Sylvia Varland
varland.bsky.social
Sylvia Varland
@varland.bsky.social
Molecular biologist with a passion for basic research, protein modifications, antibiotics and precision medicine.
Reposted by Sylvia Varland
Great news from smartbax — they’ve raised €4.7M Pre-Series A to advance their novel antibiotic through preclinical development!

We’re proud at INCATE to have supported them early on and thrilled to see their progress in the fight against #AMR.

Read more 👉 www.globenewswire.com/news-release...
smartbax announces a €4.7 M Pre-Series A round to advance novel antibiotic compound through preclinical stage
Lead antibacterial compound against a novel target in Gram-negative bacteria validated in infection modelsProgressing a platform of small-molecule...
www.globenewswire.com
October 23, 2025 at 8:07 AM
Reposted by Sylvia Varland
Very happy to be part of this amazing work from Jason Moffat and Sanna Masud - Victoria Saba Echezaretta's rescue experiments are remarkable. www.nature.com/articles/s41...
Genetic suppression features ABHD18 as a Barth syndrome therapeutic target - Nature
The enzyme ABHD18 is shown to have a key role in cardiolipin metabolism in mitochondria, offering a potential route for a small-molecule treatment of the rare genetic disease Barth syndrome.
www.nature.com
September 4, 2025 at 1:14 PM
Reposted by Sylvia Varland
Acetylhistidine in our blood can prevent kidney disease and is produced by the HisAT (NAT16) enzyme displaying a rare double-GNAT structure. Great efforts by Matti Myllykoski and the rest of the team at @unibergen.bsky.social to get this published. #acetyltransferase www.nature.com/articles/s41...
July 1, 2025 at 1:44 PM
Reposted by Sylvia Varland
Happy to present our latest review article, just out in @jxbotany.bsky.social!
Acylamino acid-releasing enzyme (AARE), a bifunctional protease with a potential role in #aging
@cibss.bsky.social @biologyunifreiburg.bsky.social
academic.oup.com/jxb/advance-...
Acylamino acid-releasing enzyme (AARE), a bifunctional protease with a potential role in aging
Abstract. Acylamino acid-releasing enzyme (AARE) is an evolutionary deeply conserved bifunctional serine protease. In its exopeptidase mode, AARE cleaves N
academic.oup.com
April 24, 2025 at 10:41 AM
Reposted by Sylvia Varland
Harvard has set an example for other higher-ed institutions - rejecting an unlawful and ham-handed attempt to stifle academic freedom, while taking steps to make sure students can benefit from an environment of intellectual inquiry, rigorous debate and mutual respect. Let’s hope others follow suit.
April 15, 2025 at 3:52 AM
UBE2M depletion reduces LC3B neddylation, leading to its destabilization, impaired autophagic activity and skin aging! Cool paper out in @pnas.org
Neddylation modification stabilizes LC3B by antagonizing its ubiquitin-mediated degradation and promoting autophagy in skin
www.pnas.org
April 14, 2025 at 9:22 AM
MYC-Targeting PROTACs Lead to Bimodal Degradation and N-Terminal Truncation | ACS Chemical Biology pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/...
MYC-Targeting PROTACs Lead to Bimodal Degradation and N-Terminal Truncation
MYC is a master regulatory transcription factor whose sustained dysregulation promotes the initiation and maintenance of numerous cancers. While MYC is a regarded as a potenial therapeutic target in cancer, its intrinsically disordered structure has proven to be a formidable barrier toward the development of highly effective small molecule inhibitors. We rationalized that proteolysis targeting chimeras (PROTACs), which might accomplish the targeted degradation of MYC, would achieve more potent cell killing in MYC-driven cancer cells than reversible inhibitors. PROTACs are bifunctional small molecules designed to produce a ternary complex between a target protein and an E3 ligase leading the target’s ubiquitination and degradation by the 26S proteasome. We generated PROTAC MTP3 based on modifications of the previously reported MYC-targeting compound KJ-Pyr-9. We found that MTP3 depletes endogenous full-length MYC proteins and uniquely induces increasing levels of a functional, N-terminally truncated MYC species, tMYC. Furthermore, MTP3 perturbs cellular MYC levels in favor of a tMYC-dominated state whose gene regulatory landscape is not significantly altered compared to that of wild type MYC. Moreover, although it lacks ∼10 kDa of MYC’s N-terminal transactivation domain, tMYC is sufficient to maintain an oncogenic proliferative state. Our results highlight the complexities of proximity-inducing compounds against highly regulated and conformationally dynamic protein targets such as MYC and indicate that PROTACs can induce alternative outcomes beyond target protein degradation.
pubs.acs.org
March 29, 2025 at 9:24 AM
Reposted by Sylvia Varland
Reposted by Sylvia Varland
Super excited to share our latest work on deciphering the #Ubiquitin Code

