Abbas Zaki
@abbasz.bsky.social
Engineer pretending to be a biologist | PhD candidate @ UTSW | making photosynthetic mammalian cells | posting through the PhD
This would be such a fun journal to read 🙂↕️
December 7, 2025 at 5:05 AM
This would be such a fun journal to read 🙂↕️
One of these, thiovolum imperiosus is fascinating:
- multiple copies of their genome but they’re nearly identical
- almost everything in the cell is in a thin layer of peripheral cytoplasm and the middle is a large compartment that organizes the cell together with membrane invaginations
- multiple copies of their genome but they’re nearly identical
- almost everything in the cell is in a thin layer of peripheral cytoplasm and the middle is a large compartment that organizes the cell together with membrane invaginations
December 7, 2025 at 5:03 AM
One of these, thiovolum imperiosus is fascinating:
- multiple copies of their genome but they’re nearly identical
- almost everything in the cell is in a thin layer of peripheral cytoplasm and the middle is a large compartment that organizes the cell together with membrane invaginations
- multiple copies of their genome but they’re nearly identical
- almost everything in the cell is in a thin layer of peripheral cytoplasm and the middle is a large compartment that organizes the cell together with membrane invaginations
Crazy stats included:
- just 5% of bacteria account of 90% of 🦠 pubs
- >90% of 🦠 remain uncultured
- some bacteria can grow to be 20,000 um which is WILD on its own but
- this isn’t even uncommon bc multiple species of HUGE bacteria (>50 um) exist
- just 5% of bacteria account of 90% of 🦠 pubs
- >90% of 🦠 remain uncultured
- some bacteria can grow to be 20,000 um which is WILD on its own but
- this isn’t even uncommon bc multiple species of HUGE bacteria (>50 um) exist
December 7, 2025 at 5:03 AM
Crazy stats included:
- just 5% of bacteria account of 90% of 🦠 pubs
- >90% of 🦠 remain uncultured
- some bacteria can grow to be 20,000 um which is WILD on its own but
- this isn’t even uncommon bc multiple species of HUGE bacteria (>50 um) exist
- just 5% of bacteria account of 90% of 🦠 pubs
- >90% of 🦠 remain uncultured
- some bacteria can grow to be 20,000 um which is WILD on its own but
- this isn’t even uncommon bc multiple species of HUGE bacteria (>50 um) exist
Couldn’t stay away from the weird lil cells at extremes though and went back to @vollandlab.bsky.social talk and it did not disappoint
December 7, 2025 at 5:03 AM
Couldn’t stay away from the weird lil cells at extremes though and went back to @vollandlab.bsky.social talk and it did not disappoint
More impressively, vitamin B3 supplementation even rescued KO mice showing this is a very cool platform to identify possible translational therapies with real effects!
December 7, 2025 at 5:03 AM
More impressively, vitamin B3 supplementation even rescued KO mice showing this is a very cool platform to identify possible translational therapies with real effects!
Probably overusing the word but this was honestly so elegant! The idea that you can do a CRISPR screen and add vitamins to see which monogenic diseases might be treatable with vitamins is just *chef’s kiss* 👌🏽
December 7, 2025 at 5:03 AM
Probably overusing the word but this was honestly so elegant! The idea that you can do a CRISPR screen and add vitamins to see which monogenic diseases might be treatable with vitamins is just *chef’s kiss* 👌🏽
Another really cool talk I had the pleasure of catching in the “Adapating Cellular Machines to Cellular Context” session was by @ishahjain.bsky.social showcasing a new way of fighting metabolic disorders
December 7, 2025 at 5:03 AM
Another really cool talk I had the pleasure of catching in the “Adapating Cellular Machines to Cellular Context” session was by @ishahjain.bsky.social showcasing a new way of fighting metabolic disorders
Really neat framework for how ELVAs store aggregates and later degrade when they mature to eggs and how that might help reduce metabolic demands to keep ELVAs in a constant degradative state
December 7, 2025 at 5:03 AM
Really neat framework for how ELVAs store aggregates and later degrade when they mature to eggs and how that might help reduce metabolic demands to keep ELVAs in a constant degradative state
But really neat how the lysosome is getting a break from its rep as the 🗑️ of the cell and even crazier how ELVAs can be 10s of microns but still behave liquid-like and not depend on microtubules
December 7, 2025 at 5:03 AM
