Check out these two interesting ECR talks about the crazy and diverse world marine algae #ProtistsOnSky 🪸🌊🔬🧪
Beautiful expansion microscopy of the Chlamy pyrenoid by our friends in the Jonikas lab. Check out that ultrastructural detail on the tubule membranes! 🔬🧪
Vitrification ❄️🧊 is still a real bottleneck for #TeamTomo. Nice to see this initiative, and I hope some clever new developments are enabled by it 🧪
“the best way to work with cryoET data is to engage with it directly, […] build familiarity with what is actually there. As tempting as it sometimes is to lean in to automation entirely, we cannot do visual proteomics by relying blindly on automation.”
mgflast.github.io/easymode/use...
Such a fun meeting 🧪. Big thanks to @jcellsci.bsky.social and the organizers for bringing together this exciting group of “cell visualizers”. So much amazing #microscopy 🔬across cellular and molecular scales. My eyeballs were glued to every presentation 👀 🤩!!
Gold Medal🏅 for the dynamic duo of cellular evolution!! Congrats @gautamdey.bsky.social & @dudinlab.bsky.social —you are explorers! It's been such a pleasure interacting with you these years on high-res imaging, environmental sampling @embltrec.bsky.social, and climate. Here's to more adventures! 🧪🌍
Jon Chen @jonchenjk.bsky.social and Claris Chong's review of recent in situ cryo-ET chromatin studies and our opinion on an important future genomic direction is now published in Current Opinions in Structural Biology.
www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
Cryo-ET is often framed as a tool for in situ protein structure. But what if the real revolution is contextualization?
I explore how #teamtomo is redefining what "local" means in organelle biology, revealing membrane states rather than just protein structures.
tinyurl.com/localmembrane
And now it's out! Happy that PNAS selected for the cover this SEM image snapped by @samjlord.bsky.social, one of the most evocative visualizations of Euplotes that I have ever encountered.
www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...
Stay tuned for what is shaping up to be some fascinating follow-up in the lab...
Cryo-ET gives unparalleled views of cellular structures, but targeted sample preparation by cryo-FIB milling has been a constraint. No longer! A new workflow yields close to 100% targeting success for centrioles & other small structures.
Read the preprint ⤵️
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...
Ben Engel
Ben Engel
Ben Engel
Ben Engel
Alister Burt
Ben Engel
Mitosis Lab
Danielle Grotjahn
Ben Larson
Biohub
Pyrenoid tubules are essential for supercharging CO₂ fixation, but they're hard to resolve by microscopy. So, we physically expanded cells to see where different proteins go (3 examples below). The central tubule region appears specialized for CO₂ delivery!
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...
Better vitrification = better cryo-ET.
We've opened an RFA for two-year grants to advance vitrification techniques for biological samples—welcoming applications from researchers in heat transfer, cryogenics, and materials science.
Apply here: bit.ly/4uip6eJ
Early enthusiasm for the “cellular revolution” in cryo-electron tomography (cryo-ET) was largely driven by the promise of resolving protein structures…
What could be more exciting than watching Euplotes scurry around under the microscope? How about adding some raptorial predation by supergiant cannibal cells?
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
Video by Vittorio Boscaro.
1/n
Congratulations to Gautam Dey (EMBL) and Omaya Dudin (University of Geneva) for being awarded the EMBO Gold Medal 2026 in recognition of their outstanding contributions to the #LifeSciences in Europe! 🧪 https://www.embo.org/press-releases/embo-gold-medal-2026-awarded-to-gautam-dey-and-omaya-dudin/
Martin Jonikas
Biohub
That’s a wrap for #JCSimaging, organised by @franbottanelli.bsky.social, @guijacquemet.bsky.social, @drmichaelway.bsky.social & Giulia Zanetti.
Thanks to everyone who joined us and made the conference such a wonderful community event.
journals.biologists.com/jcs
Ben Larson
EMBO
Journal of Cell Science
Video
Video
Our next DinoSphere seminar will be June 18th at 9 AM PDT / 6 PM CEST hosting Jana Pilátová and @gracezhong.bsky.social
🪱 Grace Zhong: Symbiont mobility in a dinoflagellate–acoel worm symbiosis
🪩 Jana Pilátová: Eyespots as photonic mirrors in Symbiodiniaceae
More details on tinyurl.com/43uckr2w!
