iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Hans Pfalzgraf @scihans.bsky.social · 25/06/2026

It tends to happen to me when I pour plates too thin and keep them more than a day at 37 °C 😁

Reposted by Hans Pfalzgraf

Pujuan Poppy Deng @poppy-pujuan-deng.bsky.social · 16/04/2026

I am so excited to share our new findings with you! We provide the structural evidence for a direct protein-to-DNA information pathway, showing how a bacterial enzyme 'reads' its own structure to 'write' DNA. www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

7231101

Reposted by Hans Pfalzgraf

Ed Hutchinson @socialinfluenza.bsky.social · 17/04/2026

🚨New pre-print!🚨 Because influenza virions are highly variable in form no single method can show their molecular architecture in detail. Here, we integrate multiple structural and compositional approaches to identify new features of these beautiful virus particles www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...

An illustration of an apical region of an animal cell in cross section, shown crowded with individual molecules. The plasma membrane is densely occupied by influenza virus glycoproteins, and from the surface bud influenza virions with different morphologies (L-R): spherical, bacilliform, filamentous with a genome, filamentous and empty, filamentous with a helical inner layer, and filamentous with a cofilactin cytoskeleton.

37428

Reposted by Hans Pfalzgraf

Torsten Schwede @torstenschwede.bsky.social · 21/04/2026

The CASP experiment is about to start - and is still short on challenging prediction targets. Ligand complexes, RNA, …

12016

Reposted by Hans Pfalzgraf

Mike Hough @mikehough.bsky.social · 25/02/2026

An exciting PhD studentship available between the U. of Manchester (Sam Lay) and Diamond Light Source -an opportunity to work with experimental time-resolved structural biology and state-of-the-art computational simulations to gain a deep understandingf enzymes. www.findaphd.com/phds/project...

findaphd.com

Understanding heme enzyme mechanism using dynamic, time resolved crystallography and QM/MM simulations at The University of Manchester on FindAPhD.com

PhD Project - Understanding heme enzyme mechanism using dynamic, time resolved crystallography and QM/MM simulations at The University of Manchester, listed on FindAPhD.com

032

Hans Pfalzgraf @scihans.bsky.social · 20/02/2026

Based on the image I'd say they forgot to count the water in the hydrate?

110

Hans Pfalzgraf @scihans.bsky.social · 14/11/2025

Came for the insightful, funny one-liners; stayed for the insightful, not-funny academic papers

010

Hans Pfalzgraf @scihans.bsky.social · 11/11/2025

If you want to help science museums and research centres from the list linked below, you can sign this open letter too! www.sciencecentres.org.uk/centres/

sciencecentres.org.uk

Find a Science Centre

000

Reposted by Hans Pfalzgraf

ChemShell @chemshell.bsky.social · 24/09/2025

High resolution structural biology approaches and ChemShell QM/MM simulations reveal an unusual structural feature in a cytochrome P460 enzyme, in research published in @chemicalscience.rsc.org For more details: chemshell.org/mcp460-doubl...

chemshell.org

Identifying an unusual structural feature in a cytochrome P460 enzyme - ChemShell

Structural and computational studies indicate the presence of a haem-lysine double crosslink in Methylococcus capsulatus cytochrome P460.

294

Hans Pfalzgraf @scihans.bsky.social · 22/09/2025

That's one cursed colour scheme for anyone who has learned a little chemistry 😂

Adenosine molecule represented as balls and sticks with carbon in red, oxygen in blue and nitrogen in green 🤢

010

Reposted by Hans Pfalzgraf

ProImmune @proimmune.bsky.social · 02/05/2025

Fascinating insights this #FluorescenceFriday, into complement delay-accelerating factor (DAF, CD55), identified by our Ankyron™ AC40301 (red) in HeLa cells (nuclei, blue) on @discoverecho.bsky.social #microscope. Find out more about our #animal-free Ankyrons™ at www.proimmune.com/ankyron

153

Hans Pfalzgraf @scihans.bsky.social · 17/07/2025

My protein crystals getting imaged by the Formulatrix Rock Imager. I think it's pretty awesome! 🥰 And convenient to be able to check the images from my desk, including time points to check growth. Beats sitting at a microscope where you can't drink tea! ☕ #Crystallography #ResearchComplexAtHarwell

020

Hans Pfalzgraf @scihans.bsky.social · 15/07/2025

They resealed the electron storage ring of the synchrotron @diamondlightsource.bsky.social during shutdown to get it ready for more experiments!

020

Hans Pfalzgraf @scihans.bsky.social · 17/04/2025

The work was challenging, but it seems like the dream job: it's fun, yet could also help save some of the tens of thousands of lives lost every year to this disease.

010

Hans Pfalzgraf @scihans.bsky.social · 17/04/2025

This week I harvested about 450 beautiful protein crystals, more than in my 7 previous years of crystallography! These are crystals of a Covid target in which I soaked promising drug fragments to see what binds and how.

Smiling Hans in a lab coat sitting with a crystal-harvesting wand in front of a Crystal Shifter robot with a microscope and a foam bucket of liquid nitrogen.

Two beautiful protein crystals shaped like squished pyramids seen in their drop using a light microscope.

