Woolfe et al, 2026. Decoding the mystery of ultra-conservation in developmental enhancers: a role for nucleosome positioning, DNA structure and transcription factor binding www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6... ▶️conserved non-coding elements ... favor nucleosome occupancy at their borders

Molecular Acrobats: How CHD Remodelers Shape the Genetic Playground to License Cell Identity [review by İsa Özdemir and Sarah Hainer] onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/...

Molecular Acrobats: How CHD Remodelers Shape the Genetic Playground to License Cell Identity

In eukaryotes, DNA is not a naked repository of genetic information but is tightly wound around histone octamers to form nucleosomes. While this packaging solves the spatial problem of fitting 2 mete...

onlinelibrary.wiley.com

Tran et al, 2026. Deconvolving the spatiotemporal chromatin landscape through the cell cycle www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6... ▶️Nucleosome atlas using MNase-seq from synchronized yeast populations at 10-minute intervals through the cell cycle

Yesterday I gave a webinar for Year 12 students titled “Genomics meets AI: can we detect cancer earlier?” Alongside the science, I found a few useful ways to explain gene regulation to people without a biology background. Sharing in case useful to others. 1/4

Chen et al 2026. Genome-wide rotational and translational phasing of nucleosomes with human transcription factors www.cell.com/molecular-ce... ▶️ In vivo nucleosome phasing measured on the same TF-bound DNA molecule ▶️ Phasing around CTCF sites is DNA encoded ▶️ FoxA and NFIA phase adjacent nucleosomes

Gaspa-Toneu et al, 2026. Single molecule footprinting measures low nucleosome occupancy in mature spermatozoa of mice and men www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6... ▶️ NOMe-seq at 103 and 163 genomic sites in spermatozoa of mice and human ▶️ nucleosome occupancy ∼1.2 to 1.7% in mice; ∼2.3 to 4.5% in human

Single molecule footprinting measures low nucleosome occupancy in mature spermatozoa of mice and men

Nucleosomes are fundamental units of DNA packaging and gene regulation in eukaryotes. In mammalian sperm, most nucleosomes are replaced by protamines causing extreme chromatin compaction. Various epig...

biorxiv.org

A good use of AI in text editing is interactive: it highlights issues, you try different approaches, it disagrees, you push back, and the two of you have a dialogue much as you would with a human coauthor. A refined text emerges iteratively, and you learn from the process. The process itself matters

Sounds like an excellent idea www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

NHS to reward people who walk 30 minutes a day

The "marathon a month" scheme, developed with former Olympic medallist Sir Brendan Foster, will launch early next year.

bbc.co.uk

1/9 A few thoughts and personal opinions on the use of AI in research evaluation. I suspect many of these changes may be inevitable, so the real question may not be whether this will happen, but how we shape it responsibly 🧵

After reading @blekhernia.bsky.social's great blog post on lab AI usage policy (blekhman.substack.com/p/you-need-t...), we made one in lab meeting. Feedback welcome! rilab.ucdavis.edu/ai_expectati...

Deskilling associated with AI is a real danger for our students as well. How to prevent it? Which tricks do you use to integrate AI in training responsibly?

Rima I Anabtawi@rimaanabtawi.bsky.social · 2mo ago

Doctors 25% more likely to miss a diagnosis on a patient within 3 months after Ai is implemented. The results indicate Ai has an immediate negative effect on professionals skillsets vs prolonged reliance. www.nature.com/articles/d41...

Great preprint by @vram142.bsky.social & Co www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6... "fiber homotypy," where chromatin fibers with similar nucleosome spacing interact more frequently in 3D --> Related to our previous "nucleosome homology recognition" in chromatin royalsocietypublishing.org/rsif/article...

Come celebrate Professor Leo Schalkwyk with us! We’re holding a one-day symposium to mark Leo's remarkable career and many contributions to genomics. 📆26 June 2026 📍University of Essex, Colchester Details and registration: schalkwykfest.essex.ac.uk There will be a BBQ as well!

Sun et al, 2026. NuRD-enabled CTCF-TET crosstalk orchestrates epigenome reprogramming and genome architecture www.cell.com/molecular-ce...

The +1 nucleosome functions in Pol II transcription initiation and the transition to elongation www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6... [Yumeng Zhan, Julio Abril-Garrido, Frauke Grabbe, Paulina Seweryn, Ute Neef, Christian Dienemann, Patrick Cramer]

Did you know that Pierre Chambon's laboratory was the first to use the term "nucleosome" in 1975 ? www.cell.com/cell/fulltex...

Tested LinkedIn for a paper announcement, and it worked perfectly. About 3x more engagements than on Bluesky. Obviously, LinkedIn is a different culture, more formal and less chatty, but for professional things it works just fine. Can't believe it was there all the time, and we just did not use it

Adhireksan et al, 2026. Linker histones consolidate heterogenous nucleosome fiber contacts by linking together multiple nucleosomes www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Nucleosome aficionados! Our new review "Nucleosome spacing across cell types, diseases, and ages" is out in NAR: academic.oup.com/nar/article/... A huge effort to pull together what we’ve learned about nucleosome spacing in many systems. Enjoy! @milena-bikova.bsky.social @chrsclrksn.bsky.social

142,000 participants! The largest randomized trial of a multi-cancer early detection (MCED) test failed its primary endpoint genomeweb.com/cancer/grail... Had the enrollment been risk-based instead of age 50, it would likely have been very positive.

Preparing a lecture about cancer genomics. Looking for a 3D map of human chromatin to show chromosomes 22 and 9 close to each other to demonstrate Philadelphia chromosome translocation. Chromosome territories like the one below don't show them together. Any other visualisations in this style?

We are thrilled to announce the first official release (v0.1.8) of #𝗯𝗲𝗱𝗱𝗲𝗿, the successor to one of our flagship tool, #𝗯𝗲𝗱𝘁𝗼𝗼𝗹𝘀! Based on ideas we conceived of long ago (!), this was achieved thanks to the dedication of Brent Pedersen. 1/n

Looks like LinkedIn is becoming more active than bluesky in terms of paper announcements and engagements

Today we had very nice interactions in the University of North Dakota (remotely)! Thank you very much @adhasarathy.bsky.social, Motoki Takaku & Co for the invitation to give this talk and hosting the visit!

Would anyone out there be able to share some Mus Spretus DNA with us? 🐀🧬 Any tissue of origin, for PCR amplification of selected genomic regions. Many thanks in advance!

The Vlaming lab continues to grow! It's an exciting time in the Vlaming lab: we've just had our 2nd PhD student join, and the 3rd is joining in February. Now, we're looking to recruit a postdoc!

Congratulations to Negin Behboodi on successfully passing your PhD viva! We are so proud of you! Keep an eye out for Negin's upcoming big papers! And thank you to the kind examiners @mspivakov.bsky.social and @amarcobio.bsky.social!

Schaepe et al, 2026. Thermodynamic principles link in vitro transcription factor affinities to single-molecule chromatin states in cells www.cell.com/cell/fulltex...