Anamaria Elek
@aelek.bsky.social
Postdoc @ Kaessmann and Sasse labs @zmbh.uni-heidelberg.de Previously PhD @ Sebé-Pedrós lab @crg.eu Interested in regulatory genomics, evolution, machine learning, and especially the combination of all of the above. https://anamaria.elek.hr/
Huge congrats from our whole lab to Sir David Attenborough on his 100th birthday!!! 🎉🥳❤️ I had the honor of meeting him - and being interviewed by him - in 2013 for his BBC documentary "Rise of Animals: Triumph of the Vertebrates", which featured part of our work.
We are thrilled that our study on the evolution of gene regulation in mammalian cerebellum development – led by @ioansarr.bsky.social, @marisepp.bsky.social and @tyamadat.bsky.social, in collaboration with @steinaerts.bsky.social – is now out in @ScienceMagazine! www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...
The evolution of gene regulation in mammalian cerebellum development
Gene regulatory changes are considered major drivers of evolutionary innovations, including the cerebellum’s expansion during human evolution, yet they remain largely unexplored. In this study, we com...
science.org
Kaessmann Lab@kaessmannlab.bsky.social · last yr.How does gene regulation shape brain evolution? Our new preprint dives into this question in the context of mammalian cerebellum development! rb.gy/dbcxjz Led by @ioansarr.bsky.social, @marisepp.bsky.social and @tyamadat.bsky.social, in collaboration with @steinaerts.bsky.social
Exciting news to start the new year! We’re thrilled to see this work finally out in @natecoevo.nature.com, the result of a major collaboration between my lab and the labs of Veronica Hinman and Nacho Maeso, began many years ago with the dear José Luis Gómez-Skarmeta. www.nature.com/articles/s41...
Excited to share the final version of our study on Nematostella cell type regulatory programs. Part of our @erc.europa.eu StG project, this was a challenging 5-year effort extraodinarily led by @aelek.bsky.social and @martaig.bsky.social. www.nature.com/articles/s41...
Decoding cnidarian cell type gene regulation - Nature Ecology & Evolution
This study reconstructs the gene regulatory networks that define cell types in the sea anemone Nematostella vectensis, providing a valuable resource for comparative regulatory genomics and the evoluti...
nature.com
Lovely Xmas gift 🎄—our paper is out today in @natecoevo.nature.com www.nature.com/articles/s41...! Huge thanks to everyone who made it possible, especially @aelek.bsky.social and @arnausebe.bsky.social
Decoding cnidarian cell type gene regulation - Nature Ecology & Evolution
This study reconstructs the gene regulatory networks that define cell types in the sea anemone Nematostella vectensis, providing a valuable resource for comparative regulatory genomics and the evoluti...
nature.com
Science: only when you write up the manuscript, you realize what you should have done.
We are happy to share our latest work in @nature.com . We study the genomic and cellular basis of facultative symbiosis in Oculina patagonica - a Mediterranean coral remarkable for its ability to survive long periods without algal symbionts. Led by Shani Levy and @xgrau.bsky.social rdcu.be/eLbaZ
Hot off the press! Our latest work on the evolution of facultative symbiosis in stony corals, focusing on a remarkable Mediterranean species: Oculina patagonica. 🪸 🌊 #evobio #corals #coralbiology www.nature.com/articles/s41...
Excited to share the preprint from my main postdoc project! It’s been a long journey—huge thanks to everyone who made it possible, especially @leticiarm1618.bsky.social for being the best collaborator one could ask for, and the amazing @kaessmannlab.bsky.social lab for the invaluable support!
Kaessmann Lab@kaessmannlab.bsky.social · 10mo agoWe are thrilled to share our new preprint entitled “The origin and molecular evolution of the mammalian liver cell architecture” www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
BCA is a project to look out for — charting the diversity of cell type transcriptomes across the tree of life. Not only will it empower evolutionary studies, but also drive advances in biotechnology, biomedicine, and ecology. Kudos to the relentless, meticulous, and persistent team doing this work!
Arnau Sebé-Pedrós@arnausebe.bsky.social · 11mo agoHappy to share the Biodiversity Cell Atlas white paper, out today in @nature.com. We look at the possibilities, challenges, and potential impacts of molecularly mapping cells across the tree of life. www.nature.com/articles/s41...
🚀 Check out our new review article “From Tiny Exons to Big Insights: The Expanding Field of #Microexons” now out in Annual Review of Genomics and Human Genetics! doi.org/10.1146/annu... Special thanks to @mirimiam.bsky.social, @crg.eu and @upf.edu!
