Julien Richard Albert

DNA methylation at retrotransposons protects the germline by preventing NRF1-mediated activation | EMBO reports imageimageIn spermatogenesis, loss of promoter DNA methylation reactivates retrotransposons in patterns shaped by chromatin modifications and the binding of DNA methylation-sensitive transcription fac...

Really beautiful work led by Jessica Leismann in Joan Barau’s lab @imbmainz.bsky.social . If you like elegant mouse genetics, the transposon arms race, and a healthy dose of epigenetics, this one’s for you. www.embopress.org/doi/full/10.... @emboreports.org

Kennedy Cancels Nearly $500 Million in mRNA Vaccine Contracts

Every time I see this wet ashtray of a man I know I'm about to read something idiotic. Imagine being world leaders in new life saving tech and then letting one dude recklessly squander it all.
www.nytimes.com/2025/08/05/h...

A phylogenetic approach uncovers cryptic endogenous retrovirus subfamilies in the primate lineage A phylogenetic approach reveals cryptic LTR subfamilies and functional insights at nucleotide resolution in primates.

Is the annotation of viruses in the human genome accurate? We think not. Take a look at our new paper and let us know if you agree! www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

Hero of the triassic... Those poor guys didn't stand a chance vs all those hungry reptiles but they made it through anyway!

Fantastic work congrats to all!!

Enhancer adoption by an LTR retrotransposon generates viral-like particles, causing developmental limb phenotypes - Nature Genetics Activation of an LTR retrotransposon inserted upstream of the Fgf8 gene produces viral-like particles in the mouse developing limb, triggering apoptosis and causing limb malformation. This phenotype c...

Finally out! 🥳 Our paper showing how a transposable element (TE) insertion can cause developmental phenotypes is now published @natgenet.nature.com 🧬🦠🐁
Below is a brief description of the major findings. Check the full version of the paper for more details: www.nature.com/articles/s41588-025-02248-5

Schematics depicting the dorsal and ventral sides of fins and limbs

We take for granted that our hands have two sides and can articulate in an endless number of ways. But what about a fish’s fin? Can a fish know something “like the back of its fin,” or have its future told with a fin palm reading? Check out this bluetorial to find out 👇🧪🧬🐟 doi.org/10.1101/2025...

An endogenous retroviral element co-opts an upstream regulatory sequence to achieve somatic expression and mobility Abstract. Retrotransposons, multi-copy sequences that propagate via copy-and-paste mechanisms, occupy large portions of eukaryotic genomes. A great majorit

Happy that our preprint from early this year, uncovering the regulation a somatically "hot" endogenous retroelement locus, has now found its home in @narjournal.bsky.social.
"TEsky"
doi.org/10.1093/nar/...

Bimodal centromeres in pentaploid dogroses shed light on their unique meiosis - Nature Insights into the dogrose genome and centromeres explain their ability to achieve stable sexual reproduction.

1/7
I am very excited to announce our🌹NEW PAPER OUT IN 𝑁𝐴𝑇𝑈𝑅𝐸!🌹
𝐃𝐑𝐈𝐕𝐄 𝐓𝐎 𝐒𝐔𝐑𝐕𝐈𝐕𝐄: Bimodal centromeres in pentaploid dogroses shed light on their unique meiosis
With the Ritz and Kovařík labs we show a potential role for centromeres on 𝘙𝘰𝘴𝘢 𝘤𝘢𝘯𝘪𝘯𝘢 bizarre reproduction!
www.nature.com/articles/s41...

New from our lab & @harrisonflylab.bsky.social: Drosophila models of H3 K27M & EZHIP reveal conserved chromatin regulators that buffer PRC2 inhibition. An in vivo screen highlights how developmental defects can be rescued despite global H3K27me3 loss.
doi.org/10.1101/2025...

So cool. Congrats Selin & co in the amazing work!!

Dissecting regulatory syntax in human development with scalable multiomics and deep learning Transcription factors (TFs) establish cell identity during development by binding regulatory DNA in a sequence-specific manner, often promoting local chromatin accessibility, and regulating gene expre...

Delighted to share our latest work deciphering the landscape of chromatin accessibility and modeling the DNA sequence syntax rules underlying gene regulation during human fetal development! www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1... Read on for more: 🧵 1/16 #GeneReg 🧬🖥️

In this study, Hermant et al. describe the evolution of the retrotransposon MERVL and its cis-regulatory transcription factor binding motifs, highlighting the phyloregulatory adaptation at play during early embryogenesis.

Learn more here:
➡️ tinyurl.com/gd352270

Honey Possum (Tarsipes rostratus) in Australia. It looks like a sort of mouse or shrew, but with a longer nose, and intermediate sized ears, clinging lightly to flame-red flowers with some green leaves in the foreground.

