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Exploring the Molecular Architecture of the Cell

Upcoming Events

• May 6: Invited Seminar @ John Innes Centre. Norwich, UK. (Ben, Virtual)
• May 17-20: ESCRT Biology Meeting. Madison, WI, USA. (Ben, In Person)
• Jun 1-3: EMBO YIP Meeting. Heidelberg, DE. (Ben, In Person)
• Jun 8-10: DCI Inaugural Symposium. Geneva&Lausanne, CH. (CellArchLab, In Person)
• Jun 22-24: Biozentrum Science Retreat. Sursee, CH. (CellArchLab, In Person)
• Jun 30: Invited Seminar @ Joint Microbiological Colloquium, Tübingen, DE. (Ben, In Person)
• Jul 6-8: CCM10 Meeting.  Princeton, NJ, USA. (Manon, In Person)
• Aug 7-12:  ISPR Photosynthesis Congress. Rotorua, NZ. (Wojciech, Virtual)
• Aug 21-25: International Symposium on Phototrophic Prokaryotes. Liverpool, UK. (Ben, In Person)
• Sep 11-14: Electron Tomography Congress. Egmond aan Zee, NL. (CellArchLab, In Person)​
• Sep 16: Hamburg Life Science Seminar Series. Hamburg, DE. (Ben, In Person)
• Nov 14-18: Symposium on Photosynthesis Regulation. Kobe, JP. (Ben, In Person)

News

• Our cryOcean grant has been recommended for funding by the ERC! In this project, we will explore the molecular architecture of chloroplasts in diverse marine algae. We will examine how thylakoid membranes and pyrenoids are formed, and how they are remodeled in response to environmental changes.  [March 2022]

• Published in Nature Microbiology:
  ​Ricardo and Ben wrote a News & Views on two cool papers from the Pilhofer Lab, which used multiscale imaging approaches to reveal the structure and cellular context of two novel contractile injection systems.  [March 2022]

• The Cell Architecture Lab has moved to the Biozentrum at the University of Basel!  [March 2022]

• Ben gave virtual talks at the Berkeley Lab John Lawrence Seminar Series and the University of Regensburg RNA Lecture Series. Thanks for hosting, Setsuko Wakao and Thomas Dresselhaus.  [Feb 2022]

• We virtually hosted Gregor Weiss for the HPC Seminar Series. He took us on a fascinating cryo-ET journey from cyanobacterial contractile injection systems to uromodulin filaments that fight bacterial infection.  [Dec 2021]

• Hugo gave a great talk on cryo-ET of the Chlamy Transition Zone in the ASCB cilia subgroup meeting. 
  ​Thanks for hosting, Susan Dutcher!   [Dec 2021]

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• Published in Nature Communications:
  ​Florent joins #TeamTomo with a dive into Chlamydomonas mitochondria. Combining single-particle cryo-EM with cryo-ET, he found that Chlamy mitoribosomes are built from 13 rRNA fragments that are "glued" together to maintain a functional complex. Evolution is amazing! Great collab with the Giegé, Drouard, & Hashem Labs!  [Dec 2021]

• Ben gave virtual talks at the McGill Structural Biology Symposium, the ​UK Cilia Network e-Symposium, the NVBMB Fall Meeting, and UMass Amherst MCB Seminar Series. Thanks for hosting, Huy Bui, Pleasantine Mill, Christina Paulino, and Elizabeth Vierling!  [Nov 2021]

• The Secret Lives of Cells:
  Our lab's work was showcased in a Nature news feature about the origins and future directions of cryo-electron tomography. It's a nice perspective piece also featuring our #TeamTomo colleagues in the Kukulski Lab, Villa Lab, Mahamid Lab, and Jensen Lab.  [Oct 2021]

• Published in Nature Methods:
  ​The DeepFinder program uses neural networks to identify macromolecules in cellular cryo-tomograms. A fun collaboration with Kervrann Lab and our colleagues in the Peng Lab at HelmholtzAI. Congratulations Lorenz and Ricardo!  [Oct 2021]

• Ben gave a virtual talk at the Paul Scherrer Institute Laboratory of Nanoscale Biology symposium on Cellular Structural Biology. Thank you for hosting, Takashi Ishikawa and Ohad Medalia!  [Oct 2021]

• Ben gave an EMBO YIP talk and enjoyed the fantastic science and real face-to-face conversations at the Nordic Photosynthesis Congress in Gothenburg, Sweden. Thank you for the amazing hospitality, Alexey Amunts!  [Oct 2021]

• Our whole lab enjoyed relaxing and sharing our science in person with our Helmholtz colleagues at the Pioneer Campus retreat in Herrsching. Congrats Lorzenz for winning a poster prize!  [Sep 2021]

