Sander Smits
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sander1507.bsky.social
Sander Smits
@sander1507.bsky.social
Biochemistry structural biology
Center for Structural Studies HHU
Reposted by Sander Smits
Die DFG fördert Projekte für ressourceneffizientere Großgerätenutzung in der Forschung mit insgesamt ca. 5,5 Mio €. Außerdem werden zusammen mit der GWK bis Ende 2025 Anträge unter dem üblichen Schwellenwert möglich, die eine längere Nutzung vorhandener Geräte erlauben.
Details: sohub.io/r4km
DFG fördert Projekte für ressourceneffizientere Großgerätenutzung in der Forschung
sohub.io
November 7, 2025 at 12:04 PM
Reposted by Sander Smits
✨X-ray crystallography reveals surprising twist in how proteins enter the unique photosynthetic organelles of Paulinella. The chromatophore targeting peptide (crTP) folds into a 3D structure, hinting that folded proteins cross peptidoglycan and inner membrane. (1/2)
academic.oup.com/plphys/artic...
November 1, 2025 at 7:34 AM
Reposted by Sander Smits
New publication in J Mol Biol
New insights in to the function of the CLD and the entire hemolysin secretion machinery. Thanks to Holger Gohlke’s lab and CSS for the wonderful collaboration. Congrats to Sakshi and Cigdem!
October 26, 2025 at 9:54 AM
Reposted by Sander Smits
🚨Our paper is out! 🥳
Hijacking a bacterial ABC transporter for efficient genetic code expansion.
Many congrats to everyone involved - a multi-year effort led by @taruniype.bsky.social @maxfottner.bsky.social
www.nature.com/articles/s41...

it all started years ago with a failed experiment
🧵👇 1/9
Hijacking a bacterial ABC transporter for genetic code expansion - Nature
Bacterial ATP-binding cassette (ABC) transporters can be utilized and engineered to transport non-canonical amino acids into Escherichia coli for highly efficient synthesis of proteins with novel func...
www.nature.com
October 16, 2025 at 2:06 PM
Reposted by Sander Smits
Please RT:
We have an opening for a junior group leader position in „Phage Biology & Biotechnology“.
www.fz-juelich.de/de/karriere/...

Interested candidates are encouraged to contact me via email for further details.

@spp2330.bsky.social; @mibinet.bsky.social
Junior Group Leader - Phage Biology & Biotechnology
As a leading research institution for microbial biotechnology the Institute of Bio- and Geosciences - Biotechnology (IBG-1, https://www.fz-juelich.de/de/ibg/ibg-1 ) at the Forschungszentrum Jülich foc...
www.fz-juelich.de
October 8, 2025 at 6:50 AM
Reposted by Sander Smits
Excited to share our latest work, spearheaded by @gabmrojas.bsky.social!

GPCRs are central sensors in eukaryotes, but little is known about them in fungi. In Ustilago maydis, we now uncovered a host-dependent GPCR mechanism that promotes fungal infection.

Gabriel nicely explains the full story👇
🧵How does a pathogen know it has entered its host?

New preprint!🎉It’s a pleasure to share my first first-author preprint from my PhD journey!
We uncover a novel co-evolved peptide–GPCR system in the fungus Ustilago maydis that senses host entry and triggers infection (doi.org/10.1101/2025...)
(1/5)
A co-evolved peptide-GPCR system senses host entry to drive fungal infection https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.09.26.678928v1
October 1, 2025 at 7:40 AM
Reposted by Sander Smits
The evolution of land plants involved a charge-based adaption in the targeting sequences for #mitochondria and #chloroplasts and the origin of their de/phosphorylation.

#science 🧪

academic.oup.com/mbe/advance-...
Evolutionary refinement of mitochondrial and plastid targeting sequences coincides with the late diversification of land plants
Abstract. Plastids and mitochondria are key to plant survival and adaptation. The evolutionary progress of land plants (embryophytes) witnessed gene and ge
academic.oup.com
September 25, 2025 at 7:47 AM
Reposted by Sander Smits
✨ Lust auf ein Studium mit bunten Farben, spannenden Apparaturen und mikroskopisch kleinen Stoffen? ✨👩🏼‍🔬👨‍🔬
🧪 Chemie oder Wirtschaftschemie könnten da genau das richtige für dich sein!
💡 Neu: Wirtschaftschemie ist ab sofort zulassungsfrei.
August 20, 2025 at 6:18 AM
Reposted by Sander Smits
Just moved online:

