iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

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Institute of Science and Technology Austria (ISTA) @istaresearch.bsky.social · 03/09/2026

With projects on AI, astrophysics, bacterial immune systems, quantum matter, and optics, five ISTA researchers have secured €9.2 million in highly selective Starting Grants from the ERC @erc.europa.eu. Read: ista.ac.at/en/news/e9-2-million-in-…

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paulschanda.bsky.social @paulschanda.bsky.social · 30/08/2026

The ICMRBS conference in Davos has been fantastic. Relaxed atmosphere, top science, great opportunities to connect. I'm happy to be part of the #NMR community, a supportive & friendly crowd. Thanks @icmrbs2026.bsky.social for everything! The (short) bike trip back was a nice way to finish the week.

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paulschanda.bsky.social @paulschanda.bsky.social · 20/08/2026

Glad to see it finally rains in the Alps, while cycling to Davos @icmrbs2026.bsky.social. Nature desperately needed water. (On my bike, I was a bit less in desperate need of water, though... ) Beautiful scenery even in clouds.

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paulschanda.bsky.social @paulschanda.bsky.social · 19/08/2026

On my way to @icmrbs2026.bsky.social. From Austria through beautiful Slovenia, and the Dolomites. Looking forward to a nice conference. When I see the terribly dry Alps, I have mixed feelings about these conferences that bring together people from around the world. But clearly, they are useful.

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paulschanda.bsky.social @paulschanda.bsky.social · 19/08/2026

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Stephanie Wankowicz @stephanieaw.bsky.social · 11/08/2026

Most PDB structures report one set of coordinates. But the experimental data behind them, in both X-ray crystallography and cryo-EM, is produced by an ensemble of structures. How to extract this ensemble data at scale has been a quest in structural biology for 40+ years.

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paulschanda.bsky.social @paulschanda.bsky.social · 08/08/2026

Planning my bike ride from Austria to the ICMRBS conference. What an amazing idea to have it in one of the nicest places in the alps, icmrbs2026.bsky.social! AND to make the train ride free for participants.

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Institute of Science and Technology Austria (ISTA) @istaresearch.bsky.social · 02/07/2026

How do light particles behave when confined to billionths of a meter? How can these phenomena drive discoveries in imaging, communication, & quantum technologies? These are the questions driving Charles Roques‑Carmes, the newest #faculty member at ISTA. More: bit.ly/4axfYf9

Physicist and engineer Charles Roques-Carmes. © ISTA

Charles Roques-Carmes (fourth from the left) and his group members at ISTA. © ISTA

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paulschanda.bsky.social @paulschanda.bsky.social · 29/06/2026

Happy to see our paper out today: Guiding AlphaFold3 with experimental data. We are totally excited about the possibility to leverage the power of AlphaFold3 AND of experiments! www.nature.com/articles/s41... It has been a fantastic collaboration with great colleagues in the Bronstein team at ISTA.

nature.com

Experiment-guided AlphaFold3 resolves measurement-consistent protein ensembles - Nature Biotechnology

A generative model using AlphaFold3 as prior infers protein conformational ensembles consistent with measured experimental data.

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paulschanda.bsky.social @paulschanda.bsky.social · 27/06/2026

Huge congrats to Lewis! From my very first days in #NMR (and until now!), Lewis’ work has been an immense source of inspiration for me — outstanding in scientific rigor, technical elegance, with groundbreaking applications that reveal, for example, "invisible" transient states crucial for function.

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Institute of Science and Technology Austria (ISTA) @istaresearch.bsky.social · 22/06/2026

Professor Leonid Sazanov and postdoc Ziyu Zhao just published their latest research in @cp-molcell.bsky.social.

📷Leonid Sazanov (left) and Ziyu Zhao (right). © ISTA

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paulschanda.bsky.social @paulschanda.bsky.social · 15/06/2026

Have a look our recent story about protein dynamics, led by Lea Becker. Her insights into the impact of crystal packing on protein dynamics have implications for #structural-biology, #NMR and #crystallography.

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paulschanda.bsky.social @paulschanda.bsky.social · 14/06/2026

📢 New publication. We answered an old question in structural biology: (how) does the crystal lattice impact proteins? In particular, how does the crystal restrict the protein's dynamics? We used local probes of dynamics: the rotation of aromatic rings. 🧵 www.nature.com/articles/s41...

nature.com

Aromatic ring flips reveal reshaping of protein dynamics in crystals and complexes - Nature Chemistry

The extent to which crystal packing constrains protein dynamics is hard to decipher. Now a combination of NMR, crystallography and molecular dynamics simulations show that intermolecular contacts can ...

