For more of our thoughts on the topic I also want to highlight again our review article, where we discuss many of the questions that led to this project: www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Divergence and conservation of the meiotic recombination machinery - Nature Reviews Genetics

In this Review, the authors describe the evolutionary conservation and divergence of the meiotic recombination machinery, focusing on proteins that are required for meiotic double-strand break formati...

nature.com

The main project of my postdoc with @spo11rulz.bsky.social is now available on bioRxiv! By systematically integrating structural information with molecular evolution analyses, we gained new fascinating insights into the evolution of key meiotic recombination proteins: www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

Check this out. @artermeret.bsky.social and @spo11rulz.bsky.social cleverly used protein structural information to pinpoint the action of selection and evolutionary constraints in 3D space on meiotic recombination proteins.

Meret Arter@artermeret.bsky.social · 9mo ago

The main project of my postdoc with @spo11rulz.bsky.social is now available on bioRxiv! By systematically integrating structural information with molecular evolution analyses, we gained new fascinating insights into the evolution of key meiotic recombination proteins: www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

New review about DNA double-strand break resection during meiosis, with @alhajijoker.bsky.social and Soonjoung Kim. Please check it out: www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

Insight into Meiotic DNA End Resection: Mechanisms and Regulation

Meiosis generates reproductive cells with a reduced genome complement, with most species using homologous recombination to promote accurate meiotic ch…

sciencedirect.com

Please repost: I'm looking for suggestions for activities (scientific, social, team-building, whatever) for a lab retreat. What worked well in retreats you've been to? (I put this on Twitter a while ago and got some great responses, but lost the info when I deleted that account.)

Amidst all the terrible and terrifying news, so lovely to hear of @jkpritch.bsky.social's election to the National Academy of Sciences. Congratulations!

Proud of PhD student Zack Zheng for his successful thesis defense today. Here's the cake to prove it...

>1900 members of the National Academies of Science, Engineering & Medicine issued a statement supporting science for the benefit of all citizens, and ... 1/2 docs.google.com/document/d/1...

Public Statement on Supporting Science for the Benefit of All Citizens

TO THE AMERICAN PEOPLE We all rely on science. Science gave us the smartphones in our pockets, the navigation systems in our cars, and life-saving medical care. We count on engineers when we drive acr...

docs.google.com

Pro tip: if you have a really important zoom interview, double check that you are not in the same room as a cat that is likely to start crying to be let out #HypotheticallySpeaking

MSK has been recognized as one of the national's top workplaces for inclusion and diversity by @newsweek.com magazine. 🎉 MSK earned five stars, the highest ranking, among mid to large employers in America. Learn more: www.newsweek.com/rankings/ame...

America's Greatest Workplaces for Inclusion & Diversity 2025

Newsweek is partnering with Plant-A Insights Group to honor America's Greatest Workplaces for Inclusion & Diversity 2025. These companies are committed to fostering an inclusive and diverse work envir...

newsweek.com

Cell-free system enables detailed study of the role of SPO11 in meiosis www.nature.com/articles/d41... www.nature.com/articles/s41... www.nature.com/articles/s41... www.nature.com/articles/s41... @ccb-lab.bsky.social @spo11rulz.bsky.social

Key process in sex-cell formation can finally be studied in vitro

Activity of the purified SPO11 enzyme reconstituted in cell-free system.

nature.com

Our latest preprint describes methods and tools that enable >99% efficient short homology-dependent genome editing in the human fungal pathogen Cryptococcus neoformans. Congratulations to Matt, Sanjita, and Manning! www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

Near 100% efficient homology-dependent genome engineering in the human fungal pathogen Cryptococcus neoformans

We recently described CRISPR/Cas9-based short homology-dependent genome engineering in the human fungal pathogen Cryptococcus neoformans , a haploid budding yeast that is the most common cause of fung...

biorxiv.org

the version of record (VoR) of our most recent paper has been published @elife.bsky.social! 🎉🥳 🧪 elifesciences.org/articles/102...

