We apply biochemistry, synthetic biology, and chemical biology to study how phase separation organizes the bacterial cytoplasm and how bacteria make decisions.

Pittsburgh, PA
Joined August 2018
New Nature Publication from the Carter-Fenk Lab! The Carter-Fenk Lab initiated CCSD(T) calculations from DFT densities to find that chemically accurate bond dissociation energies for metal diatomics can be achieved. Read below: zurl.co/EMShO
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🔬🚀 New paper out: mAIcrobe, our open-source #napari plugin for high-throughput bacterial image analysis. Segmentation, morphological profiling and cell cycle classification, all in one place 👇 doi.org/10.1038/s44488-026-0…
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Childers Lab retweeted
Just out @J_A_C_S We show that short peptide-based assemblies can promote enantioselective carboligation! #SystemsChem #suprachem #catalysis Grateful to @ANRFIndia & @DBTIndia @iiserkol @dcsiiserkol pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/jac… Check out our latest works ddaslab.com
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Distinguished Professor David H. Waldeck has sadly passed away. We send our condolences to his family along with the Faculty, Students and staff that knew and worked with him. Read more about Prof. Waldeck's life and work using this link: zurl.co/LHyuX
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Childers Lab retweeted
I discuss the urgent crisis from the loss of federal support of science in the US and recent clinical gene editing breakthroughs with @WalterIsaacson & @amanpour on @AmanpourCoPBS, airing on @PBS tonight at 11 pm ET, and on @cnni earlier today. Pls share! youtube.com/watch?v=8YhJM6zx…
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Congratulations to the recipients of our department's inaugural best paper awards! This round of awards recognizes outstanding papers published in Summer 2024. Read about their work at the links below: zurl.co/0sufX
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Carnegie Mellon biologists have discovered the mechanism behind telomere elongation, which has implications for treating cancer. cmu.edu/mcs/news-events/2024… Want to learn more? Register for an upcoming talk by lead researcher Professor Huaying Zhang. cmu.zoom.us/webinar/register…
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Many thanks to @APSPhysiology #TPhysMag for featuring us in this month's "Under the Microscope"... Was fun to do this interview! @pittkidneyctr physiology.org/publications/…
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1. Excited to share our new study, just published in Cell. First off, link to paper: cell.com/cell/fulltext/S0092…
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🔬🦠 Read our latest review tinyurl.com/2y9ebsgl in @PLOSPathogens on bacterial condensates, their role in stress sensing and response, and potential for influencing host-pathogen interactions. Fun project with the @ChildersLab. Congrats to @moeka_sasazawa and @DylanTomares
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Childers Lab retweeted
Check out our latest paper in @nchembio, where we developed our CAGE split intein platform to study signaling events using proteomic profiling. This enables insights into the differential molecular connections of fusion oncogenes. Congrats to @GihoonLee1! nature.com/articles/s41589-0…
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So excited to announce our new method for multiplexed RNA imaging in bacterial cells: bacterial-MERFISH! A huge congratulations to the team of @AriSarfatis, Yuanyou Wang, and Nana Twumasi-Ankrah! Check out the following thread or our bioRxiv (biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/…) 1/12
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Membrane binding properties of the cytoskeletal protein bactofilin We characterize the membrane-binding motif of bactofilin and investigate the interplay between membrane binding, polymerization and client-protein recruitment. A great collaboration with the Schäfer lab (MD simulations) and Wieland Steinchen/@BangeBalcony (HDX analysis), led by former PhD student Ying Liu. doi.org/10.1101/2024.06.14.5… @SYNMIKRO @mpi_marburg @Bio_UMR
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Published in #OpenBiology: Bacterial division ring stabilizing ZapA versus destabilizing SlmA modulate FtsZ switching between biomolecular condensates and polymers ow.ly/vxIG50SfkpL | #Biochemistry #Biophysics #SyntheticBiology
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Excited to share my lab’s first preprint! We found that increasing DNA binding by type IV pili in an Acinetobacter pathogen can boost its natural transformation rates by ~100-fold, demonstrating that DNA binding is rate-limiting for natural transformation. biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/…
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Pick of the Week, out #OpenAccess in @ChemSystemsChem by @ChildersLab: Biomolecular Condensates: From Bacterial Compartments to Incubator Spaces of Emergent Chemical Systems in Matter-to-Life Transitions ow.ly/kP6W50S9Vjo SystemsChem Talents: ow.ly/opyk50S9Vs3
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