But really neat how the lysosome is getting a break from its rep as the 🗑️ of the cell and even crazier how ELVAs can be 10s of microns but still behave liquid-like and not depend on microtubules
Honestly was just struck by how huge (100 um 🤯) oocytes can be and what that means for coordinating cargo trafficking at that scale
December 7, 2025 at 5:03 AM
Honestly was just struck by how huge (100 um 🤯) oocytes can be and what that means for coordinating cargo trafficking at that scale
Absolutely wild that single celled organisms can coordinate such complex interactions 🤯
December 7, 2025 at 4:24 AM
Absolutely wild that single celled organisms can coordinate such complex interactions 🤯
Even more interestingly though, stentors oscillate between partners instead of sticking with one buddy. Since flow velocity might be higher for one stentor than another, this might help prevent suboptimal pairings by spreading interactions to multiple partners aka “eating family style”
December 7, 2025 at 4:24 AM
Even more interestingly though, stentors oscillate between partners instead of sticking with one buddy. Since flow velocity might be higher for one stentor than another, this might help prevent suboptimal pairings by spreading interactions to multiple partners aka “eating family style”
Super elegant use of particle image velocimetry to show stentors together generate almost 2x faster flow towards each to improve feeding
December 7, 2025 at 4:24 AM
Super elegant use of particle image velocimetry to show stentors together generate almost 2x faster flow towards each to improve feeding
Really loved the comparison to actin self-assembly but with ridiculously large (250 um 😱) cells
December 7, 2025 at 4:24 AM
Really loved the comparison to actin self-assembly but with ridiculously large (250 um 😱) cells
Switching gears to how cells work together, @sshekhr.bsky.social gave a beautiful talk on stentors and how hydrodynamics influence cooperativity 🌀
December 7, 2025 at 4:24 AM
Switching gears to how cells work together, @sshekhr.bsky.social gave a beautiful talk on stentors and how hydrodynamics influence cooperativity 🌀
Also just cool to be reminded that in addition to being fun lil guys, fungi interactions matter to better develop anti-fungals and secondary metabolites
December 7, 2025 at 4:24 AM
Also just cool to be reminded that in addition to being fun lil guys, fungi interactions matter to better develop anti-fungals and secondary metabolites
Next up @mjhays.bsky.social talked about killer yeast that secrete toxins to kill neighboring cells ☠️ Really elegant experiments comparing coevolution vs asymmetric evolution to show it’s really coevolution driving resistance!
December 7, 2025 at 4:24 AM
Next up @mjhays.bsky.social talked about killer yeast that secrete toxins to kill neighboring cells ☠️ Really elegant experiments comparing coevolution vs asymmetric evolution to show it’s really coevolution driving resistance!
Also so cool that 1 out of 3 cells in the 🌊 are archaea 🤯
December 7, 2025 at 4:24 AM
Also so cool that 1 out of 3 cells in the 🌊 are archaea 🤯
Had no clue archaea could fuse lipid bilayers to make membrane spanning monolayers or methylate to adapt to ❄️ temps (by archaea standards anyway)
December 7, 2025 at 4:24 AM
Had no clue archaea could fuse lipid bilayers to make membrane spanning monolayers or methylate to adapt to ❄️ temps (by archaea standards anyway)
Absolutely wild that single celled organisms can coordinate such complex interactions 🤯
December 7, 2025 at 4:17 AM
Absolutely wild that single celled organisms can coordinate such complex interactions 🤯
Even more interestingly though, stentors oscillate between partners instead of sticking with one buddy. Since flow velocity might be higher for one stentor than another, this might help prevent suboptimal pairings by spreading interactions to multiple partners aka “eating family style”
December 7, 2025 at 4:17 AM
Even more interestingly though, stentors oscillate between partners instead of sticking with one buddy. Since flow velocity might be higher for one stentor than another, this might help prevent suboptimal pairings by spreading interactions to multiple partners aka “eating family style”
Super elegant use of particle image velocimetry to show stentors together generate almost 2x faster flow towards each to improve feeding
December 7, 2025 at 4:17 AM
Super elegant use of particle image velocimetry to show stentors together generate almost 2x faster flow towards each to improve feeding