I am really happy to share this fantastic work by @mfdspicer.bsky.social (and just as honoured to be his desk neighbour!).
A beautiful study showing how DNA fragments are contained in apoptotic cells to prevent their spread. Check it out!

Precise control of transcription condensates across S phase balances linker histone expression with DNA replication, ensuring genome stability Marmolejo et al. uncover transcription condensate dynamics at histone locus bodies across the cell cycle. These dynamics are governed by cell cycle (DDK and CDK1/2) and checkpoint (ATR-CHK1) kinases t...

I am excited to share the first paper from the Saldivar lab! A special thank you to all who contributed.

Precise control of transcription condensates across S phase balances linker histone expression with DNA replication, ensuring genome stability: Molecular Cell www.cell.com/molecular-ce...

Please share!
My group at @zmbp-tuebingen.bsky.social is offering a post-doctoral position (4 years). We look for a structural biologist with experience in Cryo-EM/Cryo-ET to investigate the mechanisms of host invasion by pathogenic fungi. Deadline February 28th!
uni-tuebingen.de/universitaet...

The (Yoav) Voichek lab has opened its gates at the Weizmann Institute, and is actively recruiting students and researchers at all levels - come explore gene regulation and computational genomics in a fun, friendly sprouting lab 🤗🥼⚗️🧪
www.weizmann.ac.il/plants/voichek

SMC and recombination enthusiasts: we updated our work describing the loop extrusion properties of budding yeast condensin and its function in biasing donor usage for mating-type switching. Lots of cool new data, check it out!
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

Course Offerings | Marine Biological Laboratory

Are you planning your summer ahead and are interested in immersing yourself in some intense weeks of research, science and fun?
Then this might be for you: Check out the amazing summer course offerings @mblscience.bsky.social, including the #Zebrafish course!

www.mbl.edu/education/ad...

Organization of replicated chromosomes by DNA loops and sister chromatid cohesion Nature Reviews Molecular Cell Biology, Published online: 02 January 2026; doi:10.1038/s41580-025-00933-1Cohesin complexes regulate genome architecture through DNA loop extrusion and sister chromatid cohesion. The Review discusses how these two cohesin activities mediate the organization of replicated chromosomes and their segregation in mitosis and meiosis, DNA break repair, and age-related aneuploidy in oocytes.

New Online! Organization of replicated chromosomes by DNA loops and sister chromatid cohesion

Postdocs at Center for Gene Expression in Department of Cellular and Molecular Medicine - Copenhagen, Hovedstaden (DK) job with University of Copenhagen | 12849488 We are looking for 2 or more highly motivated postdocs interested in ribosome biology, 3D chromatin organisation, or regulation of protein turnove...

We are looking for a Postdoc at the Center for Gene Expression in Copenhagen. Deadline for applications is the 11th of January. If you are interested in 3D chromatin, SMC complexes, and super-resolution microscopy, join us. www.nature.com/naturecareer...

Deep Learning for Microscopy Image Analysis Topics The following will be covered extensively during lectures, exercises, and project work: Image denoising and restoration (fully supervised and self-supervised) Image translation (e.g.,

🚨 Alarm!!! 🚨
AI/ML course for microscopy image analysis!!! 🧐
In 2026 at Janelia (@hhmijanelia.bsky.social), no tuition, housing and meals provided! Isn’t that borderline unbelievable?!?

20 students, ~14 TAs and lecturers
🗓️ June 4-18 2026

✍️ Jan 15 2026 ✍️

🔁 pls!!

www.janelia.org/you-janelia/...

a cartoon of an axolotl blowing a kiss with a heart in the background . ALT: a cartoon of an axolotl blowing a kiss with a heart in the background .

1/ Can #Axolotls teach us new things about #HeartRegeneration?

A great collaboration between Elly Tanaka and Miguel Torres labs.

We’re happy to share our new work in which we ask how axolotls regenerate their hearts and could they help mammals with that?
doi.org/10.64898/202...

Very happy to share my postdoc work (on preprint), where we try to understand a long-standing transcription-silencing paradox, and uncovered a hidden RNA decay arm of nuclear piRNA pathway, see detailed threads quoted from @juliusbrennecke.bsky.social

An integrated view of the structure and function of the human 4D nucleome - Nature The 4D Nucleome Project demonstrates the use of genomic assays and computational methods to measure genome folding and then predict genomic structure from DNA sequence, facilitatin...

A major output of the 4D Nucleome project appeared today. This is the joint effort of many scientists working together and (publicly) sharing data and results for several years. We hope this is of interest to many genome biologists!

