Using bottom-up proteomics/antibodies, we confirmed that some phosphorylations appear constitutive, while others are more sensitive to myosin inhibition, raising the possibility of a mechano-sensitive “phospho-code” for cell-cell adhesion. (5/7)

Remarkably, catenin phosphorylation is sensitive to drugs that modulate #actomyosin contractility. We observed HYPER-phosphorylation on catenins under conditions that promote cell rounding and HYPO-phosphorylation when myosin activity was reduced. (4/7)

With Team @carajgottardi.bsky.social ‘s expertise in cell-cell adhesion, we purified cadherin-associated catenins and profiled their proteoforms using I2MS and found #phosphorylation to be the MAJOR modification. (3/7)

Team @nlkproteomics.bsky.social has developed individual ion mass spectrometry (I2MS) for proteoform analysis. We extend the current ~70 kDa mass limit beyond 100 kDa in this work. (2/7)

Heading to #HUPO2025! I’ll talk about our catenin phospho-code story and how top-down MS reveals how adhesion proteins respond to actomyosin force!

Thanks for the invite, #AFFINISEP!

Full story on bioRxiv 👉https://doi.org/10.1101/2025.09.06.674621

The mass spectrometry research community at Chicago is thriving! Many thanks to the Chicago Mass Spec Interest Group for the invitation to share my catenin proteoform story in the inaugural event. It was a pleasure to meet with researchers at the beautiful CZbiohub space!

Looking forward to sharing my work at the Chicago Mass Spec Interest Group’s inaugural meeting!

It was a very fruitful #USHUPO2025 ! I was beyond thrilled to share our advances in catenin proteoform profiling and functional studies that will reveal the phospho-code in cell-cell adhesions. Many thanks to the conference organizers and participants!

Looking forward to attending the #USHUPO conference in Philly this weekend and sharing some early results in catenin proteoform profiling and our vision to build a story behind acto-myosin contractility regulation in cell-cell adhesion. Please join my talk next Wednesday and say hi!

It was a tremendous pleasure to visit my alma mater National Taiwan University and give a talk on top-down proteomics and proteoform biology at the Institute of Biomedical Sciences earlier this week.

Going home from the lab be like 🥶. First snow is Chicago!

I’m so glad being in Chicago where I get to enjoy the finest musicians playing in concerts. Photo from Daniil Trifonov’s piano recital this afternoon at Chicago Symphony Orchestra!