Caitie McCafferty
@computingcaitie.bsky.social
Postdoc in the @cellarchlab.com at the @biozentrum.unibas.ch. Find out more at ciliagirl.com.
Pinned
Hi! My interests include structure prediction, proteomics, cryo-EM, and citizen science. Many of which are summarized in this review I wrote with @cellarchlab.com @svenklumpe.bsky.social @rommieamaro.bsky.social Wanda and Lucy earlier this year tinyurl.com/CellreviewEM
Reposted by Caitie McCafferty
Super happy this work is out and included in the really interesting cilia and flagella focused issue!
Abigail Moye @abimoye.bsky.social @iobswiss.bsky.social, Theodore Wensel @bcmhouston.bsky.social and colleagues examine the sub-ciliary localisation of CEP290 and dissect the effects of its loss in mouse photoreceptors during development.
#JCSciliaSI
journals.biologists.com/jcs/article/...
#JCSciliaSI
journals.biologists.com/jcs/article/...
October 31, 2025 at 2:53 PM
Super happy this work is out and included in the really interesting cilia and flagella focused issue!
Reposted by Caitie McCafferty
🚨Our collaboration with @centriolelab.bsky.social & @gautamdey.bsky.social is out today in @cp-cell.bsky.social
We show that #Expansion #Microscopy is a broad-spectrum modality for Euks, enabling 3D phenotypic maps rooted to phylogeny.
#ProtistsOnSky #SciComm #SciSky
www.cell.com/cell/fulltex...
We show that #Expansion #Microscopy is a broad-spectrum modality for Euks, enabling 3D phenotypic maps rooted to phylogeny.
#ProtistsOnSky #SciComm #SciSky
www.cell.com/cell/fulltex...
October 31, 2025 at 2:42 PM
🚨Our collaboration with @centriolelab.bsky.social & @gautamdey.bsky.social is out today in @cp-cell.bsky.social
We show that #Expansion #Microscopy is a broad-spectrum modality for Euks, enabling 3D phenotypic maps rooted to phylogeny.
#ProtistsOnSky #SciComm #SciSky
www.cell.com/cell/fulltex...
We show that #Expansion #Microscopy is a broad-spectrum modality for Euks, enabling 3D phenotypic maps rooted to phylogeny.
#ProtistsOnSky #SciComm #SciSky
www.cell.com/cell/fulltex...
Reposted by Caitie McCafferty
Our Special Issue on Cilia and Flagella: from Basic Biology to Disease, guest edited by @cilialab.bsky.social and @lottepedersen.bsky.social, is building. We’ll be highlighting all the articles over the next couple of weeks. Follow along at #JCSciliaSI.
journals.biologists.com/jcs/issue/13...
journals.biologists.com/jcs/issue/13...
Volume 138 Issue 20 | Journal of Cell Science | The Company of Biologists
journals.biologists.com
October 27, 2025 at 10:30 AM
Our Special Issue on Cilia and Flagella: from Basic Biology to Disease, guest edited by @cilialab.bsky.social and @lottepedersen.bsky.social, is building. We’ll be highlighting all the articles over the next couple of weeks. Follow along at #JCSciliaSI.
journals.biologists.com/jcs/issue/13...
journals.biologists.com/jcs/issue/13...
Reposted by Caitie McCafferty
A class like no other!! From #AI structure hallucination 🤖 to #CryoEM structure reality 🔬 by @biozentrum.unibas.ch @unibas.ch undergraduate students👩🔬👩🎓 in just a few weeks!
One of their creations is this beautiful flower-shaped tetrameric pore 🌼, a brand new member of the #ProteinCosmos 🧶🧬 🧪
One of their creations is this beautiful flower-shaped tetrameric pore 🌼, a brand new member of the #ProteinCosmos 🧶🧬 🧪
October 26, 2025 at 1:48 PM
A class like no other!! From #AI structure hallucination 🤖 to #CryoEM structure reality 🔬 by @biozentrum.unibas.ch @unibas.ch undergraduate students👩🔬👩🎓 in just a few weeks!
