Bou-Nader lab
@bounaderlab.bsky.social
Our team studies #Rloop & #RNA 🧬 with #biochemistry #cryoEM 🔬❄️ #crystallography💎 to understand how they control life! Views from Charles
https://biochem.emory.edu/bou-nader-lab/
https://biochem.emory.edu/bou-nader-lab/
Pinned
Bou-Nader lab
@bounaderlab.bsky.social
· Jun 11
Congratulations to our 2025 Beckman Young Investigator Awardees! Ten researchers to receive $6M in total science #funding for cutting-edge #research: www.beckman-foundation.org/latest-news/...
#BYI #beckman #science #grants #academia #chemistry #lifesciences
#BYI #beckman #science #grants #academia #chemistry #lifesciences
Beckman Foundation Announces 2025 Beckman Young Investigator Awardees
Beckman Foundation announces 2025 Beckman Young Investigator Awardees - 10 researchers selected to receive $6M in total science funding for cutting-edge research. #BYI
www.beckman-foundation.org
Happy to share the news I've received the Beckman Young Investigator award 🥳 This recognizes the pioneering work done by my mentees to push the barriers of understanding and manipulating #R-loop biology 🧬 grateful for their hard work and for this recognition
Reposted by Bou-Nader lab
✨New preprint!
🧵1/4 Excited to share our work on AI-guided design of minimal RNA-guided nucleases. Amazing work by @petrskopintsev.bsky.social @isabelesain.bsky.social @evandeturk.bsky.social et al!
Multi-lab collaboration @banfieldlab.bsky.social @jhdcate.bsky.social @jacobsenucla.bsky.social🧬
🔗👇
🧵1/4 Excited to share our work on AI-guided design of minimal RNA-guided nucleases. Amazing work by @petrskopintsev.bsky.social @isabelesain.bsky.social @evandeturk.bsky.social et al!
Multi-lab collaboration @banfieldlab.bsky.social @jhdcate.bsky.social @jacobsenucla.bsky.social🧬
🔗👇
December 9, 2025 at 7:52 AM
✨New preprint!
🧵1/4 Excited to share our work on AI-guided design of minimal RNA-guided nucleases. Amazing work by @petrskopintsev.bsky.social @isabelesain.bsky.social @evandeturk.bsky.social et al!
Multi-lab collaboration @banfieldlab.bsky.social @jhdcate.bsky.social @jacobsenucla.bsky.social🧬
🔗👇
🧵1/4 Excited to share our work on AI-guided design of minimal RNA-guided nucleases. Amazing work by @petrskopintsev.bsky.social @isabelesain.bsky.social @evandeturk.bsky.social et al!
Multi-lab collaboration @banfieldlab.bsky.social @jhdcate.bsky.social @jacobsenucla.bsky.social🧬
🔗👇
Reposted by Bou-Nader lab
Colibactin-DNA interstrand crosslinks structure reveals DNA-damaging acitivity of colibactin that is linked to colorectal cancer #MicroSky www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...
The specificity and structure of DNA cross-linking by the gut bacterial genotoxin colibactin
Accumulating evidence has connected the chemically unstable, DNA-damaging gut bacterial natural product colibactin to colorectal cancer, including the identification of mutational signatures that are ...
www.science.org
December 4, 2025 at 10:07 PM
Colibactin-DNA interstrand crosslinks structure reveals DNA-damaging acitivity of colibactin that is linked to colorectal cancer #MicroSky www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...
Reposted by Bou-Nader lab
❄️ December RNA Modifications Newsletter is out! ❄️
rnamodifupdates.substack.com/p/rna-modifi...
❄️🔥RNA modifs = winter’s hottest adaptation toolkit. 🦠
#Ribosome #RNAbiology
rnamodifupdates.substack.com/p/rna-modifi...
❄️🔥RNA modifs = winter’s hottest adaptation toolkit. 🦠
#Ribosome #RNAbiology
❄️ RNA Modifications Newsletter – December 2025
issue no. 6
rnamodifupdates.substack.com
December 3, 2025 at 6:11 PM
❄️ December RNA Modifications Newsletter is out! ❄️
rnamodifupdates.substack.com/p/rna-modifi...
❄️🔥RNA modifs = winter’s hottest adaptation toolkit. 🦠
#Ribosome #RNAbiology
rnamodifupdates.substack.com/p/rna-modifi...
