Keri Backus
@keribackus.bsky.social
Associate Professor at UCLA, all things chemical biology, chemoproteomic-, covalent-, cysteine- and redox-related
Reposted by Keri Backus
How can we study target engagement and selectivity of covalent inhibitors? Which electrophilic probes are best suited to study a certain amino acid?
Our study on "Profiling the proteome-wide selectivity of diverse electrophiles" is published in Nature Chemistry.(1/7)
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
Our study on "Profiling the proteome-wide selectivity of diverse electrophiles" is published in Nature Chemistry.(1/7)
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
Profiling the proteome-wide selectivity of diverse electrophiles - Nature Chemistry
Covalent inhibitors are powerful entities in drug discovery. Now the amino acid selectivity and reactivity of a diverse electrophile library have been assessed proteome-wide using an unbiased workflow...
www.nature.com
October 30, 2025 at 10:27 AM
How can we study target engagement and selectivity of covalent inhibitors? Which electrophilic probes are best suited to study a certain amino acid?
Our study on "Profiling the proteome-wide selectivity of diverse electrophiles" is published in Nature Chemistry.(1/7)
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
Our study on "Profiling the proteome-wide selectivity of diverse electrophiles" is published in Nature Chemistry.(1/7)
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
Reposted by Keri Backus
Real-time API control of mass specs has been hard to get started (C#, VS, etc). Mike Hoopmann's recent work makes dev easier & more open!:
Nova - lightweight dev library
schweppelab.github.io/Nova/ pubs.acs.org/doi/full/10....
Helios - a unified instrument API now @ JPR
github.com/SchweppeLab/...
Nova - lightweight dev library
schweppelab.github.io/Nova/ pubs.acs.org/doi/full/10....
Helios - a unified instrument API now @ JPR
github.com/SchweppeLab/...
September 8, 2025 at 11:05 PM
Real-time API control of mass specs has been hard to get started (C#, VS, etc). Mike Hoopmann's recent work makes dev easier & more open!:
Nova - lightweight dev library
schweppelab.github.io/Nova/ pubs.acs.org/doi/full/10....
Helios - a unified instrument API now @ JPR
github.com/SchweppeLab/...
Nova - lightweight dev library
schweppelab.github.io/Nova/ pubs.acs.org/doi/full/10....
Helios - a unified instrument API now @ JPR
github.com/SchweppeLab/...
Reposted by Keri Backus
Congratulations to my great friend and colleague @bradylabupenn.bsky.social for this well deserved award!
@pennmedcso.bsky.social @penncancer.bsky.social
@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
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
Congratulations to my great friend and colleague @bradylabupenn.bsky.social for this well deserved award!
@pennmedcso.bsky.social @penncancer.bsky.social
@pennmedcso.bsky.social @penncancer.bsky.social
Reposted by Keri Backus
🚨 Save the date! 🚨
2nd LA Mass Spec Day:
Oct 17, 2025 @ UCLA South Bay 🎉
Talks, posters, networking + plenaries by Jennifer Van Eyk & Melissa Hoffman!
Register 👉 forms.gle/e6A9XWxiRF6K...
Submit abstracts 👉 forms.gle/RCf5v3Gab5V8...
More info to follow soon
2nd LA Mass Spec Day:
Oct 17, 2025 @ UCLA South Bay 🎉
Talks, posters, networking + plenaries by Jennifer Van Eyk & Melissa Hoffman!
Register 👉 forms.gle/e6A9XWxiRF6K...
Submit abstracts 👉 forms.gle/RCf5v3Gab5V8...
More info to follow soon
August 10, 2025 at 5:14 PM
🚨 Save the date! 🚨
2nd LA Mass Spec Day:
Oct 17, 2025 @ UCLA South Bay 🎉
Talks, posters, networking + plenaries by Jennifer Van Eyk & Melissa Hoffman!
Register 👉 forms.gle/e6A9XWxiRF6K...
Submit abstracts 👉 forms.gle/RCf5v3Gab5V8...
