Caitie McCafferty
@computingcaitie.bsky.social
Postdoc in the @cellarchlab.com at the @biozentrum.unibas.ch. Find out more at ciliagirl.com.
Pinned
Hi! My interests include structure prediction, proteomics, cryo-EM, and citizen science. Many of which are summarized in this review I wrote with @cellarchlab.com @svenklumpe.bsky.social @rommieamaro.bsky.social Wanda and Lucy earlier this year tinyurl.com/CellreviewEM
Reposted by Caitie McCafferty
Long in the making, but happy to present the Chlamydomonas chlororibosome!
Cryo-ET🔬reveals a large new domain on the small subunit, built from multiple extensions in conserved ribosomal proteins.
bioRxiv 📖: shorturl.at/q44tG
This suggests greater chlororibosome diversity than expected!
1/n 🧵
Cryo-ET🔬reveals a large new domain on the small subunit, built from multiple extensions in conserved ribosomal proteins.
bioRxiv 📖: shorturl.at/q44tG
This suggests greater chlororibosome diversity than expected!
1/n 🧵
February 10, 2026 at 8:35 AM
Long in the making, but happy to present the Chlamydomonas chlororibosome!
Cryo-ET🔬reveals a large new domain on the small subunit, built from multiple extensions in conserved ribosomal proteins.
bioRxiv 📖: shorturl.at/q44tG
This suggests greater chlororibosome diversity than expected!
1/n 🧵
Cryo-ET🔬reveals a large new domain on the small subunit, built from multiple extensions in conserved ribosomal proteins.
bioRxiv 📖: shorturl.at/q44tG
This suggests greater chlororibosome diversity than expected!
1/n 🧵
Reposted by Caitie McCafferty
Very happy to say that our work on how axonemes are generated is now available on bioRxiv: www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6... - if you’ve ever wondered how the incredibly beautiful, complex structures within motile #cilia are constructed then this is for you!
www.biorxiv.org
February 6, 2026 at 11:20 AM
Very happy to say that our work on how axonemes are generated is now available on bioRxiv: www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6... - if you’ve ever wondered how the incredibly beautiful, complex structures within motile #cilia are constructed then this is for you!
Reposted by Caitie McCafferty
For #ECR’s:
DBG’s Hot Tpoic Workshop
on Cryo-Electron Tomography + FIB-milling
13 – 15 April 2026
In @cellarchlab.com 's lab @biozentrum.unibas.ch
Organised by @tamb-o.bsky.social, Karen Zinzius, @fannyleblanc.bsky.social
Details: www.deutsche-botanische-gesellschaft.de/en/about-us/...
DBG’s Hot Tpoic Workshop
on Cryo-Electron Tomography + FIB-milling
13 – 15 April 2026
In @cellarchlab.com 's lab @biozentrum.unibas.ch
Organised by @tamb-o.bsky.social, Karen Zinzius, @fannyleblanc.bsky.social
Details: www.deutsche-botanische-gesellschaft.de/en/about-us/...
Hot Topic Conference
Support for an "Eduard Strasburger Hot Topic Conference" for DBG's members
www.deutsche-botanische-gesellschaft.de
February 3, 2026 at 5:24 PM
For #ECR’s:
DBG’s Hot Tpoic Workshop
on Cryo-Electron Tomography + FIB-milling
13 – 15 April 2026
In @cellarchlab.com 's lab @biozentrum.unibas.ch
Organised by @tamb-o.bsky.social, Karen Zinzius, @fannyleblanc.bsky.social
Details: www.deutsche-botanische-gesellschaft.de/en/about-us/...
DBG’s Hot Tpoic Workshop
on Cryo-Electron Tomography + FIB-milling
13 – 15 April 2026
In @cellarchlab.com 's lab @biozentrum.unibas.ch
Organised by @tamb-o.bsky.social, Karen Zinzius, @fannyleblanc.bsky.social
Details: www.deutsche-botanische-gesellschaft.de/en/about-us/...
