Michael Westberg
@westberglab.com
Assistant Professor at Aarhus University, Denmark | biophysical chemistry PhD | into chembio, synbio, protein design, photochem, microscopy | 2018-2022 at Stanford Bio-X | westberglab.com
Reposted by Michael Westberg
Periodic reminder that the fluorescent compound in mammalian cell culture media, such as DMEM, is riboflavin (not phenol red)
October 14, 2025 at 7:51 PM
Periodic reminder that the fluorescent compound in mammalian cell culture media, such as DMEM, is riboflavin (not phenol red)
Reposted by Michael Westberg
I’m biased 🇩🇰, but this is quite nice to read:
I thought science hinged on prestige. Moving abroad made me reassess my priorities
www.science.org/content/arti...
I thought science hinged on prestige. Moving abroad made me reassess my priorities
www.science.org/content/arti...
I thought science hinged on prestige. Moving abroad made me reassess my priorities
In Denmark, this Ph.D. student fell in love with an egalitarian society that values work-life balance
www.science.org
September 12, 2025 at 7:50 AM
I’m biased 🇩🇰, but this is quite nice to read:
I thought science hinged on prestige. Moving abroad made me reassess my priorities
www.science.org/content/arti...
I thought science hinged on prestige. Moving abroad made me reassess my priorities
www.science.org/content/arti...
Reposted by Michael Westberg
Speak up to prevent a major loss for the field. CASP, which helped shaping structural biology including AlphaFold is on the verge of shutting down. NIH funding has lapsed, UC Davis support ends and the core team is being let go. Painfully shortsighted.
Exclusive: Famed protein structure competition nears end as NIH grant money runs out
Agency silent on funding renewal for contest that inspired creation of AIs that predicted how proteins would fold
www.science.org
July 4, 2025 at 12:07 PM
Speak up to prevent a major loss for the field. CASP, which helped shaping structural biology including AlphaFold is on the verge of shutting down. NIH funding has lapsed, UC Davis support ends and the core team is being let go. Painfully shortsighted.
Reposted by Michael Westberg
Budget released today:
40% cut to NIH
50% cut to NSF
If enacted, this will destroy academic research in the United States. It will also have a major trickle down effect on the entire academic ecosystem
40% cut to NIH
50% cut to NSF
If enacted, this will destroy academic research in the United States. It will also have a major trickle down effect on the entire academic ecosystem
May 2, 2025 at 4:39 PM
Budget released today:
40% cut to NIH
50% cut to NSF
If enacted, this will destroy academic research in the United States. It will also have a major trickle down effect on the entire academic ecosystem
40% cut to NIH
50% cut to NSF
If enacted, this will destroy academic research in the United States. It will also have a major trickle down effect on the entire academic ecosystem
Reposted by Michael Westberg
Super excited to share a new preprint from our lab on design of small-molecule binding proteins using neural networks! The paper has a bit of everything. A new graph neural network, new design algorithms, and experimental validation. www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
🧵🧪
🧵🧪
Zero-shot design of drug-binding proteins via neural selection-expansion
Computational design of molecular recognition remains challenging despite advances in deep learning. The design of proteins that bind to small molecules has been particularly difficult because it requ...
www.biorxiv.org
April 28, 2025 at 3:22 PM
Super excited to share a new preprint from our lab on design of small-molecule binding proteins using neural networks! The paper has a bit of everything. A new graph neural network, new design algorithms, and experimental validation. www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
🧵🧪
🧵🧪
Reposted by Michael Westberg
Small proteins can be more complex than they look!
We know proteins fluctuate between different conformations- but by how much? How does it vary from protein to protein? Can highly stable domains have low stability segments? @ajrferrari.bsky.social experimentally tested >5,000 domains to find out!
We know proteins fluctuate between different conformations- but by how much? How does it vary from protein to protein? Can highly stable domains have low stability segments? @ajrferrari.bsky.social experimentally tested >5,000 domains to find out!
March 26, 2025 at 4:21 PM
Small proteins can be more complex than they look!
We know proteins fluctuate between different conformations- but by how much? How does it vary from protein to protein? Can highly stable domains have low stability segments? @ajrferrari.bsky.social experimentally tested >5,000 domains to find out!
We know proteins fluctuate between different conformations- but by how much? How does it vary from protein to protein? Can highly stable domains have low stability segments? @ajrferrari.bsky.social experimentally tested >5,000 domains to find out!
