Randy Read 🇨🇦🇬🇧
@randyjread.bsky.social
Interested in likelihood-based methods for structural biology. Contributor to Phenix, CCP4 and CCP-EM.
Based at CIMR, University of Cambridge.
Posts usually about science.
Based at CIMR, University of Cambridge.
Posts usually about science.
Reposted by Randy Read 🇨🇦🇬🇧
At a time when the UK should be capitalising on its global reputation as a great place to do science, this is an enormous own goal. I am so sorry for all those who jobs are going to be impacted.
Both MRC and BBSRC responsive modes now withdrawn until further notice. Existing applications unlikely to succeed (late 2025 round expecting 1-5% success rate).
Listen, I get that UKRI wants to pivot. But killing both at once is devastating.
Let's hope at least one opens by summer... #AcademicSky
Listen, I get that UKRI wants to pivot. But killing both at once is devastating.
Let's hope at least one opens by summer... #AcademicSky
MRC instructs grant review boards to slash funding rates - Research Professional News
Boards asked to recommend just three applications for funding, as BBSRC also suspends calls
www.researchprofessionalnews.com
February 1, 2026 at 2:07 PM
At a time when the UK should be capitalising on its global reputation as a great place to do science, this is an enormous own goal. I am so sorry for all those who jobs are going to be impacted.
Reposted by Randy Read 🇨🇦🇬🇧
Finally comms from UKRI - on a Sunday evening. No mention of the hundreds of ECRs who will see their careers ended by these decisions and notably no explanation for MRC retrospectively applying cuts and wasting all the work that went into writing, reviewing and scoring applications - £millions
Today, we're sharing an open letter from our Chief Executive, Professor Sir Ian Chapman, outlining changes to UKRI investment approach, and addressing concerns about research funding and the financial position of STFC. Read his letter here: www.ukri.org/news/open-le...
Open letter from Ian Chapman to research and innovation community
UKRI Chief Executive outlines changes to UKRI investment approach, addressing concerns about research funding and the financial position of STFC.
www.ukri.org
February 1, 2026 at 7:21 PM
Finally comms from UKRI - on a Sunday evening. No mention of the hundreds of ECRs who will see their careers ended by these decisions and notably no explanation for MRC retrospectively applying cuts and wasting all the work that went into writing, reviewing and scoring applications - £millions
Missed it, thanks for pointing it out!
this was published this week, in case you haven’t seen it: www.nature.com/articles/s41...
Stories from the scientist who changed how we visualize proteins - Nature Reviews Chemistry
Ahead of her 85th birthday, Jane Richardson, Professor of Biochemistry at Duke University, discussed her life in science from making her own telescope to developing the ribbon diagrams for the 3D stru...
www.nature.com
January 29, 2026 at 7:16 AM
Missed it, thanks for pointing it out!
Reposted by Randy Read 🇨🇦🇬🇧
My hero!!! An amazing scientist and a wonderful person!
Jane Richardson was born #OTD in 1941
+ Developed the Richardson (ribbon) diagram to represent proteins' 3D structure (becoming a standard representation for protein structures)
+ MacArthur Fellow, 1985
+ Elected, Nat'l Academy of Sciences, 1991
+ President, Biophysical Society, 2012
#WomenInSTEM
+ Developed the Richardson (ribbon) diagram to represent proteins' 3D structure (becoming a standard representation for protein structures)
+ MacArthur Fellow, 1985
+ Elected, Nat'l Academy of Sciences, 1991
+ President, Biophysical Society, 2012
#WomenInSTEM
January 28, 2026 at 12:56 AM
My hero!!! An amazing scientist and a wonderful person!
Reposted by Randy Read 🇨🇦🇬🇧
Has the MRC research funding ‘pause’ been covered by any major news network?
It feels like it should be a major news story
It feels like it should be a major news story
January 28, 2026 at 6:19 AM
Has the MRC research funding ‘pause’ been covered by any major news network?
