A biochemical curiosity: it is much more straightforward to go enzymatically from 5mC > T than it is to go from 5mC > C

🚨 Why can’t mammals regenerate limbs like frog tadpoles or salamanders?
In our new paper in @science.org , we show that species-specific oxygen sensing acts as a gatekeeper for initiating limb regeneration 🐭🐸
🔗 www.science.org/doi/10.1126/... #EvoDevo

Saddened to learn of the death of Greg Hannon, a former CSHL colleague and giant of modern molecular biology www.cruk.cam.ac.uk/news/in-memo...

Super excited that our two companion papers on saturation genome editing (SGE) of RNU4-2 and discovery of a novel recessive neurodevelopmental disorder (NDD) were published yesterday 🥳

SGE experiment: www.nature.com/articles/s41...
Recessive NDD characterisation: www.nature.com/articles/s41...

🧵

Synthetic super-enhancers enable precision viral immunotherapy - Nature Synthetic super-enhancers enable specific delivery of anticancer payloads, achieving tumour elimination after a single dose in a mouse model of aggressive glioblastoma.

An interesting read: Using synthetic enhancer combinations to switch on lethal payloads only when in the correct target cancer cells.

Article: www.nature.com/articles/s41...
News&Views: www.nature.com/articles/d41...

Why obesity drugs work better for some people: these genes hold clues Study of almost 28,000 people also identifies genetic variants that raise the risk of gastrointestinal side effects from GLP-1 medications.

Scientists have identified a set of genetic variants that could help to explain why responses to obesity drugs vary markedly from person to person

go.nature.com/4ccK07M

Happy to share our new review on X-chromosome reactivation in the germline, just published in @biochemsoc.bsky.social Transactions!
We highlight the latest discoveries on how this epigenetic mechanism unfolds during mammalian germline reprogramming.
Hope you enjoy the read 😊

🔥 How does CTCF shape enhancer–promoter communication?

In our new preprint, we systematically test how the position and orientation of CTCF binding sites (CBSs) influence gene regulation at the mouse Sox2 locus.

🧪 full paper can be found here: www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...

Would you ’design’ your baby using AI? - BBC YouTube video by BBC

Some good, critical questions by Hannah Fry @fryrsquared.bsky.social here! www.youtube.com/watch?v=--CP...

Integrated small and long RNA sequencing reveals piRNA mediated transposon repression during human oogenesis www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Cleavage of mRNAs by a minority of pachytene piRNAs improves sperm fitness - Nature Most pachytene PIWI-interacting RNAs (piRNAs) have no biological function; however, a small population enhances sperm fitness, which has led to their persistence in mammalian evolution.

Hot off the press from the Zamore & Gainetdinov labs: Cleavage of mRNAs by a minority of pachytene piRNAs improves sperm fitness 🏊️ buff.ly/O40kIi3 #piRNA #mRNA #fertility

Friends Davor Solter and Azim Surani receiving the wonderful Paul Ehrlich and Ludwig Darmstaedter Prize for Genomic Imprinting👏 👍 @Frankfurt Germany. With official talks from politicians using words like Education, Knowledge, Democracy 🙏 @maxplanck.de @gurdoninstitute.bsky.social

We are looking for a Postdoc to join our lab at @oxfordbiochemistry.bsky.social. This is a dry-lab focused post on the computational analysis of long read single-cell sequencing data to understand the role of transposable elements (TEs) in early development. my.corehr.com/pls/uoxrecru... #TEsky

Considerations for the future of in vitro gametogenesis in fertility care - @hannahlandecker.bsky.social @uclacrshe.bsky.social @uclamcdb.bsky.social @uclastemcell.bsky.social go.nature.com/4l2e9en

Holy macaroni!!!

Global reorganization of genome architecture at the transition to gametogenesis - Nature Structural & Molecular Biology Huang, Rigau and colleagues observe major changes in how DNA is organized in early germ cells before they start developing into sperm or eggs. These results show that germline removes structural ‘memo...

Happy to share our latest paper.

Our findings uncover a unique chromatin architecture and spatial chromosome arrangement in gonadal germ cells and document that alongside global DNA demethylation, the germline epigenetic reprogramming involves reorganisation of the 3D genome.

Job alert! 📣 I’m looking for a research assistant to join my new team @idrm.ox.ac.uk

Were using #zebrafish to understand gene-environment interactions that shape the heart 🫀generate natural diversity 🐸🐭 and contribute to congenital defects ❤️‍🩹

Full info below, and please share! 🫶🏻

bit.ly/467TO0M

📣 I'm excited to share our latest preprint!

