Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

Reposted by Dr. Natalie Tatum

Dr. Natalie Tatum @nataliejtatum.bsky.social · Aug 14

Crystallography for the "dark proteome"? From @nudrugdiscovery.bsky.social and @chemistryncl.bsky.social : #FragLites map protein–protein interaction sites including regions with no previously known function. 🧵1/3 #DrugDiscovery #ChemBio
📖 www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

1 6 14

Reposted by Dr. Natalie Tatum

Basil Greber @bjgreber.bsky.social · Aug 15

Just published: Our paper on high-throughput analysis of cyclin docking interactions, led by the group of Norman Davey @icr.ac.uk and with some small-complex-plus-peptide #cryoEM by @natalia-mg.bsky.social from my lab. Congratulations, everyone!
www.nature.com/articles/s41...

High-throughput investigation of cyclin docking interactions reveals the complexity of motif binding determinants - Nature Communications

Many protein–protein interactions depend on Short Linear Motifs (SLiMs). In this study, the authors use large-scale binding assays, deep mutational scanning, and structural analysis to map SLiMs recog...

www.nature.com

1 19 59

Dr. Natalie Tatum @nataliejtatum.bsky.social · Aug 15

🧱 Crystal structure shows binding on the opposite face to CDK, enabling ternary complex formation.
🧪 In cells, nanobodies act as pharmacological chaperones to restore p16 function!

#StructuralBiology #CellCycle #Nanobodies #CancerResearch #ProteinStability

Dr. Natalie Tatum @nataliejtatum.bsky.social · Aug 15

🧬 Engineered nanobodies binding and stabilizing cancer-mutant p16INK4a—without blocking its CDK6 interaction or cell-cycle arrest function, in press at Structure from Endicott @nucancer.bsky.social and @lauraitzhaki.bsky.social groups!

📖 www.cell.com/structure/fu...

Nanobodies restore stability to cancer-associated mutants of tumor suppressor protein p16INK4a

Burbidge et al. characterize nanobodies against the tumor suppressor and CDK4/6 inhibitor p16INK4a in vitro and in cells. They show the nanobodies restore mutant p16INK4a stability. Nanobody binding t...

www.cell.com

1 1 4

Reposted by Dr. Natalie Tatum

Naomi Alderman @naomialderman.bsky.social · Aug 14

this is the thing. it's not nothing. in certain contexts it is really extraordinary, I am excited to be living to see what it does.

it's also not erm <checks notes> going to be god-level general intelligence in two years time (or probably ever).

Alastair Meeks @alastairmeeks.bsky.social · Aug 14

Yes, but tell me again how AI gets the number of B's in blueberry wrong.

Mark Chadbourn @chadbourn.bsky.social · Aug 14

A major health breakthrough and the start of a “second golden age of antibiotic discovery”, driven by AI.

4 3 20

Dr. Natalie Tatum @nataliejtatum.bsky.social · Aug 14

#FragLites offer a fast, chemically rich method to identify allosteric sites, guide probe development, and validate AI-generated structural models. Their ability to mimic key interaction residues makes them ideal for designing separation-of-function mutations and selective inhibitors. 🧵3/3

Dr. Natalie Tatum @nataliejtatum.bsky.social · Aug 14

While FragLites reliably bound to established interaction regions like the Palm site, ATP cleft, and RXL motif, we see a previously uncharacterized site at the CDK2–cyclin A interface. This site, rich in fragment engagement, may extend the SKP2 binding surface described by Kelso et al. (2021). 🧵 2/3

1 2

Dr. Natalie Tatum @nataliejtatum.bsky.social · Aug 14

Crystallography for the "dark proteome"? From @nudrugdiscovery.bsky.social and @chemistryncl.bsky.social : #FragLites map protein–protein interaction sites including regions with no previously known function. 🧵1/3 #DrugDiscovery #ChemBio
📖 www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

1 6 14

Dr. Natalie Tatum @nataliejtatum.bsky.social · Jul 2

Today was one of those Good Days in Academia where (a) an experiment gave me a result I was hoping for, which is Super Cool, and (b) an undergrad emailed asking for advice and I could give them resources and context to point them on the next step of their journey. Little important wins 🩷

Reposted by Dr. Natalie Tatum

Katie Mack @astrokatie.com · Jun 19

Chatbots — LLMs — do not know facts and are not designed to be able to accurately answer factual questions. They are designed to find and mimic patterns of words, probabilistically. When they’re “right” it’s because correct things are often written down, so those patterns are frequent. That’s all.

560 8.6K 29K

Dr. Natalie Tatum @nataliejtatum.bsky.social · Jun 3

I'm at #DurhamHPCDays today to present in the Computational Biosciences workshop. Always lovely to come back to Durham, and this time to see a shiny new Maths+CompSci building!

1

Reposted by Dr. Natalie Tatum

Dave nλ=2dsinθ @xtaldave.xtaldave.net.ap.brid.gy · Apr 1

New Presidential executive order on proteins:

All amino acids now to be right w̶i̶n̶g̶ handed.

Leftist amino acids to be outlawed.

(Also, Z-DNA is deemed to be Communist, and is prohibited.)

Trans- and cis- peptide bonds to be banned.

Non-binary amino acid Glycine to be banned.

Proline is […]

Original post on xtaldave.net

xtaldave.net

3 3 4

Dr. Natalie Tatum @nataliejtatum.bsky.social · Apr 1

@xtaldave.xtaldave.net.ap.brid.gy Your post to the ccp4bb is a thing of beauty.

a man in a black suit is sitting in a red chair

ALT: a man in a black suit is sitting in a red chair

media.tenor.com

Dr. Natalie Tatum @nataliejtatum.bsky.social · Mar 15

Latest preprint out in the wild! This is some older work which lingered on our to-do lists; we published the crystal structure of the human IRF4 DNA-binding domain (6TD4) in 2020!

bioRxiv Biophysics @biorxiv-biophys.bsky.social · Mar 15

Structural, biophysical and biological analysis and characterisation of IRF4 DNA-binding domain mutations associated with multiple myeloma https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.03.12.642038v1

1

Reposted by Dr. Natalie Tatum

Cole Group @colegroupncl.bsky.social · Mar 8

And thanks to the team at Newcastle for stepping up to the challenge!: @creechem.bsky.social, Rachael Pirie, @bieniekmat.bsky.social, @jthorton22.bsky.social, Ayaz Ahmad, Aaron Campbell, Kallie Friston, Natalie Roper, Roly Armstrong, Kate Harris, & @nataliejtatum.bsky.social

1 3

Reposted by Dr. Natalie Tatum

Brendan @chemscrapes.bsky.social · Feb 14

My daughter messaged me after her chem class the other day and asked if i could do a cartoon about Trump and Musk as isomers. Dear followers, inspired by Amelia i present to you, unconstitutional arsomers.

*insert applause here*

#chemsky

Two isomers of hexane are shown - 2,2-dimethyl butane and 2,3-dimethyl butane. They are labelled as constitutional isomers.

Cartoon showing 2 x arsole molecules. The first looks like elon and is doing a nazi salute. It has a methyl group at the 3-position. The second arsole has a red tie, is gesticulating, is orange with a big combover. Face set with a scowel. It has a methl group at the 2-position. They are labelled as unconstitutional arsomers.

8 31 120

Reposted by Dr. Natalie Tatum

CRUK Newcastle Drug Discovery Group @nudrugdiscovery.bsky.social · Feb 11

🌍👩‍🔬 Celebrating International Women in Science Day! Thank you to all the women in our drug discovery team, their dedication, innovation and inspiration. Together we are pushing boundaries to discover novel anticancer drugs! @nucancer.bsky.social @crhorizons.bsky.social @newcastleuni.bsky.social

4 13

Reposted by Dr. Natalie Tatum

Derek Lowe @dereklowe.bsky.social · Feb 4

A long post about what’s happening to the science funding agencies in the US and why. As mentioned, this one just kept getting longer even as I kept stripping curse words from it.

www.science.org/content/blog...

What's Happening Inside the NIH and NSF

www.science.org

20 290 420

Dr. Natalie Tatum @nataliejtatum.bsky.social · Jan 30

Ah, fantastic, that's perfect!

Dr. Natalie Tatum @nataliejtatum.bsky.social · Jan 30

Hi Javier - super interested in this! Can it be run on non-deposited PDB fragment datasets? (The notebook appears to pull using accession codes only?)

1 1

Reposted by Dr. Natalie Tatum

CRUK Newcastle Drug Discovery Group @nudrugdiscovery.bsky.social · Dec 27

Read about our potential breakthrough in oncology - restoring wild type p53 function with ASTX295. This molecule was co-developed with Astex Pharmaceuticals, and is currently showing great phase I trial readout! #cancer #medchem #clinicaltrials

www.linkedin.com/posts/cancer...

Cancer Research Horizons on LinkedIn: #onmyhorizon #cancerresearch

2024 milestones worth celebrating 🧬🌟 Bravo to the incredible researchers at the Drug Discovery Unit at Newcastle University. They've unlocked a potential…

www.linkedin.com

6 10

Reposted by Dr. Natalie Tatum

CRUK Newcastle Drug Discovery Group @nudrugdiscovery.bsky.social · Dec 19

Our research is critically dependent on funding we receive from @cancerresearchuk.org and we are also willing to do our bit towards fundraising. In 2024:
Funds Raised: £6,440 (+£1,031 gift aid)
Online Donations: 283
Events: Great North Run, Race for Life, Shine Walk, Leeds Marathon, bake sale, quiz

4 9

Dr. Natalie Tatum @nataliejtatum.bsky.social · Dec 17

Setting up some crystallisation plates today for a new year treat/Christmas miracle. First time setting up an in situ plate for some work with @diamondlightsource.bsky.social VMXi 💎

2

Reposted by Dr. Natalie Tatum

Ash Jogalekar @ashjogalekar.bsky.social · Dec 15

In early phase drug discovery, biology and assays are make-or-break. I can remember very few programs I worked on which were hampered by the inability to make molecules, but plenty that were hampered by the inability to capture disease biology complexity on a chip or in an enzyme readout.

3 13 79

Dr. Natalie Tatum @nataliejtatum.bsky.social · Dec 13

Been flying the @newcastleuni.bsky.social and @nudrugdiscovery.bsky.social flags recently, talking to @mosmedcdt.bsky.social Cohort 6 about applying computational methods appropriately + short talk at the Durham BSI bit.ly/4d7nlbB on our cyclin D3 work! bit.ly/3D6SwHF🧬🧶#academicskycsky

2 8