Matt Bashton
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mattbashton.bsky.social
Matt Bashton
@mattbashton.bsky.social
Associate Prof in Computational Biology at Northumbria University, Newcastle, UK.

Structural and High Throughout Sequencing Bioinformatics, Protein Domains, Pandemic Preparedness.
Pinned
Our latest work has been published in #Bioinformatics Advances ProCogGraph, the spiritual successor of PROCOGNATE. This graph database provides a linkage between proteins domains (SCOP/CATH/Pfam) and cognate ligands for #enzymes in the #PDB. academic.oup.com/bioinformati...
ProCogGraph: a graph-based mapping of cognate ligand domain interactions
AbstractMotivation. Mappings of domain-cognate ligand interactions can enhance our understanding of the core concepts of evolution and be used to aid docki
academic.oup.com
Reposted by Matt Bashton
Unicore identifies single-copy protein structures across genomes using Foldseek, bypassing slow structure predictions by utilizing 3Di predictions from ProstT5, enabling rapid phylogenetic inference at the tree-of-life scale. 1/n
📄 www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
💾 github.com/steineggerla...
December 23, 2024 at 4:39 PM
This research with Oxford started during the pandemic when I spotted a familiar iAMP21 like copy number profile on chromosome 21 here termed chr. 21amp. It's lovely to see all the different omics techniques come together from all the collaborators! www.nature.com/articles/s41...
Chromothripsis-associated chromosome 21 amplification orchestrates transformation to blast-phase MPN through targetable overexpression of DYRK1A - Nature Genetics
Multiomic analysis of blast-phase myeloproliferative neoplasms identifies a chromosome 21 amplicon harboring DYRK1A as a clonal and therapeutically targetable event in around a quarter of cases.
www.nature.com
June 9, 2025 at 6:54 PM
The age old "similar to putative function" annotation disease - only with AI, reinforcing suspect homology based matches in training data.
🧠 Now in Bioinformatics Advances: "Biological databases in the age of generative artificial intelligence"