❄️🔥RNA modifs = winter’s hottest adaptation toolkit. 🦠
#Ribosome #RNAbiology
Reposted by Bou-Nader lab
Reposted by Bou-Nader lab
So happy to see this work out! Was such a pleasure to co-lead this effort with Erin. Do you like viral immune evasion, and using protein structure to study immune antagonists? Give it a read!
Work I co-led with @jnoms.bsky.social is now online at
@cp-cellhostmicrobe.bsky.social ! We revealed a previously unrealized diversity of viral immune-evasion proteins that selectively destroy different cyclic nucleotide signals used in bacterial immunity.
www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
@cp-cellhostmicrobe.bsky.social ! We revealed a previously unrealized diversity of viral immune-evasion proteins that selectively destroy different cyclic nucleotide signals used in bacterial immunity.
www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
Divergent viral phosphodiesterases for immune signaling evasion
Cyclic dinucleotides (CDNs) and other short oligonucleotides play fundamental roles in immune system activation in organisms ranging from bacteria to …
www.sciencedirect.com
November 25, 2025 at 9:34 PM
So happy to see this work out! Was such a pleasure to co-lead this effort with Erin. Do you like viral immune evasion, and using protein structure to study immune antagonists? Give it a read!
Reposted by Bou-Nader lab
Congrats to @chgjohnston.bsky.social , Andreani, Radicella et al.!
Elegant PNAS paper on the ComEC/ComFA/ComFC complex in bacterial transformation. AF3 predictions validated by clever mutagenesis. We tried for years to solve this by cryo-EM/crystallography - never succeeded.
Elegant PNAS paper on the ComEC/ComFA/ComFC complex in bacterial transformation. AF3 predictions validated by clever mutagenesis. We tried for years to solve this by cryo-EM/crystallography - never succeeded.
A tripartite protein complex promotes DNA transport during natural transformation in Firmicutes | PNAS
Natural genetic transformation is a conserved mechanism of bacterial horizontal gene
transfer, which is directed entirely by the recipient cell and...
www.pnas.org
November 25, 2025 at 9:41 PM
Congrats to @chgjohnston.bsky.social , Andreani, Radicella et al.!
Elegant PNAS paper on the ComEC/ComFA/ComFC complex in bacterial transformation. AF3 predictions validated by clever mutagenesis. We tried for years to solve this by cryo-EM/crystallography - never succeeded.
Elegant PNAS paper on the ComEC/ComFA/ComFC complex in bacterial transformation. AF3 predictions validated by clever mutagenesis. We tried for years to solve this by cryo-EM/crystallography - never succeeded.
Reposted by Bou-Nader lab
Happy to share that my PhD project is finally published!🪱✨
Selfish genes are found across the tree of life. They can disrupt inheritance patterns and at the same time act as units for molecular innovation. Here we tried to answer one big question: how do selfish genes emerge in the first place?
Selfish genes are found across the tree of life. They can disrupt inheritance patterns and at the same time act as units for molecular innovation. Here we tried to answer one big question: how do selfish genes emerge in the first place?
Recurrent evolution of selfishness from an essential tRNA synthetase in Caenorhabditis tropicalis 🧪
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
Recurrent evolution of selfishness from an essential tRNA synthetase in Caenorhabditis tropicalis - Nature Ecology & Evolution
In Caenorhabditis tropicalis, three toxin–antidote elements arose via gene duplication from the essential tRNA-synthetase subunit FARS-3. The ancestral antidote probably acquired affinity for FARS-3, ...
www.nature.com
November 24, 2025 at 9:10 PM
Happy to share that my PhD project is finally published!🪱✨
Selfish genes are found across the tree of life. They can disrupt inheritance patterns and at the same time act as units for molecular innovation. Here we tried to answer one big question: how do selfish genes emerge in the first place?
Selfish genes are found across the tree of life. They can disrupt inheritance patterns and at the same time act as units for molecular innovation. Here we tried to answer one big question: how do selfish genes emerge in the first place?
Reposted by Bou-Nader lab
How does messenger RNA (mRNA) get out of the nucleus to become a protein? Eukaryotic mRNA is packaged, exported, and then translated in the cytoplasm. But how do these steps work? And what are open questions? Check out our new review for our take: www.annualreviews.org/content/jour... (1/3)
November 21, 2025 at 5:37 PM
How does messenger RNA (mRNA) get out of the nucleus to become a protein? Eukaryotic mRNA is packaged, exported, and then translated in the cytoplasm. But how do these steps work? And what are open questions? Check out our new review for our take: www.annualreviews.org/content/jour... (1/3)
Reposted by Bou-Nader lab
New work from the Green and Beckmann labs on how ZAK recognizes collided ribosomes.
