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Arjun Bhatta

@bhattaarjun2p.bsky.social

210 followers 470 following 9 posts

Structural biologist and biochemist at Hillen lab. Interested in all things mitochondrial and some things not. Opinions, em dashes, and Oxford commas are my own. He/him 🇳🇵🇩🇪🧬🔬

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Arjun Bhatta @bhattaarjun2p.bsky.social · Jan 15

Our story on the mechanism of mitochondrial and nuclear tRNA 3' processing is finally out in NSMB. 😇

We discover how a unique problem caused by high mutation rates in mitochondria of bilaterian animals is solved by a compensatory evolutionary innovation.

doi.org/10.1038/s41594-024-01445-w

Molecular basis of human nuclear and mitochondrial tRNA 3′ processing - Nature Structural & Molecular Biology

Bhatta et al. use biochemistry and cryogenic electron microscopy to elucidate the mechanism of human tRNA 3′ processing. Their results show how mitochondria-specific subunits of RNase Z compensate for...

www.nature.com

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Reposted by Arjun Bhatta

Alister Burt @alisterburt.bsky.social · 4d

don’t have an answer for you but if you’re looking at cell tomograms often I can’t recommend Don Fawcett’s big red book The Cell highly enough - it’s a *beautiful* atlas of classic EM images

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Reposted by Arjun Bhatta

Oli Clarke @olibclarke.bsky.social · 19d

Initial attempt at replicating in relion (parameters in next post). This is for Aca2-RNA, using a 100k subset of the 2D-classified particles (no prior 3D cleanup).

A 1-class ab initio in relion, then local refinement in relion (1.8deg searches+blush) gives a nominally 3.3Å map; 3.5 Å w/out blush.

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Reposted by Arjun Bhatta

Oli Clarke @olibclarke.bsky.social · Sep 13

This one is a bit of a departure from the usual and definitely a work in progress!

We found that by using ab initio reconstruction at very high res, in very small steps, we could crack some small structures that had eluded us - e.g. 39kDa iPKAc (EMPIAR-10252), below.

Read on for details... 1/x

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Reposted by Arjun Bhatta

Albert and Mary Lasker Foundation @laskerfdn.bsky.social · Sep 11

Congratulations to Dirk Görlich and Steven L. McKnight, 2025 #LaskerAward winners! - “for discoveries that exposed the structures and functions of low-complexity domains within protein sequences” 🧪
@mpi-nat.bsky.social
#Lasker2025 #LaskerLaureate #structuralbiology #phaseseparation

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Reposted by Arjun Bhatta

Richard Sever @richardsever.bsky.social · Sep 4

bioRxiv bat signal. We had a huge influx of submissions around Labor Day and now have a backlog. If any affiliates are available to screen, we'd be eternally grateful!

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Arjun Bhatta @bhattaarjun2p.bsky.social · Aug 31

"...if few within science are trained to communicate about their work and those who do are not only not rewarded but disparaged, then it is not as hard to see why the war on science has been prosecuted with little resistance."

www.embopress.org/doi/full/10....

How stupid has science been? | EMBO reports

EMBO Press is an editorially independent publishing platform for the development of EMBO scientific publications.

www.embopress.org

Reposted by Arjun Bhatta

Florian Schur @schurlab.bsky.social · Jul 7

We're hiring a postdoc!
Join our ActinID project to explore an uncharacterized actin-binding protein.

- Background in cell and/or structural biology?
- Eager to bridge both fields?

Get in touch if you're curious or have questions!
#cellbiology #cryoEM #cryoET #actin

ista.ac.at/en/job/postd...

Postdoc Research Group Schur

The Schur lab at the Institute of Science and Technology Austria (ISTA) has an open postdoc position for a highly motivated candidate to be part of our ERC-funded project ActinID. Our Group ...

ista.ac.at

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Reposted by Arjun Bhatta

Oded Rechavi @odedrechavi.bsky.social · Jun 27

So cool, a novel archaeon with a super small genome and no metabolic genes!
"An unprecedented level of metabolic dependence on a host, a condition that challenges the functional distinctions between minimal cellular life and viruses."
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

A cellular entity retaining only its replicative core: Hidden archaeal lineage with an ultra-reduced genome

Defining the minimal genetic requirements for cellular life remains a fundamental question in biology. Genomic exploration continually reveals novel microbial lineages, often exhibiting extreme genome...

www.biorxiv.org

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Reposted by Arjun Bhatta

Nature Structural & Molecular Biology @natsmb.nature.com · Jun 26

ICYMI: New online: Structure of fungal tRNA ligase Trl1 with RNA reveals conserved substrate-binding principles

Structure of fungal tRNA ligase Trl1 with RNA reveals conserved substrate-binding principles

Nature Structural & Molecular Biology, Published online: 25 June 2025; doi:10.1038/s41594-025-01589-3Köhler et al. present the crystal structure of fungal tRNA ligase Trl1-LIG bound to an activated RNA substrate, providing key insights into conserved substrate binding and activation, enzyme specificity and a tRNA substrate coordination model.

go.nature.com

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Reposted by Arjun Bhatta

Molly Gale (Gale-Hammell Lab) @mollygale.bsky.social · Jun 16

🧬🌽 Happy Transposon Day! 🌽🧬

Today we celebrate the birthday of Barbara McClintock - scientist extraordinaire and discoverer of jumping genes. Still the only woman to have an unshared Nobel Prize in the biomedical sciences #TransposonDay2025

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RCSB Protein Data Bank @rcsbpdb.bsky.social · Jun 4

Cryogenic electron microscopy showed for the first time that large RNA complexes can assemble without the help of proteins, expanding our understanding of RNA folding and function.
www6.slac.stanford.e...

