Please join us for the next edition of the GOA monthly seminar series A/Prof. R. Babak Faryabi @faryabi.bsky.social!

Registration link: unimelb.zoom.us/webinar/regi...

𝗔𝗽𝗽𝗹𝗶𝗰𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻𝘀 𝗮𝗿𝗲 𝗻𝗼𝘄 𝗼𝗽𝗲𝗻 𝗳𝗼𝗿 𝘁𝗵𝗲: 𝗔𝗘𝗽𝗶𝗔 𝗦𝘂𝘀𝗮𝗻 𝗖𝗹𝗮𝗿𝗸 𝗔𝘄𝗮𝗿𝗱 𝗳𝗼𝗿 𝗥𝗲𝘀𝗲𝗮𝗿𝗰𝗵 𝗘𝘅𝗰𝗲𝗹𝗹𝗲𝗻𝗰𝗲

@aepia.bsky.social is excited to open applications for the Susan Clark Award for Research Excellence, recognising outstanding contributions in epigenetics research, leadership, and advocacy.

ChromSMF preprint is out!🚀
tinyurl.com/ChromSMF

We often piece together chromatin regulation layer by layer from separate assays. But this can be limiting!

In @arnaudkr.bsky.social's lab, we developed a method to directly study multiple layers on the same DNA molecule! 🧬

What does this unlock? ⬇️

𝗢𝘂𝘁 𝘁𝗼𝗱𝗮𝘆: Research at Peter Mac led by @meleckmas.bsky.social has uncovered a surprising driver behind aggressive lung cancer — embryonic proteins that are normally only active before birth.

Read more: www.petermac.org/about-us/new...

#LungCancerResearch #LungCancer

Model describing how DPPA2/4 amplify active chromatin states. Full paper can be accessed here https://genesdev.cshlp.org/content/early/2026/03/18/gad.353102.125.full.pdf+html

We propose DPPA2/4 act as chromatin amplifiers in a context dependent manner. In embryonic stem cells they amplify bivalent H3K4me3-H3K27me3 chromatin, while in lung cancer cells they alter H2AK119ub and H3K27ac. Thanks to all who contributed to the study! (8/8) genesdev.cshlp.org/content/earl...

If we introduce DPPA2/4 in non-small cell lung cancer cells where it's not usually expressed, it binds active CpG rich regions. Here it changes the chromatin states at over half its binding sites to a more active state (as determined by ChromHMM) (7/8)

What happens if DPPA2/4 is removed? Surprisingly, the classic bivalent marks it regulates in stem cells (H3K4me3 and H3K27me3) are unaltered. Neither is transcription or chromatin accessibility. Instead we see a loss of H2AK119ub at these unique active sites (6/8)

PRC2 is at these sites, but not it's product H3K27me3. We noticed H3K27ac was also there so hypothesised it might be blocking PRC2 activity. However removing H3K27ac (using A-485), at least for 24hrs, did not lead to an increase in H3K27me3 (5/8)

Interesting, some of these DPPA2/4 bound active regions had PRC1-deposited H2AK119ub but not PRC2-deposited H3K27me3. We applied our reChIP protocol (link.springer.com/article/10.1...) to confirm co-occurrence of H2AK119ub with H3K4me3, and rule out cellular heterogeneity. (4/8)

Chromatin profiling in lung cancer cells that endogenously express DPPA2/4 revealed they like to bind open CpG rich regions of the genome. This is similar to their binding profiles in embryonic stem cells (see www.nature.com/articles/s41... and others) (3/8)

plot showing survival of different cohorts of cancer patients that co-express DPPA2/4

Co-expression of Developmental Pluripotency Associated 2 and 4 (DPPA2/4) is linked with worse survival, in particular for non-small cell lung cancer. So we generated a series of knockdown, over-expression and knockout cell models to understand molecularly why this is (2/8)

Delighted to share the lab's latest led by superstar Janith and funded by @snowmedical.bsky.social.
What happens when embryonic factors are reawakened in cancers? We uncovered how DPPA2/4 amplify chromatin states in non-small cell lung cancer 🧬🔬🧪
genesdev.cshlp.org/content/earl...
Tutorial 👇 (1/8)

Join IGH as Group Leader - IGH The Institute of Human Genetics invites applications for a Principal Investigator position in its main research areas. Read more...

We are looking for a new group leader to join the IGH (Montpellier, France). I can’t wait to meet my future colleague! Apply :-) More infos here: igh.cnrs.fr/join-igh-as-...