• It's official!  The Cell Architecture Lab will be moving to the Biozentrum at the University of Basel in March 2022. Here's our announcement and a press release from the Biozentrum.   [Sep 2021]

• Ben gave a virtual talk at the student-organized ​Horizons in Molecular Biology Symposium.  [Sep 2021]

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•  #WeFreezeOnTheBeach! 
  Manon, Wojciech, and Ben teamed up with members of the Schwab Lab, Decelle Lab, and Pilhofer Lab for a pilot mission in Environmental Structural Biology. We collected algae from the sea and froze them directly onto grids at the Villefranche-sur-Mer marine station.  [Sep 2021]

• Our lab had an amazing time at the Chlamy Meeting on the Île des Embiez, in southern France. We enjoyed the great company, great weather, and great science! Sven and Florent entertained the crowd with talks about VIPP1 and mitochondrial ribosomes. Ben also gave an EMBO YIP talk. A meeting to remember!  [Sep 2021]

• Ricardo and Florent were both awarded postdoctoral fellowships from the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation. Ricardo also became an EMBO non-stipendiary fellow. CONGRATS GUYS!!   ...and nice hats!  [Aug 2021]

• Lorenz was awarded a PhD fellowship from Boehringer Ingelheim Fonds.  CONGRATS LORENZ!!  [Aug 2021]

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• Published in Cell:
  ​The structure of VIPP1, the "photosynthetic ESCRT-III", provides insights how this membrane remodeling protein builds and maintains thylakoid membranes. This study was an extensive collaboration with the Schroda, Schuller, Nickelsen, Rudack, and Sakamoto labs.  And wow!  ...a leafy VIPP1 is featured on the journal cover!!  [Jul 2021]

• Ben gave a virtual talk at the Microscience Microscopy Congress. Thank you for hosting, Sebastian Munck!  [Jul 2021]

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• Ben gave a virtual seminar to a consortium of French plant membrane labs. Thank you for hosting, Yvon Jaillais!  [Jul 2021]

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• Florent was awarded the Dina Surdin Prize from the French Society of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology (SFBBM). Congratulations!!  [Jul 2021]

• Science Cover:
  ​What a cool surprise!! Our work was featured on the cover of Science Magazine to promote the upcoming 3DEM Gordon Conference. This image was made by the endlessly talented Dimitry Tegunov and comes from a molecular crowding study we enjoyed working on a few years ago with the Pfeffer Lab and the Holt Lab.   [Jun 2021]

• Ben gave a virtual GBM Lunch Lecture. Thank you for hosting, Stefan Raunser!  [Jun 2021]

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• Ben gave a virtual talk at the annual meeting of the Japanese Society of Photosynthesis. Thank you for the invitation, Toru Hisabori and Ken-ichi Wakabayashi!  [May 2021]

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• Ben gave a virtual talk at the Penn Structural Biology Symposium. Thank you for hosting, Vera Moiseenkova-Bell!  [May 2021]

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• Ben gave a G4W Webinar for the Exeter Living Systems Institute. Thank you for hosting, Bertram Daum!  [May 2021]

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• Florent Waltz has joined our group!  Florent loves exploring mitochondria throughout the tree of life, and particularly in photosynthetic organisms. He is also a collector of exotic ribosomes. We can't wait to see what crazy things he discovers next.  Welcome to the lab!!  [May 2021]

• Published in Nature Plants:
  ​Ben and Wojciech had fun writing a News & Views on chloroplast "greening" and the light-induced step of chlorophyll biosynthesis.  [Apr 2021]

• Published in Nature Plants:
  ​Our collaboration with the Rudack, Schuller, and Nowaczyk labs, revealing the first high-resolution structure of a PSII assembly intermediate. How to build Nature's unique water-splitting machine.  [Apr 2021]

• We were a awarded an HFSP Grant with Roberta Croce and Doran Bennett to explore the adaptation of Chlamydomonas thylakoid membranes to changing light intensities!  [Apr 2021]

• Ben gave a virtual seminar for Michigan State University. Thank you for hosting, Peter Lundquist!  [Feb 2021]

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• Ben gave a virtual seminar for the University of Liverpool. Thank you for hosting, Luning Liu!  [Feb 2021]

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• Wojciech expertly guided us on a molecular tour of native thylakoid membranes at the Monthly Webinar Series on Chloroplasts and Mitochondria (WebCaM).  [Jan 2021]

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• Ben gave a virtual seminar for CNRS-IBMP Strasbourg. Thank you for hosting, Philippe Giegé!  [Jan 2021]

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• Ben and the lab were selected to join the EMBO Young Investigator Program!  [Dec 2020]

• Ben gave a virtual seminar for Washington University in St. Luis. Thank you for hosting, James Fitzpatrick!  [Dec 2020]

