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Jane Coffin Childs Fund for Medical Research

@jcchildsfund.bsky.social
333 followers 192 following 343 posts

Official Blue Sky account of Jane Coffin Childs Memorial Fund. Follow for updates on JCC fellows, alumni, and scientific board members. jccfund.org

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Meenakshi Asokan @meenakshiasokan.bsky.social · 04/10/2026
Such a pleasure sitting down with Katie and capturing her story, check it out!
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Meenakshi Asokan @meenakshiasokan.bsky.social · 19h
Thank you JCC, for the support and the incredible community!
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Jane Coffin Childs Fund for Medical Research @jcchildsfund.bsky.social · 05/10/2026
Jane Coffin Childs Fellow Dr. Meenakshi Asokan studies how hormones such as estrogen reshape brain circuits to help the brain adapt to changing bodily and behavioral needs. This is important because times of major hormonal change— @meenakshiasokan.bsky.social 1/
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Michelle Fry @myfry.bsky.social · 02/10/2026
10/ 🧵 In short: the TCA cycle and OXPHOS aren't just sequential pathways. They can be physically organized and functionally coupled within a single molecular machine.
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Michelle Fry @myfry.bsky.social · 02/10/2026
1/ 🧵 Two classic mitochondrial pathways the TCA cycle and OXPHOS are taught as linked but distinct pathways. I’m happy to share our new work out in @cp-cell.bsky.social showing that in Acanthamoeba they're physically linked—with a TCA enzyme incorporated in ATP synthase. www.cell.com/cell/fulltex...
cell.com
Acanthamoeba ATP synthase structure reveals the TCA cycle is tethered to OXPHOS
Acanthamoeba castellanii, a pathogenic amoeba, belongs to an evolutionary branch distinctly removed from humans and fungi. Cryo-EM of the organism’s ATP synthase enzyme using raw mitochondrial lysates...
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Jane Coffin Childs Fund for Medical Research @jcchildsfund.bsky.social · 01/10/2026
We are now accepting applications, through February 1st 2027, for the next class of Jane Coffin Childs postdoctoral fellows. Please repost and share with your community! We're looking for outstanding, creative, and independent recent ... 1/ www.jccfund.org/eligibilty-c...
jccfund.org
To Apply - Jane Coffin Childs Memorial Fund
THE APPLICATION PORTAL IS NOW OPEN. Eligibility Criteria to Apply in 2027 The applicant must meet all eligibility requirements as outlined here to apply: Postdoctoral applicants should have no more th...
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Journal of Cell Science @jcellsci.bsky.social · 13/01/2025
@annalisebond.bsky.social and @mmorrissey.bsky.social @ucsantabarbara.bsky.social review the biochemical and biophysical mechanisms that macrophages use to tune phagocytic appetite. journals.biologists.com/jcs/article/...
Cartoon showing that phagocytic receptor availability can be modulated through multiple mechanisms. Receptor availability can be modulated by (A) transcriptional changes affecting receptor expression levels, (B) receptor internalization, which reduces available ligand-binding sites, (C) ectodomain shedding, which can cause sequestration of ligands away from signalling domains, (D) post-translational modifications, such as conformational changes that affect ligand binding affinities, and (E) glycosylation that can affect receptor or ligand accessibility.
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Hannah Ledvina Ph.D. @hannahledvina.bsky.social · 02/07/2025
Words cannot describe how excited I am to share the findings from the second half of my postdoc in @aaronwhiteley.bsky.social's lab where we discover that bacteria use functional amyloids to defend themselves from predatory bacteria. rdcu.be/euu5Y. See thread for details on this epic adventure 1/.
rdcu.be
Functional amyloid proteins confer defence against predatory bacteria
Nature - Escherichia coli uses curli fibres, oligomers of the functional amyloid CsgA, as a barrier to protect against the predatory bacteria Bdellovibrio bacteriovorus and Myxococcus xanthus in a...
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Donté Alexander (Alex) Stevens @dalexstevens.bsky.social · 09/07/2025
Truly honored to be included among such an inspiring group of scientists!
