Alister Burt
@alisterburt.bsky.social
Computational Cryo-EM/ET at Genentech
Love people, the outdoors and building stuff
Complexity is the enemy
All opinions my own
Love people, the outdoors and building stuff
Complexity is the enemy
All opinions my own
LLM spam is getting too sophisticated 🫠
November 8, 2025 at 4:37 PM
LLM spam is getting too sophisticated 🫠
and we wonder how he can be so productive...
November 4, 2025 at 7:05 PM
and we wonder how he can be so productive...
Reposted by Alister Burt
Thrilled, and admittedly relieved, to see this major investment in Dutch #cryoEM become reality! 🇳🇱🔬
Honoured to be a co-applicant on this national initiative and very excited for the opportunity to advance our work in cellular structural virology! 🦠
www.uu.nl/en/news/33-m...
Honoured to be a co-applicant on this national initiative and very excited for the opportunity to advance our work in cellular structural virology! 🦠
www.uu.nl/en/news/33-m...
33 million euro investment for national electron microscope facility EMPower
A major new national facility for electron microscopy, called EMPower, has been awarded to a consortium of Dutch universities and medical centers. EMPower aims to pave the way for major discoveries im...
www.uu.nl
November 3, 2025 at 4:47 PM
Thrilled, and admittedly relieved, to see this major investment in Dutch #cryoEM become reality! 🇳🇱🔬
Honoured to be a co-applicant on this national initiative and very excited for the opportunity to advance our work in cellular structural virology! 🦠
www.uu.nl/en/news/33-m...
Honoured to be a co-applicant on this national initiative and very excited for the opportunity to advance our work in cellular structural virology! 🦠
www.uu.nl/en/news/33-m...
Reposted by Alister Burt
Our new preprint is out 🥳🥳🥳
Henipaviruses, like Nipah and Hendra, package their genomes inside helical shells built by thousands of nucleoproteins. These nucleocapsids are essential to protect the viral RNA, but how do they ever let the polymerase in to read the sequence?
👇
Henipaviruses, like Nipah and Hendra, package their genomes inside helical shells built by thousands of nucleoproteins. These nucleocapsids are essential to protect the viral RNA, but how do they ever let the polymerase in to read the sequence?
👇
November 3, 2025 at 12:26 PM
Our new preprint is out 🥳🥳🥳
Henipaviruses, like Nipah and Hendra, package their genomes inside helical shells built by thousands of nucleoproteins. These nucleocapsids are essential to protect the viral RNA, but how do they ever let the polymerase in to read the sequence?
👇
Henipaviruses, like Nipah and Hendra, package their genomes inside helical shells built by thousands of nucleoproteins. These nucleocapsids are essential to protect the viral RNA, but how do they ever let the polymerase in to read the sequence?
👇
Reposted by Alister Burt
“Bell's research needs to be aligned with the company's needs.”
Where is Bell Labs now?
www.nature.com/articles/454...
Where is Bell Labs now?
www.nature.com/articles/454...
Bell Labs bottoms out - Nature
Institute pulls plug on basic research.
www.nature.com
November 1, 2025 at 5:13 PM
“Bell's research needs to be aligned with the company's needs.”
Where is Bell Labs now?
www.nature.com/articles/454...
Where is Bell Labs now?
www.nature.com/articles/454...
how do people see new cryo-EM papers these days?
Twitter was pretty universal back in the day and Bluesky still feels much smaller, feel like I’m missing things 🤔
Twitter was pretty universal back in the day and Bluesky still feels much smaller, feel like I’m missing things 🤔
November 1, 2025 at 4:43 PM
how do people see new cryo-EM papers these days?
Twitter was pretty universal back in the day and Bluesky still feels much smaller, feel like I’m missing things 🤔
Twitter was pretty universal back in the day and Bluesky still feels much smaller, feel like I’m missing things 🤔
Reposted by Alister Burt
Image of the Sun.
Taken at night.
Not looking up at sky but down through 8000 miles of rock to the other side of the Earth.
Not with light but neutrinos.
Taken at night.
