Excited to share our work on bacterial immune signaling! Our preprint reveals how RNA-guided Cas13 cleaves host tRNAs to generate small-molecule messengers that activate 2TMβ, linking RNA recognition to membrane damage and phage defense. 1/11

🏆 Biochemist Martin Jinek is the winner of the Swiss Science Prize #MarcelBenoist 2026, considered the Swiss #Nobel Prize. He contributed to the development of molecular scissors, namely CRISPR-Cas9 technology. Read more ➡️ sohub.io/3hs4

🔥

Martin Pacesa@martinpacesa.bsky.social · 3w ago

ʙɪɴᴅᴄʀᴀꜰᴛ2 is out, and we're not waiting for the paper. The full code drops today, free for academic and industry use. We're releasing it early so you can start designing right now, and bring its full power to the current Adaptyv competition. github.com/PacesaLab/Bi...

Finally a more intuitaive way to learn pLDDT/pAE? 😎 sokrypton.github.io/protein_figh... (Character idea from @hannes-stark.bsky.social & Alex Waldherr)

I'm very excited to share that this January, I’ll be joining Columbia University’s Department of Biological Sciences as a tenure-track Assistant Professor 🏙️🦁🍎 @columbiauniversity.bsky.social 🧬 Learn more: dohertylab.org Thank you to all those who supported me along the way!

Doherty lab at Columbia University | immune signaling | Sherman Fairchild Center, 1212 Amsterdam Ave, New York, NY 10027, USA

We treat viral antagonism as a discovery tool for host biology to reveal fundamental mechanisms of immune signaling and new opportunities for therapeutic intervention.

dohertylab.org

RNA structure prediction lags behind proteins for lack of data. RNASSTR, our new dataset, offers millions of RNA sequence-secondary structure pairs, split structurally to avoid train/test leakage. 📄 doi.org/10.1261/rna.... 📰 innovativegenomics.org/news/ai-mode...

Online Now: Oriented binding of transcription factors to nucleosomes remodels chromatin at human promoters Online now:

Oriented binding of transcription factors to nucleosomes remodels chromatin at human promoters

Transcription factors (TFs) differ in their ability to interact with nucleosomes, and most TFs need other TFs to locate their motifs in the human genome. Here, Xiao et al. show that two ELF2 proteins are able to unwind DNA from nucleosomes and access all of their motifs in the genome.

dlvr.it

We are PUBLISHED!!! Our mechanistic work on how CRISPR-Cas ancestors unwind DNA and how this can be used to engineer hypercompact plant editors can now be found on Mol Cell- if you are interested in what defines a good genome editor, this read is for you 😎 🔗 www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

Martin is great, please spread the news

Martin Pacesa@martinpacesa.bsky.social · 2mo ago

We are looking for a lab manager starting from January 2027, you can find more information on our members page pacesalab.com#members. We are also starting to look into hosting master students starting 2027.

1st genome sequenced (Sanger 1977), 1st genome synthesised (Venter 2003), 1st genome + proteome fully mutated (Huijin Xiangua 2026!) @crg.eu @sangerinstitute.bsky.social Complete Mutagenesis of the Genome and Proteome of ΦX174 www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...

Complete Mutagenesis of the Genome and Proteome of ΦX174

The bacteriophage ΦX174 was the first genome to be sequenced and the first to be chemically synthesised. Here we present a complete map of the consequences of changing every nucleotide in the ΦX174 ge...

biorxiv.org

I’m happy to share our pre-print exploring the activity and specificity trade-offs in adenine base editors. Thanks to my amazing co-authors Luke Oltrogge, @hnisonoff.bsky.social, and all the other contributors @jlistgarten.bsky.social @savagecatsonly.bsky.social @innovativegenomics.bsky.social 🧵1/7

Activity and specificity trade-offs in adenine base editors

Adenine base editors (ABEs) are CRISPR effectors that introduce A-T to G-C transitions in the genome using a nucleotide deaminase fused to a Cas protein. ABEs have been evolved to have very high editi...

biorxiv.org

Scientists have harnessed AI models to create synthetic CRISPR proteins that edit the genome more efficiently than those seen in nature go.nature.com/4f8AN3n

CRISPR gets a power boost from AI-designed ‘molecular scissors’

Researchers used artificial intelligence to design functional CRISPR enzymes not seen in nature.

go.nature.com

We often talk about complex protein folds but what does that really mean? Turns out we don't have a good metric for it. So we made a game to make one! Head over to our website to vote on which fold you think is more complex and why! pacesalab.com/foldcomplexi...