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Meenakshi Asokan @meenakshiasokan.bsky.social · 20/08/2026
Loved chatting with Pegah about her journey, from computational background and industry experience to studying social fear memory and hippocampal circuits in mice for her postdoc, and now leading her own lab! ✨👩‍🔬🎙️🧠
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Seth Thomas Scanlon @immunoeditor.bsky.social · 29/04/2025
Elana Ben-Akiva, Asheley Chapman, @tianyangmao.bsky.social, & Darrell Irvine describe recent advances in our understanding #vaccine #adjuvant mechanisms of action!
science.org
Linking vaccine adjuvant mechanisms of action to function
We review mechanisms of action underlying the function of vaccine adjuvants and knowledge gaps to be addressed.
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AACR Journals @aacrjournals.bsky.social · 03/11/2025
Read the new article just published in Blood Cancer Discovery: Tandem duplications in UBTF create XPO1-dependent nuclear export signals that reveal a leukemic therapeutic dependency doi.org/10.1158/2643...
doi.org
Tandem duplications in UBTF create XPO1-dependent nuclear export signals that reveal a leukemic therapeutic dependency
Abstract. UBTF tandem duplications (UBTF-TDs) define a high-risk molecular subtype of acute myeloid leukemia (AML). While menin inhibitors show therapeutic promise in UBTF-TD AMLs, acquired resistance...
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Mark Plitt @markplitt.bsky.social · 07/07/2026
Very exciting to see our work being highlighted by @thetransmitter.bsky.social! Thanks to Natalia Mesa, and as always thanks to our collaborators in the Jayaraman lab!… back to grinding away at reviewer experiments
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Harvard_MCB @harvardmcb.bsky.social · 29/07/2026
A Chance Discovery Reveals an Unexpected Twist in One of Biology's Oldest Molecular Machines 🔬 🧠 🧪🧬 #AcademicSky #higherEd www.mcb.harvard.edu/department/n... @rishav902.bsky.social @treyjscott.bsky.social @nbellono.bsky.social @danafarbernews.bsky.social @harvard.edu @naoshigeuchida.bsky.social
mcb.harvard.edu
A Chance Discovery Reveals an Unexpected Twist in One of Biology's Oldest Molecular Machines - Harvard University - Department of Molecular & Cellular Biology
Sometimes, groundbreaking discoveries begin with what looks like a failed experiment. Researchers in the lab of MCB Professor Nicholas Bellono have discovered that octopuses possess a unique structura...
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Doudna Lab @doudna-lab.bsky.social · 06/08/2026
The latest work from the lab now out in @cp-molcell.bsky.social! New mechanistic insights into TnpB DNA unwinding and hypercompact plant genome editors🌱 Congratulations to leads @zehanzhou.bsky.social, Iren Saffarian, @honglue.bsky.social, Trevor Weiss & team, and Jacobsen, Savage and Bryant labs
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John Blair @jblairsci.bsky.social · 17/02/2026
Check out our new paper that @abradu.bsky.social does a great job of explaining here!!! If you have any questions or want to try to use this tech please reach out!!!
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brainresilience.bsky.social @brainresilience.bsky.social · 30/07/2026
Meet Heankel Lyons @heankel.bsky.social, a 2026 Brain Resilience Postdoctoral Scholar @stanfordbrain.bsky.social. In the Gitler Lab, she studies how the protein TDP-43 regulates gene expression in motor neurons and how disruptions in this process relate to neurodegenerative disease.
Heankel Lyons, Neurosciences Postdoctoral Scholar, Brain Resilience Track, Department of Genetics
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Jane Coffin Childs Fund for Medical Research @jcchildsfund.bsky.social · 17/09/2026
🤩😍🤩 Check out this beautiful cover image and amazing research from former Jane Coffin Childs Fellow Dr. Kate Cavanaugh 👇 Congrats @katecavanaugh.bsky.social!
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Kate Cavanaugh @katecavanaugh.bsky.social · 03/08/2026
Honored to be featured in this year's cohort of winners. Thank you to ASCB for recognizing my work on the mechanics of mammalian embryo development with reproductive aging. Excited to present my work later this year at the 2026 ASCB meeting in San Diego! www.ascb.org/society-news...
ascb.org
ASCB Announces 2026 Honorific Award Winners - ASCB
Each year, the American Society for Cell Biology honors exceptional scientists whose research, mentorship, and leadership are shaping the future of cell biology. From groundbreaking discoveries to tir...
