Marzia Munafò

So cool to finally see the flamenco piRNA cluster assembled in its full glory - a ~700kb transcript, almost completely unspliced!

Embryonic signatures of intergenerational epigenetic inheritance across paternal environments and genetic backgrounds | The EMBO Journal imageimagePaternal environmental exposures have been linked with modulation of phenotype and disease risk in offspring via largely unclear mechanisms. This study employs in vitro fertilization and single-embryo transcriptomics to reveal that ...

Big congrats to my brilliant colleagues and friends, check out the full study here www.embopress.org/doi/full/10....

Intriguingly, the scale and resolution of the study enabled them to capture how embryonic gene expression varies upon different exposures. Hence, the color variations illustrate the spectrum of subtle phenotypic changes detected in otherwise seemingly identical embryos 🟢🟡🟣⚪️🔴

To robustly identify the earliest molecular signatures of inter generational inheritance, they profiled 100s of embryos, across 3 paternal treatments, 2 paternal ages and 2 genetic backgrounds - represented here by an array of mouse blastocysts (each a real microscopy pic!) 🐁🐁

POP art, with its serial repetitions and many colour variations of otherwise identical objects perfectly embodies this systematic, impressively large-scale study and its key findings.

The multifaceted effects of paternal environments on offspring🌈

Latest from the @jamiehackett.bsky.social lab @embl.org, out now @embojournal.org:

@bbbranjan.bsky.social & @mdura.bsky.social quantitatively investigate the impact of paternal environments on early embryogenesis.

A #sciart 🧵

Talking to students is by far one of my favourite parts of this job ✨

#EUCYS 2025 was a hive of brilliant scientists in the making, so grateful to @embl.org & EIROforum for the opportunity to be there with my science & art!

#scicomm #sciart #stem @ec.europa.eu

By the way, the image for this talk about how cancer cells adapt was painted by the amazing Marzia Munafò! Thank you @munafomarzia.bsky.social!

At least for science in the #oocyte community, the future looks bright with so many curious & young minds thinking about big open questions in oocyte and reproductive biology! Thanks so much to @mhverlhac.bsky.social and @bokelab.bsky.social for organizing and bringing us all together in Paris!

Super oocyte community - had a fantastic time in Paris! 🙌

Spotted one of my illustrations on stage at the Singer-Polignac #fertility meeting in Paris! Big thanks to Andrea Pauli for the shout out!! 💫
#sciart #scicomm

Fully agree!

⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️

Last week @richabdill.com and @samanthagraham.bsky.social's paper was featured on the cover of Cell!

The cover, portraying microbes on shelves shaped like a world map, was possible thanks to the amazing team of illustrators at SciStories ✏️🦠

🤩 Art by @drewberry.bsky.social @loliboldu.bsky.social @patriciabondia.bsky.social @jayeperview.bsky.social @hudrewthis.bsky.social @molmir.bsky.social @munafomarzia.bsky.social @snowotarski.bsky.social @marykoreilly.bsky.social @biyolokum.bsky.social @ahnaskop.bsky.social @bryanwelm.bsky.social

Thank you, @munafomarzia.bsky.social, for this amazing artistic representation of our work! 🤩🐟❤️

I loved how subtle aspects were incorporated into this piece, like the tripartite key, drawings of sperm and egg on the door and even some phylogenetic trees!
🌟 But did you notice, what lies beyond the door? Ribosomes and molecules found within the egg!

Check out this beautiful representation of our work by @munafomarzia.bsky.social uncovering the molecular bridge between sperm and egg! 🔑🤩

We had lots of fun brainstorming together with Marzia and seeing our discoveries come to life in this artistic rendition 🧵

Thanks Joaquina! 😍😍

I was already in love with the science in this paper! ... and on top of that... #sciart on the same story by the one and only @munafomarzia.bsky.social

A conserved fertilization complex bridges sperm and egg in vertebrates AlphaFold-Multimer predicts complex formation by three sperm proteins conserved in vertebrates. Their interaction is experimentally confirmed and shown to bridge sperm and egg during fertilization by interacting with evolutionarily unrelated egg proteins.

To read more —> check out the study here www.cell.com/cell/fulltex...

Notably, the sperm complex is conserved from fish to mammals whilst its oocyte binding partner differs, that is why we show both 🐠 and 🐁 on the door.

To design the door, I took inspiration from Art Nouveau - which had some of its prime examples in the Viennese art scene of early XX century, which o really love. Plus the Pauli Group is indeed based at the Vienna Biocenter!

The functional key is made of three different segments, exemplifying the tripartite complex of Tmem81, Izumo1 and Spaca6. But before identifying Tmem81, they ran an in silico screen - equivalent to testing a bunch of different keys 🔑🗝️🗝️🔐 until they found the correct one.

Deneke, Blaha et al. report that a tripartite complex on the sperm heads binds to a receptor on the egg surface and is required for egg-sperm fusion. We decided to use a simple metaphor for this: a tripartite key unlocking the oocyte door and opening the way to embryonic development. 🚪

An illustration of a door slightly ajar, with glass panels depicting images of fish, oocytes, spermatozoa and a mouse. A key is inserted in the keyhole and emanates a bright light. On the keychain there are multiple other keys.

Unlocking fertilisation 🗝️
out today @cellcellpress.bsky.social , @vdeneke.bsky.social & @pauligroup.bsky.social uncover a conserved
protein complex on vertebrate sperm that recognizes distinct egg ligands in mammals and fish, enabling fertilisation.
@impvienna.bsky.social
A #sciart and #scicomm 🧵

Thank you!!🙏

Thank you! 🙏

One of my illustrations made an appearance at the MPI #epigenetics conference! thanks to the boss @jamiehackett.bsky.social presenting the cool science we do in the lab 🔥

Advert detailing a postdoctoral scientist position at EMBL Rome. Contact: jamie.hackett@embl.it

Postdoc positions in epigenetics!

We have several opportunities to investigate big picture questions on (epi)genome function & mechanisms

Based @embl.org near Rome (Italy), we offer full scientific support/facilities, training & funding. Also...☀️🏛️🍕🏖️

See👇or contact me for other options. Pls RS