Glutathione S-Transferase Mediated Epoxide Conversion: Functional and Structural Properties of an Enantioselective Catalyst | ACS Catalysis pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/...
Glutathione S-Transferase Mediated Epoxide Conversion: Functional and Structural Properties of an Enantioselective Catalyst
Styrene is a naturally occurring but mainly anthropogenically produced aromatic compound. It is degraded via different routes in nature but often activated to styrene oxide, predominantly to its (S)-e...
pubs.acs.org
July 7, 2025 at 5:21 PM
Reposted by Sander Smits
I am honored and excited that our research on #nitrogenases and the conversion of #CO2 to hydrocarbons is highlighted in the Yearbook 2024 of the Max Planck Society, see page 29. An English and a German version of the Yearbook are available in www.mpg.de/13631298/yea....
July 3, 2025 at 12:18 PM
Reposted by Sander Smits
Fachliche Exzellenz und menschliche Nähe: diese Kombination beschreibt unseren heutigen #hhuLehrpreis2025-Nominierten Prof. Dr. Michael Schmitt @lasermichel.bsky.social aus der Chemie @hhu.de perfekt. In seinen Vorlesungen gibt er viel Raum für Diskussion. 🎓💬
June 17, 2025 at 5:20 AM
Reposted by Sander Smits
Excited to share that our T7 RNA polymerase-based expression system brings a new level of versatility to Angomonas deanei as a model for studying endosymbiosis!
doi.org/10.1371/jour...
T7 RNA polymerase-based gene expression from a transcriptionally silent rDNA spacer in the endosymbiont-harboring trypanosomatid Angomonas deanei
Eukaryotic life has been shaped fundamentally by the integration of bacterial endosymbionts. The trypanosomatid Angomonas deanei that contains a β-proteobacterial endosymbiont, represents an emerging ...
doi.org
June 2, 2025 at 3:21 PM
Reposted by Sander Smits
🚨 Our new publication out now
🍄☠️“The mycotoxin Beauvericin is an uncompetitive inhibitor of Cathepsin B”
🔗 doi.org/10.1002/pro....
👏Congrats to first authors Xiaoli Yang & Pablo Cea-Medina @dfg.de #RTG2158 & thnx to Holger Gohlke for the great collaboration!
@hhu.de #RostockUniversityMedicalCenter
The mycotoxin Beauvericin is an uncompetitive inhibitor of Cathepsin B
Beauvericin (BEA), a cyclic depsipeptide, is a mycotoxin of the enniatin family and the secondary metabolite of various toxigenic fungi. Multiple biological functions of BEA have been well investigat....
doi.org
May 30, 2025 at 8:35 AM
Reposted by Sander Smits
Mit ihrem Modul „Bio110“ ermöglichen Prof. Dr. Petra Bauer @botanyhhu.bsky.social , Dr. Hans-Jörg Mai und Prof. Dr. Jürgen Zeier aus der Biologie @hhu.de Studierenden einen klaren Überblick über das weitläufige Fachgebiet. Das Trio ist für den #hhuLehrpreis2025 nominiert 🌿📖
May 30, 2025 at 5:22 AM
Reposted by Sander Smits
Very special feelings to announce this one... A project that started like 10 years ago is reaching the finish line, ready to shine. In a dream-team with @beckmannlab.bsky.social we solved the long-chased structure of the active membrane protein insertase SecYEG-YidC
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
Substrate-induced assembly and functional mechanism of the bacterial membrane protein insertase SecYEG-YidC
The universally conserved Sec translocon and the YidC/Oxa1-type insertases mediate biogenesis of alpha-helical membrane proteins, but the molecular basis of their cooperation has remained disputed over decades. A recent discovery of a multi-subunit insertase in eukaryotes has raised the question about the architecture of the putative bacterial ortholog SecYEG-YidC and its functional mechanism. Here, we combine cryogenic electron microscopy with cell-free protein synthesis in nanodiscs to visualize biogenesis of the polytopic membrane protein NuoK, the subunit K of NADH-quinone oxidoreductase, that requires both SecYEG and YidC for insertion. We demonstrate that YidC is recruited to the back of the translocon at the late stage of the substrate insertion, in resemblance to the eukaryotic system, and in vivo experiments indicate that the complex assembly is vital for the cells. The nascent chain does not utilize the lateral gate of SecYEG, but enters the lipid membrane at the SecYE-YidC interface, with YidC being the primary insertase. SecYEG-YidC complex promotes folding of the nascent helices at the interface prior their insertion, so the examined cellular pathway follows the fundamental thermodynamic principles of membrane protein folding. Our data provide the first detailed insight on the elusive insertase machinery in the physiologically relevant environment, highlight the importance of the nascent chain for its assembly, and prove the evolutionary conservation of the gate-independent insertion route. ### Competing Interest Statement The authors have declared no competing interest. Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft, https://ror.org/018mejw64, Ke1879/3, 267205415 (CRC 1208) European Research Council, https://ror.org/0472cxd90, CRYOTRANSLATION
