins
lacarlson.bsky.social
I am super happy to share this paper in its final form. We used FIB milling to "dig in to" cell lines and mouse brains infected with tick-borne flaviviruses, followed by cryo-ET to study the virus replication. It's open access, so have a look!
#virology #teamtomo
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
Cryo-electron tomography reveals coupled flavivirus replication, budding and maturation - Nature Communications
In this study, Dahmane et al use a method called cryo-electron tomography to uncover new details of how tick-borne flaviviruses transform cells into virus factories.
www.nature.com
January 23, 2026 at 4:47 PM
Reposted by Brett Collins
kellythd-nguyen.bsky.social
Excited to share our latest work on dissecting the mechanism of processive telomeric DNA synthesis by telomerase. Led by amazing PhD student Sebastian Balch in collaboration with lab members,@automnenine.bsky.social @rachael-kretsch.bsky.social,@rdaslab.bsky.social.
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
Structures of nucleotide-bound human telomerase at several steps of its telomeric DNA repeat addition cycle - Nature Communications
To maintain genome stability, the specialised reverse transcriptase telomerase processively adds telomeric DNA repeats to chromosome ends. Here the authors reported structures of human telomerase at t...
www.nature.com
January 23, 2026 at 6:57 AM
Reposted by Brett Collins
buzzbaum.bsky.social
A reminder to sign up for the 2026 EMBO archaeal meeting im Cambridge: meetings.embo.org/event/26-arc.... Registration is open. We are looking forward to hosting you!
Molecular Biology of Archaea: Life Through the Prism of Archaea
In 1977, Woese and colleagues revealed Archaea as a distinct domain of life. Building on this insight, the discovery of Asgard archaea has strengthened the view that many hallmarks of eukaryotic cell…
meetings.embo.org
January 23, 2026 at 8:15 AM
Reposted by Brett Collins
akelacooper.bsky.social
Reupping this cause it’s evergreen and I feel better knowing someone out there called him out like this
A screenshot of an opinion by Oliver Kornetzke from August 18th, 2025. There’s a photo of a tired, bloated Donald trump over the opinion that reads: behold. The festering carcass of American rot shoved into an ill fitting suit: the sleeves of economy, man, the cowardice of a draft dodger, the gluttony of a parasite, the racism of a clansman, the sexism of a back alley creep, and the greed of a hedge fund ghoul – all spray painted orange and paraded like a prize hog at a country fair. Not a president. Not even a man. Just the diseased distillation of everything this country swears it isn’t but has always been – arrogance dressed up as exceptionalism, stupidity passed off as common sense, cruelty sold as toughness, greed, exalted as ambition, and corruption worship like gospel. It is America’s shadow made flesh, a rotting pumpkin idol, proving that when a nation kneels before money, power, and spike, it doesn’t just lose its soul – it shits out this bloated, obscenity, and calls it a leader.
January 23, 2026 at 5:01 AM
Reposted by Brett Collins
labvanni.bsky.social
Happy to share the latest from the lab, led by Daniel Alvarez, in collaboration with @lizconibear.bsky.social‬. In this AA-MD tour-de-force, we delve deep into the mechanism and energetics of lipid uptake by bridge-like lipid transfer proteins, and we learn a few interesting things along the way...
August 7, 2025 at 8:45 AM
Reposted by Brett Collins
jennyrohn.bsky.social
Does anyone else think this gif looks like somebody crowd-surfing at a gig?
labvanni.bsky.social Vanni Lab at UNIFR, Switzerland @labvanni.bsky.social · Aug 7
Happy to share the latest from the lab, led by Daniel Alvarez, in collaboration with @lizconibear.bsky.social‬. In this AA-MD tour-de-force, we delve deep into the mechanism and energetics of lipid uptake by bridge-like lipid transfer proteins, and we learn a few interesting things along the way...
January 22, 2026 at 4:07 PM
Reposted by Brett Collins
anthonyjhannan.bsky.social
www.linkedin.com/posts/dr-sha...
Medical Research Matters. Thank you Monique for your advocacy on this. It has been a delight working with you and your team. The Australian Society for Medical Research is very proud to be part of… |...
Medical Research Matters. Thank you Monique for your advocacy on this. It has been a delight working with you and your team. The Australian Society for Medical Research is very proud to be part of th...
www.linkedin.com
January 22, 2026 at 10:09 PM
Reposted by Brett Collins
nmoris.bsky.social
She was so excited to receive a copy of this in physical form, Komal (joint 1st author) even colour coordinated! 😂 So proud of the team who delivered this fab work 💪🏼 …and our first cover too! ⭐️
Komal Makwana (Postdoc in the Moris lab) wears purple and holds the December 2025 issue of Nature Cell Biology with a purple image of an hTLS on the cover)
January 22, 2026 at 6:53 PM
Reposted by Brett Collins
robparton.bsky.social
Excited to share our work engineering caveolin-derived nanoparticles “caveospheres”. We show their use for targeted transfection in cultured cells and effective targeted delivery and tumor killing in vivo.
pubs.acs.org/doi/full/10....
A Modular Encapsulation System for Precision Delivery of Proteins, Nucleic Acids, and Small Molecules
Targeted nanoparticles have the potential to revolutionize therapeutics for medical applications. Here, we demonstrate the utility of a flexible precision nanovesicle delivery system for functional de...
pubs.acs.org
January 22, 2026 at 1:13 AM
Reposted by Brett Collins
benjhogan.bsky.social
We’re delighted to see this out today! Latest work from the lab reveals insights into the evolution of brain immunity and the developmental and evolutionary plasticity of lymphatic endothelial cells.
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
Convergent evolution of scavenger cell development at brain borders - Nature
Transcription factor osr2 is identified as a specific marker and regulator of mural lymphatic endothelial cell (muLEC) differentiation and maintenance, and muLECs and border-associated macrophages sha...
www.nature.com
January 21, 2026 at 8:42 PM
Reposted by Brett Collins
shyamalm.bsky.social
We are running the cryo-ET image processing workshop again this year! Come learn everything tomo: STA, segmentation, heterogeneity analysis from @baradlab.com @williamnwan.bsky.social and others!

