Ruifeng Hu

Last week @science.org mRNA initiation and termination are spatially coordinated | Science www.science.org/doi/10.1126/... from @anafiszbein.bsky.social @athmapai.bsky.social et al.

@science.org ATP-dependent remodeling of #chromatin #condensates reveals distinct #mesoscale outcomes | Science www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

Reporter CRISPR screens decipher cis-regulatory and trans-regulatory principles at the Xist locus - Nature Structural & Molecular Biology Here Schwämmle et al. develop CRISPR reporter screens to map transcription-factor-regulatory element interactions at the Xist locus, revealing a two-step mechanism integrating developmental and X-dosage signals to initiate X-chromosome inactivation.

⚠️ Paper alert: Using a novel CRISPR screening approach, we mapped the entire regulatory network controlling Xist—key for X-chromosome inactivation.
👉 We discover how sex and development signals are decoded at a single gene locus.
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
👇 Bluetorial

Mechano-osmotic signals control chromatin state and fate transitions in pluripotent stem cells - Nature Cell Biology McCreery, Stubb et al. show that mechano-osmotic changes in the nucleus induce general transcriptional repression and prime chromatin for cell fate transitions by relieving repression of specific differentiation genes.

💫NEW: @sarawickstrom.bsky.social @katemiro.bsky.social & co show that mechano-osmotic changes in the #nucleus induce general #transcriptional repression and prime #chromatin for cell fate transitions by relieving repression of specific differentiation genes. #pluripotency
bit.ly/3VMcyNZ

Mice grow bigger brains when given this stretch of human DNA Finding adds to the bigger picture of how humans developed such large brains.

Taking a snippet of genetic code that is unique to humans and inserting it into mice helps them grow bigger brains than usual

https://go.nature.com/3GOTQkz

A human-specific enhancer fine-tunes radial glia potency and corticogenesis - Nature HARE5, a human accelerated region enhancer, modulates cortical development by influencing neural progenitor cell behaviour, leading to an enlarged neocortex with increased functional independence between cortical regions through amplified WNT signalling.

Nature research paper: A human-specific enhancer fine-tunes radial glia potency and corticogenesis

https://go.nature.com/4kfH6BC

Collective challenges need collective solutions. Happy to share the insights we've gained from the way our cells handle this: www.nature.com/articles/s41... and its summary www.crick.ac.uk/news/2025-09....

Hbo1 and Msl complexes preserve differential compaction and H3K27me3 marking of active and inactive X chromosomes during mitosis - Nature Cell Biology Djeghloul, Cheriyamkunnel et al. apply chromosome sorting to isolate active and inactive X chromosomes and report a role for Hbo1 and Msl histone acetyltransferase complexes in preserving active X chromosomes in female cells during mitosis.

💫NEW: Djeghloul, Cheriyamkunnel et al. apply chromosome sorting to isolate active and inactive X chromosomes and report a role for Hbo1 and Msl histone acetyltransferase complexes in preserving active X #chromosomes in female cells during #mitosis.
bit.ly/4pIA0ta

CRISPR activation for SCN2A-related neurodevelopmental disorders - Nature Using SCN2A haploinsufficiency as a proof-of-concept, upregulation of the existing functional gene copy through CRISPR activation was able to rescue neurological-associated phenotypes in Scn2a haploinsufficient mice and human neurons.

Nature research paper: CRISPR activation for SCN2A-related neurodevelopmental disorders

go.nature.com/3VmV1vp

Functional maps of a genomic locus reveal confinement of an enhancer by its target gene Genes are often activated by enhancers located at large genomic distances, and the importance of this positioning is poorly understood. By relocating promoter-reporter constructs into thousands of alt...

Our reporter hopping scaled up to thousands of integrations in a single locus, to produce high-resolution functional maps, with plenty of interesting insights: www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

Really excited to share our latest work led by @mattiaubertini.bsky.social and @nesslfy.bsky.social: we report that cohesin loop extrusion creates rare but long-lived encounters between genomic sequences which underlie efficient enhancer-promoter communication.
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
A🧵👇

Kinetic organization of the genome revealed by ultraresolution multiscale live imaging Genome function requires regulated genome motion. However, tools to directly observe this motion in vivo have been limited in coverage and resolution. Here we introduce an approach to tile mammalian c...

