iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Reposted by Shaun McKinnie

Dr Laura Sanchez @drlaurasanchez.bsky.social · 05/02/2026

Hey all, excited to share this collab w/ @shaunmckinnie.bsky.social TL;DR we combined our expertise to develop and validate a MALDI-tims platform for screening the production of isomeric small molecules (~212 Da) directly from E coli colonies in high throughput www.cell.com/cell-reports...

cell.com

A high-throughput biocatalytic platform for screening isomeric kainoid natural products

Shepherd and Ramachandra et al. present a fast, chromatography-free method for resolving isomeric products from engineered enzymes. This platform enables large-scale screening and identifies improved ...

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Shaun McKinnie @shaunmckinnie.bsky.social · 30/12/2025

Excited to update that our 2023/24 CURE lab manuscript is now published at the Journal of Natural Products (pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/ac…) and was selected as the ACS Editor's Choice article for Dec. 30, 2025! Huge congrats to Austin and our phenomenal 12 undergrad co-authors!

pubs.acs.org

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Shaun McKinnie @shaunmckinnie.bsky.social · 31/10/2025

Introducing the new McKinnie lab aka the ChemPop (Ph)Demon Hunters! Incredibly fun participating in the annual Chemistry and Biochemistry Department Halloween Costume Party - it’s always exciting to see everyone’s costumes, creativity, and acting talent on full display!

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Shaun McKinnie @shaunmckinnie.bsky.social · 31/10/2025

Huge congratulations to Dr. Jennifer Cordoza for completing her PhD (aka PLPhD) and giving a tour-de-force dissertation seminar on PLP enzyme discovery, early biocatalytic application, and phenomenal undergrad mentoring efforts! Congrats again Dr. Cordoza, we’re all very proud of you!!

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Reposted by Shaun McKinnie

bioRxivpreprint @biorxivpreprint.bsky.social · 16/10/2025

IDBac: an open-access web platform and compendium for the identification of bacteria by MALDI-TOF mass spectrometry. www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/202…

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Shaun McKinnie @shaunmckinnie.bsky.social · 14/10/2025

Thrilled to share our latest pre-print where our 2023-2024 class of 12 talented undergraduate researchers and (now Dr.) Austin Hopiavuori interrogated the unique nonheme iron enzyme BesE using a chemical and biochemical approach! Check it out here: www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

biorxiv.org

CURE-ating the substrate scope and functional residues of nonheme iron(II) α-ketoglutarate dependent hydroxylase BesE

Nonheme iron (II) α-ketoglutarate-dependent dioxygenases (Fe/αKGs) play important roles in functionalizing biological substrates from individual amino acids up to macromolecules. BesE, a unique homolo...

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Shaun McKinnie @shaunmckinnie.bsky.social · 01/07/2025

Tenured! It’s been a remarkable six years at UC Santa Cruz full of many unexpected obstacles but even more triumphs! I’m incredibly proud of the phenomenal team that we’ve assembled and am excited to have the continued opportunity to grow and share our collective successes!

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Shaun McKinnie @shaunmckinnie.bsky.social · 28/05/2025

Congrats to Dr. Austin Hopiavuori for giving a masterful dissertation seminar today and being McKinnie lab PhD #2! Austin has done phenomenal work on biosynthetic non-heme iron enzymes and helped quarterback our inaugural CURE lab last year. Incredibly proud of you Dr. Hopiavuori!

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Shaun McKinnie @shaunmckinnie.bsky.social · 24/05/2025

Huge congrats to Dr. Jackson Baumgartner for completing his PhD dissertation seminar this afternoon! Jackson was an inaugural lab member and has done a phenomenal job exploring VHPO enzymology! Incredibly proud of all your achievements Dr. Baumgartner and thanks for being PhD #1 from McKinnie lab!

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Shaun McKinnie @shaunmckinnie.bsky.social · 09/04/2025

Come be our colleague! UCSC Chemistry and Biochemistry is looking for a tenure track Assistant Teaching Professor for general chemistry courses!

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Reposted by Shaun McKinnie

Needhi Bhalla 💅🏽 @needhibhalla.bsky.social · 01/04/2025

Hi all, I'm hiring a junior specialist/research technician for my lab at UCSC. An ideal applicant would be an undergraduate who would like more research experience before applying for grad school but all are welcome to apply 🧪 recruit.ucsc.edu/JPF01882

recruit.ucsc.edu

Bhalla Lab - Research Specialist (Junior Specialist)

University of California, Santa Cruz is hiring. Apply now!

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Reposted by Shaun McKinnie

The Tidgewell Research Lab @thetidgelab.bsky.social · 08/04/2025

Really fun visit to @ucsantacruz.bsky.social for a seminar Huge thanks to @drlaurasanchez.bsky.social for the invite Tried my best to channel banana slugs and was rewarded with a couple along the walk in 😁

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Reposted by Shaun McKinnie

Ali Shariati @ali-shariati.bsky.social · 20/03/2025

👋 first post here! I’m excited to start by sharing our work on CRISPRa-programmed embryo models! We show that CRISPR activation of 2 elements is sufficient to form an embryo model similar to a natural embryo www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti... @cp-cellstemcell.bsky.social @ucscgenomics.bsky.social

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Shaun McKinnie @shaunmckinnie.bsky.social · 03/03/2025

Thrilled to team up with @drlaurasanchez.bsky.social, @robbieshepherd.bsky.social, Conrad, and Alex and summarize a great amount of work around how advances in MS have accelerated high throughput screening for enzyme evolution! Also excited to share our collaborative work in this area pretty soon 👀!

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Shaun McKinnie @shaunmckinnie.bsky.social · 25/02/2025

Phenomenal seminar by Prof. Jaclyn Winter today at UCSC! Remarkable and inspiring work on Great Salt Lake microbiology, metagenomics, biosynthesis, NP isolation, structure elucidation and so much more - huge thanks for making the trip out here Jackie!

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Reposted by Shaun McKinnie

Dr Laura Sanchez @drlaurasanchez.bsky.social · 14/02/2025

Better late than never, loved hosting Dr Moore @ucsantacruz.bsky.social we enjoyed a nice hike before this rain curtesy of @shaunmckinnie.bsky.social #workhusbands #peptides

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Shaun McKinnie @shaunmckinnie.bsky.social · 29/01/2025

I got a sneak peek of this awesome story in Dec. 2023 by being on Dr. Manasa Ramachandra’s excellent PhD defense committee! And was so impressed that we had to recruit her as a postdoc for our own oxidative cyclase projects! Huge congratulations Manasa, @avenaross.bsky.social and team!

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Reposted by Shaun McKinnie

April Lukowski @aprillukowski.bsky.social · 05/12/2024

Come be my colleague! We’re hiring an assistant professor in marine natural products and marine biotechnology at SIO - check out this link to learn more: apol-recruit.ucsd.edu/JPF04101

apol-recruit.ucsd.edu

Marine Natural Products/Marine Biotechnology - Assistant Professor

University of California, San Diego is hiring. Apply now!

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Shaun McKinnie @shaunmckinnie.bsky.social · 17/12/2024

Amazing seminar from Aaron Puri today who shared his lab’s work on microbial chemical ecology, natural product chemistry, biosynthesis, and cool new analytical techniques! Thanks for making the trip out to UCSC!

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Reposted by Shaun McKinnie

Dr Laura Sanchez @drlaurasanchez.bsky.social · 17/12/2024

Excited to have Arron Puri visiting @ucsantacruz.bsky.social for #SMComm today @shaunmckinnie.bsky.social

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