Furthermore, we show a new role for M18BP1 as a condensin II loop stabiliser! Condensin II alone has a short loop lifetime, but when bound by M18BP1, loops are super stable. This is due to a basic region of M18BP1 contributing to DNA binding and loop anchoring!

And it is phosphorylated M18BP1 that competes with the NCAPD3 tail for NCAPG2 binding which enables complex activity. If you mutate the competing region of M18BP1, it no longer activates condensin II looping!

A combination of AlphaFold and brilliant cryo-EM demonstrated that the NCAPD3 C-terminal tail contacts both NCAPG2 and H2 subunits, and loss of these interactions enhances condensin II activity in vitro and in vivo.

Only a few days left to apply for this PhD opportunity in my lab! More details and how to apply at: www.findaphd.com/phds/project...

I’ve been offline for a while for the reason below. But I’m back in the lab, with more motivation and joy than ever before! The last year has been a wild ride, but everything has worked out brilliantly!

Different author, but this was one of the worst ones I found, deposited as 3.2A, published in NSMB. I emailed the authors and they saw no issue depositing the structure where only half the density was there...

There are certainly worse office views

If your new year resolution is doing a PhD, there is still time left to apply for a project in my group looking at how the condensin complex undergoes such large conformational changes while making loops. I mean look at how cool the starting model is:

New house might have a friendly cat!

I designed an outreach activity to teach people about DNA structure and supercoiling using the medium of friendship bracelets! It went down really well, so thought I'd share the instructions for anyone interested. DM if you want the word version or any other details.