Filip Van Petegem
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filipvanpetegem.bsky.social
Filip Van Petegem
@filipvanpetegem.bsky.social
Protein Biochemist. Structural Biology. Cardiac arrhythmias. Muscle excitation-contraction coupling. MTB and road biking. Music arrangements.

https://www.vanpetegemlab.com
Thanks to the UBC media team for coverage of our statin : RyR1 work. Atorvastatins bind and trigger opening of a calcium release channel critical for muscle contraction.
news.ubc.ca/2025/11/ubc-...

@ubcmedicine.bsky.social
UBC researchers uncover how statins harm muscles—and how to stop it  - UBC News
Study reveals how cholesterol-lowering drugs can trigger muscle damage—and point to a way to make them safer.
news.ubc.ca
November 26, 2025 at 5:52 PM
Our latest work : Statins are used to lower plasma cholesterol but often come with muscle-related side effects. Using cryo-EM, we show how multiple statin molecules cooperate to bind RyR1, a calcium release channel mainly found in skeletal muscle.
nature.com/articles/s41...
November 21, 2025 at 6:42 PM
Reposted by Filip Van Petegem
PIP2-driven cytoplasmic domain motions are coupled to Kir2 channel gating, say Eva-Maria Zangerl-Plessl, Anna Stary-Weinzinger, Colin G. Nichols, and Sun-Joo Lee rupress.org/jgp/article/...

@colinnicholslab.bsky.social

#IonChannels #Phospholipids
October 10, 2025 at 1:26 PM
Very interesting paper from Susan Hamilton's lab, showing that phosphorylation of RyR1 by SPEG kinase can suppress pathological consequences of disease mutations.
www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...
Phosphorylation of RYR1 at Ser2902 decreases Ca2+ leak in skeletal muscle and susceptibility to malignant hyperthermia and heat stroke
Reducing Ca2+ leak through mutant RYR1 prevents pathological heat production in skeletal muscle.
www.science.org
October 7, 2025 at 6:47 PM
Our cryo-EM structure of the intermediate state of the KCNQ1 potassium channel is out. Collaborative effort with the David Fedida and Luca Maragliano labs. Cryo-EM work spearheaded by Efthimios Kyriakis, PhD

www.nature.com/articles/s41...
October 3, 2025 at 6:44 PM
Reposted by Filip Van Petegem
We have a preprint of a book chapter for you: Structural Analysis of Membrane Proteins in Cell-Derived Microvesicles.

We describe how to image membrane proteins in mid-sized vesicles using cryo-electron tomography

zenodo.org/records/1717...
Structural Analysis of Membrane Proteins in Cell-Derived Microvesicles
zenodo.org
September 22, 2025 at 12:36 PM
www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

A study in collaboration with Frank Bosmans. Reproducible protocol to measure the elusive NaV1.9 currents, and revealing a big role for the preIQ region in gating properties.
A robust expression system reveals distinct gating mechanisms and calmodulin regulation of NaV1.9 channels
An expression system enables detailed study of NaV1.9 channel gating and its regulation by calmodulin.
www.science.org
June 1, 2025 at 11:15 AM
Still a few days left to apply for a faculty position focused on cardiac arrhythmias at Simon Fraser University. Come join the greater Vancouver network on arrhythmia research!
www.academicwork.ca/jobs/assista...
Assistant or Associate Professor in Cardiac Arrhythmias - CAUT | Academic Work
www.academicwork.ca
March 11, 2025 at 4:56 PM
Is it just me or is Pubmed down...??
March 1, 2025 at 11:22 PM
Reposted by Filip Van Petegem
Well done Kookjoo Kim on a great poster presentation, here visited by an RyR VIP, @filipvanpetegem.bsky.social!

And thanks @biophysicalsoc.bsky.social, @popstarlab.bsky.social & team for a great #BPS2025 under challenging circumstances - see you next year in SF!
February 19, 2025 at 11:42 PM
Stress in action: our crystal structure of PKA bound to its preferred substrate in CaV1.2 (Ser1981 for the aficionados). Quantitative experiments on previously proposed sites in CaV1.2 and its regulator Rad shows that there are two tiers of substrates.

jbc.org/article/S002...
November 29, 2024 at 9:29 PM
Calcins are scorpion-derived peptides that can cross the plasma membrane and modulate the Ryanodine Receptor. Marvin presenting the latest cryoEM results from our lab at the 2024 Translational Arrhythmia Day (TADA) meeting.
(description also here: www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...)
November 23, 2024 at 10:20 PM
Every day since the late 1920s (except during WWII), the notes of the Last Post sound through the Menin Gate in Ypres, Belgium. Unfortunately, "never again" hasn't stuck. #ArmisticeDay
November 11, 2024 at 5:41 PM
Can you find out which ion binds your protein using cryo-EM? This new method from Bonnie Murphy's lab combines electron energy loss spectroscopy and single particle imaging, showing this can become posssible. Test case on our favorite protein, the Ryanodine Receptor.

www.nature.com/articles/s41...
Elemental mapping in single-particle reconstructions by reconstructed electron energy-loss analysis - Nature Methods
An approach combining electron energy-loss spectroscopy with image processing tools from single-particle cryo-electron microscopy enables elemental mapping in macromolecular complexes, paving the way ...
www.nature.com
November 9, 2024 at 7:02 PM
Our latest cryo-EM study, elucidating the type 3 Ryanodine Receptor (RyR3) in different conformational states
nature.com/articles/s4146…

Unexpected binding sites for ATP and chloride in the N-terminal region, affected by mutations linked to epileptic encephalopathy.
https://nature.com/articles/s4146…
October 5, 2024 at 3:49 AM
A new faculty position in cardiac arrhythmia in the greater Vancouver area.

sfu.ca/content/dam/...

Come join our local arrhythmia community.
April 17, 2024 at 7:18 PM
A very cool method by Bonnie Murphy's lab to map elements for cryo-EM. The method, named REEL-EM, makes use of electron-energy loss spectroscopy. Honored to have contributed to this: www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
January 21, 2024 at 8:42 PM