More info to follow soon
2nd LA Mass Spec Day:
Oct 17, 2025 @ UCLA South Bay 🎉
Talks, posters, networking + plenaries by Jennifer Van Eyk & Melissa Hoffman!
Register 👉 forms.gle/e6A9XWxiRF6K...
Submit abstracts 👉 forms.gle/RCf5v3Gab5V8...
More info to follow soon
Daily Bruin article about the ~800 frozen grants at UCLA including some from my lab dailybruin.com/2025/08/02/a...
About 800 NIH, NSF research grants suspended following UCLA federal funding cuts - Daily Bruin
About 800 research grants have been suspended at UCLA, according to a Friday email from Vice Chancellor for Research and Creative Activities Roger Wakimoto. Wakimoto said in the email, which was sent ...
dailybruin.com
August 4, 2025 at 2:26 AM
Daily Bruin article about the ~800 frozen grants at UCLA including some from my lab dailybruin.com/2025/08/02/a...
Reposted by Keri Backus
Suspension of all grants to UCLA www.latimes.com/california/s...
Trump freezes $200 million in UCLA science and medical research funding, citing antisemitism
The Trump administration has frozen roughly $200 million in National Science Foundation, National Institutes of Health and other federal agency-funded research at UCLA, citing allegations the school d...
www.latimes.com
August 1, 2025 at 4:27 AM
Suspension of all grants to UCLA www.latimes.com/california/s...
Reposted by Keri Backus
Consider signing the letter to support NIH and the "Bethesda Declaration" (www.standupforscience.net/bethesda-dec...) #ASMS2025 @asms.org
June 9, 2025 at 4:01 PM
Consider signing the letter to support NIH and the "Bethesda Declaration" (www.standupforscience.net/bethesda-dec...) #ASMS2025 @asms.org
Reposted by Keri Backus
ASSIGNMENT: COMMENT ON SCHEDULE F
1 week left to comment about Schedule F, potentially making NIH institute and center director essentially political appointees.
www.regulations.gov/commenton/OP...
1/n
1 week left to comment about Schedule F, potentially making NIH institute and center director essentially political appointees.
www.regulations.gov/commenton/OP...
1/n
Regulations.gov
www.regulations.gov
May 31, 2025 at 1:48 PM
ASSIGNMENT: COMMENT ON SCHEDULE F
1 week left to comment about Schedule F, potentially making NIH institute and center director essentially political appointees.
www.regulations.gov/commenton/OP...
1/n
1 week left to comment about Schedule F, potentially making NIH institute and center director essentially political appointees.
www.regulations.gov/commenton/OP...
1/n
Join @lindsaykpino.com, me, and our amazing panelists for the #ASMS2025 #Chemoproteomics workshop on Monday!
May 31, 2025 at 9:47 PM
Join @lindsaykpino.com, me, and our amazing panelists for the #ASMS2025 #Chemoproteomics workshop on Monday!
Anyone else notice that ART is now giving different study section assignments compared to earlier in the week? Same title and abstract last night and today, different strong and possible matches...?
May 30, 2025 at 3:01 AM
Anyone else notice that ART is now giving different study section assignments compared to earlier in the week? Same title and abstract last night and today, different strong and possible matches...?
Reposted by Keri Backus
We will be hosting the 2025 ONO Pharma Foundation Annual Symposium on June 23 at the Royal Sonesta Boston. This event offers an opportunity to explore the latest breakthroughs presented by ONO INITIATIVE awardees and to discuss groundbreaking science in chemical biology. (1/2)
May 27, 2025 at 9:45 PM
We will be hosting the 2025 ONO Pharma Foundation Annual Symposium on June 23 at the Royal Sonesta Boston. This event offers an opportunity to explore the latest breakthroughs presented by ONO INITIATIVE awardees and to discuss groundbreaking science in chemical biology. (1/2)
New paper from our lab joint with Val Arboleda @val-arboleda.bsky.social
📣New from Palafox et al!