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paulschanda.bsky.social @paulschanda.bsky.social · 20/05/2026

📢New paper: Dynamic disorder is crucial for mitochondrial protein import onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/... Exciting research increasingly points to the key role of dynamics in the machinery that brings proteins into #mitochondria. We review the emerging picture of dynamics in #protein import

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paulschanda.bsky.social @paulschanda.bsky.social · 16/04/2026

New publication: mr.copernicus.org/articles/7/2... Congrats to Lea Becker for this work, which she lead from the experiment design to the manuscript. Amazing to work with PhD students like Lea. We show how to accelerate 19F solid-state #NMR experiments, with application to a 0.5 MDa large protein.

mr.copernicus.org

Accelerated 19F biomolecular magic-angle spinning NMR with paramagnetic dopants

Abstract. The advantageous characteristics attributed to the 19F nucleus have made it a popular target for nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) once again in recent years. Aside from solution NMR, an incr...

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paulschanda.bsky.social @paulschanda.bsky.social · 18/03/2026

Returning from an amazing Proteostasis meeting, with lots of new ideas & grateful for great feedback about our mitochondrial-import work. Traveling back from Frankfurt to Vienna by train, I am reminded of the CO2-emissions savings of train vs. plane travel. Also in 2026, I won't take a plane.

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paulschanda.bsky.social @paulschanda.bsky.social · 18/03/2026

I heard many great lectures of yours, and have no doubt that this is highly deserved. Congrats!

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paulschanda.bsky.social @paulschanda.bsky.social · 14/03/2026

Scientists: How long have you waited for journal editors to decide whether the journal sends your manuscript out for review? I’m at 2+ months with a “prestigious” journal — not easy when working in a competitive field. What’s the longest you’ve experienced? #AcademicPublishing #PeerReview

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paulschanda.bsky.social @paulschanda.bsky.social · 24/02/2026

New preprint, a technical paper showing how 19F #NMR of proteins in solids can be accelerated, lead by Lea Becker at @istaresearch.bsky.social. mr.copernicus.org/preprints/mr... Magnetic Resonance has an open interactive public peer reviewing system, where anyone can contribute to the discussion.

mr.copernicus.org

Accelerated 19F biomolecular magic-angle spinning NMR with paramagnetic dopants

Abstract. The advantageous characteristics attributed to the 19F nucleus have made it a popular target for NMR once again in recent years. Aside from solution NMR, an increasing number of studies have...

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paulschanda.bsky.social @paulschanda.bsky.social · 23/01/2026

Very nice preprint that shows that protein crystallographic structures can be used to reveal the entropy of ligand binding. www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...

biorxiv.org

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paulschanda.bsky.social @paulschanda.bsky.social · 21/01/2026

A recent podcast by Stephanie Wankowicz and James @fraserlab.com picked up our work (with Alex Bronstein & coworkers) on Guiding AlphaFold3 with experimental data (cryoEM, X-ray, NMR) to generate protein ensembles. (Thanks for the kind words 🙂) 👉 creators.spotify.com/pod/profile/... (from 35:50)

creators.spotify.com

Episode 8: Open Science in a Changing Academic World by The Tortured Proteins Department

Topics:Compact for Academic Excellence in Higher EducationGovernment ShutdownHHMI's new open science policiesShrinking PhD poolsThe Nobel PrizesThe BearTLOS ReactionsPreprint: Experiment-guided AlphaF...

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paulschanda.bsky.social @paulschanda.bsky.social · 20/01/2026

📢 Check out Ben Tatman's talk in the Magnetic Resonance Seminar series online (see details below). He will talk about methods to probe protein dynamics by magic-angle spinning #NMR. Friday, Jan 23, noon CET.

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paulschanda.bsky.social @paulschanda.bsky.social · 14/01/2026

📢 New preprint alert! How do proteins enter mitochondria? We uncovered a surprising mechanism at the mitochondrial entry gate—using #NMR, in vivo single-particle tracking, yeast experiments, and MD simulations to crack the code. www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6... #StructuralBiology #Mitochondria 🧵 1/8

biorxiv.org

A dynamic displacement mechanism drives protein import into mitochondria

Most mitochondrial proteins are produced in the cytosol and imported through the translocase of the outer mitochondrial membrane (TOM) to reach their final destination. Although this protein entry gat...

