laboratory on structure and functions of living membranes lab at University of Virginia ; also posts occasional nonsense - views our own, not UVA
Joined September 2018
- Tweets 6,175
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297 Photos and videos
Pinned Tweet
2 Aug 2023
It’s not every day that you get to share a story that you truly believe changes a paradigm!
Today is that day for us. We hope you agree: biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/…
Cell Membranes Sustain Phospholipid Imbalance Via Cholesterol Asymmetry
What's the big idea? Tweetorial below!
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Jun 12
Our new preprint "Spatial Organization of Lipids Drives GPCR Conformational Equilibria" is now available at bioRxiv:
biorxiv.org/content/10.64898…
Led by @anuradha_viraj, additional PhD trainees, and key collaborations with Ed Lyman and his postdoc Dr. Jingjing Ji.
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Ilya Levental retweeted
We need a BIG BEAUTIFUL RESPONSE to the horrible rule proposal that came down from OMB in late May that will kill science and the science ecosystem. Our #BigBeautifulResponse needs to have maximum impact. 1/8
@BiophysicalSoc
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Pretty cool!! pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/jac…
Last year, we showed that membranes can be asymmetric in an unexpected way: more phospholipids on one side than the other, balanced by cholesterol
Here, Bogdanov et al show similar in EColi, with DAG doing cholesterol's flippy-buffer job
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friends and scientists...
some simple descriptions of consequences of rule changes being proposed by the administration: elizabethginexi.substack.com…
If you think these proposals suck, please submit comments, its easy and quick, as explained at link.
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Presented at #ASCO26:
Among patients with previously treated metastatic pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma, the RAS(ON) inhibitor daraxonrasib led to significantly longer overall survival and progression-free survival than chemotherapy. Full phase 3 RASolute 302 trial results: nej.md/4nWaxvM
@ASCO
ALT Graph from a study published in the New England Journal of Medicine on daraxonrasib versus chemotherapy for metastatic pancreatic cancer. The x-axis represents months, and the y-axis shows the percentage of patients alive. Two lines indicate survival rates: daraxonrasib (blue) and chemotherapy (gray). The bottom section lists patients at risk over time. Title and journal logo are included.
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May 28
By the way this is how you get into a PhD program. I applied to 6 programs. The 3 I got into (NEU, Duke, and UA) were the ones where I did exactly this for the specific prof at each I was interested in. The 3 I did not get into (UT Austin, Berkeley, MIT) were the ones where I did not do this.
May 27
The best people I know at cold emailing will spend two entire days reading every single paper a person has written, and then a third day writing the email itself
I think this is one of the most unconventional advice on cold emailing: be extremely intentional with who you want to reach out to, and seriously put the work to make yourself noticed
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May 20
For Those Who Waited 22 Years.
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May 18
#OPENACCESS: Clustering hinders APP α-secretase processing in the plasma membrane. Kerstin Pinkwart and Thorsten Lang. buff.ly/RX0RbTX
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May 11
Timeline of World War II
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Summer is approaching & so is the 2026 Lipid Droplets: From Mechanisms to Disease FASEB SRC (July 26-30 in Scottsdale, AZ)!
Interested in lipids? Join this amazing summer research conference!
Abstracts due May 31,
Early registration June 14.
events.faseb.org/event/Lipid…
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Ilya Levental retweeted
I know it's boring and repetitive to talk about how grossly evil Trump is, but the fact remains: Trump is grossly evil, in a way that's pretty much unprecedented in this country.
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the shower is the alternate dimension where I realize I'm low on shampoo but as soon as I step through the curtain I'm transported back to this dimension where all my memories are wiped like in severance and I won’t remember i’m out of shampoo until im back in the shower
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Feb 3
Both chambers of Congress have now passed the FY26 minibus with NIH provisions. The President will sign.
(1) $48.7 billion for NIH
(2) Full IDC recovery
(3) No more multi-year funding
(4) No NIH reorganization, maintaining the current IC structure.
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Jan 22
#OPENACCESS: Asymmetry and heterogeneity in the plasma membrane. Teppei Yamada and Wataru Shinoda. buff.ly/AW6cRj3
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Jan 22
Biopsies provide just a single snapshot of the underlying tissue. In our recent work published in @Nature, we made progress in estimating tissue-level dynamics from a biopsy using spatial proteomics.
nature.com/articles/s41586-0…
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Jan 2
New preprint! 🚨
Why has maximal human lifespan barely changed while median lifespan has doubled?
We used a mechanistic mathematical model of aging to find that fundamental aging rates are strikingly conserved across individuals and over time.
tinyurl.com/6xrv8329
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Registration is open for the FASEB #LipidDroplet conference in Scottsdale, July 26-30! This is THE premier North American meeting on lipid droplets, you do not want to miss it!!
Interested in lipids? Join us @ the 2026 FASEB Lipid Droplet: From Mechanisms to Disease Conference (July 26-30, Scottsdale, AZ). Registration is open!
events.faseb.org/event/Lipid…
We are co-locating with the FASEB Phospholipids SRC! Register for one to enjoy BOTH meetings!
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Ilya Levental retweeted
2 Dec 2025
Leikina, Kozlov, Chernomordik et al. @NIH propose a novel signaling pathway linking together intracellular Ca²⁺ signaling, #phosphatidylserine exposure, #annexin A5 binding and #actin cortex detachment that facilitates #osteoclast fusion. hubs.la/Q03WvmkQ0
#Membrane #lipid
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Ilya Levental retweeted
2 Dec 2025
Emollients enriched with physiological lipids and glycerine may offer great protection, supporting better barrier resilience in eczema-prone skin.
Read our new article here:
lipotype.com/lipidomics-appl…
#Eczema #SkinLipidomics #Lipidomics #Lipotype #LipidMetabolism
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