As a big fan and sometimes baker of science-themed cakes, this is amazing Rosie! 😍 Perfect way to honour an exciting Nobel Prize!

Congratulations Javaid!

Cryo-EM was conducted at Ian Holmes Imaging Centre at, with data collected by Hamish Brown, with contributions from
@bio21director.bsky.social , @bigfrenchman.bsky.social
, Michelle Christie, Riya Joesph, Craig Morton and Rod Tweten and team. #cryoEM

This work was part of my PhD at UniMelb and was my first foray into cryo-EM! Admittedly, learning the various steps of cryo-EM on proteoliposome samples felt like jumping in the deep end so I am very happy and proud for all to see how it worked out.

These structures reveal how multiple regulatory features, such as proteolytic activation, ensure pore formation. Furthermore, we find features that are not common to the related CDC family of pore-forming toxins. Instead, CDCLs seem show features that straddle the CDC, MACPF and gasdermin families.

This includes the crystal structure of the proteolytically-activated form and cryo-EM structures of the inserted pore and prepore-like complex, solved on the surface of liposomes.