“𝗨𝗯𝗶𝗥𝗘𝗔𝗗 𝗱𝗲𝗰𝗶𝗽𝗵𝗲𝗿𝘀 𝗽𝗿𝗼𝘁𝗲𝗮𝘀𝗼𝗺𝗮𝗹 𝗱𝗲𝗴𝗿𝗮𝗱𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻 𝗰𝗼𝗱𝗲 𝗼𝗳 𝗵𝗼𝗺𝗼𝘁𝘆𝗽𝗶𝗰 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗯𝗿𝗮𝗻𝗰𝗵𝗲𝗱 𝗞48 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗞63 𝘂𝗯𝗶𝗾𝘂𝗶𝘁𝗶𝗻 𝗰𝗵𝗮𝗶𝗻𝘀”

@cp-molcell.bsky.social

1/8

www.cell.com/molecular-ce...
UbiREAD deciphers proteasomal degradation code of homotypic and branched K48 and K63 ubiquitin chains
Ubiquitin chains determine the fates of their modified proteins, including proteasomal degradation. Kiss et al. present UbiREAD, a technology to monitor cellular degradation and deubiquitination at hi...
www.cell.com
March 24, 2025 at 2:54 PM
Reposted by Sylvia Varland
Early-stage antibiotic discovery happens mostly in academia, but limited funding and expertise hinder its translation into preclinical development.
In her REVIVE @gardp.bsky.social article, Olga Genilloud explores solutions to these issues.

🔗 Read more: revive.gardp.org/how-can-we-c...
How can we close the early discovery gap and improve our ability to discover new antibiotics? - by Olga Genilloud
PLEASE NOTE: The Viewpoints on our website are to be read and freely shared by all. If they are republished, the following text should be used: “This Viewpoint was originally published on the REVIVE w...
revive.gardp.org
March 10, 2025 at 7:53 AM
1 of 5 cancer patients needs antibiotics! Nice portal by the Norwegian Cancer Society [Norwegian] kreftforeningen.no/vart-arbeid/...
Antibiotikaresistens
Informasjon om bruk av antibiotika Nasjonalt senter for antibiotikabruk i sykehus (NSAS) har som hovedoppgave å støtte norske sykehus i arbeidet med riktig bruk av antibiotika. Antibiotikasenteret for...
kreftforeningen.no
February 26, 2025 at 10:04 AM
Reposted by Sylvia Varland
Yeast #proteotoxic stress response: Intrinsically disordered protein Roq1 reprograms specificity of #ubiquitin ligase Ubr1 towards four distinct classes of substrates using its N-terminal arginine linked to a short hydrophobic motif
Sebastian Schuck and colleagues
www.embopress.org/doi/full/10....
February 10, 2025 at 12:02 PM
How can we develope new antibiotics, and what are the current challenges? Tune in to this podcast to learn more! 🎧 doppelhelix.podigee.io/12-new-episode [German] #AMR #antibiotics #innovation #startup
doppelhelix.podigee
February 6, 2025 at 11:44 AM
Reposted by Sylvia Varland
RHEB neddylation by the UBE2F-SAG axis enhances mTORC1 activity and aggravates liver tumorigenesis
Yongchao Zhao, Yi Sun et al
www.embopress.org/doi/full/10....
January 9, 2025 at 8:10 AM
Reposted by Sylvia Varland
Germans are a bit quirky, meticulous and precision-obsessed—and we LOVE them for it! The Zaptec Pro is now Eichrecht-compliant (German calibration law: Mess- und Eichrecht) and tailored for precision-obsessed perfectionists.
To all our German friends: Wir feiern Präzision! 🫶🇩🇪
January 22, 2025 at 2:48 PM
Reposted by Sylvia Varland
Our latest article "Data sharing restrictions are hampering precision health in the EU"
Here is the open acces link:
rdcu.be/d6Bgd
#precisionmedicine 🧬💊🧪
January 17, 2025 at 12:59 PM
Reposted by Sylvia Varland
New preprint from the lab exploring global 'acetylome' remodeling during heat shock in yeast, led by Rebecca Hardman-Kavanaugh with strong support by @aaronstorey.bsky.social.

www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
www.biorxiv.org
January 13, 2025 at 3:34 PM