150

Hans Pfalzgraf @scihans.bsky.social · 16/04/2025

I started a new job at @diamondlightsource.bsky.social! A 2nd protein crystallography postdoc, this time for antiviral drug discovery 🤩 It's only funded until October this year, but I'm sure I'll find something else after that 😁

A smiling Hans with a staff lanyard, standing inside the experimental hall of Diamond Light Source, the UK national synchrotron. There are the roofs of a couple beamlines and a yellow crane at the back. The curved wall has zone 4 indicated in red.

0100

Hans Pfalzgraf @scihans.bsky.social · 02/04/2025

Can I be added if I'm a postdoc in protein X-ray crystallography? 😁

000

Hans Pfalzgraf @scihans.bsky.social · 02/04/2025

Oh yeah I once lost a grid and found it again this way 😂

020

Hans Pfalzgraf @scihans.bsky.social · 27/03/2025

Thanks to all the authors for getting this through, especially Hannah who did most of the work! @mikehough.bsky.social

110

Hans Pfalzgraf @scihans.bsky.social · 27/03/2025

I'm particularly interested in how these properties in cytochromes P460 are affected by the unusual heme-protein crosslinking. This makes them green, distorts the heme and allows them to oxidise the iron-bound NH2OH to N2O, a greenhouse gas. This is basically what makes them #P460 instead of #P450!

A pretty protein structure made mostly of beta-sheets. There are two hemes, one per monomer. In P460, the heme is linked to a lysine residue and can do hydroxylamine oxidation. In one c prime beta, the heme has peroxidase-like activity. In another,it does gas binding.

110

Hans Pfalzgraf @scihans.bsky.social · 13/01/2025

For the record, I ended up using BANΔIT as it does the B-factor normalisation for you! Run it here: bandit.uni-mainz.de Paper: doi.org/10.1002/minf...

bandit.uni-mainz.de

BANΔIT: B’-factor analysis for drug design and structural biology

Online B-factor normalization

000

Hans Pfalzgraf @scihans.bsky.social · 10/01/2025

Thank you so much for adding me! My supervisor @mikehough.bsky.social came up with the title 😁

010

Hans Pfalzgraf @scihans.bsky.social · 06/01/2025

Hello, can I be added? I'm a biochemist currently making cool protein structures. Fresh pre-print on the discovery a new heme modification: www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1... Me: orcid.org/0000-0003-05... More papers to come! And I do good SciComm 😁

Line-angle formula of a heme c with a double crosslink to a lysine residue. The modification compared to a single N-C crosslink are highlighted in red: a double bond is added between the carbons CD and CE of the lysine. The double bond of pyrrole ring D has shifted away from the new C-C crosslink to become exocyclic.

110

Hans Pfalzgraf @scihans.bsky.social · 09/12/2024

Good idea, but actually not the same porphyrin nor the same ion 😋

000

Hans Pfalzgraf @scihans.bsky.social · 06/12/2024

I'll give a hint: there's iron in it 😁

000

Hans Pfalzgraf @scihans.bsky.social · 05/12/2024

Hello new followers! 👋 I'm a structural biologist 🧶🧬 currently having fun with unusual kinds of protein crystallography 💎 at Diamond Light Source. 😀 But my 3 years are almost over... 😢 So I'm looking for a lab-based biochemistry job 🧪 in the Oxford area. If you have any leads, please get in touch! 😁

Smiley Hans in the lab wearing proper PPE. Using a multichannel pipette to dispense buffers into a crystallisation plate based on electronic lab notes on a tablet.

839235

Hans Pfalzgraf @scihans.bsky.social · 29/11/2024

Cooool! That should make it easier to do time-resolved crystallography on it, right? And it will avoid using cow eyeballs 😂 How much protein do you get from a single prep?

000

Hans Pfalzgraf @scihans.bsky.social · 29/11/2024

I do like the phase biased cat! It helps understand why we have to do iterative building and beware of what looks suspiciously like the starting model. www.ysbl.york.ac.uk/~cowtan/four...

A noisy red silhouette of a cat with a half-faded tail. This happens when you take the phases of a tail-less cat and the Fourier magnitudes of a cat with tail.

041

Hans Pfalzgraf @scihans.bsky.social · 27/11/2024

Iris in CCP4i2 is very useful to find amino acid residues that are particularly more mobile at room temperature than in cryogenic conditions! #protein #crystallography 🧪 @glycojones.bsky.social I assume that's not the use you had in mind when leading its development? 😁 🧶🧬

250

Hans Pfalzgraf @scihans.bsky.social · 22/11/2024

Wow, I didn't know it was possible!

100

Hans Pfalzgraf @scihans.bsky.social · 21/11/2024

I don't know but I want to 😁 I shall patiently wait for someone to guess..

110

Hans Pfalzgraf @scihans.bsky.social · 21/11/2024

Making this green protein has been pretty great 🧪 Easy to find it and estimate concentration! But can you guess WHY it's green? 😋 🧶🧬

A few small tubes with dark green liquid, arranged in a half-circle

220

Hans Pfalzgraf @scihans.bsky.social · 15/11/2024

Blink and you might miss it moving! The Scorpion is my current favourite instrument. It can make my 96 conditions (2D gradient of concentrations) in half an hour. And look SUPER COOL doing it! 😆 #crystallography 🧪

030

Hans Pfalzgraf @scihans.bsky.social · 15/11/2024

Hello, could I be added to the Structural Biology starter pack please? 😀

110

Hans Pfalzgraf @scihans.bsky.social · 13/11/2024

Good takes indeed! When talking about people tha are at a disadvantage in networking, I think that also includes people who have caretaking responsibilities.

000