In our latest collaborative work we identify a novel form of reversible fluconazole heteroresistance that is associated with variable islands of heterochromatin in clinical isolates of Cryptococcus neoformans. Thanks to all @ Allshire, Heitman Bicanic labs especially 1st author @ybecky.bsky.social

Variable ectopic heterochromatin islands provide an alternative route to antifungal heteroresistance in Cryptococcus neoformans

The fungal pathogen Cryptococcus neoformans is estimated to cause approximately 180,000 deaths annually, primarily among immunocompromised HIV patients in resource-limited countries in central and sou...

eur02.safelinks.protection.outlook.com

Very upsetting to hear the sad news of Greg Hannon’s passing. I always enjoyed our far too few conversations we had over the years. He had an interesting and insightful perspective on any science being discussed. He will be missed. www.cruk.cam.ac.uk/news/in-memo...

In Memoriam: Professor Greg Hannon (1964–2026) - Cancer Research UK Cambridge Institute

Greg was already a world-renowned scientist when appointed Director, and for the community, he was a visionary leader, a cherished mentor, and a singular force of nature whose influence shaped the research landscape.

cruk.cam.ac.uk

Hot off the press - a letter from the Exec Chair of @ukri.org explaining his plans and in particular the financial position of STFC. It notes curiosity driven research is protected and will make up around half of UKRI spend over the coming period www.ukri.org/news/open-le...

Open letter from Ian Chapman to research and innovation community

UKRI Chief Executive outlines changes to UKRI investment approach, addressing concerns about research funding and the financial position of STFC.

ukri.org

www.ukri.org/news/open-le... So let’s fiddle while researchers, whose funding is paused, get burned because their current funding is in its last 12 months. Lack of clarity & transparency creates uncertainty. Researchers need to plan ahead, they can’t without application deadlines to work towards

Open letter from Ian Chapman to research and innovation community

UKRI Chief Executive outlines changes to UKRI investment approach, addressing concerns about research funding and the financial position of STFC.

ukri.org

Thanks to all involved in both labs for making this happen - well done!

Keith Matthews@keithrmatthews.bsky.social · 10mo ago

doi.org/10.7554/eLif... A further great collaboration with @allshire-lab.bsky.social !

www.embopress.org/doi/full/10.... Our latest now online at EMBO Journal. Read if you are interested in how epimutations mediate antifungal resistance & how this might result in heteroresistance in human & cereal crop fungal pathogens. Big Thx & congrats to Andreas Fellas, Pin Tong & Alison Pidoux

Heterochromatin epimutations impose mitochondrial dysfunction to confer antifungal resistance | The EMBO Journal

imageimageHeterochromatin-island epimutations can provide resistance to caffeine and antifungal drugs in the fission yeast Schizosaccharomyces pombe. This study reveals that some epimutations cause re...

embopress.org

AI is good at needling people, had me in stitches following this thread!

Karolin Luger@nucleosomepolice.bsky.social · 11mo ago

say what now?

A lot of interest in QED Science as an automated review system linked to preprint servers. All we need now is funding level for authors to be somehow linked to the overall score provided by the AI and we can do away with grant writing and grant reviewing and panels. Cut the bureaucracy in science!

Oded Rechavi@odedrechavi.bsky.social · 11mo ago

And you can of course also go through to the q.e.d website: www.qedscience.com

A big car park where the Darwin Building at King’s Building, University of Edinburgh used to be

The Darwin Building @edinburghup.bsky.social which housed the UK’s first Dept of Molecular Biology is no more! Many notable scientists worked their & passed through: 1968-2018. We look forward to a suitable replacement that promotes excellent biological research allowing many more key discoveries.

@edinburghairport.bsky.social What are you playing at? Delta 122 flight from Boston lands 06:30 Passengers have to wait on plane cos Customs hall does not open until 07:00 - Ridiculous get your act together FFS!!

New powerful article up in the New York Times on cancelled and delayed grants www.nytimes.com/interactive/...

Here Are the Nearly 2,500 Medical Research Grants Canceled or Delayed by Trump (Gift Article)

Some cuts have been starkly visible, but the country’s medical grant-making machinery has also radically transformed outside the public eye.

nytimes.com

Looking forward to my visit to ibfg.usal-csic.es in Salamanca today. Thanks to Alfonso Fernandez Alvarez for inviting me.

NB: the UK - including Scotland - is an ERC partner, English speaking and has an exceptionally strong discovery research base.

European Research Council (ERC)@erc.europa.eu · last yr.

Are you based in the U.S. 🇺🇸 or Canada 🇨🇦 and thinking of doing research in Europe? ERC grants offer up to €4.5 million to support groundbreaking, investigator-driven frontier research in all fields. Watch the dedicated info session for researchers in your region👉 youtu.be/92QYink1Lik #ChooseEurope

Congratulations to our colleague Prof Donal O’Carroll FRS, School of Biological Sciences, University of Edinburgh, on his election as a fellow of the Royal Society of London (the UK nation academy of sciences) - very well deserved.

The Royal Society@royalsociety.org · last yr.

We are pleased to announce the 90 outstanding researchers from across the world who have been elected to the Fellowship of the Royal Society this year. The group includes trailblazers from AI and electron microscopy to global health and neuroscience. #RSFellows royalsociety.org/news/2025/05...

