Johan Jakobsson

🇸🇪

Promotional graphic for an EMBO Workshop titled "The mobile genome: genetic and physiological impacts of transposable elements," scheduled for 4-7 November 2025, at EMBL Heidelberg and virtually. The background features abstract DNA strands and a stylized graphic of a fruit fly in orange and green tones.

Join @embl.org for this conference exploring genetic and physiological impacts of transposable elements. Virtual registration is open until October 28. Learn more at plos.io/4nuqeZA.

Todays labmeeting became a tribute to Jane Goodall. Such an outstanding role model. 🙊

Activation of transposable elements is linked to a region- and cell-type-specific interferon response in Parkinson's disease Parkinson's disease (PD) is a common age-related neurodegenerative disorder involving a neuroinflammatory response, the cause of which remains unclear. Transposable elements (TE) have been linked to i...

New preprint from my lab! We describe how transposable elements are activated in Parkinson’s disease, which is linked to an interferon response. We believe this study significantly advances our understanding of transposons and their role in human brains.

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

Activation of transposable elements is linked to a region- and cell-type-specific interferon response in Parkinson's disease https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.09.03.673956v1

Fantastic collaboration with labs of @kirkebylab.bsky.social @mollygale.bsky.social and Roger Barker. Outstanding support from @asapresearch.parkinsonsroadmap.org

Activation of transposable elements is linked to a region- and cell-type-specific interferon response in Parkinson's disease Parkinson's disease (PD) is a common age-related neurodegenerative disorder involving a neuroinflammatory response, the cause of which remains unclear. Transposable elements (TE) have been linked to i...

New preprint from my lab! We describe how transposable elements are activated in Parkinson’s disease, which is linked to an interferon response. We believe this study significantly advances our understanding of transposons and their role in human brains.

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

Human Brain Cell‐Type‐Specific Aging Clocks Based on Single‐Nuclei Transcriptomics Muralidharan and colleagues develop cell-type-specific transcriptomic aging clocks using single-nucleus RNA sequencing of human post mortem prefrontal cortex samples. These clocks accurately predict ....

New collaborative paper from our lab! We developed cell-type specific transcriptional ageing clocks using snRNA-seq data from human brain.

doi.org/10.1002/advs...

Team Jakobsson gathered in southern Sweden for a few inspiring days discussing PD, transposable elements and future plans. We even squeezed in a hike and enjoyed some beautiful views ☀️🌊 @jakobssonlab.bsky.social @kirkebylab.bsky.social @mollygale.bsky.social @asapresearch.parkinsonsroadmap.org

www.stemcellcenter.lu.se/article/why-...

LINE-1 retrotransposons mediate cis-acting transcriptional control in human pluripotent stem cells and regulate early brain development Adami et al. demonstrate that evolutionarily young L1s are expressed in human pluripotent stem cells and are dynamically regulated throughout neural differentiation. The study examines the role of L1s...

New paper from our lab! We found that LINE-1 transposons contribute to early human brain development.

Funded by @asapresearch.parkinsonsroadmap.org

www.cell.com/cell-genomic...

Anxa1+ dopamine neuron vulnerability defines prodromal Parkinson's disease bradykinesia and procedural motor learning impairment Progressive degeneration of dopamine neurons (DANs) defines Parkinson's disease (PD). However, the identity and function of the most vulnerable DAN populations in prodromal PD remain undefined. Here, ...

first thing to share here!

excited to share lab’s first study in Parkinson’s disease revealing the prodromal vulnerability and function of the dopamine neuron subtype defined by Anxa1 expression - a specialized system controlling procedural motor learning

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

MORC2 directs transcription-dependent CpG methylation of human LINE-1 transposons in early neurodevelopment Methylation of CpG dinucleotides is essential for silencing genomic repeats such as LINE-1 retrotransposons (L1s) in the germline and soma. Evolutionarily-young L1s are transcribed in human pluripoten...

Very proud of this work where we define how the MORC2 ATPase directs CpG methylation of active human L1 transposons in early development.

