Drummond Lab
@drummondlab.bsky.social
The Drummond Lab at UChicago (drummondlab.org). Cell stress, biomolecular condensation of proteins and RNA, chaperones, translation, evolution.
Reposted by Drummond Lab
Physicist and mathematician Isaac Newton was born #OTD in 1643.
Newton revolutionized our understanding of mathematics, mechanics, gravity, and optics. Later in life he served as warden of the Royal Mint, reforming currency and foiling counterfeiters. 🧪 🔭 ⚛️ 🪙
Portrait: B. Bramley, after G. Kneller
Newton revolutionized our understanding of mathematics, mechanics, gravity, and optics. Later in life he served as warden of the Royal Mint, reforming currency and foiling counterfeiters. 🧪 🔭 ⚛️ 🪙
Portrait: B. Bramley, after G. Kneller
January 4, 2025 at 5:39 PM
Physicist and mathematician Isaac Newton was born #OTD in 1643.
Newton revolutionized our understanding of mathematics, mechanics, gravity, and optics. Later in life he served as warden of the Royal Mint, reforming currency and foiling counterfeiters. 🧪 🔭 ⚛️ 🪙
Portrait: B. Bramley, after G. Kneller
Newton revolutionized our understanding of mathematics, mechanics, gravity, and optics. Later in life he served as warden of the Royal Mint, reforming currency and foiling counterfeiters. 🧪 🔭 ⚛️ 🪙
Portrait: B. Bramley, after G. Kneller
Reposted by Drummond Lab
Physicist Leo Szilard, in a short science fiction story from 1948, describing how to retard science by making the funding application longer and harder than the proposed research - now called the ‘Szilard point’
December 19, 2025 at 9:38 AM
Physicist Leo Szilard, in a short science fiction story from 1948, describing how to retard science by making the funding application longer and harder than the proposed research - now called the ‘Szilard point’
Reposted by Drummond Lab
very unusual - a tRNA regulated anion channel
December 18, 2025 at 5:26 PM
very unusual - a tRNA regulated anion channel
Reposted by Drummond Lab
(1/n) What if you never had to make your bed? What if your laundry could fold itself? Folding is everywhere around us - but did you know that folding flat sheets are at the ❤️ of diversity of shapes in the animal world - since 500 million years ago. Our latest work: www.youtube.com/watch?v=nudC...
Self-folding laundry
YouTube video by PrakashLab
www.youtube.com
December 19, 2025 at 7:47 AM
(1/n) What if you never had to make your bed? What if your laundry could fold itself? Folding is everywhere around us - but did you know that folding flat sheets are at the ❤️ of diversity of shapes in the animal world - since 500 million years ago. Our latest work: www.youtube.com/watch?v=nudC...
Reposted by Drummond Lab
Faculty position at the department of medicine, University of Chicago. Please share.
December 19, 2025 at 3:28 AM
Faculty position at the department of medicine, University of Chicago. Please share.
Reposted by Drummond Lab
🚨Preprint 2/2: Several studies implicate condensates in RTK fusion onco-signaling. So we were surprised to find that condensates are entirely dispensable😮(!). A study from proteins to mice, by dynamic duo @davidgonzmar.bsky.social and @trmumford.bsky.social.
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...
👇
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...
👇
December 17, 2025 at 3:10 PM
🚨Preprint 2/2: Several studies implicate condensates in RTK fusion onco-signaling. So we were surprised to find that condensates are entirely dispensable😮(!). A study from proteins to mice, by dynamic duo @davidgonzmar.bsky.social and @trmumford.bsky.social.
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...
👇
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...
👇
Reposted by Drummond Lab
🚨New preprint(1/2)! We show that RTK fusion oncoproteins broadly suppress EGFR signaling. How? Sequestration of adapters as the shared principle.
Led by superb PhD student Carol Gao.
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
Implications for drug tolerance/resistance, and includes one big surprise🫧.👇
Led by superb PhD student Carol Gao.
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
Implications for drug tolerance/resistance, and includes one big surprise🫧.👇
December 16, 2025 at 12:05 PM
🚨New preprint(1/2)! We show that RTK fusion oncoproteins broadly suppress EGFR signaling. How? Sequestration of adapters as the shared principle.
Led by superb PhD student Carol Gao.
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
Implications for drug tolerance/resistance, and includes one big surprise🫧.👇
Led by superb PhD student Carol Gao.