It feels like it should be a major news story
It feels like it should be a major news story
Reposted by Randy Read 🇨🇦🇬🇧
We have a fantastic opportunity for a PhD studentship in collaboration with @jesuscollegecam.bsky.social and Cambridge Children’s Research Institute, part of the new Cambridge Children’s Hospital. Closing date 20th Feb; all the details here: www.cimr.cam.ac.uk/postgraduate...
The Chi-Wang PhD Studentship at Jesus College and the University of Cambridge School of Clinical Medicine | Cambridge Institute for Medical Research
The Chi-Wang Studentship at Jesus College and the University of Cambridge School of Clinical Medicine. Funding Application deadline: 23:59pm (midnight) UK time on 20th February 2026.
www.cimr.cam.ac.uk
January 27, 2026 at 9:18 AM
We have a fantastic opportunity for a PhD studentship in collaboration with @jesuscollegecam.bsky.social and Cambridge Children’s Research Institute, part of the new Cambridge Children’s Hospital. Closing date 20th Feb; all the details here: www.cimr.cam.ac.uk/postgraduate...
Reposted by Randy Read 🇨🇦🇬🇧
She continues to be a lively presence at structural biology meetings. And for my money has the deepest, most intuitive understanding of protein geometry. A treasure.
January 26, 2026 at 3:35 AM
She continues to be a lively presence at structural biology meetings. And for my money has the deepest, most intuitive understanding of protein geometry. A treasure.
By the way, this is by the @alisiafadini.bsky.social behind ROCKET!
New Title Alert: meteor- a tool for computing crystallographic difference maps that specializes in robust identification of weak signals from minor populations such as bound ligands or time-resolved experimental changes.
Learn more here: buff.ly/bgJYF9N
#SBGrid #SBGridSoftware #StructuralBiology
Learn more here: buff.ly/bgJYF9N
#SBGrid #SBGridSoftware #StructuralBiology
GitHub - rs-station/meteor: bringing you the best difference maps
bringing you the best difference maps. Contribute to rs-station/meteor development by creating an account on GitHub.
github.com
January 9, 2026 at 5:23 PM
By the way, this is by the @alisiafadini.bsky.social behind ROCKET!
Reposted by Randy Read 🇨🇦🇬🇧
New Title Alert: meteor- a tool for computing crystallographic difference maps that specializes in robust identification of weak signals from minor populations such as bound ligands or time-resolved experimental changes.
Learn more here: buff.ly/bgJYF9N
#SBGrid #SBGridSoftware #StructuralBiology
Learn more here: buff.ly/bgJYF9N
#SBGrid #SBGridSoftware #StructuralBiology
GitHub - rs-station/meteor: bringing you the best difference maps
bringing you the best difference maps. Contribute to rs-station/meteor development by creating an account on GitHub.
github.com
January 9, 2026 at 5:03 PM
New Title Alert: meteor- a tool for computing crystallographic difference maps that specializes in robust identification of weak signals from minor populations such as bound ligands or time-resolved experimental changes.
Learn more here: buff.ly/bgJYF9N
#SBGrid #SBGridSoftware #StructuralBiology
Learn more here: buff.ly/bgJYF9N
#SBGrid #SBGridSoftware #StructuralBiology
Reposted by Randy Read 🇨🇦🇬🇧
This appeared today: www.asbmb.org/asbmb-today/...
Mapping proteins, one side chain at a time
Roland Dunbrack Jr. will receive the ASBMB DeLano Award for Computational Biosciences at the ASBMB Annual Meeting, March 7–10, just outside of Washington, D.C.
www.asbmb.org
January 8, 2026 at 2:25 AM
This appeared today: www.asbmb.org/asbmb-today/...
