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Derivery Lab - MRC LMB

@deriverylab.bsky.social

885 followers 703 following 30 posts

Asymmetric cell division | Microscopy tech development | Synthetic biology | Fly models | All views are our own

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Derivery Lab - MRC LMB @deriverylab.bsky.social · 24/09/2026

Alison has joined our lab as a postdoc to continue our research on synthetic polarity, now in multicellular systems. Welcome to the lab, Alison!

Alison stands in our lab space wearing a white lab coat and white nitrile gloves. She is holding a pink eppindorf tube and a pipette above her incredibly tidy lab bench.

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Derivery Lab - MRC LMB @deriverylab.bsky.social · 18/12/2025

Steven has joined us as an RA to assist in the design, production and characterization of a panel of binders to be used as biosensors to image sorting of endogenous cargos in cells using multispectral microscopy, or as modulators of activities of sorting machineries! Welcome to the lab, Steven!

Steven stands on a link-corridor at the MRC LMB. In the background there are meeting rooms, social areas and windows into labs.

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Derivery Lab - MRC LMB @deriverylab.bsky.social · 23/06/2025

🚨 JOB ALERT 🚨 We're hiring a Research Assistant – no PhD needed! Join us to explore the molecular mechanisms of receptor sorting in endosomes. Experience in protein expression/purification, cloning & cell culture desired 🧫🔬 Apply now 👉 www.nature.com/naturecareer... #STEMCareers #ResearchJobs

A picture of 3 rows of people on steps at the MRC LMB. From left to right - top row: Akaash, Vic, Lara - Middle row: Kerrie, Manu, Paddy - bottom row: Meg and Julie

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Derivery Lab - MRC LMB @deriverylab.bsky.social · 20/01/2025

Congrats to @juliemiesch.bsky.social who was awarded a Postdoc Mobility grant by @snf-ch.bsky.social to support her research for two years. Her postdoc research will focus on the biophysical regulation of water buffering in the cell.

Picture of Julie wearing a red top and black bottoms, holding a bottle of champagne

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Derivery Lab - MRC LMB @deriverylab.bsky.social · 17/01/2025

During revisions, we've added lots of exciting new data, so be sure to check out the paper! Most importantly, we now demonstrate that Elongator regulates polyglutamylation levels of spindle microtubules, both in cells and in vivo.

Figure 5. Elongator is a tubulin polymerase selective for polyglutamylated monomers.
(A, B) Elp456 binds preferentially to polyglutamylated tubulin. (A) Affinity measurement between eGFP-Elp456 and indicated αβ-tubulin heterodimers using microscale thermophoresis. Estimated dissociation constant (Kd) values are indicated (mean ± s.d.; n = 3). (B) Estimated dissociation constants for the indicated tubulins. Elp456 binds with similar affinity to recombinant Drosophila α1β1-tubulin, pig brain tubulin, mouse brain tubulin and mouse brain tubulin lacking K40 acetylation. However, the binding to tubulin purified from TTLL1/7-double KO mouse brains (lacking polyglutamylation) and HeLa S3 cells (lacking polyglutamylation, K40 acetylation and Δ2 deletion is similar and ~18 times lower than other tubulins. (C) Experimental assay to detect polyglutamylation in polymerized microtubules in vitro. (D) Microtubules polymerized in the presence of Elongator are significantly enriched in polyglutamylated tubulin when using a 50:50 pig brain tubulin:HeLa S3 tubulin mix. Correspondingly, when using HeLa S3 tubulin, which is not polyglutamylated, no effect is observed. P values for an Ordinary one-way ANOVA test followed by two-tailed Turkey multiple comparison test are indicated (E–G) Elongator depletion results in decreased polyglutamylation levels at the spindle. mean ± standard deviation. P values for an Ordinary one-way ANOVA test on independent experiments (N = 3) followed by two-tailed Turkey multiple comparison test are indicated. (E) Drosophila S2 cells depleted for Elongator have significantly decrease levels of polyglutamylated tubulin at the mitotic spindle.

