Matt McFarland

Image of FAF2's predicted helical domain interacting with the UFD1 UT3 domain. Next to this are similar images showing the predicted binding of de novo designed protein binders to the same region. Above is a sequence alignment indicating the key residues involved in the interaction.

🚨⚠️ New Preprint Alert! ⚠️ 🚨
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...

Screening p97 cofactors, @prithadg.bsky.social identified FAF2 as the strongest activator of the p97-UFD1-NPL4 complex. Leveraging her mechanistic descoveries, we designed 𝘥𝘦 𝘯𝘰𝘷𝘰 binders that could also enhance p97 substrate unfolding.

It was so bright leaving for work this morning I actually thought I'd massively slept in

After a brief memorial, laz lit the cigarette at 6:00am. The 2026 Barkley Marathons has begun. #BM100

I had this travelling down to England once. Dozed off in the passenger seat, woke up, and there was this train right in front of us. Cue life flashing before my eyes before I realised what was going on.

I never thought I'd find myself rooting for Ryanair but these are the #UnprecedentedTimes we find ourselves in

SAVE THE DATE!
The EMBO workshop "Ubiquitin and Ubiquitin-like proteins in Health and Disease" will be on September 2026.
Exciting line up of talks and an amazing location!
Organised by @kulathu.bsky.social, @merbllab.bsky.social, @simonapolo.bsky.social, Claudio Joazeiro.
Registration open soon.

This was a proper wee surprise. Wasn't on the radar at all. Very fun, and it did more to get me invested in this bunch of idiots in 10 hours than some other games are doing in 60.

Second season, when?

*taps mic*

The Andrew formerly known as Prince.

One could argue that "some" defines an unknown quantity that could theoretically stretch as far as is required for a pun to work

They're chromo-somes, Julie, not chromo-twos.

That's approximately the volume of 11250 giraffes.

Teasing there's a team that's making their first appearance, but it's just another Oxbridge college is such a bait and switch #UniversityChallenge

I don't think it's possible to be more jealous than the level of jealous I am right now.

TFW the only thing you paid attention to in biology class was “the mitochondria is the powerhouse of the cell”

Congrats, Sven! Very cool!

The EF-hand domain of MINDY3 is a Ubiquitin and RAD23 UBL-binding domain https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.07.16.665128v1

The main passport page is on polycarbonate now. Just shrink it down a bit, stick some stuff on the back if needbe, and you'd be most of the way there.

A pint glass with the Pint of Science logo (a brain wearing a pair of glasses, itself sitting in a pint glass), and 2025 underneath. A grey tote bag has been shoved inside the glass to make the logo stand out better.

New entry for coolest pint glass I own. 😎 Super happy to have been involved with what was a cracking set of talks on day 2 in Dundee. #pint25

Definitely. Toss up between Finland and Sweden for me this year. Expected another ballad from the latter, but it's also delightfully mad.

Finland just keep bringing bangers and I appreciate it.

Hot off the (Portland) press, @kulathu.bsky.social and I wrote a review on branched #ubiquitin and the tools and strategies out there for studying it. Some really cool stuff going on right now and I'm really excited to see where things go from here. #BiochemSocTrans portlandpress.com/biochemsoctr...

At 2 popes/km².

The Vatican reclaims its title as the most densely pope-ulated country on Earth.

Congrats, Leo! Very cool. Really interesting that the trunk vs branch identity gives such different behaviour.

The 2025 Barkley Marathons is over. There are no finishers. #BM100

I'd played Urban Dead since 2006, less so in recent years, but would still log in every now and then to hit a zombie or two with a newspaper.

It shut down on Friday after almost 20 years. It will be very much missed.

Definitely the smart option. I did Marcothon in December (25 mins/5 k, whatever comes first) which was a bit of a trial by fire 😅

The first week or so of these things are rough, but it does get better once you're in the routine of it. Grinding out the bare minimum on the shit days is absolutely the way to go.

RNA xkcd.com/3056