Australia is populated with marsupial equivalents of placental mammals, but this might be the cutest: the honey possum or noolbenger (Tarsipes rostratus), found only in southwest Australia.

They're pollen and nectar-eating, with prehensile tails

(📷: Simon Colenutt, iNaturalist)

New preprint from the @arnausebe.bsky.social lab! 💐

Here @crisnava.bsky.social, @seanamontgomery.bsky.social & collaborators develop a novel ChIPseq protocol, and demonstrate its huge potential to study the evolution of chromatin function and regulation across the eukaryotic tree of life.

3D Epigenome Evolution Underlies Divergent Gene Regulatory Programs in Primate Neural Development The expansion of the neocortex is a hallmark of human evolution and is closely linked to neural stem cell biology. Yet, the epigenetic mechanisms driving divergent gene regulation during primate neuro...

🚨New preprint from @bonevlab.bsky.social 🚨: What are the key epigenetic mechanisms that drive species-specific gene regulation during primate neurogenesis - and how do they contribute to the evolution of the human neocortex?
Here’s what we discovered 👇
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

The Company of Biologists 100 logo to the left and QR code to the right. Portrait of Amanda Haage to the left, text to the right 100 extraordinary biologists Amanda Haage Amanda Haage posted the first preLight in 2018 and set an example for others to follow. She advocates for academic cultural change and is a KaessEndowed Professor of Anatomy & Cell Biology at the University of North Dakota, USA. #100biologists #biologists100

We are featuring Amanda Haage as an extraordinary biologist this week. Amanda was the first to post on @prelights.bsky.social and is a Kaess Endowed Professor of Anatomy & Cell Biology at the University of North Dakota, USA. #100biologists

Important work unraveling how restoring DNA methylation loss affects cellular differentiation, transposon restriction and genomic imprinting (!!!) in mouse. Congrats to all the authors!

The natural evolution of bioRxiv and medRxiv | Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory For science to positively impact the world, it must be shared. It must be circulated among scientists and communicated with the public. Over the past decade, the free online platforms bioRxiv and medR...

Feeling extremely grateful for this transition of bioRxiv into an independent nonprofit. The tonic to predatory, smash & grab journals.
www.cshl.edu/the-natural-...

Big news: we are setting up a new non-profit organization to run bioRxiv and medRxiv. It's called openRxiv [no it's not a new preprint server; it's dedicated organization to oversee the servers] openrxiv.org 1/n

Help 🚨 science Bluesky. We'd like an #GFP/#FluorescentProtein construct with an intron in the middle of the coding sequence for an experiment (not before the coding sequence). Does anyone know of anything that fits? We haven't turned up anything suitable from a quick search so far. Please repost 🙏

I could be wrong but didn’t the worst epidemics all start in hugely populated cities? Why are there BSL3-4 labs in cities with millions of inhabitants? Applies worldwide.

less than 2 months in... ugh

A comprehensive Schizosaccharomyces pombe atlas of physical transcription factor interactions with proteins and chromatin Transcription factors (TFs) are key regulators of gene expression, yet many of their targets and modes of action remain unknown. In Schizosaccharomyce…

The realignment of research in our group @fmiscience.bsky.social is beginning to bear fruit. Proud of our captain @merleskribbe.bsky.social and the whole team!
www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

Thank you for the nice excerpt. My heart pangs reading about public displays of scientific discovery. Science has never been more fantastical but it doesn't feel that way (or I'm just a grouchy scientist...)

Wonderful approach, data, and story. PLUS a handy data browser. Nothing better. Congrats to all the authors (nice to see you here @diego-rt.bsky.social!)

Paper out !!🥳big thanks to all authors @marliesoomen.bsky.social @diego-rt.bsky.social @kaessmannlab.bsky.social @jonathangoeke.bsky.social @lorenzamottes.bsky.social & 'bluesky-less'

Lots of interesting new TE (& genes) biology

Data fully browsable💻 👉 embryo.helmholtz-munich.de/shiny_embryo/

A vaccine skeptic was just elected Health Secretary of the USA. Reminds me of when the Largest Man in Quebec was elected Health Minister and fucked our entire health care system. But much worse.

a gorilla is standing in a grassy field with his arms crossed ALT: a gorilla is standing in a grassy field with his arms crossed

💥The @elife.bsky.social special issue on #ReproductiveHealth just dropped💥 It includes our story (soon to be updated) about the erosion of sperm/testis genes in gorillas coincident with the #Evolution of a polygamous mating system #RepoductiveBiology 🧪 💻🧬

elifesciences.org/collections/...

Woah! Any isoguanine to go with that isocystine?