Maria Polychronidou
banner
mpolychronidou.bsky.social
Maria Polychronidou
@mpolychronidou.bsky.social
Life scientist.
Head of EMBO Membership & Elections and Courses & Workshops @embo.org #EMBOevents
previously: Editor at Molecular Systems Biology, EMBO Press
Views my own
Pinned
🔊2025/2026 EMBO Courses & Workshops are online!
You can go through the list here ➡️ www.embo.org/conferences-...
Download the poster listing all meetings here ➡️ www.embo.org/documents/co...
We will add more 2026 Courses & Workshops in October, stay tuned!
#EMBOevents #AcademicSky #LifeSciences
www.embo.org
Reposted by Maria Polychronidou
The EMBO Practical Course "Hack your microscope" in Oeiras, PT, 20–25 Apr 2026 aims to innovate, democratize advanced #imaging technologies and shape the future of open-source #microscopy – Apply now!

Deadline: 12 Dec

meetings.embo.org/event/26-mic...
#EMBOmicroscope #EMBOevents 🧪
Hack your microscope
Recent advances in open-source microscopy have made high-resolution, customizable imaging systems more accessible, allowing researchers to overcome the constraints of traditional commercial solutions…
meetings.embo.org
November 10, 2025 at 8:17 AM
Reposted by Maria Polychronidou
This is a glimpse of the cytoskeletal structures we found doing U-ExM in more than 200 species, now in Cell🤩: shorturl.at/6oHvi
Amazing collaboration between @centriolelab.bsky.social , @dudinlab.bsky.social and @gautamdey.bsky.social labs.
I believe last one is a 🕷️
#FluorescenceFriday
#Microscopy
November 7, 2025 at 1:35 PM
Reposted by Maria Polychronidou
Very cool! I agree AI scientific review can be useful if it is transparent. It is all progressing very fast and will change everything. @qedScience @bioRxiv is a great first step. We are doing some human-based eval, so more soon from @EMBOPress @ReviewCommons with @qedScience. Watch this space ;-)
November 6, 2025 at 3:21 PM
Reposted by Maria Polychronidou
An Asgard archaeon with internal membrane compartments

Brilliant study led by @fmacleod.bsky.social and Andriko von Kügelgen. Tight collaboration with @buzzbaum.bsky.social and lab. Congrats to all authors!

www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
November 7, 2025 at 10:44 AM
"The awkward reality may be that if ChatGPT admitted “I don’t know” too often, then users would simply seek answers elsewhere. That could be a serious problem for a company that is still trying to grow its user base and achieve profitability." ➡️ www.science.org/content/arti...
#AI #LLMs
AI hallucinates because it’s trained to fake answers it doesn’t know
Teaching chatbots to say “I don’t know” could curb hallucinations. It could also break AI’s business model
www.science.org
November 7, 2025 at 10:34 AM
Reposted by Maria Polychronidou
On Wednesday and Thursday this week, a delegation from EMBO travelled to Lisbon to engage with Portugal’s #LifeSciences and EMBO Members #community.
November 7, 2025 at 9:01 AM
Reposted by Maria Polychronidou
Some impressions from the rather fabulous #EMBOmobilegenome Mobile Genome meeting in Heidelberg
Morning walk through the woods, exciting panel discussion, flash talks, lab community, drosophila friends, …
@events.embl.org

The transposon community is going very strong. see you all again in 2027!!
November 7, 2025 at 7:38 AM
Reposted by Maria Polychronidou
Are you using any of our factor models, such as MOFA? 🛵
You might’ve found it challenging to tailor them to your specific use cases - not anymore!

Introducing MOFA-FLEX: a flexible, modular factor analysis framework designed for customizable modeling across diverse multi-omics data scenarios. 1/n
November 7, 2025 at 10:29 AM
Reposted by Maria Polychronidou
Paper alert! A spatial atlas of human gastrointestinal acute GVHD reveals epithelial and immune dynamics underlying disease pathophysiology. We examined how immune cells are organized in the gut and what happens to them in GVHD. TL;DR Timing is key! www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...
A spatial atlas of human gastrointestinal acute GVHD reveals epithelial and immune dynamics underlying disease pathophysiology
Multiplexed imaging of aGVHD GI biopsies revealed epithelial remodeling and alteration in immune composition, offering insight into disease pathology.
www.science.org
November 6, 2025 at 5:51 AM
Reposted by Maria Polychronidou
Our latest paper has just been published in Cell!

doi.org/10.1016/j.ce...

We developed a new method called MCC ultra, which allows 3D chromatin structure to be visualised with a 1 base pair pixel size.
November 5, 2025 at 5:20 PM
Reposted by Maria Polychronidou
Bacteria can sense when a virus starts shredding their genome — by detecting methylated mononucleotides.
Here’s the story of how we discovered the Metis defense system 👇
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
November 6, 2025 at 5:00 AM
Reposted by Maria Polychronidou
We're happy to share that #EESMechanobiology is now open for registration: https://s.embl.org/ees26-06-bl

Submit your abstract by 3 March 2026 and join us in Heidelberg or virtually for four days of knowledge sharing and networking with biologists, physicists, and engineers. 🧪🧫
November 6, 2025 at 8:30 AM
Reposted by Maria Polychronidou
An intimate conversation about what drives me every day in “sharing experience” of science by getting tools of science in hands of kids everywhere.

