Caitie McCafferty

Happy to finally share that I will be starting my independent group at the @fmiscience.bsky.social in Feb 2027 in a vibrant new environment. We will use integrative in situ structural cell biology methods to investigate ciliary structure and dynamics in several model (and non-model 👀) systems!!

Omg!!! I’m not a photosynthesis girl, but this has piqued 🏔️ my interest. Amazing use of CLEM and cryo-ET to link mol bio w environmental limitations 🔬🦠☀️

In their Cell Science at a Glance article and associated poster, @phaips.vd.st, Benjamin Engel @cellarchlab.com & @manondemulder.bsky.social highlight the current insights and future directions of pyrenoid and CO2-concentrating mechanism research. journals.biologists.com/jcs/article/...

We are updating our Expansion Microscopy (U-ExM) website with : - Protocols tips to help you get started - Examples of applications across different biological systems. - work in progress - an antibody database 👉 mocel.unige.ch/research-gro...

Huge congratulations to all three Nobel Laureates, and especially Peter Hegemann! 👏 His seminal work on the green alga Chlamydomonas 🦠 laid the foundation for optogenetics. Thank you for putting Chlamy in the spotlight! ✨ Proof that groundbreaking discoveries don't always come from animal models! 🔬

If you’ve always been curious about how algae fix carbon, @phaips.vd.st, @cellarchlab.com and I have put together the quickest route into pyrenoids. And if you don’t feel like reading at all, we have an accompanying poster doi.org/10.1242/jcs....

Experience w proteomics data analysis? Come to the FMI!! #proteomics #massspec

We’re hiring! The FMI Computational Biology Facility is seeking a Computational Biologist with experience in proteomics data analysis. Join a collaborative team working with scientists across the FMI to turn complex datasets into biological insight. Apply by Oct 25: www.fmi.ch/education-ca...

Do you want to label the nuclear envelope? Do you work on a non-model species? Try Concanavalin A! We tested ConA on various species across the eukaryotic tree and find it is a very useful ExM-compatible marker for the NE and ER. Read all about it in our preprint: www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...

I am looking for a lab manager for my group that I will be starting at the @fmiscience.bsky.social in February! We will use in situ structural biology to investigate dynamic ciliary processes. More info here —> bsky.app/profile/comp... #cilia #teamtomo #proteomics #protistsky

Some exciting news: I'm joining the University of Lausanne @unil.bsky.social @dbc-unil.bsky.social as an Assistant Professor next month 🎉 My group will work on context-aware deep learning for protein structure, interaction & design. Postdoc and PhD openings coming soon - keep an eye out!

What does a single-celled organism tell us about the origins of complex behaviour? Delighted to see the final version of our paper: Embodied behavioural complexity in a ciliated microorganism out in@natcomms.nature.com (Funded by @erc.europa.eu ERC) doi.org/10.1038/s414... #cilia #protistsonsky

Cilia alert! Last year Juyeon Hong described a new domain in 9+2 cilia called the EDT, the extreme distal tip. Now, she's found a new protein required for its assembly, but only in non-mammalian vertebrates. A cool evo-cell / protein evolution story in @cellreports.bsky.social tinyurl.com/2xvdskx6

This story is now published in @natplants.nature.com ! 🎉🎩 Check out the final article here: nature.com/articles/s41477-026-02361-1 Very similar to the original bioRxiv preprint, with the addition of some cool polysome analysis (in the supplementals)! Thanks and congrats to everyone involved! 🙏

The artist formerly known as #thatmitoriboguy has now become #thatchlororiboguy Check out some cool tomo from @florentwaltz.bsky.social @phaips.vd.st

Super excited to launch this search for a new endowed professor at the @biozentrum.unibas.ch! Join us to build a research cluster in Climate Biophysics! 🌍🌊🌾🔬🧪 This is a unique opportunity to create a community in Basel🇨🇭working together on this timely topic! ⏳🌡️ Questions? Please reach out! 👩‍🔬👨‍🔬

Big congratulations to our winners: Smilla-Maria Koy (1st), Chandrama Ghosh (2nd), and Anthony Rabaté (3rd)! Check out their breath-taking micrographs and the rest of the Top 15 entries in the stunning poster attached. The future of cilia research looks beautiful. 📸 #Cilia2027

Great opportunity to work in an exciting environment and a wonderful group!!

And now it's out! Happy that PNAS selected for the cover this SEM image snapped by @samjlord.bsky.social, one of the most evocative visualizations of Euplotes that I have ever encountered. www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/... Stay tuned for what is shaping up to be some fascinating follow-up in the lab...