Not looking up at sky but down through 8000 miles of rock to the other side of the Earth.
Not with light but neutrinos.
November 1, 2025 at 7:50 AM
Image of the Sun.
Taken at night.
Not looking up at sky but down through 8000 miles of rock to the other side of the Earth.
Not with light but neutrinos.
Taken at night.
Not looking up at sky but down through 8000 miles of rock to the other side of the Earth.
Not with light but neutrinos.
Reposted by Alister Burt
The Wilkinson Lab is open for science! @mskcancercenter.bsky.social
🧬We'll be finding funky new RNA biology, mainly by looking at reverse transcriptases (i.e. the Best Enzymes In The World)🧬
annnd: I'm hiring - come join! Especially postdocs and PhD students - please get in touch (NYC is great)
🧬We'll be finding funky new RNA biology, mainly by looking at reverse transcriptases (i.e. the Best Enzymes In The World)🧬
annnd: I'm hiring - come join! Especially postdocs and PhD students - please get in touch (NYC is great)
Wilkinson Lab
We discover and study reverse transcriptases
wilkinsonlab.bio
October 31, 2025 at 7:00 PM
The Wilkinson Lab is open for science! @mskcancercenter.bsky.social
🧬We'll be finding funky new RNA biology, mainly by looking at reverse transcriptases (i.e. the Best Enzymes In The World)🧬
annnd: I'm hiring - come join! Especially postdocs and PhD students - please get in touch (NYC is great)
🧬We'll be finding funky new RNA biology, mainly by looking at reverse transcriptases (i.e. the Best Enzymes In The World)🧬
annnd: I'm hiring - come join! Especially postdocs and PhD students - please get in touch (NYC is great)
Reposted by Alister Burt
My quote of the day
Abraham Lincoln
Abraham Lincoln
November 1, 2025 at 12:05 PM
My quote of the day
Abraham Lincoln
Abraham Lincoln
Reposted by Alister Burt
🥳 Today marks the start of the lab of former postdoc @florianwollweber.bsky.social at @embl.org Grenoble!
www.embl.org/groups/wollw...
Florian-- we will miss you dearly and wish you much success!
With us, Florian applied multiscale imaging 🔬to Asgard archaea ...👇
www.embl.org/groups/wollw...
Florian-- we will miss you dearly and wish you much success!
With us, Florian applied multiscale imaging 🔬to Asgard archaea ...👇
November 1, 2025 at 12:41 PM
🥳 Today marks the start of the lab of former postdoc @florianwollweber.bsky.social at @embl.org Grenoble!
www.embl.org/groups/wollw...
Florian-- we will miss you dearly and wish you much success!
With us, Florian applied multiscale imaging 🔬to Asgard archaea ...👇
www.embl.org/groups/wollw...
Florian-- we will miss you dearly and wish you much success!
With us, Florian applied multiscale imaging 🔬to Asgard archaea ...👇
Reposted by Alister Burt
Happy logical operator Halloween! 🎃
October 31, 2025 at 4:55 PM
Happy logical operator Halloween! 🎃
worth understanding
Conda ≠ PyPI
Conda isn’t just another Python package manager-it’s a multi-language, user-space distribution system.
In this 3-part series, we explore the fundamental differences between conda and PyPI.
Part 1 is live now 👇
conda.org/blog/conda-i...
#conda #packaging #python
Conda isn’t just another Python package manager-it’s a multi-language, user-space distribution system.
In this 3-part series, we explore the fundamental differences between conda and PyPI.
Part 1 is live now 👇
conda.org/blog/conda-i...
#conda #packaging #python
Conda ≠ PyPI: Why Conda Is More Than a Package Manager | conda.org
Part 1 of the 'Conda Is Not PyPI' series—why conda is a multi-language user-space distribution, not just a Python package manager.
conda.org
November 1, 2025 at 12:40 AM
worth understanding
Reposted by Alister Burt
I'll help spread the word—Stan's a gem.
