Iain Cheeseman

Congratulations to Drs. Mary Brunkow, Fred Ramsdell, and Shimon Sakaguchi, recipients of the 2025 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine. Brunkow and Ramsdell—cell biologists by training—prove once again: it’s all about the cell.

Honoured to receive the IMP Birnstiel Award this year! So grateful to my mentor @iaincheeseman.bsky.social for all of his help and encouragement!! Very thankful to the @whiteheadinstitute.bsky.social community and the wonderful collaborations within the institute—especially @bartellab.bsky.social 😊🥳

Quiescent cells alter cell structures to enact a proliferative arrest but retain the capacity to divide. Despite their constant presence in cycling cells, we find quiescent cells disassemble most centromere proteins. Upon cell cycle reentry, centromere proteins assemble de novo - a unique behavior.

The dynamics of centromere assembly and disassembly during quiescence Quiescence is a state in which cells undergo a prolonged proliferative arrest while maintaining their capacity to reenter the cell cycle. Here, we analyze entry and exit from quiescence, focusing on h...

New preprint! Graduate student Océane Marescal leverages quiescence - proliferative hibernation - to reveal unexpected dynamics for “constitutively”-localized centromere proteins. To understand the logic of cell division, you need to consider non-dividing cells.

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

My department at Dartmouth Medical School is hiring a tenure-track Assistant Professor. We are looking broadly for a biochemist or cell biologist. Please share this add! apply.interfolio.com/171438
@dartmouthbcb.bsky.social @futurepislack.bsky.social

Unprompted, the 14yo told me she has a deep hatred for Comic Sans.
I love that kid so much.

Spread the word - we at @stanford-chemh.bsky.social are searching to fill a new junior faculty at the interface of molecular and computational science. See link below!

Is anyone in continental Europe looking for a lab manager? I have a fabulous candidate - let me know and please RT!

Faculty opening in Cornell Chemistry at the Assistant Professor level in the area of chemical biology, broadly defined! academicjobsonline.org/ajo/jobs/30338 #chemjobs

I got a nice gift from stellar Cheese lab graduate student Matteo Di Bernardo from his travels - who knows my love of tea. But I'm trying to figure out whether there is a message in that this tea promotes cognitive function. A little help never hurts, I guess. :-)

The nuclear periphery confers repression on H3K9me2-marked genes and transposons to shape cell fate - Nature Cell Biology Marin et al. report the role of lamin proteins and the lamin B receptor (LBR) in chromatin positioning at the nuclear periphery. Knockout of all lamins and LBR in mouse embryonic stem cells leads to h...

Another paper bluetorial! Today: how does the spatial location of genes influence their function? (1/n) www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Led by @katiecorker.bsky.social, ASAPbio is currently working on several exciting initiatives.

We hope new board members will help us to be even more effective in developing these initiatives and realizing our goals!

@gautamdey.bsky.social @iaincheeseman.bsky.social

I was a @asapbio.bsky.social boardmember until 2023. It was a powerful opportunity to work with an incredibly thoughtful group of people committed to expanding what communicating and assessing scientific research could look like. If this sounds like your jam, definitely apply!

A genuine opportunity to make a positive difference for science - accelerating discovery and communication in the life sciences. Apply to join the @asapbio.bsky.social board.

We are on the lookout for postdocs for two different projects at the intersection of ecology, evolution, and the human microbiome.

See thread for more information and reach out!

Jimmy Ly, a graduate student in Whitehead Institute Member Iain Cheeseman's lab, has received the Porter Prize for Research Excellence from @ascbiology.bsky.social. Congratulations, Jimmy! www.ascb.org/society-news...
(@jimmy-ly.bsky.social @iaincheeseman.bsky.social)

I am incredibly grateful and honored to be recognized with the Keith Porter Prize 🥹🥳 — thank you, @ascbiology.bsky.social and @iaincheeseman.bsky.social for being the best mentor!! Congratulations to the other awardees and I am looking forward to meeting everyone in Philly

Thrilled to see Cheese lab graduate student @jimmy-ly.bsky.social recognized by this award from @ascbiology.bsky.social. Jimmy has done amazing and creative work and is also truly kind and supportive to everyone around him. A great human and amazing scientist. So well deserved. Congratulations!

Project Manager, IT (Relocation Assistance Available!) Classification: Exempt Job Family: Operations Reports to: Director, Information Technology and Digital Strategy Job Description Summary: OBJECTIVE/OVERALL RESPONSIBILITIES Join our Institute's IT…

We're hiring an IT Project Manager at #WhiteheadInstitute in Cambridge, MA! Join a collaborative team and help our remarkable scientists make paradigm-shifting discoveries and unlock the potential of tomorrow. If you're a problem-solver and team-builder, we encourage you to apply!
#Hiring #ITJobs

Thank you!

Global inhibition of deadenylation stabilizes the transcriptome in mitotic cells In the presence of cell division errors, mammalian cells can pause in mitosis for tens of hours with little to no transcription, while still requiring continued translation for viability. These unique...

Beautiful work by Katya Khalizeva from @iaincheeseman.bsky.social lab, uncovering a surprising feedback loop to globally suppress mRNA decay during mitosis! This helps explain how cells maintain their transcriptome during a mitotic arrest without new transcription!
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

Essentially all genes show this remarkable mRNA stabilization. One exception is UBE2C, which shows the opposite behavior - stable in interphase (with PABPC "bumps"), but unstable in mitosis. This could contribute to mitotic duration, but Cdc20 translation (Tsang 2023) is likely more critical.

mRNA? Mitosis?

Thanks also to Arash Latifkar and Dave Bartel and to @jimmy-ly.bsky.social who helped co-lead this project.

The key? This happens by inhibiting deadenylation. Mitotic cells block the shortening of the polyA tail due to a stabilization of polyA binding protein (PABPC). This results in amazing "bumps" in tail length. Critically, blocking this process in mitosis results in premature mitotic exit.

Graduate student Katya Khalizeva and team show that mRNA is robustly stabilized the moment that cells enter mitosis with >4x increase in half life. We see this for individual genes and across the transcriptome.

Global inhibition of deadenylation stabilizes the transcriptome in mitotic cells In the presence of cell division errors, mammalian cells can pause in mitosis for tens of hours with little to no transcription, while still requiring continued translation for viability. These unique...

New preprint! We solve a mystery you didn't know existed. Mitotic cells lack new transcription but require ongoing translation. Interphase mRNA half life is only 2-4 hrs. So how do cells arrest in mitosis for hours without depleting their transcriptomes?

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

@allynguyen.bsky.social

What does the Vienna BioCenter offer - Hear it directly from our fellows!

Sounds good? Apply now to join our Postdoc Program.

The VIP³ call is open–16 fully-funded, three-year postdoctoral fellowships in an interdisciplinary environment: training.vbc.ac.at/post-docs/vi...

#VBCPostDoc

Programme Leader Track - MRC Laboratory of Medical Sciences We are recruiting Programme Leader Track positions focusing on 1) Metabolic Physiology using murine and/or human in vivo models and 2) Immunometabolism.

We're recruiting junior team leaders @mrc-lms.bsky.social This time we're looking for those working in human metabolic disease.

It's a great place to start your lab. Fantastic colleagues, exciting science, world class facilities. Join us!

lms.mrc.ac.uk/work/vacanci...