📄Prioritizing disease-associated missense variants with chemoproteomic-detected amino acids
📄Prioritizing disease-associated missense variants with chemoproteomic-detected amino acids
Prioritizing disease-associated missense variants with chemoproteomic-detected amino acids
Mass spectrometry-based chemoproteomics can provide a high-throughput assessment of
the likely functionality of specific sites on proteins. Here, we show that chemoproteomic
measures of protein-based ...
www.cell.com
May 24, 2025 at 4:56 AM
New paper from our lab joint with Val Arboleda @val-arboleda.bsky.social
Reposted by Keri Backus
The 13th General Meeting of the International Proteolysis Society will be held in Búsios, Brazil Oct 26-30, 2025. Training workshops will be held at the Instituto Oswaldo Cruz Oct 23-23. Register now! Links below.
1/3
1/3
May 22, 2025 at 4:22 AM
The 13th General Meeting of the International Proteolysis Society will be held in Búsios, Brazil Oct 26-30, 2025. Training workshops will be held at the Instituto Oswaldo Cruz Oct 23-23. Register now! Links below.
1/3
1/3
Reposted by Keri Backus
The fantastically successful NIGMS MIRA R35 "expired" on May 17, after the most recent deadline--these removals are the most aggressive attack on American science in the current series of devastating actions 🧪
NIH moved up the expiration date for some funding opportunities, effectively *canceling* the next application date without removing it from the standard table. I can't even imagine how many people are still prepping these grants.
👀 List of impacted opportunities:
grants.nih.gov/grants/guide...
👀 List of impacted opportunities:
grants.nih.gov/grants/guide...
May 20, 2025 at 11:18 PM
The fantastically successful NIGMS MIRA R35 "expired" on May 17, after the most recent deadline--these removals are the most aggressive attack on American science in the current series of devastating actions 🧪
Reposted by Keri Backus
Excited to see this out in @science.org today!! www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...
May 1, 2025 at 6:17 PM
Excited to see this out in @science.org today!! www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...
Reposted by Keri Backus
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/research-tra...
www.training.nih.gov
April 10, 2025 at 1:22 AM
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/research-tra...
Congrats to all the award winners and especially to Backus Lab PhD student Flowreen Shikwana and undergrad Joelle Darrouj!
2025 asms.org Awards! Join us in congratulating the 2025 recipients. We look forward to recognizing them all at #ASMS2025 in Baltimore.
Learn more: www.asms.org/about-asms-a...
Learn more: www.asms.org/about-asms-a...
April 10, 2025 at 4:43 PM
Congrats to all the award winners and especially to Backus Lab PhD student Flowreen Shikwana and undergrad Joelle Darrouj!
Reposted by Keri Backus
U of Michigan @umich.edu set aside funds from central to support researchers with unexpected disruption in federal funding for up to 6 months.
Are any other institutions doing this? Seems like a good move.
#Medsky #NIH #federalfunding #researchfunding 🧪
record.umich.edu/articles/uni...
Are any other institutions doing this? Seems like a good move.
#Medsky #NIH #federalfunding #researchfunding 🧪
record.umich.edu/articles/uni...
University launches new research support program | The University Record
record.umich.edu
March 14, 2025 at 6:31 PM
U of Michigan @umich.edu set aside funds from central to support researchers with unexpected disruption in federal funding for up to 6 months.
Are any other institutions doing this? Seems like a good move.
#Medsky #NIH #federalfunding #researchfunding 🧪
record.umich.edu/articles/uni...
Are any other institutions doing this? Seems like a good move.
#Medsky #NIH #federalfunding #researchfunding 🧪
record.umich.edu/articles/uni...
Reposted by Keri Backus
Bluetorial: Women, courage, and leadership
What follows will include some generalizations based on population averages of what I have experienced over the course of my career. There are, of course, exceptions in every group who are substantially more to one extreme or the other.
What follows will include some generalizations based on population averages of what I have experienced over the course of my career. There are, of course, exceptions in every group who are substantially more to one extreme or the other.
a cartoon says hey everybody an old man 's talking while bart simpson looks on
ALT: a cartoon says hey everybody an old man 's talking while bart simpson looks on
media.tenor.com
March 9, 2025 at 4:33 AM
Bluetorial: Women, courage, and leadership
What follows will include some generalizations based on population averages of what I have experienced over the course of my career. There are, of course, exceptions in every group who are substantially more to one extreme or the other.
