Keenan Lab
@keenanlab.bsky.social
The Keenan Lab at UChicago
keenanlab.bsd.uchicago.edu
keenanlab.bsd.uchicago.edu
Reposted by Keenan Lab
Happy to finally share the amazing results of our long-term collaboration with Karin Reinisch’s lab on how bridge lipid-transfer proteins (BLTPs) cooperate with partner proteins to orchestrate lipid delivery. A quick thread (1/7)
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...
January 12, 2026 at 7:57 PM
Happy to finally share the amazing results of our long-term collaboration with Karin Reinisch’s lab on how bridge lipid-transfer proteins (BLTPs) cooperate with partner proteins to orchestrate lipid delivery. A quick thread (1/7)
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...
Reposted by Keenan Lab
BREAKING: Hundreds gathered at San Francisco’s Ocean Beach to form a human banner reading “It Was Murder 🇺🇸 ICE Out,
January 11, 2026 at 1:20 PM
BREAKING: Hundreds gathered at San Francisco’s Ocean Beach to form a human banner reading “It Was Murder 🇺🇸 ICE Out,
Reposted by Keenan Lab
“Uruguay did what most nations still call impossible: it built a power grid that runs almost entirely on renewables—at half the cost of fossil fuels. The physicist who led that transformation says the same playbook could work anywhere—if governments have the courage to change the rules.”
Uruguay’s Renewable Charge: A Small Nation, A Big Lesson For The World
Uruguay built a power grid that runs 99% on renewables—at half the cost of fossil fuels. Here’s how its bold energy overhaul became a global model.
www.forbes.com
January 10, 2026 at 8:29 AM
“Uruguay did what most nations still call impossible: it built a power grid that runs almost entirely on renewables—at half the cost of fossil fuels. The physicist who led that transformation says the same playbook could work anywhere—if governments have the courage to change the rules.”
Reposted by Keenan Lab
Reposted by Keenan Lab
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 Keenan 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 Keenan Lab
It’s out! Using cryo-ET in Dicty cells, we take a fresh in situ look at vaults. Surprisingly, we uncover vaults associated with ER and NE membranes, and find that many vaults enclose ribosomes in defined orientations, opening new avenues to their cellular function! www.biorxiv.org/lookup/conte...
December 16, 2025 at 8:17 AM
It’s out! Using cryo-ET in Dicty cells, we take a fresh in situ look at vaults. Surprisingly, we uncover vaults associated with ER and NE membranes, and find that many vaults enclose ribosomes in defined orientations, opening new avenues to their cellular function! www.biorxiv.org/lookup/conte...
Reposted by Keenan Lab
Our study on the molecular function of translational activators for mitochondrial protein synthesis is published:
rdcu.be/eSWxT
A great collaboration with @stirlingchurchman.bsky.social and @sshaolab.bsky.social with structural work from our @pelleeas.bsky.social
Funded by @kawresearch.bsky.social
rdcu.be/eSWxT
A great collaboration with @stirlingchurchman.bsky.social and @sshaolab.bsky.social with structural work from our @pelleeas.bsky.social
Funded by @kawresearch.bsky.social
Translational activators align mRNAs at the small mitoribosomal subunit for translation initiation
Nature Structural & Molecular Biology - Mitochondrial translational activators (TAs) facilitate transcript-specific translation. Using selective ribosome profiling and cryo-electron microscopy,...
rdcu.be
December 3, 2025 at 1:39 PM
Our study on the molecular function of translational activators for mitochondrial protein synthesis is published:
rdcu.be/eSWxT
A great collaboration with @stirlingchurchman.bsky.social and @sshaolab.bsky.social with structural work from our @pelleeas.bsky.social
Funded by @kawresearch.bsky.social
rdcu.be/eSWxT
A great collaboration with @stirlingchurchman.bsky.social and @sshaolab.bsky.social with structural work from our @pelleeas.bsky.social
Funded by @kawresearch.bsky.social
Reposted by Keenan Lab
Fresh from the deep—a rarely seen giant in Monterey Bay. 🤩
Last month, MBARI Senior Scientist Steven Haddock and the Biodiversity & Biooptics Team spotted a seven-arm octopus (Haliphron atlanticus) holding a crimson helmet jelly (Periphylla periphylla). Learn more: www.mbari.org/animal/seven...
Last month, MBARI Senior Scientist Steven Haddock and the Biodiversity & Biooptics Team spotted a seven-arm octopus (Haliphron atlanticus) holding a crimson helmet jelly (Periphylla periphylla). Learn more: www.mbari.org/animal/seven...
Seven-arm octopus • Animals of the Deep • MBARI
The seven-arm octopus is a rarely seen deep-sea giant who feeds on gelatinous animals.
www.mbari.org
December 3, 2025 at 10:04 PM
Fresh from the deep—a rarely seen giant in Monterey Bay. 🤩
Last month, MBARI Senior Scientist Steven Haddock and the Biodiversity & Biooptics Team spotted a seven-arm octopus (Haliphron atlanticus) holding a crimson helmet jelly (Periphylla periphylla). Learn more: www.mbari.org/animal/seven...
