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Kevin Drew

@ksdrew.bsky.social
130 followers 132 following 39 posts

Assistant Professor at University of Illinois at Chicago (UIC) in Biological Sciences focused on macromolecular assemblies.

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Kevin Drew @ksdrew.bsky.social · 02/09/2026
Thanks Roland. Yes, valid point. I think we started this analysis prior to the development of ipSAE and the other methods and we didn't expect the results to change much. Below is the equivalent Figure 4B with ipSAE calculated (PAE threshold: 15Å, Contact threshold: 10Å, ipSAE >= 0.4).
Plot showing the relationship between DirectContacts2 score and confident AF3 models (ipSAE >= 0.4) for 2,500 protein pairs.
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Kevin Drew @ksdrew.bsky.social · 01/09/2026
Here is a link to the published version again: www.nature.com/articles/s41...
nature.com
DirectContacts2: a wiring diagram of human physical protein interactions - Nature Communications
Knowledge of the physical interactions of proteins provides mechanistic understanding of their function. Here, the authors develop a machine learning classifier through the integration of 25,000 prote...
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Kevin Drew @ksdrew.bsky.social · 01/09/2026
Previous thread on the original preprint can be found here: bsky.app/profile/ksdr...
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Kevin Drew @ksdrew.bsky.social · 01/09/2026
In particular, it is highly complimentary to the excellent work being done in the field of screening PPIs with AlphaFold/RosettaFold (@bioinfo.se, @pedrobeltrao.bsky.social, @ernstschmid.bsky.social, Qian Cong, @machine.learning.bio, and others).
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Kevin Drew @ksdrew.bsky.social · 01/09/2026
This work gives greater resolution into how protein complexes are assembled and allows one to prioritize the ~200 million possible pairwise protein interactions for structural modeling.
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Kevin Drew @ksdrew.bsky.social · 01/09/2026
Here we developed a classifier to discriminate between direct and indirect protein interactions using a large compendium of mass spectrometry based proteomics data (25k experiments). We applied our classifier to > 25 million protein pairs and identified thousands of high confidence interactions.
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Kevin Drew @ksdrew.bsky.social · 01/09/2026
This was a wonderful joint effort between Erin Claussen, a researcher in my lab, and two PhD students, Miles Woodcock-Girard and Sam Fischer (@samanthafischer.bsky.social).
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Kevin Drew @ksdrew.bsky.social · 01/09/2026
We are excited that our work describing DirectContacts2, a wiring diagram of human physical protein interactions, is published in @natcomms.nature.com . www.nature.com/articles/s41...
nature.com
DirectContacts2: a wiring diagram of human physical protein interactions - Nature Communications
Knowledge of the physical interactions of proteins provides mechanistic understanding of their function. Here, the authors develop a machine learning classifier through the integration of 25,000 prote...
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Pedro Beltrao @pedrobeltrao.bsky.social · 14/07/2026
Team science preprint, exploring the capabilities and limitations of Alphafold3 across different application areas, including protein-RNA, protein-lipid, ubiquitination,TCR and antibody recognition with @ninjani.bsky.social @labvanni.bsky.social @dgfeller.bsky.social www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...
biorxiv.org
Capabilities, specificity gaps and training-data dependence of AlphaFold3 across diverse application areas
Structure prediction models have moved from single proteins to assemblies that include diverse biomolecules and their modifications. AlphaFold3 (AF3) and related models extended structural modelling v...
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Caitie McCafferty @computingcaitie.bsky.social · 22/06/2026
Happy to finally share that I will be starting my independent group at the @fmiscience.bsky.social in Feb 2027 in a vibrant new environment. We will use integrative in situ structural cell biology methods to investigate ciliary structure and dynamics in several model (and non-model 👀) systems!!
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Rosetta Commons @rosettacommons.bsky.social · 05/06/2026
Welcome to our 2026 REU trainees! They spent the week at John Hopkins University completing an introductory bootcamp focused on machine learning and Rosetta software and tools. We can’t wait to see what they accomplish over the summer at their host labs throughout the US and Europe. zurl.co/LhlOI
Group photo of REU trainees on a brick pathway next to trees.Group photo of REU trainees jumping while standing in a line on a brick pathway next to trees.
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Yehlin Cho @yehlincho.bsky.social · 21/05/2026
🚀 Excited to share our new work: Absolute Stability Predictor! 📊: forms.gle/4ZnXZSnTBvay... Built the MGnify Stability Dataset (1.8M+ measurements) and developed stability prediction models, together with @grocklin.bsky.social @KotaroTsuboyama, @sokrypton.org and teams.
