Ethan Goddard-Borger

Functional analysis of O-GlcNAcylation by networking of OGT interactors and substrates - Nature Chemical Biology Functional studies of O-GlcNAcylation have often focused on individual modifications. Now, a systems-level approach has identified simultaneous O-GlcNAcylation events that coordinate cellular activiti...

We integrated experimental and computational approaches to generate a systems-level view of a key post-translational modification, O-GlcNAc. In vivo studies across tissues reveal shared and tissue-specific functions. Congrats to Matt, John, Yao, and the whole team! #NOTISEme bit.ly/3ZgCOBM

Thanks Elisa!

Thanks Akul!

A fluorescence microscopy image showing the antibody-mediated engulfment of multidrug-resistant Acinetobacter baumannii bacteria by macrophage immune cells. The red/blue depict the macrophage cell and nucleus, while the bacteria is shown in green.

WEHI researchers have helped to engineer an antibody that can clear otherwise lethal multidrug‑resistant Acinetobacter baumannii infections in mice by homing in on the bacterial sugar pseudaminic acid.

Brilliant findings, published in Nature Chemical Biology

www.wehi.edu.au/news/sugar-m...
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Thank-you to all who contributed to this paper, and to the funders who support our vision of using glycan-targeting immunotherapies as anti-infectives.

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💥 These antibodies are effective passive immunotherapies in mice, clearing multidrug resistant Acinetobacter baumannii bloodstream infections. This could be an effective future approach to the prevention and treatment of some drug-resistant bacterial infections.

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🦠 These tools enabled mapping of pseudaminylation across several pathogenic bacterial proteomes to reveal that the modification is more widespread than previously appreciated.

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🧬 In this work, we describe monoclonal antibodies that recognise Pse across most of these chemical contexts, including as an α- or β-anomer, linked to proteins or glycans, with variable acyl patterns, and even with C-8 epimerisation. Structural studies revealed how this is possible

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🧪 Pseudaminic acid (Pse) is a common bacterial sialic-acid–like sugar linked to virulence in numerous human pathogens. It has been challenging to study because it is found in many different chemical contexts that each require bespoke detection methods.

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Uncovering bacterial pseudaminylation with pan-specific antibody tools - Nature Chemical Biology Pseudaminic acids (Pse) are a family of carbohydrates found within bacterial lipopolysaccharides, capsular polysaccharides and glycoproteins. Now, monoclonal antibodies have been developed that recogn...

🚨 Our new paper is out today in Nature Chemical Biology:
“Pan-specific antibodies to uncover bacterial pseudaminylation”
doi.org/10.1038/s415...

This is the product of a collaboration between many teams, led by @nickescott.bsky.social, @payneresearch.bsky.social and myself.

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Deep contrastive learning enables genome-wide virtual screening Recent breakthroughs in protein structure prediction have opened new avenues for genome-wide drug discovery, yet existing virtual screening methods remain computationally prohibitive. We present DrugC...

In a new Science study, researchers introduce DrugCLIP, a contrastive learning framework that virtually screens small molecules and protein pockets, analyzing protein-ligand interactions 10 million times faster than most standard molecular docking approaches. https://scim.ag/45FfSj2

GLYCO-BUILD, an entirely enzymatic approach for the production of N-glycans and N-glycopeptides.

www.nature.com/articles/s41...

A Universal Spectrum Annotator for Complex Peptidoforms in Mass Spectrometry-Based Proteomics Accurate and comprehensive peptide spectrum annotation is a crucial step to interpreting mass spectrometry-based proteomics data. While peak assignment in peptide fragmentation spectra is central to a...

A Universal Spectrum Annotator for Complex Peptidoforms in Mass Spectrometry-Based Proteomics | Analytical Chemistry pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/.... Making your data better viuable, no matter whether it is "boring" proteomics, or more exciting glycoproteomics, cross-linking mass spectrometry etc.

Congratulations to you both!

