This month's your MiTeGen Hottest Tweets in SBDD come with highlights across all topics including...
MiTeGen Hottest Tweets in SBDD (12/23)
Here are your MiTeGen Hottest Tweets in SBDD, and explore groundbreaking advances like SPACEtomo as well as one of these bad boys:
So I made the bold move to get one of these bad boys so that we can plunge in house ASAP after samples get off the FPLC. I've only ever used GP2/vitrobot. Does anyone have any tips for manual plunging or is it just a matter of practice and trial and error? #CryoEM#Vitrification pic.twitter.com/Vl3gMamS0y
— Ewan McRae (@mcrae_ewan) November 28, 2023
Tough drug targets
We purified the enzyme encoded by human LINE-1 and solved its cryo-EM structure bound to the SINE RNA (and mimics) in a stalled-elongation state. We found really interesting interactions with the stem-loop and poly-A tail (2/n) pic.twitter.com/MZ2MkHiiWX
— Akanksha Thawani, PhD (@AkankshaThawani) December 14, 2023
📢Preprint Alarm🚨https://t.co/89Vgl28Jvn
— Andreas Boland (@BolandLab_GE) December 8, 2023
In a first collaboration with the Stoeber lab @MiriamStoeber we characterise an extracellular nanobody (NbE) that binds as an antagonists to the µ-opioid receptor.
This work was driven by Jun Yu @JunYu_unige and Amit Kumar🌟🌟 pic.twitter.com/XjXoH4loBl
Thrilled to also share a second preprint from the lab! Here we determine the structure of the AMPAR auxiliary subunit TARPγ2/stargazin with #cryoEM reconstruction. We found several key features about stargazin:https://t.co/VKAu1f8498 pic.twitter.com/WYLvP1oGeJ
— Ed Twomey (@cryoET) November 29, 2023
The weird and wonderful
Happy to share the first pre-print from the lab focusing on a closed conformation of the mammalian gamma-tubulin ring complex! https://t.co/ClZFneS1rJ pic.twitter.com/E7GWYhnVzJ
— Michal Wieczorek (@MikeVVieczorek) December 15, 2023
More than proud to see our work on SlyB out in press@Nature!
— Arne Janssens (@ArneJanssens95) December 11, 2023
Who would have thought a small membrane protein could form protective nanodiscs. A big thank you to all collaborators and reviewers.
Find out more: https://t.co/iCXkf7G8r0 pic.twitter.com/BFx4NNvYQj
We're continuing to share the fantastic photos from this year's #LMBImageCompeition every Friday.
— MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology (@MRC_LMB) November 24, 2023
Next up is this runners-up entry of a tomogram of catalase nanocrystals. pic.twitter.com/LqhPhJauy4
Sample preparation
"Time-Resolved Cryo-EM Specimen Preparation with Single Millisecond Precision" is on @biorxivpreprint. We built a light-coupled Cryo-plunger, C-SPAM, that is open-access and enables you to capture events at 1 ms and slower in 1 ms increments. #cryoEMhttps://t.co/Oo8D8obnun pic.twitter.com/xlDjoKpbmO
— Ed Twomey (@cryoET) August 25, 2023
Take the frustration out of clipping your #cryoem grids - Try the new line of grid clipping tools - These tools make loading of c-clips and clip grids easier and helps you avoid frost from environmental moisture - Learn More https://t.co/TT4t61Oepb pic.twitter.com/QV1Kd5hmk1
— MiTeGen (@MiTeGen) December 11, 2023
We just bought one also. This is an excellent device especially with the ethane cryostat. Back at LMB we had one in the cold room, lamp pointing at the filter paper as Josh indicated.
