Max Wilkinson
@maxewilkinson.bsky.social
keen on reverse transcription | also keen on spliceosomes | cryoEM dabbler Assistant Member @MSKCC Formerly post-doc @MIT Formerly-formerly PhD @MRC_LMB Formerly formerly-formerly Otago Uni Kiwi 🥝 🇳🇿 https://wilkinsonlab.bio/
With Eugene Koonin, we wrote a rather comprehensive review on the origin, evolution and organization of the #virosphere. We describe all 10 viral realms and the logic behind them, and so much more. Check it out! comptes-rendus.academie-sciences.fr/biologies/ar...
I am so excited to share our new findings with you! We provide the structural evidence for a direct protein-to-DNA information pathway, showing how a bacterial enzyme 'reads' its own structure to 'write' DNA. www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...
New post-doctoral research position in my phage-host interactions (Phi) laboratory in @otagomicroimmuno.bsky.social at @universityofotago.bsky.social New Zealand. The project is focused on defences against jumbo phages. Please share and if interested apply using the link in the comments.
If you want to explore ncRNA dynamics during mammalian development, love microscopy, and are not afaraid of transposons biology, apply‼️ We are looking for a postdoc to join our team at @imbavienna.bsky.social More details 👇🏻
Institute of Molecular Biotechnology@imbavienna.bsky.social · 5mo agoWe are hiring! Join the Jachowicz lab as a postdoctoral researcher. The project focuses on understanding the dynamics of ncRNAs using high-resolution and single-molecule microscopy approaches. Link below 👇
this was such fun to help with. Lead author @glennli.bsky.social is a phenomenon! There were many surprises and twists in this story. It's a great example of the value of diving deeply into strange observations.
David Bartel's Lab@bartellab.bsky.social · 6mo agoWe’re excited to share our latest preprint on the mechanism of excised linear intron stabilization in yeast! This work was led by PhD student @glennli.bsky.social and was a wonderful collaboration with @maxewilkinson.bsky.social. Link: www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6... (1/4)
I am so excited to share our project with you! We find prokaryotic proteases activate toxic enzymes and pores as a modular strategy in phage defense. We studied four fascinating protease-toxin pairs that are abundant across bacterial genomes: www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
Proteolytic activation of diverse antiviral defense modules in prokaryotes
Linked protease–effector modules are widespread in prokaryotic antiviral defense, yet the mechanisms of most remain poorly understood. Here we show that four of the most prevalent modules—metallo-β-la...
biorxiv.org
The Wilkinson Lab is open for science! @mskcancercenter.bsky.social 🧬We'll be finding funky new RNA biology, mainly by looking at reverse transcriptases (i.e. the Best Enzymes In The World)🧬 annnd: I'm hiring - come join! Especially postdocs and PhD students - please get in touch (NYC is great)
Wilkinson Lab
We discover and study reverse transcriptases
wilkinsonlab.bio
a highly attractive hypothesis for the origin of telomerase, but imo more evidence is needed to rule out convergent evolution 1- other RT phylogenies place TERT within eukaryotic retroelement clades 2- template jumping could plausibly evolve into repeat synthesis activity multiple independent times
Sternberg Lab@sternberglab.bsky.social · 10mo ago1/10 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...
Public access to the first fly connectome that spans the whole CNS - BANC!: codex.flywire.ai?dataset=banc Different from prior connectomes - it is brain + cord (think spinal cord) We use it to ‘embody’ the system and find it resembles ‘subsumption architecture’ doi.org/10.1101/2025...
If you like transposons... If you you love genome editing... Or if you just like random bird animations, we have the paper for you! We (@kedmonds.bsky.social et al) are happy to share our work turning a songbird retrotransposon into a genome editing tool. 🐣 (1/n)
Nice visit to the lovely Princeton campus. Could not be prouder of @automnenine.bsky.social. For those who are looking for a postdoc, there are exciting opportunities to join his lab!
Ridiculously good work by George on LINE-1 retrotransposition! Also the paper is an inspiring read - there's some really super biochem in it
George Ghanim@automnenine.bsky.social · last yr.Did you know that two jumping sequences (LINE-1 and Alu) make up nearly 30% of our genomes? Ever wonder how they jump into new genomic sites? We have some exciting discoveries to share new in @science.org on the structural mechanisms of LINE-1 retrotransposition (aka jumping 🧬➡️🧬) 🧪 #ScienceResearch
we recently found some really neat RNA-guided DNA-cutting systems in phages. Despite remarkable similarities to CRISPR systems, including encoding guide RNAs in arrays, they appear entirely evolutionarily distinct (but definitely related to snoRNAs 🤓) We decided to call them TIGR-Tas systems 🐯
please go check out this glowing pink blob and what it does to the shiny gold blob (it's a spliceosome! Truly it was a nostalgic pleasure to help out with this paper, a super fun collaboration with @uwmadisonrna.bsky.social & Kathy and Karli)
eLife@elife.bsky.social · 2y agoA splicing factor called Fyv6 controls the selection of 3ʹ splice sites in yeast. https://buff.ly/49aQvWQ
gonna start shamelessly crossposting some of my molecular movies from the Other Place. Starting with my favourite: showing how wacky reverse transcription can defeat viruses. Bonus: some noises 🎹🎻
Our fly brain connectome papers are now live (www.nature.com/immersive/d4...), and is getting traction (www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...). With ~139k neurons, >8k cell types, synapses annotated, transmitters predicted, ~134 evo-devo units denoted, so much is now possible in the fly.
