iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Reposted by Margaret Johnson

Markus Deserno @markusdeserno.bsky.social · 23/06/2026

📣 Hear! Hear! 🦋 Behold this Bluetorial on a cool paper written with my PhD student Nathaniel Wesnak 🧪 If you want to dive into the rabbit hole of lipid flop-flop and its description as a stochastic process—here’s your TEASER TRAILER on some flippin’ awesome work: doi.org/10.1063/5.03... 1/26

doi.org

Stochastic process description of lipid flip-flop

Since lipid bilayers are self-assembled macroscopic aggregates, their constituent lipid molecules can spontaneously transition between the two leaflets. This so

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Margaret Johnson @mejohnson81.bsky.social · 11/06/2026

Self-assembly can help cells make decisions: see Sam's awesome work!

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Reposted by Margaret Johnson

Markus Deserno @markusdeserno.bsky.social · 16/03/2026

📣 To celebrate Biophysics Week, the Membrane Structure and Function Subgroup (MSAF) of @biophysicalsoc.bsky.social will host a webinar on March 24 at 11am EDT. Our speakers are @mejohnson81.bsky.social, @ibudin.bsky.social, and Cecília Leal (not on 🦋). 🧪 👀 More info in the alt text! Please share! 🔄

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Margaret Johnson @mejohnson81.bsky.social · 13/03/2026

Driving membrane fission is not quite as hard as it seems (at least to me!). Very happy to contribute to this work from Wade Zeno’s lab!

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Reposted by Margaret Johnson

allen institute @alleninstitute.org · 17/09/2025

Open science tools like Simularium help bring science to life. @mejohnson81.bsky.social shares how it has helped her stoke curiosity in @jhuartssciences.bsky.social students and work with colleagues across timezones. #OpenScienceWeek

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Margaret Johnson @mejohnson81.bsky.social · 21/07/2025

How much do dimer binding affinities change for proteins on the 2D membrane vs in solution? We go beyond rigid-body entropy estimates to show conformational variations can strongly select for 2D association. Very proud of Dr Adip Jhaveri and team's comprehensive work! doi.org/10.1063/5.02...

doi.org

Protein dimerization in 2D vs 3D: Geometric allostery enhances binding affinity

Dimerization underpins all macromolecular assembly processes, both on and off the membrane. While the strength of dimerization, KD, is commonly quantified in so

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Margaret Johnson @mejohnson81.bsky.social · 11/07/2025

Does protein dimerization always help targeting and dwell time on DNA? Not for a population! Dwell time is especially sensitive to spacing between DNA targets. Nonspecific binding and facilitated (1D) diffusion also play a key role. Super proud of Mankun Sang’s work! doi.org/10.1101/2025...

Proteins can form dimers and bind DNA specifically and nonspecifically, exploiting 3D and 1D diffusion. This can drives both enhanced and impaired dwell time and target occupancy depending on spacing between specific targets.

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Reposted by Margaret Johnson

Sean Carroll @seanmcarroll.bsky.social · 29/05/2025

The Natural Philosophy Symposium is underway! I had some idea of live-skeeting, but the real-time event is too absorbing. www.naturalphilosophyhopkins.org/natural-phil... Anyway, we've had: (cont)

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Margaret Johnson @mejohnson81.bsky.social · 27/05/2025

Can sensing of membrane receptors be switched on at tunable threshold densities, without active processing? Proud to share this preprint led by the awesome Dr Foley, please check it out!

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Reposted by Margaret Johnson

Sam Foley @samuelfoley.com · 19/03/2025

For any of my friends at the #APS Global Physics Summit, come to the Macromolecular Assembly in Cells II session today at 3pm to hear from me about how clathrin self-assembly is tuned to sense cargo receptors!

Coarse-grained reaction-diffusion simulations! Idealized lattice models! Coat assembly phase diagrams! Stop on by for a theoretically fun time!

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