Apply!
umlifesciences.bsky.social U-M Life Sciences Institute @umlifesciences.bsky.social · 7d
While everything feels flash-frozen in Michigan, it's a great time to plan for U-M's 2026 #CryoET Data Processing Workshop!
This hands-on workshop will introduce participants to standard image processing packages used to analyze cryo-ET data.
Apply by March 20: myumi.ch/lsi-cryo-wor...
Cryo-electron tomogram on a navy background with text: Cryo-ET Data Processing Workshop. June 7-11, 2026
January 20, 2026 at 2:20 PM
Reposted by Brett Collins
princess-vimentin.bsky.social
Happy Monday Y’all!
January 19, 2026 at 1:39 PM
Reposted by Brett Collins
maxkozlov.bsky.social
The charts in the story are just jaw-dropping.

Take this one, showing the bludgeon the Trump admin has taken to the federal scientific workforce.
January 20, 2026 at 11:15 PM
Reposted by Brett Collins
biotay.bsky.social
Cow Tools!

We have lived alongside cows for nearly 10,000 years.
We breed them and exploit them

It is now, only now, that we have discovered THEY CAN USE TOOLS

Here I describe our study

(paper) www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti... in @currentbiology.bsky.social
with @auersperga.bsky.social
January 19, 2026 at 5:26 PM
Reposted by Brett Collins
wilflinglab.bsky.social
LLOMe has long been used to study lysosomal damage, yet how it works has remained a mystery.
Using cryo-electron tomography, we show it forms amyloid structures inside lysosomes that mechanically rupture membranes – revealing a new paradigm for lysosomal failure.

🔗 doi.org/10.64898/202...

#CryoET
January 20, 2026 at 10:01 AM