Nick McCurtin (they/them) 🧫 🏳️🌈
@nicholasmccurtin.bsky.social
Chemistry PhD candidate in the Scheck lab at Tufts University, pop culture enthusiast, amateur chef, dilettante aesthete...
Pinned
A Modular Turn‐On Strategy to Profile E2‐Specific Ubiquitination Events in Living Cells
A cascade of three enzymes, E1−E2−E3, is responsible for transferring ubiquitin to target proteins, but the role of the central E2 has been largely overlooked. This work presents a new method, called...
onlinelibrary.wiley.com
Shamelessly gonna self-promote my recent work with the Scheck lab where I helped validate the tCUbE assay (designed by my brilliant peer Dr. Caitlin Hill) which uses chemically engineered #Ubiquitin to decipher E2 substrates in the cellular proteome.
onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1...
onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1...
Ok, thanks everyone. Right now I am trying open search. I have some instrument time next week, so I'll try an collision energy curve then too as I still have some sample from this experiment.
Does anyone have advice for how to handle large (>500 Da) synthetic mass adducts for proteomic analysis? I have evidence of this chemical modification in my samples via western blot, but I am struggling localizing it via Orbitrap. #teammassspec #proteomics #chemsky
September 13, 2025 at 1:06 PM
Ok, thanks everyone. Right now I am trying open search. I have some instrument time next week, so I'll try an collision energy curve then too as I still have some sample from this experiment.
9am on a Saturday morning and it's a long weekend for me (took Monday off because I'm seeing Kali Uchis on Sunday), but I feel drawn to looking at the status of my Fragpipe and my LCMS QTOF runs...
an older woman in a blue shirt is standing in the woods
Alt: an older woman in a blue shirt is standing in the woods
media.tenor.com
September 13, 2025 at 1:02 PM
9am on a Saturday morning and it's a long weekend for me (took Monday off because I'm seeing Kali Uchis on Sunday), but I feel drawn to looking at the status of my Fragpipe and my LCMS QTOF runs...
Does anyone have advice for how to handle large (>500 Da) synthetic mass adducts for proteomic analysis? I have evidence of this chemical modification in my samples via western blot, but I am struggling localizing it via Orbitrap. #teammassspec #proteomics #chemsky
September 11, 2025 at 9:17 PM
Does anyone have advice for how to handle large (>500 Da) synthetic mass adducts for proteomic analysis? I have evidence of this chemical modification in my samples via western blot, but I am struggling localizing it via Orbitrap. #teammassspec #proteomics #chemsky
#BiochemSky sound off below ⬇️ , what is your favorite biomolecule? 🧬 #SciSky
September 1, 2025 at 4:01 PM
#BiochemSky sound off below ⬇️ , what is your favorite biomolecule? 🧬 #SciSky
I saw a reddit thread today about the best molecular biology papers that people have read, which led me to this paper. Extremely eloquently written, but every time I think about cancer deeply I am floored by it's complexities.
www.cell.com/fulltext/S00...
www.cell.com/fulltext/S00...
The Hallmarks of Cancer
After a quarter century of rapid advances, cancer research has generated a rich and
complex body of knowledge, revealing cancer to be a disease involving dynamic changes
in the genome. The foundation ...
www.cell.com
August 7, 2025 at 12:16 AM
I saw a reddit thread today about the best molecular biology papers that people have read, which led me to this paper. Extremely eloquently written, but every time I think about cancer deeply I am floored by it's complexities.
www.cell.com/fulltext/S00...
www.cell.com/fulltext/S00...
Hey #phosphorylation folks! I've played around with some commercially available titanium dioxide resin for peptide-level enrichment, but I want to look at some phosphoproteins via western blot. What's the most cost effective way for protein-level phospho-enrichment? #chemsky #scisky
July 31, 2025 at 7:49 PM
Hey #phosphorylation folks! I've played around with some commercially available titanium dioxide resin for peptide-level enrichment, but I want to look at some phosphoproteins via western blot. What's the most cost effective way for protein-level phospho-enrichment? #chemsky #scisky
Trying out Alphafold for the first time. Let's see what the hype is about.
an older woman in a blue shirt is standing in the woods
Alt: jamie lee curtis
media.tenor.com
July 25, 2025 at 7:50 PM
Trying out Alphafold for the first time. Let's see what the hype is about.