And now for something completely different: my nephew Arthur Allshire (1st yr PhD student @bair.berkeley.edu) and co just released his first paper: Videomimic - Visual imitation enables contextual humanoid control. He is now working on sobering up the robot! www.videomimic.net

Gov.UK now needs to be proactive in making it attractive for disaffected scientists to move to the UK. Advantages: English speaking & exceptionally strong research base. An opportunity to drive future economic growth - act now or miss out! arstechnica.com/science/2025...

Europe launches program to lure scientists away from the US

EU will spend over $500 million to recruit researchers and scientists.

arstechnica.com

Pros: English speaking, strong research base. Cons: visa/health costs & broke universities. If, like EU, UK is to benefit by attracting disaffected talented scientists from other countries Gov.UK will need to make moving here attractive & affordable! Many non-OxBridge Universities can’t recruit.

Thiago Carvalho@cyrilpedia.bsky.social · last yr.

"Researchers recruited to work in the UK have to fund a £1,035 annual immigration health surcharge, which must be paid in full in advance, as well as up to £1,519 in visa fees. For a family of four, the upfront costs can total almost £30,000."

Happy 65th to Paul Hewson (aka Bono @U2) as usual mine follows soon after yours - funny that. ‘It’s a beautiful day’ enjoy!

a man wearing sunglasses with his mouth open and the words it 's a beautiful day below him

ALT: a man wearing sunglasses with his mouth open and the words it 's a beautiful day below him

media.tenor.com

Looks like a fantastic AI tool for predicting protein sequences that will aggregate/form prions. Key was testing >100,000 in vivo using a neat assay in yeast/S. cerevisiae

Ben Lehner@benlehner.bsky.social · last yr.

We quantify the aggregation of >100,000 random protein sequences to train CANYA, a convolution-attention hybrid neural network to predict aggregation from sequence. With @bennibolo.bsky.social www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

Register for the excellent Epigenetics Gordon Research Conference Barcelona 10-15 Aug25. Theme: Epigenetic Variation: Mechanisms & Impact Across Systems. **FUNDING AVAILABLE to support attendance** ~15 talks to be chosen from submitted abstracts, so upload yours ASAP: www.grc.org/epigenetics-...

Congratulations to Wendy Bickmore on her election as an International Member of the US National Academy of Sciences www.nasonline.org

National Academy of Sciences

The National Academy of Sciences (NAS) is a private, nonprofit organization of the country’s leading researchers, recognizing and promoting outstanding science.

nasonline.org

Congratulations to Bill Earnshaw, my colleague and lab next door, on his election as a Member of the US National Academy of Sciences www.nasonline.org

National Academy of Sciences

The National Academy of Sciences (NAS) is a private, nonprofit organization of the country’s leading researchers, recognizing and promoting outstanding science.

nasonline.org

movie u have watched more than six times using gifs (hard mode no star wars star trek or LOTR) “I never had any friends later on like the ones I had when I was twelve. Jesus, does anyone?”

a movie poster for stand by me shows a group of young men walking down train tracks

ALT: a movie poster for stand by me shows a group of young men walking down train tracks

media.tenor.com

The power of NIH funded research. @deniswirtz.bsky.social hub.jhu.edu/2025/04/22/n...

Johns Hopkins researchers decipher complex behaviors behind deadly cancers

Engineer Denis Wirtz and colleagues are using artificial intelligence and multiscale imaging to reveal how tumors grow, spread, and vary across populations

hub.jhu.edu

Our latest collaborative work with Keith Matthews’ lab using synthetic DNA binding proteins to explore the chromatin protein contexts of repetitive sequences in Trypanosoma brucei in now on bioRxiv - thanks to all involved! 2025.04.22.649942; doi: doi.org/10.1101/2025...

Defining the chromatin-associated protein landscapes on Trypanosoma brucei repetitive elements using synthetic TALE proteins

Kinetoplastids, such as Trypansoma brucei, are eukaryotes that likely separated from the main lineage at an exceptionally early point in evolution. Consequently, many aspects of kinetoplastid biology ...

doi.org

Almost there! 6 more points to seal it.

Very pleased to see @who.int publishing its very first reports on tests and treatments for #fungal #infections - and the contributions made by @bachmanntill.bsky.social, EID AMR Strategy lead. edinburgh-infectious-diseases.ed.ac.uk/news-and-eve... @allshire-lab.bsky.social @bethmills.bsky.social

Edinburgh contributes to major WHO reports on fungal infections

April 2025: The World Health Organisation has issued its first-ever reports on tests and treatments for fungal infections.

edinburgh-infectious-diseases.ed.ac.uk

How chromatin is replicated - key to understanding epigenetic memory mechanisms underlying epimutations

Lucas Farnung@lucas.farnunglab.com · 2y ago

🔬 New from the Farnung Lab: We established a fully in vitro reconstituted chromatin replication system and report the first cryo-EM snapshots of the human replisome engaging nucleosomes. Brilliant work by @felixsteinruecke.bsky.social with support from @jonmarkert.bsky.social! tinyurl.com/replisome

Register for the renowned Epigenetics Gordon Research Conference Barcelona 10-15 August 2025. A great line up of speakers on the theme: Epigenetic Variation: Mechanisms & Impact Across Systems. ~15 talks to be chosen from submitted abstracts, so upload yours ASAP: www.grc.org/epigenetics-...