Online Now: A dynamic RNA hub facilitates activation-induced cytidine deaminase recruitment to the immunoglobulin heavy-chain locus Online now:

A dynamic RNA hub facilitates activation-induced cytidine deaminase recruitment to the immunoglobulin heavy-chain locus

Mikhova et al. used live-cell single-molecule imaging to track the nuclear dynamics of AID and switch region transcription in B cells undergoing class switch recombination and discovered an RNA hub formed by tethered nascent transcripts that facilitates the recruitment and retention of AID at the IgH locus.

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We are looking to hire 2 postdoctoral fellows to study the molecular mechanisms underlying class switch recombination using advanced single-molecule imaging techniques in living B Cells. The positions are fully funded and will build on our findings published today in Molecular Cell. Please Share!

Jens Schmidt@jenscs83.bsky.social · last mo.

Out today in Molecular Cell! Lead by Mariia Mikhova and in collaboration with Kefei Yu’s lab @msumgi.bsky.social we dug into the molecular mechanism of class switch recombination in B cells using simultaneous RNA and protein single-molecule imaging. 1/n www.cell.com/molecular-ce...

Out today in Molecular Cell! Lead by Mariia Mikhova and in collaboration with Kefei Yu’s lab @msumgi.bsky.social we dug into the molecular mechanism of class switch recombination in B cells using simultaneous RNA and protein single-molecule imaging. 1/n www.cell.com/molecular-ce...

A dynamic RNA hub facilitates activation-induced cytidine deaminase recruitment to the immunoglobulin heavy-chain locus

Mikhova et al. used live-cell single-molecule imaging to track the nuclear dynamics of AID and switch region transcription in B cells undergoing class switch recombination and discovered an RNA hub fo...

cell.com

(1/n) Very excited to share tri-lab collab (Mirny & Zechner) led by Harvey, Henrik & Jack: Q: How do enhancers & promoters interact in space (contact vs. action-at-a-distance) and time (stable vs. transient)? A: Transient E-P contact (~25-42 nm lasting ~10-20 sec): www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...

New paper! How do RNAs "know" where to go inside a cell? We dug into the sequence elements that route RNAs to the right place. It turns out that, in mammals, they're surprisingly massive (>200 nt), multipartite, and wonderfully complicated. 🧵

I am looking to recruit 2 postdoctoral fellows to the lab to work on a recently funded project focused on class switch recombination in B cells. If you are interested in immunology, gene expression, and RNA and protein single molecule imaging, please reach out (schmi706@msu.edu). Please share!

Excited to finally share our preprint on mapping the genetic interaction network of the DNA damage response with combinatorial knockout screens led by Sam Hayward, Alina Vaitsiankova, and Tomas Lama-Diaz! www.biorxiv.org/cgi/content/...

Mapping the genetic landscape of the DNA damage response with Cas12a-based combinatorial knockout screens

The DNA damage response (DDR) is a complex network of cellular pathways that ensures the faithful maintenance of our genomes upon a wide array of genomic insults. To elucidate the functional architect...

biorxiv.org

🔥PREPRINT🔥: Metformin Redirects Autophagy from Bulk Turnover to Mitochondrial Clearance. www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6... This truly was a team effort. @kupharmchem.bsky.social

@science.org Evolution of error correction through a need for speed | Science #evolution 🧬🔬 www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

Evolution of error correction through a need for speed

Kinetic proofreading is a class of error-correcting mechanisms in biology that expend energy to avoid mistakes during replication, transcription, and translation. Proofreading is typically assumed to ...

science.org

New pre-print from the lab! Lead by Mariia Mikhova and in collaboration with Kefei Yu’s lab @msumgi.bsky.social we dug into the molecular mechanism of class switch recombination in B cells using simultaneous RNA and protein single-molecule imaging. 1/n www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...

www.colorado.edu/today/2026/0...

Tom Cech to Davos: RNA research is 'still a big deal'

The Nobel laureate and CU Boulder professor, recently ranked #1 globally for RNA research, will speak at the World Economic Forum annual meeting in Davos,

colorado.edu

New @natcomms.nature.com paper today from Tracy Bryan's lab @cmri.bsky.social: "Nuclear actin and DNA replication stress regulate telomere maintenance by telomerase". Happy our lab could play a small part. Congrats Tracy, Ash Harman, Noa Lamm and the whole team. www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Nuclear actin and DNA replication stress regulate telomere maintenance by telomerase - Nature Communications

Telomerase recruitment to telomeres is a tightly regulated process which is stimulated by replication stress. Here, the authors identify that nuclear filamentous actin is important for interaction bet...

nature.com

New lab preprint! ERCC6L2 disease is a recessive bone marrow failure syndrome caused by mutations in the putative DNA helicase ERCC6L2. Using mouse genetics, biochemistry and AF3 we uncover ERCC6L2-MRI as a KU-regulatory complex stimulating NHEJ at staggered DSBs: www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

The ERCC6L2-MRI-KU complex coordinates NHEJ at staggered DNA double-strand breaks

ERCC6L2 disease is a recessive bone marrow failure (BMF) syndrome caused by mutations in the SNF2-like putative DNA helicase ERCC6L2. While implicated in DNA replication, double strand break (DSB) rep...

biorxiv.org

New Print Alert! A fun collab with Kathy Meek at MSU. Led by talented bioinformatician Giovanni Pascarella we demonstrate that Ku70/80 binds intronic antisense Alu elements to inhibit cryptic splice sites. For details see the thread below! 1/n www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

Ku limits aberrant mRNA splicing promoted by intronic antisense Alu elements

Alu elements are short repeats that occupy approximately 10% of the human genome. Saturation of primate genomes with Alu sequences occurred at the prosimian/new-world monkey evolutionary juncture. Alu...

biorxiv.org

Our paper in Science is out! @souravagrawal.bsky.social, @rlynn.bsky.social, @susvirkar.bsky.social, and the rest of the team show human RPA is a telomerase processivity factor essential for telomere maintenance. This reshapes our thinking about telomerase regulation. www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

Human RPA is an essential telomerase processivity factor for maintaining telomeres

Telomerase counteracts telomere shortening by repeatedly adding DNA repeats to chromosome ends. We identified the replication protein A (RPA) heterotrimer as a telomerase processivity factor critical ...

science.org

"Our findings uncovered a species survival strategy in which telomerase RNA extends telomeres for the next generation by hitchhiking on introns of germline-expressed genes." 🤯 #Celegans 🧪

Nematode telomerase RNA hitchhikes on introns of germline–up-regulated genes

Telomerase is a ribonucleoprotein complex that elongates telomeric DNA, ensuring germline immortality. In this study, we identified the Caenorhabditis elegans telomerase RNA component 1 (terc-1), as t...

science.org

1/10 Genome maintenance by telomerase is a fundamental process in nearly all eukaryotes. But where does it come from? Today, we report the discovery of telomerase homologs in a family of antiviral RTs, revealing an unexpected evolutionary origin in bacteria. www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

Antiviral reverse transcriptases reveal the evolutionary origin of telomerase

Defense-associated reverse transcriptases (DRTs) employ diverse and distinctive mechanisms of cDNA synthesis to protect bacteria against viral infection. However, much of DRT family diversity remains ...

biorxiv.org

🚨 Excited to share my main postdoc work from the @jenscs83.bsky.social lab, now out in Cell Reports! 👉 www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti... We dissect how shelterin proteins organize at telomeres in human cancer cells—revealing distinct subcomplexes that maintain chromosome ends. 🧵

TRF1 and TRF2 form distinct shelterin subcomplexes at telomeres

The shelterin complex protects chromosome ends from aberrant DNA repair and regulates telomerase access to telomeres. Shelterin is composed of six pro…

sciencedirect.com

Find the plasmids here! www.addgene.org/Francesca_Bo... Thanks for sharing protocols and materials!