Reposted by Randy Read 🇨🇦🇬🇧
Now available: the Proceedings of the 2024 @ccpem.bsky.social em Spring Symposium, including a review of the first ten years of the Symposium: journals.iucr.org/special_issues/2025/CCPEM2024/
View all of the Proceedings at journals.iucr.org/d/services/ccpem
View all of the Proceedings at journals.iucr.org/d/services/ccpem
January 7, 2026 at 2:34 PM
Now available: the Proceedings of the 2024 @ccpem.bsky.social em Spring Symposium, including a review of the first ten years of the Symposium: journals.iucr.org/special_issues/2025/CCPEM2024/
View all of the Proceedings at journals.iucr.org/d/services/ccpem
View all of the Proceedings at journals.iucr.org/d/services/ccpem
Hope to see you there!
#IUCr2026 Pre-Congress Workshop: Structure Solution with Phenix
Offers lectures and tutorials on using Phenix for automated macromolecular structure determination and validation from xtal and cryoEM data, integrating predicted models like AlphaFold
event.fourwaves.com/...
Offers lectures and tutorials on using Phenix for automated macromolecular structure determination and validation from xtal and cryoEM data, integrating predicted models like AlphaFold
event.fourwaves.com/...
January 6, 2026 at 10:22 PM
Hope to see you there!
Reposted by Randy Read 🇨🇦🇬🇧
#IUCr2026 Pre-Congress Workshop: Structure Solution with Phenix
Offers lectures and tutorials on using Phenix for automated macromolecular structure determination and validation from xtal and cryoEM data, integrating predicted models like AlphaFold
event.fourwaves.com/...
Offers lectures and tutorials on using Phenix for automated macromolecular structure determination and validation from xtal and cryoEM data, integrating predicted models like AlphaFold
event.fourwaves.com/...
January 6, 2026 at 10:11 PM
#IUCr2026 Pre-Congress Workshop: Structure Solution with Phenix
Offers lectures and tutorials on using Phenix for automated macromolecular structure determination and validation from xtal and cryoEM data, integrating predicted models like AlphaFold
event.fourwaves.com/...
Offers lectures and tutorials on using Phenix for automated macromolecular structure determination and validation from xtal and cryoEM data, integrating predicted models like AlphaFold
event.fourwaves.com/...
Reposted by Randy Read 🇨🇦🇬🇧
Our January issue is out: journals.iucr.org/d/issues/202...
The cover highlights a data survey of the PDB and CSD for macromolecular and ligand structures that have been determined at elevated temperatures. Read more at doi.org/10.1107/S205...
The cover highlights a data survey of the PDB and CSD for macromolecular and ligand structures that have been determined at elevated temperatures. Read more at doi.org/10.1107/S205...
January 5, 2026 at 2:04 PM
Our January issue is out: journals.iucr.org/d/issues/202...
The cover highlights a data survey of the PDB and CSD for macromolecular and ligand structures that have been determined at elevated temperatures. Read more at doi.org/10.1107/S205...
The cover highlights a data survey of the PDB and CSD for macromolecular and ligand structures that have been determined at elevated temperatures. Read more at doi.org/10.1107/S205...
Reposted by Randy Read 🇨🇦🇬🇧
Check our new preprint smoothing rugged Cryo-EM landscapes: shorturl.at/gYs9U
We tackle practical hurdles of Optimal Transport (OT) loss—differentiability, cost & noise sensitivity—make it a feasible inference workhorse.
W/ G. Woollard, D. Herreros, @pilarcossio.bsky.social, K. Dao Duc 🧵👇 (1/9)
We tackle practical hurdles of Optimal Transport (OT) loss—differentiability, cost & noise sensitivity—make it a feasible inference workhorse.
W/ G. Woollard, D. Herreros, @pilarcossio.bsky.social, K. Dao Duc 🧵👇 (1/9)
January 2, 2026 at 4:03 PM
Check our new preprint smoothing rugged Cryo-EM landscapes: shorturl.at/gYs9U
We tackle practical hurdles of Optimal Transport (OT) loss—differentiability, cost & noise sensitivity—make it a feasible inference workhorse.
W/ G. Woollard, D. Herreros, @pilarcossio.bsky.social, K. Dao Duc 🧵👇 (1/9)
We tackle practical hurdles of Optimal Transport (OT) loss—differentiability, cost & noise sensitivity—make it a feasible inference workhorse.