Reposted by Caitie McCafferty
You like #LLPS? #TeamTomo? #Rubisco? Check out our latest preprint!
What a great collaboration this has been!
What a great collaboration this has been!
How does molecular valency shape condensate assembly and function? We used the CO2-fixing organelle in algae—the pyrenoid—to find out… 🧵
Preprint here!:
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...
@cellarchlab.com @phaips.vd.st @biologyatyork.bsky.social
#Rubisco #PhaseSeparation #Condensates #Pyrenoid
Preprint here!:
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...
@cellarchlab.com @phaips.vd.st @biologyatyork.bsky.social
#Rubisco #PhaseSeparation #Condensates #Pyrenoid
January 30, 2026 at 3:38 PM
Reposted by Caitie McCafferty
Cilia alert! Stoked to have the new paper from Juyeon Hong about a new domain at the extreme distal tip of motile cilia! (The EDT, y'all!) It's out now @natcomms.nature.com.
Check it out!
#cilia
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
Check it out!
#cilia
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
A protein complex in the extreme distal tip of vertebrate motile cilia controls their organization, length, and function - Nature Communications
Here they combine in vivo imaging with proteomics to characterize a protein complex comprised of Ccdc78 and Ccdc33 that acts at the extreme distal tip of 9 + 2 motile cilia to control tip architecture...
www.nature.com
January 29, 2026 at 1:23 AM
Cilia alert! Stoked to have the new paper from Juyeon Hong about a new domain at the extreme distal tip of motile cilia! (The EDT, y'all!) It's out now @natcomms.nature.com.
Check it out!
#cilia
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
Check it out!
#cilia
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
Reposted by Caitie McCafferty
🔬🚨New preprint alert! 🚨🔬
We developed quantitative expansion microscopy (qExM) - a method to accurately count proteins in situ by combining expansion microscopy's improved labeling with statistical estimators borrowed from ecology
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...
#SuperResolution #CellBiology
We developed quantitative expansion microscopy (qExM) - a method to accurately count proteins in situ by combining expansion microscopy's improved labeling with statistical estimators borrowed from ecology
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...
#SuperResolution #CellBiology
www.biorxiv.org
January 20, 2026 at 4:12 PM
🔬🚨New preprint alert! 🚨🔬
We developed quantitative expansion microscopy (qExM) - a method to accurately count proteins in situ by combining expansion microscopy's improved labeling with statistical estimators borrowed from ecology
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...
#SuperResolution #CellBiology
We developed quantitative expansion microscopy (qExM) - a method to accurately count proteins in situ by combining expansion microscopy's improved labeling with statistical estimators borrowed from ecology
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...
#SuperResolution #CellBiology
Reposted by Caitie McCafferty
Our research scientist Núria Ros-Rocher won the 1st prize @zeiss-microscopy.bsky.social microscopy contest with this beautiful choano colony www.zeiss.fr/microscopie/... 🥳
C. flexa might not yet be a genetic model, but it is now at least a calendar model, which counts for something. I think.
C. flexa might not yet be a genetic model, but it is now at least a calendar model, which counts for something. I think.
January 12, 2026 at 7:28 PM
Our research scientist Núria Ros-Rocher won the 1st prize @zeiss-microscopy.bsky.social microscopy contest with this beautiful choano colony www.zeiss.fr/microscopie/... 🥳
C. flexa might not yet be a genetic model, but it is now at least a calendar model, which counts for something. I think.
C. flexa might not yet be a genetic model, but it is now at least a calendar model, which counts for something. I think.
Reposted by Caitie McCafferty
This one was quite the journey! The paper describing the #ChlamyDataset is finally out and on the cover of Mol Cell!
This beautiful rendering made by co-author @jessheebner.bsky.social and Holly Peterson shows an instance of mitochondrial fission found in the dataset 😍
[Maybe long thread ahead]
This beautiful rendering made by co-author @jessheebner.bsky.social and Holly Peterson shows an instance of mitochondrial fission found in the dataset 😍
[Maybe long thread ahead]
January 9, 2026 at 7:15 PM
This one was quite the journey! The paper describing the #ChlamyDataset is finally out and on the cover of Mol Cell!
