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Structural biologist | Posts about #cryoEM, some running and cats | Views my own | She/her

Honoured to receive the first Sir Dave Stuart Early Career Award today. Dave was my PhD external examiner, making this award, recognising his contributions to structural biology, especially meaningful to me. Thank you to Instruct-ERIC and Thermo Fisher Scientific for championing ECRs.

Excited to share our new preprint! Using deep mutational scanning and multivalent engineering, we developed our SARS-CoV-2 spike-targeting macrocyclic peptide into a potent inhibitor that blocks infection in HAE cultures and protects hamsters after intranasal dosing. chemrxiv.org/doi/full/10....

Applications and prospects of cryo-electron tomography in drug discovery and understanding disease Review article by @camilaclemente.bsky.social in our lab www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

Honoured to receive the 2026 ACS Infectious Diseases Early Career Award alongside Laura Dassama and Patrick Dolan! Grateful for this recognition, and especially grateful to my wonderful colleagues, collaborators, and lab members who made the work possible. axial.acs.org/biological-c...

We're super excited to share MissAlignment: a new ML-based approach to reference-free tilt series alignment, spearheaded by @martenchaillet.bsky.social. We think it's going to make your cryo-ET life a lot better. Preprint: www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6... Code: github.com/warpem/miss-... 🧶 Thread:

2D classes of the 58 kDa sample collected on the 100 keV Tundra TEM with a Falcon C detector at @nusbf.bsky.social @newcastleuni.bsky.social. Still much work to do to optimise the sample & data collection but its cool to see what a 100 keV TEM is capable of. #cryoEM @recon4imd.bsky.social

We identified the maltoside detergent DM as an effective and easy solution to address preferred orientation in cryo-EM. Helped me switch from graphene grids. Special congrats to Maria Rafiq! @landerlab.bsky.social @nanigrotjahn.bsky.social @wisemanlab.bsky.social #cryoEM doi.org/10.64898/202...

For a plain-language overview of our work, see this lay summary courtesy of Kudos: www.growkudos.com/publications...

Thank you again for the invitation @instruct-eric.bsky.social! I really enjoyed the workshop and the discussions throughout the day. Excited to see these conversations and initiatives continuing to grow in structural biology!

Our paper describing the #cryoEM structures of unusual spike proteins from marine mammal–infecting gammacoronaviruses is now published in PLOS Pathogens! 🐬 journals.plos.org/plospathogen...

The risk of zoonotic spillover of coronaviruses poses a constant threat to humanity, as recently exemplified by SARS‑CoV-2. During the pandemic, the rapid emergence of immune escape mutations led to a loss of efficacy of both therapeutic and humoral anti‑...

Cryo-electron tomography (cryo-ET) is emerging as a transformative tool for structural biology. Unlike methods based on purified molecules, cryo-ET en…

www.sciencedirect.com

Learn about the 2026 winners of ACS Publications' Biological and Medicinal Chemistry lectureships and awards.

Coronaviruses use spike proteins to enter cells. This study shows these spikes can change shape, helping the viruses adapt to new hosts, including whales and dolphins. Understanding this flexibility may help predict and prevent future cross-species infections.

Author summary Coronaviruses are well known for their ability to jump between species, a process driven mainly by the spike protein on their surface. In this study, we examined spike proteins from coronaviruses found in marine mammals (whales and dolphins) to better understand how these viruses evolve and interact with their hosts. Using structural biology and mass spectrometry, we discovered several unusual features of the cetacean spike proteins. These spikes contain an extra domain within their receptor-binding region that resembles cupin proteins, assemble into trimers in a novel way that hides the receptor-binding domains, and show clusters of sugars (O-linked glycans) near the sites thought to interact with host receptors. These distinctive features suggest that cetacean coronaviruses may use a different entry mechanism, in which the extra domain acts as a switch to reveal the hidden receptor-binding regions. Such a mechanism could affect which species these viruses can infect, how easily they cross species barriers, and how they evade the immune system. Our findings emphasize the structural diversity and modularity of coronavirus spike proteins, highlight the unique adaptations of coronaviruses in marine mammals, and provide insight into their potential to give rise to new diseases in other species.

Also speaking at the Women in Science workshop, we have @ievadr.bsky.social of WeINSPIREBio. Instruct-ERIC is happy to support the mission of WeINSPIREBio "empower, connect, and elevate women scientists in the fields of structural biology and structure-based design"!

Think coronavirus spikes have run out of surprises? Think again. Our latest preprint dives into the highly unusual spikes of marine mammal coronaviruses. www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1... This #cryoEM study was led by @viralfusion.bsky.social, with key contributions from an amazing team.