RPA as a master regulator of BIR! Read all about it in the recent study from the Rass lab.

Nature Communications banner with title of latest paper from the Yates, Oliver, and Rass groups at the Genome Damage and Stability Centre, University of Sussex: "Break-induced replication is enhanced by a phospho-activated RPA-binding module in Pol32".

An in-press version of our latest paper in @natcomms.nature.com on phospho-activated protein-protein interactions with ssDNA-binding protein RPA during BIR. If your favorite pathway involves RPA, this may be for you! Thanks to the lab, collaborators & @ukri.org!
www.nature.com/articles/s41...

The nuclear periphery confers repression on H3K9me2-marked genes and transposons to shape cell fate - Nature Cell Biology Marin et al. report the role of lamin proteins and the lamin B receptor (LBR) in chromatin positioning at the nuclear periphery. Knockout of all lamins and LBR in mouse embryonic stem cells leads to h...

Another paper bluetorial! Today: how does the spatial location of genes influence their function? (1/n) www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Off-pore Nup98 condensates mobilize heterochromatic breaks and exclude Rad51 Merigliano et al. identified a non-canonical, “off-pore” role for nucleoporins in genome stability and in the spatial regulation of homologous recombination in multicellular eukaryotes. Nup98 condensates form at DNA breaks within pericentromeric heterochromatin to prevent aberrant recombination by excluding Rad51, while promoting the mobilization of repair sites through immiscibility with heterochromatin protein 1 (HP1) condensates.

Online Now: Off-pore Nup98 condensates mobilize heterochromatic breaks and exclude Rad51 Online now:

Happy to share the latest story from @arnaudkr.bsky.social's lab @embl.org! With @guidobarzaghi.bsky.social, we used Single Molecule Footprinting to quantify how often chromatin is accessible at enhancers after TF and chromatin environment changes! Check our preprint bit.ly/3XQMFxN + thread ⬇️ 1/11

Easily one of the most beautiful live-cell imaging papers out there! Amazing contribution to chromosome tracking during mitosis with huge prospects for further discoveries concerning chromosome behavior. Check it out @naturecellbiology.bsky.social

Loss of H3K9me3 maintenance in human neural progenitor cells leads to transcriptional activation of L1 retrotransposons Heterochromatin is characterised by an inaccessibility to the transcriptional machinery and associated with the histone mark H3K9me3. Heterochromatin erosion is a hallmark of human ageing and H3K9me3 ...

New preprint from our lab! Why is not everyone working on Transposons?

Loss of H3K9me3 maintenance in human neural progenitor cells leads to transcriptional activation of L1 retrotransposons

www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

Excellent thread on the paper from Meneu, Chapard et al. The latest from the Koszul and friends lab!

www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

A Blueprint for NIH Reform The National Institutes of Health (NIH) failed us during the COVID-19 pandemic, by advocating for unscientific school closures, lockdowns, masking and vaccine mandates, and by stifling scientific deba...

One of the co-Editors-in-Chief (Martin Kulldorff) published a "Perspective" entitled "A Blueprint for NIH Reform".

publichealth.realclearjournals.org/perspectives...

2/n

Peter Marks, MD, PhD Director, Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research U.S. Food and Drug Administration 10903 New Hampshire Avenue Silver Spring, MD 20903 March 28, 2025 Sara Brenner, MD, MPH Acting Commissioner of Food and Drugs U.S. Food and Drug Administration 10903 New Hampshire Avenue Silver Spring, MD 20903 Dear Dr. Brenner: It is with a heavy heart that I have decided to resign from FDA and retire from federal service as Director of the Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research effective April 5, 2025. I leave behind a staff of professionals who are undoubtedly the most devoted to protecting and promoting the public health of any group of people that I have encountered during my four decades working in the public and private sectors. I have always done my best to advocate for their well-being and I would ask that you do the same during this very difficult time during which their critical importance to the safety and security of our nation may be underappreciated. Over the past years I have been involved in enhancing the safety of our nation's blood supply, in advancing the field of cell and gene therapy, and in responding to public health emergencies. In the last of these, during the COVID-19 pandemic I had the privilege of watching the vision that I conceived for Operation Warp Speed in March 2020 in collaboration with Dr. Robert Kadlec become a reality under the leadership of HHS Secretary Azar and President Trump due to the unwavering commitment of public servants at FDA and elsewhere across the government. At FDA, the tireless efforts of staff across the agency resulted in remarkably expediting the development of vaccines against the virus, meeting the standards for quality, safety, and effectiveness expected by the American public. The vaccines undoubtedly markedly reduced morbidity and mortality from COVID-19 in the United States and elsewhere. Many of these same individuals applied learnings from the pandemic during a flawless response helping…