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Gabriel Rocklin @grocklin.bsky.social · 18/05/2026
Happy to share this in its published form! More than any project I've worked on, this was a huge team effort, so thank you so much to that team! Especially @ajrferrari.bsky.social www.nature.com/articles/s41...
nature.com
Large-scale discovery, analysis and design of protein energy landscapes - Nature
An analysis of 5,778 domains 28–64 amino acids in length reveals hidden variation in conformational fluctuations, even between sequences sharing the same fold and global folding stability.
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Riddhiman Garge @riddhiman.bsky.social · 25/04/2026
1/ Thrilled to share our latest: an exciting collaboration across the @jshendure.bsky.social, @leastarita.bsky.social, @nobuhamazaki.bsky.social and @dschweppe.bsky.social labs! 🧵 below- #SystemsBiology #SCBEM #MultiOmics #Gastruloids www.nature.com/articles/s41...
nature.com
The proteomic landscape and temporal dynamics of human and mouse gastruloid development - Nature Cell Biology
Garge et al. use experimentally matched mass spectrometry and RNA-sequencing to quantify proteins, phosphosites and transcripts across four key stages of human and mouse gastruloid development.
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Devin Schweppe @dschweppe.bsky.social · 24/04/2026
Excited to see @riddhiman.bsky.social's gastruloid multiomics paper out now at Nature Cell Bio! Riddhiman used proteomics, phosphoproteomics, and RNAseq to profile stem-cell-derived embryo models to identify protein, complex, and signaling regulators of development. www.nature.com/articles/s41...
nature.com
The proteomic landscape and temporal dynamics of human and mouse gastruloid development - Nature Cell Biology
Garge et al. use experimentally matched mass spectrometry and RNA-sequencing to quantify proteins, phosphosites and transcripts across four key stages of human and mouse gastruloid development.
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Caitie McCafferty @computingcaitie.bsky.social · 08/04/2026
I am excited to share our most recent work collaborating with @centriolelab.bsky.social and @stearnslab.bsky.social to look at the ciliary base of mammalian multiciliated cells w/ cryo-ET, XL/MS, and U-ExM www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...
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Ed Huttlin @edhuttlin.bsky.social · 23/03/2026
To better understand the ubiquitin-proteasome system, Suzanne Elsasser, Dan Finley, and the Human Proteostasis Consortium have systematically surveyed its components: www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6... I would encourage you to check out this valuable resource! @harvardcellbio.bsky.social
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Pedro Beltrao @pedrobeltrao.bsky.social · 04/03/2026
We have started a project trying to predic the interactions/structures of all yeast protein pairs using an AlphaFold pooling approach. We are making the current dataset open and we welcome collaborations. www.evocellnet.com/2026/03/mapp...
evocellnet.com
Mapping the yeast atructural interactome with AlphaFold3: an open call for collaboration
We are excited to announce the early-stage release of our S. cerevisiae  structural interactome mapping project. Using AlphaFold3 (AF3), w...
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Clay Kosonocky @kosonocky.bsky.social · 04/03/2026
The results are finally in! 🏆💻🧬 I'm thrilled to announce that the manuscript for the Bits to Binders protein design competition is out on bioRxiv! Here's a summary of our findings, including some simple criteria that nearly *double* success rates when applied as a filter 🧵
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Pedro Beltrao @pedrobeltrao.bsky.social · 24/02/2026
Proteome-wide AlphaFold pool party N&V by @ksdrew.bsky.social link.springer.com/article/10.1... (I almost added a party GIF, almost :)
link.springer.com
Proteome-wide AlphaFold pool party - Molecular Systems Biology
Molecular Systems Biology - An outstanding challenge in molecular biology is the production of a complete and accurate set of protein interactions for a given organism. Todor et al, introduce a...
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ComplexPortal @complexportal.bsky.social · 16/02/2026
🔎 Exploring predicted complexes in the Complex Portal Beyond curated entries, the portal also includes computationally predicted protein complexes. Quick tour: tinyurl.com/2wph5wua Includes: 🧬 hu.MAP 3.0 🎵 MuSIC 🧪 QSProteome
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Jeffrey J. Gray @jeffreyjgray.bsky.social · 30/01/2026
Final stretch to apply for undergraduate summer internships in the Rosetta Commons! Come design proteins, develop AI and physics-based methods to model biomolecules, and impact health, materials, and sustainability! Application deadline is Sunday Feb 1. rosettacommons.org/education/reu/
rosettacommons.org
Undergraduates
Rosetta Commons Research Experience for Undergraduates (REU) AI for Biomolecular Structure Prediction and Design Interns in this geographically-distributed REU program participate in research using…
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Pedro Beltrao @pedrobeltrao.bsky.social · 29/01/2026
New lab preprint - Common and rare variant studies for the same trait identify different genes and here Diederik Laman Trip developed a protein network AI enconding to investigate if traits studied by different approaches converge on the same molecular pathways www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...
biorxiv.org
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Edward Marcotte @edwardmarcotte.bsky.social · 16/01/2026
Very sad to hear about the passing of Peer Bork, one of true giants of computational biology www.embl.org/news/embl-an...
embl.org
In remembrance of Peer Bork  | EMBL
EMBL and its community are deeply saddened by the death of Peer Bork, the organisation’s Interim Director General.
