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Kathrin Lang

@klanglab.bsky.social
2.7K followers 969 following 40 posts

Prof for chemical biology at ETH Zurich Interested in: genetic code expansion - chembio tools - bioorthogonal chemistries - PTMs - Ub in all its shades - protein engineering

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Kathrin Lang @klanglab.bsky.social · 11/03/2026
Huge congratulations to Pascal, who led this work during his PhD at ETH Zürich, and to Anh, who started with the idea years ago at TU Munich. 🥼🧪🧫🎉🤩
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Kathrin Lang @klanglab.bsky.social · 11/03/2026
Why this matters: Lysine acylations (acetylation, succinylation, etc.) regulate protein activity, stability and cellular signaling, but accessing homogeneously modified proteins is challenging. Our approach enables modular installation of diverse lysine acylations at defined sites. (3/4)
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Kathrin Lang @klanglab.bsky.social · 11/03/2026
The concept: • GCE installs a reactive handle at a defined site in a protein • A chemoselective amide bond forming reaction then attaches the desired acyl group ➡️ site-specific protein modification ➡️ compatible with complex/folded proteins ➡️ forms the native amide linkage of lysine acylations 2/4
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Kathrin Lang @klanglab.bsky.social · 11/03/2026
🚨 Our new paper is out! 🙌 Bioorthogonal reactions often create bulky, non-native linkages-great for labeling, but not ideal for installing natural PTMs. We combine GCE with a chemoselective amide-bond forming reaction to install site-specific acylation PTMs. www.cell.com/chem/fulltex... 1/4
cell.com
A modular genetic code expansion approach to site-specific lysine acylations
A modular strategy combining genetic code expansion with a selective amide bond-forming reaction enables the site-specific installation of lysine acylations on folded proteins. Acylboronates react sel...
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GDCh Division of Biochemistry @gdchbiochem.bsky.social · 26/01/2026
Are you interested in cutting edge #Biochemistry and #ChemBio? Check out our #Biochemistry2026 meeting in Würzburg from March 16th to 18th. Deadlines for reduced early bird registration fee and abstracts have been extended to January 28th. veranstaltungen.gdch.de/microsite/in...
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Kathrin Lang @klanglab.bsky.social · 03/12/2025
Congrats!! 👏
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Max Perutz Labs Vienna @maxperutzlabs.ac.at · 31/10/2025
📢 Open Call! The Max Perutz Labs invite applications for a Full Professorship in Integrative Structure Biology with a focus on in situ structural biology using cryo-electron tomography (cryo-ET) and related methods. More details ➡️ tinyurl.com/brswbymu
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Kathrin Lang @klanglab.bsky.social · 30/10/2025
How selective is your favourite electrophile? 🤔 🧪 🧫 🎯 Check out this thorough study from the @stephanhacker2.bsky.social lab, now published in Nature Chemistry! Many congrats to everyone. We are thrilled to have contributed a little! Many congrats to @klanglab.bsky.social alumni Kristina and Marko!
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Kathrin Lang @klanglab.bsky.social · 22/10/2025
Thanks so much Michal! And congrats to your recent story 👏!!
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Kathrin Lang @klanglab.bsky.social · 22/10/2025
Thanks so much for the nice comment! Much appreciated! 😊
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Kathrin Lang @klanglab.bsky.social · 22/10/2025
Thank you Yogesh! Hope all is well in Dundee!
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Kathrin Lang @klanglab.bsky.social · 22/10/2025
Thanks Felix !
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Kathrin Lang @klanglab.bsky.social · 22/10/2025
😅 many thanks for the nice words!
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Kathrin Lang @klanglab.bsky.social · 22/10/2025
Thanks Jim!
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Kathrin Lang @klanglab.bsky.social · 22/10/2025
Thank you!
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Kathrin Lang @klanglab.bsky.social · 22/10/2025
Thanks Yael! 😊
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Kathrin Lang @klanglab.bsky.social · 22/10/2025
Thank you!
