Max Wilkinson

keen on reverse transcription | also keen on spliceosomes | cryoEM dabbler

Assistant Member @MSKCC
Post-doc @MIT
PhD @MRC_LMB
BSc @Otago

[Max Wilkinson @maxewilkinson]

annnnd: I'm hiring - come join! Especially postdocs and PhD students - please get in touch (NYC is great)

https://t.co/Wh4ELkWE5k

[Max Wilkinson @maxewilkinson]

The Wilkinson Lab is open for science! @MSKCancerCenter

🧬We'll be finding funky new RNA biology, mainly by looking at reverse transcriptases (i.e. the Best Enzymes In The World)🧬

[Max Wilkinson @maxewilkinson]

@OliBClarke @EMDB_EMPIAR @kimanius @SjorsScheres alternatively, people might just discover I'm a bit rubbish at processing cryoEM data 😬
But this dataset was definitely challenging for me, at least!

[Max Wilkinson @maxewilkinson]

PS if someone in the Boston area spots a spare printed copy in their department tearoom could they please steal it for me 😊😊🙏🙏 (steal one for yourself first of course)

[Max Wilkinson @maxewilkinson]

covercovercovercovercovercovercovercovercovercovercover this is terrifically exciting

(Also please dw, the central dogma is still very much intact, this is just a bit of a funky spin on it)

[Science Magazine @ScienceMagazine]

The central dogma of molecular biology states that genetic information flows from DNA and RNA to protein, with reverse transcription converting RNA to DNA.

In the pursuit of understanding how bacteria defend themselves from viral infection, two groups have found alternative pathways to making genes from RNA that did not previously encode proteins. Learn more this week in Science: https://t.co/MT1Bhru2Ox

[Max Wilkinson @maxewilkinson]

@WojtekGalej thanks Wojtek! It's what happens when a reverse transcriptase gets jealous of its cousin Prp8 having all the fun with the RNA

[Max Wilkinson @maxewilkinson]

@Bryce_Nickels Correct! The reconstituted promoter is a 100% perfect match to that consensus, spacing and all. It's a better match to the consensus than most natural promoters. (This definitely gave us more hope in the hypothesis early on!)

[Max Wilkinson @maxewilkinson]

My favourite discovery ever has just come online. Can I please tell you about some seriously wacky molecular biology? The story starts with a reverse transcriptase that SOMEHOW defends bacteria from viruses.

(👇 I recommend sound ON for the video 🎹)
1/

[Max Wilkinson @maxewilkinson]

@cunha_tristan really good question! At the moment, unclear. We haven't figured out how the protein is toxic yet

[Brady Cress @bradyfcress]

Such a crazy discovery. I think this captures the reaction of the audience while watching @maxewilkinson present this at the Symposium on the Immune System of Bacteria.

[Max Wilkinson @maxewilkinson]

Lots more in the paper (#cryoEM etc!)
https://t.co/IrVR3JkLJY
Big thanks to coauthors @_David_Li @algao8 Rhiannon Macrae and @zhangf
Please also check out @shsternberg @stephentang23 related work - we come up with similar models, but it'll be exciting to resolve the differences!

[Max Wilkinson @maxewilkinson]

(P.S. eternal thanks as ever to @bradyajohnston for his #MolecularNodes plugin to #Blender3D. It makes molecular animation so much fun)

[Max Wilkinson @maxewilkinson]

Nils's incredible work is finally out, amazing work on a multi-talented protein by a multi-talented postdoc! It was a joy to use Dari @kimanius 's new Blush algorithm in #RELION to solve the cryoEM structure of this 40 kDa RNA complex

[Nils Birkholz @NilsBirkholz]

👋🏻 I'm absolutely glee-ridden to finally see our study on the RNA- and DNA-binding anti-CRISPR repressor Aca2 published in @Nature. 🥳 This unassuming little helix–turn–helix protein packs quite the punch! 🧶👇🏻
https://t.co/G1980lKFtx

[Max Wilkinson @maxewilkinson]

@oxkawaka はい、その通りです。

[Akos Nyerges @AkosNyerges]

In our newest preprint,
• we explore the effects of synonymous genome recoding, and
• construct & troubleshoot a synthetic 57-codon E. coli genome using multi-omics, editing, and laboratory evolution.

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