— Christos Savva (@ChristosGSavva) November 30, 2023
1) Remove the silly acrylic box
— Lander Lab (@LanderLab) November 30, 2023
2) move to a cold room and bring a humidifier (or hang some wet towels)
3) blot from the front and reproducibly get great vitreous ice (with a bit of practice), as shown by Mark Herzik below. See also https://t.co/cbhLWjUMKo pic.twitter.com/PVPWJeEbX8
Better imaging
Get ready for #SPACEtomo 🚀🌌 - fully automated parallel tomography on #cryoFIB lamellae. 🤖🔬❄️🦠 Another amazing development by @EisFabian 🙂👍https://t.co/fOHTs1OvDo
— Rado Danev (@RadoDanev) December 15, 2023
That's an impressive list of useful new features. Thank you #stdavidmastronarde, and @Nexperion /Guenter Resch for sharing! #CryoET. I'll need ~118 days to understand what those new script commands exactly do, but better late than never I guess. https://t.co/QvL9KOnIAX
— Sonja Welsch (@sonjawelsch) December 13, 2023
Impressive results at 100keV from Chriss Russo group at MRC, LMB. Look at no. of particles, and micrographs and resolution achieved. A majority of the structures (7 of 11) extended to beyond physical Nyquist resolution. https://t.co/qN82e3jOgd pic.twitter.com/kYqOEmGfaJ
— Arvind Kumar (@ArvindQuantum) November 28, 2023
Processing and IT
Finally got my new AMD-Threadripper 64+ 2 GPU machine here and now RockyLinux is up so it is that fun time to install and compile programs… my to do list 👇🏽 pic.twitter.com/XC8WtVHzfi
— Israel Fernandez (@IsraelF96135088) December 14, 2023
Muyuan has been working on this for some time, it's cool to see a manuscript: How to create full, atomic resolution scenes of biomolecules in Unreal Engine and fly around them in real-time. Really cool stuff with untapped potential.https://t.co/dWQ6nhRnNJhttps://t.co/oRDsvwECgj pic.twitter.com/6RXmSeUWS1
— Alex J Noble (@alexjamesnoble) December 12, 2023
A minority of final stacks yields superior amplitude in single-particle cryoEM https://t.co/CaER7eIgYR
— Andrea Dallapè (@DaddeaPereppe) December 11, 2023
Happy to share that the DeepMainmast paper is out in Nature Methods. A fully automated protein str modeling for cryo-EM map. Can take Alphafold prediction and performs better than AF. https://t.co/uCk9BeDidm Available at https://t.co/4n0YmdirsR Server: https://t.co/JlnPChhhmL pic.twitter.com/Pd0mo1Uy2S
— Kihara Laboratory (@kiharalab) December 8, 2023
Yay, the all-new @MRC_LMB 2023 #cryoEM lectures are now online on YouTube! Happy learning. 🥳https://t.co/WpgtWbNB9R
— Sjors Scheres (@SjorsScheres) December 7, 2023
AlphaFold predictions are valuable hypotheses and accelerate but do not replace experimental structure determinationhttps://t.co/8FGhlEtN0e
— TKato (@oxkawaka) November 30, 2023
It would be helpful to hear some more stories about how useful #ModelAngelo has been in your #cryoEM structure determination efforts. Has it changed how you build your models, perhaps even using other programs? 🤗
— Sjors Scheres (@SjorsScheres) December 3, 2023
I was talking about using 3D Zernike polynomials to "normalise" results from flexibility analyses - code is available and I'm happy to chat about the concept further :) here's a cool movie showing a GPCR reconstruction using a sum of Zernike polynomials to order 150. https://t.co/OakFNueDxk pic.twitter.com/gbQom5MmSZ
— Charles Bayly-Jones (@bj_charles) November 25, 2023
Thoughts and opinions
Good catch by @premal2000. Love it or hate it, NVIDIA with a Monday #JPM24 slot will probably be the most interesting talk of the conference.
— Brad Loncar (@bradloncar) December 18, 2023
I know I'm a small molecule maxi but that's because I'm right.
— Ethan Perlstein (@eperlste) December 15, 2023
A small molecule will eventually do the job of every other modality, even gene therapies. https://t.co/SSBqfKaDAT
Try injecting a federally funded invention in your arm and see if it cures your disease. Take away incentives for private investment in making medicines— via march-in rights and weaker patents, and your arm will be empty. Government does not cure people or make medicines.
