Holly Merta, PhD
@hollymerta.bsky.social
Science educator; Sub-organellar organization
- former postdoc @ UTSW Cell Biology Henne lab @hennelab.bsky.social
- former PhD ‘21 Yale MCDB @Bahmanyarlab
- NIGMS F32, Leading Edge Fellow 🧑🔬🔬🧫💚
- former postdoc @ UTSW Cell Biology Henne lab @hennelab.bsky.social
- former PhD ‘21 Yale MCDB @Bahmanyarlab
- NIGMS F32, Leading Edge Fellow 🧑🔬🔬🧫💚
Reposted by Holly Merta, PhD
Fat storage in the body relies on specialized structures called lipid droplets. In a new Science study, researchers identified the microprotein adipogenin as a regulator of adipocyte lipid droplet size, revealing a key mechanism in lipid homeostasis.
Learn more this week: https://scim.ag/4nFEGO7
Learn more this week: https://scim.ag/4nFEGO7
November 6, 2025 at 7:05 PM
Fat storage in the body relies on specialized structures called lipid droplets. In a new Science study, researchers identified the microprotein adipogenin as a regulator of adipocyte lipid droplet size, revealing a key mechanism in lipid homeostasis.
Learn more this week: https://scim.ag/4nFEGO7
Learn more this week: https://scim.ag/4nFEGO7
Reposted by Holly Merta, PhD
A pleasure to write this short review on lipid droplets for
@jcb.org together with Will Prinz and amazing artist Emma Reynolds!
We discuss 5 pervasive questions surrounding these remarkable little lipid organelles.
doi.org/10.1083/jcb....
@jcb.org together with Will Prinz and amazing artist Emma Reynolds!
We discuss 5 pervasive questions surrounding these remarkable little lipid organelles.
doi.org/10.1083/jcb....
Lipid droplets: Open questions and conceptual advances around a unique organelle | Journal of Cell Biology | Rockefeller University Press
Henne and Prinz discuss the lipid droplet field and pervasive questions surrounding droplets and their roles in physiology and disease.
doi.org
September 11, 2025 at 2:04 PM
A pleasure to write this short review on lipid droplets for
@jcb.org together with Will Prinz and amazing artist Emma Reynolds!
We discuss 5 pervasive questions surrounding these remarkable little lipid organelles.
doi.org/10.1083/jcb....
@jcb.org together with Will Prinz and amazing artist Emma Reynolds!
We discuss 5 pervasive questions surrounding these remarkable little lipid organelles.
doi.org/10.1083/jcb....
Reposted by Holly Merta, PhD
New review: Henne (@hennelab.bsky.social), Reynolds, and Prinz discuss recent discoveries and enduring mysteries in the lipid droplet field. rupress.org/jcb/article/...
#Biochemistry #CellMetabolism #LipidDroplets
#Biochemistry #CellMetabolism #LipidDroplets
September 11, 2025 at 4:15 PM
New review: Henne (@hennelab.bsky.social), Reynolds, and Prinz discuss recent discoveries and enduring mysteries in the lipid droplet field. rupress.org/jcb/article/...
#Biochemistry #CellMetabolism #LipidDroplets
#Biochemistry #CellMetabolism #LipidDroplets
Reposted by Holly Merta, PhD
Our protocol for gene editing is online and all plasmids are on @addgene.bsky.social! CRISPR away everybody and get in touch if you need anything 🤩
Protocol for fast antibiotic resistance-based gene editing of mammalian cells with CRISPR-Cas9 #protocol #starprotocols #cellpress
Protocol for fast antibiotic resistance-based gene editing of mammalian cells with CRISPR-Cas9
Protein tagging with CRISPR-Cas9 enables the investigation of protein function in its native environment but is limited by low homology-directed repair (HDR) efficiency. Here, we present a protocol for fast antibiotic resistance-based gene editing with CRISPR-Cas9 (FAB-CRISPR), which streamlines N/C-terminal tagging using an antibiotic resistance cassette for rapid selection and enrichment of gene-edited cells. We describe in detail guide RNA and HDR donor plasmid cloning, transfection of editin...
dlvr.it
August 13, 2025 at 10:22 AM
Our protocol for gene editing is online and all plasmids are on @addgene.bsky.social! CRISPR away everybody and get in touch if you need anything 🤩
Reposted by Holly Merta, PhD
Nodal modulator (NOMO) is a force-bearing transmembrane protein required for muscle differentiation, say Brigitte Naughton, Christian Schlieker @schliekerlab.bsky.social and colleagues @yaleschoolofmed.bsky.social: rupress.org/jcb/article/...
