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Baker Lab @ Notre Dame

@nd-bakerlab.bsky.social
2.1K followers 1.7K following 184 posts

Structural and molecular immunology and protein biophysics at the University of Notre Dame. T cell receptors, MHC proteins, specificity, and cross-reactivity. Plus drums, odd time signatures, Iron Maiden, and much Rush. Opinions mine alone. bmblab.nd.edu

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Baker Lab @ Notre Dame @nd-bakerlab.bsky.social · 22/07/2026
It begins.
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Baker Lab @ Notre Dame @nd-bakerlab.bsky.social · 03/07/2026
Coming up this month...we've added an alternate/emo set...chose your flyer, we have rocker red or party pink!
Poster for the Standard Deviants gig this month in rocker red.Poster for the Standard Deviants gig this month in party pink.
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Baker Lab @ Notre Dame @nd-bakerlab.bsky.social · 10/06/2026
Short break from grant writing. New rehearsal space coming together.
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Baker Lab @ Notre Dame @nd-bakerlab.bsky.social · 16/04/2026
Dive bar tour begins (and ends?) in a week and half! Maybe we should decide on a tour poster.
Standard Deviants deviated rock band gig advertisement for April 25.Standard Deviants local community tour sign, with Esher level geometrical problems.
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Baker Lab @ Notre Dame @nd-bakerlab.bsky.social · 14/04/2026
I know paylines aren't a thing anymore, but I think this is ok...? T cell targets in transplantation, your time is coming! Thank you nice reviewers, even #3 I suppose!!! 😀
Image highlighting showing a 5% score on an NIH grant submission.
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Baker Lab @ Notre Dame @nd-bakerlab.bsky.social · 05/04/2026
@gezelter.bsky.social
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Baker Lab @ Notre Dame @nd-bakerlab.bsky.social · 01/04/2026
Huge congratulations to Chukwunalu "Chuks" Chukwuma for successfully defending his PhD thesis on interrogating the specificity of alloreactive T cells and the implications for organ transplant rejection! Another newly minted structural immunologist setting out to make the world a better place.
Soon to be former graduate student Chuks celebrating the wildly successful defense of his PhD thesis studying the specificity of alloreactive T cells with a bottle of champagne.
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Baker Lab @ Notre Dame @nd-bakerlab.bsky.social · 03/03/2026
Total prohole.
Electron density of a proline from a high resolution protein crystal structure, showing the hole in the middle of the ring - a prohole.
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Baker Lab @ Notre Dame @nd-bakerlab.bsky.social · 22/02/2026
Wonderful evening with the Rush Tribute Project in Indianapolis. Absolutely nailed every note. They make it look so easy. Wonderful guys - thank you! #Rush
Rush Tribute Project on stage in IndianapolisMeeting the Rush Tribute Project after the show. Thomas (drummer, right) absolutely nailed it.
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Baker Lab @ Notre Dame @nd-bakerlab.bsky.social · 22/01/2026
Super surprised and super grateful, to the reviewers and more importantly the talented team and collaborators that made this possible (particularly @chadbrambley.bsky.social). I suppose we'll see how changes to advisory councils and MYF play out...?
Surprisingly good score of an NIH R21 proposal to study molecular mimics in T cell recognition.
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Baker Lab @ Notre Dame @nd-bakerlab.bsky.social · 16/09/2025
Lecturing on biomolecular equilibria this semester. This is in the classroom. Turns out it 100% lives up to the hype. Amazing stuff.
Picture of a piece of Hagoromo chalk. The best chalk ever made.
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Baker Lab @ Notre Dame @nd-bakerlab.bsky.social · 01/09/2025
A big chunk of the lab works on TCR cross-reactivity - the subgroup is called TCR-X. They made an image for their T shirts... Well played, TCR-X. #immunosky
Image for the TCR cross-reactivity group: The big baddy Titin attacking a magician named A3.
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Baker Lab @ Notre Dame @nd-bakerlab.bsky.social · 21/08/2025
Here's how I think about it: via traditional short MD, if you're in a well separated by high barriers, it's almost always going to be like a paint by numbers picture where you get really really good at coloring in the cute puppy's ear. Maybe you get to learn it could be attached to a head.
Color by numbers image of a puppy outside. Not mine - borrowed from a quick Google image search.
