In the most recent episode we speak with @robklose.bsky.social, Professor of Genetics at the University of Oxford, about how CpG islands help control gene expression and chromatin regulation during development. #podcast #epigenetics Listen here: activemotif.com/podcasts-rob...

🧬 Highly related @natgenet.nature.com paper from @binzmit.bsky.social group, using nucleosome-resolution chromatin modeling: Euchromatin forms condensed domains with short active regions on the surface www.nature.com/articles/s41... Congratulations! 🎉

Euchromatin forms condensed domains with short active regions on the surface - Nature Genetics

Simulations integrating micro-C and imaging data provide a coherent view of chromatin organization from nucleosomes to clutches to domains, revealing that most regions form compact domains but short r...

nature.com

Kazuhiro Maeshima@kazu-maeshima.bsky.social · 4w ago

Is euchromatin really “open”? 🧬 Using super-resolution imaging🔬 our new study @natgenet.nature.com reveals: Euchromatin forms condensed domains in live cells. Cohesin constrains them and prevents domain mixing for proper transcriptional insulation🚧 🔗 www.nature.com/articles/s41... (1/2)

Oh my god, why is there SO MUCH interesting stuff in gene regulation right now? This is marvellously interesting.

Kazuhiro Maeshima@kazu-maeshima.bsky.social · 2w ago

🧬 Our “Behind the Paper” is now online at Nature Communities: “Active chromatin is not simply open—it forms compact domains that cohesin keeps from mixing.” 📖 A short story behind our recent @natgenet.nature.com paper. communities.springernature.com/posts/active... www.nature.com/articles/s41...

🧬 Our “Behind the Paper” is now online at Nature Communities: “Active chromatin is not simply open—it forms compact domains that cohesin keeps from mixing.” 📖 A short story behind our recent @natgenet.nature.com paper. communities.springernature.com/posts/active... www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Thrilled to share a new important study from the lab, published today in @nature.com, showing how cohesin mediates efficient replication fork plasticity and stress response, using its loop extrusion activity to promote 3D contacts on replicating DNA: www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Cohesin reshapes replication fork contacts to aid fork slowing and reversal - Nature

Cohesin-mediated loop extrusion limits sister-fork coupling and tethers nearby replication forks under replication stress, promoting fork reversal and slowing fork progression to safeguard genome...

nature.com

"Mitotic chromosomes: from the chromosome scaffold model to condensins and physical forces" by Kazuhiro Maeshima ( @kazu-maeshima.bsky.social ) & colleagues FREE till Nov 3rd at authors.elsevier.com/a/1nmwrcQbJI...

Check out our new preprint in which we used cryoCLEM to study the native architecture of the human inactive X chromosome in RPE1 cells. Neil Brockdorff’s group from Oxford posted a similar story, performed in female stem cells. We see individual nucleosomes and other exciting things!

bioRxiv Cell Biology@biorxiv-cellbio.bsky.social · 3w ago

Native in situ architecture of the human inactive X chromosome revealed by correlative light and electron microscopy https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.09.04.749547v1

📢PUBLISHED @natgenet.nature.com 📰Cohesin prevents local mixing of condensed euchromatic domains in living human cells. By Masa A. Shimazoe, Kazuhiro Maeshima and colleagues. ⬇️ www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Cohesin prevents local mixing of condensed euchromatic domains in living human cells - Nature Genetics

Single-nucleosome imaging/tracking and super-resolution three-dimensional structured illumination microscopy within euchromatic regions show that cohesin-mediated loops constrain condensed euchromatic...

nature.com

How are mitotic chromosomes built? Our Review @cp-trendsgenetics.bsky.social revisits the classical chromosome scaffold model and connects it to condensins, topoIIα, and physical forces. We propose interphase chromatin domains as “building blocks”🧩of chromosomes: authors.elsevier.com/a/1nmwrcQbJI...

Excited to share our new preprint on in situ chromatin structure of the inactive X chromosome in differentiated female mouse embryonic stem cells. www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6... 🧵1/8

Amazing work on how chromatin domains form and remain insulated. Must-read!

Kazuhiro Maeshima@kazu-maeshima.bsky.social · 4w ago

Is euchromatin really “open”? 🧬 Using super-resolution imaging🔬 our new study @natgenet.nature.com reveals: Euchromatin forms condensed domains in live cells. Cohesin constrains them and prevents domain mixing for proper transcriptional insulation🚧 🔗 www.nature.com/articles/s41... (1/2)

My lab at the Center for Gene Expression (CGEN), University of Copenhagen is looking for a motivated Postdoc interested in cohesin biology, 3D chromatin, and super-resolution microscopy. 📩 Please email your CV and letter of intent to fena.ochs(at)sund.ku.dk.

Our paper on euchromatin and cohesin is now published!!🙌 Euchromatin forms condensed domains, and cohesin constrains their local mixing. This organization maintains transcriptional insulation. This work was truly a team effort, and I’m grateful to everyone who contributed to it.

Kazuhiro Maeshima@kazu-maeshima.bsky.social · 4w ago

Is euchromatin really “open”? 🧬 Using super-resolution imaging🔬 our new study @natgenet.nature.com reveals: Euchromatin forms condensed domains in live cells. Cohesin constrains them and prevents domain mixing for proper transcriptional insulation🚧 🔗 www.nature.com/articles/s41... (1/2)

Happy to share that this paper is now published in Nature Genetics! Grateful to everyone who supported this work throughout this long journey. I’m proud to see it out! www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Cohesin prevents local mixing of condensed euchromatic domains in living human cells - Nature Genetics

Single-nucleosome imaging/tracking and super-resolution three-dimensional structured illumination microscopy within euchromatic regions show that cohesin-mediated loops constrain condensed euchromatic...

nature.com

Shiori Iida@shiori-iida.bsky.social · last yr.