Last month, MBARI Senior Scientist Steven Haddock and the Biodiversity & Biooptics Team spotted a seven-arm octopus (Haliphron atlanticus) holding a crimson helmet jelly (Periphylla periphylla). Learn more: www.mbari.org/animal/seven...
Reposted by Keenan Lab
New preprint out! We show that PROTAC-induced ubiquitination can bypass canonical ERAD to degrade ER membrane proteins. Wonderful collaboration w/ @dannomura.bsky.social and huge credit to grad student superstar Sydney Tomlinson!
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
Induced ubiquitination bypasses canonical ERAD to drive ER protein degradation
Heterobifunctional proteolysis-targeting chimeras (PROTACs) have emerged as a powerful strategy to degrade disease-relevant proteins, enabling targeting of previously "undruggable" proteins. Current d...
www.biorxiv.org
December 1, 2025 at 5:14 PM
New preprint out! We show that PROTAC-induced ubiquitination can bypass canonical ERAD to degrade ER membrane proteins. Wonderful collaboration w/ @dannomura.bsky.social and huge credit to grad student superstar Sydney Tomlinson!
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
Reposted by Keenan Lab
🍰Up for reading more about both studies? Here is the News & Views article written by Deborah Fass & Carolyn S. Sevier:
👉https://rdcu.be/eR1Vg
bit.ly/48BWLbv
👉https://rdcu.be/eR1Vg
bit.ly/48BWLbv
Young secretory proteins go through a phase - Nature Cell Biology
Phase separation is a mechanism for non-organellar macromolecule segregation typical in the cell cytosol and nucleus. Two recent studies revealed functional phase separation within the endoplasmic ret...
bit.ly
November 27, 2025 at 9:31 AM
🍰Up for reading more about both studies? Here is the News & Views article written by Deborah Fass & Carolyn S. Sevier:
👉https://rdcu.be/eR1Vg
bit.ly/48BWLbv
👉https://rdcu.be/eR1Vg
bit.ly/48BWLbv
Reposted by Keenan Lab
How is N-glycosylation regulated? Check out our story, part of a terrific collaboration with our colleagues at Stanford and Northwestern. Congratulations to everyone!
rdcu.be/eQNsJ
rdcu.be/eQNsJ
Structural basis of regulated N-glycosylation at the secretory translocon
Nature - The structural mechanism of a natively isolated GRP94 folding intermediate tethered to a CCDC134-bound translocon is described, revealing how the nascent chain remodels the translocon to...
rdcu.be
November 19, 2025 at 7:16 PM
How is N-glycosylation regulated? Check out our story, part of a terrific collaboration with our colleagues at Stanford and Northwestern. Congratulations to everyone!
rdcu.be/eQNsJ
rdcu.be/eQNsJ
Reposted by Keenan Lab
Our story on GroEL/ES action during cotranslational folding is now published @natcomms.nature.com. Led by former-student Alzbeta Roeselova, and in collaboration with Rado Enchev's lab @crick.ac.uk.
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
GroEL/ES chaperonin unfolds then encapsulates a nascent protein on the ribosome - Nature Communications
The GroEL/ES chaperonin can act during protein synthesis to promote folding. Here, Roeselová et al. show how GroEL captures, remodels and sequesters nascent proteins in its central chamber, while they...
www.nature.com
November 14, 2025 at 1:49 PM
Our story on GroEL/ES action during cotranslational folding is now published @natcomms.nature.com. Led by former-student Alzbeta Roeselova, and in collaboration with Rado Enchev's lab @crick.ac.uk.
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
Reposted by Keenan Lab
Never seen our campus like this before. Like every single tree decided to turn red at the same moment
October 30, 2025 at 11:37 PM
Never seen our campus like this before. Like every single tree decided to turn red at the same moment
Reposted by Keenan Lab
Our first lab paper is out! We identify and solve the first structure of the SND3 translocon involved in fungal membrane protein insertion. Congratulations @tzujingyang.bsky.social, and our colleagues @saumyakm.bsky.social, @hummerlab.bsky.social and Julian Langer. Read more ⬇️ and ➡️ rdcu.be/eNgIO
SNDing proteins into the membrane! Our new publication from @melaniemcdowell.bsky.social ’s group identifies the SND3 protein as a new route for membrane protein insertion! 🍄 📘 Read more here: www.mpg.de/25599408/102... Image: Louise Duever.
October 30, 2025 at 5:42 PM
Our first lab paper is out! We identify and solve the first structure of the SND3 translocon involved in fungal membrane protein insertion. Congratulations @tzujingyang.bsky.social, and our colleagues @saumyakm.bsky.social, @hummerlab.bsky.social and Julian Langer. Read more ⬇️ and ➡️ rdcu.be/eNgIO
Reposted by Keenan Lab
🎉 Huge congrats to Maya Schuldiner from the Weizmann Institute (Israel) for the 🏅 Otto Warburg Medal 2026!