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

The last EDRA webinar of the year is today at 4 pm with Julian Stingele presenting the role of RNA damage in chemotherapy, followed by Andre Bortolini Silveira on BER and MMR converge, and Nicola Pietro Montaldo on Mitochondrial DNA Repair and Parkinson's Disease

@edra-webinars.bsky.social

A tale of two forms of cohesin in DNA repair Extrusive and cohesive cohesin cooperate to repair double-strand breaks in DNA

Extrusive and cohesive cohesin cooperate to repair double-strand breaks in DNA.

Learn more in a new #SciencePerspective: https://scim.ag/3XKbhb6

Can one map the genome-wide binding (1) and its protein partners (2) simultaneously from the same sample?

Yes, one can. with CUT&ID ✂️🪪

Spearheaded — singlehandedly — by @annanordin.bsky.social

No need of transgenesis, cloning and overexpression.

Check it out, it's fast and its works.

🚨New paper out! In our @MolCellNews paper, we solve a piece of the puzzle of how our genome folds. We found the two specific molecular "brakes" in the CTCF protein that stop DNA loop extrusion. One of the final pieces of my PhD!
tinyurl.com/29uuc5by

3' to 5' Translation of Circular RNAs? For decades, the 5' to 3' direction of translation has been a central dogma of molecular biology. Here we present evidence that eukaryotic circular RNAs (circRNAs) can serve as templates for 3' to 5' ...

this is amazing
they show some compelling evidence for 3' to 5' translation
#RNASky #RNABiology 🧪

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

High-fidelity human chromosome transfer and elimination The synthesis of human genomes and other gigabase-scale genomes will require new strategies. Here, we realized key steps in our pipeline for building synthetic human chromosomes. We established: (i) t...

A key step towards human genome synthesis. With thanks to @wellcometrust.bsky.social @mrclmb.bsky.social #SynHG doi.org/10.1126/scie...

The Vienna BioCenter Summer School 2026 call is now open for talented undergrads, it's a great for those interested in graduate study in the life sciences. Daniel Gerlich from Institute of Molecular Biotechnology is recruiting! Please share
https://training.vbc.ac.at/summer-school/

Huge congratulations, Alberto! A fantastic piece of work. It's been great to see how our studies complement each other and it’s really exciting to have them come out together!

🚨 New Science paper from the Gerlich lab!
The team shows how cohesin helps broken DNA find the right template: by opening local DNA loops to shrink the search area and by keeping the damaged strand close to its sister copy: science.org/doi/10.1126/science.adw0566

Cohesin drives chromatin scanning during the RAD51-mediated homology search Cohesin folds genomes into chromatin loops, the roles of which are under debate. We found that double-strand breaks (DSBs) induce de novo formation of chromatin loops in human cells, with the loop bas...

12/12
For more great science on homology search, don’t miss the back-to-back study from @albertomarin.bsky.social, Adam Rybczynski and Namrata Nilavar in the Ha and Scully labs!
Their work adds exciting complementary perspectives on cohesin and DSB repair.
www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

11/12
Huge thanks to all the co-authors, @imbavienna.bsky.social and the great facilities at @viennabiocenter.bsky.social 🙏
Supported by @erc.europa.eu , #MSCA, @fwf-at.bsky.social , @snsf.ch , @embo.org , @wwtf.at and #BIF.
Happy to discuss or answer questions!

10/12
Our model:
🔹 Loop-forming cohesin sets a megabase-scale search radius within the TAD
🔹 Cohesive cohesin forms a local clamp that tethers DNA ends to the sister chromatid
Together, they focus RAD51 sampling and enable accurate repair!

9/12
ChIP-seq of specific cohesin subunits revealed distinct architectures:
🔹 Loop-forming cohesin (NIPBL-bound) spans broadly around the break
🔹 Cohesive cohesin (sororin-bound) concentrates at the break
Functionally, disturbing either loop extrusion or cohesion delays or blocks repair!

8/12
What happens if we disrupt sister cohesion?
Upon sororin depletion:
✅ Loops remain intact
❌ Sister contacts are lost
Without cohesion, the DSB cannot efficiently locate its sister chromatid 🚫

7/12
Sister-pore-C showed that DSBs locally increase looping and create strong trans-sister contact interactions, putting the DNA broken ends in contact with the sister chromatid.

6/12
Homology-directed repair uses the sister chromatid, but how does the broken end stay connected to its sister template? 🤔
We developed sister-pore-C, a high-resolution method combining BrdU labeling and nanopore reads to map cis-sister vs trans-sister contacts.

5/12
How is this local search space defined?
By perturbing loop extrusion, we found:
🔹 Reducing loops (NIPBL or RAD21 depletion) narrows RAD51 sampling
🔹 Hyper-extrusion (WAPL depletion) expands sampling too broadly
Cohesin loops regulate the search radius!

4/12
By mapping RAD51, we found that homology search occurs within the local TAD near the break and not across the whole genome 🎯 !
TAD boundaries act as barriers that confine sampling.