Childers Lab@ChildersLab

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

 Pittsburgh, PA
childerslab.weebly.com/
Joined August 2018
22 Photos and videos
Together with Michael Collins, @schraderlab, @DylanTomares, @iamvidyadhar we examined how the phase separation of BR-bodies is logically wired to the enzymatic functions of a key client - PNPase nature.com/articles/s41598-0…

RNase E biomolecular condensates stimulate PNPase activity

Scientific Reports - RNase E biomolecular condensates stimulate PNPase activity

nature.com
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Ricardo Henriques@HenriquesLab
Sep 15
🔬🚀 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…
Screenshot of the published article page: title mAIcrobe, an open-source framework for high-throughput bacterial image analysis, the seven authors, and the abstract.

ALT Screenshot of the published article page: title mAIcrobe, an open-source framework for high-throughput bacterial image analysis, the seven authors, and the abstract.

Diagram of the mAIcrobe workflow. Acquisition feeds into segmentation with StarDist, Cellpose and community models, then morphological profiling and a three-class cell cycle classifier, ending in a feature-space scatter plot with three separated clusters.

ALT Diagram of the mAIcrobe workflow. Acquisition feeds into segmentation with StarDist, Cellpose and community models, then morphological profiling and a three-class cell cycle classifier, ending in a feature-space scatter plot with three separated clusters.

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Dibyendu Das@DDasLab
Mar 30
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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Pitt Chemistry@Pitt_Chemistry
Feb 27
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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Ramesh Wigneshweraraj@wig_r
1 Nov 2025
A study by Harriet Ellis and @JoshMcquail revealing new roles for glutathione in the adaptive response to N starvation in E. coli. biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/…

Pleiotropic functions of glutathione in the adaptive response to long-term nitrogen starvation in...

Nitrogen (N) is essential for bacterial growth, and adaptation to N starvation involves extensive reprogramming of gene expression. A hallmark subcellular feature in long-term N starved Escherichia...

biorxiv.org
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Stephen Fried JHU@fried_lab
5 Oct 2025
As the planet gets hotter & drier, can we make proteins & organisms more resilient to desiccation stress? Together with @shaharsu @SyracuseU & @alexholehouse @washumedicine, we show in @CellSystemsCP a sequence grammar encoding tolerance to dehydration. cell.com/cell-systems/abstra…

Protein surface chemistry encodes an adaptive tolerance to desiccation

Desiccated cells lose over 85% of their water content and experience widespread biomolecular dysfunction. Romero-Pérez et al. show that the yeast proteome contains a subset of proteins that are...

cell.com
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Stephen Fried JHU@fried_lab
28 Jun 2025
Just presented for the first time today by April @ProteinSociety who received their young investigator award! #ProudPI #FriedLabNews. Is Anfinsen’s Thermodynamic Hypothesis of protein folding true? We think PGK challenges it in a truly striking way. biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/…

Phosphoglycerate Kinase Can Adopt a Topologically Misfolded Form that is More Stable than its...

The native states of globular proteins are typically viewed as being the most stable conformations on their respective proteins’ soluble free energy landscapes. This view, known as the Thermodynamic...

biorxiv.org
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David R. Liu
@davidrliu
24 May 2025
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! piped.video/watch?v=8YhJM6zx…

Breakthrough Prize-Winning Biochemist on the Deadly Cost of Funding...

For decades the United States has been at the forefront of medical ...

youtube.com
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Pitt Chemistry@Pitt_Chemistry
7 Apr 2025
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…
SUMO and DNA repair factors co-localize to telomeres in ALT cancer cells.

ALT SUMO and DNA repair factors co-localize to telomeres in ALT cancer cells.
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Arohan Subramanya@arohan_s
17 Sep 2024
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/…

The Love of Physiology

physiology.org
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Angewandte Chemie@angew_chem
13 Sep 2024
Controlled Protein-Membrane Interactions Modulate Self-Organization of Min Protein Patterns (Katja Zieske and co-workers) @ZieskeLab @MPI_Light #openaccess onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/…

Controlled Protein‐Membrane Interactions Modulate Self‐Organization of Min Protein Patterns

Self-organization of proteins is a fundamental process in living systems. The Zieske research group at the Max Planck Institute for the Science of Light in Erlangen now reconstituted snowflake-like...

onlinelibrary.wiley.com
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Lingchong You@lingchongyou
12 Sep 2024
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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Saurabh Lab@SaurabhLabNYU
18 Aug 2024
🔬🦠 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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The Muir Lab@MuirLab
9 Jul 2024
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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Moffitt Laboratory@MoffittLab
2 Jul 2024
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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Courtney Ellison@C__Ellison
11 Jun 2024
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/…

DNA binding is rate-limiting for natural transformation

Bacteria take up environmental DNA using dynamic appendages called type IV pili (T4P) to elicit horizontal gene transfer in a process called natural transformation. Natural transformation is widesp...

biorxiv.org
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Chemistry Europe@ChemEurope
5 Jun 2024
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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Dibyendu Das@DDasLab
28 May 2024
Just online @NatureComms cationic peptide nanotubes can bind weak hydride transfer agents to facilitate efficient reduction of esters in water! Grateful to Swarnajayanti Grant, @serbonline , CSIR & @iiserkol rdcu.be/dJbwI #systemschem #enzymemimics
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