iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Brian Kelch @briankelch.bsky.social · 07/07/2025

Every day we make enough DNA to go to the moon and back. So, all our DNA replication enzymes work fast, right? In our latest preprint, we show that a key enzyme, the clamp loader ATPase RFC, releases ADP much slower than it loads PCNA. What gives? (1/16) doi.org/10.1101/2025...

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Krista Freeman @kfreeman.bsky.social · 16/04/2025

Hurray, it is finally out! Meet bacteriophage Bxb1 - the subject of my first full-phage cryo-EM study. My structures are beautifully complemented by the Park Lab’s cryo-ET analysis, shedding light on mycobacteriophage structural changes during infection. www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

sciencedirect.com

Structure and infection dynamics of mycobacteriophage Bxb1

Mycobacteriophage Bxb1 is a well-characterized virus of Mycobacterium smegmatis with double-stranded DNA and a long, flexible tail. Mycobacteriophages…

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Brian Kelch @briankelch.bsky.social · 18/04/2025

Did you know that there is so much DNA packed inside a phage capsid that the pressure is 10X higher than in a bottle of champagne? In our latest preprint, we wondered how that is contained in a phage that lives at extremely high temperatures. /1 www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

Meme describing types of headaches, with the most all encompassing headache being the stress of holding copious amounts of DNA in a phage head.

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Brian Kelch @briankelch.bsky.social · 18/04/2025

I'm a little late to the game, but I'm happy to announce that our paper with my @umasschan.bsky.social colleagues in the Travis Thomson lab has now been published in @plosbiology.org! Thanks to all involved on this fun collaboration!

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Josh Dubnau @joshdubnau.bsky.social · 20/02/2025

Fun primer with @ForeverYHChang highlighting a lovely Travis Thomson lab paper! Did animals co-opt viral gag for intercellular (trans synaptic) communication? Or did viruses co-opt retrotransposon gags that animals had previously co-opted for intercellular use?

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Elinor Karlsson @elinork.bsky.social · 02/11/2023

Looking for TT faculty job? At #ASHG23? We’re recruiting! We = Genomics and Comp Bio dept at UMass Chan Medical School in Worcester, MA (not Boston but near Boston) academicjobsonline.org/ajo/jobs/25641 pop genomics, imaging, stat. genetics, machine learning aka cool science w big data.

academicjobsonline.org

University of Massachusetts Chan Medical School, Department of Genomics and Computational Biology

Full service online faculty recruitment and application management system for academic institutions worldwide. We offer unique solutions tailored for academic communities.

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Jonathan Watts @jwattsgroup.bsky.social · 19/09/2024

Hey, senior PhD students working on RNA and moving toward leading independent labs: Apply for the Maraganore Early Independence Fellow program at the UMass Chan RNA Therapeutics Institute and come work with us! www.linkedin.com/posts/angela...

linkedin.com

Angela Messmer-Blust on LinkedIn: #diversityinstem #underrepresentedinscience #rnabiology…

I am unbelievably excited and proud to launch the RNA Therapeutic Institute's new Maraganore Early Independence Fellows Program at UMass Chan Medical School…

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Amir Mitchell @amitchell.bsky.social · 20/09/2023

Systems and synthetic biologists, we are recruiting at the department of Systems Biology at the @UMassChan. Position is open to faculty at all levels. academicjobsonline.org/ajo/jobs/254…

academicjobsonline.org

University of Massachusetts Chan Medical School, Departme...

Full service online faculty recruitment and application m...

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Sven Klumpe @svenklumpe.bsky.social · 24/02/2024

Over 4 years in the making, I am extremely happy to share our pre-print on the “In-cell structure and snapshots of copia retrotransposons in intact tissue”. We used cryo-ET to resolve the copia capsid structure to subnanometer resolution inside cells: www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

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Brian Kelch @briankelch.bsky.social · 23/02/2024

Check out this new preprint from first author @svenklumpe.bsky.social and coworkers (primarily Plitsko and Beck labs at Max Planck) describing Copia retrotransposon capsids inside cells. Fig 3 is so dope. Look at that capsid array! Beautiful work! 😍🤩 www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

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Brian Kelch @briankelch.bsky.social · 04/01/2024

I'm back to do an in-depth dive into our most recent work up on biorxiv. Led by the Thomson Lab in the Neurobiology dept, w Yumeng Liu of the Kelch Lab. We find that the retrotransposon Copia forms capsids that antagonize Arc for controlling synaptic plasticity. /1 www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

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Brian Kelch @briankelch.bsky.social · 24/12/2023

Just in time for Festivus, another paper up on biorxiv. Led by Thomson Lab in Neurobiology dept @ UMass Chan Med School, w Yumeng Liu of the Kelch Lab. We find that the retrotransposon Copia forms capsids that antagonize Arc for controlling synaptic plasticity. www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

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Brian Kelch @briankelch.bsky.social · 04/12/2023

I’m happy to announce a new paper from the lab. We find numerous differences in the mechanisms of clamp loading in bacteria vs eukaryotes, despite this machinery being amongst the most conserved components of the replication fork. 1/ www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

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