Hassan Zafar et al.: Breaking barriers: transitioning from X-ray crystallography to cryo-EM for structural studies #CryoElectronMicroscopyCryoEM #StructuralBiology #SingleParticleAnalysis @uvmvermont...#IUCr https://journals.iucr.org/paper?S205979832600080X
Applications for the 2026 #CryoET Data Processing Workshop are due one month from today!
Learn more about this hands-on workshop and apply by March 20: myumi.ch/lsi-cryo-workshop-2026
Cryo-electron tomogram on a navy background with text: Cryo-ET Data Processing Workshop. June 7-11, 2026
Join us this summer for U-M's 2026 #CryoET Data Processing Workshop!
This four-day workshop will introduce participants to standard image processing packages and all aspects of cryo-ET data processing.
Apply by March 20: myumi.ch/lsi-cryo-workshop-2026
@jbquerido.bsky.social @shyamalm.bsky.social
Check out our synthesis of enantioenriched atropisomers in Nature!
rdcu.be/e2Kc0
Photo of Roger Cone with quote: As a public university, we have both the privilege and the duty to expand access to the cutting-edge resources at our world-leading institution and to continue training the next generation of innovators for the future of science. That is what the Aspirnaut Summer Research Internship at U-M aims to do.
In a new "Look to Leadership" column, LSI Director Roger Cone discusses the importance of using programs such as the Aspirnaut Summer Research Internship to provide life-changing opportunities for future scientists.
myumi.ch/Nrqrk
Cryo-electron tomogram on a navy background with text: Cryo-ET Data Processing Workshop. June 7-11, 2026
While everything feels flash-frozen in Michigan, it's a great time to plan for U-M's 2026 #CryoET Data Processing Workshop!
This hands-on workshop will introduce participants to standard image processing packages used to analyze cryo-ET data.
Apply by March 20: myumi.ch/lsi-cryo-wor...
#Postdoc job opportunity: The Pereira lab at the LSI is seeking a postdoctoral researcher help develop cutting-edge experimental and computational approaches to accelerate #NaturalProduct discovery. Learn more and apply:
careers.umich.edu/job_detail/2...
Confocal microscopy image of mouse lateral hypothalamus showing neuronal activation by chemogenetically regulated pituitary adenylate cyclase activating polypeptide (cPACAP)
Researchers in the Li and Wang labs have developed a new tool for real-time control of cell surface receptor activity in specific cells, enabling scientists to investigate how activating precise neuronal signals can drive brain function and behaviors.
www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...
@ummni.bsky.social
Research from the Sherman and Pereira labs at the LSI was selected for @commschem.nature.com 2025 Editors' Highlights.
"This work ... highlights how chemical biology can access new structural and pharmacological space from complex microbial metabolites.”
Read more: www.nature.com/articles/s42...
Why does a fruit fly’s brain development matter?
Cell biologist @byneuron.bsky.social describes how model organisms like fruit flies can help us untangle the complexities of neural networks, and the hidden impacts of this research on human health:
youtu.be/I6kRYWCdD7k?...
As 2025 draws to a close, LSI Director Roger Cone reflects on the accomplishments of the past year, the uniqueness of the LSI, and what makes leading the institute "one of the best jobs in science."
www.youtube.com/watch?v=eiOi...
How can woodrats weighing less than half a pound survive rattlesnake bites that would hospitalize, or even kill, a full-grown human? LSI researchers have uncovered a genetic clue that points to the source of the tiny rodents' potent immunity.
www.lsi.umich.edu/news/2025-12...
The Aspirnaut program is open to current high school juniors from across the state. Applications are due by February 15: aspirnaut.lsi.umich.edu/apply
The Perrigo Program is open to undergrads attending any Michigan college or university. Applications are due by February 1: perrigo.lsi.umich.edu/apply
Two summer research students work together in an LSI lab
Do you know any outstanding high school or undergraduate scientists who would like the chance to immerse themselves in the role of a full-time researcher? We are accepting applications for our 2026 Perrigo and Aspirnaut summer research programs.
Thrilled to share my recent work from the Pereira and Sherman Labs at @umlifesciences.bsky.social, out now in Communications Chemistry! We applied metabolic engineering, semi-synthesis, and biocatalysis to expand access to the antimalarial natural product premarineosin A. I suggest you check it out!
