Jackson Cahn
jkbcahn.bsky.social
Jackson Cahn
@jkbcahn.bsky.social
Learning from evolution to make drugs with enzymes.
Nearly ten years in the making and finally out in print!
www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Entotheonella are insanely biosynthetically rich bacteria, but few genomes were available.

Working with far-flung collaborators, we obtained genomes for 14 candidate species from 8 sponges.
Chemical richness and diversity of uncultivated ‘Entotheonella’ symbionts in marine sponges - Nature Chemical Biology
Marine sponges host bacteria that produce diverse bioactive compounds. Here, the authors conduct a large-scale metagenomic, single-bacterial and biochemical study to reveal the untapped biosynthetic p...
www.nature.com
November 14, 2025 at 12:48 PM
Reposted by Jackson Cahn
Atropisomers are popular as chiral ligands and have been showing up in drugs and drug candidates. Making just one atropisomer isn’t trivial, though. That could change, thanks to @alisonnarayan.bsky.social and @narayanlab.bsky.social. My latest for @cenmag.bsky.social
cen.acs.org/synthesis/bi...
An enzyme gives atropisomers a specific twist
Biocatalytic approach could be used to make chiral ligands and drugs
cen.acs.org
November 12, 2025 at 4:48 PM
Imagine being part of one of the most important scientific discoveries of all time, and then when you die all anyone wants to talk about is what a huge piece of shit you were. I think there's a lesson there.
November 8, 2025 at 11:49 PM
Today they're going to ask Mike Johnson about the election results and he'll say that he hasn't heard about them yet.
November 5, 2025 at 12:34 PM
I love going to my polling place on Election Day and seeing it packed, especially with families bringing their kids. Democracy is beautiful you guys, and we should hang on to it.
November 4, 2025 at 11:16 PM
That was a great game but ooof. Maybe in another 25 years we'll get another shot.
October 21, 2025 at 3:19 AM
Reposted by Jackson Cahn
a tyrant is ignoring the constitution, firing live artillery at americans, invading our cities, and tearing down the white house to build himself a palace

our institutions won't react because they're lost in a digital dreamstate, unable to decide what is true because of social media poisoning
October 20, 2025 at 9:41 PM
Reposted by Jackson Cahn
Somehow people who found the goals of the “Tea Party” crystal clear just can’t wrap their heads around what “No Kings” is getting at.
October 20, 2025 at 5:30 AM
Reposted by Jackson Cahn
"Tyranny, like hell, is not easily conquered, but we have this consolation: The harder the struggle, the more glorious the triumph." —Tom Paine
October 19, 2025 at 12:24 AM
Reposted by Jackson Cahn
Honestly if we were a real country anymore this video would start an armed revolution
ICE arrested comedian Robby Roadsteamer for singing a parody of Rod Stewart’s “Do Ya Think I’m Sexy” in a Jeffrey Epstein the Giraffe costume outside their facility.

He sings “If you hate brown people / and you are a Nazi” and ICE thugs grab him and drag him into detention. No violence—just speech.
October 15, 2025 at 5:48 PM
Reposted by Jackson Cahn
A bit of chemistry to start your day! Sharing our latest review on sponge peptides 🧪 Surprisingly, we know so little about them...

www.publish.csiro.au/CH/CH25100
Ribosomally synthesised and post-translationally modified peptides (RiPPs) from marine demosponges and their microsymbionts
Marine sponges are among the oldest animals to have emerged on Earth. They are metazoan holobionts that host diverse microbial symbionts, which constitute more than 40% of their biomass. Despite their...
www.publish.csiro.au
October 8, 2025 at 6:18 AM
Reposted by Jackson Cahn
Ric Grenell, Kennedy Center president, organized a claque of Republicans to heckle a musician critical of Trump. It's like junior high school
www.washingtonian.com/2025/09/23/l...
Log Cabin Republicans Disrupted Yasmin Williams’s Kennedy Center Performance - Washingtonian
Staffers say center president Ric Grenell's office set aside passes for the group, which booed and heckled the musician.
www.washingtonian.com
September 24, 2025 at 5:32 PM
Joe Biden got old *one time* and now we have to live in a world where the President of the United States is shilling miracle supplements from the White House podium.
September 23, 2025 at 1:37 AM
Reposted by Jackson Cahn
September 20, 2025 at 12:06 PM
Reposted by Jackson Cahn
Also, notice Trump's complaint here - about the news, about Kimmel - IS NOT anything to do with Charlie Kirk.

It's that he was personally criticized.

He's not even hiding it! That's what this is all about. "Are you allowed to criticize the president?"
Headlines on the Bloomberg Terminal from Air Force One:

*TRUMP: TV LICENSES SHOULD BE TAKEN AWAY IF BAD PUBLICITY FOR ME
*TRUMP: IF TV SHOWS 'HIT TRUMP' SHOULD BE DISCUSSED ON LICENSES
*TRUMP ON TV SHOWS CRITICIZING HIM: THEY'RE NOT ALLOWED TO
September 18, 2025 at 6:43 PM
Reposted by Jackson Cahn
This is so messed up.
September 18, 2025 at 11:14 AM
Reposted by Jackson Cahn
Structural bioinformatics is incredibly powerful on its own or when paired with theory or experiment. One of the PDB's superpowers isn’t from one structure, but comparing many to uncover folds, binding sites, and subtle conformational shifts. chemrxiv.org/engage/chemr...
10 Rules for a Structural Bioinformatic Analysis
The Protein Data Bank (PDB) is one of the richest open‑source repositories in biology, housing over 277,000 macromolecular structural models alongside much of the experimental data that underpins thes...
chemrxiv.org
September 11, 2025 at 2:28 PM
Reposted by Jackson Cahn
We're witnessing the most aggressive, fanatical crackdown on free speech in my lifetime. The speed and breadth of government censorship and private sector and nonprofit capitulation has been astonishing. As has the lack of urgency/silence from people who've long claimed to care about this stuff.
September 15, 2025 at 12:30 PM
Reposted by Jackson Cahn
Any criticism of Patel and Bongino’s failure to solve crimes must also acknowledge past FBI director Chris Wray’s failure to podcast and sell supplements.
September 12, 2025 at 10:37 AM
Reposted by Jackson Cahn
We are looking for a 3-year postdoc to work with Daniel Probst, Justin van der Hooft and myself on an exciting project involving federated learning and integrative omics for discovery of new antibiotics from natural products.
Apply here: www.wur.nl/en/vacancy/p...
Please share!
www.wur.nl
September 8, 2025 at 9:07 AM
Slightly diminish a book

On the Origin of Genera
Slightly diminish a book

Sensibility
Slightly diminish a book

Wuthering Middles
September 9, 2025 at 2:05 AM
Reposted by Jackson Cahn
Ponzi Chain Reaction
Hear me out: PCR, but for money
September 8, 2025 at 6:51 PM
September 7, 2025 at 6:24 PM
Merck has opened applications for Summer 2026 Internships and Co-ops! If you are (or know) an undergrad or graduate student interested in spending a summer doing cutting-edge research in pharma, apply before Nov 2nd by going to jobs.merck.com and searching "2026 Future Talent Program."
September 5, 2025 at 11:25 PM