George Burslem
gburslem.bsky.social
George Burslem
@gburslem.bsky.social
Chemical Biologist at Penn Medicine. Burslemlab.com
Confused Brit in the US. He/him
How long until someone uses these to degrade BRD4?!
September 17, 2025 at 11:54 PM
Congratulations to my great friend and colleague @bradylabupenn.bsky.social for this well deserved award!
@pennmedcso.bsky.social @penncancer.bsky.social
Congratulations to the 2026 ASBMB Award Winners!

Through their pioneering work, these scientists are advancing discovery, driving innovation, and shaping the future of molecular life sciences.

Read more about their work: ow.ly/x05f50WSbax. #ASBMB26 #MakeItPossible
September 5, 2025 at 10:52 PM
Reposted by George Burslem
Thrilled to finally write up a little thread on our recent paper with @gburslem.bsky.social describing how HDACs reversibility contributes to protein lactylation!

www.jbc.org/article/S002...
August 20, 2025 at 7:28 PM
New paper online from our long-standing collaboration with @dremilygoldberg.bsky.social on lysine lactylation catalysed by HDACs! www.jbc.org/article/S002...
Class I histone deacetylases catalyze lysine lactylation
Metabolism and post-translational modifications (PTMs) are intrinsically linked and the number of identified metabolites that can covalently modify proteins continues to increase. This metabolism/PTM ...
www.jbc.org
August 18, 2025 at 10:16 PM
I’ve been many times and always leave feeling this way!
Despite ~20 years in/around #chembio research, I went to my first Bioorganic GRC this week. This community is amazing and so supportive. I feel energized (and tired, lol) and find myself rooting for the next generation of chemical biologists. Sooooo much awesome science - We can’t/won’t be stopped!
June 22, 2025 at 1:44 AM
Reposted by George Burslem
Juneteenth is a story of freedom hard-won & resilience hard-kept—honoring Black history & the ongoing fight for justice. At Penn Medicine, Research Trainee Affairs advances discovery rooted in respect, access & opportunity—values that shape our comprehensive education, training & outreach mission.
June 19, 2025 at 2:43 PM
Reposted by George Burslem
Truly grateful and honored to have had the opportunity to share my work at the Bioorganic GRC and represent the Burslem lab 💙
Congratulations to @briehp.bsky.social who gave an awesome Knowles award talk at the Bioorganic GRC! Very proud PI!
June 16, 2025 at 12:12 PM
Congratulations to @briehp.bsky.social who gave an awesome Knowles award talk at the Bioorganic GRC! Very proud PI!
June 16, 2025 at 4:48 AM
Reposted by George Burslem
Molecular basis of influenza ribonucleoprotein complex assembly & processive RNA synthesis ft. Ruchao Peng, Xin Xu, Yikang Gong, Fenglin Li, Max Ferretti, Mingyang Zhou, Kristen Lynch, @gburslem.bsky.social, @MarmorsteinLab & @yiweichang.bsky.social (@BB_Upenn) www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...
May 30, 2025 at 5:18 PM
Reposted by George Burslem
Excited to share our new @science.org paper! Led by postdocs Ruchao Peng and Xin Xu, we used cryo-EM/ET to reveal the influenza ribonucleoprotein complex structure and its strand-sliding mechanism for RNA synthesis, paving the way for new antivirals.
www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...
Molecular basis of influenza ribonucleoprotein complex assembly and processive RNA synthesis
Influenza viruses replicate and transcribe their genome in the context of a conserved ribonucleoprotein (RNP) complex. By integrating cryo–electron microscopy single-particle analysis and cryo–electro...
www.science.org
May 15, 2025 at 7:51 PM
Reposted by George Burslem
Congratulations to Drs. Lynch, Burslem, Marmorstein, Yi-Wei, and the entire research team on the publication of your latest research article in the newest issue of Science magazine! | Science www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...
Molecular basis of influenza ribonucleoprotein complex assembly and processive RNA synthesis
Influenza viruses replicate and transcribe their genome in the context of a conserved ribonucleoprotein (RNP) complex. By integrating cryo–electron microscopy single-particle analysis and cryo–electro...
www.science.org
May 15, 2025 at 6:46 PM
Reposted by George Burslem
Intracellular protein editing & noncanonical residues in endogenous proteins ft. J. Beyer, K. Toy, M. Najar, N. Raniszewski, @gburslem.bsky.social (@BB_UPenn), @ysereb.bsky.social, @efeierman.bsky.social, @korblab & @ophirshalem.bsky.social (@penngenetics.bsky.social) www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...
May 14, 2025 at 3:25 PM
Excited to see this out in @science.org today!! www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...
May 1, 2025 at 6:17 PM
Reposted by George Burslem
Honestly, if there is just one article that you are going to share far-and-wide today, it's this one:

'Trump Has Now Deported Multiple U.S. Citizen Children With Cancer'

The headline says it all, and everyone needs to know about this.

