Departmental news

A new paper from the Royle lab describes a method to label membrane contact sites in living cells on-demand. Laura Downie found that the Lamin B Receptor (LBR), which is usually on the nuclear envelope, can be used as a multi-purpose contact site highlighter. With a bit of engineering, LBR can label ER contacts with the plasma membrane, mitochondria, lysosomes, endosomes, lipid droplets and the Golgi! We found Golgi-ER contact sites persist in mitosis, a time when the Golgi is broken down but the contact sites remain intact! As a bonus track, the paper contains a method to segment mitochondria and ER from volume-EM data using machine learning, and find their contacts in 3D.

Read the paper here.

Pleomorphism in influenza viruses, characterized by diverse morphological forms ranging from spherical virions to elongated filaments, has been suggested to present significant implications for pathogenesis. This review examines the role of pleomorphism on the influenza virus life cycle, encompassing viral attachment and entry, replication, assembly, and budding, as well as transmission dynamics. It explores the determinants' underlying morphological variability in virions and their impact on viral fitness and host interactions. Insights into how pleomorphic forms of the virus influence disease severity and the efficacy of antivirals are discussed. Understanding the implications of pleomorphism in influenza virus pathogenesis is crucial for the development of effective disease prevention, control, and treatment strategies.

Read the paper here.

A study led by WMS researchers has revealed an abnormal process in the womb lining as the explanation behind some preventable pregnancy loss, paving the way for new tests and treatments for some women who experience recurrent miscarriage.

The International Zebrafish Society (IZFS), comprising of over 900 members, is the premier society in this research area.
Karuna was declared winner in the Board of Directors ElectionLink opens in a new window on 18 June 2025. Karuna will succeed Professor Cecilia Moens (Fred Hutchinson Cancer Center, Seattle, WA,USA) and will be President of the International Zebrafish Society 2026-2027.
 

The Institute of Precision Diagnostics and Translational Medicine at UHCW was delighted to welcome a nationwide audience to the launch of its Multi-Omics platform on Thursday 8 May 2025.

Published in The Lancet, findings from The Big Baby Trial - co-led by Prof Siobhan Quenby MBE of WMS - show early induction of labour of babies suspected to be large for their age in the womb can reduce complications at birth.

The paper uses biophysical assays to directly visualize and analyse in vitro RNA synthesis carried out by the SARS-CoV-2 RNA-dependent RNA polymerase (RdRp). We purified the minimal replication complex, comprising nsp12, nsp7, and nsp8, and combined it with fluorescently labelled RNA substrates, enabling real-time monitoring of RNA primer elongation at the single-molecule level. This platform allowed us to investigate the mechanisms of action of key inhibitors of SARS-CoV-2 replication. In particular, our data provides evidence for remdesivir’s mechanism of action, which involves polymerase stalling and subsequent chain termination dependent on the concentration of competing nucleotide triphosphates. Our study demonstrates the power of smFRET to provide dynamic insights into SARS-CoV-2 replication, offering a valuable tool for antiviral screening and mechanistic studies of viral RdRp activity.
Read the paper here.Link opens in a new window

Cells contain a myriad of vesicle types with distinct behaviours and functions. Intracellular nanovesicles (INVs), collectively marked by the membrane protein TPD54, are a recently described family of small, uncoated vesicles that move mainly via diffusion. Many subtypes or ‘flavours’ of INVs appear to exist and participate in various trafficking processes. In this study (Fesenko et al., 2025), the Royle lab report the first INV proteome and explore whether ATG9A vesicles, small vesicles involved in autophagosome biogenesis, are in fact a flavour of INV. The INV proteome shows overlap with proteomes from synaptic vesicles, synaptic-like microvesicles (SLMVs) and ATG9A vesicles, which are particularly enriched for TPD54. To determine whether TPD54-containing vesicles also contain ATG9A and vice versa, the authors ‘trap’ each vesicle type by relocalising them to mitochondria and observe how the other vesicle marker responds. Trapping of TPD54 also relocalises the bulk of ATG9A vesicles, whereas trapping of ATG9A only affects a fraction of TPD54 vesicles, suggesting that ATG9A vesicles are a specific subset of INV. Moreover, trapping of INVs relocalises several proteins established to be ATG9A vesicle cargoes. ATG9A vesicles are thought to function as ‘seeds’ for growing phagophores, and the authors indeed observe that TPD54 depletion dampens autophagy in starved cells. Together, these data indicate that ATG9A vesicles represent a new INV flavour and implicate INVs in autophagic regulation.

Read the paper here.

Read the interview with first author Mary Fesenko.

In this Open Biology paper from the Dean lab, Athina Paterou and her co-authors present a set of >100 plasmids that allows endogenous gene tagging using a diverse set of protein tags and drug resistances. This facilitates extensive protein-protein interaction studies, biochemistry, and microscopy techniques understand protein function. They perform extensive validation of these tags, identifying the best (brightest, most stable) fluorescent protein for different applications, and highlighting the effect of tandem epitope tags on protein localisation and function in expansion microscopy appraches. To meet the needs to the parasitological community, they show the plasmid series works in related parasites, such as Leishmania mexicana, and create a plasmid for tagging GPI-anchored proteins.
Read the paper here.Link opens in a new window

There is an urgent need for novel classes of antibiotics to combat the ever-increasing threat of Anti-Microbial Resistance (AMR). This work builds upon prior research conducted in collaboration between Professors Scott (Chemistry department) and Waterfield (WMS). Prof Scott’s lab has, and continues to produce, a very large and diverse library of synthetic metallohelix compounds, some of which are very potent against pathogenic bacteria. Importantly slight changes in the chemistry of the compounds allows us to “tune” their target specificity, for example, against Gram-positive bacteria (e.g. Staph aureus) or Gram-negative bacteria (e.g. E. coli). Two enantiomeric pairs of iron(ii) metallohelices, of different types can be created as water-soluble, stable, and optically pure bimetallic complexes, differing principally in the length of the central hydrophobic region between two cationic domains.