Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

Susan Shao @sshaolab.bsky.social · 5d

Beautiful reconstitution of amino acid stress-dependent ISR activation by my @harvardcellbio.bsky.social colleagues presenting a unifying mechanism for GCN2 activation, which requires ribosome collisions and is enhanced by cognate uncharged tRNA in the A site! www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

GCN1 couples GCN2 to ribosomal state to initiate amino acid response pathway signaling

During nutrient deprivation, activation of the protein kinase GCN2 regulates cell survival and metabolic homeostasis. In addition to amino acid stress, GCN2 is activated by a variety of cellular stres...

www.science.org

2 19 51

Reposted by Susan Shao

Harvard Med Cell Biology @harvardcellbio.bsky.social · Jul 29

Thoughts from our own Tom Rapoport on the role of basic science in curing disease. magazine.hms.harvard.edu/articles/rev...

“Revolutionary Science Comes from Unexpected Angles”

magazine.hms.harvard.edu

2 28 41

Reposted by Susan Shao

Sean Eddy @cryptogenomicon.bsky.social · May 22

NIH funding supporting the HMMER and Infernal software projects has been terminated. NIH states that our work, as well as all other federally funded research at Harvard, is of no benefit to the US.

37 230 290

Reposted by Susan Shao

Harvard Med Cell Biology @harvardcellbio.bsky.social · May 28

New work @harvard by Miguel Gonzalez-Lozano @harperlabhms.bsky.social & @ernstschmid.bsky.social in Johannes Walter lab charts structural interactome of endosomes. #XL-MS #Alphafold Funded by @asapresearch.parkinsonsroadmap.org & NIH. Science continues-despite attacks www.nature.com/articles/s41...

EndoMAP.v1 charts the structural landscape of human early endosome complexes - Nature

A study presents EndoMAP.v1, a resource that combines information on protein interactions and crosslink-supported structural predictions to map the interaction landscape of early endosomes.

www.nature.com

19 44

Reposted by Susan Shao

Michael Baym @baym.lol · May 24

I appreciate the offers from other scientists to help Harvard (students, labs, etc) through this attack, but what would be most helpful is for you to use your position to contact your elected representatives and make it clear this fight isn't just Harvard, it will affect you, and their districts too

8 190 490

Reposted by Susan Shao

Christopher Mims @mims.bsky.social · May 17

Trump administration is terminating $2.7 billion in research funding to Harvard:

Work on breast cancer, impact of nutrition on fertility, antibiotic resistance and hundreds of other topics all dead

“It feels like the academic equivalent of nuclear war"

www.wbur.org/news/2025/05...

Feds yank funds from Harvard breast cancer, fertility, antibiotics research

The Trump administration is following through on threats to terminate $2.7 billion dollars in federal grants and other funding at Harvard University, punishment for alleged antisemitism on campus. One...

www.wbur.org

67 630 1.2K

Susan Shao @sshaolab.bsky.social · May 15

Exactly - @embo.org RNA Meets Protein Decay was a much-needed scientific hurrah! Thanks to all the participants for the exceptional quality of presentations and active engagement! And to @pauligroup.bsky.social, Manuela, and the @impvienna.bsky.social for being amazing hosts!!

Pauli Group (posts by Andi Pauli) @pauligroup.bsky.social · May 15

The 2nd edition of the @embo.org workshop 'RNA meets Protein Decay', this time here in Vienna @impvienna.bsky.social, came to an end. Thanks to everyone who came and contributed to the great vibe of sharing science, discussing ideas and connecting with each other!

9

Susan Shao @sshaolab.bsky.social · Apr 23

...which nicely complement prohibitin structural work from the Guo and Gao labs! www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

Structural basis for prohibitin-mediated regulation of mitochondrial m-AAA protease

Mitochondrial function critically dependents on protein quality control systems, with the m -AAA protease plays a key role at the inner mitochondrial membrane (IMM). The evolutionarily conserved prohi...

www.biorxiv.org

1 3

Susan Shao @sshaolab.bsky.social · Apr 23

Cup? Platter? Stained glass? Our imaginations were inspired (even during uncertain times!) by these beautiful molecular complexes: the Erlin and prohibitin complexes implicated in quality control at the ER and mitochondria, respectively. Check them out here: www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

3 11 49

Reposted by Susan Shao

Stirling Churchman @stirlingchurchman.bsky.social · Apr 21

My father-in-law, Jack Strominger, and I wrote a letter to the @wsj.com editor about the current threats to science due to Trump's funding freeze. Please repost! www.wsj.com/opinion/scie...

Opinion | Science Suffers With Trump’s Funding Freeze

America’s scientific enterprise demands reliable stewardship, not destabilizing political intervention.

www.wsj.com

2 140 180

Susan Shao @sshaolab.bsky.social · Apr 10

ARMC1 assembles into a complex with MIRO that antagonizes retrograde mitochondrial movement. In another complex, ARMC1 associates with DNAJC11, which promotes ARMC1 removal from the mitochondrial surface. This balanced partitioning is important for steady-state mitochondrial distribution.

Susan Shao @sshaolab.bsky.social · Apr 10

We find that the assembly/abundance control of a complex containing the mitochondrial trafficking adaptor MIRO depends on the spatial partitioning of the ARMC1 protein between the cytosol and distinct mitochondrial complexes.