Don't tell PD, but I have quietly switched all of my analyses to Fragpipe. What an extremely powerful software. I'm often amazed at the sheer quantity of information I can get using Fragpipe. Thanks to everyone who recommended it.
Extremely niche troubleshooting request, but is anyone familiar with implementing MSFragger in Proteome Discoverer? A few of us keep seeing these error messages, but none of us are tech savvy enough to decode it. Every time we "solve" it, it happens again.. #proteomics #teammassspec
July 11, 2025 at 8:49 PM
Don't tell PD, but I have quietly switched all of my analyses to Fragpipe. What an extremely powerful software. I'm often amazed at the sheer quantity of information I can get using Fragpipe. Thanks to everyone who recommended it.
After a very long time of feeling like I've been banging my head against the wall because my PhD project has felt like a barren fishing experiment, I finally feel like a have at least one hypothesis that I can directly test to learn about my enzymes of interest.
July 11, 2025 at 8:41 PM
After a very long time of feeling like I've been banging my head against the wall because my PhD project has felt like a barren fishing experiment, I finally feel like a have at least one hypothesis that I can directly test to learn about my enzymes of interest.
Thanks everyone for input! We tried a hard reset on the system, and it's seemingly restored function... 🤞🏻
Extreme rookie question, but our lab just had a power outage and now our #Orbitrap Exploris 240 is not acquiring any data. Here's what our HeLa digest standard looks like before and after outage. Anyone know what might be going on? #teammassspec #proteomics #chemsky #scisky
July 11, 2025 at 4:34 PM
Thanks everyone for input! We tried a hard reset on the system, and it's seemingly restored function... 🤞🏻
Extreme rookie question, but our lab just had a power outage and now our #Orbitrap Exploris 240 is not acquiring any data. Here's what our HeLa digest standard looks like before and after outage. Anyone know what might be going on? #teammassspec #proteomics #chemsky #scisky
July 10, 2025 at 5:05 PM
Extreme rookie question, but our lab just had a power outage and now our #Orbitrap Exploris 240 is not acquiring any data. Here's what our HeLa digest standard looks like before and after outage. Anyone know what might be going on? #teammassspec #proteomics #chemsky #scisky
Campus-wide power outage? That's fine. We'll go out for ice cream instead!
July 1, 2025 at 1:18 AM
Campus-wide power outage? That's fine. We'll go out for ice cream instead!
Thanks to everyone for the input in this thread. I'm convinced that it was SDS contamination. I switched to S-trap, and it seems to have resolved the problem. They are also delightful to work with! #chemsky #proteomics #teammassspec
It's happening again! These are the same sample, just different biological replicates. What could make my peptides elute like that? #chemsky #proteomics #teammassspec
May 9, 2025 at 9:54 PM
Thanks to everyone for the input in this thread. I'm convinced that it was SDS contamination. I switched to S-trap, and it seems to have resolved the problem. They are also delightful to work with! #chemsky #proteomics #teammassspec
Reposted by Nick McCurtin (they/them) 🧫 🏳️🌈
Breaking News: A federal judge ordered the Trump administration to release Rumeysa Ozturk, a Tufts University student whose arrest by plainclothed immigration agents in Massachusetts led to a public outcry.
Judge Orders Release of Tufts Student Detained by ICE
www.nytimes.com
May 9, 2025 at 5:32 PM
Breaking News: A federal judge ordered the Trump administration to release Rumeysa Ozturk, a Tufts University student whose arrest by plainclothed immigration agents in Massachusetts led to a public outcry.
Has anyone worked with stimulate the c-Jun N-terminal kinase (JNK) in tissue culture? I've been working with EGF to stimulate ERK #signaling, but I'm hoping to expand to JNK... Let me know if anyone has some thoughts! #scisky #chemsky #MAPK
May 5, 2025 at 9:11 PM
Has anyone worked with stimulate the c-Jun N-terminal kinase (JNK) in tissue culture? I've been working with EGF to stimulate ERK #signaling, but I'm hoping to expand to JNK... Let me know if anyone has some thoughts! #scisky #chemsky #MAPK
I wrote a blog reflecting on my journey through several rounds of unprecedented times as a chemistry PhD student. Read it here if that interests you! #scisky #chemsky #scicom proteome.substack.com/p/chemistry-...
