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Biomolecular interactions on the nanoscale. Postdoc at the University of Leeds. #AFM 🔬 #Biophysics 🧬 🧪

Eddie Rollins

1/11 In our story out today in @nature.com , we showcase the molecular mechanisms that enable Cas9 to bind and cleave negatively supercoiled ((-)SC) off-targets! 🧬🧵 🔗 www.nature.com/articles/s41... #CRISPR #Cas9 #DNATopology #AFM #CryoEM #SingleMolecule #Biophysics

Supercoiling not only brings DNA to life (and makes it dance) but also changes how key proteins such as #CRISPR interact with it. Thanks @qmsmith.bsky.social for the brilliant collaboration, Sylvia for developing an amazing new #imageanalysis pipeline & @eddierollins.bsky.social for beautiful #AFM.

2mo

Structural basis of supercoiling-induced CRISPR–Cas9 off-target activity - Nature

Cas9 structures explain topology sensing and off-target activation.

www.nature.com

The new colour maps, playnano_gold and afm_brown are perceptually linear across full luminance ranges so subtle features in your height maps are visible throughout the whole intensity range, not just in the middle.

Nature research paper: Structural basis of supercoiling-induced CRISPR–Cas9 off-target activity go.nature.com/4t39bk8

Quentin Smith

Squeeze more out of your AFM images with NanoLocz v1.3 💪 Download the updated version here: github.com/George-R-Hea...

Alice Pyne

2mo

We're back in York today for day 2 of @prosperpostdoc.bsky.social and the group are looking at jobs! They've been tasked with finding job vacancies, researching the key information and skills needed for these roles outside of academia. #postdocs

May 29, 2025

This has been a big upgrade to playNano's visualisation and export capabilities so I'm keen to hear what you think. Curious what the new colormaps could do for your AFM data? Have a go or get in touch!

Some of my PhD work is now out in Nature! www.nature.com/articles/s41... Investigating the structural basis of off‑target Cas9 binding to supercoiled DNA with #AFM & cryo-EM. From my time in the lab of @alicepyne.bsky.social, in collaboration with @qmsmith.bsky.social and the team at the MRC LMS.

playNano v0.4.0 is now out! 🧪 Updates to visualisation and export makes easier to create publication quality images and videos. 🎨 NEW colormaps 📹 NEW export formats 🔬 NEW ARIS file reader INSTALL: pip install playnano github.com/derollins/pl... #AFM #HighSpeedAFM #OpenSource #Python #Biophysics

Jun 5, 2025

2mo

Eddie Rollins