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Kate Cavanaugh @katecavanaugh.bsky.social · 25/08/2026
More broadly, I want to understand how mechanics, cell fate, and morphogenesis talk to one another across scales—from the ovary, to the embryo, to implantation. Specifically how reproductive aging might compromise this communication. And please share/RT: the academic job market runs on diffusion. 🫠
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Kate Cavanaugh @katecavanaugh.bsky.social · 25/08/2026
And finally—a bit of personal news: 🔬 I’m on the faculty job market this year! I’m looking for tenure-track opportunities where I can build a lab at the intersection of developmental biology, mechanobiology, reproductive biology & aging.
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Kate Cavanaugh @katecavanaugh.bsky.social · 25/08/2026
🧵 What if one reason fertility declines with age isn’t just genetic-but mechanical? Thrilled to share our new paper in @NatureCellBio : Elevated contractility drives implantation failure in mouse embryos from aged females… here’s what we found 👇 www.nature.com/articles/s41... 1/11
nature.com
Elevated contractility drives implantation failure in mouse embryos from aged females - Nature Cell Biology
Cavanaugh et al. show that embryos from aged mice have increased contractility and tissue viscosity on embryonic day 4.5, which leads to poor spreading and attachment. Similar age-associated mechanica...
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International Society of Developmental Biology @isdb.bsky.social · 28/08/2026
An interesting paper by @katecavanaugh.bsky.social shows that aged embryos have higher contractility than younger ones, which impedes their spreading and attaching during implantation. Potential to help with embryo screening! 👉Also, she's on the job market right now!👈 👇👇👇 doi.org/10.1038/s415...
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Stem Cell Podcast @stemcellpodcast.com · 07/09/2026
Scientists with @katecavanaugh.bsky.social in the Weiner Lab at UCSF found that reproductive aging increases #embryo contractility and alters tissue mechanics, reducing successful embryo implantation.🫄 Here's the study: go.nature.com/4gmQ01l 🎧 Listen now! bit.ly/4wV6VNv
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Kate Cavanaugh @katecavanaugh.bsky.social · 01/10/2025
See this? This = implanting mouse embryo. Usually this happens inside its mother and is invisible to us, but we can actually watch implantation ex vivo with the hope of understanding why implantation goes awry in embryos of older women. A 🧵...
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Jane Coffin Childs Fund for Medical Research @jcchildsfund.bsky.social · 14/09/2026
Jane Coffin Childs Fellow Dr. Emily Rundlet is working on improving our understanding and prevention of mpox virus. In humans, mpox causes flu-like symptoms and an itchy rash. Her group, in collaboration with Drs. Rino Rappuoli and Emanuele Andreano ... @cryoemily.bsky.social 1/
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Jane Coffin Childs Fund for Medical Research @jcchildsfund.bsky.social · 08/09/2026
Jane Coffin Childs Fellow Dr. Caroline Holmes studies evolution by watching how genes change over time and how those changes add up. Her big question is: If we could “rewind” and run evolution again, would life end up the same or would it turn out differently? 1/
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Albert and Mary Lasker Foundation @laskerfdn.bsky.social · 08/09/2026
The 2026 Basic, Clinical, and Special Achievement #LaskerAward winners will be revealed tomorrow at 8:00 a.m. ET! #Lasker2026 Read about last year’s winners: laskerfoundation.org/winners/2025-w…
A graphic in yellow, beige, and dark blue featuring five golden Lasker "Winged Victory" statuettes displayed on a table and highlighting the 2026 Lasker Awards date and time.
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Hypothesis Fund @hypothesisfund.bsky.social · 25/08/2026
Ask Nels what advice he’d give his younger self, and the answer is a simple but lasting quote from Andre De Shields: “Slowly is the fastest way to get to where you want to be.” ✨ 4/4
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Hypothesis Fund @hypothesisfund.bsky.social · 25/08/2026
Nels also co-hosts a weekly podcast 🎙️, This Week in Evolution. The logo he designed highlights the idea that mechanisms of evolution play out at various levels of biological organization in the hope of catalyzing scientific pursuit across disciplinary boundaries. bit.ly/4gsouzf 3/
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Nels Elde @elearlybird.bsky.social · 27/08/2026
I’m lglad to join this inspiring group working to foster science breakthroughs
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Sue Biggins @suebiggins.bsky.social · 18/08/2026
Junior faculty position in Basic Sciences @fredhutch.org! Please repost!