Chemistry in the time of instability
This is not about how easy it is to break a bond: a reflection on the unique circumstances particular to the 2020-2021 cohort of chemistry PhD students.
open.substack.com
April 18, 2025 at 3:27 PM
I wrote a blog reflecting on my journey through several rounds of unprecedented times as a chemistry PhD student. Read it here if that interests you! #scisky #chemsky #scicom proteome.substack.com/p/chemistry-...
Can't wait to give this a read!
Native mass spectrometry enables real time characterization of MAPK phosphorylation cascade and impact of oncogenic RAS mutants on kinetics.
doi.org/10.1038/s420...
doi.org/10.1038/s420...
Real time characterization of the MAPK pathway using native mass spectrometry - Communications Biology
Native mass spectrometry enables real time characterization of MAPK phosphorylation cascade and impact of oncogenic RAS mutants on kinetics.
doi.org
April 17, 2025 at 9:50 PM
Can't wait to give this a read!
A chilling thought that I have nowadays when I contact someone outside of my safe little bubble – "is it safe to keep my pronouns in my email signature?" – unfortunate that we're back to a time like this (if we ever even really left), but I keep them because I can't turn my back on my identity.
April 10, 2025 at 2:23 PM
A chilling thought that I have nowadays when I contact someone outside of my safe little bubble – "is it safe to keep my pronouns in my email signature?" – unfortunate that we're back to a time like this (if we ever even really left), but I keep them because I can't turn my back on my identity.
Extremely niche troubleshooting request, but is anyone familiar with implementing MSFragger in Proteome Discoverer? A few of us keep seeing these error messages, but none of us are tech savvy enough to decode it. Every time we "solve" it, it happens again.. #proteomics #teammassspec
April 5, 2025 at 8:50 PM
Extremely niche troubleshooting request, but is anyone familiar with implementing MSFragger in Proteome Discoverer? A few of us keep seeing these error messages, but none of us are tech savvy enough to decode it. Every time we "solve" it, it happens again.. #proteomics #teammassspec
Reposted by Nick McCurtin (they/them) 🧫 🏳️🌈
Rümeysa Öztürk hasn’t been given her asthma medication and has had three asthma attacks, putting her life in danger and possibly violating disability civil rights. New from me with @hurwitz.bsky.social for @motherjones.com. www.motherjones.com/politics/202...
ICE is reportedly violating detained Tufts student’s right to medical care
Democrats say that Rümeysa Öztürk's inhaler has been withheld and she has had repeated asthma attacks.
www.motherjones.com
April 4, 2025 at 6:35 PM
Rümeysa Öztürk hasn’t been given her asthma medication and has had three asthma attacks, putting her life in danger and possibly violating disability civil rights. New from me with @hurwitz.bsky.social for @motherjones.com. www.motherjones.com/politics/202...
It's happening again! These are the same sample, just different biological replicates. What could make my peptides elute like that? #chemsky #proteomics #teammassspec
April 4, 2025 at 7:35 PM
It's happening again! These are the same sample, just different biological replicates. What could make my peptides elute like that? #chemsky #proteomics #teammassspec
Sometime in September, a very robust #HPLC purification method I've worked with since 2021 randomly stopped working. With some help from the new instrumentation specialist in my department, finally diagnosed the issue. My beautiful peak is back at the retention time where it's supposed to be! 🥳
April 1, 2025 at 6:10 PM
Sometime in September, a very robust #HPLC purification method I've worked with since 2021 randomly stopped working. With some help from the new instrumentation specialist in my department, finally diagnosed the issue. My beautiful peak is back at the retention time where it's supposed to be! 🥳
March 31, 2025 at 5:57 PM
Really unusual signal in some recent samples I injected on Orbitrap Exploris... Anyone ever seen something like this before? #teammassspec #chemsky #proteomics
March 31, 2025 at 2:56 PM
Really unusual signal in some recent samples I injected on Orbitrap Exploris... Anyone ever seen something like this before? #teammassspec #chemsky #proteomics
Good morning #scisky & #chemsky! 🧪
What's going on this week? Good news, bad news, things to look forward to?
What's going on this week? Good news, bad news, things to look forward to?
a person wearing blue gloves is holding a torch in their hand
Alt: bunsen burner
media.tenor.com
March 31, 2025 at 2:38 PM