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
Implications for drug tolerance/resistance, and includes one big surprise🫧.👇
Reposted by Drummond Lab
Organelles do NOT have a single uniform pH.
And if you think they must, because “protons diffuse fast,” this paper is for you.
A thread on why that assumption is wrong; and what we found instead. 🧵 1/n
And if you think they must, because “protons diffuse fast,” this paper is for you.
A thread on why that assumption is wrong; and what we found instead. 🧵 1/n
Organelles harbour pH gradients https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2025.12.12.694065v1
December 17, 2025 at 12:46 AM
Organelles do NOT have a single uniform pH.
And if you think they must, because “protons diffuse fast,” this paper is for you.
A thread on why that assumption is wrong; and what we found instead. 🧵 1/n
And if you think they must, because “protons diffuse fast,” this paper is for you.
A thread on why that assumption is wrong; and what we found instead. 🧵 1/n
Reposted by Drummond Lab
Have you ever wondered: just how strong *is* the evidence for Muller's ratchet on mtDNA?
Well, wonder no more!
(Project led by Yu Mo, with @smishra677.bsky.social and @yadirapga.bsky.social)
"No molecular evidence for Muller's ratchet in mitochondrial genomes"
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...
Well, wonder no more!
(Project led by Yu Mo, with @smishra677.bsky.social and @yadirapga.bsky.social)
"No molecular evidence for Muller's ratchet in mitochondrial genomes"
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...
No molecular evidence for Muller's ratchet in mitochondrial genomes
Muller's ratchet predicts that non-recombining genomes can accumulate deleterious mutations, though molecular evidence for it is rare. Previous studies have tried to detect ratchet-like behavior in mi...
www.biorxiv.org
December 17, 2025 at 2:36 PM
Have you ever wondered: just how strong *is* the evidence for Muller's ratchet on mtDNA?
Well, wonder no more!
(Project led by Yu Mo, with @smishra677.bsky.social and @yadirapga.bsky.social)
"No molecular evidence for Muller's ratchet in mitochondrial genomes"
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...
Well, wonder no more!
(Project led by Yu Mo, with @smishra677.bsky.social and @yadirapga.bsky.social)
"No molecular evidence for Muller's ratchet in mitochondrial genomes"
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...
Reposted by Drummond Lab
Become a colleague in my department!
Applications close in four days, December 15.
Applications close in four days, December 15.
My department at UT Austin is looking to hire an Assistant Professor in Evolutionary Biology, broadly defined. Feel free to reach out to me with any questions you may have.
apply.interfolio.com/177547
apply.interfolio.com/177547
Apply - Interfolio
{{$ctrl.$state.data.pageTitle}} - Apply - Interfolio
apply.interfolio.com
December 11, 2025 at 7:15 PM
Become a colleague in my department!
Applications close in four days, December 15.
Applications close in four days, December 15.
Incredible thread
"I, at any rate, am convinced that He is not playing at dice."
Einstein sent a letter to Max Born #OTD in 1926, in which he gave his oft-quoted objection to the probabilistic interpretation of the wavefunction in quantum mechanics. 🧪 ⚛️
You may be surprised by where this is headed. (1/n)
Einstein sent a letter to Max Born #OTD in 1926, in which he gave his oft-quoted objection to the probabilistic interpretation of the wavefunction in quantum mechanics. 🧪 ⚛️
You may be surprised by where this is headed. (1/n)
pubs.aip.org
December 4, 2025 at 3:29 PM
Incredible thread
Reposted by Drummond Lab
"I, at any rate, am convinced that He is not playing at dice."
Einstein sent a letter to Max Born #OTD in 1926, in which he gave his oft-quoted objection to the probabilistic interpretation of the wavefunction in quantum mechanics. 🧪 ⚛️
You may be surprised by where this is headed. (1/n)
Einstein sent a letter to Max Born #OTD in 1926, in which he gave his oft-quoted objection to the probabilistic interpretation of the wavefunction in quantum mechanics. 🧪 ⚛️
You may be surprised by where this is headed. (1/n)
pubs.aip.org
December 4, 2024 at 1:32 PM
"I, at any rate, am convinced that He is not playing at dice."