This beautiful rendering made by co-author @jessheebner.bsky.social and Holly Peterson shows an instance of mitochondrial fission found in the dataset 😍
[Maybe long thread ahead]
This beautiful rendering made by co-author @jessheebner.bsky.social and Holly Peterson shows an instance of mitochondrial fission found in the dataset 😍
[Maybe long thread ahead]
Reposted by Caitie McCafferty
Final version is out! Our large-scale cryo-ET dataset 🔬 of Chlamydomonas reinhardtii 🦠 is now published in @cp-molcell.bsky.social
Huge collaborative effort! So glad to see the community already using it to develop new resources & tools.
Check it out here: shorturl.at/z4i4c
#CryoEM #CryoET
Huge collaborative effort! So glad to see the community already using it to develop new resources & tools.
Check it out here: shorturl.at/z4i4c
#CryoEM #CryoET
December 19, 2025 at 4:45 PM
Final version is out! Our large-scale cryo-ET dataset 🔬 of Chlamydomonas reinhardtii 🦠 is now published in @cp-molcell.bsky.social
Huge collaborative effort! So glad to see the community already using it to develop new resources & tools.
Check it out here: shorturl.at/z4i4c
#CryoEM #CryoET
Huge collaborative effort! So glad to see the community already using it to develop new resources & tools.
Check it out here: shorturl.at/z4i4c
#CryoEM #CryoET
Reposted by Caitie McCafferty
Happy to share our fun team-up with @centriolelab.bsky.social & @stearnslab.bsky.social to reveal the architecture of the mammalian centriole’s Distal Ring 🛟. Very cool multiscale integration of #UExM 📏🔬with #CryoET ❄️🔬. Congrats to @ebertiaux.bsky.social & @computingcaitie.bsky.social #TeamTomo 🧪
How does C2CD3 contribute to distal appendage formation in centrioles? @centriolelab.bsky.social show that C2CD3 acts as a central architectural organizer of the distal #centriole, bridging the luminal distal ring complex & peripheral appendage sites @plosbiology.org 🧪 plos.io/496XZuH
December 10, 2025 at 11:02 AM
Happy to share our fun team-up with @centriolelab.bsky.social & @stearnslab.bsky.social to reveal the architecture of the mammalian centriole’s Distal Ring 🛟. Very cool multiscale integration of #UExM 📏🔬with #CryoET ❄️🔬. Congrats to @ebertiaux.bsky.social & @computingcaitie.bsky.social #TeamTomo 🧪
Reposted by Caitie McCafferty
Great talk (and work 🧪 ) by @computingcaitie.bsky.social from @biozentrum.unibas.ch about exploring multiciliated cells with a complementary trio of structural techniques! Looking forward to sharing the preprint. Thanks for the fab collab @centriolelab.bsky.social @stearnslab.bsky.social #TeamTomo
Next up @computingcaitie.bsky.social from @cellarchlab.com marvels us with in situ structural biology of mammalian motile cilia base- power of #cryoET with #XL-MS & #UExM! Stunning cataloguing of MIPs in different axial positions & cilia types, filamentous actin in action. #UKCilia2025 /3
November 25, 2025 at 7:30 PM
Great talk (and work 🧪 ) by @computingcaitie.bsky.social from @biozentrum.unibas.ch about exploring multiciliated cells with a complementary trio of structural techniques! Looking forward to sharing the preprint. Thanks for the fab collab @centriolelab.bsky.social @stearnslab.bsky.social #TeamTomo
Tomorrow!!
#Cilia and #Centrosome friends- tomorrow is the big day!! 🎉 🎉
Organoids for #PCD, #CryoET of the base of motile cilia, TZ organization in #IRDs, macrophages & cystic niches in #PKD, how pro-inflammatory lipids & #adipogenesis AND cilia as signal-sending organelles shedding #EVs! 🤩 😍 Join us!!