Rivero-Ríos, Sutton, Weisman and colleagues show that PI(3)P coordinates SNX17- and SNX27-dependent protein recycling for long-term synaptic plasticity. rupress.org/jcb/article/...
📕 From The Year In Cell Biology: rupress.org/jcb/collecti...
#CellBio2025
Research from the Weisman and Sutton labs has been selected as one of @jcb.org most impactful papers of 2025. You can read more about the study here:
www.lsi.umich.edu/news/2025-09...
Collage of photos depicting LSI scientists conducting research in our labs. Text: Today we give. Forever we Go Blue.
This #GivingTuesday, you can directly impact our ability to conduct groundbreaking research for the advancement of human health and well-being.
Join us in catalyzing new discoveries and propelling scientific progress across the life sciences!
maizeraise.umich.edu/schools/Univ...
Blue latex glove blown up and decorated like a turkey, nestled among equipment on a lab bench
Happy Thanksgiving from the LSI! We are extra thankful for our collaborative scientists, staff and students who make discovery possible every day (and for the PPE that keeps us safe, and even festive, in the process)! 🦃
Photo of Alison Narayan with quote: "It’s an example of really careful observation leading down paths that are even more fascinating than what we could have planned out on paper. We were engineering just for this property of having as much of one enantiomer as possible, and we actually engineered a new mechanism."
Read more about the research here:
www.lsi.umich.edu/news/2025-11...
Researchers from the @narayanlab.bsky.social have unlocked a novel mechanism for transforming molecules. Their findings, described in a new @nature.com study, open new ways to develop important molecules with fewer wasteful byproducts.
nature.com/articles/s41...
From MBoC... Lois Weisman ( @umichnews.bsky.social ) reveals how one protein’s teamwork — or lack of it — could hold clues to treating childhood neurodegenerative disease.
🔗 www.molbiolcell.org/doi/full/10....
Why does it matter what a protein looks like?
@umich.edu structural biologist Janet Smith explains why her lab aims to uncover protein structures and describes the hidden impacts of structural biology on drug discovery and human health:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZKVG...
Ashu Tripathi working with the NPDC’s high-throughput mass spectrometry system
Pediatric oncologist @johnprensner.bsky.social has teamed up with the LSI's Natural Products Discovery Core to explore thousands of #NaturalProducts in search of new treatment paths for #DIPG, a deadly childhood brain cancer. Learn more about the project:
research.umich.edu/research-sto...
✨ Save the Date! ✨
LSI SciComm Speaker Series welcomes Kate Zernike, Pulitzer Prize–winning journalist and author of The Exceptions: Nancy Hopkins and the Fight for Women in Science.
📅 Thursday, Oct. 9
⏰ 10:00 a.m.
📍 Rackham Amphitheatre
📖 Book-signing after the talk!
@umlifesciences.bsky.social
Photo of Alison Narayan with a quote: Biocatalysis offers a more sustainable way to build molecules, and it can also give us access to molecules that we couldn’t build using traditional chemical methods. But most of the known substrates for these biocatalysts come from nature, which is just a very small subset of the molecules that chemists work with.
Prof. Alison Narayan (@alisonnarayan.bsky.social) discusses the motivation behind CATNIP, a data-driven platform that makes biocatalysis more accessible to chemists. The tool, developed by Narayan's lab and collaborators at @cmu.edu is described in a new @nature.com study:
doi.org/10.1038/s415...
Abstract representation of the connections between chemical space and protein space
A team from @umich.edu and @cmu.edu has developed CATNIP for chemists — a data-driven open-access platform that removes a major barrier to wider adoption of #biocatalysis, making greener chemistry more accessible.
Read more: myumi.ch/dgp2Z
@narayanlab.bsky.social
@alisonnarayan.bsky.social
A new @natcomms.nature.com study from Dan Klionsky’s lab, conducted in yeast, reveals how mutations that were thought to shut down one essential cellular process can actually help some types of cancer cells grow, while making them more resistant to stress.
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
Studying venom resistance in opossums, scientists have discovered that differences between human and opossum versions of a blood-born protein enable the animals to combat the blood-clotting effects of snake venom. Their findings could have relevance for human coagulopathies.
doi.org/10.1371/jour...