The conserved ATPase PCH-2 controls the number and distribution of crossovers by antagonizing their formation in Caenorhabditis elegans

By regulating the chromosome axis component and meiotic HORMAD, HIM-3, the conserved AAA-ATPase PCH-2 controls the number and distribution of meiotic recombination events.

elifesciences.org

Needhi Bhalla 💅🏽@needhibhalla.bsky.social · 2y ago

We have updated our preprint, in response to reviews organized by @elife.bsky.social: www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1... 🧪 #Meiosis4Eva

Sadly, our colleague and friend Scott Hawley passed away this morning. He was an irreplaceable presence and force for good in the meiosis an Drosophila communities and will be sorely missed.

Feeling very lost today with the news of the passing of my undergrad advisor Scott Hawley. He had a huge impact on the field and on me personally. He was the first person to see me as a scientist and gave me the confidence to apply to grad school. I am so grateful to be a part of his legacy.

New year, new beginnings! 🎉 The Aviram Lab will officially open its doors on March 1st @mskcancercenter.bsky.social! We’ll study microbial immune systems and their connection to fundamental cellular processes like #RNA transcription and #DNA integrity. #NewPI #AcademicSky #WomenInSTEM (1/2)

Bioart, courtesy of the NIH. All images are in the public domain and available for download as high-quality SVGs. bioart.niaid.nih.gov

Delighted to share the ground-breaking work from BBSRC Discovery Fellow @whgittens.bsky.social mapping physiological Top2 activity without poisons. Acute sensitivity enables sub-minute visualisation of Top2 hotspots hidden within sites of latent topological stress: www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Osmotic disruption of chromatin induces Topoisomerase 2 activity at sites of transcriptional stress - Nature Communications

Transcription creates superhelical stress in DNA, challenging genome stability. Here the authors find Top2 activity is uncorrelated with transcription unless chromatin is disrupted suggesting that chr...

nature.com

Shoutout to the unknown artist and their work in the mskcc elevator this morning 😂

Our latest paper showing that DNA nicks drive expansions of both normal and disease-size alleles. All credit goes to a fantastic graduate student Liangzi Li as well as to a terrific team of current and former undergraduate and graduate students in the lab. www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/pnas.2413298121

Recurrent DNA nicks drive massive expansions of (GAA)n repeats | PNAS

Over 50 hereditary degenerative disorders are caused by expansions of short tandem DNA repeats (STRs). (GAA)n repeat expansions are responsible for...

pnas.org

Pretty excited to see our review & DNA Typewriter covered by NY Times! Perhaps too much excitement for one Monday 🥲 www.nytimes.com/2024/11/25/s...

‘DNA Typewriters’ Can Record a Cell’s History

Labs around the world are trying to turn cells into autobiographers, tracking their own development from embryos to adults.

nytimes.com

To journal editorial folks: If your journal doesn't already, please consider changing your work flow to return to authors at the proof stage a copy-edited version of their paper with editors' changes tracked. Just caught a major editor's mistake in some proofs.

🎨 In case anyone need… The NIH BioArt Source is an awesome library of *free* professionally drawn illustrations for scientific presentations or figures. Downloadable in HD. Thank you NIH for this invaluable tool 🙏! Check it out 👇 bioart.niaid.nih.gov

Hi Bluesky. For my first post, I'd like to advertise the latest preprint from my lab, describing at long last our reconstitution of SPO11-dependent double-strand break formation from purified recombinant proteins. Outstanding work from PhD student Zhi (Zack) Zheng.

Hello Bluesky, for my first post here I'm happy to share our latest preprint reporting the first biochemical reconstitution of DNA double-strand break formation by SPO11. SPO11 dimerization controls meiotic DNA double-strand break formation. www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

SPO11 dimerization controls meiotic DNA double-strand break formation

SPO11 initiates meiotic recombination through the induction of programmed DNA double-strand breaks (DSBs), but this catalytic activity had never been reconstituted in vitro. Here, using Mus musculus S...

biorxiv.org