Abhishek Chatterjee

Got the chance to put together the "Click of Chemical Biologists" starter pack v1 and v2 over the Thanksgiving Break. Feel free to ping me on who else I might be missing! V1: go.bsky.app/3P5i7nJ V2: go.bsky.app/Cr4ej7

🚨🚨 A comprehensive review by Rahul Sarkar and Manas Joshi on genetically encoded bioorthogonal noncanonical amino acids, chemical reactions used for their chemoselective labeling, advantages and limitations of each approach, and the applications they unlock! onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/...

Development of m6A Readers for Enhanced Recognition In Vitro via Genetic Code Expansion ACS chemical biology · Addo et al. doi.org/10.1021/acschembio.6c00476 #RNAsky #RNAmods

Thank you @onoinitiative.bsky.social for the support!

We found a viral Trojan Horse: a virus can hide inside another virus.This one surprised us: deltaviruses don’t just borrow a helper virus. They can travel inside it. A literal Trojan Horse “virus-in-a-virus” route into cells. 🤯 Kudos to 1st author @viroscope.bsky.social and co-authors !

👀 A small polymerase ribozyme that can synthesize itself and its complementary strand! www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

Starting 2026 with Quan Pham's paper expanding the chemical toolbox for engineering AAV - New bioorthogonal labeling, including IEDDA, for efficient macromolecule attachment - Incorporation of two different chemistries for dual capsid labeling & much more: onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10....

Nice work from the Deliz Liang lab @lab-adl.bsky.social on genetically encoding diverse His analogs

🚨Our paper is out! 🥳 Hijacking a bacterial ABC transporter for efficient genetic code expansion. Many congrats to everyone involved - a multi-year effort led by @taruniype.bsky.social @maxfottner.bsky.social www.nature.com/articles/s41... it all started years ago with a failed experiment 🧵👇 1/9

Our latest work seeks to answer a longstanding question: why is discovering new protein binders seemingly unpredictable – and can we better quantify and understand the de novo binder discover process? 1/12 www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

Excited to share our work with Eranthie Weerapana and Tim van Opijnen, co-led by Conor Loynd, Soumya Roy, and Sarah Canarelli! We introduce a new generation of BONCAT tools for the versatile characterization of newly synthesized proteins in pathogenic bacteria. rdcu.be/eI4M5

Faculty opening in Cornell Chemistry at the Assistant Professor level in the area of chemical biology, broadly defined! academicjobsonline.org/ajo/jobs/30338 #chemjobs

Thrilled to see this in print! Co-translational incorporation of a noncanonical monomer into a protein, followed by its triggered post-translational chemical rearrangement, yields novel backbone modifications. One step closer to novel genetically encoded biopolymers!

Continuous evolution in E. coli using an orthogonal replisome www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

Cool technology from the @chembiobryan.bsky.social lab for high-throughput discovery of protein binders

Finally out in Nature Chem Bio: SNAP-tag2 for faster and brighter protein labeling www.nature.com/articles/s41... Thank you Steffi and Veselin.

The further a researcher or inventor moves from their previous work, the less cited their latest work will be https://go.nature.com/44VjEW9

I am a big believe of doing your own research and checking facts and sources. BUT THE BIG PROBLEM IS THAT A POST FROM SOME DUDE ON THE INTERNET SHOULD NOT BE WEIGHTED THE SAME AS INFORMATION FROM SOMEONE WHO HAS SPENT DECADES STUDYING AN ISSUE.

Chemists Stuart Schreiber of Harvard University and Arena BioWorks and Peter Schultz of @scripps.edu will split the 2025 Welch Award in Chemistry for their work in the field of chemical biology. cen.acs.org/people/award... #chemsky🧪

They're terminating OPT. Today the nominee to head USCIS stated directly: he will end Optional Practical Training, the single largest channel for high-skill immigrants to work in the US. 6 weeks ago I warned about this & summarized the research on impacts of this drastic action—> @piie.com

Happy to share a paper from our group on "MapID-tRNA-seq" for confidently identifying modifications by RT mutation signatures in human tRNAs. This method will enable future discoveries of modifications' occurrence and functions in tRNA biology and diseases. www.cell.com/cell-chemica...

HAPPY 75th, NSF! We’re celebrating this milestone by highlighting some of NSF’s most transformative accomplishments—innovations that have shaped our world and continue to drive progress in health, technology, the environment, and beyond. Read on 🧵(1/11):

🧪 Though a doubling of NSF's budget might seem far-fetched, that's exactly what Congress said what's needed to maintain national competitiveness in science & tech. From the bipartisan CHIPS and Science Act of 2022:

Escherichia coli with a 57-codon genetic code https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.05.02.651837v1

BREAKING: Reports that Trump would try to cut NIH's budget by 40% have come true. The request released moments ago would: - Cut $18 BILLION to NIH's $47b budget - Eliminate NIMHD, NCCIH, FIC - Collapse ICs into five 'focus areas' There's also a long screed about NIH's deficiencies.

Badass Surgeon Puts On Fingerless Latex Gloves Before Operating

So excited for the annual student-organized Chemistry-Biology Interface symposium today! Amazing lineup including @hsulab.bsky.social @achemsynbio.bsky.social, Sloan Devlin (Harvard), & Nick Agard (Genentech) + stellar Cornell student and faculty speakers. Looking forward to some great science!

Quick look at NSF GRFPs awarded 2021-2025. Overall 50% drop from 2024, with biggest absolute decreases in engineering, life sciences and chemistry. (sorry about the meh viz, in a hurry)

Congrats to lead author Doug and team on their new preprint, which describes a genome mining strategy to find non-canonical amino acid-based secondary metabolites outside of RiPP and NRPS pathways! Read more below: chemrxiv.org/engage/chemr...

Cool work from @klanglab.bsky.social group on identifying and engineering a novel bacterial transporter to import challenging noncanonical amino acids in E. coli, enabling improved incorporation efficiency proteinsproteinshttps://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.03.06.641855v1.abstract

ATTENTION: ADVISORY COUNCIL MEETINGS Nothing posted yet in the Federal Register I had heard that at least some institutes and centers had tentatively scheduled "make-up" meetings in April but are no longer planning these. 1/2

I’m a biomedical researcher who lost his wife to cancer. Finding cures is personal to me. What’s happening at the NIH is devastating. Here’s my editorial in my hometown newspaper. www.vindy.com/opinion/edit...

Confirmation!! And including open sessions!

I now have multiple sources that say at least one round of NATIONAL ADVISORY COUNCIL MEETINGS will now be announced in the Federal Register.

Some encouraging news on the NIH front. The NIA council meeting that was cancelled in January convened virtually in the last day or so and voted on pending grants. This should free up some Alzheimer’s funding.

Bluetorial: My NIH grant got funded; The money is in the bank What happens behind the scenes with NIH fund transfers

ACTION ITEM I was chatting with a young scientist who expressed concern re the multiplicity of ongoing issues Over the course of our conversation, we arrived at the idea of a DASHBOARD where issues could be tracked If anyone is interested in helping with this (ideally with expertise) please DM me

NASA has closed its chief science office, its technology/policy/strategy office, and the DEI branch of its equal opportunity office. 23 people have been fired, per a HQ spokesperson.

www.nih.gov/news-events/...

Judge issues preliminary injunction blocking Trump cuts to NIH research overhead payments www.statnews.com/2025/03/05/n...

NIGMS encouraged PIs to consolidate their grants into a single R35, which requires a PEDP. I appreciated this move for the increased efficiency and fairness. Now it makes those PIs an easy target. Resistance is necessary.