#StructuralBiology #Biochemistry #Organelles #Membrane
#StructuralBiology #Biochemistry #Organelles #Membrane
July 22, 2025 at 2:58 PM
Nodal modulator (NOMO) is a force-bearing transmembrane protein required for muscle differentiation, say Brigitte Naughton, Christian Schlieker @schliekerlab.bsky.social and colleagues @yaleschoolofmed.bsky.social: rupress.org/jcb/article/...
#StructuralBiology #Biochemistry #Organelles #Membrane
#StructuralBiology #Biochemistry #Organelles #Membrane
Reposted by Holly Merta, PhD
Naughton et al. @schliekerlab.bsky.social conducted force measurements within the endoplasmic reticulum (ER) measuring forces in the piconewton range uncovering a critical role for NOMO as force-bearing transmembrane protein that is critical for myogenesis. rupress.org/jcb/article/...
July 15, 2025 at 4:15 PM
Naughton et al. @schliekerlab.bsky.social conducted force measurements within the endoplasmic reticulum (ER) measuring forces in the piconewton range uncovering a critical role for NOMO as force-bearing transmembrane protein that is critical for myogenesis. rupress.org/jcb/article/...
Reposted by Holly Merta, PhD
Nodal modulator (NOMO) is a force-bearing transmembrane protein required for muscle differentiation url: rupress.org/jcb/article/...
Nodal modulator (NOMO) is a force-bearing transmembrane protein required for muscle differentiation | Journal of Cell Biology | Rockefeller University Press
Naughton et al. establish that the ER experiences forces in the piconewton range across the ER lumen and identify NOMO as a force-bearing transmembrane pro
rupress.org
July 15, 2025 at 2:47 PM
Nodal modulator (NOMO) is a force-bearing transmembrane protein required for muscle differentiation url: rupress.org/jcb/article/...
Reposted by Holly Merta, PhD
We had a great kick-off of our Lipid Metabolism & Neurodegenerative Disease Mini-symposium! Many thanks to all speakers and attendees! #UTSW_science
May 19, 2025 at 12:41 PM
We had a great kick-off of our Lipid Metabolism & Neurodegenerative Disease Mini-symposium! Many thanks to all speakers and attendees! #UTSW_science
Reposted by Holly Merta, PhD
🧵5 Top Free Alternatives to BioRender for Scientific Illustrations!
These five websites offer free scientific illustrations for biologists. Great for presentations, research papers and other research communication needs.
Save and share the post!
These five websites offer free scientific illustrations for biologists. Great for presentations, research papers and other research communication needs.
Save and share the post!
May 13, 2025 at 7:55 PM
🧵5 Top Free Alternatives to BioRender for Scientific Illustrations!
These five websites offer free scientific illustrations for biologists. Great for presentations, research papers and other research communication needs.
Save and share the post!
These five websites offer free scientific illustrations for biologists. Great for presentations, research papers and other research communication needs.
Save and share the post!
I am excited to announce that my postdoc work in @hennelab.bsky.social is now online at Cell Reports! Congrats and thanks to all who helped us on this journey!
Important to celebrate trainee victories: excited to have Holly Merta's @hollymerta.bsky.social paper out!
We use TurboID sub-organelle proteomics to map the ER network.
We find calmin/CLMN, an ER-to-actin tether regulating focal adhesions & cell motility.
www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
We use TurboID sub-organelle proteomics to map the ER network.
We find calmin/CLMN, an ER-to-actin tether regulating focal adhesions & cell motility.
www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
Spatial proteomics of ER tubules reveals CLMN, an ER-actin tether at focal adhesions that promotes cell migration
The endoplasmic reticulum (ER) is structurally and functionally diverse, yet how its functions are organized within morphological subdomains is incomp…
www.sciencedirect.com
April 7, 2025 at 7:04 PM
I am excited to announce that my postdoc work in @hennelab.bsky.social is now online at Cell Reports! Congrats and thanks to all who helped us on this journey!
Reposted by Holly Merta, PhD
Important to celebrate trainee victories: excited to have Holly Merta's @hollymerta.bsky.social paper out!
We use TurboID sub-organelle proteomics to map the ER network.
We find calmin/CLMN, an ER-to-actin tether regulating focal adhesions & cell motility.
www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
We use TurboID sub-organelle proteomics to map the ER network.
We find calmin/CLMN, an ER-to-actin tether regulating focal adhesions & cell motility.
www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
Spatial proteomics of ER tubules reveals CLMN, an ER-actin tether at focal adhesions that promotes cell migration
The endoplasmic reticulum (ER) is structurally and functionally diverse, yet how its functions are organized within morphological subdomains is incomp…
www.sciencedirect.com
April 7, 2025 at 1:07 PM
Important to celebrate trainee victories: excited to have Holly Merta's @hollymerta.bsky.social paper out!
We use TurboID sub-organelle proteomics to map the ER network.
We find calmin/CLMN, an ER-to-actin tether regulating focal adhesions & cell motility.
www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
We use TurboID sub-organelle proteomics to map the ER network.
