We use cryo-EM and biochemistry to study the molecular machines that divide cells, transmit signals across membranes, and misfold in human disease.
Recent papers, milestones, and reasons to celebrate.
Elda Bauda's recent work uncovered a new cellular compartment we call the "atonosome," which forms within seconds when a cell's outer membrane loses tension — such as during osmotic shock. Using high-resolution cryo-ET of yeast, we show these structures arise across contexts of both acute and chronic membrane-tension loss. Posted as a preprint on bioRxiv; not yet peer-reviewed.
Read the preprint →The first-ever structure of ATTR filaments from a living patient, now in Nature Communications — minimally invasive skin biopsies can characterise fibril composition, PTMs and 3D structure. With Giorgia Melli and the Bellinzona team.
Read the paper →Using biochemistry and cryo-EM, we show how the molecular "scissor" separase recognises and cleaves cohesin — visualising the interaction at atomic level, and pointing toward novel separase inhibitors as anti-cancer drugs. Published in Science Advances.
Read the paper →Awarded with a success rate below 10%, for a proposal to structurally study GPCRs. Heartfelt thanks to the SNSF for their continued support.
Sophia defended her PhD work on separase regulation. Many thanks for all your work — we wish you much success ahead!
One approach — structural biology — across cell division, amyloid fibrils and GPCR signalling.
All of our work is open access. A selection from group members below.
Left group — Sophia Schmidt (front); behind her Jun Yu, Isabella Toquard, Aline Reynaud and Fatma Findik. Right group — Elda Bauda (front), Xuefeng Zhang, Andrea Švorinić, Margherita Botto, and Andreas Boland at the far right.
A group working across structural, molecular and cell biology in Geneva.
Meet the lab →We're always glad to hear from prospective students, postdocs and collaborators.
Boland Laboratory
Dept. of Molecular & Cellular Biology (MOCEL)
Sciences III · 30 Quai Ernest-Ansermet
1211 Geneva, Switzerland
Andreas.Boland@unige.ch
+41 22 379 61 27
We're grateful to all our funding bodies for their trust and support. Merci!