Thanks to co-authors, funders & wonderful environment @lundstem.bsky.social

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

Brief thread below (do people still do that?) 1/X

#TransposonDay2025 New manuscript from our center to which we contributed. Great work led by @chdouse.bsky.social ! Provides a mechanistic explanation for how L1s are silenced during early human development.

doi.org/10.1101/2025...

Barbara McClintock portrait

🧬🌽 Happy Transposon Day! 🌽🧬

Today we celebrate the birthday of Barbara McClintock - scientist extraordinaire and discoverer of jumping genes. Still the only woman to have an unshared Nobel Prize in the biomedical sciences #TransposonDay2025

#TransposonDay2025 New manuscript from our center to which we contributed. Great work led by @chdouse.bsky.social ! Provides a mechanistic explanation for how L1s are silenced during early human development.

doi.org/10.1101/2025...

A 🧵 to walk those interested through this paper...

New preprint of @trono-lab.bsky.social and my PhD work!
By modulating SWI/SNF remodeling at ancient transposable elements - LINE/L2s and SINE/MIRs, a "noncanonical" KZFP called ZNF436 protects cardiomyocytes from losing their identity.
🫀heartbeat on 🔁 repeat
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1... #TEsky

Good times in Lund 🇸🇪 with @jakobssonlab.bsky.social. Beautiful campus, great food, and awesome science! Thanks Johan!

We had a fantastic guest speaker at our lab meeting this week who talked about the beautiful life of transposons and how they contributed to the evolution of the vertebrate brain. Thanks for the visit @cedricfeschotte.bsky.social !!

I am thrilled to share our preprint where we take advantage of the unique opportunities offered by human blastoids to uncover a human-specific mechanism potentially playing a role in preimplantation 🧵. www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

Gag proteins encoded by endogenous retroviruses are required for zebrafish development | PNAS Transposable elements (TEs) make up the bulk of eukaryotic genomes and examples abound of TE-derived sequences repurposed for organismal function. ...

💥🥳 At long last, our latest paper is out!

Gag proteins of endogenous retroviruses are required for zebrafish development

www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...

Led heroically by Sylvia Chang & @jonowells.bsky.social

A study which has changed the way I think of #transposons! No less! 🧵 1/n

Reactivation of retrotransposable elements is associated with environmental stress and ageing Nature Reviews Genetics, Published online: 02 April 2025; doi:10.1038/s41576-025-00829-yIn this Review, Della Valle et al. discuss the role of retrotransposable elements (RTEs) in the onset and progression of ageing and ageing-related disease, including evidence that environmental stressors act through RTEs to shift the trajectory towards unhealthy ageing.

New online! Reactivation of retrotransposable elements is associated with environmental stress and ageing

The mobile genome: genetic and physiological impacts of transposable elements

Do you have transposon-related research cooking, with some cool results you are exciting to share? Start thinking about registering to #EMBOMobileGenome workshop! Nov 4-7 2025 in Heidelberg. One of the historical TE meetings, with a diverse and welcoming community. www.embl.org/about/info/c...
1/3

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...

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...

Last week, some of us from Team Jakobsson had a great time in Arizona at the 2025 CRN Collaborative Meeting! Plenty of insightful talks and networking. Shoutout to @kirkebylab.bsky.social for a fantastic talk on PSC-based therapies and models of PD 🌟🧬🏜️ #CRNPhoenix2025 @asapresearch.bsky.social

ALS molecular subtypes are a combination of cellular and pathological features learned by deep multiomics classifiers O’Neill et al. present a deep exploration of molecular subtypes in ALS postmortem tissues from the NYGC ALS Consortium. Matched bulk and single-cell profiles demonstrate that ALS subtypes are a combin...

Super happy to announce the latest work from my lab together with Hemali Phatnani @nygenome.org & NYGC ALS Consortium!

We've combined ALS patient profiling (100s!), ML classifiers and matched bulk/single-cell data to dive into ALS Molecular Subtypes

#NIHfundedResearch
www.cell.com/cell-reports...

Today… 🇸🇪

Interesting study on cell-type-specific aging using single-nuclei transcriptomics in the human neocortex. Not clear to me based on this graph that pace of aging is striking different across cell types.
doi.org/10.1101/2025...
see also
https://doi.org:10.1038/s41593-024-01742-z