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Jane Coffin Childs Fund for Medical Research @jcchildsfund.bsky.social · 17/08/2026
Jane Coffin Childs Fellow, Dr. Divya Bezwada studies how proteins fit together like puzzle pieces with other components in the cell. She looks for hidden pockets on proteins where a small molecule could ‘snap in’ and control its function. 1/
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Jane Coffin Childs Fund for Medical Research @jcchildsfund.bsky.social · 05/08/2026
Jane Coffin Childs Fellow Dr. Jarvis Hill studies the DNA damage and repair system. DNA damage happens to our cells every day—from normal cell activity and things like sunlight or chemicals—so our bodies have built‑in repair tools that find the damage, pause cell division, and fix it. 1/
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Jane Coffin Childs Fund for Medical Research @jcchildsfund.bsky.social · 31/07/2026
Science fiction imagines the world as it could be with future technological advances. Jane Coffin Childs Featured Fellow Dr. Green Ahn's research (which is non-fiction, to be clear) generates proteins that have never existed before in nature. @greenahn.bsky.social 1/
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Jane Coffin Childs Fund for Medical Research @jcchildsfund.bsky.social · 28/07/2026
Jane Coffin Childs Fellow Dr. Green Ahn works on designing custom proteins for creating tiny biological tools for specific jobs. Dr. Ahn used an AI-guided design method to build brand‑new (“de novo”) proteins that can sense what’s happening around cells and change ... @greenahn.bsky.social 1/
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Green Ahn @greenahn.bsky.social · 01/10/2025
pH gradients are central to physiology, from vesicle acidification to the acidic tumor microenvironment. But how do we program proteins to respond to pH? In our new preprint biorxiv.org/content/10.110…, we developed computational methods to rationally design pH-sensitive binders. 🧵
biorxiv.org
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Green Ahn @greenahn.bsky.social · 01/10/2025
Programmable pH-sensitivity enables building conditional control into protein-based therapeutics, diagnostics, and synthetic biology tools.
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Green Ahn @greenahn.bsky.social · 01/10/2025
I’m extremely fortunate to work with a fantastic team - Shayan Sadre, Ella Haefner, and Brian Coventry and all authors at @uwproteindesign.bsky.social with support from David Baker. This work would not have been possible without them!
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Department of Microbial Pathogenesis @yalemicropath.bsky.social · 25/06/2026
The Jane Coffin Childs Fund for Medical Research Names Minwoo Bae, PhD, in the Mougous Lab @yaleschoolofmed.bsky.social 2026 Fellow #antibacterialresistance #research www.prnewswire.com/news-release...
prnewswire.com
The Jane Coffin Childs Fund for Medical Research Names its 2026 Fellows
/PRNewswire/ -- The Jane Coffin Childs Memorial Fund for Medical Research (Jane Coffin Childs Fund/JCC Fund) is an unwavering supporter of biomedical research,...
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MIT Department of Chemistry @mitchemistry.bsky.social · 26/06/2026
Congratulations to Dr. Mengyao Li, who has been named a 2026 Jane Coffin Childs Fellow. Dr. Li is one of 32 outstanding postdoctoral fellows selected as awardees to this distinguished fellowship program in biomedical research. chemistry.mit.edu/chemistry-ne...
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Albert and Mary Lasker Foundation @laskerfdn.bsky.social · 15/07/2026
Drumroll, please. 🥁 🧪The winners of the Lasker Video Contest are: Max Bucklan, Colette Benko, Sai Krishna Bhamidipati, Dimitri Seneviratne, Lindsey Ramirez, & Mark Sorin. Congrats! 🎉 Watch the videos: ow.ly/rOtS50Zm592 Read in Journal of Clinical Investigation: Jci.org/articles/view/210286
Portraits of six young professionals smiling against various neutral and outdoor backgrounds. From top left to bottom right: Max Bucklan, Colette Benko, Sai Krishna Bhamidipati, Dimitri Seneviratne, Lindsey Ramirez, and Mark Sorin.