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Derivery Lab - MRC LMB @deriverylab.bsky.social · 17/01/2025

In the original draft, we showed that Elongator binds to microtubules irrespective of their PTMs, but selectively elongates them using polyglutamylated tubulin subunits. As a result, Elongator rewrites the tubulin code of dynamic microtubules. How cool is that?

Elongator, an established tRNA-modifying complex, can also stabilize microtubules during asymmetric cell division. This study shows that Elongator subcomplexes achieve this by binding to microtubule ends as well as tubulin dimers, and enriching microtubules with polyglutamylated tubulin.
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Dual binding mechanism: Elongator binds microtubule ends and free αβ-tubulin heterodimers via its Elp123 and Elp456 subcomplexes, respectively.
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Microtubule stabilization: Coupled activity of Elp123 and Elp456 reduces the tubulin concentration required for microtubule elongation, increasing microtubule growth speed and reducing their catastrophe rate.
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Selective tubulin recognition: Elp456 binds with higher affinity to polyglutamylated tubulin, resulting in preferential incorporation of polyglutamylated tubulin into Elongator-assembled microtubules.
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Tubulin code rewriting: By enriching microtubules with polyglutamylated tubulin, Elongator modifies the tubulin code in vitro, in cells and in vivo in Drosophila sensory organ precursor cells.

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Derivery Lab - MRC LMB @deriverylab.bsky.social · 11/12/2024

An overview of Akaash's multispectral camera tree can be seen in the graphical abstract (which you can read more about here: www.physbiol.cam.ac.uk/prizes ). Peek at some colourful cells!

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Derivery Lab - MRC LMB @deriverylab.bsky.social · 11/12/2024

Congrats to @akaashkumar.bsky.social , a postdoc in the lab, for winning the PhD Award from the Cambridge Centre for Physical Biology. His PhD research worked on the development of a multispectral imaging system to image up to 8 fluorophores similtaneously for tackling complex biological questions!

Congrats to Akaash, a postdoc in the lab, for winning the PhD Award from the Cambridge Centre for Physical Biology. His PhD research worked on the development of a multispectral imaging system capable of imaging up to 8 fluorophores similtaneously and tackling complex biological questions with this!

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Derivery Lab - MRC LMB @deriverylab.bsky.social · 22/11/2024

Then, only last week, post-doc @vicenteph.bsky.social was promoted to Senior Investigator Scientist and will remain in the group to develop new methods in protein design, in vitro reconstitutions, multispectral imaging assays and his work on Elongator!

Vicente stands behind a table holding a dinosaur plush toy. In front of him is a table which contains the blue-green box from which the dinosaur plush appeared, and a minions celebration cake which has dinosaur decorations on cocktail sticks on top of it.

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Derivery Lab - MRC LMB @deriverylab.bsky.social · 22/11/2024

Later in October, the LMB had their yearly annual symposium with Post-doc Lara Kruger winning the Steitz Prize for her talk and @akaashkumar.bsky.social winning the Perutz Prize for his PhD work!

On the bottom left is Akaash Kumar, bottom right is Lara Kruger, behind lara is Manu Derivery and behind Akaash is James Manton, all holding glasses of champagne.

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Derivery Lab - MRC LMB @deriverylab.bsky.social · 22/11/2024

Then, in September @akaashkumar.bsky.social passed his PhD viva, becoming the latest doctor to emerge from the lab! He then won the RMS Early Career Award 2024 in October.

Akaash stands in front of some stairs, holding a bottle of champagne whilst wearing a suit.

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Derivery Lab - MRC LMB @deriverylab.bsky.social · 22/11/2024

Catching the blue-world up with the last 6 months of Derivery group shenanigans: First up: in April Manu was the recipient of the 2024 Hooke Medal from BSCB!

A picture of Emmanuel Derivery wearing a grey jumper standing with his arms folded in front of a blurred wet-lab background.

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