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
ZAK activation at the collided ribosome - Nature
The kinase ZAK is activated at collided ribosomes to mediate the ribotoxic stress response.
www.nature.com
November 20, 2025 at 3:58 PM
New work from the Green and Beckmann labs on how ZAK recognizes collided ribosomes.
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
Reposted by Bou-Nader lab
To probe gene-scale chromatin physics, we built 96-mer (20 kb) arrays with defined histone marks. Combining single-molecule tracking, AFM imaging, and developing in vitro Hi-C, we saw how specific modifications dictate chromatin structure and dynamics. www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...
Gene-scale in vitro reconstitution reveals histone acetylation directly controls chromatin architecture
Reconstituting 20-kb chromatin shows that tuning acetylation alone reshapes its folding, dynamics, and contact domain formation.
www.science.org
November 20, 2025 at 7:46 AM
To probe gene-scale chromatin physics, we built 96-mer (20 kb) arrays with defined histone marks. Combining single-molecule tracking, AFM imaging, and developing in vitro Hi-C, we saw how specific modifications dictate chromatin structure and dynamics. www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...
Reposted by Bou-Nader lab
Finally out in @nature.com! We uncovered a mechanistic framework for a general and conserved mRNA nuclear export pathway. www.nature.com/articles/s41.... 1/
November 19, 2025 at 11:22 PM
Finally out in @nature.com! We uncovered a mechanistic framework for a general and conserved mRNA nuclear export pathway. www.nature.com/articles/s41.... 1/
Reposted by Bou-Nader lab
Out today, our take on 6-methyladenine #6mA evolution in Eukaryotes @natgenet.nature.com. We asked a simple question, is really DNA 6mA common across the eukaryotes? The answer is "yes" if you're a unicellular eukaryote 🦠, not so if you're multicellular 🐝🌱🍄. www.nature.com/articles/s41... 1/9
Adenine DNA methylation associated with transcriptionally permissive chromatin is widespread across eukaryotes - Nature Genetics
Long-read sequencing in 18 unicellular eukaryotes reveals that 6mA is widespread across eukaryotes and is enriched at transcriptionally permissive regions, which are also marked by H3K4me3.
www.nature.com
November 18, 2025 at 12:00 PM
Out today, our take on 6-methyladenine #6mA evolution in Eukaryotes @natgenet.nature.com. We asked a simple question, is really DNA 6mA common across the eukaryotes? The answer is "yes" if you're a unicellular eukaryote 🦠, not so if you're multicellular 🐝🌱🍄. www.nature.com/articles/s41... 1/9
Reposted by Bou-Nader lab
Structural insights into the chaperone role of uncharged tRNA(Arg/Gln) in viral RNAP assembly #RNASky 🧪 www.nature.com/articles/s41...
tRNA as an assembly chaperone for a macromolecular transcription-processing complex - Nature Structural & Molecular Biology
Here, the authors solve a series of cryo-electron microscopy structures that show how transfer RNAs (tRNAs) can guide the assembly of the multisubunit poxvirus RNA polymerase, uncovering a role of tRN...
www.nature.com
November 15, 2025 at 9:44 PM
Structural insights into the chaperone role of uncharged tRNA(Arg/Gln) in viral RNAP assembly #RNASky 🧪 www.nature.com/articles/s41...
Reposted by Bou-Nader lab
Excited to share our new preprint in collaboration with Ahmet Yildiz's lab. Check out how our team uncovers a novel binding footprint and motor regulation mechanism for MAP9 Congrats to Burak Cetin and @aryantaheri.bsky.social
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
November 18, 2025 at 10:43 PM
Excited to share our new preprint in collaboration with Ahmet Yildiz's lab. Check out how our team uncovers a novel binding footprint and motor regulation mechanism for MAP9 Congrats to Burak Cetin and @aryantaheri.bsky.social
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
Reposted by Bou-Nader lab
Very happy to share our collaborative project on FAM118 proteins - noncanonical sirtuins that form filaments and process NAD in human and other vertebrate cells.
Filament formation and NAD processing by noncanonical human FAM118 sirtuins
Nature Structural & Molecular Biology - Baretić and Missoury et al. identify vertebrate proteins FAM118B and FAM118A as sirtuins similar to bacterial antiphage enzymes and show that...
rdcu.be
November 17, 2025 at 11:37 AM
Very happy to share our collaborative project on FAM118 proteins - noncanonical sirtuins that form filaments and process NAD in human and other vertebrate cells.