Our new preprint is out! We combined single-nucleosome imaging and 3D-SIM to reveal: 🔹 Euchromatin forms condensed domains, not open fibers 🔹Cohesin loss increases nucleosome mobility without decompaction 🔹Cohesin prevents neighboring domain mixing Full story & movies👇

Is euchromatin really “open”? 🧬 Using super-resolution imaging🔬 our new study @natgenet.nature.com reveals: Euchromatin forms condensed domains in live cells. Cohesin constrains them and prevents domain mixing for proper transcriptional insulation🚧 🔗 www.nature.com/articles/s41... (1/2)

Obituary: Susumu Tonegawa (1939-2026) Japan’s first Nobel prizewinner in physiology or medicine go.nature.com/4wty0Yy

Obituary: Susumu Tonegawa, Japan’s first Nobel prizewinner in physiology or medicine

Fearless molecular biologist who revealed the workings of antibodies and memories.

go.nature.com

How do 2 meters of DNA fit inside a nucleus you can barely see? 🧬 Our new study mapped individual nucleosomes inside human cells.

Delighted that our story on chromatin architecture inside human cells is now published — the last chapter of my PhD. It was a pleasure working with @sergiocruzleon.bsky.social, @johannesbetz.bsky.social, and everyone involved. #teamtomo www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Molecular architecture of heterochromatin at the nuclear periphery of primary human cells - Nature Communications

The 3D organisation of chromatin inside a human cell is still not fully resolved. Here the authors reveal that in situ cryo-ET resolves individual nucleosomes and predicts DNA linkers, thus showing th...

nature.com

Max Planck Institute of Biophysics@mpibp.bsky.social · 3mo ago

How do 2 meters of DNA fit inside a nucleus you can barely see? 🧬 Our new study mapped individual nucleosomes inside human cells.

We are heartbroken to have lost our founder, who provided so much inspiration, but we are all honored to carry on the science he loved so much. picower.mit.edu/news/picower... #neuroscience #biology

Picower Professor Susumu Tonegawa, renowned molecular biologist and Nobel laureate, dies at 86

Tonegawa made landmark discoveries about how the immune system generates antibody diversity and how the brain forms memories.

picower.mit.edu

Out today - structure of the human HIRA histone chaperone complex bound to nucleosomes. Ever wondered how nucleosomes are assembled in the wake of transcription? It takes a 'hulk of a protein complex'. Work by the amazing Wei Tian weetian558.bsky.social. www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6... 🧵

Our new preprint @biorxivpreprint.bsky.social, led by @katsuminami.bsky.social‬ et al.! 🎉 www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6... Machine learning-assisted Repli-Histo labeling and single-nucleosome imaging reveal distinct transcription-dependent chromatin constraints across euchromatin and heterochromatin.

“I think it’s a real mistake to forget where the pipeline for all this begins.” John Diffley reflects on the importance of basic research, his mission to decode DNA replication and recreate it in the lab, and the scientific optimism of the 1960s that helped shape it. www.crick.ac.uk/news/2026-03...

My Fragile Nucleosome seminar is now on YouTube www.youtube.com/watch?v=ksXp... I discuss our recent work showing that linker histone H1 behaves as a liquid-like glue for chromatin organization in living human cells 🧬 Paper: www.science.org/doi/full/10.... Huge thanks to @fnucleosome.bsky.social!

Kazuhiro Maeshima

YouTube video by Fragile Nucleosome

youtube.com

Out now in Science! Our study challenges long-standing assumptions about transcription factor specificity in eukaryotes. Novel single-molecule measurements of TF behavior in living cells reveal an independence of locus-specific binding from DNA sequence recognition.🧵 www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

Unstructured transcription factor interactions enable emergent specificity

How intrinsically disordered regions (IDRs) shape chromatin binding and nuclear organization of transcription factors (TFs) remains unclear. We used proximity-assisted photoactivation (PAPA), a single...

science.org

Beautiful view of Earth from space taken from the International Space Station.

New preprint from our lab! We've been working out how the CMG replicative helicase gets built. 🧵 1/3

Announcing SMART Genome Symposium: From Structure to Function ! 📅 October 14–16, 2026 Focus: 3D genome organization | Chromatin dynamics | Computational modeling Register now symposia.smart.org.cn/sym/event/Fu... #SMARTSymposia #SMARTshenzhen #Genome #Genomes #Biophysics

👩‍🔬Calling all researchers! Are you interested in working on a project at Physics of Life? 🔬Our new Visitors Program will allow scientists to visit PoL for up to 6 months to pursue an interdisciplinary project, with their travel and accommodation covered. Learn more here and apply: tud.link/nasaw5

Our new preprint! 🧬✨ www.biorxiv.org/cgi/content/... @ynagata.bsky.social et al. combined single-nucleosome imaging with Fucci probes to follow local chromatin behavior during interphase. Local nucleosome motion stays nearly constant from G1 to G2, except in early G1. Thanks to all coauthors!

Exciting work! The authors conclude that condensin-mediated loop formation, Aurora B phosphorylation, and core histone deacetylation are not obligatory factors for mitotic chromosome compaction. Our Mg2+ model is discussed as the “last model standing.” www.cell.com/current-biol...

A Transient Rise in Free Mg2+ Ions Released from ATP-Mg Hydrolysis Contributes to Mitotic Chromosome Condensation

How the negatively charged long genomic DNA is organized into mitotic chromosome remains unclear. Using a newly developed Mg2+ indicator, Maeshima et al. demonstrate a transient rise in free Mg2+ rele...

cell.com

Molecular Cell@cp-molcell.bsky.social · 5mo ago

Online Now: A time-resolved atlas of histone modifications during mitotic entry Online now: