Ali Haidar

Liquid-liquid phase separation of HP1? Not in our mouse fibroblasts… This paper by the Fabian Erdel group offers a fresh perspective on how this can be reconciled with seemingly conflicting reports: The phase separation propensity of HP1 decreases from yeast → fly → mouse. doi.org/10.1038/s414...

Is euchromatin really “open”? Our new study @bioRxiv suggests otherwise. Using super-resolution imaging @shiori-iida.bsky.social‬ @masaashimazoe.bsky.social reveals: Euchromatin forms condensed domains in live cells. Cohesin constrains them and prevents domain mixing.
www.biorxiv.org/cgi/content/...

RNA droplets that grow and segregate by ribozyme catalysis. Check out our latest preprint www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.08.29.673008v1

Happy to share our community note published in Nature Communications @natcomms.nature.com. In this 14-page article (34 authors from 9 countries), we discuss current practices in phase separation. We hope it will be useful to the biomolecular condensate community.
www.nature.com/articles/s41...

What controls condensate composition and function beyond binding stoichiometry? We show that condensate microenvironments play a key role, and can be probed by a micropeptide killswitch in live cells. www.nature.com/articles/s41... in @nature.com ‬ with @yaotianzhang.bsky.social Denes Hnisz & team.

New method drop:
HCR-Proxy, a modular proximity labelling approach to profile local proteome composition around RNA at nanoscale, subcompartmental resolution. Thereby we resolved nested nucleolar layers and uncovered the grammar of spatial protein partitioning.
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

We are very happy that XiaoYan's (Andy!) paper is out, congratulations to all authors
@cellpress.bsky.social
@xiaoyan52802927.bsky.social
www.cell.com/cell/fulltex...
Demixing of TDP-43 inside stress granules generates pathological aggregates linked to ALS/FTD
@mpi-cbg.de @biotec-tud.bsky.social

Ribosomes modulate transcriptome abundance via generalized frameshift and out-of-frame mRNA decay Zhang et al. identify a regulatory mechanism for how cells adapt to nutrient scarcity through widespread −1 ribosomal frameshifts, culminating in accelerated mRNA decay. This process, dependent on cod...

#mRNADecay #Ribosome #Frameshift #Scerevisiae #NMD #CodonOptimality
Ribosomes modulate transcriptome abundance via generalized frameshift and out-of-frame mRNA decay: Molecular Cell www.cell.com/molecular-ce...

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Super excited to share my first preprint from @andersshansen.bsky.social Lab! We used MINFLUX to track chromatin (H2B-Halo and Fbn2 locus) at an unprecedented 200 μs, then combined it with SPT to span μs-minutes (H2B) or SPT & Super-Res Live-Cell Imaging (SRLCI) to span μs-hours (Fbn2)

Very excited to have been a part of this great work with @matteomazzocca.bsky.social, Simon Grosse-Holz, @jessematthias.bsky.social, and @andersshansen.bsky.social. Please check it out now! www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

Solid phase transitions as a solution to the genome folding paradox - Nature In vitro reconstitution and in vivo live-cell imaging of LHX2–EBF1–LDB1 enhancer hubs in olfactory sensory neurons reveals that these transcription factors form condensates with solid, rathe...

Forget liquid-liquid phase separation, here comes solid phase transition 😱

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

Small-molecule dissolution of stress granules by redox modulation benefits ALS models - Nature Chemical Biology Uechi et al. found that a small-molecule lipoamide dissolves stress granules (SGs) by targeting SFPQ, a redox-sensitive disordered SG protein, alleviating pathological phenotypes caused by amyotrophic...

Hiro's paper is out! @hiro-cg5445.bsky.social
Collaboration and Tour de Force with Richard Wheeler @zephyris-science.bsky.social and many other coauthors.
Big congratulations and thank you to anyone involved!

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

The PCM scaffold enables RNA localization to centrosomes As microtubule-organizing centers, centrosomes direct assembly of the bipolar mitotic spindle required for chromosome segregation and genome stability. Centrosome activity requires the dynamic assembl...

👏new paper👏 ! Our preprint is now accepted at MBoC @ascbiology.bsky.social

Congrats to co-1st authors Junnan (new PI at OSU!) and Weiyi (now a Yale grad student) and 🙏 to collaborators Melissa & Jordan @myosincity.bsky.social

Funded by NIH grants & NSF GRFP!
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

I am excited to share the latest paper from my lab where we leverage the selection bias of condensate-promoting oncofusions to uncover molecular rules governing condensate specificity and function. www.cell.com/cell/fulltex....

RNA xkcd.com/3056

Excited to announce the newest member of the flock - STARLING (conSTruction of intrinsicAlly disoRdered proteins ensembles efficientLy vIa multi-dimeNsional Generative models).
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

Biomolecular condensates: It was RNA all along! In this issue of Molecular Cell, Trussina et al. and Parker et al. present complementary lines of evidence that suggest that stress granules regulate trans RNA-RNA interactions through the action of h...