1 1

Susan Shao @sshaolab.bsky.social · Apr 10

How do cells achieve an optimal mitochondrial distribution? Excited to share a piece of this puzzle: www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

ARMC1 partitions between distinct complexes and assembles MIRO with MTFR to control mitochondrial distribution

ARMC1 partitions between distinct outer mitochondrial membrane complexes and the cytosol to control mitochondrial distribution.

www.science.org

1 20 57

Susan Shao @sshaolab.bsky.social · Mar 24

~1 week left to register for the EMBO workshop on RNA meets protein decay! #EMBOrnaDecay
Come join us for a fun time and invigorating scientific discussions in Vienna!

meetings.embo.org/event/25-rna...

RNA meets protein decay

Establishing the composition of RNAs and proteins that defines the identities and functions of cells relies not only on the regulated biosynthesis of these molecules, but also equally importantly, on…

meetings.embo.org

7 10

Reposted by Susan Shao

Dan Nomura @dannomura.bsky.social · Mar 21

Amazing meeting last week in Germany: 130th International Titisee Conferences on Stress Signalling in Development and Disease organized by Brenda Schulman & @micharapelab.bsky.social !

1 14

Reposted by Susan Shao

Samantha Sedor @samanthasedor.bsky.social · Mar 17

My thesis work on codanin-1/CDAN1 and the histone chaperone ASF1 is officially out! Take a look here:

Susan Shao @sshaolab.bsky.social · Mar 17

@samanthasedor.bsky.social's pet project taking us into completely new directions is out in print form!

rdcu.be/edKuA

2 2 11

Susan Shao @sshaolab.bsky.social · Mar 17

@samanthasedor.bsky.social's pet project taking us into completely new directions is out in print form!

rdcu.be/edKuA

4 18

Susan Shao @sshaolab.bsky.social · Feb 24

Check out these insights into (and the importance of) delivering ubiquitin-independent proteasomal substrates for degradation in the nucleus!

Xin Gu Lab at DFCI/HMS @xingulab.bsky.social · Feb 24

Thrilled to share our collaborative work on the structural basis and myeloma disease link of the midnolin-proteasome pathway with Chris Nardone from the Elledge lab, Jingjing Gao from the Shao lab @sshaolab.bsky.social and all the co-authors who put in the hard work! www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

Structural basis for the midnolin-proteasome pathway and its role in suppressing myeloma

The midnolin-proteasome pathway degrades many nuclear proteins without ubiquitination, but how it operates mechanistically remains unclear. Here, we present structures of the midnolin-proteasome compl...

www.biorxiv.org

2 6 15

Reposted by Susan Shao

Harvard Med Cell Biology @harvardcellbio.bsky.social · Feb 18

Congratulations to our own Spyros Artavanis-Tsakonas for recieving the Wiley Prize for his work on the Notch Signaling pathway! We deserved recognition for a pioneer in developmental biology. newsroom.wiley.com/press-releas...

The 23rd Annual Wiley Prize in Biomedical Sciences Awarded for Research in Notch Signaling

newsroom.wiley.com

2 9

Reposted by Susan Shao

Jennifer Waters @jencwaters.bsky.social · Jan 7

Join me, @talleylambert.bsky.social, @bethcimini.bsky.social, @florianjug.bsky.social & Hunter Elliott for our two week CSHL course on microscopy & image analysis starting March 24, 2025! Applications are due 1/31/25. meetings.cshl.edu/courses.aspx...

Quantitative Imaging: From Acquisition to Analysis

Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Meetings & Courses -- a private, non-profit institution with research programs in cancer, neuroscience, plant biology, genomics, bioinformatics.

meetings.cshl.edu

1 32 50

Reposted by Susan Shao

Alan Brown @alanbrownhms.bsky.social · Jan 2

A reminder that the Brown lab has an opening for a postdoc fellow: brown.hms.harvard.edu/jobs/242. This might suit someone from the #cilia community interested in learning structural biology. Deadline extended to the 10th Jan.

Postdoctoral fellow | Brown Lab

The Brown lab at Harvard Medical School is seeking a highly motivated postdoctoral fellow to join our team.

brown.hms.harvard.edu

12 15

Susan Shao @sshaolab.bsky.social · Nov 18

Introducing Dr. Samantha Sedor! #PhDone

1 15

Susan Shao @sshaolab.bsky.social · Nov 11

Also see related work from the Martin lab:

www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

Structural landscape of AAA+ ATPase motor states in the substrate-degrading human 26S proteasome reveals conformation-specific binding of TXNL1

The 26S proteasome targets many cellular proteins for degradation during general homeostasis, protein quality control, and the regulation of vital processes. A broad range of proteasome-interacting co...

www.biorxiv.org

5

Susan Shao @sshaolab.bsky.social · Nov 11

So many things happen on proteasomes! It was fun to dig into how a the active thioreductase TXNL1 engages the regulatory particle!

www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

Structure of the TXNL1-bound proteasome

Proteasomes degrade diverse proteins in different cellular contexts through incompletely defined regulatory mechanisms. Here, we report the cryo-EM structure of thioredoxin-like protein 1 (TXNL1) boun...

www.biorxiv.org

2 8 16

Reposted by Susan Shao

Harvard Med Cell Biology @harvardcellbio.bsky.social · Nov 8

Happy to be making our first post on bluesky - a photo from our recent departmental retreat. Looking forward to sharing new discoveries and news from our trainees and faculty, as we continue to build a cell biology community here - check us out at cellbio.hms.harvard.edu

1 1 16