October 31, 2025 at 9:10 PM
I'll help spread the word—Stan's a gem.
my friend and wonderful colleague Stan is hiring at Genentech in South San Francisco! 🧬 🌉
Biochemist/structural biologist looking for your first position in industry? I can’t recommend working with Stan enough ☺️ please repost for visibility
www.linkedin.com/posts/stanis...
Biochemist/structural biologist looking for your first position in industry? I can’t recommend working with Stan enough ☺️ please repost for visibility
www.linkedin.com/posts/stanis...
#hiring #researchassociate #structuralbiology #proteinsciences #cryoem #biochemistry #biophysics #dnarepair #drugdiscovery | Stanislau Yatskevich
We’re hiring a 𝐑𝐞𝐬𝐞𝐚𝐫𝐜𝐡 𝐀𝐬𝐬𝐨𝐜𝐢𝐚𝐭𝐞 (Contractor) to join our 𝐒𝐭𝐫𝐮𝐜𝐭𝐮𝐫𝐚𝐥 𝐁𝐢𝐨𝐥𝐨𝐠𝐲 team in 𝐏𝐫𝐨𝐭𝐞𝐢𝐧 𝐒𝐜𝐢𝐞𝐧𝐜𝐞𝐬 focused on the molecular mechanisms of DNA repair.
𝐖𝐡𝐲 𝐭𝐡𝐢𝐬 𝐫𝐨𝐥𝐞 𝐦𝐚𝐭𝐭𝐞𝐫𝐬
You’ll help purify and ...
www.linkedin.com
October 31, 2025 at 9:05 PM
my friend and wonderful colleague Stan is hiring at Genentech in South San Francisco! 🧬 🌉
Biochemist/structural biologist looking for your first position in industry? I can’t recommend working with Stan enough ☺️ please repost for visibility
www.linkedin.com/posts/stanis...
Biochemist/structural biologist looking for your first position in industry? I can’t recommend working with Stan enough ☺️ please repost for visibility
www.linkedin.com/posts/stanis...
Reposted by Alister Burt
It was a fantastic opportunity to finally meet the people behind this software that I have been using for years and is so important for my work! A big thank you to all core developers who were so welcoming, and patiently guided participants in their attempts to contribute back to napari!
Longer wrap-up to come, but in the meantime: we had a fantastic and productive time at the napari hackathon at @globias.bsky.social 2025 conference! Thanks to all the participants and to the GloBIAS team for hosting us!
October 30, 2025 at 4:14 PM
It was a fantastic opportunity to finally meet the people behind this software that I have been using for years and is so important for my work! A big thank you to all core developers who were so welcoming, and patiently guided participants in their attempts to contribute back to napari!
Reposted by Alister Burt
Happy Halloween from the napari team!
October 31, 2025 at 2:20 PM
Happy Halloween from the napari team!
Reposted by Alister Burt
I truly appreciate the organizers, core contributors, and all attendees for this wonderful opportunity! I enjoyed learning and working on napari in a welcoming environment.
Those interested in talking about and contributing to napari, let’s join the regular community meeting together!
Those interested in talking about and contributing to napari, let’s join the regular community meeting together!
October 31, 2025 at 3:16 AM
I truly appreciate the organizers, core contributors, and all attendees for this wonderful opportunity! I enjoyed learning and working on napari in a welcoming environment.
Those interested in talking about and contributing to napari, let’s join the regular community meeting together!
Those interested in talking about and contributing to napari, let’s join the regular community meeting together!
The Genentech headcrab is being fed a steady stream of amazing scientists! Lovely visit from Bluesky-less Johannes Elferich this morning
October 30, 2025 at 7:07 PM
The Genentech headcrab is being fed a steady stream of amazing scientists! Lovely visit from Bluesky-less Johannes Elferich this morning
Reposted by Alister Burt
Lab’s first paper is out!! We show the first structures of #Asgard #chromatin by #cryo-EM 🧬❄️
Asgard histones form closed and open hypernucleosomes. Closed are conserved across #Archaea, while open resemble eukaryotic H3–H4 octasomes and are Asgard-specific. More here: www.cell.com/molecular-ce...