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Alice Ting @aliceyting.bsky.social · 08/01/2026
Video introduction to our new “Conformational Biasing” method for computational design of mutations that bias proteins towards desired conformational states CB part starts at 14:55 Thanks to Peter Cavanagh and Andrew Xue – amazing graduate students who co-led this work
youtube.com
Alice Ting Rosettacon keynote 2025
YouTube video by Alice Ting
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Alice Ting @aliceyting.bsky.social · 08/01/2026
Link to paper: www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...
science.org
Computational design of conformation-biasing mutations to alter protein functions
Conformational biasing (CB) is a rapid and streamlined computational method that uses contrastive scoring by inverse folding models to predict protein variants biased toward desired conformational sta...
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Roland Dunbrack 🏳️‍🌈 @rolanddunbrack.bsky.social · 08/01/2026
This appeared today: www.asbmb.org/asbmb-today/...
asbmb.org
Mapping proteins, one side chain at a time
Roland Dunbrack Jr. will receive the ASBMB DeLano Award for Computational Biosciences at the ASBMB Annual Meeting, March 7–10, just outside of Washington, D.C.
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Kevin Drew @ksdrew.bsky.social · 08/01/2026
Congrats!
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Jeremy Reiter @reitergroup.bsky.social · 31/12/2025
Modern biology research is biased towards investigating genes that are widely conserved and present in humans. What about genes that ARE widely conserved but NOT present in humans? Can genes missing from humans tell us something about what makes our biology different from that of other animals? 1/8
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James Fraser @fraserlab.com · 29/12/2025
I'm really excited to break up the holiday relaxation time with a new preprint that benchmarks AlphaFold3 (AF3)/“co-folding” methods with 2 new stringent performance tests. Thread below - but first some links: A longer take: fraserlab.com/2025/12/29/k... Preprint: www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...
fraserlab.com
Know when to co-fold'em
This is the official web page for the James Fraser Lab at UCSF.
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Gaurav Bhardwaj @gauravbhardwaj.bsky.social · 03/12/2025
RFpeptides made it to the cover of Nature Chemical Biology December issue! Credit to Stephen Rettie for leading the work and making this very cool graphic!
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Riddhiman Garge @riddhiman.bsky.social · 22/11/2025
Very happy to share our latest led by the relentless @shawnfayer.bsky.social! We developed multiplexed assays to measure variant effects across diverse genetic and cell contexts in stem cell and differentiated cells. 🧵 👇
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Gabriel Rocklin @grocklin.bsky.social · 19/11/2025
New preprint! We measured temperature- and pH-induced aggregation for over 18,000 natural and de novo designed protein domains!
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Ryan Gray @slewzeus.bsky.social · 19/11/2025
Congratulations to the newly minted Dr. Brittney Voigt! After defending a fantastic thesis spanning work in my lab and the @edwardmarcotte.bsky.social lab.
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Ernst Schmid @ernstschmid.bsky.social · 12/11/2025
Thrilled to share that the final piece of my PhD work is now on bioRxiv! biorxiv.org/content/10.1... With support from @nvidia and the @NSF, we used AlphaFold to screen 1.6M+ protein pairs, revealing thousands of potential novel PPIs. All data can be viewed at predictomes.org/hp
biorxiv.org
Proteome-wide in silico screening for human protein-protein interactions
Protein-protein interactions (PPIs) drive virtually all biological processes, yet most PPIs have not been identified and even more remain structurally unresolved. We developed a two-step computational...
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Dept of Biological Sciences, University of Illinois Chicago @uicbios.bsky.social · 23/10/2025
Last week, the research of Rui Gao and lab was published by @Science.org and featured on the issue's cover! Dr. Rui Gao is an Assistant Professor in Biological Sciences and Chemistry. science.org/doi/10.1126/...
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Chemistry at the University of Illinois Chicago @uic-chemistry.bsky.social · 16/10/2025
The Gao lab at #UIC reports a breakthrough in volumetric fluorescence imaging, featured on the cover of Science Magazine! Their new technique, VIPS (Volumetric Imaging via Photochemical Sectioning), enables reconstruction of 3D images of whole tissues with unprecedented detail.