Fran Bottanelli@franbottanelli.bsky.social · 12mo ago

Our protocol for gene editing is online and all plasmids are on @addgene.bsky.social! CRISPR away everybody and get in touch if you need anything 🤩

Our protocol for gene editing is online and all plasmids are on @addgene.bsky.social! CRISPR away everybody and get in touch if you need anything 🤩

STAR Protocols@cp-starprotocols.bsky.social · 12mo ago

Protocol for fast antibiotic resistance-based gene editing of mammalian cells with CRISPR-Cas9 #protocol #starprotocols #cellpress

New preprint! We solve a mystery you didn't know existed. Mitotic cells lack new transcription but require ongoing translation. Interphase mRNA half life is only 2-4 hrs. So how do cells arrest in mitosis for hours without depleting their transcriptomes? www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

Global inhibition of deadenylation stabilizes the transcriptome in mitotic cells

In the presence of cell division errors, mammalian cells can pause in mitosis for tens of hours with little to no transcription, while still requiring continued translation for viability. These unique...

biorxiv.org

Excited this study is out - we helped with an experiment on Paxx www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Dynamic assemblies and coordinated reactions of non-homologous end joining - Nature

Structures associated with the final steps of non-homologous end joining (NHEJ) and gap filling present new targets for NHEJ inhibition to enhance efficacy of radiotherapy and accuracy of gene editing...

nature.com

New pre-print! Ryan Kim et al distinguish the roles of the Spindle Assembly Checkpoint as a surveillance pathway only triggered by mitotic errors vs a mitotic timer that is required in every cell division. www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

The 3rd Berlin Single Molecule Biophysics Course will run from 8th to 12th September at the HU-Berlin, Institute of Biology. Learn about single channels, single molecule TIRF, theory and analysis. Apply by 7th July at bsmbc@icloud.com. Fee waivers and bursaries available. ! Please share widely !

Are you looking for a faculty job? We are hiring in my department at Roswell Park NOW. Contact me for details as I await the formal ad. (Please RT.)

🧪 #neurology #neuroskyence tinyurl.com/bp5d8386 Another beautiful example of NIH-SPONSORED bedside to bench and back to bedside work from an outstanding clinician scientist. This work is producing some of the most compelling responses to treatment in what is arguably the worst pediatric brain tumor.

‘The first experiments produced just jaw-dropping results’

Stanford neuro-oncologist Michelle Monje is pursuing a cure for a deadly pediatric brain cancer – and reshaping our understanding of how cancer and brain development intersect.

tinyurl.com

New preprint from the lab @kaelamakins.bsky.social Genetic interactions between 53BP1-RIF1 and DNA-PKcs for DSB repair outcomes. www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

53BP1/RIF1 and DNA-PKcs show distinct genetic interactions with diverse chromosomal break repair outcomes.

DNA double strand breaks (DSBs) are the effective lesion of cancer radiotherapy and induce gene editing. 53BP1 accumulates at DSBs and is implicated in end joining (EJ) repair, but its influence on DS...

biorxiv.org

A great end to another Telomeres CSH meeting! It was nice to see and discuss science with many colleagues. With @cijilim.bsky.social @jenscs83.bsky.social, Stone, Nandakumar, Zappulla labs at banquet

🧵1/ 🚨Check out our significantly updated preprint, now out on @biorxivpreprint.bsky.social. Together with Sasi Conte lab, we characterize a novel role for intrinsically disordered regions (IDRs) in promoting RNA-binding selectivity in RNA binding proteins (RBPs): www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

An intrinsically disordered region mediates RNA-binding selectivity and pro-oncogenic activities of LARP6

Intrinsically disordered regions (IDRs) are prevalent in RNA-binding proteins (RBPs), yet their roles in RNA interactions remain poorly defined. Here, we examined the structured and disordered RNA-bin...

biorxiv.org

And on other news. My first contribution to science as a postdoc with @stirlingchurchman.bsky.social is out! We discuss the knowns and unknowns of post-transcriptional splicing. It was really fun to write with the great @karinechoquet

Nature Reviews Genetics@natrevgenet.nature.com · last yr.

New online! The regulation and function of post-transcriptional RNA splicing