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heegwangroh.bsky.social @heegwangroh.bsky.social · 04/08/2025
My penultimate PhD project is out in @natchembio.nature.com! We engineered LaccID, a cell surface-specific enzyme for proximity labeling and EM. Derived from an ancestral laccase, it performs the same chemistry as APEX2 but using O2 instead of H2O2. www.nature.com/articles/s41...
nature.com
Directed evolution of LaccID for cell surface proximity labeling and electron microscopy - Nature Chemical Biology
LaccID, an engineered laccase, enables hydrogen-peroxide-free proximity labeling and electron microscopy (EM) in mammalian cells. Notably, LaccID is selectively active at the cell surface, enabling th...
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Albert and Mary Lasker Foundation @laskerfdn.bsky.social · 09/07/2026
🎥 Check out this "Everyday Scientists," sponsored by the Jane Coffin Childs Fund for Medical Research! 🧪 Josh studies a bacterial nutrient sensor that tells it whether to grow or conserve energy based on the amount of resources present. His work may provide insights into designing new antibiotics.
youtube.com
Everyday Scientists: The Molecular Machines That Enable Bacteria to Make Good Life Choices
Josh's studies may provide insight into how to design new antibiotics.
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Marqusee Lab @marquseelab.bsky.social · 05/07/2026
Congrats to our talented postdoc @amirbitran.bsky.social for his first preprint in the lab, a collaboration with the Bustamante lab, studying time-resolved protein folding during translation elongation with HDX-MS! Check out the attached manuscript and tutorial for more:
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Jane Coffin Childs Fund for Medical Research @jcchildsfund.bsky.social · 05/07/2026
<Sir David Attenborough> “When a baby peptide is translated by the ribosome it faces a perilous journey to becoming a properly folded and active protein.” Check out JCC Fellow Dr Amir Bitran’s preprint using a novel method to track the folding journey of young proteins! @amirbitran.bsky.social
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Amir Bitran @amirbitran.bsky.social · 05/07/2026
So incredibly grateful to my mentors Susan Marqusee and Carlos Bustamante, my generous funding (shout out to @jcchildsfund.bsky.social), talented undergrads I mentored, the supportive protein folding community, and everybody in my labs for their incredible feedback! Hope to get your thoughts! (12/n)
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Amir Bitran @amirbitran.bsky.social · 05/07/2026
In summary, the ribosome uses diverse strategies to regulate protein folding, dependent not just on folding thermodynamics, but also kinetics + coupling to elongation. In the future, can extend this to study how co-translational folding links to evolutionary fitness and misfolding disease. (11/n)
Nascent chain folding depends on kinetic competition between translation and folding rates. 
For details, see discussion in attached manuscript
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Amir Bitran @amirbitran.bsky.social · 05/07/2026
Notably, this minimal co-translational folding isn’t because HaloTag CAN’T fold on the ribosome, but rather it doesn’t have time to! When we artificially stall translation and give the nascent chain time to reach equilibrium, it actually populates an intermediate similar to that in refolding! (9/n)
Fitted fractional populations associated with natively protected mode for indicated peptides from each RNC construct (opaque markers), and intermediate mode for peptide 37-66 (empty markers) (F) Native protected fraction vs time for the same peptides as in E but now as a function of time during active translation elongation
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Amir Bitran @amirbitran.bsky.social · 05/07/2026
But something wildly different happens for HaloTag, which attains higher folding yield when translated vs refolded from denaturant. Turns out HT hardly folds on the ribosome, showing only weak HDX protection But once released, it folds through a different intermediate than when refolded! (7/n)
(F) Schematic of HaloTag co-and-post translational folding with solid colors highlighting structures spanned by at least one peptide showing at least 50% natively protected fraction at the indicated times, striped colors indicating significant burst phase protection, white indicating no protection, and gray indicating no peptide coverage. (G) Same as (F) now depicting Halo Tag refolding from 7.5M urea.
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