One of their creations is this beautiful flower-shaped tetrameric pore 🌼, a brand new member of the #ProteinCosmos 🧶🧬 🧪
One of their creations is this beautiful flower-shaped tetrameric pore 🌼, a brand new member of the #ProteinCosmos 🧶🧬 🧪
That’s a wrap of the 2nd edition of our one of a kind structural biology block course at the @biozentrum.unibas.ch! In just 6 short weeks students designed protein oligomers; rotated in cryo-ET, cryo-EM SPA, AFM, and NMR labs; and expressed, purified, and structurally characterized their designs
October 25, 2025 at 12:57 PM
That’s a wrap of the 2nd edition of our one of a kind structural biology block course at the @biozentrum.unibas.ch! In just 6 short weeks students designed protein oligomers; rotated in cryo-ET, cryo-EM SPA, AFM, and NMR labs; and expressed, purified, and structurally characterized their designs
Mark your calendars for some cilia science!!!
🎆 Join us for an unmissable finale to 2025! 🎆 We're thrilled to bring our #cilia & #centrosome community together 25/11/2025 15:00-17:45 GMT! Our 53rd @bscb-official.bsky.social @gensocuk.bsky.social @ukcilianetwork.bsky.social e-symposium schedule is live: www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/bscb-genso... /1
October 21, 2025 at 9:40 PM
Mark your calendars for some cilia science!!!
Reposted by Caitie McCafferty
Last Friday (17th), we had an amazing first Young Swiss Tomo meeting in Bern, organized with Elda Bauda, Zanetta Kechagia, and @leonieanton.bsky.social!
Over 70 people from 🇨🇭 gathered to talk about cryo-electron tomography 🔬.
Huge thanks to the DCI for making the event possible! See you next year! 👋
Over 70 people from 🇨🇭 gathered to talk about cryo-electron tomography 🔬.
Huge thanks to the DCI for making the event possible! See you next year! 👋
October 19, 2025 at 9:16 AM
Last Friday (17th), we had an amazing first Young Swiss Tomo meeting in Bern, organized with Elda Bauda, Zanetta Kechagia, and @leonieanton.bsky.social!
Over 70 people from 🇨🇭 gathered to talk about cryo-electron tomography 🔬.
Huge thanks to the DCI for making the event possible! See you next year! 👋
Over 70 people from 🇨🇭 gathered to talk about cryo-electron tomography 🔬.
Huge thanks to the DCI for making the event possible! See you next year! 👋
Reposted by Caitie McCafferty
Latest from ours: www.cell.com/cell-reports...
This is two stories in one: a case study/cautionary tale on developing genetic tools in new organisms, and the first hint at a gene regulatory network for choanoflagellate multicellular development (which turn out to involve a Hippo/YAP/ECM loop!) A 🧵
This is two stories in one: a case study/cautionary tale on developing genetic tools in new organisms, and the first hint at a gene regulatory network for choanoflagellate multicellular development (which turn out to involve a Hippo/YAP/ECM loop!) A 🧵
October 5, 2025 at 10:35 AM
Latest from ours: www.cell.com/cell-reports...
This is two stories in one: a case study/cautionary tale on developing genetic tools in new organisms, and the first hint at a gene regulatory network for choanoflagellate multicellular development (which turn out to involve a Hippo/YAP/ECM loop!) A 🧵
This is two stories in one: a case study/cautionary tale on developing genetic tools in new organisms, and the first hint at a gene regulatory network for choanoflagellate multicellular development (which turn out to involve a Hippo/YAP/ECM loop!) A 🧵
So much fun to host @edwardmarcotte.bsky.social at the @biozentrum.unibas.ch and introduce him to the @cellarchlab.com, thanks for a wonderful Discovery Seminar!!
