Levental Lab

🧪 Just about one of the best things ever!!!! #science

Why use many lipids when few will do? www.nature.com/articles/s41...

1/5 🚨 🔬 PhD opportunities in my lab at @uni-of-warwick.bsky.social What is the role of plasma membrane organisation in tissue formation? Let’s find out! www.findaphd.com/phds/project... I’m recruiting for several interdisciplinary PhD projects. #PhD #Biophysics #Microscopy ⬇️ Details below 🧵⬇️

University of Virginia Medical Center ER has been on divert for a week for non-trauma. 2 Other major hospitals in the region have also been moving to divert. which puts people up to a 1 hour commute or wait times greater than 6 hours. Get your flu shot.

Them: what do you do outside the lab? Me: I build things, bike, hang with my little home Them: build ..furniture, bird houses, models? Me: bigger things. Them: like a shed, chicken coop? Me: yeah like a chicken coop or shed... for horses... instead of eggs we get manure. Its bigger than our house

I’m not a finance wizard, so I might misunderstand what “pops” means.

The beginning of the bullshit

Made it! I am delighted to share that I got tenured as Full Professor for Cellular Physiology of Nutrition @unipotsdam.bsky.social A dream comes true! I want to thank all my lab members, all the mentors along the way, my collaborators and my family & friends for their emotional support. 🎉

When you say "the function of this protein is... ONE THING" I'm sorry, you're just wrong. Instead "We know the protein does this ONE THING, so there is still much to be discovered because every protein interacts with other things in its environment and has many different potential interactions"

☕ @nadlerlab.bsky.social @mathilda95.bsky.social & co evaluate lipid enrichment in clathrin-coated pits and observe that the differential lipid partitioning into clathrin-coated pits is largely driven by the lipid asymmetry of the plasma membrane. www.nature.com/articles/s41...

So excited especially for Peter Hegemann to get the Nobel Prize for his contributions to Optogenetics! ongratulations also to Karl Deisseroth and Georg Nagel to a well-deserved prize. Did I mention basic science at Unis especially is underfunded and made these discoveries back in the day possible?

Rumiana Dimova to Receive 2027 Agnes Pockels Award in Lipids and Membrane Biophysics buff.ly/5kXgST5

www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

UPDATE!: I am absolutely stoked that the second paper of my PhD is now out in @natcellbio.nature.com :D. We combined lipid imaging, STED microscopy, and mathematical modelling in a super cool team effort to quantify lipid partitioning inside clathrin-coated pits. www.nature.com/articles/s41....

Check out below, a great opportunity for a funded trip to what looks like a very interesting Workshop in UK next summer

Some random thoughts: Good science doesn't always need disruptors. Often, it needs load-bearing walls. You can't pivot away from a failed multi-year experiment or "iterate" your way out of a mentee's PhD. Science needs stable foundations, not churn. Don't break the people building on top of it.

Ask both what your country can do for your and what you can do for your country. If you can lead a lab, you can lead a community. Vote blue in November to rescue democracy and consider running for local offices. The best way to change the system is to be the system. - Veteran and scientist.

Speakers include: @buzzbaum.bsky.social @emmanuellebayer.bsky.social @ibudin.bsky.social @leventallab.bsky.social @jamessaenz.bsky.social @cstairs.bsky.social @teislab.bsky.social @veatchlab.bsky.social @jcellsci.bsky.social

found at ucsf

New paper out: Plasma membrane order maps functional diversity in immune cells We showed how biophysical state of the membranes correlates with the activity of immune cells such as migration and killing. www.nature.com/articles/s41...

"snow angel" or the "angel of death," is the rare imprint left by an owl as it swooped down to catch prey

Dysfunction of #caveolae in muscle disease: a cell biological perspective. From Harriet P. Lo, Robert G. Parton and colleagues (The University of Queensland) rupress.org/jcb/article/... #Organelles #Development #Membrane #lipid #Disease #SkeletalMuscle

So (if I understand this correctly), the way AI (companies) will "solve" all the major problems in maths, biology, and medicine in the next 5 years will be by stealing and building on the ideas of researchers naive enough to think their chats with AI companies would be private.

Many arguments for jettisoning PhD thesis requirements because it serves no utilitarian value and is a waste of time have also been used to argue against liberal arts. If the last few years have taught us anything, it’s the value of a liberal arts education. Everything isn’t about utility.

Sorcery!!