This mesmerizing timelapse captures the nonstop motion inside an animal cell. Red/orange streaks are the growing ends of microtubules, tiny “highways” that can rapidly assemble and disassemble to move proteins & other molecules within the cell. 📸: Andy Moore, HHMI’s Janelia Research Campus

Across scales from cells🦠 to atoms⚛️ – We reveal how anaerobic #bacteria break down very stable aromatic compounds found e.g. in oil spills 🛢️ #Bioremediation #TeamTomo 🧪 🧶🧬 🔬 Awesome collab with Lena, Matthias, @schullerjm.bsky.social @rnfr2d2.bsky.social @tomaspascoa.bsky.social @tamb-o.bsky.social

I told you it was final 😉, now we celebrate 🎉

This is why I’m not allowed in the wet lab anymore 🥼 🕺. My technique is too effective! 🤪 #PILife #TeamTomo 🧪

Now THIS one was quite the journey. I'm beyond happy to see this work out in the world 🥹 Huge congrats to @computingcaitie.bsky.social and also to @hugovdhoek.bsky.social and everyone else involved ♥️ with @centriolelab.bsky.social @stearnslab.bsky.social @cellarchlab.com #Cilia #CryoET #TeamTomo

It’s done!! Molecular architecture of the ciliary base in mammalian multiciliated cells! A study 13 years in the making 👴, thanks to collab with @stearnslab.bsky.social + @centriolelab.bsky.social & visionary work by @computingcaitie.bsky.social, who integrated native #cryoET with #XLMS & #UExM 🧪🧶🧬🔬

Crazy things have been happening in cilia world, catch up on them in Caitie's new paper! 🪱

What if you could cut out sub cellular structures and measure the proteome? SPEx: Compartment-Resolved Proteomics via Expansion Microscopy–Guided Microdissection www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6... awesome work by Curdin Franziscus, @imcf-lex.bsky.social, @biehli.bsky.social, Alexander Schmidt!

New protein complex stoichiometry prediction tool from talent PhD student @daniil-litvinov.bsky.social, check out the thread below!

Exciting opportunity to work in a lab that’s pushing the boundaries of environmental sampling and work with an amazing scientist!!! 👩‍🔬🔬

Final version @nature.com of our paper describing unconventional multicellular development in a choanoflagellate inhabiting an extreme environment. A ton of new data since the first @biorxivpreprint.bsky.social preprint (which we've kept updating). A brief 🧵 (carried over from the old place)

Nice collab w my neighbor in Basel @abimoye.bsky.social on SAXO6 mol bio and genetics!!

Thrilled to share that our paper on a novel IRD gene has been published in The American Journal of Human Genetics (AJHG)! 🎉 This wouldn’t have been possible without the incredible group of colleagues and collaborators. Special thanks to @computingcaitie.bsky.social, Ditta Zobor, and ERDC members!

📏🔬In collaboration with @computingcaitie.bsky.social and @cellarchlab.com, SAXO6 localization was mapped along ciliary microtubules with direct links to α-tubulin, linking this structural protein class to human retinal disease for the first time. 👉 @ajhgnews.bsky.social #Ophthalmology

Long in the making, but happy to present the Chlamydomonas chlororibosome! Cryo-ET🔬reveals a large new domain on the small subunit, built from multiple extensions in conserved ribosomal proteins. bioRxiv 📖: shorturl.at/q44tG This suggests greater chlororibosome diversity than expected! 1/n 🧵

Very happy to say that our work on how axonemes are generated is now available on bioRxiv: www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6... - if you’ve ever wondered how the incredibly beautiful, complex structures within motile #cilia are constructed then this is for you!

For #ECR’s: DBG’s Hot Tpoic Workshop on Cryo-Electron Tomography + FIB-milling 13 – 15 April 2026 In @cellarchlab.com 's lab @biozentrum.unibas.ch Organised by @tamb-o.bsky.social, Karen Zinzius, @fannyleblanc.bsky.social Details: www.deutsche-botanische-gesellschaft.de/en/about-us/...

You like #LLPS? #TeamTomo? #Rubisco? Check out our latest preprint! What a great collaboration this has been!

Cilia alert! Stoked to have the new paper from Juyeon Hong about a new domain at the extreme distal tip of motile cilia! (The EDT, y'all!) It's out now @natcomms.nature.com. Check it out! #cilia www.nature.com/articles/s41...

🔬🚨New preprint alert! 🚨🔬 We developed quantitative expansion microscopy (qExM) - a method to accurately count proteins in situ by combining expansion microscopy's improved labeling with statistical estimators borrowed from ecology www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6... #SuperResolution #CellBiology

Our research scientist Núria Ros-Rocher won the 1st prize @zeiss-microscopy.bsky.social microscopy contest with this beautiful choano colony www.zeiss.fr/microscopie/... 🥳 C. flexa might not yet be a genetic model, but it is now at least a calendar model, which counts for something. I think.