Reposted by Michael Westberg
Just got an email from the Fulbright Association. As of right now, funding has been cut off to 12,500 US citizens currently abroad and and more than 7,400 foreigner scholars and students in the United States
March 7, 2025 at 10:46 PM
Just got an email from the Fulbright Association. As of right now, funding has been cut off to 12,500 US citizens currently abroad and and more than 7,400 foreigner scholars and students in the United States
We are looking for a postdoc with an interdisciplinary drive to join our team at Aarhus University. The project, funded by the Villum Foundation, focuses on leveraging recent advances in de novo protein design to develop novel photoactive proteins.
Postdoc in Protein Design of Photoactive Proteins - Vacancy at Aarhus University
Vacancy at Chemistry, Dept. of, Aarhus University
international.au.dk
March 7, 2025 at 4:39 PM
We are looking for a postdoc with an interdisciplinary drive to join our team at Aarhus University. The project, funded by the Villum Foundation, focuses on leveraging recent advances in de novo protein design to develop novel photoactive proteins.
Reposted by Michael Westberg
Are you serious @royalsociety.org?? He is trying to destroy science, spreading dangerous misinformation, inciting violence & your response is to do nothing?
So what’s your purpose then? What do you exist for? Other than being elite?
🧪 #academicsky
www.theguardian.com/technology/2...
So what’s your purpose then? What do you exist for? Other than being elite?
🧪 #academicsky
www.theguardian.com/technology/2...
Elon Musk survives as fellow of Royal Society despite anger among scientists
Questions remain over whether further action will be taken after resignations and calls for the Tesla CEO to be expelled
www.theguardian.com
March 4, 2025 at 7:53 AM
Are you serious @royalsociety.org?? He is trying to destroy science, spreading dangerous misinformation, inciting violence & your response is to do nothing?
So what’s your purpose then? What do you exist for? Other than being elite?
🧪 #academicsky
www.theguardian.com/technology/2...
So what’s your purpose then? What do you exist for? Other than being elite?
🧪 #academicsky
www.theguardian.com/technology/2...
Reposted by Michael Westberg
Hey #chemsky and beyond, with all that is going on, I am curious what expensive, high margin molecules we could provide to the community for free. What things do you use all the time, cost way too much, and would make a difference? Alexa Fluor 488 NHS? Other dyes? Other molecule?
March 1, 2025 at 1:57 PM
Hey #chemsky and beyond, with all that is going on, I am curious what expensive, high margin molecules we could provide to the community for free. What things do you use all the time, cost way too much, and would make a difference? Alexa Fluor 488 NHS? Other dyes? Other molecule?
Reposted by Michael Westberg
Instruktøren for kryolit-dokumentaren tager til genmæle i P1 Orientering - men svarene er langt fra overbevisende: www.dr.dk/lyd/p1/p1-or...
For mig at se er dokumentaren et eksempel på misinformation, som det oftest praksiseres i politik og på sociale medier.
🧵 (1/4)
For mig at se er dokumentaren et eksempel på misinformation, som det oftest praksiseres i politik og på sociale medier.
🧵 (1/4)
P1 Orientering | Tirsdag 11. feb. 2025 | DR LYD
Er DR-dokumentaren om kryolit i Grønland egentlig retvisende? Er Elon Musks drøm om at købe OpenAI realistisk? Og går EU-regulering af AI for langt?
Dagens værter: August Stenbroen og Pernille Rudbæ...
www.dr.dk
February 11, 2025 at 6:06 PM
Instruktøren for kryolit-dokumentaren tager til genmæle i P1 Orientering - men svarene er langt fra overbevisende: www.dr.dk/lyd/p1/p1-or...
For mig at se er dokumentaren et eksempel på misinformation, som det oftest praksiseres i politik og på sociale medier.
🧵 (1/4)
For mig at se er dokumentaren et eksempel på misinformation, som det oftest praksiseres i politik og på sociale medier.
🧵 (1/4)
Reposted by Michael Westberg
Excited to share our latest preprint evaluating AlphaFold3, Boltz-1, Chai-1 and Protenix for predicting protein-ligand interactions, featuring our newly introduced benchmark dataset 🌹Runs N’ Poses🌹!
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
🧵👇 (1/n)
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
🧵👇 (1/n)
Have protein-ligand co-folding methods moved beyond memorisation?
Deep learning has driven major breakthroughs in protein structure prediction, however the next critical advance is accurately predicting how proteins interact with other molecules, especially small mo...
www.biorxiv.org
February 8, 2025 at 10:02 AM
Excited to share our latest preprint evaluating AlphaFold3, Boltz-1, Chai-1 and Protenix for predicting protein-ligand interactions, featuring our newly introduced benchmark dataset 🌹Runs N’ Poses🌹!