— Robert Nelsen (@rtnarch) December 9, 2023
Biotech news and drug discovery technologies
It is the most exciting time to be a Protein Biochemist‼️ AstraZeneca to buy Icosavax for $1.1B‼️https://t.co/dj7cOEerRR
— Dr Marija Dramicanin (@dramarija) December 13, 2023
Genentech EVP also compared AlphaFold vs EquiFold: "AlphaFold is amazing; it's great, but it wasn't designed with therapeutic antibodies in mind. You can't wait for an hour until you get a structure, because for a lab in a loop, you may want to go through 10,000 or 100,000… https://t.co/3Z60S5jmVT
— Pearl Freier (@PearlF) December 11, 2023
Ozemphoria
Blockbuster obesity drug maker Novo Nordisk $NVO $NOVOB is now more valuable than Denmark 🇩🇰's economy, but that wasn't enough to prevent the domestic stock index from underperforming this year
— Bertrand Delsuc (@BertrandBio) December 19, 2023
Amazing how one drug can impact the indices & the GDP https://t.co/zWr9wsv2m4
My take on Structure, and many smaller co's in the GLP1+ field, is that they are racing too fast for their own good. In this case, you have those previous unforced errors that are a bad sign and then today it's like they're throwing out data without even knowing what they have.…
— Brad Loncar (@bradloncar) December 18, 2023
With all the GLP-1 craze that $LLY & $NVO have brought to the market this year, there has been increasing interest in the potential problem of GLP-1 induced muscle loss. With ~1/3 of weight lost on GLP-1s being lean muscle, biotechs like $SRRK studying potential solutions have… pic.twitter.com/Jhms6DopPE
— Adam May (@A_May_MD) December 17, 2023
GLP-1 in the drinking water? Not yet. NLY01, a pegylated exenatide GLP-1RA at 2·5 and 5·0 mg once weekly was not associated with any improvement in #Parkinsonsdisease disease motor or non-motor features over 36 wks @TheLancetNeuro https://t.co/oKIb0NSZpB
— Daniel J Drucker (@DanielJDrucker) December 16, 2023
Might GLP-1R agonists reduce alcohol dependence while simultaneously improving liver health through direct and indirect mechanisms? Clinical trials are need to test this hypothesis @DrLoomba https://t.co/XzMSEGaVWI
— Daniel J Drucker (@DanielJDrucker) December 14, 2023
$PFE GLP trial pic.twitter.com/Kfgoph4qvH
— Borlaug (@Borlaug_) December 1, 2023
I tried Ozempic about 1.5 years ago because I love testing new things.
— Sam Parr (@thesamparr) November 28, 2023
2 weeks in my immediate thought was: this will help cure alcoholism. Could feel it.
I was addicted to booze. 10 years sober now.
And I could feel the sugar cravings, along with other types of cravings that… https://t.co/hUNvbYbyNM
About MiTeGen
MiTeGen, founded in 2004 by Cornell University Professor Robert Thorne, is a leading provider of innovative technologies for cryo-EM, crystallography, and other techniques used for probing small molecule and biomolecular structure and function. Our mission is to support researchers in achieving the best possible results throughout the entire process, from sample preparation to data collection.
With a strong emphasis on collaboration, we actively work with academic, government, and industrial researchers in over 40 countries to develop and deliver new tools and methods. Our products have gained recognition and trust within the scientific community, as they have been cited in over 4,500 published research articles. By leveraging concepts and technologies from physics and related fields, we tackle practical challenges faced by our friends and collaborators in the life sciences and other disciplines.
Driven by a passion for cryo cooling, we would like to showcase three of our innovative cryo-EM solutions:
Manual Plunge Cooler and Precision Ethane Cryostat:
Our Manual Plunge Cooler and Precision Cryostat are specifically designed to streamline and optimize your cryo-EM sample vitrification workflow. These systems consist of three components that can be obtained individually or as a complete package, ensuring efficient and successful sample preparation.
Cryo-EM Starter Kits:
Our Cryo-EM starter kits are curated to equip your laboratory with all the necessary tools conveniently packaged together. These kits are ideal for labs aiming to perform basic grid and sample preparation for cryo-EM within their own facility, even on a reduced budget. The kit includes components essential for cryo-EM sample preparation, as well as sample storage and transport solutions.
Cryo-EM AutoGrid Cassette Puck:
Our latest addition, the Cryo-EM AutoGrid Cassette Storage and Shipping puck, builds upon the success of our 2nd generation Cryo-EM Puck. This innovative solution allows users to screen samples on a instrument and seamlessly ship the same AutoGrid cassette puck to a collection facility. It also serves as a convenient storage option for facilities, enabling them to store their cassettes in the puck canes designed to fit into cassette loading stations.
These cryo-EM solutions exemplify our dedication to enhancing cryo cooling capabilities and simplifying workflows in the field of cryo-EM. MiTeGen continues to push the boundaries of innovation, enabling researchers to advance their structural biology studies with greater ease and efficiency.
Contact us at MiTeGen today to arrange a no obligation consultation to learn how we can help you with your research.