W/ G. Woollard, D. Herreros, @pilarcossio.bsky.social, K. Dao Duc 🧵👇 (1/9)
This is a classic of the genre!
Tidied up an old desk drawer, found this. It was transcribed from a Brandeis science library bathroom wall in the 1980s:
December 30, 2025 at 8:06 PM
This is a classic of the genre!
Reposted by Randy Read 🇨🇦🇬🇧
RE: https://fediscience.org/@Guillawme/111534984107819771
Something really cool happened to me this year!
@HRBridges re-processed a #CryoEM dataset from some previous work of mine and colleagues (publicly available as EMPIAR-10739; see quoted post below for a summary of this work). She […]
Something really cool happened to me this year!
@HRBridges re-processed a #CryoEM dataset from some previous work of mine and colleagues (publicly available as EMPIAR-10739; see quoted post below for a summary of this work). She […]
Original post on fediscience.org
fediscience.org
December 28, 2025 at 4:32 PM
RE: https://fediscience.org/@Guillawme/111534984107819771
Something really cool happened to me this year!
@HRBridges re-processed a #CryoEM dataset from some previous work of mine and colleagues (publicly available as EMPIAR-10739; see quoted post below for a summary of this work). She […]
Something really cool happened to me this year!
@HRBridges re-processed a #CryoEM dataset from some previous work of mine and colleagues (publicly available as EMPIAR-10739; see quoted post below for a summary of this work). She […]
Reposted by Randy Read 🇨🇦🇬🇧
From Sameer Velankar & colleagues in @narjournal.bsky.social #NARDatabaseIssue | PDBe: enhanced structural data exploration to facilitate discovery | #Bioinformatics #Database #OpenScience #Proteomics #PDB 🧬 🖥️🧪🔓
⬇️
academic.oup.com/nar/advance-...
⬇️
academic.oup.com/nar/advance-...
PDBe: enhanced structural data exploration to facilitate discovery
Abstract. Protein Data Bank in Europe (PDBe) is a founding member of the worldwide Protein Data Bank (wwPDB), delivering open access to experimentally dete
academic.oup.com
December 11, 2025 at 3:13 PM
From Sameer Velankar & colleagues in @narjournal.bsky.social #NARDatabaseIssue | PDBe: enhanced structural data exploration to facilitate discovery | #Bioinformatics #Database #OpenScience #Proteomics #PDB 🧬 🖥️🧪🔓
⬇️
academic.oup.com/nar/advance-...
⬇️
academic.oup.com/nar/advance-...
Reposted by Randy Read 🇨🇦🇬🇧
BBC News - Top UK scientist says research visa restrictions endanger economy
www.bbc.com/news/article...
www.bbc.com/news/article...
Top UK scientist says research visa restrictions endanger economy
Prof Sir Paul Nurse says the UK is "shooting itself in the foot" with its visa system for researchers.
www.bbc.com
December 5, 2025 at 6:35 AM
BBC News - Top UK scientist says research visa restrictions endanger economy
www.bbc.com/news/article...
www.bbc.com/news/article...
Reposted by Randy Read 🇨🇦🇬🇧
Apply for #IUCr2026 travel grants
Funds are available to support students, early-career researchers, and participants from under-resourced institutions and/or developing countries.
Details at event.fourwaves.com/...
Funds are available to support students, early-career researchers, and participants from under-resourced institutions and/or developing countries.
Details at event.fourwaves.com/...
December 1, 2025 at 5:55 PM
Apply for #IUCr2026 travel grants
Funds are available to support students, early-career researchers, and participants from under-resourced institutions and/or developing countries.
Details at event.fourwaves.com/...
Funds are available to support students, early-career researchers, and participants from under-resourced institutions and/or developing countries.
Details at event.fourwaves.com/...
Reposted by Randy Read 🇨🇦🇬🇧
🚨 Apply now for the 2026 Erice School!