October 4, 2025 at 8:56 AM
So much fun to host @edwardmarcotte.bsky.social at the @biozentrum.unibas.ch and introduce him to the @cellarchlab.com, thanks for a wonderful Discovery Seminar!!
Reposted by Caitie McCafferty
Assistant/Associate Professor in Structural Biology, Biophysics or Biological Imaging
www.biozentrum.unibas.ch/open-positio...
#biozentrum #University #Basel #Professor #Structural #Biology #Biophysics #Biological #Imaging
www.biozentrum.unibas.ch/open-positio...
#biozentrum #University #Basel #Professor #Structural #Biology #Biophysics #Biological #Imaging
September 29, 2025 at 2:58 PM
Assistant/Associate Professor in Structural Biology, Biophysics or Biological Imaging
www.biozentrum.unibas.ch/open-positio...
#biozentrum #University #Basel #Professor #Structural #Biology #Biophysics #Biological #Imaging
www.biozentrum.unibas.ch/open-positio...
#biozentrum #University #Basel #Professor #Structural #Biology #Biophysics #Biological #Imaging
You don’t want to miss this one!
The former supervisor of @computingcaitie.bsky.social is coming to visit and tell us all about structural proteomics. Looking forward to this #DiscoverySeminar from @edwardmarcotte.bsky.social !! 😃
#ProteinCosmos 🧶🧬
#ProteinCosmos 🧶🧬
On Friday, October 3, we will welcome our next #DiscoverySeminar speaker, Prof. @edwardmarcotte.bsky.social @utaustin.bsky.social. Join his lecture on "Modern Cells, Ancient Proteins: Proteomics Across Deep Evolutionary Time to Decode Human Genetics" @biozentrum.unibas.ch @unibas.ch
September 30, 2025 at 7:56 AM
You don’t want to miss this one!
Reposted by Caitie McCafferty
Meet the CAGE: a newly-discovered protein nanocapsule💊, conserved from bacteria to eukaryotes! Looks more like an eclair🍩 than a prezel🥨. This protein pastry now makes us wonder- what's the filling!? Huge congrats to the ever-amazing @computingcaitie.bsky.social, now at the @biozentrum.unibas.ch 🧪🧶🧬
I am excited to share our new preprint on the CAGE complex, a mysterious hollow protein complex that I first saw years ago while surveying Tetrahymena ciliary lysate www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1... #cilia #protistsonsky 🧬🧪
September 24, 2025 at 12:03 PM
Meet the CAGE: a newly-discovered protein nanocapsule💊, conserved from bacteria to eukaryotes! Looks more like an eclair🍩 than a prezel🥨. This protein pastry now makes us wonder- what's the filling!? Huge congrats to the ever-amazing @computingcaitie.bsky.social, now at the @biozentrum.unibas.ch 🧪🧶🧬
I am excited to share our new preprint on the CAGE complex, a mysterious hollow protein complex that I first saw years ago while surveying Tetrahymena ciliary lysate www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1... #cilia #protistsonsky 🧬🧪
September 23, 2025 at 5:08 PM
I am excited to share our new preprint on the CAGE complex, a mysterious hollow protein complex that I first saw years ago while surveying Tetrahymena ciliary lysate www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1... #cilia #protistsonsky 🧬🧪
Reposted by Caitie McCafferty
A molecular-resolution look into the near-native architecture of the spinach chloroplast🌱. This one was a long time in the oven, but we're happy to finally share our "version of record". What long-standing debates did we settle? Check back for a short thread🧵 on Monday. #TeamTomo #PlantScience 🧪🧶🧬🔬🌾
🌱 Using ‘compelling’ methods, including #CryoET, researchers mapped spinach thylakoid membranes at single-molecule precision, revealing how photosynthetic complexes are organised and settling long-standing debates on chloroplast architecture.
buff.ly/j3TSIkn
buff.ly/j3TSIkn
September 20, 2025 at 7:24 PM
A molecular-resolution look into the near-native architecture of the spinach chloroplast🌱. This one was a long time in the oven, but we're happy to finally share our "version of record". What long-standing debates did we settle? Check back for a short thread🧵 on Monday. #TeamTomo #PlantScience 🧪🧶🧬🔬🌾
Reposted by Caitie McCafferty
Side hustle level-up! My book, IN THE BEGINNING, will be published by @harperonebooks.bsky.social in 2027! It's about the human embryo, how it gets built, and what it means for where we come from and where we're going.