Organoids for #PCD, #CryoET of the base of motile cilia, TZ organization in #IRDs, macrophages & cystic niches in #PKD, how pro-inflammatory lipids & #adipogenesis AND cilia as signal-sending organelles shedding #EVs! 🤩 😍 Join us!!
🎆 Join us for an unmissable finale to 2025! 🎆 We're thrilled to bring our #cilia & #centrosome community together 25/11/2025 15:00-17:45 GMT! Our 53rd @bscb-official.bsky.social @gensocuk.bsky.social @ukcilianetwork.bsky.social e-symposium schedule is live: www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/bscb-genso... /1
November 24, 2025 at 3:52 PM
Tomorrow!!
Reposted by Caitie McCafferty
While trying to steer clear of the ‘best organelle’ debate, we’re delighted to highlight #JCSciliaSI, guest edited by @cilialab.bsky.social & @lottepedersen.bsky.social.
And, we hope that even the most ardent fans of other organelles can agree that cilia are certainly beautiful to image!
And, we hope that even the most ardent fans of other organelles can agree that cilia are certainly beautiful to image!
JCS Special Issue - 'Cilia and Flagella: from Basic Biology to Disease' - FocalPlane
JCS Special Issue - 'Cilia and Flagella: from Basic Biology to Disease' - News
focalplane.biologists.com
November 13, 2025 at 11:26 AM
While trying to steer clear of the ‘best organelle’ debate, we’re delighted to highlight #JCSciliaSI, guest edited by @cilialab.bsky.social & @lottepedersen.bsky.social.
And, we hope that even the most ardent fans of other organelles can agree that cilia are certainly beautiful to image!
And, we hope that even the most ardent fans of other organelles can agree that cilia are certainly beautiful to image!
Reposted by Caitie McCafferty
Super happy this work is out and included in the really interesting cilia and flagella focused issue!
Abigail Moye @abimoye.bsky.social @iobswiss.bsky.social, Theodore Wensel @bcmhouston.bsky.social and colleagues examine the sub-ciliary localisation of CEP290 and dissect the effects of its loss in mouse photoreceptors during development.
#JCSciliaSI
journals.biologists.com/jcs/article/...
#JCSciliaSI
journals.biologists.com/jcs/article/...
October 31, 2025 at 2:53 PM
Super happy this work is out and included in the really interesting cilia and flagella focused issue!
Reposted by Caitie McCafferty
🚨Our collaboration with @centriolelab.bsky.social & @gautamdey.bsky.social is out today in @cp-cell.bsky.social
We show that #Expansion #Microscopy is a broad-spectrum modality for Euks, enabling 3D phenotypic maps rooted to phylogeny.
#ProtistsOnSky #SciComm #SciSky
www.cell.com/cell/fulltex...
We show that #Expansion #Microscopy is a broad-spectrum modality for Euks, enabling 3D phenotypic maps rooted to phylogeny.
#ProtistsOnSky #SciComm #SciSky
www.cell.com/cell/fulltex...
October 31, 2025 at 2:42 PM
🚨Our collaboration with @centriolelab.bsky.social & @gautamdey.bsky.social is out today in @cp-cell.bsky.social
We show that #Expansion #Microscopy is a broad-spectrum modality for Euks, enabling 3D phenotypic maps rooted to phylogeny.
#ProtistsOnSky #SciComm #SciSky
www.cell.com/cell/fulltex...
We show that #Expansion #Microscopy is a broad-spectrum modality for Euks, enabling 3D phenotypic maps rooted to phylogeny.
#ProtistsOnSky #SciComm #SciSky
www.cell.com/cell/fulltex...
Reposted by Caitie McCafferty
Our Special Issue on Cilia and Flagella: from Basic Biology to Disease, guest edited by @cilialab.bsky.social and @lottepedersen.bsky.social, is building. We’ll be highlighting all the articles over the next couple of weeks. Follow along at #JCSciliaSI.
journals.biologists.com/jcs/issue/13...
journals.biologists.com/jcs/issue/13...