Her work on how proteins find their way to organelles and how these organelles talk to each other has reshaped how we think about cells 🧬✨
#OWM #WeizmannInstitute @elsevierconnect.bsky.social
Her work on how proteins find their way to organelles and how these organelles talk to each other has reshaped how we think about cells 🧬✨
#OWM #WeizmannInstitute @elsevierconnect.bsky.social
October 27, 2025 at 9:28 AM
🎉 Huge congrats to Maya Schuldiner from the Weizmann Institute (Israel) for the 🏅 Otto Warburg Medal 2026!
Her work on how proteins find their way to organelles and how these organelles talk to each other has reshaped how we think about cells 🧬✨
#OWM #WeizmannInstitute @elsevierconnect.bsky.social
Her work on how proteins find their way to organelles and how these organelles talk to each other has reshaped how we think about cells 🧬✨
#OWM #WeizmannInstitute @elsevierconnect.bsky.social
Reposted by Keenan Lab
In a great collaboration with @hummerlab.bsky.social and the Kräusslich lab: HIV capsid doesn't break at the NPC; instead, it cracks open the NPC itself! Details in Cell: authors.elsevier.com/sd/article/S... @mpibp.bsky.social @uniheidelberg.bsky.social A thread below:
January 17, 2025 at 6:43 PM
In a great collaboration with @hummerlab.bsky.social and the Kräusslich lab: HIV capsid doesn't break at the NPC; instead, it cracks open the NPC itself! Details in Cell: authors.elsevier.com/sd/article/S... @mpibp.bsky.social @uniheidelberg.bsky.social A thread below:
Reposted by Keenan Lab
Proud to share our first lab pre-print: “SND3 is the membrane insertase within a fungal multipass translocon” where @tzujingyang.bsky.social solved the structure of a ribosome-associated SND3-translocon complex involved in ER membrane protein insertion ➡️ doi.org/10.1101/2025...
July 12, 2025 at 12:49 AM
Proud to share our first lab pre-print: “SND3 is the membrane insertase within a fungal multipass translocon” where @tzujingyang.bsky.social solved the structure of a ribosome-associated SND3-translocon complex involved in ER membrane protein insertion ➡️ doi.org/10.1101/2025...
This was a fun new collaboration using selective ribosome profiling to understand how the subunit composition of the ER translocon is tailored by the nascent chain. Congratulations to everyone involved!
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
Global analysis of translocon remodeling during protein synthesis at the ER - Nature Structural & Molecular Biology
The authors use selective ribosome profiling to define how and when factors for N-glycosylation and membrane insertion engage and disengage from the core Sec61 translocation channel during biogenesis ...
www.nature.com
October 20, 2025 at 8:08 PM
This was a fun new collaboration using selective ribosome profiling to understand how the subunit composition of the ER translocon is tailored by the nascent chain. Congratulations to everyone involved!
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
Reposted by Keenan Lab
New online: Global analysis of translocon remodeling during protein synthesis at the ER
Global analysis of translocon remodeling during protein synthesis at the ER
Nature Structural & Molecular Biology, Published online: 20 October 2025; doi:10.1038/s41594-025-01691-6The authors use selective ribosome profiling to define how and when factors for N-glycosylation and membrane insertion engage and disengage from the core Sec61 translocation channel during biogenesis of secretory and membrane proteins at the endoplasmic reticulum.
go.nature.com
October 20, 2025 at 6:53 PM
New online: Global analysis of translocon remodeling during protein synthesis at the ER
Reposted by Keenan Lab
A university that signs the “compact” is one that acknowledges its own inability to compete and succeed based talent and merit. It would signal insecurity and mediocrity to current and future students and faculty. Say no. Recruit the best people, protect their freedom and support their hard work.
October 18, 2025 at 12:05 AM
A university that signs the “compact” is one that acknowledges its own inability to compete and succeed based talent and merit. It would signal insecurity and mediocrity to current and future students and faculty. Say no. Recruit the best people, protect their freedom and support their hard work.
Proximity-specific ribosome profiling reveals the logic of localized mitochondrial translation: Cell www.cell.com/cell/fulltex...
Proximity-specific ribosome profiling reveals the logic of localized mitochondrial translation
Development of LOV-domain-controlled ligase for translation localization (LOCL-TL),
an optogenetic approach for monitoring translation with codon resolution at any defined
subcellular location under p...
www.cell.com
October 17, 2025 at 10:45 PM
Proximity-specific ribosome profiling reveals the logic of localized mitochondrial translation: Cell www.cell.com/cell/fulltex...
Principles of cotranslational mitochondrial protein import: Cell www.cell.com/cell/fulltex...
Principles of cotranslational mitochondrial protein import
Selective ribosome profiling reveals that nearly 20% of mitochondrial proteins in
human cells are imported during translation on cytosolic ribosomes. Cotranslational
import requires an N-terminal pres...
www.cell.com
October 17, 2025 at 10:41 PM
Principles of cotranslational mitochondrial protein import: Cell www.cell.com/cell/fulltex...