Mia Levine

piRNAs are essential for transposon silencing in the animal germline.
But how do hosts trap transposon sequences in genomic loci that help establish a piRNA response?

Looking at a natural transposon invasion, Baptiste Rafanel and Kirsten Senti made some remarkable observations.

last call!
submit your abstract by tonight to be selected for one of the many oral presentations at the leading European Transposon Meeting. We are very much looking forward to your contribution and attendance!

We are a computational lab focusing on developing machine learning algorithms for biological data. Currently we are working on inference tasks related to natural selection and demographic inference, as well as generative models for genomic data from humans, mosquitos, and other species.

The Mathieson Lab at the University of Pennsylvania is hiring a computational postdoc in machine learning and evolutionary biology. Apply with a CV and references: smathi@sas.upenn.edu. More info: https://saramathieson.github.io/lab #postdoc

I am seeking a postdoc for my group at UCLA. We work at the intersection of population genetics x microbiome (garud.eeb.ucla.edu). If interested, please message me!

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...

A phylogenetic approach uncovers cryptic endogenous retrovirus subfamilies in the primate lineage A phylogenetic approach reveals cryptic LTR subfamilies and functional insights at nucleotide resolution in primates.

Is the annotation of viruses in the human genome accurate? We think not. Take a look at our new paper and let us know if you agree! www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

Now peer reviewed and in its final form @natcomms.nature.com

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

🚨Our latest work on selfish centromeres is published @currentbiology.bsky.social 🐭🧬We found that the spindle checkpoint contributes to non-Mendelian segregation! Huge congrats to our lab manager, Zaak Walton, who led the project🎉

Free link:
authors.elsevier.com/a/1lQzN3QW8S...

We are looking for a student to continue our work on chromatin evolution:
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

The project with @seanamontgomery.bsky.social will focus on chromatin state readers across eukaryotes.

More info: recruitment.crg.eu/content/jobs...

Gene regulatory networks and essential transcription factors for de novo-originated genes Nature Ecology & Evolution - A combination of computational methods applied to single-cell RNA sequencing data and genetic experiments shows that a small number of transcription factors are...

Our latest paper is out: rdcu.be/ev6Ym — one of my favorite projects. It began about 8 years ago when Nobel laureate Torsten Wiesel asked me: what transcription factors regulate new genes? I had no idea then. Now we have some answers.

Pls. share widely

Calling all transposon fans & lovers of genetic innovation

MOBILE GENOME welcomes you in Heidelberg, Nov. 4–7 2025

→ Vibrant & friendly community
→ Cutting-edge talks from mechanisms to physiology
→ Plenty of surprises (TEs never stop innovating)

submit abstract by July 29

Very excited to share our paper on Gene and Transposable Element expression in mammalian preimplantation development, online today! www.cell.com/cell/fulltex...
A short thread to highlight some of our findings 🧵

Quantification of variegated Drosophila ommatidia with high-resolution image analysis and machine learning Abstract. A longstanding challenge in biology is accurately analyzing images acquired using microscopy. Recently, machine learning (ML) approaches have fac

I am excited to share the first paper from my postdoc in the Cooper lab. Hopefully, this is useful for anyone working on PEV image quantification in Drosophila. Please reach out if you have any questions or comments, and stay tuned for more updates!

academic.oup.com/biomethods/a...

Happy New Year, blue-sci-peeps!

My piece in Annual Review of Biophysics on chromatin replication is now available online.

doi.org/10.1146/annu...

If you have paywall issues, try this link:

madhanilab.ucsf.edu/s/annurev-bi...

Jan 1, and my first day as an Asst. Professor at Berkeley. The lab opens in just a few weeks and I am currently staffing at all levels- www.lotuslofgren.com/new-page-1

TRF1 and TRF2 form distinct shelterin subcomplexes at telomeres The shelterin complex protects chromosome ends from the DNA damage repair machinery and regulates telomerase access to telomeres. Shelterin is composed of six proteins (TRF1, TRF2, TIN2, TPP1, POT1 an...