@harpercollins.bsky.social (1/2)
@socdevbio.bsky.social
#devbiol
#scicomm
@harpercollins.bsky.social (1/2)
@socdevbio.bsky.social
#devbiol
#scicomm
September 15, 2025 at 3:38 PM
Side hustle level-up! My book, IN THE BEGINNING, will be published by @harperonebooks.bsky.social in 2027! It's about the human embryo, how it gets built, and what it means for where we come from and where we're going.
@harpercollins.bsky.social (1/2)
@socdevbio.bsky.social
#devbiol
#scicomm
@harpercollins.bsky.social (1/2)
@socdevbio.bsky.social
#devbiol
#scicomm
Reposted by Caitie McCafferty
Sub-cellular chemical mapping in bacteria using correlated cryogenic electron and mass spectrometry imaging
Congrats Hannah Ochner and authors on this important paper! Strong collaboration with @kiranrpatil.bsky.social
www.biorxiv.org/cgi/content/...
@mrclmb.bsky.social @wellcometrust.bsky.social
Congrats Hannah Ochner and authors on this important paper! Strong collaboration with @kiranrpatil.bsky.social
www.biorxiv.org/cgi/content/...
@mrclmb.bsky.social @wellcometrust.bsky.social
August 31, 2025 at 6:44 PM
Sub-cellular chemical mapping in bacteria using correlated cryogenic electron and mass spectrometry imaging
Congrats Hannah Ochner and authors on this important paper! Strong collaboration with @kiranrpatil.bsky.social
www.biorxiv.org/cgi/content/...
@mrclmb.bsky.social @wellcometrust.bsky.social
Congrats Hannah Ochner and authors on this important paper! Strong collaboration with @kiranrpatil.bsky.social
www.biorxiv.org/cgi/content/...
@mrclmb.bsky.social @wellcometrust.bsky.social
Reposted by Caitie McCafferty
Trouble imaging actin in ExM? Meet HAK-Actin, a probe for U-ExM, cryo-ExM & iU-ExM. Enables post-expansion labeling for max signal. www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
Soon at @spirochrome.com
Led by O.Mercey and @lreymond.bsky.social, in collab with @dudinlab.bsky.social and @marinelap.bsky.social
Soon at @spirochrome.com
Led by O.Mercey and @lreymond.bsky.social, in collab with @dudinlab.bsky.social and @marinelap.bsky.social
August 28, 2025 at 7:03 AM
Trouble imaging actin in ExM? Meet HAK-Actin, a probe for U-ExM, cryo-ExM & iU-ExM. Enables post-expansion labeling for max signal. www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
Soon at @spirochrome.com
Led by O.Mercey and @lreymond.bsky.social, in collab with @dudinlab.bsky.social and @marinelap.bsky.social
Soon at @spirochrome.com
Led by O.Mercey and @lreymond.bsky.social, in collab with @dudinlab.bsky.social and @marinelap.bsky.social
Reposted by Caitie McCafferty
For some three billion years, unicellular organisms ruled Earth. Then, around one billion years ago, a new chapter of life began
go.nature.com/3JyRV4S
go.nature.com/3JyRV4S
How did life get multicellular? Five simple organisms could have the answer
Single-celled species that often stick together in colonies have researchers rethinking the origin of animals.
