Preprint alert! 🚨 We are very excited to share our new manuscript on Bohring-Opitz syndrome, a devastating rare monogenic disorder driven by truncating variants in ASXL1. This project was led by PhD student Emma Doyle, one of the OG Conway lab members 💪. 1/6 www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...

Divergent Pathogenic PR-DUB Complex Variants Converge Functionally Via PRC2 Displacement From Chromatin

The PR-DUB complex is responsible for erasing the repressive histone modification, H2AK119ub1. ASXL1-3 proteins are mutually exclusive catalytic partners of BAP1 in the PR-DUB complex. Somatic heteroz...

biorxiv.org

(2/2) www.nature.com/articles/s41...

SUMOylation enhances DNMT1 function to repress mega-intergenic RNAs and viral mimicry - Nature Genetics

This study uses a highly selective inhibitor to elucidate DNMT1’s specific functions and their regulation. Notably, RFN4-mediated SUMOylation enhances DNMT1 mobility and DNA methylation, thereby promo...

nature.com

Does every enhancer work with every promoter? With @jengreitz.bsky.social and Will Greenleaf, we revisit this long-debated question and resolve an outstanding contradiction in the field. A tour 🧵👇 www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...

Intrinsic promoter responsiveness dictates sensitivity to transcriptional activation by enhancers

Enhancers activate specific target promoters, but whether intrinsic enhancer-promoter compatibility contributes to this specificity is debated. Recent studies using different reporter assays have reac...

biorxiv.org

Independent of sequence, disordered regions promote the stable chromatin occupancy required for pioneer-factor activity www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

Excited to share this preprint!! with @brandonscooper.bsky.social and Bill Sullivan We tested whether endosymbiotic Wolbachia can alter host gene expression through chromatin modifications that persist from spermatogenesis to adulthood.

bioRxivpreprint@biorxivpreprint.bsky.social · 2mo ago

Wolbachia-induced cytoplasmic incompatibility produces heritable chromatin modifications that suppress position-effect variegation https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.06.12.731975v1

‪doi: doi.org/10.1038/s414... 📣 Our study is now out in Nature Communications detailing that the type I interferon pathway is suppressed by HUSH in early human development: Its complete epigenetic lockdown!! Incredible work from James Holt 📣 😎

Sub-cellular architectures arise through integrating signaling and structure. @edenchang.bsky.social and @zjmaggiexu.bsky.social show how coupling reaction-diffusion signaling to protein condensation provides a tunable, regulatable landscape for sub-cellular structure www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...

A strong hint from human genetics that changes in DNA methylation may be causal for normal aging. This is the direction that aging (and cancer) research needs to go! www.nature.com/articles/s41...

A progeria syndrome links DNA hypermethylation to age-related pathology - Nature Genetics

This study investigates the consequences of hypermethylation in a progeria syndrome caused by gain-of-function DNMT3A mutations, finding effects on adult stem cell function.

nature.com

Our new Review is out now! @carolinedean.bsky.social @miguelmontez.bsky.social We discuss how plants monitor seasonal temperature exposure, highlighting interconnected mechanisms of short-term transcriptional regulation & long-term epigenetic memory rdcu.be/fnLmG 🌱❄️

Here is our article published in Nature Comm, on new players in chromatin dynamics after UV repair. This work highlights the histone chaperones DNAJC9 and MCM2 as central players in chromatin repair. Our proteomic dataset opens up new perspectives for dissecting epigenome maintenance mechanisms.

Proteomic profiling of UV damage repair patches uncovers histone chaperones with central functions in chromatin repair - Nature Communications

Chromatin states need to be maintained during DNA damage repair. Here, the authors expand the histone chaperone network involved in repair-coupled chromatin restoration and highlight a mechanistic coo...

nature.com

Yaay! Well done @bluebuleta.bsky.social and team! Great to see this work finally out! Read the paper to see how SETDB1 and HUSH regulate Xist transcription

Mafalda Almeida 🇵🇹 🇪🇺 🇬🇧@bluebuleta.bsky.social · 2mo ago

🧵 Happy to share that the final version of our study is finally out in @natcomms.nature.com today: www.nature.com/articles/s41... What started as an unexpected observation—that SETDB1 depletion accelerates X chromosome silencing—led us to uncover a role for SETDB1 in regulating Xist transcription.

We’ve recently been awarded a MIRA R35 and an R01 to study non-canonical roles and missense mutations of the Polycomb system in health, cancer, and neurodevelopmental disorders. We are seeking an animal tech with lab manager duties. Please share!

How do cells tune PRC2 allostery? We find EZH2 Ser21-phos restrains PRC2 adoption of the compact active state. Loss of this restraint promotes H3K27me3, redistributes cPRC1, and impairs differentiation. New bioRxiv with @kasinath-lab.bsky.social & @garcialabms.bsky.social! tinyurl.com/4369kmh2

Does PRC2 interact with RNA or is it an artefact? See our preprint showing how stringent denaturing purifications with spike-in controls support direct interaction between PRC2 and RNA in cells. www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...

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... 🧵

Why can't we explain enhancer action despite 2 decades of chromosome conformation technologies? 😬 Our new study spearheaded by Leonid Mirny's group points to a flaw in our assumptions, and to a solution from physical principles By @timothyfoldes.bsky.social 💻& @karissalhansen.bsky.social 🧪 🧵👇

Is distal gene activation by enhancers inherently different from promoter-proximal activation? We propose not. But both cohesin and cooperativity are important aspects of how transcription is affected. Happy to share our recent preprint (thread below) 1/ www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...

