Our paper is now out in Nature: “Ancient co-option of LTR retrotransposons as yeast centromeres” www.nature.com/articles/s41... A short thread on how retrotransposons helped give rise to yeast point centromeres. 1/14

Ancient co-option of LTR retrotransposons as yeast centromeres - Nature

Evolutionarily related ‘proto-point’ centromeres providing resolution to the evolutionary origins of point centromeres are identified in yeast, and comparison shows they evolved in an ancestor with re...

nature.com

🚨 Preprint Alert! The era of human genome writing begins… We developed REWRITE for human iPSCs, enabling 100–209 kb rewriting of all 3 HLA genes - or anywhere. ➡️ On-demand HLA hiPSCs ➡️ Off-the-shelf cells ➡️ Extensible cell engineering 🧵⬇️ www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

Genomic REWRITE of Immune Interfaces Reveals Heritable Epigenetic Memory in Human Stem Cells

Human leukocyte antigen (HLA) polymorphism hinders allogeneic therapies. We developed REWRITE, a modular platform for iterative, scar-minimized genome writing of synthetic constructs >100 kb in human ...

biorxiv.org

The Truong lab @nyuniversity (Programmable Regenerative Immunity) has an opening for a Postdoctoral Fellow to work in Mammalian Synthetic Biology in human iPSCs: apply.interfolio.com/172424 This project uses large-scale human genome "rewriting" to build a Synthetic Thymus.

This a really killer resource.

Kresten Lindorff-Larsen@lindorfflarsen.bsky.social · last yr.

Led by Fia Larsen in @rhp-lab.bsky.social, we mapped degrons in all ~1600 human transcription factors We find overlap between degrons and TADs, and show how negatively charged residues contribute to function by helping prevent degradation See preprint for much more: doi.org/10.1101/2025...

Abstract deadline (April 28) coming up for for the best mammalian synthetic biology conference! Join us at #mSBW2025 www.aiche.org/sbe/conferen...

2025 International Mammalian Synthetic Biology Workshop (mSBW)

The International Mammalian Synthetic Biology Workshop (mSBW) brings together leaders in synthetic biology with experts from other relevant fields to highlight and inspire cutting-edge synthetic biolo...

aiche.org

Need a site-specific, dox-inducible system for human cells? Low leakage, silencing-resistant, and modular? It’s here in the first paper from my lab, led by Tomoki Yanagi MD, PhD. Bonus: forward programming of TEC-like cells from hiPSCs. tinyurl.com/trunod01

Termination sequence between an inducible promoter and ubiquitous chromatin opening element (UCOE) reduces gene expression leakage and silencing - Journal of Biological Engineering

Background Inducible gene expression circuits enable precise control over target gene activation and are widely used in direct reprogramming. However, their usability is often compromised by DNA methy...

tinyurl.com

Many of us in academic science will default to “business as usual” as our response. We will feel that our power should be used to maintain a semblance of normalcy. To live to fight another day.

Termination sequence between an inducible promoter and ubiquitous chromatin opening element (UCOE) reduces gene expression leakage and silencing https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2024.12.18.629244v1

Snapdragons are my favorite flower to grow. They do however produce seed pods that look like the screaming skulls of the damned.

We are looking for two new colleagues (open rank tenure-track) in neuro-engineering for the Dept of Biomedical Engineering @nyutandon.bsky.social! Priority applications due Dec 8th, rolling till January. Neuro-Cell/Tissue apply.interfolio.com/159312 Neuro-Devices apply.interfolio.com/159320

Hey folks! I got a tattoo of my beloved PIEZO ion channel on my arm! Now I can show how they activate (flatten) under pressure by flexing—Will add a bit of performance art to my science talks 🧪🧠.

Bluesky, new beginnings. Let's hope this place is about positive science developments and not rage bait!