go.nature.com
August 27, 2025 at 10:19 AM
For some three billion years, unicellular organisms ruled Earth. Then, around one billion years ago, a new chapter of life began
go.nature.com/3JyRV4S
go.nature.com/3JyRV4S
Reposted by Caitie McCafferty
Apply now for the prestigious and independent #BiozentrumPhDFellowships. Great science. Unique rotation-based selection of research group and other incentives. The summer call is open until October 12, 2025. bit.ly/4caiqqX @biozentrum.unibas.ch @unibas.ch #fellowship #PhD#Switzerland
Biozentrum PhD Fellowships
Share your passion for life sciences. If you are talented and highly motivated, want to broaden your horizons and are interested in a wide range of research topics, apply for one of the sought after B...
bit.ly
August 4, 2025 at 11:40 AM
Apply now for the prestigious and independent #BiozentrumPhDFellowships. Great science. Unique rotation-based selection of research group and other incentives. The summer call is open until October 12, 2025. bit.ly/4caiqqX @biozentrum.unibas.ch @unibas.ch #fellowship #PhD#Switzerland
Reposted by Caitie McCafferty
📢 Excited to share our new study in Nature Communications!
We show that the A-C linker safeguards centriole architecture & controls duplication. A big congratulations to Lorène for this beautiful discovery, which represents 4 years of her thesis work.
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
We show that the A-C linker safeguards centriole architecture & controls duplication. A big congratulations to Lorène for this beautiful discovery, which represents 4 years of her thesis work.
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
July 25, 2025 at 7:51 AM
📢 Excited to share our new study in Nature Communications!
We show that the A-C linker safeguards centriole architecture & controls duplication. A big congratulations to Lorène for this beautiful discovery, which represents 4 years of her thesis work.
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
We show that the A-C linker safeguards centriole architecture & controls duplication. A big congratulations to Lorène for this beautiful discovery, which represents 4 years of her thesis work.
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
Reposted by Caitie McCafferty
‼️🚨Preprint alert! 🚨‼️
Excited to have some of my first works as a postdoc, and first corresponding author (!!), on biorxiv! This was a fun side quest of a project marrying a few things I deeply love, development, cilia, and hormones in the pituitary! Happy reading!
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
Excited to have some of my first works as a postdoc, and first corresponding author (!!), on biorxiv! This was a fun side quest of a project marrying a few things I deeply love, development, cilia, and hormones in the pituitary! Happy reading!
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
Primary cilia and BBS4 are required for postnatal pituitary development
Primary cilia orchestrate several signaling pathways, and their disruption results in pleiotropic disorders called ciliopathies. Bardet Beidl syndrome (BBS), one such ciliopathy, provides insights int...
www.biorxiv.org
July 19, 2025 at 5:58 PM
‼️🚨Preprint alert! 🚨‼️
Excited to have some of my first works as a postdoc, and first corresponding author (!!), on biorxiv! This was a fun side quest of a project marrying a few things I deeply love, development, cilia, and hormones in the pituitary! Happy reading!
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
Excited to have some of my first works as a postdoc, and first corresponding author (!!), on biorxiv! This was a fun side quest of a project marrying a few things I deeply love, development, cilia, and hormones in the pituitary! Happy reading!
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
Reposted by Caitie McCafferty
Such a pleasure to be co-organising the #Latsis Symposium this year with Guillermina !
Thanks to all the speakers & sponsors.
And all our teams members who helped make this a reality.
It just felt right.
#Science #WildCells #ProtistsOnSky #Cell #Biology #Biophysics #Behaviour
Thanks to all the speakers & sponsors.
And all our teams members who helped make this a reality.
It just felt right.
#Science #WildCells #ProtistsOnSky #Cell #Biology #Biophysics #Behaviour
July 10, 2025 at 1:41 PM
Such a pleasure to be co-organising the #Latsis Symposium this year with Guillermina !
Thanks to all the speakers & sponsors.
And all our teams members who helped make this a reality.