Delighted to share our lab's latest (w/ inimitable @genophoria.bsky.social) in final form at @nature.com. Enormous lift by Sean Wang, @palindromephd.bsky.social & @martyyang.bsky.social to address extensive & constructive reviewer comments & see this through. (1/n) www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Pervasive and programmed nucleosome distortion on single chromatin fibres - Nature

An analytical pipeline called Iteratively Defined Lengths of Inaccessibility (IDLI) maps the genome-wide occupancy of a range of nucleosome types and shows that most nucleosomes exhibit programmed ‘di...

nature.com

In a genome not so far away, the most elegant design in the galaxy was already wrapped into ~147 base pairs. #HappyNucleosomeDay, May-The-Fourth Be With You.

Alexis Verger 🧬🧫🧪@alexis-verger.cpesr.fr · 3mo ago

It's already back ???? #Maythe4thBeWithYou #MayThe4th #MayTheFourthBeWithYou Well, somebody has to do it @nucleosomepolice.bsky.social 🫣 poke @markhamillofficial.bsky.social Did you know that the nucleosome inspires the Millennium Falcon design and made the Kessel Run in less than 12 parsecs ?

Just look at this graph (Fig 5A,B from Koeber et al). Amazing. Congratulations to the Pollard lab and all authors. www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Excited to share our structural insights into how microtubules differentially guide phosphorylation of kinetochore-microtubule regulators, Ndc80 and MCAK, for chromosome segregation. Heroic efforts by Yiming Niu with a fun collaboration with Jennifer DeLuca lab! www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

Microtubules guide Aurora B substrate geometries for accurate chromosome segregation

Cryo-EM reveals how kinetochore-microtubule attachment is regulated by Aurora B substrate accessibility on microtubules.

science.org

The Rockefeller University @rockefeller.edu · 4mo ago

Microtubules have been viewed as passive structural supports, but a study from @hirofunabiki.bsky.social in @science.org Advances redefines microtubules as active regulators, helping to prevent abnormalities in the number of chromosomes, a hallmark of cancer. 🔗: https://bit.ly/4v8miCC

Within the field of transcription, the distinctive style of Mark Ptashne and Kevin Struhl stands out. At his best, Kevin Struhl provides a valuable clarification of the relationship between promoters and enhancers in the regulation of transcription. www.annualreviews.org/content/jour...

The Semantics and Mechanisms of Enhancers and Promoters: “What Is True for E. coli Is True for the Elephant, Only More So”

Three fundamental classes of gene regulatory elements were identified in Escherichia coli in the 1960s: operators bound by repressor proteins, promoters bound by the basic transcription machinery, and...

annualreviews.org

Our new preprint in collaboration with @meisterpeterf.bsky.social uncovers the molecular basis for condensin recruitment to X chromosomes in C. elegans and reveals atomic-level details of a previously unknown auto-inhibited state of condensin. www.biorxiv.org/cgi/content/short/2026.03.13.711519v1

Proud to share the yeast telomerase structure, led by the talented @hongmiaohu.bsky.social in collaboration with the Wellinger and Chartrand labs. Discovered 37 years ago and took us nearly 7 years but totally worth the wait 😍. www.science.org/doi/10.1126/... www.youtube.com/watch?v=gFE4...

Cryo-EM structure of yeast telomerase

YouTube video by MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology

youtube.com

MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology@mrclmb.ac.uk · 4mo ago

Led by Investigator Scientist @hongmiaohu.bsky.social, @kellythd-nguyen.bsky.social’s group in the LMB’s Structural Studies Division have produced the first ever structure of telomerase from yeast. Read more here: mrclmb.ac.uk/news-events/... #LMBResearch #cryoEM 🧪

Supercoiling not only brings DNA to life (and makes it dance) but also changes how key proteins such as #CRISPR interact with it. Thanks @qmsmith.bsky.social for the brilliant collaboration, Sylvia for developing an amazing new #imageanalysis pipeline & @eddierollins.bsky.social for beautiful #AFM.

Quentin Smith@qmsmith.bsky.social · 4mo ago

1/11 In our story out today in @nature.com , we showcase the molecular mechanisms that enable Cas9 to bind and cleave negatively supercoiled ((-)SC) off-targets! 🧬🧵 🔗 www.nature.com/articles/s41... #CRISPR #Cas9 #DNATopology #AFM #CryoEM #SingleMolecule #Biophysics

New preprint from our lab! An H3.3 knockout does two things at once: it removes H3.3 from chromatin and destabilizes DAXX. We disentangle those functions and find that DAXX-mediated H3.3 deposition can be uncoupled from ERV silencing. www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...

Polycomb repressive-deubiquitinase complex safeguards oocyte epigenome and female fertility by restraining Polycomb activity www.nature.com/articles/s4...

Happy 30th birthday to this paper published March 22, 1996, one of the studies that moved chromatin biology from correlation toward mechanism. Brownell et al. linked a transcription-associated Tetrahymena HAT to yeast Gcn5p, providing a biochemical link for chromatin modification to gene activation.

Just out! 👀 for TFs that regulate TEs.Clara's work with @tamas-schauer.bsky.social @marliesoomen.bsky.social @palmrinmoy.bsky.social and bluesky-less lab members 🌎 identifies TBP as a regulator of specific ERVL class: MaLRs in 🐭embryos -as always -feedback welcome👍 link.springer.com/article/10.1...

How to make a heterochromatin by major satellite repeats transcripts? www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Transcriptional competence defines the heterochromatin nucleating potential of isolated MSR units - Nature Communications

Multiple copies of intact MSR nucleate de novo heterochromatin and reveal that the establishment of mouse pericentric heterochromatin is associated with bidirectional repeat RNA, Integrator complex en...

nature.com