Andrew Deans

Most genetic interaction studies measure gene relationships in one condition, but environment can reshape which genes depend on each other.

Today in Molecular Cell, Luke Gilbert & team deliver the first systematic, multi-condition map of genetic rewiring in human cells.

Happy to share our new pre-print on the dependency of ALT-positive tumors on the DNA translocase SMARCAL1. Outstanding work of @angelotaglialatela.bsky.social in collaboration with the Min, Lazzerini Denchi and @cejkalab.bsky.social laboratories! www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...

A group of about 30 people pose together in a bright office space.

Today, we’re launching a new company, ALTx Therapeutics. Founded by Simon Boulton, the company will develop the first precision therapies targeting ALT cancers, in partnership with Slingshot Therapeutics Limited and @crhorizons.bsky.social.

Find out more ➡️ www.crick.ac.uk/news/2026-02...

A 1-day Melbourne workshop on Gene Editing in Blood and Immune Cells. February 20, register at editblood.com

2/Led by @hildapickett.bsky.social, with co-investigators @genomestability.bsky.social, @lisannes.bsky.social, Jacob Lewis, @yuhenglau.bsky.social, Sarah Henrikus, & the Cesare Lab, this project brings together expertise in telomere biology, DNA repair, biochemistry, drug discovery, & cell biology.

1/Delighted to be part of a team from @cmri.bsky.social, @sydney.edu.au, the University of Wollongong, and SVI (Melbourne) awarded a $5M NHMRC Synergy Grant to explore: “A mechanistic approach to developing precision therapies for ALT-dependent cancers.”

www.nhmrc.gov.au/funding/find...

Just updated my X/Twitter profile. I suggest you try to encourage any colleagues remaining on that pit to do the same. Such a shame, as it was such an important place of science until not that long ago. :-(

8–11 June 2026 | 📍 Heraklion, Crete 🇬🇷

Get ready for Machines on Genes 2026, the 94th Harden Conference by the @biochemsoc.bsky.social — four days of molecular mechanisms and friendly discussions! 🧬☀️🔬❄️

Organised by @lapassmore.bsky.social, Dana Branzei, me.

Yep, me too. I have also been getting this error quite a lot in the past couple weeks: "Model inference failed". Usual wait times are 2hr...

Nuclear actin and DNA replication stress regulate telomere maintenance by telomerase - Nature Communications Telomerase recruitment to telomeres is a tightly regulated process which is stimulated by replication stress. Here, the authors identify that nuclear filamentous actin is important for interaction bet...

New @natcomms.nature.com paper today from Tracy Bryan's lab @cmri.bsky.social: "Nuclear actin and DNA replication stress regulate telomere maintenance by telomerase".

Happy our lab could play a small part.

Congrats Tracy, Ash Harman, Noa Lamm and the whole team.

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

No, not that FANCL!
New paper on FancL mutant mouse just out in @bloodadvances.bsky.social shows essential function of E3 RING ligase activity to phenotypes of #FanconiAnemia plus, Black Friday deal: a new model for testing gene editing therapies: ashpublications.org/bloodadvance...

Finally! We have a FANCM:RMI inhibitor that is cell active and specifically kills ALT+ cancer cells 🎯
@yuhenglau.bsky.social + my labs just published the first cell-active peptide inhibitors of this critical target in 10-15% of cancers. doi.org/10.1021/acs....

Chromatin fatigue: DNA repair alters the chromatin environment and introduces heritable variation in gene expression in a larger region around the lesion! Amazing achievement by @sbantele.bsky.social and Jiri Lukas published in @science.org 🙌 Happy we could contribute. See 👇

Registration is open!🧬

Join us at Egmond aan Zee (April 19–24, 2026) for the next DNA Repair Meeting. We have an amazing line-up of speakers.

📅 Deadline for early registration: Jan 10, 2026
🔗 dnarepairmeeting-egmond2026.com

DNA REPAIR/GENOME STABILITY CONFERENCES

🧬 List of 2026 DNA repair and genome stability conferences, now updated. Please let me know if there is anything missing!
docs.google.com/spreadsheets...

Multi-lineage natural gene therapy mediated by embryonic triploid mosaicism in the context of Fanconi anaemia Fanconi anemia is a rare inherited bone marrow failure syndrome caused by inactivation of genes in the Fanconi anemia/BRCA DNA repair pathway. We report a patient with X-linked Fanconi anemia, and aty...

🧵 Our latest preprint is available.