Reposted by Bou-Nader lab
Thank you to our sponsors for the GA RNA Salon @rnasociety.bsky.social and Lexogen- we hosted Dr. Francesca Storici for our annual symposium yesterday @dunhamlab.bsky.social @ghaleilab.bsky.social
November 15, 2025 at 2:22 PM
Thank you to our sponsors for the GA RNA Salon @rnasociety.bsky.social and Lexogen- we hosted Dr. Francesca Storici for our annual symposium yesterday @dunhamlab.bsky.social @ghaleilab.bsky.social
Reposted by Bou-Nader lab
I’m very happy to share Zhong Han’s beautiful work on the biochemical function of Senataxin, encoded by a gene that is mutated in rare and early-disabling neurodegenerative diseases. Turns out it rescues backtracked RNA polymerase II during early transcription! www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
A role for human senataxin in contending with pausing and backtracking during transcript elongation
Senataxin (SETX) regulates RNA polymerase II (RNAPII) transcription and helps maintain genome stability, at least partly by suppressing R-loops. Howev…
www.sciencedirect.com
November 12, 2025 at 5:36 PM
I’m very happy to share Zhong Han’s beautiful work on the biochemical function of Senataxin, encoded by a gene that is mutated in rare and early-disabling neurodegenerative diseases. Turns out it rescues backtracked RNA polymerase II during early transcription! www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
Reposted by Bou-Nader lab
Thrilled to share that the final piece of my PhD work is now on bioRxiv! biorxiv.org/content/10.1... With support from @nvidia and the @NSF, we used AlphaFold to screen 1.6M+ protein pairs, revealing thousands of potential novel PPIs. All data can be viewed at predictomes.org/hp
Proteome-wide in silico screening for human protein-protein interactions
Protein-protein interactions (PPIs) drive virtually all biological processes, yet most PPIs have not been identified and even more remain structurally unresolved. We developed a two-step computational...
biorxiv.org
November 12, 2025 at 9:26 PM
Thrilled to share that the final piece of my PhD work is now on bioRxiv! biorxiv.org/content/10.1... With support from @nvidia and the @NSF, we used AlphaFold to screen 1.6M+ protein pairs, revealing thousands of potential novel PPIs. All data can be viewed at predictomes.org/hp
Reposted by Bou-Nader lab
Regulated decay of microRNAs plays a critical role in controlling body size in mammals! Check out our new paper in @genesdev.bsky.social and see thread previously posted with our pre-print 👇 for more info. Congrats to Collette LaVigne, Jaeil Han, and all authors!
genesdev.cshlp.org/cgi/content/...
genesdev.cshlp.org/cgi/content/...
November 10, 2025 at 5:40 PM
Regulated decay of microRNAs plays a critical role in controlling body size in mammals! Check out our new paper in @genesdev.bsky.social and see thread previously posted with our pre-print 👇 for more info. Congrats to Collette LaVigne, Jaeil Han, and all authors!
genesdev.cshlp.org/cgi/content/...
genesdev.cshlp.org/cgi/content/...
Reposted by Bou-Nader lab
Very proud of our recently published work in @narjournal.bsky.social led by senior PhD candidate Julia Warrick. #RNA
academic.oup.com/nar/article/...
academic.oup.com/nar/article/...
An autism spectrum disorder mutation in Topoisomerase 3β causes accumulation of covalent mRNA intermediates by disrupting metal binding within the zinc finger domain
Abstract. The loss and mutation of Topoisomerase 3β (TOP3B), the only known eukaryotic topoisomerase with the ability to catalyze RNA strand passage reacti
academic.oup.com
November 10, 2025 at 12:21 AM
Very proud of our recently published work in @narjournal.bsky.social led by senior PhD candidate Julia Warrick. #RNA
academic.oup.com/nar/article/...
academic.oup.com/nar/article/...
Reposted by Bou-Nader lab
Tremendous paper from Narry Kim’s lab identifying a sequence element that recruits cellular factors to exogenous mRNAs to ‘rejuvenate’ their poly(A) tails leading to a huge boost in output. Significant implications for therapeutics. Now, I wonder what the factor X is…
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
RNA stability enhancers for durable base-modified mRNA therapeutics - Nature Biotechnology
A systematic screen identifies RNA elements that enhance the stability and translation of base-modified mRNA.
www.nature.com
November 10, 2025 at 9:34 PM
Tremendous paper from Narry Kim’s lab identifying a sequence element that recruits cellular factors to exogenous mRNAs to ‘rejuvenate’ their poly(A) tails leading to a huge boost in output. Significant implications for therapeutics. Now, I wonder what the factor X is…
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
Reposted by Bou-Nader lab
New work from Tahirov x Lim collaboration! @qixianghe.bsky.social from my lab contributed the cryo-EM structures for this work. We are excited to help explain how anti-HSV drugs work and to guide their future development.
www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...