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paulschanda.bsky.social @paulschanda.bsky.social · 12/01/2026

📢 Join us at the first Austrian #NMR meeting. Organised by a fantastic group of young international NMR researchers, this meeting is great opportunity for postdocs and students to contribute their science with a talk or poster. And to see great invited speakers. austrian-nmr-meeting.pages.ist.ac.at

austrian-nmr-meeting.pages.ist.ac.at

Next Austrian NMR Meeting 2026

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paulschanda.bsky.social @paulschanda.bsky.social · 17/11/2025

#NMR spectroscopists in and around Austria: join us for this meeting. A few great keynote speakers, and lots of space for contributed talks from students and postdocs. Taking place at ISTA @istaresearch.bsky.social in February 2026

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Federico Napoli @iomichiamofede.bsky.social · 17/11/2025

So excited to announce the first 🧲 Next Austrian NMR Meeting 🧲, happening @ ISTA, Feb 26–27, 2026! Plus a satellite workshop, 💊 “ #NMR in #DrugDiscovery” 🧭 on Feb 25! 📅 Registration: Dec 1, 2025 🌐 Program, venue: austrian-nmr-meeting.pages.ist.ac.at #NMRchat #Austria 1/4

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paulschanda.bsky.social @paulschanda.bsky.social · 10/11/2025

I had the pleasure to work with amazing students at @istaresearch.bsky.social on a nice "side project": Understanding the travel-related carbon emissions of our institute, and how much planes pollute (compared to trains) -- and then applying all this to analyze the footprint of #NMR conferences. ->🧵

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paulschanda.bsky.social @paulschanda.bsky.social · 26/10/2025

Looking forward to hosting Kresten Lindorff-Larsen's talk tomorrow. I am looking forward to seeing ISTA's main lecture hall of full, and hearing the latest developments of tools to predict, design and study intrinsically disordered proteins. @istaresearch.bsky.social

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paulschanda.bsky.social @paulschanda.bsky.social · 18/10/2025

📢 New preprint: Experiment-guided AlphaFold3 resolves accurate protein ensembles. doi.org/10.1101/2025... AlphaFold3 is incredible, but has crucial limitations: it typically collapses to a single conformation, ignoring the inherent dynamics of proteins. And it can be wrong. Here's a solution. 🧵👇

Structures from AlphaFold3 - while often impressively good - tend to fail representing the dynamic ensembles accurately. And often parts of the structure are not correct.
Adding experimental data, directly in AlphaFold's diffusion step, provides physically realistic protein ensembles. This image shows two cases where AlphaFold3-only structures were largely improved by guiding with experimental data.

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Florian Schur @schurlab.bsky.social · 15/10/2025

ISTA @istaresearch.bsky.social is hiring a tenure-track staff scientist in Computational Structural Biology, to develop tools for cryo-EM, cryo-ET, structural prediction methods and protein interaction analysis! Please spread the word! ista.ac.at/en/job/tenur...

ista.ac.at

Tenure-based Research Staff Scientist Position in Computational Structural Biology

ISTA (www.ista.ac.at) is seeking a highly skilled Staff Scientist in Computational Structural Biology to support and advance the Institute’s structural biology research through the development and imp...

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paulschanda.bsky.social @paulschanda.bsky.social · 08/10/2025

Today, teaching again our sustainability course at @istaresearch.bsky.social, we discussed about the "addiction" of humanity to fossil fuels. The promise of carbon capture and storage ("we'll solve it later") is so convenient, and who cares today that it probably won't ever work ...?

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paulschanda.bsky.social @paulschanda.bsky.social · 08/10/2025

🌟 Huge congrats to Darja Rohden for winning the L’Oréal For Women in Science Award 2025! 🎓 Darja works in our group @istaresearch.bsky.social and at @univie.ac.at, funded by @fwf-at.bsky.social on chemical synthesis of amino acids and protein #nmr. 👉 Get more details in the thread. 1/n

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Jack Bravo @jpkbravo.bsky.social · 15/09/2025

Join us for the Austrian Cryo-EM Symposium Nov 11–12 at @istaresearch.bsky.social! Top speakers, cutting-edge cryo-EM, and a chance to explore Vienna & the ISTA campus. Register now 👉 cryoem-symposium.pages.ist.ac.at #cryoEM #teamtomo

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paulschanda.bsky.social @paulschanda.bsky.social · 03/10/2025

ISTA's Science Experience Center opens with a nice festival. If you are in the Vienna area, come and enjoy.

