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wilsonlab.bsky.social
Wilson Lab
@wilsonlab.bsky.social
Ribosomes & Translation Regulation; Antibiotics & Resistance Mechanisms; Structural Biology & Cryo-EM; University of Hamburg.
Reposted by Wilson Lab
Max Fels @mfels.bsky.social from our lab discovers giant DNA viruses that infect amoeba encode eIF4E and the entire suite of 4F complex proteins to control mRNA translation, including beautiful crystal structures of viral 4E bound to modified mRNA 5' caps:

www.cell.com/cell/fulltex...
February 17, 2026 at 6:18 PM
Reposted by Wilson Lab
Very timely review; thank Alex Hong and @jbdsf.bsky.social for putting this together
journals.plos.org/plospathogen...
It’s not me, it’s you: Anti-phage nuclease specificity inside a bacterium
journals.plos.org
February 19, 2026 at 5:30 AM
Reposted by Wilson Lab
Please spread the word: the Structural Studies Division @mrclmb.bsky.social is looking for a new tenure-track, independent group leader with an exciting plan in any area of Structural (Molecular & Cell) biology, in discovery biology and/or methods development. 🥳

mrc.tal.net/vx/mobile-0/...
Research Group Leader Tenure Track - Structural Studies - LMB 2775 - Medical Research Council
Location: Cambridge. Vacancy: Research Group Leader Tenure Track - Structural Studies - LMB 2775. Closing Date: 16/03/2026, 23:55
mrc.tal.net
February 16, 2026 at 12:09 PM
Reposted by Wilson Lab
Research into filamentous actinomycetes, the antibiotic producers, is in steep decline. Loads of natural products chemistry research worldwide but not much aimed at understanding their biology and ecology. The latter is key to unlocking their specialised metabolism

link.springer.com/article/10.1...
Revitalizing actinobacteria research: an urgent response to the antimicrobial resistance crisis - Natural Products and Bioprospecting
Abstract The crisis of antimicrobial resistance (AMR) is escalating while the antibiotic pipeline remains stagnant. Our bibliometric analysis of eight decades of literature reveals a critical imbalanc...
link.springer.com
February 16, 2026 at 1:32 PM
Reposted by Wilson Lab
Bluesky is the new science Twitter, new study by @whysharksmatter.bsky.social and Julia Wester concludes!

"Results show that for every reported professional benefit that scientists once gained from Twitter, scientists can now gain that benefit more effectively on Bluesky than on Twitter."
Scientists no Longer Find Twitter Professionally Useful, and have Switched to Bluesky
Synopsis. Social media has become widely used by the scientific community for a variety of professional uses, including networking and public outreach. For
academic.oup.com
February 13, 2026 at 10:08 PM
Reposted by Wilson Lab
I'm thrilled to anounce that our latest study on ALS/FTD neurodegenerative diseases has been published. Very proud to be part of this excting project. Many thanks to Clotilde Lagier Tourenne for an amazing longlasting and fruitfull collaboration, #ALS #FTD #Ribosomes
www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...
Blocking RAN translation without altering repeat RNAs rescues C9ORF72-related ALS and FTD phenotypes
GGGGCC (G4C2) repeat expansion in C9ORF72 is the most common genetic cause of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) and frontotemporal dementia (FTD). Toxicity is thought to result from the accumulation...
www.science.org
February 6, 2026 at 10:07 AM
Reposted by Wilson Lab
By 2028, all 4-character PDB IDs will be exhausted.

After that, all new entries will receive extended IDs: 12 characters total, formatted as pdb_ + 8 alphanumeric characters (pdb_1000axyz)

Test it from PDB Beta Archive

Read more: www.wwpdb.org/news/news?ye...
February 12, 2026 at 11:32 AM
Reposted by Wilson Lab
Long in the making, but happy to present the Chlamydomonas chlororibosome!
Cryo-ET🔬reveals a large new domain on the small subunit, built from multiple extensions in conserved ribosomal proteins.
bioRxiv 📖: shorturl.at/q44tG
This suggests greater chlororibosome diversity than expected!
1/n 🧵
February 10, 2026 at 8:35 AM
Reposted by Wilson Lab
We're launching a research lab at SMART. Shenzhen Medical Academy for Research and Translation is a newly established institute with long-term funding mechanisms for internal and external investigators. At full capacity SMART aims to support up to 400 labs.
www.scmp.com/news/china/s...
Structural biologist Alexey Amunts launches new research lab in Shenzhen
‘Shenzhen adds another dimension; it is a place where ideas do not remain ideas for long,’ Amunts says of new position.
www.scmp.com
February 6, 2026 at 5:36 AM
Reposted by Wilson Lab
4 - Still lots to learn about this mysterious factor.
🔗 Read the paper: academic.oup.com/nar/article/...
Funded by @dfg.de via SFB TRR319-RMaP 🙏
#RibosomeBiology #TranslationQC #RNA #Nanopore #Yeast #PhDPosition #DFG #RMaP #New1
Yeast elongation factor homolog New1 protects a subset of mRNAs from degradation by no-go decay
Abstract. New1 is a homologue of the essential yeast translation elongation factor eEF3. Lack of New1 has been shown to induce ribosome queuing upstream of
academic.oup.com
February 1, 2026 at 9:53 PM
Reposted by Wilson Lab
3 - Builds on work from @hauryliuk.bsky.social & @wilsonlab.bsky.social.