@unmc.bsky.social @uwbiochem.bsky.social
www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...
@unmc.bsky.social @uwbiochem.bsky.social
Structural basis of herpesvirus helicase-primase inhibition by pritelivir and amenamevir
Structural studies of HSV-1 helicase-primase revealed how pritelivir and amenamevir bind and block its helicase activity.
www.science.org
November 10, 2025 at 12:14 AM
New work from Tahirov x Lim collaboration! @qixianghe.bsky.social from my lab contributed the cryo-EM structures for this work. We are excited to help explain how anti-HSV drugs work and to guide their future development.
www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...
@unmc.bsky.social @uwbiochem.bsky.social
www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...
@unmc.bsky.social @uwbiochem.bsky.social
Reposted by Bou-Nader lab
‼️ Excited to share our new paper out now in @science.org ‼️
We describe a new tetrameric RAD51 paralog complex – XRCC3-RAD51C-RAD51D-XRCC2 – which caps the end of RAD51 filaments.
Link: www.science.org/doi/epdf/10....
Thread ⬇️ (1/8)
We describe a new tetrameric RAD51 paralog complex – XRCC3-RAD51C-RAD51D-XRCC2 – which caps the end of RAD51 filaments.
Link: www.science.org/doi/epdf/10....
Thread ⬇️ (1/8)
November 7, 2025 at 10:15 AM
‼️ Excited to share our new paper out now in @science.org ‼️
We describe a new tetrameric RAD51 paralog complex – XRCC3-RAD51C-RAD51D-XRCC2 – which caps the end of RAD51 filaments.
Link: www.science.org/doi/epdf/10....
Thread ⬇️ (1/8)
We describe a new tetrameric RAD51 paralog complex – XRCC3-RAD51C-RAD51D-XRCC2 – which caps the end of RAD51 filaments.
Link: www.science.org/doi/epdf/10....
Thread ⬇️ (1/8)
Reposted by Bou-Nader lab
This paper validates the original work establishing this concept for the cGAS-STING pathway. Kudos to the authors.
@wyssinstitute.bsky.social
journals.asm.org/doi/10.1128/...
@wyssinstitute.bsky.social
journals.asm.org/doi/10.1128/...
mRNAs encoding self-DNA reactive cGAS enhance the immunogenicity of lipid nanoparticle vaccines | mBio
Nucleic acid-based vaccines hold promise in preventing infections and treating cancer.
The most common use of this technology is to encode antigenic proteins on mRNAs that
are delivered to cells via l...
journals.asm.org
November 4, 2025 at 3:31 PM
This paper validates the original work establishing this concept for the cGAS-STING pathway. Kudos to the authors.
@wyssinstitute.bsky.social
journals.asm.org/doi/10.1128/...
@wyssinstitute.bsky.social
journals.asm.org/doi/10.1128/...
Reposted by Bou-Nader lab
🎉 Joint paper from the Freudenthal and @tmweaver.bsky.social Labs!
Abbey Vito’s first publication discusses a tug-of-war between BER enzymes and chromatin for access to damaged DNA, a battle central to genome stability.
Built on Tyler's foundational work! tinyurl.com/ywkt2bt5
Abbey Vito’s first publication discusses a tug-of-war between BER enzymes and chromatin for access to damaged DNA, a battle central to genome stability.
Built on Tyler's foundational work! tinyurl.com/ywkt2bt5
Base excision repair in chromatin: A tug-of-war for DNA damage
Base excision repair (BER) is a genome surveillance pathway responsible for repairing DNA base lesions distributed throughout the chromatinized eukary…
tinyurl.com
November 3, 2025 at 3:47 PM
🎉 Joint paper from the Freudenthal and @tmweaver.bsky.social Labs!
Abbey Vito’s first publication discusses a tug-of-war between BER enzymes and chromatin for access to damaged DNA, a battle central to genome stability.
Built on Tyler's foundational work! tinyurl.com/ywkt2bt5
Abbey Vito’s first publication discusses a tug-of-war between BER enzymes and chromatin for access to damaged DNA, a battle central to genome stability.
Built on Tyler's foundational work! tinyurl.com/ywkt2bt5