Asgard histones form closed and open hypernucleosomes. Closed are conserved across #Archaea, while open resemble eukaryotic H3–H4 octasomes and are Asgard-specific. More here: www.cell.com/molecular-ce...
October 28, 2025 at 3:07 PM
Lab’s first paper is out!! We show the first structures of #Asgard #chromatin by #cryo-EM 🧬❄️
Asgard histones form closed and open hypernucleosomes. Closed are conserved across #Archaea, while open resemble eukaryotic H3–H4 octasomes and are Asgard-specific. More here: www.cell.com/molecular-ce...
Asgard histones form closed and open hypernucleosomes. Closed are conserved across #Archaea, while open resemble eukaryotic H3–H4 octasomes and are Asgard-specific. More here: www.cell.com/molecular-ce...
I saw someone recently advocating for dismantling UK Research and Innovation to save £25bn… our society has already been hollowed out - thankful to have a strong economic argument against this for the future
Government has published one of those quiet but important documents that might get overlooked as it is not 'newsy'. The headline finding is that £1 of public R&D investment generates £8 in net economic benefits for the UK over the long term
www.gov.uk/government/p...
www.gov.uk/government/p...
The value of public R&D
www.gov.uk
October 30, 2025 at 2:08 PM
I saw someone recently advocating for dismantling UK Research and Innovation to save £25bn… our society has already been hollowed out - thankful to have a strong economic argument against this for the future
Reposted by Alister Burt
Our experience of time is powerfully shaped by boundaries between events (i.e., going from one meeting to the next). But what about time *within an event*? In new work, we find reliable distortions of time based on internal event structure (e.g., beginnings, middles, and ends)! tinyurl.com/n8mn2sn7
Unfolding event structure distorts subjective time
Our experience of time is often distorted in striking ways. Although prior work has shown that boundaries between events can shape temporal perception…
www.sciencedirect.com
October 29, 2025 at 2:40 PM
Our experience of time is powerfully shaped by boundaries between events (i.e., going from one meeting to the next). But what about time *within an event*? In new work, we find reliable distortions of time based on internal event structure (e.g., beginnings, middles, and ends)! tinyurl.com/n8mn2sn7
@proteincapsid.bsky.social has great taste in git commit messages
October 29, 2025 at 10:25 PM
@proteincapsid.bsky.social has great taste in git commit messages
Saw and loved this from one of my favorite mountaineers this morning, food for thought
"Super weakness sometimes manifests itself as super strength (normal people don’t strive to be extraordinary)."
- Andy Kirkpatrick
"Super weakness sometimes manifests itself as super strength (normal people don’t strive to be extraordinary)."
- Andy Kirkpatrick
October 29, 2025 at 6:02 PM
Saw and loved this from one of my favorite mountaineers this morning, food for thought
"Super weakness sometimes manifests itself as super strength (normal people don’t strive to be extraordinary)."
- Andy Kirkpatrick
"Super weakness sometimes manifests itself as super strength (normal people don’t strive to be extraordinary)."
- Andy Kirkpatrick
Reposted by Alister Burt
Happy to see this out :)
How close does single-particle cryo-EM get to in situ structure determination? In this review, @tzviyazbm.bsky.social and I explore recent examples of studies that we believe push the boundaries of what's possible. #cryo-EM
How close does single-particle cryo-EM get to in situ structure determination? In this review, @tzviyazbm.bsky.social and I explore recent examples of studies that we believe push the boundaries of what's possible. #cryo-EM
Cryo-EM single-particle analysis expanding towards increasingly native samples pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/41129371/ #cryoem
October 29, 2025 at 11:44 AM
Happy to see this out :)
How close does single-particle cryo-EM get to in situ structure determination? In this review, @tzviyazbm.bsky.social and I explore recent examples of studies that we believe push the boundaries of what's possible. #cryo-EM
How close does single-particle cryo-EM get to in situ structure determination? In this review, @tzviyazbm.bsky.social and I explore recent examples of studies that we believe push the boundaries of what's possible. #cryo-EM