themicroscopists.bitesizebio.com/episodes/man...
October 31, 2025 at 12:30 PM
Reposted by Maria Polychronidou
In Nature Communications: MS-based proteomics + machine learning to diagnose Lyme neuroborreliosis with 92% accuracy (CSF) and 80% (blood) - paving the way for earlier, less invasive testing.
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
The diagnostic potential of proteomics and machine learning in Lyme neuroborreliosis - Nature Communications
Researchers incorporate mass spectrometry-based proteomics and machine learning to assess the potential of a less invasive diagnostic approach for Lyme neuroborreliosis, a common nervous system infect...
www.nature.com
October 31, 2025 at 1:06 PM
Reposted by Maria Polychronidou
‘I sometimes think I only became a writer because I didn’t have any other good options.’

We asked David Szalay, shortlisted for the #BookerPrize2025 with Flesh, some quick-fire questions so you can get to know him better.

Discover all the Q&As:https://thebookerprizes.pulse.ly/lwijq54tx1
October 31, 2025 at 9:05 AM
Reposted by Maria Polychronidou
📣 We are moving to Barcelona to join the amazing @crg.eu and explore how centrosomes & cilia work, evolve & respond to the environment. We are looking for
PhD students www.crg.eu/en/content/t...
Postdocs gimm.pt/jobs/postdoc...
Other calls to open, also for an experienced lab manager.
Get in touch!
October 30, 2025 at 1:15 PM
Reposted by Maria Polychronidou
Check out our @natbiotech.nature.com @natureportfolio.nature.com piece with Yumeng Zhang + Jiangning Song on @genentech.bsky.social's deep learning approach to accelerate antibiotic discovery. Congrats to Gabriele Scalia, Tommaso Biancalani, Man-Wah Tan, Aviv Regev, @yoshuabengio.bsky.social et al!
October 29, 2025 at 4:56 PM
Reposted by Maria Polychronidou
Deadline approaching for the EMBO meeting "Molecular and Developmental Biology of Drosophila" 21 – 27 June 2026.
Both new and established PIs welcome.
Apply by Nov 3rd!
meetings.embo.org/event/26-dro...
Molecular and Developmental Biology of Drosophila
The principal theme of the EMBO Workshop is the Molecular and Developmental Biology of Drosophila. Supported by EMBO over four decades, this will be the 24th biennial “Crete meeting”. With the a…
meetings.embo.org
October 26, 2025 at 7:41 PM
Reposted by Maria Polychronidou
Dear ENPER community, We are pleased to invite you to the next ENPER meeting, which will be held in my country Bulgaria, from 26 to 28 August 2026 in Sofia. Save the Date!🌱🌱🌱
October 29, 2025 at 7:06 AM
Reposted by Maria Polychronidou
Sign up now for EMBO Workshop "Molecular mechanisms of selfish elements and strategies" in Bern, Switzerland, 8–11 February 2026.

Abstract submission/Registration by: 15 December 2025/15 January 2026

https://meetings.embo.org/event/26-selfish-elements
#EMBOselfishElements #GeneSky #EMBOevents 🧪
Molecular mechanisms of selfish elements and strategies
Certain genes, chromosomes, organelles, or entire sets of chromosomes can bias their transmission to the next generation, propagating themselves at the expense of the rest of the genome. Referred to …
meetings.embo.org
October 29, 2025 at 7:20 AM
Reposted by Maria Polychronidou
Lab’s first paper is out!! We show the first structures of #Asgard #chromatin by #cryo-EM 🧬❄️
Asgard histones form closed and open hypernucleosomes. Closed are conserved across #Archaea, while open resemble eukaryotic H3–H4 octasomes and are Asgard-specific. More here: www.cell.com/molecular-ce...
October 28, 2025 at 3:07 PM
Reposted by Maria Polychronidou
Scientific progress thrives on international #collaboration and the exchange of ideas across geographical boundaries.

On the second day of the EMBO Members' Meeting, there was a panel discussion on "Fostering Global #ScientificExchange." 🧪 #research #community
October 24, 2025 at 3:28 PM
Reposted by Maria Polychronidou
Welcome to #EMBOEpitrans! We’re kicking off an exciting few days of learning, sharing, and connecting with scientists from around the world. Let’s dive in 🔬

@embo.org
October 28, 2025 at 10:47 AM
Reposted by Maria Polychronidou
Three days left – Register now for EMBO Practical Course "Optics, Forces & Development" in Santiago, Chile, 7–17 January 2026.

Deadline: 31 October 2025

https://meetings.embo.org/event/26-optics
#EMBO26optics #EMBOevents 🧪
October 28, 2025 at 1:49 PM
Reposted by Maria Polychronidou
Looks like OpenFold3 has been formally released in a public "preview". Not quite on parity with AlphaFold3 on a few benchmarks shown, in particular for antibody interactions. All info on the github link. I am sure we will hear more about this from the developers github.com/aqlaboratory...
GitHub - aqlaboratory/openfold-3: OpenFold3: A fully open source biomolecular structure prediction model based on AlphaFold3
OpenFold3: A fully open source biomolecular structure prediction model based on AlphaFold3 - aqlaboratory/openfold-3
github.com
October 28, 2025 at 9:30 AM