SLAC, Stanford researchers discover large protein-free RNA structures

Cryogenic electron microscopy showed for the first time that large RNA complexes can assemble without the help of proteins.

www6.slac.stanford.edu

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Reposted by Arjun Bhatta

Alister Burt @alisterburt.bsky.social · May 30

spent some time this evening updating the teamtomo.org site - if you're interested in cryo-EM + Python you might want to take a look around!

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Arjun Bhatta @bhattaarjun2p.bsky.social · May 30

EMBL-EBI should have most of the tools and databases available through NCBI.

Reposted by Arjun Bhatta

Jan Trnka @jantrnka.bsky.social · May 28

A really comprehensive video about PFAS: history, chemistry, planetary contamination, effects. Worth watching. By @veritasium.bsky.social

How One Company Secretly Poisoned The Planet

YouTube video by Veritasium

www.youtube.com

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Reposted by Arjun Bhatta

MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology @mrclmb.bsky.social · Apr 23

A colder frontier in cryo-EM 🧪🔬

Chris Russo’s group, inc. Joshua Dickerson, adapted #cryoEM to work at liquid helium temperatures (13 kelvins), where every frame captured contains more information than the equivalent using liquid nitrogen (81 kelvins).

Read more: tinyurl.com/mwwcunkc

#LMBResearch

The electron cryo-microscope adapted for use at liquid nitrogen temperatures within its custom-made black box.

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Reposted by Arjun Bhatta

Hakeem Jefferson @hakeemjefferson.bsky.social · Apr 23

A colleague at Stanford’s business school used The Stanford Daily to argue—poorly—against DEI. The piece was riddled with historical errors and left one searching for fact, so I broke my public writing hiatus to respond.

I hope you’ll read and share the piece.

stanforddaily.com/2025/04/22/w...

What DEI threatens isn’t merit. It’s monopoly.

Political science professor Hakeem Jefferson argues for DEI's importance to de-monopolizing universities.

stanforddaily.com

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BWJones @bwjones.bsky.social · Apr 23

If your perception is that all interactions are transactional and that there is no such thing as sincerity of curiosity, or a desire to discover, then you will never value science.

No matter how many economic arguments there are for funding it.

Because you don’t understand the fundamental premise.

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Arjun Bhatta @bhattaarjun2p.bsky.social · Apr 7

This is exciting! A platform to share small and unpublishable results will be immensely helpful to the scientific community to minimize research waste and address the reproducability crisis. #ResearchAgora #OpenScience

Research Agora @researchagora.bsky.social · Apr 1

Let’s make peer review work for research!

Traditional peer review is:
🔸 Opaque
🔸 Uncredited
🔸 Unrewarded
🔸 Slow

✨ Peer review at Research Agora:
✅ Transparent yet anonymous
✅ Recognized
✅ Earn tokens for free submissions
✅ Fast

💬 How would you like peer review to be?

buff.ly/uyy43M6

Become a Reviewer

Become a reviewer in Research Agora, and participate in an open, recognized and rewarded peer review process. Strengthen your academic profile by reviewing other researcher's Marbles, and show your…

researchagora.com

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Reposted by Arjun Bhatta

Hauke Hillen @haukehillen.bsky.social · Mar 10

The peer-revied version of our paper on the structure of the Nipah virus RNA polymerase in complex with RNA is out in @naturecomms.bsky.social. Congratulations to first-author @salafernanda.bsky.social and many thanks to the reviewers for their constructive comments!

www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Structural basis of Nipah virus RNA synthesis - Nature Communications

Sala et al. report the first structural snapshot of the Nipah virus RNA-dependent RNA polymerase in the actively elongating state, uncovering key mechanisms of RNA synthesis by non-segmented negative ...

www.nature.com

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Reposted by Arjun Bhatta

Erich Luepke @erichluepke.bsky.social · Mar 8

youtu.be/M4WU8gqrgsQ?...

This is how I heard about it!

The boring truth about the Library of Alexandria

YouTube video by Premodernist

youtu.be

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Reposted by Arjun Bhatta

Norbert Wiener Kreis @carlsachs.bsky.social · Mar 8

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cryoEM papers @cryoempapers.bsky.social · Mar 7

Structural basis of Nipah virus RNA synthesis pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/40050611/ #cryoem

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MAKS 25 👀🇺🇦 @maks23.bsky.social · Feb 23

🇩🇪🇺🇸 The interference in the German elections by Elon Musk and Washington was "no less radical and outrageous than that of Moscow," — Merz.

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Reposted by Arjun Bhatta

PlantEvolution 🌱🌾 @plantevolution.bsky.social · Feb 15

To US colleagues who have lost or are in imminent danger of losing their jobs: please DM whether we can accommodate your research.

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Reposted by Arjun Bhatta

Sheila Macrine, PhD @macrinephd.bsky.social · Jan 26

Is all intelligence collective? 🤔 New research explores how parts of a system align to achieve goals, with implications for #AI, #neuroscience, and even the evolution of #biological complexity! 🤯 #emergence #selforganization #complexity #PottsModel
arxiv.org/abs/2501.13188

Topological constraints on self-organisation in locally interacting systems

All intelligence is collective intelligence, in the sense that it is made of parts which must align with respect to system-level goals. Understanding the dynamics which facilitate or limit navigation ...

arxiv.org

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