What follows will include some generalizations based on population averages of what I have experienced over the course of my career. There are, of course, exceptions in every group who are substantially more to one extreme or the other.
Reposted by Keri Backus
One of the most significant and challenging projects of my career so far. PepCentric: a scalable computational platform utilizing novel 2-D fragment indexing for rapid peptide-centric searches, enabling proteogenomics searches against billions of spectra in seconds. www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
March 4, 2025 at 9:09 AM
One of the most significant and challenging projects of my career so far. PepCentric: a scalable computational platform utilizing novel 2-D fragment indexing for rapid peptide-centric searches, enabling proteogenomics searches against billions of spectra in seconds. www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
Reposted by Keri Backus
Extending my grant update this morning. Here are data limited to new and competitive renewal applications.
The Pause is dead, Long live the Pause...
The Pause is dead, Long live the Pause...
March 1, 2025 at 11:48 AM
Extending my grant update this morning. Here are data limited to new and competitive renewal applications.
The Pause is dead, Long live the Pause...
The Pause is dead, Long live the Pause...
Reposted by Keri Backus
📢 Postdoc Opening – Metabolism & Cancer! 📢
Looking for a motivated postdoc to explore how metabolism regulates tumor initiation at Roswell Park in Buffalo, NY! Join us to tackle big questions with cool science in a collaborative environment.
Interested? DM me! #PostdocJobs #CancerMetabolism
Looking for a motivated postdoc to explore how metabolism regulates tumor initiation at Roswell Park in Buffalo, NY! Join us to tackle big questions with cool science in a collaborative environment.
Interested? DM me! #PostdocJobs #CancerMetabolism
February 28, 2025 at 9:34 PM
📢 Postdoc Opening – Metabolism & Cancer! 📢
Looking for a motivated postdoc to explore how metabolism regulates tumor initiation at Roswell Park in Buffalo, NY! Join us to tackle big questions with cool science in a collaborative environment.
Interested? DM me! #PostdocJobs #CancerMetabolism
Looking for a motivated postdoc to explore how metabolism regulates tumor initiation at Roswell Park in Buffalo, NY! Join us to tackle big questions with cool science in a collaborative environment.
Interested? DM me! #PostdocJobs #CancerMetabolism
@standupforscience.bsky.social Los Angeles 3/7 noon at the Federal building docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1F...
February 28, 2025 at 4:44 PM
@standupforscience.bsky.social Los Angeles 3/7 noon at the Federal building docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1F...
Reposted by Keri Backus
🚨 Chemical Biology & Probes study section (formerly SBCB, one of two NIH panels that reviews chemistry #chemsky 🧪) was abruptly POSTPONED w/no specific plans for rescheduling, less than 24h before start.
If this affects you call your reps & senators, talk to local news, make your voice heard 📢 👩🔬
If this affects you call your reps & senators, talk to local news, make your voice heard 📢 👩🔬
February 19, 2025 at 7:55 PM
🚨 Chemical Biology & Probes study section (formerly SBCB, one of two NIH panels that reviews chemistry #chemsky 🧪) was abruptly POSTPONED w/no specific plans for rescheduling, less than 24h before start.
If this affects you call your reps & senators, talk to local news, make your voice heard 📢 👩🔬
If this affects you call your reps & senators, talk to local news, make your voice heard 📢 👩🔬
Reposted by Keri Backus
Today in @nature.com we share our back-to-back stories with Ning Zheng’s lab revealing chemical-genetic convergence between a molecular glue degrader & E3 ligase cancer mutations. 1/5
February 12, 2025 at 4:20 PM
Today in @nature.com we share our back-to-back stories with Ning Zheng’s lab revealing chemical-genetic convergence between a molecular glue degrader & E3 ligase cancer mutations. 1/5