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Marco Osterwalder

@mosterwalder.bsky.social

Investigating Cardiac Development and Gene Regulation at the University of Bern

43 Followers  |  23 Following  |  1 Posts  |  Joined: 18.11.2024  |  1.9618

Latest posts by mosterwalder.bsky.social on Bluesky

A busy tool wall in a shed. At the bottom there are instructions saying "Find the 10 hidden enhancers!" Across the wall between the tools are 10 enhancers, represented as DNA helices, but they are difficult to find in the style of a "hidden object" puzzle. Original photo by Lachlan Donald, https://www.flickr.com/photos/lox/9408028555

A busy tool wall in a shed. At the bottom there are instructions saying "Find the 10 hidden enhancers!" Across the wall between the tools are 10 enhancers, represented as DNA helices, but they are difficult to find in the style of a "hidden object" puzzle. Original photo by Lachlan Donald, https://www.flickr.com/photos/lox/9408028555

Hiding in plain sight - how close are we to mapping ALL 🧬enhancers🧬 in the genome?

Our new paper by Mannion et al. takes a systematic look at "hidden enhancers" and why they remain so hard to find. With @mosterwalder.bsky.social, @jlopezrios.bsky.social & many more

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

08.08.2025 18:09 — 👍 45    🔁 19    💬 2    📌 2
A meme-style comic panel with three parts. Left: A stylized enhancer with a mutation, surrounded by colored blocks representing functional motifs, a neural network diagram, chromatin accessibility signal traces, and a sequence motif. Two cartoon mouse embryos below show different LacZ reporter activity patterns. Top right: A hand hovers anxiously between two red buttons labeled “Experiments” and “AI,” with the caption “HOW DO ENHANCERS REALLY WORK?” Bottom right: A sweating superhero wipes his forehead, looking stressed about the difficult choice.

A meme-style comic panel with three parts. Left: A stylized enhancer with a mutation, surrounded by colored blocks representing functional motifs, a neural network diagram, chromatin accessibility signal traces, and a sequence motif. Two cartoon mouse embryos below show different LacZ reporter activity patterns. Top right: A hand hovers anxiously between two red buttons labeled “Experiments” and “AI,” with the caption “HOW DO ENHANCERS REALLY WORK?” Bottom right: A sweating superhero wipes his forehead, looking stressed about the difficult choice.

Textbooks: “Enhancers are just a bunch of TFBSs”

But how do they REALLY work?

New paper with many contributors here @berkeleylab.lbl.gov, @anshulkundaje.bsky.social, @anusri.bsky.social

A 🧵 (1/n)

Free access link: rdcu.be/erD22

18.06.2025 17:55 — 👍 165    🔁 80    💬 2    📌 5

A dream come true: my first first-author publication! 🧬 🎉 Working to unravel the mysteries of long-range gene regulation has been an incredible journey. Endless gratitude to Evgeny, the lab, and all of the amazing collaborators who helped make this happen 🙌

02.07.2025 19:54 — 👍 69    🔁 14    💬 3    📌 0

Really fascinating work! Congratulations Grace and Evgeny!!

07.07.2025 08:14 — 👍 1    🔁 0    💬 0    📌 0
Post image

In this review @gracebower.bsky.social & I discuss recent evidence showing that, unlike canonical enhancers, long-range enhancers located hundreds of kb from their targets rely on additional mechanisms to ensure robust gene activation during mammal development. www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

22.11.2024 20:20 — 👍 102    🔁 30    💬 1    📌 2

@mosterwalder is following 20 prominent accounts