www.biorxiv.org
May 27, 2025 at 9:21 AM
Reposted by Sander Smits
🎉 Erfolg für die HHU: Der Exzellenzcluster @ceplas.bsky.social ("SMARTe Pflanzen in dynamischen Umwelten") geht in die dritte Förderphase! 🌱 1/4
May 23, 2025 at 8:54 AM
Reposted by Sander Smits
With their clever setup to visualize ongoing endosymbiotic gene transfers (EGTs), Enrique Gonzalez-Duran, Ralph Bock and team reveal how double-strand break repair limits excessive EGT. Check out their new Nature Plants paper and my News and Views summary! www.nature.com/articles/s41...
A gatekeeper for gene transfers - Nature Plants
Large-scale genetic screening for plastid-to-nucleus gene transfers identifies that fast double-strand break repair functions as a key barrier for nuclear integration of organellar DNA and provides in...
www.nature.com
May 16, 2025 at 12:52 PM
Reposted by Sander Smits
In seinen Vorlesungen zur Anorganischen Chemie glänzt er mit Souveränität und Gelassenheit: Prof. Dr. Christian Ganter aus der Chemie @hhu.de ist für seine Studierenden preisverdächtig und wurde für den #hhuLehrpreis2025 nominiert. 🧪🎓
April 23, 2025 at 5:08 AM
Reposted by Sander Smits
Combining in-line chromatography coupled SAXS and AIpredicted structures to dissect the mechanism of ParB1parS1 partition assembly formation https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2024.06.25.600654v1
Combining in-line chromatography coupled SAXS and AIpredicted structures to dissect the mechanism of ParB1parS1 partition assembly formation https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2024.06.25.600654v1
ParB, which is a CTP-dependent DNA clamp, is an essential component of bacterial ParABS chromosomal
www.biorxiv.org
June 25, 2024 at 9:48 PM
Reposted by Sander Smits
SAXS reveals the molecular basis underlying pH-driven G3BP1 conformational dynamics: implications for stress granule formation https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.03.27.645651v1
March 30, 2025 at 2:17 AM
Reposted by Sander Smits
Results from CASP16 on predicting conformational ensembles of 2 domain-linker-domain constructs. Happy to see that CALVADOS 3 and our two rescaled versions of Martini do well in matching SAXS data in blind tests. But the results also show that lots remain to be done in modelling domain orientations
April 29, 2025 at 8:32 PM
Reposted by Sander Smits
Prof. Dr. Mathias Getzlaff aus der Physik @hhu.de ist unser heutiger #hhuLehrpreis2025-Nominierter. Studierende sind überzeugt von der Praxis seines Inverted Classrooms. 🔄📚
May 2, 2025 at 5:17 AM
Reposted by Sander Smits
This study shows that only 8% of bacterial infections in India were appropriately treated in 2019. These findings are concerning but provide a crucial benchmark, and there is hope that recent interventions have since begun to improve appropriate treatment rates
#AMR
www.thelancet.com/journals/lan...
Estimated undertreatment of carbapenem-resistant Gram-negative bacterial infections in eight low-income and middle-income countries: a modelling study
Infections caused by CRGN bacteria are likely to be significantly undertreated in LMICs. To close this treatment gap, improved access to diagnostics and antibiotics, strengthening of health systems, a...
www.thelancet.com
May 2, 2025 at 6:46 AM
Reposted by Sander Smits
Interested in joining Heinrich Heine University Düsseldorf for a 2-year postdoc project? Next week (May 6-7) the popular HHU Marie S. Curie Master Class takes place again, an online event supporting you to develop a compelling proposal for the MSCA Postdoctoral Fellowship program. (1/2)
www.forschung.hhu.de
May 2, 2025 at 1:14 PM
Reposted by Sander Smits
Just wanted to send a massive THANK YOU to everyone who joined our #HydroSensing meeting!
Great energy & insights. Let's keep the collaboration flowing!
A special shout-out to our guest speakers who sparkedfascinating dialogues. Your contributions were invaluable!
@hydrosensing.bsky.social #Plant
April 17, 2025 at 11:58 AM