We find calmin/CLMN, an ER-to-actin tether regulating focal adhesions & cell motility.
www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
Reposted by Holly Merta, PhD
Following a helpful and pleasant peer-review process, our direct-view oblique plane microscopy manuscript has now been published in Optica: doi.org/10.1364/OPTI...
Special thanks to the copy editor who let us keep our cheeky little acknowledgement of the enjoyableness of drinking a cup of tea.
Special thanks to the copy editor who let us keep our cheeky little acknowledgement of the enjoyableness of drinking a cup of tea.
April 1, 2025 at 9:17 PM
Following a helpful and pleasant peer-review process, our direct-view oblique plane microscopy manuscript has now been published in Optica: doi.org/10.1364/OPTI...
Special thanks to the copy editor who let us keep our cheeky little acknowledgement of the enjoyableness of drinking a cup of tea.
Special thanks to the copy editor who let us keep our cheeky little acknowledgement of the enjoyableness of drinking a cup of tea.
Reposted by Holly Merta, PhD
Some good news (and fresh science) to break things up! Our work identifying a subpopulation of compositionally unique mitochondria that localize to filopodia and promote cell migration is now @currentbiology.bsky.social! Led by fantastic @madeleinempavey.bsky.social!
www.cell.com/current-biol...
www.cell.com/current-biol...
Compositionally unique mitochondria in filopodia support cellular migration
Marlar-Pavey et al. determine that a subpopulation of compositionally unique mitochondria,
METEORs, dynamically localize to filopodia. Loss of mitochondrial targeting to filopodia
correlates with a re...
www.cell.com
February 19, 2025 at 4:06 PM
Some good news (and fresh science) to break things up! Our work identifying a subpopulation of compositionally unique mitochondria that localize to filopodia and promote cell migration is now @currentbiology.bsky.social! Led by fantastic @madeleinempavey.bsky.social!
www.cell.com/current-biol...
www.cell.com/current-biol...
Reposted by Holly Merta, PhD
The Zwick lab has landed in the Regenerative Medicine Institute @NYU! I’m incredibly excited to build a team to study how epithelial organs are patterned and remodeled throughout life, with a major focus on the remarkable changes that occur in the maternal body during pregnancy..1/5
February 6, 2025 at 6:16 PM
The Zwick lab has landed in the Regenerative Medicine Institute @NYU! I’m incredibly excited to build a team to study how epithelial organs are patterned and remodeled throughout life, with a major focus on the remarkable changes that occur in the maternal body during pregnancy..1/5
Reposted by Holly Merta, PhD
Want to follow developments in the field of inter-organelle communication? Follow Contact @contactctc.bsky.social and its latest publications!
Contact is here at last #firstpost. 2025 also sees us adding a strapline to our title. Instead of one pithy word, we have 5 more:
Contact: The Journal of Inter-Organelle Communication
We look forward to sharing new of progress in this scientific field in general and for the journal specifically.
Contact: The Journal of Inter-Organelle Communication
We look forward to sharing new of progress in this scientific field in general and for the journal specifically.
February 5, 2025 at 6:19 PM
Want to follow developments in the field of inter-organelle communication? Follow Contact @contactctc.bsky.social and its latest publications!
Reposted by Holly Merta, PhD
A big congrats to Alia on a successful thesis defense! @themitotracker.bsky.social gave an excellent talk and did the lab proud! 🥳🎉🍾
January 16, 2025 at 11:29 PM
A big congrats to Alia on a successful thesis defense! @themitotracker.bsky.social gave an excellent talk and did the lab proud! 🥳🎉🍾
Reposted by Holly Merta, PhD
Applications are still open for the 2025 Leading Edge cohort! Deadline is Feb 3, 2025.
Leading Edge is celebrating a milestone: 100 (actually 102!) new assistant professors!!! 🎉🥳🎊
Learn more about them:
www.leadingedgesymposium.org/fellows/
Applications are now open for the 2025 Leading Edge cohort! (Deadline Feb 3).
You do NOT need to be ready for the job market to apply.
Learn more about them:
www.leadingedgesymposium.org/fellows/
Applications are now open for the 2025 Leading Edge cohort! (Deadline Feb 3).
You do NOT need to be ready for the job market to apply.
January 13, 2025 at 2:58 PM
Applications are still open for the 2025 Leading Edge cohort! Deadline is Feb 3, 2025.
Reposted by Holly Merta, PhD
Our collaboration with the Germain Lab is now out in its final form!
January 7, 2025 at 4:35 PM
Our collaboration with the Germain Lab is now out in its final form!