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Baker Lab @ Notre Dame @nd-bakerlab.bsky.social · 20/08/2025
Images of the first 3D structure of a class I major histocompatibility complex. Bjorkman et al. Nature, 1987
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Baker Lab @ Notre Dame @nd-bakerlab.bsky.social · 11/07/2025
Congratulations to the newly minted structural immunologist Dr. George Gray! George made killer progress quantifying TCR cross-reactivity and built a foundation we'll build on for years. The last of our COVID babies - we will miss him as he goes off to train the next generation! #immunosky
Dr. George Gray at his thesis defense.Dr. George Gray destroying his celebratory bottle of Champagne.
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Baker Lab @ Notre Dame @nd-bakerlab.bsky.social · 06/06/2025
Super postdoc @chadbrambley.bsky.social killing it at the AI/HI Immunoinformatics workshop, telling us about finding molecular mimics of antigenic epitopes. Thanks to @epivax.bsky.social for the invitation and opportunity!
Postdoc Chad Brambley presenting at the AI/HI workshop. The AI/HI workshop sponsored by Epivax.
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Baker Lab @ Notre Dame @nd-bakerlab.bsky.social · 04/06/2025
Congratulations to the newly minted PhD, Dr. Sarah Catherine Baker Hawthorne! A cell biologist not a structural biologist, and not one of my students but still one of mine :) Super proud dad today. Next step California Science & Technology Policy. 💪🧪💪
Picture of me with the new Dr. Hawthorne. Dr. Sarah Catherine Baker Hawthorne.
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Baker Lab @ Notre Dame @nd-bakerlab.bsky.social · 02/06/2025
#Limelight in the elevator!! Up and down 2 times. #Rush Whoohoo! Elevator music is good in this otherwise crappy timeline.
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Baker Lab @ Notre Dame @nd-bakerlab.bsky.social · 30/05/2025
Anyone care to place bets on when this changes?
For the nth+1 week in a row, no new funding announcements from NIH.
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Baker Lab @ Notre Dame @nd-bakerlab.bsky.social · 23/05/2025
Another week, another NIH Guide with no new funding opportunities. Lost track of the number of weeks now - let's just call it n+1.
Screenshot of the NIH Guide for Grants and Contracts showing no new opportunities for the nth week in a row.
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Baker Lab @ Notre Dame @nd-bakerlab.bsky.social · 05/05/2025
I had to look. The comments on Amazon. Insane. "I really liked the tips it gives for including peptides in my daily routine." Then there's the pic below. I bet the follow up book is "The Power of G Coupled Protein Receptors" - just a quick search and replace away. Maybe go for the 10 volume set.
Generic image of bottles of "peptides" with no indication of what they actually could be reflecting limited treatment of actual science and a total grift.
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Baker Lab @ Notre Dame @nd-bakerlab.bsky.social · 05/05/2025
Best poster at AAI 😀 No, I'm not biased. Rock star structural immunologist and PhD student Bassant Eldaly telling her KRAS public neoantigen story. No down time, she talked two hours straight. Power to the next generation!!! #immunosky #AAI
PhD student and structural immunologist Bassant Eldaly at her poster.
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Baker Lab @ Notre Dame @nd-bakerlab.bsky.social · 25/04/2025
Because it's Friday.
Olive the 7 pound dog with her favorite red rope leash.
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Baker Lab @ Notre Dame @nd-bakerlab.bsky.social · 25/04/2025
And again.
NIH not releasing any new funding opportunities, at least the 3rd week in a row.
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Baker Lab @ Notre Dame @nd-bakerlab.bsky.social · 18/04/2025
At least the second week in a row of no new funding opportunities (and a reminder of a cancellation). Not ominous, these are not the droids you're looking for.
Screenshot of the weekly NIH guide for grants and contracts which provides updates, particularly new/upcoming funding opportunities - showing there are none.
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Baker Lab @ Notre Dame @nd-bakerlab.bsky.social · 16/04/2025
Amen. I only do what I do because of Cosmos. I'll never forget the early 80s computer animation of DNA replication, followed by 10 year old me asking my mother how the enzyme knew what to do...
Cosmos series broadcast on PBS hosted by Carl Sagan.
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Baker Lab @ Notre Dame @nd-bakerlab.bsky.social · 13/04/2025
They're everywhere! Here's a particularly vicious one. Watch the fangs.
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Baker Lab @ Notre Dame @nd-bakerlab.bsky.social · 01/04/2025
Congratulations to the newly minted professional structural immunologist, Dr. Tatiana Rosales on passing her PhD defense!! Here's to Dr. Rosales and her cast of mighty morphin peptides!!