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Kathrin Lang @klanglab.bsky.social · 17/10/2025
Many thanks Tim! 😊
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Kathrin Lang @klanglab.bsky.social · 16/10/2025
Thanks Marcin!
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Kathrin Lang @klanglab.bsky.social · 16/10/2025
Thank you Leo!
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Kathrin Lang @klanglab.bsky.social · 16/10/2025
Thanks Julian!
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Kathrin Lang @klanglab.bsky.social · 16/10/2025
Many thanks Stefan 😊
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Kathrin Lang @klanglab.bsky.social · 16/10/2025
Thanks André! Congrats to your recent amazing (multi-year) story!
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Kathrin Lang @klanglab.bsky.social · 16/10/2025
Thank you Matt!
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Max Fottner @maxfottner.bsky.social · 16/10/2025
Super proud of this story! ☺️ Huge thanks to @taruniype.bsky.social for the amazing work - and to @klanglab.bsky.social for the constant support! The first time we saw that phenomenon actually goes all the way back to my Master’s thesis in 2016 🫣 Every now and then, persistence pays off 🤞
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Kathrin Lang @klanglab.bsky.social · 16/10/2025
In short: What began as a confusing cleavage artifact became a strategy for programmable import of synthetic building blocks and efficient GCE. It’s a whole new layer of control over ncAA encoding. Curiosity turned a failed experiment into a new principle! Very proud of the whole team’s work 🙌 9/9
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Kathrin Lang @klanglab.bsky.social · 16/10/2025
Next, we asked if the system can be generalized. By varying the N-terminal residue, we created Z-XisoK tripeptides and evolved transporters for otherwise impermeable Z ncAAs, using GCE as readout for their delivery! Z-XisoKs even enable co-delivery and co-encoding of two distinct ncAAs! 8/9
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Kathrin Lang @klanglab.bsky.social · 16/10/2025
However, in nutrient-rich media (like 2-YT), uptake was less efficient – tryptic peptides present in such media competed for OppA binding. So we evolved OppA to prefer our substrates. Through FACS screening, we found OppA-iso and made the E. coli strain IsoK12, which thrives in complex media 💪 7/9
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Kathrin Lang @klanglab.bsky.social · 16/10/2025
With this insight, we built a G-XisoK toolbox. These tripeptides act as trojan horses 🐴, importing high levels of XisoK into cells. This enables efficient encoding of bioorthogonal, photocrosslinking, and PTM-mimicking ncAAs – all at wild-type expression levels! 6/9
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Kathrin Lang @klanglab.bsky.social · 16/10/2025
This revealed how the transporter recognizes and delivers our substrates. What started as ‘unwanted cleavage’ turned into a transport system we could hijack. Opp imports G-XisoKs, peptidases remove G, accumulating high concentrations of XisoKs for efficient incorporation via aaRS/tRNA pairs. 5/9
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Kathrin Lang @klanglab.bsky.social · 16/10/2025
We discovered that E. coli actively imports G-XisoK peptides via the Opp ABC transporter that shuttles small peptides into cells in an ATP-driven manner. We mapped the uptake mechanism, identified the peptidases removing the N-terminal G and solved the OppA:G-SisoK structure with Michael Groll. 4/9
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Kathrin Lang @klanglab.bsky.social · 16/10/2025
We spent months designing and synthesizing analogues that wouldn’t be cleaved and be incorporated as G-XisoKs – none worked. Eventually curiosity won: why were XisoK derivatives incorporated so efficiently, better than any other ncAA? 🤔 That’s when things got exciting 3/9
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Kathrin Lang @klanglab.bsky.social · 16/10/2025
Building on previous work from our lab on ubiquitin-protein conjugates, we aimed to incorporate G-XisoK ncAAs. Unexpectedly, the glycine was consistently cleaved off, leaving XisoK efficiently incorporated into proteins via GCE. A setback at first - we needed G-XisoK modified proteins. 2/9
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Kathrin Lang @klanglab.bsky.social · 16/10/2025
🚨Our paper is out! 🥳 Hijacking a bacterial ABC transporter for efficient genetic code expansion. Many congrats to everyone involved - a multi-year effort led by @taruniype.bsky.social @maxfottner.bsky.social www.nature.com/articles/s41... it all started years ago with a failed experiment 🧵👇 1/9
nature.com
Hijacking a bacterial ABC transporter for genetic code expansion - Nature
Bacterial ATP-binding cassette (ABC) transporters can be utilized and engineered to transport non-canonical amino acids into Escherichia coli for highly efficient synthesis of proteins with novel func...
