Mary Williard Elting
@mwelting.bsky.social
Cellular biophysicist at NC State. My lab combines approaches from physics, biology, and engineering to ask how biological molecules self-assemble into cellular-scale machinery that transduces force and performs mechanical functions.
Pinned
Overall, we hypothesize a multi-scale model that can explain Spirostomum contraction from the molecular (nanometer) to the organismal (millimeter) scale.
Not only is this mechanism unusual (and plain cool!), it gives us a new blueprint to control or even synthetically actuate contractility. 12/13
Not only is this mechanism unusual (and plain cool!), it gives us a new blueprint to control or even synthetically actuate contractility. 12/13
🧪 Punchline of our most recent preprint about how a giant single cell changes shape super fast, check the thread for more info!
Wonderfully clear thread about some of the things ‘indirect costs’ support
For those who aren't biologists: This is a biosafety cabinet. Every biomedical research lab in the country has one or more of these bio safety cabinets. They use air flow to protect cells from contamination by bacteria and fungal spores while you are working with them.
February 13, 2025 at 3:38 AM
Wonderfully clear thread about some of the things ‘indirect costs’ support
Of all the takes on this story, this is clearly the right one
Brain surgery... it’s not exactly rocket science, is it?”
Wishing the Elsevier editors who desk-accepted this all the best for their next career moves.
doi.org/10.1016/j.ij...
doi.org/10.1016/j.ij...
November 23, 2024 at 1:02 PM
Of all the takes on this story, this is clearly the right one
Reposted by Mary Williard Elting
Excited to share our new study with the Müller and @SchullerJm labs, online @nature: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-022-04971-z
This is T. kivui, an anaerobic bacterium. It uses hydrogen energy to store #CO2. How does it do it? #CryoET revealed membrane-anchored bundles of...
This is T. kivui, an anaerobic bacterium. It uses hydrogen energy to store #CO2. How does it do it? #CryoET revealed membrane-anchored bundles of...
November 23, 2024 at 6:44 AM
Excited to share our new study with the Müller and @SchullerJm labs, online @nature: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-022-04971-z
This is T. kivui, an anaerobic bacterium. It uses hydrogen energy to store #CO2. How does it do it? #CryoET revealed membrane-anchored bundles of...
This is T. kivui, an anaerobic bacterium. It uses hydrogen energy to store #CO2. How does it do it? #CryoET revealed membrane-anchored bundles of...
Brings to mind this quote from Stephen J Gould: "I am, somehow, less interested in the weight and convolutions of Einstein's brain than in the near certainty that people of equal talent have lived and died in cotton fields and sweatshops."
"Unlike most of my scientific colleagues, I was not academically brilliant. I never won scholarships and would probably not have been able to attend Cambridge University if my parents had not been fairly rich" - Frederick Sanger
November 20, 2024 at 2:28 PM
Brings to mind this quote from Stephen J Gould: "I am, somehow, less interested in the weight and convolutions of Einstein's brain than in the near certainty that people of equal talent have lived and died in cotton fields and sweatshops."
Reposted by Mary Williard Elting
Happy #microscopymonday!
Here is a collaborative project I started in ~2018, looking at different cells stained for actin and DNA and all set to the same scale. More info (and poster printouts!) here: katrinavelle.wixsite.com/science/prin...
Here is a collaborative project I started in ~2018, looking at different cells stained for actin and DNA and all set to the same scale. More info (and poster printouts!) here: katrinavelle.wixsite.com/science/prin...
November 18, 2024 at 8:13 PM
Happy #microscopymonday!
Here is a collaborative project I started in ~2018, looking at different cells stained for actin and DNA and all set to the same scale. More info (and poster printouts!) here: katrinavelle.wixsite.com/science/prin...
Here is a collaborative project I started in ~2018, looking at different cells stained for actin and DNA and all set to the same scale. More info (and poster printouts!) here: katrinavelle.wixsite.com/science/prin...
Reposted by Mary Williard Elting
Q: What's wrong with these plots?
A: Pooling cell-level measurements across multiple runs conceals experimental reproducibility.
Read more in JCB (with @fritzlaylin.bsky.social @katrinavelle.bsky.social & Dyche Mullins): rupress.org/jcb/article/...
A: Pooling cell-level measurements across multiple runs conceals experimental reproducibility.
Read more in JCB (with @fritzlaylin.bsky.social @katrinavelle.bsky.social & Dyche Mullins): rupress.org/jcb/article/...
November 18, 2024 at 7:02 PM
Q: What's wrong with these plots?
A: Pooling cell-level measurements across multiple runs conceals experimental reproducibility.
Read more in JCB (with @fritzlaylin.bsky.social @katrinavelle.bsky.social & Dyche Mullins): rupress.org/jcb/article/...
A: Pooling cell-level measurements across multiple runs conceals experimental reproducibility.
Read more in JCB (with @fritzlaylin.bsky.social @katrinavelle.bsky.social & Dyche Mullins): rupress.org/jcb/article/...
Every time I see this movie it looks like embroidery to me. And now that might be a thing I have to figure out how to make. But maybe someone has already done this? Other scientists who stitch on here?