🎉 Congratulations to our 2026 AGS EMCR Award winners! 🎉

🏅 Protein Metrics ECR Awardee - Dr Jonathan Du
🏅 SHIMADZU MCR Awardee - Prof Morten Andersen

Both awardees are recognised for outstanding contributions to glycoscience 👉 ozglyco.org

A huge thanks to our sponsors for supporting these awards 👏

The last chapter from my postdoc days is finally online! We solve structures of the ER membrane O-mannosyltransferase Pmt4 and uncover a functionally important cytosolic binding site for the Dol-P-Man substrate lipid - allosteric regulation or a long sought after Dol-P-Man flippase?? 🔄 rdcu.be/eUJfb

Congratulations @jcstark.bsky.social and the team, antibody-lectin chimeras (AbLecs), a new modality for cancer immune therapy, now published @natbiotech.nature.com. These bispecifics can block glyco-immune checkpoint receptor ligands directly at the immune synapse/activate immune effector functions

Eliminating interactions with the viral Fc receptor improves antibody-mediated protection against neonatal HSV infection in mice HSV-specific antibodies demonstrate improved activity in vitro and in vivo when the IgG Fc domain is rendered insensitive to the viral Fc receptor.

Excited to share a new publication from my PhD labs where we explore a method to improve antibody-mediated protection against herpes simplex virus infections: www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

The 2025 chemistry Nobel goes to MOFs Susumu Kitagawa, Richard Robson and Omar M. Yaghi win the prize for developing metal–organic frameworks

The 2025 #NobelPrize in Chemistry has been awarded to Susumu Kitagawa, Richard Robson and Omar M. Yaghi “for the development of metal–organic frameworks.” Stay tuned for the full story to come! cen.acs.org/people/nobel...

#ChemNobel #Chem #Chemistry #chemsky 🧪

Dear Everyone, I've read the #NHMRC draft strategy and I have notes ...

So I'm going to...🧵🤔🧵😱🧵😵‍💫🧵🙏🧵🧵🧵
This is a repost from X because you all need to know!

#NHMRCdraftStratergy #Ihavenotes #ValueFundamentalScience

@nhmrc.bsky.social

Convergent Lead Discovery Strategies Yield Covalent and Non-covalent Inhibitors of Human UDP-Galactose-4-Epimerase O-GalNAc (N-acetylgalactosaminyl) glycosylation is an abundant posttranslational modification in mammalian cells. Dysregulation of O-GalNAc glycosylation is implicated in cancer metastasis and immune ...

Check out our new preprint "Convergent Lead Discovery Strategies Yield Covalent and Non-covalent Inhibitors of Human UDP-Galactose-4-Epimerase" on Chemrxiv led by Will Browne in close collab with GSK @jtbush.bsky.social

chemrxiv.org/engage/chemr...

Inspiring work Ben and team!

ProteinDJ logo

I am thrilled to release ProteinDJ: a high-performance and modular protein design pipeline. Our open-source workflow incorporates #RFdiffusion, #ProteinMPNN, #FAMPNN, #AlphaFold2 and #Boltz-2. It is a fast, free, and fun way to design proteins (1/5)
doi.org/10.1101/2025.09.24.678028 #proteindesign

Reshaping of a Glycoside Hydrolase Active Site through Expression-Compensated Droplet-Based Microfluidic Screening Provides Useful Tools for Glycomics The glycosylation of proteins endows them with distinct biophysical properties and allows them to play fundamental roles in cellular communication. Much of our understanding of glycoproteins has deriv...

Beautiful enzyme evolution work by Steve Withers and coworkers 👏

pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/...

Very exciting to see the @wehi-research.bsky.social PINK1 Parkinson’s Disease research team win the Eureka Prize for Scientific Research. Amazing achievement by a brilliant team! @eurekaprizes.bsky.social

Congratulations!

📸 L–R: Professor David Komander, Dr Nicholas Kirk, Dr Sylvie Callegari and Dr Alisa Glukhova. 

Researchers from WEHI’s Parkinson Disease Research Centre have won the 2025 UNSW Eureka Prize for Scientific Research. The team has been honoured for their research unravelling how PINK1, a key protein linked to early-onset Parkinson’s disease, works.

🔗 www.wehi.edu.au/news/eureka-...

The Institute for Molecular Bioscience is seeking an exceptional academic leader to be the new Director of the Centre for Chemistry and Drug Discovery and lead our centre consisting of 10 group leaders, 40 staff and approximately 50 HDR students. Come and join us in sunny Brisbane!

Congratulations everyone!

Last but most certainly not least, The President’s Innovator Award 2025 goes to
Dr. Nicki Packer, Macquarie University, Sydney, Australia 👏🥂👏🥂