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Pedro Beltrao @pedrobeltrao.bsky.social · 09/10/2025
new preprint: Ubiquitin is a protein modification linked with degradation but known to regulate other functions. Over 100k ubiquitination sites have been discovered and here we (@julianvangerwen.bsky.social + others) try to prioritize those most critical to the cell www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
biorxiv.org
The functional landscape of the human ubiquitinome
Protein ubiquitination regulates cell biology through diverse avenues, from quality control-linked protein degradation to signaling functions such as modulating protein-protein interactions and enzyme...
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Kathrin Lang @klanglab.bsky.social · 24/09/2025
Congratulations! 🥳
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Erik A. Rodriguez @erin-rod.bsky.social · 22/08/2025
Today, I would like to honor the memory of Roger Y. Tsien, who died on August 24, 2016. His legacy lives with all who use his technologies, including calcium sensors, fluorescent proteins, the acetoxymethyl (AM) ester, & many more! #FluorescenceFriday www.nature.com/articles/nme...
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Sternberg Lab @sternberglab.bsky.social · 24/07/2025
1/16 New pre-print from the Sternberg Lab! We uncover how temperate phages can use RNA-guided transcription factors to remodel the flagellar composition of their bacterial host and enhance their fitness. Find the preprint and full story here: tinyurl.com/mshwjd77
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Zeynep Baharoglu @zeynepbaharoglu.bsky.social · 21/06/2025
www.science.org/doi/10.1126/... le 🦠💫💫💫 #ribosome #rnasky
science.org
Mechanism of release factor–mediated peptidyl-tRNA hydrolysis on the ribosome
Translation termination is essential in all living organisms because it ensures that proteins have lengths strictly defined by their genes. This universal process is mediated by peptide release factor...
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Reposted by Kathrin Lang
Haselbach Lab @haselbachlab.bsky.social · 09/04/2025
New Preprint: We have solved the structure of the proteasome in complex with two different ubiquitin chains: www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1... This work is spearheaded by PhD Student Sascha Amann Let me walk you through it 🧵 1/9
biorxiv.org
Structural basis for the ubiquitin chain recognition of the human 26S proteasome
Proteasomal degradation is a fundamental process for all eukaryotic life. A protein destined for degradation is first tagged with a polyubiquitin chain, which is selected by the proteasome. Different ...
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Nature @nature.com · 26/03/2025
Nature research paper: A broad-spectrum lasso peptide antibiotic targeting the bacterial ribosome go.nature.com/4iECjJz
go.nature.com
A broad-spectrum lasso peptide antibiotic targeting the bacterial ribosome - Nature
A new lasso peptide antibiotic exhibits broad-spectrum activity against Gram-negative and Gram-positive bacteria by interfering with bacterial protein synthesis, is unaffected by common resistance mechanisms and shows no toxicity towards human cells.