Volume 138 Issue 20 | Journal of Cell Science | The Company of Biologists
journals.biologists.com
October 27, 2025 at 10:30 AM
Our Special Issue on Cilia and Flagella: from Basic Biology to Disease, guest edited by @cilialab.bsky.social and @lottepedersen.bsky.social, is building. We’ll be highlighting all the articles over the next couple of weeks. Follow along at #JCSciliaSI.
journals.biologists.com/jcs/issue/13...
journals.biologists.com/jcs/issue/13...
Reposted by Caitie McCafferty
A class like no other!! From #AI structure hallucination 🤖 to #CryoEM structure reality 🔬 by @biozentrum.unibas.ch @unibas.ch undergraduate students👩🔬👩🎓 in just a few weeks!
One of their creations is this beautiful flower-shaped tetrameric pore 🌼, a brand new member of the #ProteinCosmos 🧶🧬 🧪
One of their creations is this beautiful flower-shaped tetrameric pore 🌼, a brand new member of the #ProteinCosmos 🧶🧬 🧪
October 26, 2025 at 1:48 PM
A class like no other!! From #AI structure hallucination 🤖 to #CryoEM structure reality 🔬 by @biozentrum.unibas.ch @unibas.ch undergraduate students👩🔬👩🎓 in just a few weeks!
One of their creations is this beautiful flower-shaped tetrameric pore 🌼, a brand new member of the #ProteinCosmos 🧶🧬 🧪
One of their creations is this beautiful flower-shaped tetrameric pore 🌼, a brand new member of the #ProteinCosmos 🧶🧬 🧪
That’s a wrap of the 2nd edition of our one of a kind structural biology block course at the @biozentrum.unibas.ch! In just 6 short weeks students designed protein oligomers; rotated in cryo-ET, cryo-EM SPA, AFM, and NMR labs; and expressed, purified, and structurally characterized their designs
October 25, 2025 at 12:57 PM
That’s a wrap of the 2nd edition of our one of a kind structural biology block course at the @biozentrum.unibas.ch! In just 6 short weeks students designed protein oligomers; rotated in cryo-ET, cryo-EM SPA, AFM, and NMR labs; and expressed, purified, and structurally characterized their designs
Mark your calendars for some cilia science!!!
🎆 Join us for an unmissable finale to 2025! 🎆 We're thrilled to bring our #cilia & #centrosome community together 25/11/2025 15:00-17:45 GMT! Our 53rd @bscb-official.bsky.social @gensocuk.bsky.social @ukcilianetwork.bsky.social e-symposium schedule is live: www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/bscb-genso... /1
October 21, 2025 at 9:40 PM
Mark your calendars for some cilia science!!!
Reposted by Caitie McCafferty
Last Friday (17th), we had an amazing first Young Swiss Tomo meeting in Bern, organized with Elda Bauda, Zanetta Kechagia, and @leonieanton.bsky.social!
Over 70 people from 🇨🇭 gathered to talk about cryo-electron tomography 🔬.
Huge thanks to the DCI for making the event possible! See you next year! 👋
Over 70 people from 🇨🇭 gathered to talk about cryo-electron tomography 🔬.
Huge thanks to the DCI for making the event possible! See you next year! 👋
October 19, 2025 at 9:16 AM
Last Friday (17th), we had an amazing first Young Swiss Tomo meeting in Bern, organized with Elda Bauda, Zanetta Kechagia, and @leonieanton.bsky.social!
Over 70 people from 🇨🇭 gathered to talk about cryo-electron tomography 🔬.
Huge thanks to the DCI for making the event possible! See you next year! 👋
Over 70 people from 🇨🇭 gathered to talk about cryo-electron tomography 🔬.
Huge thanks to the DCI for making the event possible! See you next year! 👋
Reposted by Caitie McCafferty
Latest from ours: www.cell.com/cell-reports...