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
🧵👇 (1/n)
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
🧵👇 (1/n)
Reposted by Michael Westberg
Special Bluetorial: The benefits of different life experiences
The scientific community has folks with a very wide range of life experiences. We have a lot to learn from one another.
The scientific community has folks with a very wide range of life experiences. We have a lot to learn from one another.
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
February 7, 2025 at 3:08 AM
Special Bluetorial: The benefits of different life experiences
The scientific community has folks with a very wide range of life experiences. We have a lot to learn from one another.
The scientific community has folks with a very wide range of life experiences. We have a lot to learn from one another.
Reposted by Michael Westberg
New preprint from our group! We propose SHAPES, a set of metrics to quantify the distributional coverage of generative models of protein structures with embeddings at different structural hierarchies and quantify undersampling / extrapolation behaviors.
January 15, 2025 at 6:48 PM
New preprint from our group! We propose SHAPES, a set of metrics to quantify the distributional coverage of generative models of protein structures with embeddings at different structural hierarchies and quantify undersampling / extrapolation behaviors.
Reposted by Michael Westberg
Yes it's important people understand a preprint hasn't been peer-reviewed. BUT it's also important to understand that what "peer-reviewed" means varies considerably, in some cases signifying nothing... www.science.org/content/arti...
Preprints often make news. Many people don’t know what they are
The public needs context about unreviewed manuscripts, survey suggests
www.science.org
January 8, 2025 at 3:40 PM
Yes it's important people understand a preprint hasn't been peer-reviewed. BUT it's also important to understand that what "peer-reviewed" means varies considerably, in some cases signifying nothing... www.science.org/content/arti...
Reposted by Michael Westberg
Aside from the fact that I love Doritos, Cheetos, and all snacks unnaturally orange, I appreciate the physics and potential impact on optical imaging of this paper:
www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...
www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...
Achieving optical transparency in live animals with absorbing molecules
Optical imaging plays a central role in biology and medicine but is hindered by light scattering in live tissue. We report the counterintuitive observation that strongly absorbing molecules can achiev...
www.science.org
December 27, 2024 at 2:28 PM
Aside from the fact that I love Doritos, Cheetos, and all snacks unnaturally orange, I appreciate the physics and potential impact on optical imaging of this paper:
www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...
www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...
Reposted by Michael Westberg
Many people talk about the "Golden Age of Antibiotics", but I hadn't seen it visualized properly.
Just how many types of antibiotics were discovered during that time?
So, I visualized it myself!
Just how many types of antibiotics were discovered during that time?
So, I visualized it myself!
December 23, 2024 at 10:09 AM
Many people talk about the "Golden Age of Antibiotics", but I hadn't seen it visualized properly.
Just how many types of antibiotics were discovered during that time?
So, I visualized it myself!
Just how many types of antibiotics were discovered during that time?
So, I visualized it myself!
Reposted by Michael Westberg
1/ In two back-to-back papers, we present our de novo TRACeR platform for targeting MHC-I and MHC-II antigens
TRACeR for MHC-I: go.nature.com/4gcLzn5
TRACeR for MHC-II: go.nature.com/4gj5OQk
TRACeR for MHC-I: go.nature.com/4gcLzn5
TRACeR for MHC-II: go.nature.com/4gj5OQk
December 17, 2024 at 12:56 AM
1/ In two back-to-back papers, we present our de novo TRACeR platform for targeting MHC-I and MHC-II antigens
TRACeR for MHC-I: go.nature.com/4gcLzn5
TRACeR for MHC-II: go.nature.com/4gj5OQk
TRACeR for MHC-I: go.nature.com/4gcLzn5
TRACeR for MHC-II: go.nature.com/4gj5OQk
Reposted by Michael Westberg
Back by popular demand, I present PPI Prediction Challenge #2.
My claim: I AM SKEPTICAL COMPUTATIONAL APPROACHES CAN PREDICT WHETHER TWO PROTEINS INTERACT.
Someone prove me wrong (take two).
docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1F...
1/n
My claim: I AM SKEPTICAL COMPUTATIONAL APPROACHES CAN PREDICT WHETHER TWO PROTEINS INTERACT.
Someone prove me wrong (take two).
docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1F...