We;re hiring Junior Group Leaders! 🔬✨
We’re looking for researchers in immunology, chemical biology, AI in biology, or protein design to launch their own independent groups in our collaborative, international environment.

www.nki.nl/news-events/...

Serum coating enables feeder-free culture of naive human pluripotent stem cells preserving developmental potential - The EMBO Journal Naive human pluripotent stem cells (hPSCs) represent a pre-implantation epiblast state able to efficiently differentiate into embryonic and extraembryonic pre-implantation lineages and to self-organis...

Eliminating the confounding effects of human pluripotent #stemcell co-culture with MEFs:
@grazianomartello.bsky.social @leeboratory.bsky.social @jzylicz.bsky.social and collaborators describe a serum coating approach for feeder-free culture of naïve hPSCs
link.springer.com/article/10.1...

🧵 CTCF is essential for embryonic development, but why has remained unclear. By combining gastruloids with a temporal degron system, we uncovered a surprising dual function — and it changes how we think about CTCF's role in development. 1/8 www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...

We are excited to be recruiting into 3 Associate Professorship's in @oxfordbiochemistry.bsky.social. Come join us as a colleague and benefit from our vibrant and multidisciplinary environment. Reach out to me if you have any questions. Please repost! (tinyurl.com/48deybuu) (tinyurl.com/4pdvjaft).

Flyer for symposium: https://ctrlepiedit.sciencesconf.org/

Very excited to announce the FIRST symposium on epigenome editing! These tools are becoming widely used in mol bio, ag & therapy. It's time to bring leaders together to discuss this rapidly growing and exciting field. And why not in Paris! Please register & share! (1/2) ctrlepiedit.sciencesconf.org

Up to $1.4 billion in medical research remains unused under government cap Researchers say securing funding has become increasingly tough, with many left with no choice but to spend a disproportionate amount of time applying for grants.

More than 60% of Australian medical researchers left active research roles between 2019 & 2024 because they could not make ends meet - while my costings from the PBO suggest the govt could more than double annual spending from the MRFF without any effect on its base level of funding.

Accessory subunits of PRC2 mimic H3K27me3 to restrict the spread of Polycomb domains Some proteins mimic the repressive mark H3K27me3, but the physiological relevance of this phenomenon was unclear. Agius et al. show that the PRC2 subunits JARID2 and PALI1 mimic H3K27me3 to antagonize...

1/ 🧵 In our new paper, we show that JARID2 and PALI1 mimic H3K27me3 to antagonise PRC2. www.cell.com/molecular-ce...

🚨 New paper from our lab just published in Nature🚨

www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Discover how 🌱 tumour formation is shaped by tissue context from the very beginning. Cancer is not driven by genetics alone

✨Fantastic team led by Greta Skrupskelyte, Eduardo Rojo, @hariajith.bsky.social

Try spinning down your antibodies before using. You can also add some tween to your wash buffers

Frustrated I can’t be in person at #KSEpigenetics26. Unfortunately I couldn’t travel to Geneva from Australia due to the conflict in the Middle East.

Hoping everyone has a great conference and I’ll be able to join in person next time!

Losing sleep over #iPSC transgene silencing after differentiation?
Same here.

Bright in iPSCs.
Gone after differentiation.

Our paper in @cp-cellstemcell.bsky.social maps what actually keeps expression on👇
www.cell.com/cell-stem-ce...
🔗 Free access (50 days):
www.sciencedirect.com/science/auth...

2026 Winner of the Lorne Genome Julian Wells Medal: Christine Wells (no relation!) @stemcellsystems.bsky.social congratulations, well deserved!!

Tongtong Wang presenting at Lorne Genome 2026

Tongtong Wang @petermaccc.bsky.social kicking off the computational Biology parallel session introducing EmbryoRadar, a machine learning model to identify developmental programs reactivated in cancer.

So exciting to see ASSCR partner with @isscr.org to support Australasian student and ECR researchers to attend the ISSCR Annual meeting in Montreal!! This Joint Travel Award, the first of its kind, will enable more interactions with the international community for our EMCR members!!

#stemcells

New ISSCR-ASSCR joint travel awards to support Australian students and EMCRs to attend @isscr.org annual meeting in Montreal

Our new preprint on SMCHD1! We’ve shown SMCHD1’s ATPase activity is critical for function in vivo, and excitingly a new DNA binding domain neighbouring the ATPase domain activates the enzymatic function, which is important for normal chromatin binding.
urldefense.com/v3/__https:/...

Lovely lab hike in Werribee Gorge to celebrate the EckMasLab’s 5th birthday 🎂