www.rollingstone.com/politics/pol...
Trump Has Now Deported Multiple U.S. Citizen Children With Cancer
Two families who had lived in the United States for years, including a child with cancer and a pregnant mother, were deported by ICE on Friday.
www.rollingstone.com
April 26, 2025 at 3:48 PM
Reposted by George Burslem
Thrilled to see our work now in @cp-molcell.bsky.social! It was an incredible privilege to do my postdoc with @ophirshalem.bsky.social and work alongside the super talented Steph Sansbury and our amazing co-authors. Excited to keep building on this research in our new lab at @rwjms.bsky.social!
April 23, 2025 at 6:23 PM
Reposted by George Burslem
Check out our paper, now extensively revised and published in @cp-molcell.bsky.social! This has been a real tour de force led by Stephanie Sansbury and @ysereb.bsky.social and we are very excited about the findings and future potential of this approach
www.cell.com/molecular-ce...
Pooled tagging and hydrophobic targeting of endogenous proteins for unbiased mapping of unfolded protein responses
Sansbury and Serebrenik et al. use pooled gene tagging with in situ sequencing and high-throughput image analysis to generate a cell pool with endogenous HaloTag fusions. Hydrophobic targeting is then...
www.cell.com
April 23, 2025 at 3:41 PM
Reposted by George Burslem
We're looking for 1-2 enthusiastic early career chemists to join our Open Chemistry team at @hhmijanelia.bsky.social. Come help us create amazing dyes and share them with the world. Please share with the best recent/soon-to-be B.S. chemists you know! bit.ly/42w8C6N
Research Technician - Open Chemistry
Primary Work Address: 19700 Helix Drive, Ashburn, VA, 20147 Current HHMI Employees, click here to apply via your Workday account. Summary: Open Chemistry is a collaborative research group whose missio...
bit.ly
April 11, 2025 at 7:27 PM
Reposted by George Burslem
Great news: NIH postbac program is recruiting again! If your grad school plans were affected by program cutbacks or admissions freezes this year I highly encourage you to apply, this could be a perfect opportunity. Please repost.

www.training.nih.gov/research-tra...
www.training.nih.gov
April 10, 2025 at 1:22 AM
Excited to be co-chairing the Chemical tools to reveal new biology theme with @davidlabmsk.bsky.social!
"Chemical tools to reveal new biology" curated by @gburslem.bsky.social & @davidlabmsk.bsky.social.

"Interorganellar signaling and communication" designed by Navdeep Chandel & Isha Jain.

"Lipids and membranes" selected by @judisimcox.bsky.social & @gerryhammond.bsky.social
April 6, 2025 at 8:25 PM
Reposted by George Burslem
I am sending so much love to my colleagues at NIH today. They are incredible people and scientists and don’t serve any of this. 💔
April 1, 2025 at 1:36 PM
Reposted by George Burslem
My favorite science is the kind that makes you says, "Man, I wish I thought of that!" This is such a paper.

Mass action turns an eraser into a pen. HDACs are metabolite-dependent histone acyltransferases.

@dremilygoldberg.bsky.social @gburslem.bsky.social

www.nature.com/articles/s41...
Reversible histone deacetylase activity catalyzes lysine acylation - Nature Chemical Biology
Tsusaka et al. discover that histone deacetylases, which are well known to remove protein modifications, such as lysine acetylation and β-hydroxybutyrylation, can also reverse their chemical activity ...
www.nature.com
March 30, 2025 at 5:28 PM
Non-canonical acylation of lysine residues catalyzed by HDACs! Congratulations to @dremilygoldberg.bsky.social for such beautiful work and thanks for bringing us along for the ride!
I could not be more excited to have our lab's first story online where we report our discovery that HDACs ~reverse~ their activity to ADD acyl groups to lysine! We found this for our favorite ketone body, BHB, but this pathway controls other lysine modifications too!🧵

www.nature.com/articles/s41...
Reversible histone deacetylase activity catalyzes lysine acylation - Nature Chemical Biology
Tsusaka et al. discover that histone deacetylases, which are well known to remove protein modifications, such as lysine acetylation and β-hydroxybutyrylation, can also reverse their chemical activity ...
www.nature.com
March 26, 2025 at 4:58 PM
Reposted by George Burslem
Excited to report our latest research on new “molecular glues” that specifically lock the BRCC36 isopeptidase complex (BRISC) in an autoinhibited state and reduce interferon signalling. This first-of-its-kind approach could reshape how we target large deubiquitylase (DUB) complexes.

rdcu.be/edRwF
March 17, 2025 at 8:58 PM
Reposted by George Burslem
This will also help you find people outside your circle who are also fighting. Pick a cause you care about, find a group or event, and just show up. You'll realize you are not alone, not even close
Can’t emphasize this enough: if you’re feeling overwhelmed by the debased assault on our country, the antidote is connecting with other people in the flesh who are feeling the same way. There are millions of us.
March 15, 2025 at 8:27 PM