Excited to share our new paper and lipid- and protein-directed photocatalytic labeling method (POCA) just out in @natchembio.nature.com. tinyurl.com/2kcxuvvv. Big congrats to first author Andrew Becker and the whole team for launching our lab into the wild world of singlet oxygen interactomics.

Really excited to share our new paper in @nature.com! We uncovered how a physical instability of the cytoplasm coupled with the cell cycle drives cytoplasmic partitioning in early embryos #zebrafish #drosophila. Read more in this🧵 www.nature.com/articles/s41... 🤩
@poldresden.bsky.social @mpi-cbg.de

We’re excited to share our latest preprint on the mechanism of excised linear intron stabilization in yeast! This work was led by PhD student @glennli.bsky.social and was a wonderful collaboration with @maxewilkinson.bsky.social. Link: www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6... (1/4)

SET1/MLL complexes control transcription independently of H3K4me3 Histone H3 lysine 4 trimethylation (H3K4me3) at gene promoters is thought to play a central role in gene transcription. H3K4 methylation is deposited by the SET1 (A/B) and MLL (1-4) multi-protein comp...

An early Christmas present for those interested in chromatin and transcription! Fantastic work from @au-ho-yu.bsky.social and @aleksszczurek.bsky.social . Thanks to Inge and Michiel for their help. Please repost!

www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...

Talk about efficient packing! Those little black dots are nucleosomes in the most detailed look yet at how chromatin condenses. That and more of the best in @science.org and science in this edition of #ScienceAdviser: www.science.org/content/arti... 🧪

Discovering Glycosylation-Dependent Protein Function by Thermal Proteome Profiling Protein glycosylation regulates essential cellular processes including protein folding, stability, and cell-cell interactions; however, how aberrant glycosylation impacts protein function and interact...

Congratulations former postdoc @jfhevler.bsky.social (in transit to Roche) and the team on their work using thermal proteome profiling along with glycosylation perturbagens to discover glycan-dependent protein functions at the proteome scale 👏

www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...

Cohesin guides homology search during DNA repair using loops and sister chromatid linkages Accurate repair of DNA double-strand breaks (DSBs) is essential for genome stability, and defective repair underlies diseases such as cancer. Homologous recombination uses an intact homologous sequenc...

I am happy to share that my postdoctoral work in the @gerlichlab.bsky.social at @imbavienna.bsky.social is finally out 🎉!
Our study reveals how cohesin guides focused and accurate homology search.
Read more 👉 www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...
Follow along for key insights and updates! 🧵

Excited to share our latest fully in-house paper! 🎉
We show how cohesin integrates loop extrusion with sister tethering to guide the homology search during DNA repair.

Huge congratulations to all authors, and to @fedeteloni.bsky.social for leading this work 👏
We’re excited to see his next steps!

Our Science paper is out!

Huge congratulations to @huabin-zhou.bsky.social, Mike Rosen, and the brilliant @janhuemar.bsky.social @juliamaristany.bsky.social and @kieran-russell.bsky.social from our group

News: bit.ly/4avnkAr and bit.ly/3XBGVHS

Great perspective by @vram142.bsky.social +K Zhang

A vision of chromosome organization Cryogenic electron tomography of condensed chromatin enables multiscale analysis of its structure

@science.org 🧬🔬 A vision of #chromosome organization | Science www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...
@vram142.bsky.social et al.

Multiscale structure of chromatin condensates explains phase separation and material properties The structure and interaction networks of molecules within biomolecular condensates are poorly understood. Using cryo–electron tomography and molecular dynamics simulations, we elucidated the structur...

@science.org 🧬🔬 Multiscale structure of #chromatin condensates explains phase separation and material properties | Science www.science.org/doi/10.1126/... @janhuemar.bsky.social et al.

Super excited to share that our paper is now out in @science.org. Lots of work, but also lots of fun getting this out.
Be sure to check it out!
www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...
Also, follow:
@huabin-zhou.bsky.social @juliamaristany.bsky.social @kieran-russell.bsky.social @rcollepardo.bsky.social

Anthony A. Hyman will become EMBL’s next Director General.

He joins EMBL from @mpi-cbg.de in Dresden. He is also Professor of Molecular Biology @tudresden.bsky.social, and was a group leader at EMBL Heidelberg from 1993 to 1999.

www.embl.org/news/people-...

Defining the role of β-cell IRE1α/XBP1 pathway and its gene regulatory network components in non-obese diabetic mice - Nature Communications Modulating the unfolded protein response (UPR) can induce protective dedifferentiation of β-cells in non-obese diabetic mice. Here, the authors show that β-cell deletion of UPR transcription factor XB...