Reposted by Holly Merta, PhD
Leading Edge is celebrating a milestone: 100 (actually 102!) new assistant professors!!! 🎉🥳🎊
Learn more about them:
www.leadingedgesymposium.org/fellows/
Applications are now open for the 2025 Leading Edge cohort! (Deadline Feb 3).
You do NOT need to be ready for the job market to apply.
Learn more about them:
www.leadingedgesymposium.org/fellows/
Applications are now open for the 2025 Leading Edge cohort! (Deadline Feb 3).
You do NOT need to be ready for the job market to apply.
January 6, 2025 at 5:56 PM
Leading Edge is celebrating a milestone: 100 (actually 102!) new assistant professors!!! 🎉🥳🎊
Learn more about them:
www.leadingedgesymposium.org/fellows/
Applications are now open for the 2025 Leading Edge cohort! (Deadline Feb 3).
You do NOT need to be ready for the job market to apply.
Learn more about them:
www.leadingedgesymposium.org/fellows/
Applications are now open for the 2025 Leading Edge cohort! (Deadline Feb 3).
You do NOT need to be ready for the job market to apply.
Reposted by Holly Merta, PhD
Happy to announce I am serving as Director of the Lipid Metabolism & Neurodegenerative Diseases (LMND) Program at UTSW. Our goal is to stimulate collaborations bridging lipid metabolism & neurological disease.
So proud of our lab & their cell biology adventures! #onward_science
So proud of our lab & their cell biology adventures! #onward_science
January 7, 2025 at 4:02 PM
Happy to announce I am serving as Director of the Lipid Metabolism & Neurodegenerative Diseases (LMND) Program at UTSW. Our goal is to stimulate collaborations bridging lipid metabolism & neurological disease.
So proud of our lab & their cell biology adventures! #onward_science
So proud of our lab & their cell biology adventures! #onward_science
If you are at #cellbio2024, please consider coming to the Membrane Contact Sites session tomorrow (12/16) at 5pm in room 29C! Many great talks planned! I will be presenting “Keep Calmin and Carry On: Tethering the ER to F-actin Enables Cell Migration” at 6. Hope to see you there!
December 16, 2024 at 12:24 AM
If you are at #cellbio2024, please consider coming to the Membrane Contact Sites session tomorrow (12/16) at 5pm in room 29C! Many great talks planned! I will be presenting “Keep Calmin and Carry On: Tethering the ER to F-actin Enables Cell Migration” at 6. Hope to see you there!
Reposted by Holly Merta, PhD
Never found my school's 🦋, so I hope it's ok that I'm posting this myself. I'm presenting my poster today on characterizing internal mediators of mitochondrial fission at 11:15am at poster #B143! If you missed my #MitoTalks last month, please stop by! #CellBio24 #mitofission #microscopy
December 15, 2024 at 4:44 PM
Never found my school's 🦋, so I hope it's ok that I'm posting this myself. I'm presenting my poster today on characterizing internal mediators of mitochondrial fission at 11:15am at poster #B143! If you missed my #MitoTalks last month, please stop by! #CellBio24 #mitofission #microscopy
Reposted by Holly Merta, PhD
Beautiful day in sunny San Diego for ASCB #CellBio2024!
December 15, 2024 at 8:48 PM
Beautiful day in sunny San Diego for ASCB #CellBio2024!
Reposted by Holly Merta, PhD
Cohen lab will be well represented at #CellBio2024! If you love #Organelles, #MembraneContactSites, and/or #Neurons and #Astrocytes, please come say hello!
December 11, 2024 at 3:51 PM
Cohen lab will be well represented at #CellBio2024! If you love #Organelles, #MembraneContactSites, and/or #Neurons and #Astrocytes, please come say hello!
Reposted by Holly Merta, PhD
A huge congratulations to the winner of JCB's Alan Hall award, Alia Edington from the Friedman lab at UTSW
And to the winner of our Norton B Gilula award, Justin Krish Williams from the Schekman lab at UC Berkeley!
rupress.org/jcb/pages/al...
And to the winner of our Norton B Gilula award, Justin Krish Williams from the Schekman lab at UC Berkeley!
rupress.org/jcb/pages/al...
Alan Hall and Norton B. Gilula Travel Awards | Journal of Cell Biology | Rockefeller University Press
Alan Hall and Norton B. Gilula Travel Awards | Journal of Cell Biology | Rockefeller University Press
Alan Hall and Norton B. Gilula Awards
To support the next generation of researcher...
rupress.org
December 9, 2024 at 5:17 PM
A huge congratulations to the winner of JCB's Alan Hall award, Alia Edington from the Friedman lab at UTSW
And to the winner of our Norton B Gilula award, Justin Krish Williams from the Schekman lab at UC Berkeley!
rupress.org/jcb/pages/al...
And to the winner of our Norton B Gilula award, Justin Krish Williams from the Schekman lab at UC Berkeley!
rupress.org/jcb/pages/al...