ongoing multistate measles outbreak that is particularly severe in Texas reminds us of what happens when confidence in well-established science underlying public health and well-being is undermined. Measles, which killed more than 100,000 unvaccinated children last year in Africa and Asia owing to pneumonitis and encephalitis caused by the virus, had been eliminated from our shores. The two-dose measles, mumps, rubella vaccine regimen (MMR) using over the past decades has a remarkably favorable benefit-risk profile. The MMR vaccine is 97% or more effective in preventing measles following the two-dose series, and its safety has been remarkably well studied. Though rarely followed by a single fever-related seizure, or very rarely by allergic reactions or blood clotting disorders, the vaccine very simply does not cause autism, nor is it associated with encephalitis or death. It does, however, protect against a potential devasting consequence of prior measles infection, subacute sclerosing panencephalitis (SSPE), which is an untreatable, relentlessly progressive neurologic disorder leading to death in about 1 in 10,000 individuals infected with measles. Undermining confidence in well-established vaccines that have met the high standards for quality, safety, and effectiveness that have been in place for decades at FDA is irresponsible, detrimental to public health, and a clear danger to our nation's health, safety. and security. In the years following the pandemic, at the Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research we have applied the same unwavering commitment to public health priorities to the development of cell and gene therapies to address both hereditary and acquired rare diseases. During my tenure as Center Director we have approved 22 gene therapies, including the first gene therapy ever to be approved in the United States. However, we know that we must do better to expedite the development of treatments for those individual suffering from any one of the thousan…

Peter Marks’s resignation letter. Everyone should read this.

📢The programme for #DDRCT25 is now available! Visit our website to explore the exciting sessions, speakers, and key topics we have in store.
➡️Check it out here: fusion-conferences.com/conference/177

Check out our review on DNA end resection! With Raphael Ceccaldi, www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Our new findings on how chromosomes get ready for cell division are now published in @cellpress.bsky.social!

Congratulations, Kai, @andibrunner.bsky.social and everyone else involved! 🤩

www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

🚨 Excited to announce the 2nd Spatial Genome Organisation Conference! #SGO25
📅 Oct 31–Nov 3, 2025 | 📍 Riviera Maya, Mexico

🪑 Chairs: @altmeyerlab.bsky.social, @chiololab.bsky.social, @karimmekhail.bsky.social

🔗 Registration: fusion-conferences.com/conference/188

Please 🔄 ❤️

Nucleoplasmic Lamin A/C controls replication fork restart upon stress by modulating local H3K9me3 and ADP-ribosylation levels Mild replication interference is a consolidated strategy for cancer chemotherapy. Tolerance to mild replication stress (RS) relies on active fork slowing, mediated by transient fork reversal and RECQ1...

Landing on Bluesky by sharing the latest preprint from the lab: nucleoplasmic Lamin A/C modulates RECQ1-mediated fork restart upon mild genotoxic stress, by regulating heterochromatin marks and ADP-ribosylation levels at replication factories
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

📣 Join us for #EESNucleus 🧬

Explore the dynamic world of the nucleus at the new EMBO | EMBL Symposium. From nuclear mechanics to pathomechanisms, join the conversation shaping modern cell biology.

🗓️ 18 – 21 November 2025
📥 Submit your abstract by 26 August

👉 https://s.embl.org/ees25-07-bl

As federal funding for research is uncertain, we need to diversify funding sources for our PhD students.

Here is a comprehensive list of >160 PhD fellowships and funding opportunities, mostly from private foundations and scientific societies.

Download it here: research.jhu.edu/rdt/funding-...

Exciting seminar series from Genome integrity italian Network (GiiN), chaired by myself and Raffaella Di Micco! Short talks (2x30’), at convenient time for EU/USA attendees. Big shots and raising stars in an expanding field. See flyers + link to receive email alerts. Please repost to your network!👇

New discovery from our #CDlab reported in Cell @cp-cell.bsky.social today:
SMC motor proteins have a left-right ‘gearbox’ and can switch direction in DNA loop extrusion!

www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

1/

I put together a small guide on how to get started with Fiji. Please distribute to anyone who might benefit form this! zenodo.org/records/1477... #imageanalysis #fiji #imagej #training

A unified model for cohesin function in sisterchromatid cohesion and chromatin loop formation Structural maintenance of chromosomes (SMC) complexes are thought to shape genomes by extruding DNA loops, but recent genetic tests have challenged the “loop extrusion hypothesis.” Here, Uhlmann explo...

A unified model for cohesin function in sisterchromatid cohesion and chromatin loop formation: Molecular Cell www.cell.com/molecular-ce...

A CPC-shelterin-BTR axis regulates mitotic telomere deprotection - Nature Communications Here the authors reveal how telomeres signal mitotic stress. A key protein network alters their structure exposing telomere ends to signal mitotic stress, ultimately triggering a controlled DNA damage...

1/Out today in @naturecomms.bsky.social,

“A CPC-shelterin-BTR axis regulates mitotic telomere deprotection”.

Here we identify the mechanism that unwinds telomere-loops (t-loops) during mitotic arrest to activate the DNA damage response and signal mitotic stress.

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

Nuclear and genome dynamics underlying DNA double-strand break repair Nature Reviews Molecular Cell Biology - Changes in nuclear and genome organization promote the repair of DNA double-strand breaks and genome stability. Processes that are involved include the...

🚀 New Paper Alert! Our latest @natrevmcb.bsky.social explores how nuclear and genome organization drive DNA double-strand break repair! 🧬

📖 Free access: rdcu.be/edViW

Please 🔄 ❤️