Many thanks to @andymurdock.bsky.social, Glenn Ramit, @hoperhenderson.bsky.social , and @innovativegenomics.bsky.social for this wonderful press release - and for highlighting the previous studies that laid the foundation for this work!

Innovative Genomics Institute@innovativegenomics.bsky.social · 3mo ago

Out today in @science.org, Doudna lab researchers describe an #AI-assisted method for designing enhanced genome editors, testing close to 2000 in lab. Read more: innovativegenomics.org/news/ai-desi...

Proud to present our work, published today in @science.org! My deepest gratitude to @isabelesain.bsky.social, @evandeturk.bsky.social, Jennifer and our collaborators in the Doudna, Cate, Banfield, and Jacobsen labs, and the @innovativegenomics.bsky.social! I hope you enjoy reading it! ✨

Doudna Lab@doudna-lab.bsky.social · 3mo ago

Our AI-guided design of RNA-guided nucleases is now out in @science.org 💻🧬 We used structure and evolutionary data to generate minimal, active and divergent gene editors! www.science.org/doi/10.1126/... Congrats to @petrskopintsev.bsky.social @isabelesain.bsky.social @evandeturk.bsky.social & team!

Can we simulate realistic evolutionary trajectories and “replay the tape of life”? In this work, we propose a flexible, generalizable deep learning framework for modeling how the entire protein sequence evolves over time while capturing complex interactions across sites. 1/n doi.org/10.64898/202...

New online: Structure and mechanism of antiphage retron Eco2

Structure and mechanism of antiphage retron Eco2

Nature Structural & Molecular Biology, Published online: 18 February 2026; doi:10.1038/s41594-026-01754-2This study shows how the bacterial retron Eco2 defends against viruses. Phage nucleases trigger activation of Eco2, which cuts RNAs, shuts down protein production and stops phage replication.

dlvr.it

A beautiful study from the Pausch lab!

Patrick Pausch@patrick-pausch.bsky.social · 8mo ago

1/6) Hot off the press @natsmb.nature.com 🔥! Jasnauskaite et al. reveal how the minimal bacterial retron Eco2 defends against #phage 🛡️. Phage nucleases trigger Eco2, which cuts RNA, shuts down protein production and stops phage replication 🦠🚫. #phagesky #immunity #microbiology #cryo-em rdcu.be/e4AyH

New paper from my group in @science.org : "A small polymerase ribozyme that can synthesise itself and its complementary strand" www.science.org/doi/10.1126/... Outstanding work by @edogia.bsky.social

Introducing The Structural History of Eukarya (SHE): The first proteome-scale phylogeny constructed entirely from 3D structure. We computed 300 trillion alignments across 1,542 species to map the tree of life. 🧵👇 (1/5)

A very nice Preview of our work in @cp-cellhostmicrobe.bsky.social this morning from Chrishan Fernando & Nicole D. Marino! www.cell.com/cell-host-mi...

Viral enzymes degrade to evade

Across all domains of life, immune systems rely on nucleotide-based signaling molecules to activate defense responses. In a recent Cell Host & Microbe study, Doherty, Nomburg, and colleagues identify ...

cell.com

Excited to share our first work on protein design! Huge thanks to the entire team, and especially to Bel, Evan, to the Doudna, Jacobsen, Cate, Banfield labs, all co-authors, and my D-lab mates! 💫

Doudna Lab@doudna-lab.bsky.social · 10mo ago

✨New preprint! 🧵1/4 Excited to share our work on AI-guided design of minimal RNA-guided nucleases. Amazing work by @petrskopintsev.bsky.social @isabelesain.bsky.social @evandeturk.bsky.social et al! Multi-lab collaboration @banfieldlab.bsky.social @jhdcate.bsky.social @jacobsenucla.bsky.social🧬 🔗👇

My main postdoc paper repost marked as spam - just for the memories. Shame, shame @moderation.bsky.app! 😀

Excited to share our first work on protein design! Huge thanks to the entire team, and especially to @isabelesain.bsky.social, @evandeturk.bsky.social, @doudna-lab.bsky.social, @jacobsenucla.bsky.social, @jhdcate.bsky.social, @banfieldlab.bsky.social, @innovativegenomics.bsky.social!

Doudna Lab@doudna-lab.bsky.social · 10mo ago

✨New preprint! 🧵1/4 Excited to share our work on AI-guided design of minimal RNA-guided nucleases. Amazing work by @petrskopintsev.bsky.social @isabelesain.bsky.social @evandeturk.bsky.social et al! Multi-lab collaboration @banfieldlab.bsky.social @jhdcate.bsky.social @jacobsenucla.bsky.social🧬 🔗👇