Our new paper is out now in Nature Communications! We uncovered the function of XBP1 in beta cells of a preclinical model of T1D and identified unique and shared gene regulatory networks driven by IRE1 and XBP1.

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

Still posting cytoskeleton videos, it seems. Actin this time.

Sample: Lifeact-eGFP in HeLa cells.
Modality: Airyscan confocal

Timestamp is mm:ss and the scale bar is 5 µm.

Key transcripts encoded centrin-like proteins, a frequent component of sensory/contractile structures in protists. We visualized tentacle ultrastructure by U-ExM with @dudinlab.bsky.social lab, discovering stunning tip and collar structures 🤯that add structural complexity to new tentacle formation.

Cellular structure self-organizes through an interplay between internal mechanisms and external cues. The single-celled suctorian P. collini builds a trap structure to capture large prey using microtubule feeding tentacles, creating feedback between cell morphology and prey availability.

Finally – there are many mysteries to still resolve for these cells. From dramatic metamorphic capabilities🤯 to prey preference and detection mechanisms 🕵️. For anyone interested in collaborating or getting their hands on these cells, these fantastic beasts culture well and we’re happy to share!

How do cells adapt morphology to function? In a 🔥 preprint by @zjmaggiexu.bsky.social , with @dudinlab.bsky.social and @amyweeks.bsky.social , we identify a self-organizing single-cell morphology circuit that optimizes the feeding trap structure of the suctorian P. collini. 🧵 tinyurl.com/4k8nv926

Thrilled to share our work on the 🔥 single-celled predator Podophrya collini, which rewires its cell morphology to hunt more efficiently. Huge thanks to our amazing team—Amy, Lauren, Omaya, Marine, Mari, and especially Scott—for making this shine! ✨

Very excited to present OpenCGChromatin🔥🔥🔥

A new coarse-grained model that probes full chromatin condensates at near-atomistic resolution to reveal the molecular regulation of chromatin structure and phase separation

Brilliantly led by @kieran-russell.bsky.social, with the Rosen and Orozco groups

Big congrats, Qixiang! Super cool study 🎉

Congratulations to all authors! Happy to have contributed to the cryo-EM side. It was a lot of fun learning more about the herpesvirus DNA replication process and how clinical drugs inhibit it 🦠💊. Big thanks to @cijilim.bsky.social and Tahir for the support!

Congrats CJ and all authors!! 🎉

Human RPA is an essential telomerase processivity factor for maintaining telomeres Telomerase counteracts telomere shortening by repeatedly adding DNA repeats to chromosome ends. We identified the replication protein A (RPA) heterotrimer as a telomerase processivity factor critical ...

Our paper in Science is out! @souravagrawal.bsky.social, @rlynn.bsky.social, @susvirkar.bsky.social, and the rest of the team show human RPA is a telomerase processivity factor essential for telomere maintenance. This reshapes our thinking about telomerase regulation. www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

Lab’s first paper is out!! We show the first structures of #Asgard #chromatin by #cryo-EM 🧬❄️
Asgard histones form closed and open hypernucleosomes. Closed are conserved across #Archaea, while open resemble eukaryotic H3–H4 octasomes and are Asgard-specific. More here: www.cell.com/molecular-ce...

Check out our new work, led by talented @janhuemar.bsky.social, where we uncover that pioneer factor Oct4 remodels chromatin for DNA access not by opening it but by exploiting nucleosome breathing and forming clusters 🔥🔥🔥

A mechanism for Oct4 binding to closed chromatin. We hypothesize that the sampling of inaccessible regions of the genome might be aided by the formation of clusters that grow bigger in the presence of chromatin, facilitating the finding of specific target genes in cellular reprogramming.

We propose that the reshaping of chromatin and the binding in a cluster-like manner can be one of the solutions to the so-called search problem. We hypothesize that this binding in high concentrations of Oct4 might be key to explaining how silenced genes are activated in cellular reprogramming.

A rendering of multiple Oct4 molecules bound to a chromatin fibre

🚨 🚨 🚨 New preprint alert!!! 🚨 🚨 🚨
In the past, we have learnt that Oct4 can induce nucleosome breathing on the mono-nucleosome level.
But what happens when you have a fibre of multiple nucleosomes?
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
@rcollepardo.bsky.social @juliamaristany.bsky.social

An electrostatic repulsion model of centromere organisation During cell division, chromosomes reorganise into compact bodies in which centromeres localise precisely at the chromatin surface to enable kinetochore-microtubule interactions essential for genome se...

1/ New preprint alert!
In collaboration between the Rosen, Redding, Collepardo-Guevara & Gerlich labs, we uncover a surprising principle of chromosome organisation: electrostatic repulsion positions centromeres at the chromosome surface during mitosis.
🔗 doi.org/10.1101/2025...