1/n
PPI Prediction Challenge #2
For this protein-protein interaction prediction challenge, we present three target proteins: KRAS, RAF (the KRAS binding domain), and Mdm2. For each target protein, we are providing you a list of 8 po...
docs.google.com
December 10, 2024 at 9:45 PM
Back by popular demand, I present PPI Prediction Challenge #2.
My claim: I AM SKEPTICAL COMPUTATIONAL APPROACHES CAN PREDICT WHETHER TWO PROTEINS INTERACT.
Someone prove me wrong (take two).
docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1F...
1/n
My claim: I AM SKEPTICAL COMPUTATIONAL APPROACHES CAN PREDICT WHETHER TWO PROTEINS INTERACT.
Someone prove me wrong (take two).
docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1F...
1/n
Reposted by Michael Westberg
You may have seen a recent pre-print [1] from Jain et al. with strongly worded claims against the experimental results in our DiffDock paper [2]. We initially declined to respond as we saw that this preprint contained falsehoods, misleading comparisons, seemingly deliberate omissions, ...1/n
December 8, 2024 at 9:37 PM
You may have seen a recent pre-print [1] from Jain et al. with strongly worded claims against the experimental results in our DiffDock paper [2]. We initially declined to respond as we saw that this preprint contained falsehoods, misleading comparisons, seemingly deliberate omissions, ...1/n
Reposted by Michael Westberg
Super excited to preprint our work on developing a Biomolecular Emulator (BioEmu): Scalable emulation of protein equilibrium ensembles with generative deep learning from @msftresearch.bsky.social ch AI for Science.
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
December 6, 2024 at 8:39 AM
Super excited to preprint our work on developing a Biomolecular Emulator (BioEmu): Scalable emulation of protein equilibrium ensembles with generative deep learning from @msftresearch.bsky.social ch AI for Science.
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
Reposted by Michael Westberg
Hey @biorxivpreprint.bsky.social, I think you need to add another icon here 🦋
November 22, 2024 at 9:27 AM
Hey @biorxivpreprint.bsky.social, I think you need to add another icon here 🦋
Reposted by Michael Westberg
PIONEERS
When I assumed the position as Director of NIGMS in 2003, Dr. Zerhouni's project for stimulating activities across NIH, The NIH Roadmap for Medical Research, was under active development. The Roadmap included a range of different funding opportunities.
1/n
www.science.org/content/arti...
When I assumed the position as Director of NIGMS in 2003, Dr. Zerhouni's project for stimulating activities across NIH, The NIH Roadmap for Medical Research, was under active development. The Roadmap included a range of different funding opportunities.
1/n
www.science.org/content/arti...
NIH's Roadmap to the Future
www.science.org
November 22, 2024 at 12:12 PM
PIONEERS
When I assumed the position as Director of NIGMS in 2003, Dr. Zerhouni's project for stimulating activities across NIH, The NIH Roadmap for Medical Research, was under active development. The Roadmap included a range of different funding opportunities.
1/n
www.science.org/content/arti...
When I assumed the position as Director of NIGMS in 2003, Dr. Zerhouni's project for stimulating activities across NIH, The NIH Roadmap for Medical Research, was under active development. The Roadmap included a range of different funding opportunities.
1/n
www.science.org/content/arti...
Reposted by Michael Westberg
We engineered bacteriorhodopsin to be soluble. It binds retinal and can photocycle! X-ray structure reveals conserved binding pocket with 0.8 Å all atom RMSD to WT BR. All this became possible due to hard work by Andrey Nikolaev and the team 🙏 #proteindesign biorxiv.org/cgi/content/...
November 22, 2024 at 8:27 AM
We engineered bacteriorhodopsin to be soluble. It binds retinal and can photocycle! X-ray structure reveals conserved binding pocket with 0.8 Å all atom RMSD to WT BR. All this became possible due to hard work by Andrey Nikolaev and the team 🙏 #proteindesign biorxiv.org/cgi/content/...
Reposted by Michael Westberg
Crosspost from X: After showing that AF2 can be used to design very large proteins by performing #RSO, I am happy to share another fun project we did: the #af2cycler @sokrypton.org @hendrikdietz.bsky.social
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
Alphafold2 refinement improves designability of large de novo proteins
Recent advances in computational protein design have enabled the creation of novel proteins for a variety of purposes. The capability for producing custom-shape high-quality backbones for very large p...
www.biorxiv.org
November 22, 2024 at 12:47 PM
Crosspost from X: After showing that AF2 can be used to design very large proteins by performing #RSO, I am happy to share another fun project we did: the #af2cycler @sokrypton.org @hendrikdietz.bsky.social
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...