Read the full discussion here: https://doi.org/10.1093/bioadv/vbaf044

#DataIntegrity #GenerativeAI
doi.org
March 31, 2025 at 12:05 PM
This week at @northumbriauni.bsky.social we launched our new #HPC cluster Higgs, having been involved in shaping this project from the outset it's nice to see it finally come to fruition with our partners #Logicalis and #Lenovo. l'm looking forward to all the research our new cluster will enable.
March 6, 2025 at 8:43 PM
Can't afford an NVIDIA H100 just get a pigeon, readily available in all Northern towns too. cell.com/iscience/ful... #AI #Pigeon
The pigeon as a machine: Complex category structures can be acquired by a simple associative model
Cognitive neuroscience; Machine learning
cell.com
March 5, 2025 at 8:49 PM
I'm not sure why everyone is surprised by DeepSeek if you deny people access to the latest hardware then they will naturally develop more efficient algorithms. In this sense US "export" policy on AI hardware has been a massive own goal.
January 29, 2025 at 8:54 AM
Reposted by Matt Bashton
Designers and environmental scientists from Northumbria have teamed up with The Microfibre Consortium to establish the Fibre-fragmentation and Environment Research Hub (FibER Hub) to explore the extent and environmental impact of microfibre loss from textiles
www.northumbria.ac.uk/about-us/new...
Extent of microfibre pollution from textiles to be explored at new research hub
A newly established research hub in North East England will explore the extent and environmental impact of microfibre loss from textiles.
www.northumbria.ac.uk
January 22, 2025 at 10:28 AM
Reposted by Matt Bashton
January 1, 2025 at 4:59 AM
Reposted by Matt Bashton
Northern lights in Northumberland- beautiful and so counter intuitive that the camera is a far more faithful representation of the colours than your eyes (it’s a grey pink sky to the naked eye!)
January 1, 2025 at 6:24 PM
Reposted by Matt Bashton
and also our latest work, Natálias latest preprint, a collaboration with the groups of
@mattbashton.bsky.social and Ricardo Rajsbaum is out in BioRxiv. www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
Comprehensive Analysis of SARS-CoV-2 Spike Evolution: Epitope Classification and Immune Escape Prediction
The evolution of SARS-CoV-2, the virus responsible for the COVID-19 pandemic, has produced unprecedented numbers of structures of the Spike protein. This study presents a comprehensive analysis of 1,560 published Spike protein structures, capturing most variants that emerged throughout the pandemic and covering diverse heteromerization and interacting complexes. We employ an interaction-energy informed geometric clustering to identify 14 epitopes characterized by their conformational specificity, shared interface with ACE2 binding, and glycosylation patterns. Our per-residue interaction evaluations accurately predict each residue's role in antibody recognition and as well as experimental measurements of immune escape, showing strong correlations with DMS data, thus making it possible to predict the behaviour of future variants. We integrate the structural analysis with a longitudinal analysis of nearly 3 million viral sequences. This broad-ranging structural and longitudinal analysis provides insight into the effect of specific mutations on the energetics of interactions and dynamics of the SARS-CoV-2 Spike protein during the course of the pandemic. Specifically, with the emergence of widespread immunity, we observe an enthalpic trade-off in which mutations in the receptor binding motif (RBM) that promote immune escape also weaken the interaction with ACE2. Additionally, we also observe a second mechanism, that we call entropic trade-off, in which mutations outside of the RBM contribute to decrease the occupancy of the open state of SARS-CoV-2 Spike, thus also contributing to immune escape at the expense of ACE2 binding but without changes on the ACE2 binding interface. This work not only highlights the role of mutations across SARS-CoV-2 Spike variants but also reveals the complex interplay of evolutionary forces shaping the evolution of the SARS-CoV-2 Spike protein over the course of the pandemic. ### Competing Interest Statement The authors have declared no competing interest.
www.biorxiv.org
December 10, 2024 at 12:02 PM
Been exploring some of the breathtaking John Portman architecture in Atlanta while at #SC24
November 20, 2024 at 9:39 PM
Nice to see this CPS-1, duel CPU 68000/Z80 set-up at #SC24, it's all about those custom chips too! #retrogaming
November 20, 2024 at 9:32 PM
So #SC24 has been a lot of fun! We are also entering a new phase of HPC at @northumbriauni.bsky.social as we expand facilities for our researchers www.northumbria.ac.uk/about-us/new...
Supercomputer investment will power world-leading research and innovation
Northumbria University has announced a multi-million pound investment in its first university-wide high-performance computing facility which will give researchers access to state-of-the-art technology...
www.northumbria.ac.uk
November 20, 2024 at 8:38 PM
Reposted by Matt Bashton
who knew it would be easier to get everyone to switch social media platforms than getting them to use hg38
November 14, 2024 at 6:45 PM
Our latest work has been published in #Bioinformatics Advances ProCogGraph, the spiritual successor of PROCOGNATE. This graph database provides a linkage between proteins domains (SCOP/CATH/Pfam) and cognate ligands for #enzymes in the #PDB. academic.oup.com/bioinformati...
ProCogGraph: a graph-based mapping of cognate ligand domain interactions
AbstractMotivation. Mappings of domain-cognate ligand interactions can enhance our understanding of the core concepts of evolution and be used to aid docki
academic.oup.com
November 14, 2024 at 7:56 PM
Reposted by Matt Bashton
I'm advertising a PhD studentship (open to international students) working on long read pangenome / assembly algorithms in bacteria. Would suit someone with maths/compsci/coding background. Aptitude + interest more important than experience.
Details here:
www.findaphd.com/phds/project...
New graph algorithms for analysis of the genomes and pangenomes of bacteria and their mobile elements. at University of Bath on FindAPhD.com
PhD Project - New graph algorithms for analysis of the genomes and pangenomes of bacteria and their mobile elements. at University of Bath, listed on FindAPhD.com
www.findaphd.com
November 11, 2024 at 2:23 PM
Reposted by Matt Bashton
After editing, this very short letter to New Scientist is even shorter now. But I think it gets the point across! @faecalmatters.bsky.social
November 11, 2024 at 10:23 PM
This is good news for science, although I'm not sure why it took so long, and also why the change of policy here from Google www.nature.com/articles/d41... #OpenScience #AlphaFold
AI protein-prediction tool AlphaFold3 is now open source
The code underlying the Nobel-prize-winning tool for modelling protein structures can now be downloaded by academics.
www.nature.com
November 11, 2024 at 11:21 PM
Reposted by Matt Bashton
November 6, 2024 at 4:58 PM
Reposted by Matt Bashton
@suw.bsky.social @daivaughan.uk

This is perfection.
The new Google Assistant voice model struggles with place names. I found one that makes it hallucinate.

Welsh speakers: I apologise for my pronunciation of Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllantysiliogogogoch
November 2, 2024 at 6:05 PM
Please RT, come do a PhD with me as part of an industrial collaboration with P&G using metagenomes and AI to design new enzymes www.findaphd.com/phds/project... #pLMS #AI #enzymes #Bioinformatics
Trashzymes: Mining Municipal solid waste and alkaliphilic species for brilliant cleaning at Procter & Gamble on FindAPhD.com
PhD Project - Trashzymes: Mining Municipal solid waste and alkaliphilic species for brilliant cleaning at Procter & Gamble, listed on FindAPhD.com
www.findaphd.com
October 31, 2024 at 10:36 AM
Deep Fusion Films Parkinson AI is spookily accurate, although it feels like an episode of Dark Mirror www.theguardian.com/media/2024/o...
Michael Parkinson is back, with an AI voice that can fool even his own family
The chatshow star’s son says digital replica will interview a new generation of stars
www.theguardian.com
October 28, 2024 at 8:54 AM
Reposted by Matt Bashton
I've had dengue. It was dintinctly unfun. If you needed another reason to do what you can to limit climate change, well this is a good excuse ...
www.npr.org/2024/10/22/n...

"LA is seeing cases of dengue, the range of which may be growing due to climate change"
www.npr.org
October 23, 2024 at 10:35 PM
Reposted by Matt Bashton
1/Our preprint "A renewed call for open artificial intelligence in biomedicine" is now available!

This commentary, led by Anthony Gitter, discusses the importance of data, code, and model sharing for further scientific progress and independent evaluation of claims in biomedical #AI 🧪🧬🖥️ #AcademicSky
OSF
osf.io
September 23, 2024 at 8:39 PM
Reposted by Matt Bashton
How amino acids taste 🧪
September 25, 2024 at 5:33 AM