Merry Christmas and happy holidays from the Kellogg lab, we look forward to everything 2025 brings! 🎄

As 2026 chair of the Biophysical Society Cryo-EM subgroup, I am thrilled to announce that Dr. Melanie Ohi has been selected as the recipient of the June Almeida Award: an honor recognizing established women scientists whose leadership, scholarship, and mentorship have profoundly shaped the field of cryo-electron microscopy (cryo-EM). The award celebrates the legacy of June Almeida, a pioneering electron microscopist who revolutionized immune electron microscopy by showing that viruses could be identified directly in cell culture without purification. Her groundbreaking work led to the first identification and naming of the coronavirus, inspired by its crown-like appearance. A visionary described by colleagues as someone who “extended the range of the electron microscope to new limits,” Almeida made transformative contributions despite never having had the opportunity to attend university, and her work went largely unrecognized until the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic brought her brilliance to the fore. The Almeida Award honors her impact and celebrates the outstanding women scientists whose vision and perseverance continue to advance the field of cryo-EM. Dr. Melanie Ohi embodies the spirit of this award. A pioneering force in single-particle cryo-EM, she is widely respected for pushing the boundaries of both the method and its biological applications. At a time when the field dismissed many complex structures as “blob-ology,” Dr. Ohi boldly tackled highly dynamic assemblies such as the spliceosome and the anaphase-promoting complex. Her research has profoundly advanced our understanding of bacterial pathogenesis through structural insights into elaborate bacterial secretion systems, including the Type IV secretion systems of Legionella pneumophila and Helicobacter pylori. These discoveries have reshaped fundamental concepts in microbiology and structural biology. Across her career, Dr. Ohi has demonstrated the creativity, rigor, and collaborative spirit that define the very best of our field. Her impact extends far beyond her scientific achievements. Dr. Ohi has played an essential role in building and sustaining the cryo-EM community—directing numerous workshops, organizing conferences, and serving on influential advisory boards. She is an exceptional mentor to postdoctoral fellows, graduate students, and undergraduates, and she is admired as a generous colleague whose clear-eyed guidance and willingness to help uplift the work of others have strengthened the entire discipline. Her commitment to expanding access to cryo-EM has had lasting effects on the broader scientific honoring Dr. Ohi, we also celebrate the legacy of June Almeida, whose perseverance and vision laid the groundwork for modern electron microscopy. Dr. Ohi’s achievements continue this tradition, inspiring the next generation of microscopists and driving forward the transformative impact of cryo-EM. Please join us in congratulating Dr. Melanie Ohi on this exceptionally well-deserved recognition. She will be giving the Almeida award lecture at the Biophysical Society Cryo-EM subgroup, Feb 21 from 1 - 5:30 pm.

So we asked: what sets the fundamental limit on computation on large genomic databases? Evolution! The irreducible entropy in genome collections is bounded by the most parsimonious path to introduce that variability. In other words, optimal compression should echo phylogeny. 4/

🔴⚠Next CNIO-@CaixaResearch Frontiers Meetings: Machines acting on DNA and RNA, a molecular mechanistic perspective. 📆May 28-30th 👥Organizers: @LlorcaLab, @rfleiro and @NogalesLab. 🔗More info and registrations: cnio.es/eventos/machines-act…

So happy that I can finally share the results of my first postdoc paper with @baym!! Turns out plasmids are an amazing system to study multi-scale evolution and we can track within-cell and between-cell dynamics! Here’s a photo of plasmids competing inside cells in a colony (1/n)

A two-and-a-half-year-old girl shows no signs of a rare genetic disorder, after becoming the first person to be treated for the motor-neuron condition while in the womb. go.nature.com/4i9BpEx

Merry Christmas and happy holidays from the Kellogg lab, we look forward to everything 2025 brings! 🎄