Einstein sent a letter to Max Born #OTD in 1926, in which he gave his oft-quoted objection to the probabilistic interpretation of the wavefunction in quantum mechanics. 🧪 ⚛️
You may be surprised by where this is headed. (1/n)
Einstein sent a letter to Max Born #OTD in 1926, in which he gave his oft-quoted objection to the probabilistic interpretation of the wavefunction in quantum mechanics. 🧪 ⚛️
You may be surprised by where this is headed. (1/n)
Reposted by Drummond Lab
New preprint with @pyjiang.bsky.social and @kelleyharris.bsky.social! The discovery and patterns of the underlying long-standing mild-effect mutator alleles in S. cerevisiae populations www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
The discovery and patterns of the underlying long-standing mild-effect mutator alleles in S. cerevisiae populations
Most mutations are neutral or deleterious, and mutator alleles that increase the mutation rate of an organism are considered rare and short-lived. Here, we report a genomic signature consistent with t...
www.biorxiv.org
November 25, 2025 at 3:12 PM
New preprint with @pyjiang.bsky.social and @kelleyharris.bsky.social! The discovery and patterns of the underlying long-standing mild-effect mutator alleles in S. cerevisiae populations www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
Reposted by Drummond Lab
Our review on the physics of phase separation in cells has been published by Rep. Prog. Phys. 🎉 doi.org/10.1088/1361...
We hope that the text and citations are helpful for anyone interested in physical descriptions of condensates in cells!
We hope that the text and citations are helpful for anyone interested in physical descriptions of condensates in cells!
November 21, 2025 at 5:57 PM
Our review on the physics of phase separation in cells has been published by Rep. Prog. Phys. 🎉 doi.org/10.1088/1361...
We hope that the text and citations are helpful for anyone interested in physical descriptions of condensates in cells!
We hope that the text and citations are helpful for anyone interested in physical descriptions of condensates in cells!
Reposted by Drummond Lab
Hot off the press! Our latest paper led by @fernpizza.bsky.social, understanding how plasmids evolve inside cells. These small, self-replicating DNA circles live inside bacteria and carry antibiotic resistance genes, but also compete with one another to replicate. 1/
www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...
www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...
Intracellular competition shapes plasmid population dynamics
From populations of multicellular organisms to selfish genetic elements, conflicts between levels of biological organization are central to evolution. Plasmids are extrachromosomal, self-replicating g...
www.science.org
November 20, 2025 at 9:42 PM
Hot off the press! Our latest paper led by @fernpizza.bsky.social, understanding how plasmids evolve inside cells. These small, self-replicating DNA circles live inside bacteria and carry antibiotic resistance genes, but also compete with one another to replicate. 1/
www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...
www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...
Reposted by Drummond Lab
(2/10) We found that disparate drivers of acute myeloid leukemia (AML) – including NPM1c, KMT2A-r, and nucleoporin oncofusions – form nuclear condensates with a shared set of proteins including XPO1 and MENIN to drive leukemic gene expression (e.g. HOXA). www.cell.com/cell/fulltex...
Disparate leukemia mutations converge on nuclear phase-separated condensates
Mutant NPM1 and various leukemia oncofusions form biophysically indistingishable nuclear
condensates, termed C-bodies, which orchestrate leukemogenic gene expression. These
findings consolidate divers...
www.cell.com
November 4, 2025 at 5:58 PM
(2/10) We found that disparate drivers of acute myeloid leukemia (AML) – including NPM1c, KMT2A-r, and nucleoporin oncofusions – form nuclear condensates with a shared set of proteins including XPO1 and MENIN to drive leukemic gene expression (e.g. HOXA). www.cell.com/cell/fulltex...
Reposted by Drummond Lab
(1/10) How do diverse leukemia mutations converge on the same molecular program? In #RibackLab first manuscript @cp-cell.bsky.social, collaboration with @goodell-lab.bsky.social shows that disparate mutations rewire shared protein networks to form nuclear condensates called C-bodies.
November 4, 2025 at 5:58 PM
(1/10) How do diverse leukemia mutations converge on the same molecular program? In #RibackLab first manuscript @cp-cell.bsky.social, collaboration with @goodell-lab.bsky.social shows that disparate mutations rewire shared protein networks to form nuclear condensates called C-bodies.
