I agree. I once did that, when my family had an awful car accident and I was at the ICU praying for my father. It was the second revision of a paper I reviewed and I said I won't be able to do it this time. The journal kept sending those automated reminders for weeks🤦♀️ So, sometimes it's the journal.
Congratulations 🥳
Fascinating story!
The research highlight of our recent work on nuclear speckles is online. The photo choice is eggcellent. Happy Easter! 🌸🐰🥚
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
Many thanks to the committee members; Florian Heyd, Daniel Schubert, Stephan Sigrist.
Proud PI moment with @malszycki.bsky.social today. Michal got his paper out last week, defended the thesis today and will be starting his postdoc in 2 weeks🔥
Our Lab is searching a postdoc for an exciting ERC-funded project that will start this summer. Apply if you’re passionate about multi-omics, cutting-edge computational approaches, and exploring biological questions across the animal 🪼 🪱 🐞 🦎 🦋 🕷️ tree of life www.biozentrum.unibas.ch/open-positio...
Thank you André!
Congratulations to the entire team (l to r): Ibrahim Ilik, first authors Lisa Martina and Michal Malszycki and group leader Tuğçe Aktaş! Work is a collaboration with @ferhatay.bsky.social at the @lji.org and Cantas Alev at Kyoto University. -> Original Publication: doi.org/10.1016/j.ce...
New paper in @cellpress.bsky.social by the Aktas lab @aktast.bsky.social! The scientists show that nuclear speckles help process RNA transcribed from dense regions of the genome, providing an answer to the long-standing question of speckle function.
Read more: www.molgen.mpg.de/news-2026-nu...
2 PhD candidates in my group: Michal @malszycki.bsky.social and Lisa led this work. We are very thankful to Ay lab ( @ferhatay.bsky.social ) and Alev lab (ASHBi, Kyoto), who helped make our story more complete. This work was funded by @dfg.de in the framework of @spp2202.bsky.social
Analysis of the evolution of this gene architecture and the presence of GC-rich isochores revealed that these features are specific to amniotes. By using the pA-RNA signal as a proxy for speckles we show the speckles are present in amniotes and absent in fish and invertebrates.
The short & GC-rich introns emerged in amniotes and were once long and GC-poor (in fish). The emergence of this gene architecture coincides with the expansion of SON’s IDRs. IDRs of SON are necessary and sufficient to form functional speckles.
Problems in splicing, due to SF3 complex dispersal, cause changes in gene expression, but only a small set of exons-introns are sensitive to speckles loss. These genes have introns with short & GC-rich architecture and are found in GC-rich isochores.
Differential gene expression analysis upon speckles loss reveals only genes within high GC chromatin domains are susceptible. The distance of the chromosomes 18 (lowest GC content) and 19 (highest GC content) from the speckles also indicate their speckle dependency.
Speckles take a large space in the human cell nucleus and form viscoelastic boundaries that restrict random chromatin movements. Upon speckles loss, the chromatin mobility increases and active(A) and inactive(B) chromatin compartments mix as shown by the Pore-C analysis by @ferhatay.bsky.social lab
Nuclear speckles are protein and RNA rich condensates that are proximal to GC-rich regions of the human genome. We dissolved speckles by rapidly depleting the 2 core proteins; SON & SRRM2 and investigated the role of speckles in: 1. 3D genome folding 2. transcription & splicing.
Our most recent work on the “function and evolution” of #nuclear-speckles is now online at Cell @cp-cell.bsky.social
doi.org/10.1016/j.ce...
Read the thread👇 for the highlights of our findings.
I would like to hear your thoughts on something: paper accepted (Yay! 🥳) but we need to shorten it (like half) to get the final acceptance. We think it's going to be very dense and difficult to understand. Should we post the long version on e.g. our website or what should we do?
IMPRS-BAC Open Call: Current IMPRS student Marcel Wittmund talks about what pursuing a PhD means to him and how the IMPRS program supports his doctoral studies at the MPIMG.
Apply by Jan 7th, 2026! www.molgen.mpg.de/IMPRSPhDproj...
#IMPRSBAC @freieuniversitaet.bsky.social @maxplanck.de
🚀 Looking for a Bioinformatician / Data Scientist to join our crew and explore regeneration through single-cell genomics & evolutionary biology! @mpi-bio-fml.bsky.social
📩 Questions? Contact us ✉️
🔗 Apply here: www.mpg.de/25243280/bio...
Looking for a master student to help with a superexciting EU-funded project on mRNA metabolism. It'll involve cutting-edge sequencing and imaging techniques as well as computational workflows and modelling - great training opportunity! Get in touch if interested
humantechnopole.it/en/research-...
Transposon enthusiats: you don't want to miss this story.
New Online! Transcriptional and post-transcriptional regulation of transposable elements and their roles in development and disease
With such a large scope you need excellent partners, so we are happy to have teamed up with @zz-zhang.bsky.social & @vincent-yangxu-phd.bsky.social
We wrote a review on Transposable Elements (TEs) and almost all aspects of TE silencing and their roles in biological processes & disease.
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
📢 Don't miss!
Wayo Matsushima of École polytechnique fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL) will speak at our #DahlemColloquium!
📜 Gene regulatory evolution driven by transposable elements and their controllers
📆 20. JUN, 11:00 AM (CET)
📍MPIMG, Berlin
🔗 www.molgen.mpg.de/events/41978...
In @nature.com Yaotian Zhang and @henriniskanen.bsky.social from the Hnisz Lab discovered a micropeptide, the "Killswitch," which alters the physical state of biomolecules in condensates. This tool solidifies dynamic, liquid-like droplets, affecting their function.
--> www.molgen.mpg.de/4884827
Congratulations neighbors!
We are very happy to be part of this story and looking forward to the future work we'll be doing with the Hnisz lab 😉
I wish you a speedy recovery 🙏
The awesome Helene Kretzmer and I are looking to recruit a join computational PhD student. Applications will be evaluated on a rolling basis, so don't wait! Any questions get in touch. We are looking forward.