Hey Bluesky! For my first post thought I'd share this awesome movie made by Phopho Biomedical Animation for our recent paper on the folding of bacterial outer membrane proteins in Nature Comms: doi.org/10.1038/s414...
#cryoEM #AstburyCentre
#cryoEM #AstburyCentre
November 18, 2024 at 1:56 PM
Every time I see this movie it looks like embroidery to me. And now that might be a thing I have to figure out how to make. But maybe someone has already done this? Other scientists who stitch on here?
I swear I didn’t put J up to this. But y’all. What if I’m raising a chemist?! 🙈
#physicistMom
#physicistMom
November 18, 2024 at 1:28 PM
I swear I didn’t put J up to this. But y’all. What if I’m raising a chemist?! 🙈
#physicistMom
#physicistMom
Probably my favorite movie I’ve seen this year, thanks Needhi for verbalizing what I found so moving about it
Watching the movie “Will and Harper” and deeply appreciate this framing as Harper re-negotiating her relationship with the country, which I think is a reality so many of us have had to do at some point in our lives
November 18, 2024 at 4:27 AM
Probably my favorite movie I’ve seen this year, thanks Needhi for verbalizing what I found so moving about it
I did my first protein prep (myosin VI!) using tap water. Yeah, I was ‘that physicist.’
🧪🧫
Scientist friends, as we are building community here, I have a question to get to know you:
What is a mistake that you made in the lab?
Scientist friends, as we are building community here, I have a question to get to know you:
What is a mistake that you made in the lab?
November 17, 2024 at 1:46 PM
I did my first protein prep (myosin VI!) using tap water. Yeah, I was ‘that physicist.’
Reposted by Mary Williard Elting
Couldn't find one so made a quick physics of life list, enjoy! go.bsky.app/EA2VsDN
November 13, 2024 at 8:28 PM
Couldn't find one so made a quick physics of life list, enjoy! go.bsky.app/EA2VsDN
🧪 Punchline of our most recent preprint about how a giant single cell changes shape super fast, check the thread for more info!
Overall, we hypothesize a multi-scale model that can explain Spirostomum contraction from the molecular (nanometer) to the organismal (millimeter) scale.
Not only is this mechanism unusual (and plain cool!), it gives us a new blueprint to control or even synthetically actuate contractility. 12/13
Not only is this mechanism unusual (and plain cool!), it gives us a new blueprint to control or even synthetically actuate contractility. 12/13
November 16, 2024 at 9:38 PM
🧪 Punchline of our most recent preprint about how a giant single cell changes shape super fast, check the thread for more info!
Wow this is good. Will be sharing widely.
Shameless plug: a post on 'writing as thinking' that I wrote for my own students
hackingsemantics.xyz/2024/writing/
hackingsemantics.xyz/2024/writing/
On AI-assisted writing in graduate school
What is the proper role of AI ‘assistance’ in graduate student writing? It depends on what you mean by ‘graduate’.
hackingsemantics.xyz
November 15, 2024 at 3:16 PM
Wow this is good. Will be sharing widely.
Very excited to share a thread about our new preprint! It's a highly collaborative project, w key contributions from @josephlannan.bsky.social (in my lab) @bhamlalab.bsky.social (+ GS Luke Xu), Dinner Lab (+ PD Cal Floyd), Jerry Honts, Marshall lab (+ GS Connie Yan), and Suri Vaikuntanathan 1/13
Fishnet mesh of centrin-Sfi1 drives ultrafast calcium-activated contraction of the giant cell Spirostomum ambiguum https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2024.11.07.622534v1
Fishnet mesh of centrin-Sfi1 drives ultrafast calcium-activated contraction of the giant cell Spirostomum ambiguum https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2024.11.07.622534v1
Spirostomum is a unicellular ciliate capable of contracting to a quarter of its body length in less
www.biorxiv.org
November 15, 2024 at 2:53 PM
Very excited to share a thread about our new preprint! It's a highly collaborative project, w key contributions from @josephlannan.bsky.social (in my lab) @bhamlalab.bsky.social (+ GS Luke Xu), Dinner Lab (+ PD Cal Floyd), Jerry Honts, Marshall lab (+ GS Connie Yan), and Suri Vaikuntanathan 1/13
Reposted by Mary Williard Elting
Fishnet mesh of centrin-Sfi1 drives ultrafast calcium-activated contraction of the giant cell Spirostomum ambiguum https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2024.11.07.622534v1
Fishnet mesh of centrin-Sfi1 drives ultrafast calcium-activated contraction of the giant cell Spirostomum ambiguum https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2024.11.07.622534v1
Spirostomum is a unicellular ciliate capable of contracting to a quarter of its body length in less
www.biorxiv.org
November 8, 2024 at 4:30 PM
Fishnet mesh of centrin-Sfi1 drives ultrafast calcium-activated contraction of the giant cell Spirostomum ambiguum https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2024.11.07.622534v1
Alrighty, events of the last week or so have pushed me over the edge to finally figure out how this thing works.
November 13, 2024 at 9:37 PM
Alrighty, events of the last week or so have pushed me over the edge to finally figure out how this thing works.