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paulschanda.bsky.social @paulschanda.bsky.social · 03/10/2025

📢 New paper: a combination of a new isotope labelling with solution-NMR, allowing to assign methyl groups even in large proteins -- we've tested it with our favourite ~130 kDa enzyme and a 70 kDa receptor. ->see thread 1/n @istaresearch.bsky.social @univie.ac.at www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

sciencedirect.com

A Novel HMBC-CC-HMQC NMR Strategy for Methyl Assignment Using Triple-13C-Labeled α-Ketoisovalerate Integrated with UCBShift 2.0

In this study, we describe an integrated approach for methyl group assignment comprising precursor-based selective methyl group labeling, a novel puls…

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Institute of Science and Technology Austria (ISTA) @istaresearch.bsky.social · 22/09/2025

The VISTA Science Experience Center Opening Festival offers a free, diverse program for science, art & music lovers. Several activities, incl. exhibition tours, keynotes, and panel discussions, will also be accessible with sign language interpretation. Join us from Oct 3-5! bit.ly/4mnJ3Ne

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paulschanda.bsky.social @paulschanda.bsky.social · 08/09/2025

Check out these thoughts about reviewing preprints. I agree, a change in the culture and practices would be very welcome.

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Global NMR Discussion Meetings @globalnmr.bsky.social · 05/09/2025

Join us on Tuesday, September 9, at 5 PM Paris/ 11 AM Boston/8:30 PM Delhi for a talk by Dr. Vineeth Francis Thalakottoor: PyOR: A Versatile Magnetic Resonance Simulator for Learning and Teaching #NMR #NMRchat #ChemSky

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Clemens Anklin @canklin.bsky.social · 05/09/2025

@Bruker #NMR User Meetings are coming to the US. Join us either in Washington DC on Oct. 28. or in La Jolla CA on Nov. 4. 2025. You can see the agenda and register here. www.bruker.com/en/news-and-...

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paulschanda.bsky.social @paulschanda.bsky.social · 02/09/2025

Check out Fede's and Darja's MAS #NMR / isotope-labeling paper.

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Chris Waudby @chriswaudby.bsky.social · 28/08/2025

I’m carrying out a short survey of NMR TITAN users - if you’ve made use of this tool in your research, or have suggestions for its future development, I’d be grateful for your input: forms.gle/MMXYwSozszhi... #nmrchat

forms.gle

NMR TITAN user survey

This survey aims to assess the impact of NMR TITAN on biomolecular research and identify priorities for future development. The form should take approximately 5 minutes to complete. Your responses may...

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paulschanda.bsky.social @paulschanda.bsky.social · 25/08/2025

New publication: Arginine dynamics probed by magic-angle spinning NMR with a specific isotope-labeling scheme Our selective arginine labeling yields well-resolved 1H-detected spectra in solids (and solution). We apply it to study dynamics in crystalline ubiquitin and a >130 kDa large enzyme 1/2

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paulschanda.bsky.social @paulschanda.bsky.social · 25/08/2025

📢 New preprint: Aromatic Ring Flips Reveal Reshaping of Protein Dynamics in Crystals and Complexes. We addressed a long-standing question that people debated already in the 1970s - but it still remained open: Do proteins in crystals move as they do in solution? We used ring flips to find out. 1/n

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Patrick van der Wel @pcavanderwel.bsky.social · 13/08/2025

The start of the upcoming Alpine Conference on Magnetic Resonance in Solids (in #Chamonix) is just a month away. Really looking forward to it - a nice variety of interesting science coming up, looking at the program and abstracts! ghttps://alpine-conference.org #ssNMR (and more) …

alpine-conference.org

Alpine Conference on Magnetic Resonance in Solids

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paulschanda.bsky.social @paulschanda.bsky.social · 06/08/2025

I'm deeply saddened by the situation in Gaza. Over the last 15 years I have frequently worked as reviewer for Israeli research institutions and funding agencies (for free; common in academia). In light of the situation I refuse to do that work in the future, until very strong changes happen.

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