This is two stories in one: a case study/cautionary tale on developing genetic tools in new organisms, and the first hint at a gene regulatory network for choanoflagellate multicellular development (which turn out to involve a Hippo/YAP/ECM loop!) A 🧵
This is two stories in one: a case study/cautionary tale on developing genetic tools in new organisms, and the first hint at a gene regulatory network for choanoflagellate multicellular development (which turn out to involve a Hippo/YAP/ECM loop!) A 🧵
October 5, 2025 at 10:35 AM
Latest from ours: www.cell.com/cell-reports...
This is two stories in one: a case study/cautionary tale on developing genetic tools in new organisms, and the first hint at a gene regulatory network for choanoflagellate multicellular development (which turn out to involve a Hippo/YAP/ECM loop!) A 🧵
This is two stories in one: a case study/cautionary tale on developing genetic tools in new organisms, and the first hint at a gene regulatory network for choanoflagellate multicellular development (which turn out to involve a Hippo/YAP/ECM loop!) A 🧵
So much fun to host @edwardmarcotte.bsky.social at the @biozentrum.unibas.ch and introduce him to the @cellarchlab.com, thanks for a wonderful Discovery Seminar!!
October 4, 2025 at 8:56 AM
So much fun to host @edwardmarcotte.bsky.social at the @biozentrum.unibas.ch and introduce him to the @cellarchlab.com, thanks for a wonderful Discovery Seminar!!
Reposted by Caitie McCafferty
Assistant/Associate Professor in Structural Biology, Biophysics or Biological Imaging
www.biozentrum.unibas.ch/open-positio...
#biozentrum #University #Basel #Professor #Structural #Biology #Biophysics #Biological #Imaging
www.biozentrum.unibas.ch/open-positio...
#biozentrum #University #Basel #Professor #Structural #Biology #Biophysics #Biological #Imaging
September 29, 2025 at 2:58 PM
Assistant/Associate Professor in Structural Biology, Biophysics or Biological Imaging
www.biozentrum.unibas.ch/open-positio...
#biozentrum #University #Basel #Professor #Structural #Biology #Biophysics #Biological #Imaging
www.biozentrum.unibas.ch/open-positio...
#biozentrum #University #Basel #Professor #Structural #Biology #Biophysics #Biological #Imaging
You don’t want to miss this one!
The former supervisor of @computingcaitie.bsky.social is coming to visit and tell us all about structural proteomics. Looking forward to this #DiscoverySeminar from @edwardmarcotte.bsky.social !! 😃
#ProteinCosmos 🧶🧬
#ProteinCosmos 🧶🧬
On Friday, October 3, we will welcome our next #DiscoverySeminar speaker, Prof. @edwardmarcotte.bsky.social @utaustin.bsky.social. Join his lecture on "Modern Cells, Ancient Proteins: Proteomics Across Deep Evolutionary Time to Decode Human Genetics" @biozentrum.unibas.ch @unibas.ch
September 30, 2025 at 7:56 AM
You don’t want to miss this one!
Reposted by Caitie McCafferty
Meet the CAGE: a newly-discovered protein nanocapsule💊, conserved from bacteria to eukaryotes! Looks more like an eclair🍩 than a prezel🥨. This protein pastry now makes us wonder- what's the filling!? Huge congrats to the ever-amazing @computingcaitie.bsky.social, now at the @biozentrum.unibas.ch 🧪🧶🧬
I am excited to share our new preprint on the CAGE complex, a mysterious hollow protein complex that I first saw years ago while surveying Tetrahymena ciliary lysate www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1... #cilia #protistsonsky 🧬🧪
September 24, 2025 at 12:03 PM
Meet the CAGE: a newly-discovered protein nanocapsule💊, conserved from bacteria to eukaryotes! Looks more like an eclair🍩 than a prezel🥨. This protein pastry now makes us wonder- what's the filling!? Huge congrats to the ever-amazing @computingcaitie.bsky.social, now at the @biozentrum.unibas.ch 🧪🧶🧬