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Rupinder Kaur, PhD @kaurr.bsky.social · 03/10/2025
#Wolbachia has puzzled scientists with its power to rewire insect reproduction. What if I tell you that we found one of the keys Wolbachia use to rewire its host AND a small molecule inhibitor uses this key to mimic what this microbe has mastered for millions of years. www.cell.com/cell-reports...
cell.com
Beyond Wolbachia—Can a small molecule control insect reproduction?
Kaur et al. demonstrate reduced histone acetylation as a key mechanism underpinning Wolbachia’s paternal-effect embryonic lethality trait in Drosophila melanogaster. Recapitulation of this trait by in...
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Arne Elofsson @handle.invalid · 29/09/2025
Congrats Qian www.science.org/doi/full/10....
science.org
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Caitie McCafferty @computingcaitie.bsky.social · 23/09/2025
I am excited to share our new preprint on the CAGE complex, a mysterious hollow protein complex that I first saw years ago while surveying Tetrahymena ciliary lysate www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1... #cilia #protistsonsky 🧬🧪
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Stephanie Wankowicz @stephanieaw.bsky.social · 11/09/2025
Structural bioinformatics is incredibly powerful on its own or when paired with theory or experiment. One of the PDB's superpowers isn’t from one structure, but comparing many to uncover folds, binding sites, and subtle conformational shifts. chemrxiv.org/engage/chemr...
chemrxiv.org
10 Rules for a Structural Bioinformatic Analysis
The Protein Data Bank (PDB) is one of the richest open‑source repositories in biology, housing over 277,000 macromolecular structural models alongside much of the experimental data that underpins thes...
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Kevin Drew @ksdrew.bsky.social · 10/09/2025
Excited for you to join us!
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Clay Kosonocky @kosonocky.bsky.social · 02/09/2025
🚨The Bits to Binders Competition has concluded!🧬 One year ago we gathered scientists from around the world to design and submit protein binders that cause immune cells to target and eliminate CD20+ tumors Spoiler: They work!
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Martin Pacesa @martinpacesa.bsky.social · 27/08/2025
Exciting to see our protein binder design pipeline BindCraft published in its final form in @Nature ! This has been an amazing collaborative effort with Lennart, Christian, @sokrypton.org, Bruno and many other amazing lab members and collaborators. www.nature.com/articles/s41...
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Yo Akiyama @yoakiyama.bsky.social · 05/08/2025
Excited to share work with Zhidian Zhang, @milot.bsky.social, @martinsteinegger.bsky.social, and @sokrypton.org biorxiv.org/content/10.1... TLDR: We introduce MSA Pairformer, a 111M parameter protein language model that challenges the scaling paradigm in self-supervised protein language modeling🧵
biorxiv.org
Scaling down protein language modeling with MSA Pairformer
Recent efforts in protein language modeling have focused on scaling single-sequence models and their training data, requiring vast compute resources that limit accessibility. Although models that use ...
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Kevin Drew @ksdrew.bsky.social · 29/07/2025
Also, I would like to thank the NSF and NIH for funding, and DOE Argonne, NSF ACCESS, and Indiana JetStream2 for computational resources.
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Kevin Drew @ksdrew.bsky.social · 29/07/2025
There are lots of other results in the manuscript so please check it out. I definitely want to thank the team of Miles Woodcock-Girard, Erin Claussen, and Samantha Fischer who did the work.
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Kevin Drew @ksdrew.bsky.social · 29/07/2025
Finally, we utilize our network to build structural models of a ciliary protein complex linked to oral-facial-digital syndrome. We identified several human pathogenic mutations at the interface of OFD1 and FOPNL (CEP20), pointing to a mechanism of pathology.
OFD1 disease mutations (pink) cluster at the OFD1(green)-FOPNL(orange) interface.
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Kevin Drew @ksdrew.bsky.social · 29/07/2025
Encouraged by this, we prioritized ~2,500 high-confidence DirectContacts2 protein pairs and ran them through AF3. We see excellent enrichment of high quality models consistent with the AF2 models.
The fraction of AlphaFold3 protein interaction models with high-confidence pDockQ pairs.
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Kevin Drew @ksdrew.bsky.social · 29/07/2025
First, using a compendium of computed structural models for evaluation, we see our DirectContacts2 network outperforms other networks at prioritizing protein pairs for AlphaFold2 modeling.
Comparison of enrichment for high-confidence pair interfaces out of the set of top confident pairs for DirectContacts2 and other networks. For each set, the fraction of high-confidence interfaces (pDockQ ≥ 0.5) out of their top predictions was calculated for increasing numbers of top predictions.
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