What's the worst chemical structure you can generate using gen AI? Can you do better than this? I would like to know how far you can push them. ChatGPT had no hesitation to provide me with this #chemchat

😎🪴🌵 food science

We're launching a search for two open-rank positions with preference for Assistant/Associate Professors in the Department of Cell Biology at University of Virginia. If you're a card-carrying cell biologist, consider applying here now: apply.interfolio.com/191024

My MCDB Dept is hiring, again! Assistant Professor Faculty Search. Please Repost! Applications Due Oct 1st We welcome applications from all areas of cellular/molecular biology in prokaryotes, plants, and animals. More information can be found HERE: jobs.sciencecareers.org/job/679540/a...

Oh my. Not great. Not great at all.

Journal Club: Probes show lipids are far more selective for proteins than once thought. In PNAS Front Matter: https://ow.ly/aeRW50ZBWL8

"likely whacked" "confirmed trebuchet death" Something seems contradictory 🤔 Precise #language is so important. Especially in todays political climate. This is of course not a particularly relevant story which is why I'm using it. But, it should always matter. Public trust is fragile in #science.

I vote for the normalization of the term "in vitreo" for cryoEM structures to sooth the brains of cell biologists that insist the cryoEM structure is not the native structure. (It is as close as we can get). This should both satisfy their thirst and aggravate them bc it looks like "in vitro"

Come join us! 🔬🐣 The Piacentino Lab at Johns Hopkins @hopkinsmedicine.bsky.social is recruiting a postdoc to study membrane lipids, cell migration, and invasion in neural crest and embryonic models! @socdevbio.bsky.social @ascbiology.bsky.social #devbiol #cellbio #lipids

It’s time for the World Cup final with one of the greatest footballers that may be playing his last cup So time for a short thread on a link between Messi and an intrinsically disordered protein. 1/n

Holy COW. Text analysis of comments on the OMB rule: overwhelming opposition, overwhelmingly not form letters. (But 9 in 10 comments supporting the rule ARE form responses, LOL) Whatever happens next, folks have stepped up.

Biophysics used to be the field of applying mathematical principles of physics to biology, but biology has largely fallen in line with this. Biophysics today is more about bridging fields and scrutinizing methods across disciplines. Bio(Ph)ysics it's what's for breakfast!

Wow. I love papers like this where you start off thinking “what? Sounds fishy” and then the data are so convincing and the paper so well written that is all so clear that you are blown away. Cells have a little aerial to allow them to move toward the anode!!! Galvanin! #PureScience #biophysics

🏆 Introducing the inaugural Suzanne Eaton Awards for Physics of Life! We're thrilled to announce the 2026 recipients: L. Mahadevan @harvard.edu and Anna Erzberger @embl.org. 👨‍🔬Both scientists will give award lectures on 20. November, more info to follow ➡️Read our announcement here: tud.link/cjm8t2

Come join the new Novo Nordisk Foundation Center for Protein Design as a group leader Cool science in a great scientific environment in wonderful and very family friendly Copenhagen There are two positions that can either be at TT assistant or associate prof level employment.ku.dk/tenure-track...

📣 Hear! Hear! 🦋 Behold this Bluetorial on a cool paper written with my PhD student Nathaniel Wesnak 🧪 If you want to dive into the rabbit hole of lipid flop-flop and its description as a stochastic process—here’s your TEASER TRAILER on some flippin’ awesome work: doi.org/10.1063/5.03... 1/26

Welcome to the official Bluesky account of the Weizmann Institute of Science. Here we share scientific discoveries, research news, and stories from our scientists.

Any1 is a #phospholipid scramblase involved in #endosome biogenesis. From Jieqiong Gao, Christian Ungermann and colleagues: rupress.org/jcb/article/... 📕 Part of #Lysosomes 2026: rupress.org/jcb/collecti...

Sorting nexin 10 regulates lysosomal ionic homeostasis via ClC-7 by controlling PI(3,5)P2. From Jing Ze Wu, Sergio Grinstein, Spencer Freeman @spencerfreeman.bsky.social and colleagues: rupress.org/jcb/article/... 📕 Part of #Lysosomes 2026: rupress.org/jcb/collecti...

What a trove! Brief, factual one paragraph summaries of science news and one-liners for actual articles with links. No opinions, or 'discussion' just quick snippets of news, article links and general happenings in science, all with sources and direct links. #science #nature #academics #world

This looks like a very useful tool for everyone who regularly simulates complex Martini membranes! Thanks to @fabiololicato.com and his team for spearheading this effort!

🧪⚛️ Our paper is finally published in Phys Rev Research! doi.org/10.1103/cnfz... Can cells make decisions using equilibrium physical principles, without resorting to irreversible, energy-consuming signaling cascades? We say yes, with the help of self-assembling membrane proteins! 🧵(1/7)