JStark lab

www.nature.com/articles/s41... saw @lablegube.bsky.social present this last week. Provides important clarity on RNA at chromosomal DSBs. Including rigorously debunking the nascent synthesis idea.

Exciting to have 3 days to focus on this pathway.

It’s been a long time coming! Grateful to all co-authors and colleagues who supported this study, especially @yilanfan.bsky.social 🙌 We have been working on this complex for nearly 3 years together and finally managed to tame it. MRN gave us Many Restless Nights, but we’re More Relaxed Now 😎

L1 insertion intermediates recombine with one another or with DNA breaks to form genome rearrangements https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.09.17.676864v1

I’m using this icon for my talk at nhej2025.sciencesconf.org
Guess the topic

Gearing up to head to Paris for nhej2025.sciencesconf.org but indulging in some LA delicacies before I go.

I’ve met many raw milk is healthy, we already have the cure for cancer, immunizations are dangerous, HIV isn’t the cause of AIDS people. As a scientist I thought it important to counter with respect and logic, and wonder how we are failing at public health. No more. New response - “that’s stupid!”

I am delighted to announce that the UW Department of Biochemistry has opened searches for TWO tenure-track positions.

Descriptions and links in the following two posts.

Image of Toronto

JOB ALERT 🚨 We are hiring TWO principal investigators in cell, molecular, systems, or chemical biology in Toronto, Canada at @sinaihealth.bsky.social. We provide a generous startup, fully funded salary and academic appointment at U of Toronto.

www.nature.com/naturecareer...

Please repost!

Postdoctoral Training Programs Funded by the National Cancer Institute (T32CA186895), the program at City of Hope provides exceptionally motivated, recent (2 years or less) postdoctoral fellows with scientific knowledge, researc

We have openings for a postdoctoral training program on DNA Damage and Oncogenic Signaling. Our past trainees have been very successful. Apply by Aug 31 for full consideration. See link for details. www.imgs-coh.edu/postdoctoral...

this is so wonderful and so critical right now

Assistant Professor of Biochemistry at Vanderbilt University - Nashville, Tennessee job with Vanderbilt University School of Medicine | 12843515 Department of Biochemistry, School of Medicine—Basic Sciences

Advertisements for 2 tenure-track assistant professor positions at Vanderbilt School of Medicine Basic Sciences:
www.nature.com/naturecareer...
www.nature.com/naturecareer...

Automated machine learning profiling with MAP-HR for quantifying homologous recombination foci in patient samples Abstract. Accurate visualization and quantification of homologous recombination (HR)-associated foci in readily available patient samples are critical for

Beyond BRCA status: machine-learning assisted multichannel imaging platform for cell-by-cell analysis of HR competency, enabling patient stratification. “Editor’s Choice” in NAR Cancer. academic.oup.com/narcancer/ar...

NAR seeks a new Executive Editor Overview of the Journal Nucleic Acids Research (NAR) is a leading open access molecular biology journal published by Oxford University Press. It provides rapid

Our sister journal, Nucleic Acids Research, has opened a search for an Executive Editor. Great opportunity for mid-career or senior investigator looking to be part of a great team, handle 100-150 papers per year, and attend the annual EE meeting. Details at: academic.oup.com/nar/pages/ex...

Fingers crossed 🤞

Yeah…10% was bad enough…

I was thinking about this too as I'm a standing member at NIH and review did the DoD. The amount of time and effort for no monetary benefit that is expected of us is unreasonable even at a 10th percentile funding rate. But at 4%.... what are we even asking of scientists?

4% payline demoralizing for reviewers - review 9 grants each taking 3-4hrs (total reviewed by all is 90) flying to DC, a hotel conference room to discuss the top half of grants (45) 15 min each, 3x a year for 4 yrs. Paid $300. 4% = maybe 3/90, 0-1 that you reviewed funded. I couldn’t.

From cooperation to conflicts – a complicated relationship between transcription and replication. A tight coordination between transcription and DNA replication is essential to maintain genome stability. Both excessive transcription and upregulated…

Our new review on how the initiation of DNA replication is coordinated with transcription is now online! Congratulations to @syedshahidmusvi.bsky.social!
www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

😢 RIP. Still to this day my favorite experiment in molecular biology.

Dynamic assemblies and coordinated reactions of non-homologous end joining - Nature Structures associated with the final steps of non-homologous end joining (NHEJ) and gap filling present new targets for NHEJ inhibition to enhance efficacy of radiotherapy and accuracy of gene editing...

Excited this study is out - we helped with an experiment on Paxx www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Seems a good time to invite Sen Britt to watch an NIH review panel (aka study section) analyze piles of grants over several days to identify the <10% that win funding. Applications that scientists spent months preparing, whose peers spent weeks poring through in advance of review mtg at NIH.

New twist on BRCA1-mediated DNA recombination repair and tumor suppression Ever since BRCA1 germline mutations were found to confer a strong predisposition to the development of breast and ovarian cancers, there has been great interest in determining how this protein suppresses tumor formation. Through more than two decades of research, it has become clear that BRCA1 safeguards our genome mainly by promoting DNA repair through homologous recombination (HR). This opinion article outlines our evolving view of BRCA1’s role in end resection, an upstream commitment step for HR, and highlights recent discoveries suggesting that the context in which DNA breaks are generated dictates whether BRCA1 is required for end resection. In addition, strong emerging evidence for the tumor-suppressive function of BRCA1 being mediated predominantly by its indispensable role in supporting RAD51-dependent recombination downstream of end resection is discussed.

New twist on BRCA1-mediated DNA recombination repair and tumor suppression

Senator Durbin noted that some (I believe Republican Senators) had indicated the US had been doing more than its share of biomedical research and it was time for other countries take a turn.

I felt I had to interrupt to respond...

NCI paylines drop to 7%ile for established investigator applications. It’s at 9%ile for Early Stage Investigators.
www.cancer.gov/grants-train...

Distinct functions of PAXX and MRI during chromosomal end joining A key step of Canonical-Nonhomologous End Joining is synapsis of DNA double strand break (DSB) ends, which appears to be mediated by both the DNA-PKcs dimer and XLF homodimer. We have examined this pr...

We have a new study out - Distinct functions of PAXX and MRI during chromosomal end joining: iScience www.cell.com/iscience/ful...

Multigenerational cell tracking of DNA replication and heritable DNA damage - Nature A multigenerational single-cell tracking approach provides a framework to dissect phenotypic plasticity at the single-cell level, offering insights into cellular processes that may resemble early even...

Delighted to share that the results of my main postdoc project are now published in @nature.com

🔗 doi.org/10.1038/s415...

Last week I learned that all my NIH awards were terminated due to perceived acts of antisemitism by Harvard. My understanding (which may be incorrect) is that this has been extended to literally every grant to grad students, postdocs and faculty throughout the university.