Nezha Benabdallah
@nsbenab.bsky.social
Group leader at the University of Edinburgh. Chromatin, Gene Regulation & Sarcoma https://www.benabdallah-lab.com/
Reactivation of mammalian regeneration by turning on an evolutionarily disabled genetic switch www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...
Reactivation of mammalian regeneration by turning on an evolutionarily disabled genetic switch
Mammals display prominent diversity in the ability to regenerate damaged ear pinna, but the genetic changes underlying the failure of regeneration remain elusive. We performed comparative single-cell ...
science.org
Our new study led by Dr. David Kirsch @uhn.ca @uhnresearch.ca describes an innovative dual recombinase preclinical model of CIC::DUX4 sarcoma, an aggressive cancer affecting young adults, and identifies a promising treatment approach in lab models. doi.org/10.1172/jci2...
"Somewhere in a university shared drive, there is probably an Athena Swan action plan that took months to produce, drew on years of data, involved hours of unpaid or under-recognised labour, and identified inequalities that everyone agreed mattered." This really hit home.
Wonkhe@wonkhe.bsky.social · 3w agoNEW on Wonkhe: How do we move from collecting evidence and designing frameworks to meaningful transformation? Lauren Flannery and Helen Leggett look for accountability for equalities work buff.ly/fjZhGND
The @US_FDA granted traditional approval to the targeted therapy selpercatinib for patients 2 and older with advanced solid tumors that have a RET gene fusion whose disease progressed on or following systemic treatment or who have no alternative options: buff.ly/Od4Phzl
FDA grants traditional approval to selpercatinib for locally advanced
FDA grants traditional approval to selpercatinib for locally advanced or metastatic RET fusion-positive solid tumors
fda.gov
The FDA has granted full approval for an engineered cell therapy called afamitresgene autoleuecel (Tecelra®, also known as afami-cel) for treating advanced synovial sarcoma. More about the clinical trials resulting in the drug’s approval, led by MSK's Dr. Sandra D’Angelo: https://bit.ly/4eVcTZ4
1/ Very excited to share the first publication from my lab! In this work, we developed an efficient strategy to precisely mutate mammalian histone genes in their native genomic context using CRISPR prime editing: www.nature.com/articles/s41...
Identifying critical lysines in mammalian histone H3 with high-throughput CRISPR prime editing - Nature Genetics
This study uses a precise and efficient clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats (CRISPR) prime editing system to substitute lysine residues in histone H3, individually or in combinat...
nature.com
Very honoured that the lab has been selected as the first UK Center for Excellence by the CdLS foundation www.cdlsusa.org/centers-for-.... We aim to advance knowledge about this genetic condition and to explore similarities to other rare genetic disorders that affect gene regulation.
Centers for Excellence | CdLS Foundation
Our expanded Centers of Excellence network is here — 8 designated centers, 10+ lead investigators, and the people turning lived experience into discovery. See who's part of Mission Possible.
cdlsusa.org
Each year, we highlight companies that received sizeable early-stage funding in the previous year. Trogenix's platform for generating ‘synthetic super-enhancers’ could drive highly cell-specific gene therapy-based treatment of solid tumors such as glioblastoma www.nature.com/articles/s41...
Editor’s pick: Trogenix - Nature Biotechnology
Each year, Nature Biotechnology highlights companies that received sizeable early-stage funding in the previous year. Trogenix has developed a platform for generating ‘synthetic super-enhancers’ that ...
nature.com
How do cells combine cell-intrinsic & tissue-level cues create stable patterns during intestinal regeneration? 🤔 Our paper w/ @cschwayer.bsky.social @silviabarbiero.bsky.social @ehannezo.bsky.social @priscaliberali.bsky.social is out! 🥳 A thread on the theory part 🧵⬇️ www.cell.com/cell/fulltex...
Multiscale integration of tissue and chromatin context converts cell heterogeneity into stable intestinal patterning
During regeneration, tissues must translate transient cellular variability into stable spatial organization. Tissue architecture generates a density-dependent window of heterogeneity in the mechanosen...
cell.com
“It’s just a microscopic water droplet surrounded by a fatty membrane and stuffed with chemicals and snippets of DNA encoding a mere 36 genes. But it’s also arguably the closest researchers have come to building a living cell from scratch.”🧪 My story in @science.org on a fascinating preprint:
Lab-created ‘SpudCell’ marks ‘stunning’ step toward building life from scratch
A synthetic cell can now grow and divide—but it’s still far from alive
science.org
Where Igor Ademeyko @adameykolab.bsky.social walks us through a beautiful scenario of what the hell neural crest cells are, co-option, and the camouflage hypothesis. With special mention of Rohon-Beard neurons! 🧪🐟
Co-option and innovation in neural crest evolution
Neural crest evolution reassembled ancient programs in pigment cell lineage, resulting in vertebrate innovations.
science.org
I have been thinking since yesterday about why I find the 1% thing so, so disturbing. It's a visceral reaction of 'just no', which goes beyond the general yuck towards the enshittification of/via AI. I have finally put my finger on it: it is the feeling you get when
Congratulations to Professor Andrew Jackson who has been awarded a 2.5 million euros @erc.europa.eu Advanced Grant to study the 'Mechanisms of Epigenetic Ageing and Sizing' #ERCAdG Read more 👉 edin.ac/4uMJULv @cmvm-edinburghuni.bsky.social
I know it seems like a heretical idea, but one way to figure out if a preprint is really interesting (to you) is... to read the preprint. Then, in the spirit of sharing, send a note to authors: a simple kudos or a more detailed question. I do this a dozen times a year. It's awesome. Try it.