Big thanks to our collaborators Liz Petfalski, Tamer Butto and Stefan Pastore, and huge kudos to main heroes from Winz lab: Max Müller and Lena Tittel, as well as @kaushikiyer.bsky.social, and Alina-Andrea Kraft!
February 1, 2026 at 9:51 PM
Reposted by Wilson Lab
🧬 Metabolic arms race continues!
We discovered a new NAD⁺-depleting bacterial immune system aRES and phage enzymes that overcome it.
Our preprint is out: www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...
Bacterial defense via RES-mediated NAD+ depletion is countered by phage phosphatases
Many bacterial defense systems restrict phage infection by breaking the molecule NAD+ to its constituents, adenosine diphosphate ribose (ADPR) and nicotinamide (Nam). To counter NAD+ depletion-mediated defense, phages evolved NAD+ reconstitution pathway 1 (NARP1), which uses ADPR and Nam to rebuild NAD+. Here we report a bacterial defense system called aRES, involving RES-domain proteins that degrade NAD+ into Nam and ADPR-1″-phosphate (ADPR-1P). This molecule cannot serve as a substrate for NARP1, so that NAD+ depletion by aRES defends against phages even if they encode NARP1. We further discover that some phages evolved an extended NARP1 pathway capable of overcoming aRES defense. In these phages, the NARP1 operon also includes a specialized phosphatase, which dephosphorylates ADPR-1P to form ADPR, a substrate from which NARP1 then reconstitutes NAD+. Other phages encode inhibitors that directly bind aRES proteins and physically block their active sites. Our study describes new layers in the NAD+-centric arms race between bacteria and phages and highlights the centrality of the NAD+ pool in cellular battles between viruses and their hosts. ### Competing Interest Statement The authors have declared no competing interest. European Research Council, ERC-AdG GA 101018520 Israel Science Foundation, MAPATS grant 2720/22 Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft, SPP 2330, grant 464312965 Minerva Foundation with funding from the Federal German Ministry for Education and Research research grant from Magnus Konow in honor of his mother Olga Konow Rappaport Ministry of Aliyah and Immigrant Absorption, https://ror.org/05aycsg86 Clore Scholars Program
www.biorxiv.org
January 29, 2026 at 11:20 AM
Reposted by Wilson Lab
Have a look at our new structure of co translational folding in yeast. This is collaborative work initialized by the Rospert lab from the @uni-freiburg.de. Structural work has been done by the amazing @lgrundmann.bsky.social Stay tuned for the next ribosome paper from him, following very soon.
🧪Scientists from our Haselbach lab captured how proteins begin to fold as they’re being made.

Using cryo-EM, they visualised chaperones guiding nascent proteins on the ribosome: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-025-67685-6
January 19, 2026 at 11:09 AM
Reposted by Wilson Lab
We found a new mode by which bacteria deplete NAD+ to protect from phages. And then we found how phages overcome this defense

Discovered by talented biochemist Dr Ilya Osterman, read the preprint: tinyurl.com/Narp-ap

