On today’s episode of BBC Radio 4’s In Our Time, @buzzbaum.bsky.social, Group Leader in @cellbiol-mrclmb.bsky.social, joined for a discussion on all things archaea.
Check it out here (requires BBC login): www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m...
#LMBintheNews
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6... Amazing work by Kris and gang! For the first time we have been able to image division ring components live in Sulfolobus. And guess what - CdvA is asymmetrically inherited.
🚨🚨🚨Check out this new preprint from the Löwe lab proposing that microtubule architecture and dynamics evolved in Asgard archaea prior to eukaryogenesis! Happy to have had a little contribution by showing that Asgard tubulin displays a key hallmark of eukaryotic tubulins: dynamic instability! 🚨🚨🚨
Check this out! Very proud to see this out, always happy to play with "microtubules" in vitro 😍
A reminder to sign up for the 2026 EMBO archaeal meeting im Cambridge: meetings.embo.org/event/26-arc.... Registration is open. We are looking forward to hosting you!
Guillaume Pernollet shows that epithelial cells adjust their shape to locally flatten, forming scutoids for any geometry, changing our view of cell packing. Thanks to all! @clairedessalles.bsky.social @juanmagararc.bsky.social @sciencesunige.bsky.social
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...
🌐Our new LMB website is live!🌐
Fresh design, better navigation, same first-class science.
Take a look around ➡️ mrclmb.ac.uk
Really happy to see my PhD first-author paper published in @nature.com! I’m very grateful to have worked with such a great team. Huge thanks to Urša Uršič, Michael Staddon, and Jan Brugués, as well as the @brugueslab.bsky.social, and the @poldresden.bsky.social and @mpi-cbg.de community!
🚨 Want to know how we demonstrated the importance of sterol-rich membrane microdomains for M. marinum infection?
Check out our latest paper published in Science Advances 👇
www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...
✨ Big thanks to everyone, especially Cristina Boehm-Bosmani, @soldatilab.bsky.social ! ✨
Are you a long-time fan of Archaea, an extremophile-phile, or are you simply curious?
Either way, we have good news.
We’re delighted to announce the 2026 EMBO Workshop on Archaea, 6–10 July.
Sign up: meetings.embo.org/event/26-arc...
We look forward to seeing you in Cambridge, UK.
Please repost!
And my project on how to extend the field of depth in inverted fluorescence microscopy workflows for expanded tissues is now out out! 😁
More exciting things to come out of my PhD! 🤩
🏆 It's a double win for the Soldati Lab! Last Friday, our former PhD students @angieprrt.bsky.social and Jahn Nitschke each received an award for their doctoral work: the Laemmli Prize for Angélique and Best Thesis in Life Sciences for Jahn. So proud of both for these well-deserved honors! 🤩
New preprint from the lab!!🎉
We show that Asgard archaea ESCRT-III proteins can trigger membrane fission and reveal its molecular mechanism, offering clues to how these cells may have built internal compartments. But do these organisms even have these compartments?
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
New paper from the @rouxlab.bsky.social on Nature Communications! We study how membrane tension is spatially organized in cells. Using the mechanosensitive probe Flipper-TR to visualize tension across the plasma membrane of adherent cells and to dissect the conditions needed for a gradient to happen
Maria Tettamanti shows that inhibition of TORC2 by the small amphipath PalmC induces the TORC2-dependent internalization of sterols. Congrats to Maria and all coworkers involved, and to EMBOj for the efficient review process: use review commons! @biology-unige.bsky.social @sciencesunige.bsky.social
Join the LMB's PhD programme! Applications now open for October 2026 Deadline 2nd December 2025
Considering the LMB for your PhD?
We’ve got over 25 projects available, covering a wide array of topics. Check them out here: www2.mrc-lmb.cam.ac.uk/students/int...
Apply by 2nd DEC for Autumn 2026 admission.
Lots of exciting PhD projects on offer at the LMB, including in our group 😊
An Asgard archaeon with internal membrane compartments
Brilliant study led by @fmacleod.bsky.social and Andriko von Kügelgen. Tight collaboration with @buzzbaum.bsky.social and lab. Congrats to all authors!
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
📣 Two week left to apply! 👇
Apply in the link below or, if you have specific questions, reach out!
Join us at @pborostemfest.bsky.social on Oct 18 to test your detective skills in an interactive game, matching what you see under a microscope with different areas of LMB’s science #PSF2025
📍 ARU Peterborough
🕚 11:00 – 16:00 (Quiet time 9.30-11)
www.peterboroughstemfestival.co.uk/exhibitors/m...
🚨 New preprint out!
“Fluorescence lifetime estimation: a practical approach using Flipper-TR FLIM” with Tithi Mandal and @rouxlab.bsky.social
We benchmark and describe step-by-step Flipper-TR FLIM measurements across different set-ups and and strategies.
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
LMB PhD studentship available in the Baum lab to use informatics to infer cell structure from genomic data in collaboration with the brilliant Tom Williams. If you write to me and I don’t reply - try again - the spam filter is hungry…
Years ago we discovered that missense mutations in homomeric proteins often induces their supramolecular assembly, as in the 📽️👇 - Are such aberrant assemblies of *folded* proteins toxic? Surprisingly, NO. Cells are amazingly robust systems! Paper now online @molsystbiol.org doi.org/10.1038/s443...
The final version of our multispectral microscopy manuscript is now online at Nature Photonics: www.nature.com/articles/s41...
The main additions are some further comparisons to yet more unmixing algorithms, in which we find that our algorithm is still the most accurate.
🚨Publication alert🚨
My first, first-author paper is now out in @natphoton.nature.com! Our paper describes an iterative spectral unmixing algorithm and eight-channel camera-based hardware we developed enabling unmixing of low SNR live-cell data at video rates. www.nature.com/articles/s41...
We present a simple method to easily increase the imageable depth of an expansion microscopy gel on a typical inverted microscope ten-fold, using some carefully placed FEP film and a water dipping objective lens:
Microtubule lattice conformation and integrity regulate α-tubulin acetylation https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.09.09.675099v1
Our humble gata2b in situ hybridization image made it onto the cover of @biologyopen.bsky.social!
If you'd like to check out the story behind the image, the link to our new paper is:
journals.biologists.com/bio/article/...
Oh looks like my microtubules 😉
Geng, @kjverhey1.bsky.social et al find that KIF1C forms condensates where the exposed #kinesin motor domains entangle nearby #microtubules, causing them to bend & break in a process dependent on motor processivity, cluster properties, cytoplasmic viscosity, & MT anchors rupress.org/jcb/article/...