We adapt and characterise a neurosphere-based CNCC differentiation protocol, and demonstrate utility for quantitative phenotyping and craniofacial disease modelling! 🧫

Read about Array-CNCC here:
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...

@uoe-igc.bsky.social

Array-CNCC: precise aggregation and arrayed plating facilitate quantitative phenotyping of human cranial neural crest cells and craniofacial disease modelling www.biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.01...

Marking the end of The Company of Biologists' 100-year anniversary, the final journal cover of 2025 features members of BiO's community, including one of our founding Editors, past and present Editors in Chief, our academic Editors and some of the reviewers from BiO's Fast & Fair peer review initiative. We would like to thank them all for being part of BiO.

Issue 12 is complete!

Cover: Members of BiO's community, including a founding Editor, past & present Editors-in-Chief, our academic Editors and some of the reviewers from BiO's Fast & Fair peer review initiative. We would like to thank them all.
bit.ly/4piig6y

Interested in the unexpected? How about a link between piRNAs and maternal histone mRNAs … Great collab with @sebastianfalk.bsky.social, @koenig-lab.bsky.social and Florian Steiner.

#piRNA #histone #mRNA #maternal #RNAbiology #RNASky

www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...

An expanded registry of candidate cis-regulatory elements - Nature The existing ENCODE registry of candidate human and mouse cis-regulatory elements is expanded with the addition of new ENCODE data, integrating new functional data as well as new cell and tissue types...

Our paper on the newest version of the Registry of candidate cis-Regulatory Elements (cCREs) is out 🧬

Huge thanks to the many collaborators, experimentalists, analysts and software developers who made this work possible — truly a team effort!

A "meme-torial" of the science is coming soon 👀

The transcription of a single olfactory receptor per neuron is enforced by epigenetic silencing of their enhancers The ability to discriminate thousands of odors in our environment requires each olfactory neuron to express a single olfactory receptor from hundreds of available genes. The biochemical mechanism enfo...

This went under the radar but answers a fundamental question in Epigenetics...

From many hundreds of olfactory receptor genes, each neuron selects expression of only single one (near-randomly). How?

Outstanding work from Mathieu Boulard and colleagues

www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...

Collage of students in lab coats conducting experiments, analyzing data, and collaborating on research. Includes logos for JEI and eJRXIV, conveying a theme of scientific inquiry.

Helping the next generation of scientists find their voice. 📣

Discover how @seahsamantha.bsky.social empowers students through her path from preLights to Executive Editor of the Journal of Emerging Investigators.

Interview: prelights.biologists.com/news/from-pr...

I don't think scientists should work for anyone else. They should work for discovery and for their own curiosity.
–Maria Leptin, ERC President @marialep.bsky.social on 'The Night Science Podcast'

The human endogenous retroviral envelope HEMO protein interacts with BACE2: Novel partnership acquired in the primate lineage - PubMed Endogenous retroviruses (ERV) represent 8 to 10% of mammalian genome. While most ERV are defective, a few retroviral genes, such as the envelope syncytins, were exapted during evolution and likely contributed to the emergence of placental mammals. We have previously identified the oldest full-length …

Another envelope protein in the human genome. Expressed in the placenta, of course.

High-quality mouse reference genomes reveal the structural complexity of the murine protein-coding landscape Helmy et al. provide a collection of high-quality mouse reference genomes. They were able to resolve some of the most complex regions among mouse genomes that are involved in immune defense. These fin...

High-quality mouse reference genomes [PacBio Long Read genomes of 17 strains] reveal the structural complexity of the murine protein-coding landscape, Cell Genomics. www.cell.com/cell-genomic... Genomes and annotations here: projects.ensembl.org/mouse_genomes/

🚨Reposts appreciated‼️If I had read this PhD offer five years ago, I wouldn’t have hesitated for a second to apply 😉
Passionate about gene regulation, chromatin, and developmental biology? Just contact @radaiglesiaslab.bsky.social at @ibbtec.bsky.social 🧬✨

#PhD #3DGenome

In vitro oogenesis breaks free of the ovary In this issue of Developmental Cell, Nosaka et al. differentiate mouse pluripotent stem cells to large germinal vesicle-stage oocyte-like cells in the absence of ovarian somatic cells. Their paradigm ...

Research Highlight: Mouse In vitro oogenesis breaks free of the ovary www.cell.com/developmenta... @cp-devcell.bsky.social

🚀 Looking for talented PhD students!
Join us in 🇸🇬 Singapore for 1-2 years to push the frontiers of AI for Genomics.
Work on:
🧬 Cancer genome reconstruction
🧫 Cancer genome & cell foundation models
💊 RNA drug & mRNA therapeutic design

#AI #Genomics #PhD
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