It just felt right.
#Science #WildCells #ProtistsOnSky #Cell #Biology #Biophysics #Behaviour
Thanks to all the speakers & sponsors.
And all our teams members who helped make this a reality.
It just felt right.
#Science #WildCells #ProtistsOnSky #Cell #Biology #Biophysics #Behaviour
Wow! Really nice collaborative work in this piece on RSG1 in human ciliopathy and transition zone assembly
Cilia Alert! So excited to finally have this paper on the CPLANE complex out in @natcomms.nature.com! We show that RSG1 is a human ciliopathy protein and links CPLANE to the transition zone. 1/n
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
The human ciliopathy protein RSG1 links the CPLANE complex to transition zone architecture - Nature Communications
The CPLANE complex is essential for ciliogenesis, and mutations to all but one subunit have been associated with ciliopathies. Here they identify three familial mutations in the final subunit, RSG1, t...
www.nature.com
July 1, 2025 at 6:25 PM
Wow! Really nice collaborative work in this piece on RSG1 in human ciliopathy and transition zone assembly
Reposted by Caitie McCafferty
Woo! Very excited to share our collaborative work on the centriole's Luminal Distal Ring ⭕. This project started 13 years ago with @hugovdhoek.bsky.social & @stearnslab.bsky.social, and then beautifully came together with @computingcaitie.bsky.social & @centriolelab.bsky.social.
#TeamTomo #UExM 🧪🧶🧬🔬
#TeamTomo #UExM 🧪🧶🧬🔬
🚨 New preprint!
Using U-ExM + in situ cryo-ET, we show how C2CD3 builds an in-to-out radial architecture connecting the distal centriole lumen to its appendages. Great collab with @cellarchlab.com @chgenoud.bsky.social @stearnslab.bsky.social 🙌. #TeamTomo #UExM
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
Using U-ExM + in situ cryo-ET, we show how C2CD3 builds an in-to-out radial architecture connecting the distal centriole lumen to its appendages. Great collab with @cellarchlab.com @chgenoud.bsky.social @stearnslab.bsky.social 🙌. #TeamTomo #UExM
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
June 19, 2025 at 9:41 AM
Woo! Very excited to share our collaborative work on the centriole's Luminal Distal Ring ⭕. This project started 13 years ago with @hugovdhoek.bsky.social & @stearnslab.bsky.social, and then beautifully came together with @computingcaitie.bsky.social & @centriolelab.bsky.social.
#TeamTomo #UExM 🧪🧶🧬🔬
#TeamTomo #UExM 🧪🧶🧬🔬
Reposted by Caitie McCafferty
90% of you probably don’t need to read this.
But maybe some of you are curious & 10% will feel seen. Or a little less alone. This isn’t about seeking sympathy.
It’s about sharing something hard to say out loud;
partly to heal, partly in case someone needs to hear it too. (1/3)
tinyurl.com/DudinO
But maybe some of you are curious & 10% will feel seen. Or a little less alone. This isn’t about seeking sympathy.
It’s about sharing something hard to say out loud;
partly to heal, partly in case someone needs to hear it too. (1/3)
tinyurl.com/DudinO
Omaya Dudin
Interview with Omaya Dudin, who uses Ichthyosporea as models to study how and why
unicellular organisms evolved multicellularity at the University of Geneva.
www.cell.com
June 10, 2025 at 9:41 AM
90% of you probably don’t need to read this.
But maybe some of you are curious & 10% will feel seen. Or a little less alone. This isn’t about seeking sympathy.
It’s about sharing something hard to say out loud;
partly to heal, partly in case someone needs to hear it too. (1/3)
tinyurl.com/DudinO
But maybe some of you are curious & 10% will feel seen. Or a little less alone. This isn’t about seeking sympathy.
It’s about sharing something hard to say out loud;
partly to heal, partly in case someone needs to hear it too. (1/3)
tinyurl.com/DudinO