From Structural Biology to Structural Cell Biology with the aid of Machine Learning
📅 May 31–June 9, 2026
⏳ Deadline: Dec 7, 2025
🌐 Info: crystalerice.org/2026
From Structural Biology to Structural Cell Biology with the aid of Machine Learning
📅 May 31–June 9, 2026
⏳ Deadline: Dec 7, 2025
🌐 Info: crystalerice.org/2026
International School of Crystallography :: Welcome
The homepage of the International School of Crystallography - held in Erice, Italy, since 1974
crystalerice.org
December 1, 2025 at 10:49 AM
🚨 Apply now for the 2026 Erice School!
From Structural Biology to Structural Cell Biology with the aid of Machine Learning
📅 May 31–June 9, 2026
⏳ Deadline: Dec 7, 2025
🌐 Info: crystalerice.org/2026
From Structural Biology to Structural Cell Biology with the aid of Machine Learning
📅 May 31–June 9, 2026
⏳ Deadline: Dec 7, 2025
🌐 Info: crystalerice.org/2026
It’s great to see people thinking about tracking errors in Fourier terms! EM_placement tries to infer effects of orientation bias from half maps, but it would be far better to do this directly in the reconstruction process. No surprise it’s people like ZO and Dominika doing this work!
Preserving Information and Integrity in Cryo-EM: A Fourier-Space Deposition Approach www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.11.26.690836v1 #cryoem
November 29, 2025 at 7:11 PM
It’s great to see people thinking about tracking errors in Fourier terms! EM_placement tries to infer effects of orientation bias from half maps, but it would be far better to do this directly in the reconstruction process. No surprise it’s people like ZO and Dominika doing this work!
Reposted by Randy Read 🇨🇦🇬🇧
Giles and Burnley: Ten years of the CCP-EM Spring Symposium ##Cryoem##ElectronCryoMicroscopy##CCPEM... ##IUCrhttps://journals.iucr.org/paper?S2059798325010496
Ten years of the CCP-EM Spring Symposium
This article reviews the growth over the last ten years of the CCP-EM Spring Symposium. The conference is now established as a popular meeting for practitioners of life-science cryoEM and highlights new methods and exemplar applications.
journals.iucr.org
November 29, 2025 at 1:00 AM
Giles and Burnley: Ten years of the CCP-EM Spring Symposium ##Cryoem##ElectronCryoMicroscopy##CCPEM... ##IUCrhttps://journals.iucr.org/paper?S2059798325010496
I really like the new summary representation Airlie has come up with for the self rotation function!
McCoy and Read: Xtricorder: a likelihood-enhanced self-rotation function and application to a machine learning-enhanced Matthews prediction of asymmetric unit copy number ##MachineLearning@Cambridge_Uni...##IUCrhttps://journals.iucr.org/paper?S2059798325009647
Xtricorder: a likelihood-enhanced self-rotation function and application to a machine learning-enhanced Matthews prediction of asymmetric unit copy number
Xtricorder is a tool for analysing crystallographic data, featuring a likelihood-enhanced self-rotation function and a novel `composite-section diagram' thereof, which aids interpretation and enables a machine learning-enhanced prediction of asymmetric unit content.
journals.iucr.org
November 27, 2025 at 7:33 AM
I really like the new summary representation Airlie has come up with for the self rotation function!
Reposted by Randy Read 🇨🇦🇬🇧
Frontier structural biology chases low occupancies: weak binders in drug discovery & fleeting intermediates in time-resolved studies. When squeezing SNR, confirmation bias looms – you can see what you hope to see in the noise! Enter METEOR ☄️, our denoising+phasing framework! 1/8
November 24, 2025 at 10:22 PM
Frontier structural biology chases low occupancies: weak binders in drug discovery & fleeting intermediates in time-resolved studies. When squeezing SNR, confirmation bias looms – you can see what you hope to see in the noise! Enter METEOR ☄️, our denoising+phasing framework! 1/8