Our study on a male-essential microRNA and the evolution of other dosage compensation mechanisms in birds is now out in Nature! www.nature.com/articles/s41...
A male-essential miRNA is key for avian sex chromosome dosage compensation - Nature
Birds have evolved a unique sex chromosome dosage compensation mechanism involving the male-biased microRNA (miR-2954), which is essential for male survival by regulating the expression of dosage-sens...
nature.com
I am very happy to have posted my first bioRxiv preprint. A long time in the making - and still adding a few final touches to it - but we're excited to finally have it out there in the wild: www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1... Read below for a few highlights...
Decoding cnidarian cell type gene regulation
Animal cell types are defined by differential access to genomic information, a process orchestrated by the combinatorial activity of transcription factors that bind to cis -regulatory elements (CREs) to control gene expression. However, the regulatory logic and specific gene networks that define cell identities remain poorly resolved across the animal tree of life. As early-branching metazoans, cnidarians can offer insights into the early evolution of cell type-specific genome regulation. Here, we profiled chromatin accessibility in 60,000 cells from whole adults and gastrula-stage embryos of the sea anemone Nematostella vectensis. We identified 112,728 CREs and quantified their activity across cell types, revealing pervasive combinatorial enhancer usage and distinct promoter architectures. To decode the underlying regulatory grammar, we trained sequence-based models predicting CRE accessibility and used these models to infer ontogenetic relationships among cell types. By integrating sequence motifs, transcription factor expression, and CRE accessibility, we systematically reconstructed the gene regulatory networks that define cnidarian cell types. Our results reveal the regulatory complexity underlying cell differentiation in a morphologically simple animal and highlight conserved principles in animal gene regulation. This work provides a foundation for comparative regulatory genomics to understand the evolutionary emergence of animal cell type diversity. ### Competing Interest Statement The authors have declared no competing interest. European Research Council, https://ror.org/0472cxd90, ERC-StG 851647 Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación, https://ror.org/05r0vyz12, PID2021-124757NB-I00, FPI Severo Ochoa PhD fellowship European Union, https://ror.org/019w4f821, Marie Skłodowska-Curie INTREPiD co-fund agreement 75442, Marie Skłodowska-Curie grant agreement 101031767
biorxiv.org
🧬🔍How can enhancers achieve tissue-specific activity? We use MPRAs of synthetic enhancers to derive interpretable rules on TFBS arrangement 🚦 and discover that negative synergies drive specificity in hematopoiesis 🩸. Shoutout to @Robert Frömel & @larsplus.bsky.social for leading this work 🦹🦸.
Lars Velten@larsplus.bsky.social · last yr.Out in Cell @cp-cell.bsky.social: Design principles of cell-state-specific enhancers in hematopoiesis 🧬🩸 screen of fully synthetic enhancers in blood progenitors 🤖 AI that creates new cell state specific enhancers 🔍 negative synergies between TFs lead to specificity! www.cell.com/cell/fulltex... 🧵
Out in Cell @cp-cell.bsky.social: Design principles of cell-state-specific enhancers in hematopoiesis 🧬🩸 screen of fully synthetic enhancers in blood progenitors 🤖 AI that creates new cell state specific enhancers 🔍 negative synergies between TFs lead to specificity! www.cell.com/cell/fulltex... 🧵
Design principles of cell-state-specific enhancers in hematopoiesis
Screen of minimalistic enhancers in blood progenitor cells demonstrates widespread dual activator-repressor function of transcription factors (TFs) and enables the model-guided design of cell-state-sp...
cell.com
I’m very excited to share our work on the early evolution of animal regulatory genome architecture - the main project of my postdoc, carried out across two wonderful and inspirational labs of @arnausebe.bsky.social and @mamartirenom.bsky.social. www.nature.com/articles/s41...
Chromatin loops are an ancestral hallmark of the animal regulatory genome - Nature
The physical organization of the genome in non-bilaterian animals and their closest unicellular relatives is characterized; comparative analysis shows chromatin looping is a conserved feature of ...
nature.com
We released our preprint on the CREsted package. CREsted allows for complete modeling of cell type-specific enhancer codes from scATAC-seq data. We demonstrate CREsted’s robust functionality in various species and tissues, and in vivo validate our findings: www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
"The main fates after gene duplication are gene loss, redundancy, subfunctionalization and neofunctionalization". In our new review, @fedemantica.bsky.social and I argue we are missing the most prevalent one: specialization. And the same applies to alternative splicing! 1/7 tinyurl.com/45k7kbmp
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.
bioRxiv Evolutionary Biology@biorxiv-evobio.bsky.social · last yr.Diversity and evolution of chromatin regulatory states across eukaryotes https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.03.17.643675v1
