Christine Mordstein
@cmordstein.bsky.social
Head of Biofoundry & RNA by Design Leader @ Centillion | xRNA Therapeutics | Views my own | #RNAsky #RNAtx #RNArocks
RNA can build. A short RNA self-assembles into a 60-subunit icosahedral cage like a viral capsid, but made entirely of RNA. The striking preprint also reveals a 57-nt RNA filament at ~2.7 Å. Congratulations, Lin Huang and colleagues! www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...
On this day, in 1961, two articles appeared in Nature announcing the isolation of messenger RNA (mRNA) www.cell.com/current-biol...
Who discovered messenger RNA?
Cobb looks back at the complicated series events that led to the discovery of messenger RNA, highlighting the often difficult problem of attributing credit for scientific advances.
cell.com
Love it!
Niki Hubbard, PhD 🐙🦀@nikihubbard.bsky.social · 4mo agoOnce upon a time I just admired nudis and sea slugs. But it was not enough. Now apparently I'm creating an R package to celebrate their colour palettes? 😅 First up, my Sydney fave, Hypselodoris bennetti. #rstats #nudibranch #dataviz 🦑🐙🧪 #marinelife #invertebrates
Our latest paper is out today in Nature Communications: "Conserved and divergent features of human mRNA decapping revealed by biochemical reconstitution." #RNAsky #RNAbiology www.nature.com/articles/s41...
Conserved and divergent features of human mRNA decapping revealed by biochemical reconstitution - Nature Communications
Decapping is a key step in mRNA decay, but how its regulation has diverged across eukaryotes remains unclear. Here, the authors reconstitute the human decapping network, revealing divergent roles for ...
nature.com
Just a reminder - Please Register for the 3rd Codon Usage Conference in Montreal, Canada from May 31- June 3, right after the RNA Society Meeting. Even if you can't go, please share! #RNA #RNAsky #RNAbiology sites.google.com/view/codonus...
codon usage
About the Conference Codon usage bias—the preference for certain synonymous codons—is a key factor in genome regulation. Codon usage and synonymous codon mutations have been shown to influence gene ex...
sites.google.com
This is a fascinating paper that reveals defined and clear mechanism for a phenomenon that for some seemed unbelievable- the up regulation of genes paralogous to those with specific types of inactivating mutations. This is called transcriptional adaptation 1/ www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...
Mechanisms linking cytoplasmic decay of translation-defective mRNA to transcriptional adaptation
Transcriptional adaptation (TA) is a genetic robustness mechanism through which mutant messenger RNA (mRNA) decay induces sequence-dependent up-regulation of so-called adapting genes. How cytoplasmica...
science.org
🚀 Just published: New1 shields mRNAs from no-go decay — by preventing ribosome crashes at specific codons. What’s new? New1 (eEF3 homolog) stops ribosomes from stalling at C-terminal AAA/AGG/CGU codons. No New1 = collisions + Hel2 recruitment + Cue2-mediated no-go decay.
Have a look at this fantastic meeting and save the date! The “RNA in Physiology and Disease” conference, hosted by @gensocuk.bsky.social, will take place 7–9 September 2026 in Newcastle, UK. genetics.org.uk/events/rna-i...
RNA in physiology and disease | Genetics Society
Meeting background RNA molecules are at the heart of normal physiological processes, and their dysregulation can drive a wide range of human diseases. This international meeting will bring together wo...
genetics.org.uk
Loving the usual UK public transport efficiency. So far, I have had only 2 trains cancelled that I was travelling on. I might be lucky and arrive only 2.5h delayed 🤔
Christine Mordstein@cmordstein.bsky.social · 6mo agoEn route to #RNAUK2026 in beautiful Windermere! This is still by far my favourite conference series and I'm excited to see many old friends and former colleagues again. I have a poster too, so come say hi if you are there and curious about the work we do at Centillion 👉 P50 #RNAsky #RNArocks
En route to #RNAUK2026 in beautiful Windermere! This is still by far my favourite conference series and I'm excited to see many old friends and former colleagues again. I have a poster too, so come say hi if you are there and curious about the work we do at Centillion 👉 P50 #RNAsky #RNArocks
Discuss #RNA 3' ends and their regulation at the EMBO Workshop "RNA 3' ends and beyond" in #Oxford, United Kingdom, 7–11 September 2026. Deadline: 4 May 2026 https://meetings.embo.org/event/26-rna3 #EMBORNA3EndsBeyond #RNAsky #LifeSciences #meeting #EMBOevents 🧪
Happy to share with you our work on how the interferon response impacts embryonic development 🦠Mammalian embryos contain endogenous dsRNAs that resemble viruses and can be misrecognised by the dsRNA sensor MDA5. Thanks to all collaborators, we could not have done it without you 🤩 rdcu.be/eWMfA
Double stranded RNA sensing is silenced during early embryonic development
Nature Communications - The type I interferon response is suppressed during early development, making embryos susceptible to pathogens. Here, the authors show that this suppression contributes to...
rdcu.be
New director of FDA Center for Drug Evaluation and Research has "no expertise...no apparent experience in drug development, regulation or management..doesn’t seem to have any of the qualifications for running the drug-regulation department" www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025...