1/8 Super excited to share my first-author preprint in @jenscs83.bsky.social lab!
We measured the shelterin complex stoichiometry and dynamics at telomeres in living cells. Our results re-envisions the architecture of telomeres in human cancer cells.
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

New members of the GSA Board of Directors: 2025–2027 We are pleased to announce the election of six new leaders to the GSA Board of Directors: 2025 Vice President/2026 President Cassandra Extavour Timken Professor of Organismic & Evolutionary Biology an...

Congrats to all the newly elected members of the GSA Board of Directors, including TAGC24 veteran @barrlab.bsky.social

genestogenomes.org/new-members-...

Experimental horizontal transfer of phage-derived genes to Drosophila confers innate immunity to parasitoids Metazoan parasites have played a major role in shaping innate immunity in animals. Insect hosts and parasitoid wasps are excellent models for illumina…

Excited to share the major work of my dissertation, out now in @currentbiology.bsky.social! We use Drosophila genetics to dissect the evolution of phage-derived toxins that were horizontally transferred to insects and now function as potent anti-parasitoid defenses (1/n): tinyurl.com/2k9ypyxr

Telomere function and regulation from mouse models to human ageing and disease - Nature Reviews Molecular Cell Biology Telomere dysfunction, usually owing to shortening, activates cellular senescence and can contribute to age-associated diseases and cancer. Mouse models are crucial for telomere research, but human and...

With our lab’s inaugural Blue Sky post we celebrate our latest publication, a review in Nature Reviews Molecular Cell Biology (@natrevmcb.bsky.social) 🥳
Here, we review our current understanding of telomere biology, discussing differences between human and mouse.
www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Hello hello! As anyone used an anti-mScarlett antibody? We would like to try and amplify the signal for a chromatin bound protein.
Thank you!

Local nuclear to cytoplasmic ratio regulates H3.3 incorporation via cell cycle state during zygotic genome activation Early embryos often have unique chromatin states prior to zygotic genome activation (ZGA). In Drosophila, ZGA occurs after 13 reductive nuclear divisions during which the nuclear to cytoplasmic (N/C) ...

First post on bsky. We've updated our preprint about the change in the histone H3 variant on chromatin during Zygotic Genome Activation. Thanks to new experiments by Anusha, it seems like our initial, simplistic idea that the embryo "ran out" of H3 was not right.

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

Low mutation rate but high male-bias in the germline of a short-lived opossum Age and sex have been found to be important determinants of the mutation rate per generation in mammals, but the mechanisms underlying these factors are still unclear. One approach to distinguishing b...

New paper led by @yadirapga.bsky.social!

Even though opossums have kids at 0.5 years, they still have typical male-biased mutation (though not quite as high as humans).

"Low mutation rate but high male-bias in the germline of a short-lived opossum"

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

Another video of a developping drosophila embryo, but this time rotating. I beleive tjis was generated in Python using @maweigert.bsky.social 's spimagine rendering tool.

www.nature.com/articles/nbt...
🧪🔬🪰💻

I currently have an opening in my lab for a Laboratory Research Assistant. Potential candidates must have their bachelor's. You can find more information here: hrms.iu.edu/psp/PH1PRD_P...

Totally delightful and delicious Levine Lab holiday party + book exchange/white elephant last night. Here’s what we think you should read this year.

HELLO BLUESKY! First post! The lab just got a new grant! #PackardFellows! Please help us spend this money by joining! We are looking for a Postdoc interested in Developmental Biology, Retrotransposons, Early Embryos and Reproduction & maybe disease! @upenn.bsky.social @pennepigenetics.bsky.social

Thank you for the invitation, Eric! It was a joy to visit.

Congratulations, Regina! So excited to read this.

A little deep dive we did on everyone's favorite domestication gene!

!!!!!