Reposted by Drummond Lab
My department at UT Austin is looking to hire an Assistant Professor in Evolutionary Biology, broadly defined. Feel free to reach out to me with any questions you may have.
apply.interfolio.com/177547
apply.interfolio.com/177547
Apply - Interfolio
{{$ctrl.$state.data.pageTitle}} - Apply - Interfolio
apply.interfolio.com
November 13, 2025 at 3:23 PM
My department at UT Austin is looking to hire an Assistant Professor in Evolutionary Biology, broadly defined. Feel free to reach out to me with any questions you may have.
apply.interfolio.com/177547
apply.interfolio.com/177547
Happy that our paper just got accepted. Also happy that it's been available as a preprint for more than 1.5 years on @biorxivpreprint.bsky.social, updated 3x with new experiments, with >7,500 full-text downloads and 20 citations. Before publication. www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
November 11, 2025 at 5:41 PM
Happy that our paper just got accepted. Also happy that it's been available as a preprint for more than 1.5 years on @biorxivpreprint.bsky.social, updated 3x with new experiments, with >7,500 full-text downloads and 20 citations. Before publication. www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
Reposted by Drummond Lab
A wonderful collaboration between my lab and Andy Ellington and Edward Marcotte here at UT.
We obtained lots of thermal stable plastic degrading enzymes from the deep sea (Guaymas Basin, Gulf of California)
We obtained lots of thermal stable plastic degrading enzymes from the deep sea (Guaymas Basin, Gulf of California)
Plastic degradation by enzymes from uncultured deep sea microorganisms
Abstract. Polyethylene terephthalate (PET)-hydrolyzing enzymes (PETases) are a recently discovered enzyme class capable of plastic degradation. PETases are
academic.oup.com
November 10, 2025 at 6:04 PM
A wonderful collaboration between my lab and Andy Ellington and Edward Marcotte here at UT.
We obtained lots of thermal stable plastic degrading enzymes from the deep sea (Guaymas Basin, Gulf of California)
We obtained lots of thermal stable plastic degrading enzymes from the deep sea (Guaymas Basin, Gulf of California)
Reposted by Drummond Lab
Please read the thoughtful Blog that @richardsever.bsky.social and the @openrxiv.bsky.social team wrote on integrating pre-prints with AI review openrxiv.org/enabling-rev...
November 6, 2025 at 3:11 PM
Please read the thoughtful Blog that @richardsever.bsky.social and the @openrxiv.bsky.social team wrote on integrating pre-prints with AI review openrxiv.org/enabling-rev...
Reposted by Drummond Lab
Excited to launch an openRxiv partnership with the scientist-run AI review service qed (@qedscience.bsky.social), the brainchild of @odedrechavi.bsky.social 1/n
openrxiv.org/enabling-rev...
openrxiv.org/enabling-rev...
Enabling options for review: from training and transparency to author-centered AI tools - openRxiv
Peer review is widely viewed as a critical aspect of biomedical communication. Ideally, it provides authors with feedback so they can improve manuscripts and gives readers, particularly nonspecialists...
openrxiv.org
November 6, 2025 at 2:32 PM
Excited to launch an openRxiv partnership with the scientist-run AI review service qed (@qedscience.bsky.social), the brainchild of @odedrechavi.bsky.social 1/n
openrxiv.org/enabling-rev...
openrxiv.org/enabling-rev...
Reposted by Drummond Lab
Slightly less snarkily, manuscript review culture varies a lot. If a person trained in GlamHoundery reviews for a real journal they often are slightly out of step in their demands. So an important editorial function is to enforce the culture of their journal. By saying “nah don’t do all that”.
November 3, 2025 at 5:36 PM
Slightly less snarkily, manuscript review culture varies a lot. If a person trained in GlamHoundery reviews for a real journal they often are slightly out of step in their demands. So an important editorial function is to enforce the culture of their journal. By saying “nah don’t do all that”.
As an author, I frequently encounter reviewers who should be overruled -- gatekeepers. My main complaint is has been that many editors do not have the confidence/expertise to do so (but some do). a) Thank goodness for preprints, b) I review with the expectation that the paper will be published.
Remember, reviewers make recommendations, not decisions. Editors make decisions. If an editor ignores your comments, that's their prerogative
October 28, 2025 at 7:06 PM
As an author, I frequently encounter reviewers who should be overruled -- gatekeepers. My main complaint is has been that many editors do not have the confidence/expertise to do so (but some do). a) Thank goodness for preprints, b) I review with the expectation that the paper will be published.
Reposted by Drummond Lab
“It’s too easy to be swamped by a short-term political and social environment.” Neil Shubin tells “Babbage” why he remains optimistic about science in America
Neil Shubin: defender of American science
Our podcast on science and technology. We speak to the polar palaeontologist poised to lead America’s National Academy of Sciences
econ.st
October 25, 2025 at 8:00 PM
“It’s too easy to be swamped by a short-term political and social environment.” Neil Shubin tells “Babbage” why he remains optimistic about science in America