Inlay

Group Leader @MRC_LMB /Structural Biologist/Biochemist. Amateur baker in free time #RNAworld #spliceosome #telomerase #telomeres #cryoEM #Xraycrystallography

Interested in molecular motors? Don’t miss this wonderful symposium in Salamanca on "The Structure and Workings of Molecular Machines" with an outstanding lineup of speakers. 📍 Salamanca, Spain 📅 Monday, June 22, 2026 🎟️ Attendance is free, but registration is required 👇👇👇

Wow, cool story! Congratulations Ahmad and everyone involved!

Thrilled to see this work published. Thanks to helpful reviewer suggestions, there are some exciting new insights that were not in the preprint (particularly in Figure 4). www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Earlier this week I posted an example of a fake western blot provided by ThermoFisher to demonstrate the validity of a p53 antibody. I considered it an amusing curiosity. In fact Thermo Fisher Scientific has systematically manipulated antibody validation data!

The Farnung Lab is looking for postdoctoral researchers interested in understanding mechanisms at the intersection of chromatin, transcription, and replication. Find out more here: www.farnunglab.com

Singh et al. combine cryo-electron microscopy and functional studies to reveal how a single protein complex selects diverse mRNAs for subcellular localization using a combination of shape, positional ...

One, perhaps two, of our postdocs are moving on to faculty positions this year (more news soon!). While they're truly irreplaceable, it does mean that we have openings for new members to join our team studying #cilia. If interested, please apply: academicpositions.harvard.edu/postings/15526

Sub-cellular chemical mapping using correlated cryogenic electron and mass spectrometry imaging online @natmethods.nature.com, led by Hannah Ochner, collaboration with @catfranco.bsky.social and @kiranrpatil.bsky.social labs doi.org/10.1038/s415...

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...

The hidden rules behind mRNA transport. A collaborative study between @simonbullock11.bsky.social & @carter-lab.bsky.social’s groups has found a structural code that explains how cells selectively transport mRNAs. Read more: mrclmb.ac.uk/news-events/... #LMBNews @cellbiol-mrclmb.bsky.social 🧪

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

MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology

Oxygen gradients reshape cross-feeding through emergent spatial organization of gut commensal bacteria www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6... Use of isotope labels and cryo-CLEM-FIB-SIMS to study microbial communities by Hannah Ochner. Collaboration with @kiranrpatil.bsky.social @jmghigolab.bsky.social

Microbial interactions unfold within environments structured by physical transport and chemical gradients. Yet most mechanistic studies rely on well-mixed systems that mask the reciprocal influences of environmental heterogeneity on metabolism and ecology. Here, we investigate how the physical environment modulates the interaction between the gut commensal Bacteroides thetaiotaomicron and Escherichia coli . In anoxic liquid culture, cell-resolved isotope imaging and genetic perturbations reveal exploitative cross-feeding, where E. coli consumes diffusible sugars released by B . thetaiotaomicron during starch degradation. When exposed to intestinal-like oxygen gradients in microfluidics, the interaction is restructured by spatial organization. The species self-organize into complementary niches: E. coli locally depletes sugars and oxygen, thereby expanding the anoxic niche required by B. thetaiotaomicron . A reactive transport model confirms that this organization arises from coupled feedback between physical transport and metabolic reaction rates. Together, our results reveal how physical structure and chemical gradients convert an exploitative cross-feeding interaction into a dynamic niche-construction process that generates emergent spatial organization and stabilizes coexistence. ### Competing Interest Statement The authors have declared no competing interest.

Excited to share our work uncovering SNOR, a ribosome-associated factor that promotes translation restart after dormancy published in Nature!! This was, as usual, a wonderful collaborative effort between our group and the Mattei Lab @simonemattei.bsky.social @embl.org www.nature.com/articles/s41...