Not sure if anyone posted this on BSky, but here is a 'condensate' (pun intended) of the latest #RNA granules papers 'en vogue':
www.cell.com/molecular-ce...
#RNAsky #RNAbiology #MolCondensates

1/n Excited to share our new preprint! Using live imaging in Drosophila embryos, we show that RNA Pol II clusters switch from sites of initiation to elongation during zygotic genome activation and that they are stably associated with an active gene: www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

Making intrabodies from antibodies just got easier! Learn how we made 𝟭𝟵 intrabodies to bind and light up peptides and histone modifications in live cells. And thanks to Academia, all sequences are freely available. (video credit: Yuko Sato @YukoSatoT2) (1/15)
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

📢 The Dormann Lab is looking for a PhD student interested in the molecular mechanisms of neurodegeneration and biomolecular condensation!

Interested in one of our research projects on disease-linked RNA-binding proteins, such as TDP-43 and FUS?

Apply to this fantastic PhD program by February 7 👇

Integrative profiling of condensation-prone RNAs during early development Complex RNA–protein networks play a pivotal role in the formation of many types of biomolecular condensates. How intrinsic RNA features contribute to condensate formation however remains unclear. Here...

I am thrilled to share the first manuscript from my group on identifying sequence and structural features promoting the condensation of RNAs that are organising highly interconnected RNA networks, thereby expanding our understanding of higher-order transcriptome assemblage.
shorturl.at/pmLIj #RNASky

Protein codes promote selective subcellular compartmentalization Cells have evolved mechanisms to distribute ~10 billion protein molecules to subcellular compartments where diverse proteins involved in shared functions must assemble. Here, we demonstrate that prote...

Protein codes promote selective subcellular compartmentalization | Science www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

We are looking for a post-doc to join us in Oxford @biology.ox.ac.uk to study epigenetic inheritance! The project will use Cut&Run and RNA-seq to map and track new epimutations as they arise in Drosophila populations across multiple generations. Feel free to share!

my.corehr.com/pls/uoxrecru...

Check out our most recent preprint where we describe Mecp2 as a régulatrice of cGAS-STING associated signaling. 🧪🔥

Long-term imaging of individual ribosomes reveals ribosome cooperativity in mRNA translation Ribosomes cooperate through transient collisions to ensure efficient translation.

Our paper on Stopless-ORF Circular RNAs (socRNAs) is now out in Cell. By high-res tracking and comparing translation by either single or multiple ribosomes, we find that ribosomes cooperate to overcome pausing to ensure fast and efficient translation

www.cell.com/cell/fulltex...

Mitochondria- and ER-associated actin are required for mitochondrial fusion - Nature Communications The actin cytoskeleton is crucial for cell and organelle motility. Here, the authors show that actin acts upstream of the mitochondrial fusion machinery to bridge two fusing mitochondria.

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

Phosphorylation of a nuclear condensate regulates cohesion and mRNA retention - Nature Communications Here the authors study how interactions with nuclear speckles help localize mRNA in cells. They find that modifications of the proteins in these structures affects their cohesion and can modulate mRNA...

Phosphorylation of a nuclear condensate regulates cohesion and mRNA retention
#RNAbiology #RNAlocalization

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

Cellular Function of a Biomolecular Condensate Is Determined by Its Ultrastructure Biomolecular condensates play key roles in the spatiotemporal regulation of cellular processes. Yet, the relationship between atomic features and condensate function remains poorly understood. We stud...

1/ 🚨We’re thrilled to share our latest study:

"Cellular Function of a Biomolecular Condensate Is Determined by Its Ultrastructure" 🌟

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

How do biomolecular condensates achieve their cellular roles? It comes down to their internal structure. 🧵⬇️

Synthetic anti-RNA antibody derivatives for RNA visualization in mammalian cells Abstract. Although antibody derivatives, such as Fabs and scFvs, have revolutionized the cellular imaging, quantification and tracking of proteins, analogo

What a fantastic way to start the year! The KoiralaLab (unfortunately not here yet) have just developed RNA derived antibodies to visualize RNA in live cells! This seems to be a promising alternative to the MCP-MS2 system whilst offering potential multiplexing capabilities.
#RNA, #RNASky, #imaging

G3BP-driven RNP granules promote inhibitory RNA-RNA interactions resolved by DDX3X to regulate mRNA translatability Trussina et al. demonstrate that the storage of mRNA molecules inside G3BP1-driven RNP granules facilitates the formation of RNA-RNA interactions, preventing the mRNA from being translated. The DEAD-box helicase DDX3X facilitates RNP granule dissolution by attenuating these inhibitory RNA-RNA interactions to aid restart of mRNA translation.

It's celebration time: our first contribution to a better understanding of RNA structure and dynamics in biomolecular condensates together with Alberti lab - cool data from in vitro to in condenso to in vivo take a look 👇 @cmcb-tud.bsky.social @tudresden.bsky.social
www.cell.com/molecular-ce...