A thread 🧵
Bacterial defense via RES-mediated NAD+ depletion is countered by phage phosphatases
Many bacterial defense systems restrict phage infection by breaking the molecule NAD+ to its constituents, adenosine diphosphate ribose (ADPR) and nicotinamide (Nam). To counter NAD+ depletion-mediated defense, phages evolved NAD+ reconstitution pathway 1 (NARP1), which uses ADPR and Nam to rebuild NAD+. Here we report a bacterial defense system called aRES, involving RES-domain proteins that degrade NAD+ into Nam and ADPR-1″-phosphate (ADPR-1P). This molecule cannot serve as a substrate for NARP1, so that NAD+ depletion by aRES defends against phages even if they encode NARP1. We further discover that some phages evolved an extended NARP1 pathway capable of overcoming aRES defense. In these phages, the NARP1 operon also includes a specialized phosphatase, which dephosphorylates ADPR-1P to form ADPR, a substrate from which NARP1 then reconstitutes NAD+. Other phages encode inhibitors that directly bind aRES proteins and physically block their active sites. Our study describes new layers in the NAD+-centric arms race between bacteria and phages and highlights the centrality of the NAD+ pool in cellular battles between viruses and their hosts. ### Competing Interest Statement The authors have declared no competing interest. European Research Council, ERC-AdG GA 101018520 Israel Science Foundation, MAPATS grant 2720/22 Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft, SPP 2330, grant 464312965 Minerva Foundation with funding from the Federal German Ministry for Education and Research research grant from Magnus Konow in honor of his mother Olga Konow Rappaport Ministry of Aliyah and Immigrant Absorption, https://ror.org/05aycsg86 Clore Scholars Program
tinyurl.com
January 29, 2026 at 3:34 PM
Reposted by Wilson Lab
Reposted by Wilson Lab
Interested in direct tRNA-seq by Nanopore? We developed a new RNA-based barcoding aproach for seq parallelization; it is also cost-saving. Scripts available on github. #tRNA #Nanopore

track.smtpsendmail.com/9032119/c?p=...
ADAM-tRNA-seq: an optimized approach for demultiplexing and enhanced hierarchal mapping in direct tRNA sequencing
Abstract. Transfer RNAs (tRNAs) play an essential role in protein synthesis and cellular homeostasis, and their dysregulation is associated with various hu
track.smtpsendmail.com
January 27, 2026 at 10:14 PM
Reposted by Wilson Lab
Active transport of tRNAs facilitates distributed protein synthesis https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.01.26.698744v1
January 27, 2026 at 10:30 PM
Reposted by Wilson Lab
🚀 CryoSPARC v5.0 BETA is here!

We’re excited to deploy another major #CryoSPARC release to help enable and accelerate #cryoEM data analysis. v5 has a redesigned underlying software system and many new features - highlights in thread!

Full changelog: cryosparc.com/updates/v5.0.0
January 27, 2026 at 8:36 PM
Reposted by Wilson Lab
Online Now: Why m⁶A? An RNA surveillance model Online now:
Why m⁶A? An RNA surveillance model
Dierks and Schwartz discuss the m6A surveillance model, proposing that m6A flags “undesirable” intron-less RNAs (e.g., transposons) for decay. This provides a mechanism to distinguish “legitimate” spliced mRNAs and potentially suppress harmful RNA.
dlvr.it
January 28, 2026 at 12:32 PM
Reposted by Wilson Lab
Structure of the 30S translation initiation complex coupled to paused RNA polymerase and its potential for riboregulation #rnasky 🦠
Structure of the 30S translation initiation complex coupled to paused RNA polymerase and its potential for riboregulation - Nature Communications
Small regulatory RNAs can act on target mRNAs to control their translation and stability. Here, the authors present evidence that this riboregulation can potentially regulate by pairing to a target si...
www.nature.com
January 26, 2026 at 12:59 PM
Reposted by Wilson Lab
Many many moons ago I fell in love with science while working on how Polyamines regulate programmed ribosomal frame shifting

www.nature.com/articles/nat...

Time to get back to these fascinating and complex field
Polyamine sensing by nascent ornithine decarboxylase antizyme stimulates decoding of its mRNA - Nature
Ornithine decarboxylase (ODC), the rate-limiting enzyme in the biosynthesis of polyamines, is regulated by an antizyme (OAZ). Polyamines induce antizyme expression by promoting ribosomal frame-shiftin...
www.nature.com
January 24, 2026 at 7:08 AM
Reposted by Wilson Lab
New Preprint alert! Excited to share our latest work on the #MAPKinases from stellar PhD student Jill von Velsen. First structures of the MAP2K MEK1 activating its substrate MAPK between 2.9 and 3.6A - amazing resolutions for such a small and mobile complex! www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...
January 22, 2026 at 9:56 AM
Reposted by Wilson Lab
And the 4th paper in this week contribution from our lab tells about ribosome biogenesis in yeast. A follow-up story from our wonderful collaborators in Graz - the Bergler Lab. Structural work was again done by the amazing @lgrundmann.bsky.social: academic.oup.com/nar/article/...
A comprehensive view on r-protein binding and rRNA domain structuring during early eukaryotic ribosome formation
Abstract. Formation of the eukaryotic ribosomal subunits follows a strict regime to assemble ribosomal proteins (r-protein) with ribosomal RNAs (rRNA) whil
academic.oup.com
January 22, 2026 at 5:27 PM