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• Published in Nature Plants:
  ​Our collaboration with the Jonikas Lab revealing the the structural interactions between the carbon-fixing enzyme Rubisco and the multivalent linker EPYC1 that drive phase separation of the pyrenoid.   [Nov 2020]

• Manon Demulder has joined our group!  Manon will lead our explorations into the pyrenoid, a phase-separated microcompartment in the algal chloroplast that performs efficient carbon fixation.  Welcome to the team!!  [Nov 2020]

• Ben enjoyed virtually teaching a graduate course on cryo-ET at the Basel Biozentrum.   [Nov 2020]

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• Published in EMBO Journal: 
  ​Our collaboration with the Guichard / Hamel Lab exploring the evolutionary diversity of the centriole's cartwheel and proximal triplet microtubules is on the journal cover!!   [Nov 2020]

• Petr Chlanda virtually visited us for the HPC Webinar Series. He give a jaw-dropping talk on visualizing the stages of SARS-Cov-2 assembly inside cells by cryo-ET.  [Oct 2020]

• Hugo left the crowd speechless with his talk at the UK Cilia Network e-symposium.  [Oct 2020]

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• Ricardo gave electron microscopy lecture for the Paul Scherrer Institute.  [Oct 2020]

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• Ben gave a virtual seminar for Stockholm University. Thank you for hosting, Ville Kaila!  [Oct 2020]

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• CONGRATULATIONS!!
  to Dr. Tilak Kumar Gupta for successfully defending his Ph.D. Thesis!  [Jul 2020]
  
  
• If you are curious about the rainbow basket on his head, check out this preprint on the structure and function of VIPP1.  [Aug 2020]

• Ben gave a virtual seminar for the University of Heidelberg (ZMBH). Thank you for hosting, Stefan Pfeffer!  [Jun 2020]

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• Ricardo was profiled on the Helmholtz Pioneer Campus website.  [May 2020]

• "The Bavarian from Berkeley":  Ben was profiled on the Helmholtz national website.  [May 2020]

• Ricardo Righetto has joined our team!  As our group's computational specialist, Ricardo will anchor our image analysis, while exploring new applications of deep learning to cryo-electron tomography.  Despite the closed border, Ricardo and his wife successfully arrived from Basel, with a nice cruise across the Bodensee. Welcome to Munich!!   [Apr 2020]

• Published in eLife:
  ​A detailed view of the cell's solar panel.  We show how to map photosynthetic complexes into native thylakoid architecture. Congrats Wojciech!  [Apr 2020]

• Congrats Hugo for giving a great talk at the <Interact>2020 Conference!  [Feb 2020]

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• Ben had fun teaching (and learning!) at the the Vienna Cryo-EM Winter School.  [Feb 2020]

• Ben gave a guest lecture at the MPI for Biophysical Chemistry. Thank you for hosting, Patrick Cramer!  [Feb 2020]

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• Published in Science Advances:
  Our collaboration with the Guichard / Hamel Lab revealing the helical structure and molecular composition of an inner scaffold that holds the centriole together and helps it resist physical stresses.​ The inner scaffold is conserved in Paramecium, Chlamydomonas, Naegleria, and Humans!  [Feb 2020]

• Published in Plant, Cell & Environment: Our collaboration with the Schroda Lab characterizing the stress-induced  Chlamydomonas protein VIPP2, which forms rods and binds membranes.​ [Feb 2020]

• Ben gave a talk at the 3D Electron Microscopy of Organelles and Macromolecules workshop in Hong Kong.  Thank you for hosting, Byung-Ho Kang and Liwen Jiang!  [Jan 2020]

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• Published in PNAS:
  ​Proteasomes and Cdc48 cluster together in non-membrane-bound degradation microcompartments that directly contact specialized ribosome-free regions of the ER membrane.  Is it ERAD by phase separation?​  [Jan 2020]

• Ben gave the plenary talk at the Christmas Bioenergetics Meeting in London.  Thank you for hosting, Guy Hanke!  [Dec 2019]

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• ​Our Aquilos cryo-FIB is here.  What a great Christmas present!  #HugTheBox​  [Dec 2019]

• Published in MBoC: Our collaboration with the Avashti lab characterizing actin filaments in the green alga, Chlamydomonas.​  [Oct 2019]

• Ben gave a guest lecture at the Institut Curie.  Thank you for hosting, Daniel Lévy!  [Oct 2019]

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• Ben gave a guest lecture at the MRC-LMB. Thank you for hosting, Andrew Carter!  [Oct 2019]

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• Ben gave an interview to announce that the Cell Architecture Lab will be moving to the Pioneer Campus at Helmholtz Zentrum München in November 2019.  [Jul 2019]

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