‘She has no expertise’: the US medical community girds for Tracy Beth Høeg’s tenure at the FDA
The Danish American who doubted Covid shots is meant to lead drug regulation – but has focused on vaccines
theguardian.com
Check out the latest paper from the Gonatopoulos-Pournatzis lab using CRASP-seq, an RNA-coupled #CRISPR screening platform, to uncover novel #splicing regulators.
Molecular Cell @cp-molcell.bsky.social · 7mo agoOnline Now: RNA-coupled CRISPR screens reveal ZNF207 as a regulator of LMNA aberrant splicing in progeria Online now:
This is the "SEA SHEEP" (Costasiella kuroshimae) & it took the old axiom: "you are what you eat" VERY literally. It eats algae & rather than just digest them, it harvests the chloroplasts & becomes PHOTOSYNTHETIC. Solar slug! Also, some of its cousins can rip their own heads off.
a close up of a green and white sponge with purple spots
Alt: A green and white sea sheep grazes on a green lawn of algae on a surface underwater.
media.tenor.com
Wow this is a seriously serious supplementary figure from @cellpress.bsky.social today. Panels A through UU. I get that Cell likes to minimize the number of supplementary figures. But is this really what is happening here? www.cell.com/cell/fulltex...
How does messenger RNA (mRNA) get out of the nucleus to become a protein? Eukaryotic mRNA is packaged, exported, and then translated in the cytoplasm. But how do these steps work? And what are open questions? Check out our new review for our take: www.annualreviews.org/content/jour... (1/3)
Can we please stop calling it "translational efficiency" because it isn't. It is a measure of ribosome association. THANK YOU.
@eternagame got single RNAs to compute functions like all logic gates, A>B, and A*B/C^2, relevant for tuberculosis detection! Now looking for partners to scale to complex applications. Collab w/ Greenleaf Khatri labs @christianchoe.bsky.social @stanfordmedicine.bsky.social at doi.org/10.1038/s415...
Compact RNA sensors for increasingly complex functions of multiple inputs - Nature Chemistry
Designing single molecules capable of complex sensing functions is challenging. Now, using crowdsourced RNA designs from the online game Eterna, compact single-molecule sensors have been demonstrated ...
doi.org
Colliding ribosomes are potent signals of cellular stress. But do cells use ‘programmed’ ribosome collisions to regulate gene expression? I’m excited to present a new story from my lab led by Frederick Rehfeld(@fred-rehfeld.bsky.social) which revealed that the answer is YES! Read on to find out how👇
Oxidative stress sensing by the translation elongation machinery promotes production of detoxifying selenoproteins
Selenocysteine, incorporated into polypeptides at recoded termination codons, plays an essential role in redox biology. Using GPX1 and GPX4, selenoenzymes that mitigate oxidative stress, as reporters,...
biorxiv.org
Two group leader positions available in the broader areas of RNA science, RNA technologies, and RNA medicine. Attractive packages and a great environment. Come and join us at Helmholtz RNA Würzburg, Bavaria.
Chemical mods on RNA (whether transient or stable) are the way to go in #RNAtx
@koolchemistry.bsky.social · 11mo agoNew and simple chemical modifications to poly(A) tails extend protein expression -- a really easy one-pot method Great work by Linglan Fang and Wenrui Zhong in our lab! doi.org/10.1021/jacs.5c11900
Application for 2025/2026 RNA Salons is now open. Please apply by 31st August to receive support your local or regional RNA activities. @rnasociety.bsky.social #Lexogen www.rnasociety.org/salons
rnasociety.org
This preprint from Helen Sakharova is one of the coolest things to come out of my lab: “Protein language models reveal evolutionary constraints on synonymous codon choice.” Codon choice is a big puzzle in how information is encoded in genomes, and we have a new angle. www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
Protein language models reveal evolutionary constraints on synonymous codon choice
Evolution has shaped the genetic code, with subtle pressures leading to preferences for some synonymous codons over others. Codons are translated at different speeds by the ribosome, imposing constrai...
biorxiv.org