Photos of Tatiana Rosales, PhD
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Baker Lab @ Notre Dame @nd-bakerlab.bsky.social · 29/03/2025
Just superstar @chadbrambley.bsky.social doing some computational immunology this past week. Double checking the numbers the old fashioned way.
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Baker Lab @ Notre Dame @nd-bakerlab.bsky.social · 23/03/2025
Cover of Blue Oyster Cult's Fire of Unknown Origin album. Maybe this guy is a transplant surgeon / immunologist?
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Baker Lab @ Notre Dame @nd-bakerlab.bsky.social · 08/03/2025
Proud of the team, braving the cold to #standupforscience!
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Baker Lab @ Notre Dame @nd-bakerlab.bsky.social · 07/03/2025
#standupforscience
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Baker Lab @ Notre Dame @nd-bakerlab.bsky.social · 03/03/2025
Up to 19 listeners. Only one of them is me :) Album cover seems relevant to today...
Helaquinox on Spotify - yes, that's my kid.
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Baker Lab @ Notre Dame @nd-bakerlab.bsky.social · 05/02/2025
I am so excited. Small victories - find joy where you can. Preliminary data for the grant. @chadbrambley.bsky.social is a genius. Big errors because these are log scales, but still.
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Baker Lab @ Notre Dame @nd-bakerlab.bsky.social · 04/02/2025
In other news, this is really cool, trust me. Will almost certainly fall apart with more replicates, but we don't have those so yay, find joy where you can.
A cool scientific correlation that is one piece of good news for today.
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Baker Lab @ Notre Dame @nd-bakerlab.bsky.social · 26/01/2025
Taking a break from grant writing - because a) we need to keep writing grants cause that's what we do, b) you need to take breaks. So - almost have it at tempo!!!! Now I need a break from this ;) #RUSH #TomSawyer #NeilPeart
Actually, the hardest part of the drums to Tom Sawyer, especially that tom fill with the snare bits at the end.
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Baker Lab @ Notre Dame @nd-bakerlab.bsky.social · 20/01/2025
But in the neoantigen, the high frequency motions are reduced with an optimal position 2 anchor, and the gate is open, allowing the peptide to undergo the large conformational change upon TCR binding. 4/7
The central tryptophan of the peptide doing the limbo dance upon TCR binding.
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Baker Lab @ Notre Dame @nd-bakerlab.bsky.social · 14/01/2025
Program coming together! Lots of room for trainee talks + travel awards. Maybe the best conference you'll go to all year! Join us in Greece in October😀 Sessions from immunity to biophysics to protein design and everything in between. www.aegeanconferences.org/src/App/conf...
Poster for the 8th International Conference on the Molecular Perspectives of Protein Protein Interactions
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Baker Lab @ Notre Dame @nd-bakerlab.bsky.social · 06/12/2024
When a reviewer asks you for a whole bunch of extra stuff that doesn't change the paper but then can't be bothered to respond to the invitation to look at the revised version.
Picard asking WTF????
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Baker Lab @ Notre Dame @nd-bakerlab.bsky.social · 25/11/2024
Hello Bluesky. I'm Olive. I'm visiting Costa Rica and I love everybody and vice versa.
Picture of Olive the dog.
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Baker Lab @ Notre Dame @nd-bakerlab.bsky.social · 22/11/2024
Poster for 8th Protein Protein Interaction Conference
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Baker Lab @ Notre Dame @nd-bakerlab.bsky.social · 19/11/2024
And changing it up a little bit, here's Jon Batiste from a couple of months ago being the happiest person on the planet - ever, maybe!
Jon Batiste is the happiest dude ever.
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Baker Lab @ Notre Dame @nd-bakerlab.bsky.social · 18/11/2024
Of course!! I am only 1 week behind on this still unfinished review for Jamie, so let's take more time out. Not quite the same as taking your kids to Lamb of God (*awesome*), but here's Joe Satriani impersonating Eddie Van Halen (quite well, actually!) this past summer.
Joe Satriani channeling Eddie Van Halen
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Baker Lab @ Notre Dame @nd-bakerlab.bsky.social · 18/11/2024
Oh I can get behind this. Here's Iron Maiden last month in Chicago. Bruce Dickinson sounded amazing!
Iron Maiden! Iron Maiden!
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Baker Lab @ Notre Dame @nd-bakerlab.bsky.social · 17/11/2024
My postdoc Chad is happy today - kudos and congratulations!! More when (if?) the news becomes official. TCR cross-reactivity, you are on notice! #immunosky 🧬🧶🤘🤘
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