@science.org🧬🔬Kinetic organization of the #genome revealed by ultraresolution multiscale live #imaging | Science www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

DNA methylation influences human centromere positioning and function - Nature Genetics Genome-wide and targeted perturbation of DNA methylation at centromeres affects CENP-A positioning and centromere structure, resulting in aneuploidy and reduced cell viability.

#1 Centromeres are epigenetic loci defined by CENP-A, positioned in unmethylated DNA flanked by highly methylated regions. Our work, published in @natgenet.nature.com in collaboration with @naltemose.bsky.social investigates the role of DNAme at human centromeres www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Mechanistic and Epigenetic Partitioning of Lamina-Associated Chromatin Revealed by a Genome-Wide Imaging Screen https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.08.13.670143v1

Distinct specificity and functions of PRC2 subcomplexes in human stem cells and cardiac differentiation Much et al. reveal that the PRC2 subcomplexes PRC2.1 and PRC2.2 play distinct roles in the epigenetic repression of developmental genes in human stem cells. Interactions between the PRC2 core and its ...

Excited to share our work on the specificity of PRC2 subcomplexes in stem cell and differentiation. We show that PRC2.1 and PRC2.2 exhibit distinct H3K27 methylation specificity in human pluripotent stem cells and opposing role in differentiation. Now online at Mol Cell: www.cell.com/molecular-ce...

Check out new paper on single-molecule live-cell imaging of SMCHD1 binding to an inactive X chromosome by Flavia Constantinescu from Neil Brockdorff's team! :)

ZNF280A links DNA double-strand break repair to human 22q11.2 distal deletion syndrome - Nature Cell Biology Clarke et al. identify chromatin factor ZNF280A, which is recruited to damaged chromatin where it promotes long-range DNA-end resection. Loss of ZNF280A is linked to genome instability in patients wit...

🍹 @thomasclarke.bsky.social, Mostoslavsky & co identify chromatin factor ZNF280A, which is recruited to damaged chromatin to promote long-range DNA-end resection. Loss of ZNF280A is linked to genome instability in patients with 22q11.2 distal deletion syndrome.
👉https://rdcu.be/ezdPR
bit.ly/46Cpr3L

Congrats Job and all the authors!

Probing condensate microenvironments with a micropeptide killswitch - Nature Targeting a non-natural micropeptide ‘killswitch’ to several biomolecular condensates altered condensate compositions and revealed condensate functions in human cells

Nature research paper: Probing condensate microenvironments with a micropeptide killswitch

https://go.nature.com/4mMlGyc

Conservation of regulatory elements with highly diverged sequences across large evolutionary distances - Nature Genetics Combining functional genomic data from mouse and chicken with a synteny-based strategy identifies positionally conserved cis-regulatory elements in the absence of direct sequence conservation.

📢 ONLINE @natgenet.nature.com

📰 Conservation of regulatory elements with highly diverged sequences across large evolutionary distances.

By Mike Phan, @danielibrahim.bsky.social and colleagues.

⬇️

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

The first paper from the Leppek lab is published today at @embojournal.org!! 🎉
We designed and evaluated a versatile toolbox for determining IRES activity in cells and embryonic tissues.
www.embopress.org/doi/full/10....

Differential regulation of BAX and BAK apoptotic activity revealed by small molecules Opposing regulation of BAX and BAK by VDAC2 dictates their role as executioners of apoptosis and their therapeutic targeting.

www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...
Our new paper out now by Kaiming Li using a tool compound that highlights the coordination of BAX and BAK apoptotic activity through interaction with VDAC2 that may be targeted therapeutically.

Context-Dependent and Gene-Specific Role of Chromatin Architecture Mediated by Histone Modifiers and Loop-extrusion Machinery https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.02.21.639596v1

Post-mitotic transcriptional activation and 3D regulatory interactions show locus- and differentiation-specific sensitivity to cohesin depletion https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.02.13.638153v1

Extensive mutual influences of SMC complexes shape 3D genome folding - Nature Orthogonal acute inducible degradation cell lines are used to delineate the mechanisms of how extrusive cohesin, cohesive cohesin and condensin interact to remodel chromosome architecture from interphase to mitosis.

Nature research paper: Extensive mutual influences of SMC complexes shape 3D genome folding

https://go.nature.com/4bkCeIk