Marco Trizzino

Enhancer activation from transposable elements in extrachromosomal DNA - Nature Cell Biology Kraft, Murphy, Jones et al. identify extrachromosomal DNA (ecDNA)-interacting elements (EIEs) enriched for transposable elements within ecDNA in colorectal cancer cells. They show that EIE 14 integrat...

Here, we show that the unique regulatory landscape of ecDNA enables an ancient LINE to resurrect and act as an enhancer of Myc. This was so fun with @katerinakraft.bsky.social and @mattjones.bsky.social and others. www.nature.com/articles/s41...

We are recuiting two new Associate Professors here in Oxford Biochemistry. Come join us! Reach out to me if you have any questions. Please repost! tinyurl.com/mr3m7bd3

Out now! 🎉 Check the thread & preprint to see why we think E–P specificity is real in mammals — and, well, a few other interesting things popped up too 👀
Huge thanks to @danielibrahim.bsky.social, @arnaudkr.bsky.social & @stemundi.bsky.social and fantastic people in their labs — what a journey! 🧪🔬

Did transposable elements shape brain evolution — and if so, which ones, and in which cell states and lineages? Led by @tyamadat.bsky.social, we explored this question in cerebellum development using sequence-based deep learning models!
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

Following the announcement of YourParty, support for 'Others' in opinion polls increased from 3.7% to 6.0%. It has since dropped back to 3.7%, with the Greens seemingly gaining, reaching a peak of 10.7%.

electionmaps.uk/polling/vi

DNA methylation is one of the most studied epigenetic modification associated with regulation of gene expression. Bisulfite-converted genomic DNA sequencing has been the current gold standard in the field for building genome-wide DNAm maps at base pair resolution.

I have indeed been skipping all the major epigenetics/chromatin meetins in the past few years for this reason

Epigenetics and Gene Regulation in Health and Disease: Linking Basic Mechanisms with Therapeutic Opportunities | Keystone Symposia Join us at the Keystone Symposia on Epigenetics and Gene Regulation in Health and Disease: Linking Basic Mechanisms with Therapeutic Opportunities, March 2026, in Geneva, with field leaders!

Always the same speakers…

www.keystonesymposia.org/conferences/...

Our Department @imperialcollegeldn.bsky.social just received 546 applications for 3 Assistant/Associate Professor positions. Curious to see how many of these are American scientists trying to relocate

Early career group leaders We appoint researchers from across biology and biomedicine to set up their first groups at the Crick.

The @crick.ac.uk is recruiting Early Career Group Leaders

- Lab set-up, research costs, salaries for up to 5 researchers
- Support for up to 12 years
- Access to our core facilities
- Competitive salary
- Fantastic colleagues
- All areas of biology

Deadline 27 Nov

www.crick.ac.uk/careers-stud...

Hominoid-specific retrotransposons fuel regulatory novelty in early brain development , by @retrogenomics.bsky.social.

➡️ www.cell.com/cell-genomic...

It might be hard to convey to people outside economics just how seismic this is. The Trump effect has most certainly arrived to US academia.

That's right, folk! THREE TENURE TRACK JOBS IN BIOLOGY AT UMASS BOSTON! You might even be a good fit for more than one! Check 'em out! We'd love to have you!

Image shows the first two printed pages of the paper “A forkhead-domain gene is mutated in a severe speech and language disorder” by Cecilia Lai and colleagues, published in Nature in 2001 (volume 413, pages 519-523). The abstract reads as follows: Individuals affected with developmental disorders of speech and language have substantial difficulty acquiring expressive and/or receptive language in the absence of any profound sensory or neurological impairment and despite adequate intelligence and opportunity. Although studies of twins consistently indicate that a significant genetic component is involved, most families segregating speech and language deficits show complex patterns of inheritance, and a gene that predisposes individuals to such disorders has not been identified. We have studied a unique three-generation pedigree, KE, in which a severe speech and language disorder is transmitted as an autosomal-dominant monogenic trait. Our previous work mapped the locus responsible, SPCH1, to a 5.6-cM interval of region 7q31 on chromosome 7. We also identified an unrelated individual, CS, in whom speech and language impairment is associated with a chromosomal translocation involving the SPCH1 interval. Here we show that the gene FOXP2, which encodes a putative transcription factor containing a polyglutamine tract and a forkhead DNA-binding domain, is directly disrupted by the translocation breakpoint in CS. In addition, we identify a point mutation in affected members of the KE family that alters an invariant amino-acid residue in the forkhead domain. Our findings suggest that FOXP2 is involved in the developmental process that culminates in speech and language.

Twenty-four years ago today, our paper “A forkhead-domain gene is mutated in a severe speech and language disorder” was published: www.nature.com/articles/350....
A personal thread about the ups & downs of the journey we took to get to that point....1/n
🗣️🧬🧪

Many congratulations Raquel, happy to see this published (and so well!)!

A human-specific regulatory mechanism revealed in a pre-implantation model Nature - Genetic manipulation of blastoids reveals the role of recently emerged transposable elements and genes in human development.

Today in @nature.com, we present our work leveraging functional genomics and human blastoids to uncover a human-specific mechanism in preimplantation development driven by the endogenous retrovirus HERVK.
Special thanks to the reviewers whose comments improved our manuscript a lot! rdcu.be/eI3tD

Fine-tuning mechanical constraints reveals uncoupled patterning and gene expression programs in murine gastruloids Highlighted Article: A bioinert confinement system enables dissection of how stiffness and timing shape gastruloid development, revealing uncoupling between polarization and transcriptional programs.

Mechanical constraints disrupt gastruloid polarisation without changing gene expression - uncouples morphogenesis & patterning

Gregor & co use tunable hydrogels to show cell motility, not gene expression, drives axis formation in gastruloids

journals.biologists.com/dev/article/...

Awakening the Genome During Developmental Reprogramming: From Embryos to Organoids This EMBO Workshop explores the gene-regulatory mechanisms that drive developmental reprogramming upon fertilization. It focuses on the interplay of transcriptional, post-transcriptional, and develop…

Explore gene-regulatory mechanisms that drive developmental reprogramming at EMBO Workshop "Awakening the Genome During Developmental Reprogramming: From Embryos to Organoids" in Seville, Spain, 4–7 May 2026.

Deadline: 2 February

meetings.embo.org/event/26-awa...
#EMBOGenomeAwakening #EMBOevents 🧪

Cell-type-specific functionality encoded within the intrinsically disordered regions of OCT4 - Nature Communications Here they perform a systematic dissection of OCT4 and reveal how intrinsically disordered regions can be used to serve specific functions during reprogramming and embryonic development. This can be exploited to engineer more efficient and specific reprogramming factors.

Hot off the press!

Cell-type-specific functionality encoded within the intrinsically disordered regions of OCT4

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

Brachyury expression levels predict lineage potential and axis-forming ability of in vitro derived neuromesodermal progenitors Neuromesodermal progenitors (NMPs) produce the spinal cord and musculoskeleton in the elongating anterior-posterior axis. In vivo, NMPs possess dual potency, coinciding with regions coexpressing SOX2 ...

Nice work from Val Wilson & co on neuromesodermal progenitors

SOX2/TBXT co-expressing cells are self-propagating bipotent NMPs

Increasing TBXT levels (not SOX2/TBXT ratio) switch NMPs from neural- to mesoderm-biased

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

New NIH structure for applications/awards with foreign components:
Effective for due dates on or after 1/25/26, competing apps must use the PF5 activity code for grants (UF5 for cooperative agreements).

Policy:
grants.nih.gov/grants/guide...

News news article:
grants.nih.gov/news-events/...

Huntington's disease successfully treated for first time One of the most devastating diseases finally has a treatment that can slow its progression and transform lives, tearful doctors tell BBC.

This is very exciting! A small clinical trial using gene therapy for Huntington's disease has been successful. microRNAs were used to edit the Huntington mRNA, stopping it making mutant protein that can damage neurons. Huge hopes now for treating such a devastating condition

Our study on the role of LTR5HS and SVAs in regulation of human neural crest migration is now published as peer-reviewed paper on @molsystbiol.org!
Congrats to first author brilliant postdoc Laura Deelen, and all the authors involved! @imperialsci.bsky.social
www.embopress.org/doi/full/10....

Thank you Geoff!

Our study on the role of LTR5HS and SVAs in regulation of human neural crest migration is now published as peer-reviewed paper on @molsystbiol.org!
Congrats to first author brilliant postdoc Laura Deelen, and all the authors involved! @imperialsci.bsky.social
www.embopress.org/doi/full/10....

WDR5 and Myc Cooperate to Regulate Formation of Neural Crest Stem Cells https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.09.19.677424v1

Any academic folks on H1B visas (even with stamps in passports) please get legal advice from your University attorneys before leaving the US.

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...

✨Exciting news: the main story of my PhD is out in Science!

Together with Christine Moene @cmoene.bsky.social, we explored what happens when you scramble the genome—revealing how Sox2’s position shapes enhancer activation.

📖 Read the full story here: www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

Schematic overview of our project. Dissection of Xenopus neural crest following morpholino knockdown of miRNA, then extraction of RNA for RNA-seq

Our new paper is out in Dev Biol! 🎉 🐸🧬
We show #miR-196a directs #neural crest fate in #Xenopus by repressing immature neural #ectoderm — evidence #miRNAs can potentially drive, not just fine-tune, early patterning
👉 Read more here: doi.org/10.1016/j.yd...
@devbiol.bsky.social @biouea.bsky.social

Top left: Immunofluorescence images of anti-GFP (green) and anti-ATRX (red) counterstained with DAPI (blue) illustrating absence of ATRX in Sun1GFP+ microglia nuclei in 2-month-old ATRX miKO mice. Scale bar, 50 µm. Bottom left: Representative images of microglia tracings; Sholl analysis reveals excessive branching in ATRX miKO compared to control microglia. Right: Immunofluorescence staining of CD68 (green) and Ai14+ (red) cortical and hippocampal CA1 microglia. Scale bar, 50 µm.

What's the role of microglial chromatin-mediated processes? This study shows that loss of ATRX in #microglia disrupts #chromatin structure, leading to de-repression of #retroelements & a viral mimicry #inflammation response that impairs hippocampal neuron function @plosbiology.org 🧪 plos.io/46cBaE4