When reality surpasses fiction! Top: fictional forecast for August 2050, broadcast by French TV in 2014 to warn about the consequences of global warming. Bottom: Real French forecast for yesterday, June 22, 2026.
Programming and reprogramming living systems take center stage at the #mdcBerlin Bioengineering Symposium 2026. Our speakers will share insights from synthetic biology, immunology, and systems biology. 🗓️ July 6 | Berlin-Buch More info and registration: 👉 www.mdc-berlin.de/BioE-2026 👈
Let's step inside a neuron together, and ask, "how did all this get here?" 🤔 In this review, I trace the history and transformations of a neuron's molecules, pay homage to major discoveries in brain development ... and make a call to action for neuroscience. www.annualreviews.org/content/jour...
The Translation of Genetic Information in Neurodevelopment
Neurodevelopment is the transformation of genetic information into diverse neuronal phenotypes. Developmental signals initiate patterns of gene transcription and translation that drive progenitors tow...
annualreviews.org
Online today @natcellbio.nature.com! The Cai Lab discovered a type of large condensate in the nucleus of renal cell carcinoma cells with high levels of the TEAD1 transcription factor that are different than previously characterized transcriptional condensates (1/3)
Discovery of Condensate ‘Storage Units’ in Cells Points to New Cancer Research and Treatment Targets | Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health
Clusters storing gene activators near inactive regions of DNA in cell nuclei could illuminate cancer biology.
publichealth.jhu.edu
Really good well balanced piece about the place of interviewing in grants (well, my remarks are not particularly well balanced, but the piece is!). Featuring @kirstygrainger.bsky.social too 🙂 www.researchprofessionalnews.com/rr-news-worl...
Can ‘high-stress’ interviews for grants save a system under pressure? - Research Professional News
Funders are using interviews to manage demand, but some worry about the consequences for applicants
researchprofessionalnews.com
📢 We are looking for a Junior Group Leader to join us at @institutcurie.bsky.social! Having joined the department just over a year ago, I can honestly say that it is an exceptionally stimulating and supportive scientific environment, filled with outstanding colleagues — all in the heart of Paris.
Excited to share the first pre-print from our lab!! Check it out here! www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6... We found that many RNA-binding proteins canonically understood to regulate RNA processing can also function like transcription factors and cofactors to directly regulate transcription.
Excited to share our new paper at Cell Reports @cp-cellreports.bsky.social led by fantastic Gabe Dolsten! We characterized multi-megabase and interchromosomal chromatin interactions in primary T cells, revealing a previously underappreciated layer of genome organization: doi.org/10.1016/j.ce...
⚡New preprint from the lab⚡: A key early checkpoint in gene expression is promoter proximal pausing of RNA polymerase II. For over 20 years, we as field have not been able to recreate pausing under realistic cellular conditions. @robertovn.bsky.social shows that ELOF1 is the missing piece.
Roberto Vázquez Núñez@robertovn.bsky.social · 2mo ago🚨 New preprint: GATO-seq did it again! ELOF1 is the missing promoter-proximal factor that confers RNA Pol II resistance to TFIIF. Including ELOF1, DSIF, and NELF in GATO-seq reactions recapitulates promoter-proximal pausing in vitro at physiological conditions for the 1st time. tinyurl.com/ELOF1
Help please! We need to do some large(ish) cell culture inhibiting E-cadherin with a monoclonal antibody. Does anyone have the DECMA-1 hybridoma cell line so we could purify our own antibody? or a similar monoclonal that would do the job. Any help greatly appreciated, just DM me. Please repost!
Excited to share our first story led by @martinacapriati.bsky.social! How do cells control the expression of viability genes? We find that single transcription factors can drive both chromatin opening and gene activation from densely co-bound CpG island promoters, including at essential genes
If it walks like a duck and develops like a duck ... the enhancers might still align to humans 🥚🦆 (chicken, actually, but you get the picture) Fun collaboration led by Stella Kyomen and @marketa-kau.bsky.social at @mpi-evolbio.bsky.social
MPI for Evolutionary Biology@mpi-evolbio.bsky.social · 3mo agoFacial diversity in birds and mammals doesn’t just come from different signals – but from how cells respond to them. A new study in Science Advances shows evolution acts on both: signal placement and cellular interpretation. More Info: www.evolbio.mpg.de/3879733/news... @marketa-kau.bsky.social
If you want to know what 3′UTRs with long conserved sequence stretches do, check out our BioRxiv preprint doi.org/10.64898/202.... They form functional intermolecular 3′UTR-3′UTR interactions that enable co-folding of proteins to rapidly induce transcriptional programs.
#RIP Pierre Chambon (1931-2026) 1963 PARP 1970 RNA Pol II 1975 Nucleosome 1977 Split genes 1980 Promoter 1983 enhancer 1986 Nuclear receptor
This a very important, and extremely well-executed study from Ralph Grand’s group @uniheidelberg.bsky.social. Congrats to all the authors! www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...