It describes an extraordinary case of a boy with two very rare genetic conditions: Fanconi anaemia (FANCB, with a deep intronic pathogenic variant) and embryonic triploid–diploid mosaicism.

Read more here 👉 www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1...

Human RPA is an essential telomerase processivity factor for maintaining telomeres Telomerase counteracts telomere shortening by repeatedly adding DNA repeats to chromosome ends. We identified the replication protein A (RPA) heterotrimer as a telomerase processivity factor critical ...

Our paper in Science is out! @souravagrawal.bsky.social, @rlynn.bsky.social, @susvirkar.bsky.social, and the rest of the team show human RPA is a telomerase processivity factor essential for telomere maintenance. This reshapes our thinking about telomerase regulation. www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

FIGNL1 inhibits homologous recombination in BRCA2 deficient cells by dissociating RAD51 filaments Homologous recombination (HR) deficiency upon Breast Cancer Gene 2 (BRCA2) loss arises from defects in the formation of RAD51 nucleoprotein filaments. We demonstrate that loss of the anti-recombinase ...

Want to know how homologous recombination defects are caused upon loss of BRCA2? Check out our recent efforts in uncovering this phenomenon just out in Science!
www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

I attended the Australian Cell Cycle, DNA Repair and Telomere Meeting for the first time, and now I wish I could have attended it earlier.

Thanks much to the organisers and especially to @genomestability.bsky.social for putting such a nice meeting together.

I am looking forward to the future ones!

It was a great honour to present the AGCT (Australian Genome instability, Cell cycle and Telomere) award to Prof Kum Kum Khanna yesterday evening at #ADCTM25. Kum Kum has had an amazing career in discoveries relating to these fields in Australia, and been a remarkable leader and mentor to many.

Poster session 1 was such a hive of activity and discussion at Melbourne museum today! #ACDTM25

Its so awesome to have Alan D'Andrea here in Melbourne today for #ACDTM25. What a great talk framed by his classic work on FA!

Ever wondered what S-phase tastes like? 3 lucky presenter prize winners will find out (+Amazon voucher!) at #ACDTM25. You can still register for this fantastic Melbourne meeting Oct 20-22. Official 10 year old taste tester: "lemon excision repair" is the best flavour www.australiancellcycle.org

Final 2025 programme The final programme for our conference is now available. You can download either just the programme, or the full abstract book by clicking below. A printed copy will also be provided to all registr…

The final programme for the Australian Cell Cycle, DNA repair and Telomere meeting is now available online: australiancellcycle.org/final-2025-p...
Its not too late to register for the October 20-22 meeting.

ATP-dependent remodeling of chromatin condensates reveals distinct mesoscale outcomes Adenosine triphosphate (ATP)–dependent chromatin remodeling enzymes mobilize nucleosomes, but how such mobilization affects chromatin condensation is unclear. We investigate effects of two major remod...

Today I am so pleased to present our work on how chromatin remodelers affect mesoscale chromatin organization.
www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

Australian Cell Cycle, DNA repair and Telomere meeting draft schedule is now online!
Join us with 5 plenary speakers, 16 invited national speakers, 22 selected speakers, 61 poster presenters and lots and lots of fun science. Less than one month to go.
australiancellcycle.org/draft-schedu...

Differential PARP inhibitor responses in BRCA1-deficient and resistant cells in competitive co-culture Synthetic lethality describes a genetic relationship where the loss of two genes results in cell death, but the loss of one of those genes does not. Drugs used for precision oncology can exploit synth...

Happy to share the latest paper from the lab looking at PARP inhibitor responses in isogenic BRCA1 cell line pairs, from the Master work of Shiella Amelia Soetomo and Michael Sharp: dx.plos.org/10.1371/jour...

The Eukaryotic homology search complex distorts donor DNA structure to probe for homology Homologous recombination (HR) is a DNA double-strand break repair pathway that facilitates genetic exchange and protects damaged replication forks during DNA synthesis. As a template-based repair proc...

Just throwing this out there as a significant conceptual advance in the field

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

A high-resolution, nanopore-based artificial intelligence assay for DNA replication stress in human cancer cells Nature Communications - Determining how replication forks move across the human genome is critical for the effective use of agents that target replication stress. Here, the authors present...

Checkout our latest research in @natcomms.nature.com
rdcu.be/eBqBI A high-resolution, nanopore-based artificial intelligence assay for DNA replication stress in human cancer cells. A collaboration with Mike Boemo’s team