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Kathrin Lang @klanglab.bsky.social · 15/03/2025
Wow!! Exciting news! Congrats Georg!! 🥳🤩🥂
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Jacob Corn @jcornlab.bsky.social · 30/01/2025
Cells are filled with toxic stuff that damages healthy proteins. Is that garbage just left to rot on the curb? No way! Ubiquitin ligases have evolved to recognize chemical damage and clean it up! www.nature.com/articles/s41...
nature.com
C-terminal amides mark proteins for degradation via SCF–FBXO31 - Nature
SCF–FBXO31 scans proteins for C-terminal amidation and marks them for subsequent proteasomal degradation.
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Kathrin Lang @klanglab.bsky.social · 30/01/2025
Congrats abhishek and team!!
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Abhishek Chatterjee @achemsynbio.bsky.social · 29/01/2025
Elise and Tarah's work on engineering leucyl-tRNA synthetase to incorporate numerous ncAAs in mammalian cells now published! A bit of good news amidst these chaotic times onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/...
onlinelibrary.wiley.com
Optimized Directed Evolution of E. coli leucyl‐tRNA Synthetase adds many Noncanonical Amino Acids into the Eukaryotic Genetic Code Including Ornithine and Nϵ‐Acetyl‐Methyllysine
The pyrrolysyl pair has dominated noncanonical amino acids (ncAAs) incorporation in eukaryotes, but additional engineerable pairs are needed to further expand this toolbox. Although E. coli leucyl-tR....
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Louis-Jeantet Foundation @louisjeantetfdn.bsky.social · 21/01/2025
📢 The Louis-Jeantet Foundation is happy to announce the 2025 #LouisJeantetPrizes, awarded to VEIT HORNUNG @v-hornung.bsky.social @genecenter-lmu.bsky.social and to GILLES LAURENT @ maxplanck.de CONGRATULATIONS!!! 👉 jeantet.ch/en 👇 follow thread
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Jeremy Baskin @jeremybaskin.bsky.social · 14/01/2025
Overjoyed and honestly relieved to share a Chem Rev magnum opus from Brian Chen & Julia Li titled Synthetic Lipid Biology! In it, we organize efforts across numerous fields to create, manipulate, and analyze lipids and biomembranes. Check it out! doi.org/10.1021/acs.... #lipidtime #chemsky #chembio
table of contents graphic for review titled synthetic lipid biologyabstract of review articlePo-Hsun Brian ChenXiang-Ling (Julia) Li
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Nature Chemical Biology @natchembio.nature.com · 10/01/2025
A new tool FUSEP profiles the E2-specific ubiquitome and enables systematic studies of non-lysine ubiquitin conjugation, here used to identify the existence of tyrosine ubiquitination www.nature.com/articles/s41...
nature.com
E2–Ub-R74G strategy reveals E2-specific ubiquitin conjugation profiles in live cells - Nature Chemical Biology
Shen and Yin developed a technology named FUSEP to profile the E2-specific ubiquitome that makes use of a fusion between E2 and ubiquitin carrying a R74G point mutation, which leaves an LGGG remnant f...
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Stephan Hacker @stephanhacker2.bsky.social · 08/01/2025
Exciting paper by the groups of Ronald Micura and Alexandra Lusser in @nchembio.bsky.social. Covalent binders to structured RNA based on alkyl halides and alkyl mesylates show engagement of the preQ1 and Pepper aptamers in vitro and in cells. www.nature.com/articles/s41...
nature.com
Engineering covalent small molecule–RNA complexes in living cells - Nature Chemical Biology
Small-molecule ligands have been developed that covalently attach to their cognate RNA aptamers in vitro and in living cells. This strategy opens up new avenues for RNA imaging applications (for examp...
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GDCh Division of Biochemistry @gdchbiochem.bsky.social · 01/01/2025
Die Fachgruppe Biochemie der @gdch.bsky.social wünscht ein frohes neues Jahr! Wir hatten ein großartiges 2024 mit einer fantastischen Biochemie-Tagung. Wenn Sie in 2024 eine herausragende Doktorarbeit oder Veröffentlichung in Ihrer Gruppe hatten, nominieren Sie für unseren Förderpreis!
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