László Tora
@tlaszlo.bsky.social
Transcription regulation, how genes are turned on or off, transcriptional cofactors, general transcription factors and core promoters.
Join is in Budapest in October! For the 6th time, all things epigenetics, gene and genome regulation and more. A fantastic opportunity to present, to talk to speakers and colleagues in a friendly, informal setting at a great location. Please note, travel grant deadline will expire soon.
#RIP Pierre Chambon (1931-2026) 1963 PARP 1970 RNA Pol II 1975 Nucleosome 1977 Split genes 1980 Promoter 1983 enhancer 1986 Nuclear receptor
#RIP Pierre Chambon (1931-2026) Great memories of the 50th anniversary of the discovery of the 3 activities of eukaryotic RNA Pol in honor of Drs. Robert Roeder & Pierre Chambon back in 2018 at @institutcurie.bsky.social (photo credit: Ramin Shiekhattar)
Pierre Chambon was a great scientist. And a good man too. He alone opposed to leading British embryologists during the evaluation of a case of scientific misconduct more than 40 years ago, to defend young scientists against an establishment to which he belonged. An unforgettable lesson. RIP Pierre 💐
Human SAGA complex
Insights into the structure and evolution of the human SAGA complex by affinity-ligand purification
Structural insights explain how human SAGA evolved to host a splicing module absent in yeast.
science.org
László Tora@tlaszlo.bsky.social · 5mo agoSee the new paper by Mylène Damilot et al in Science Advances, where the authors use a novel affinity purification method to obtain the SAGA complex for cryo-EM, and reveal the splicing like module of SAGA at high resolution. DOI: 10.1126/sciadv.aec8104,
See the new paper by Mylène Damilot et al in Science Advances, where the authors use a novel affinity purification method to obtain the SAGA complex for cryo-EM, and reveal the splicing like module of SAGA at high resolution. DOI: 10.1126/sciadv.aec8104,
A few highlights from the issue (1/2): 📝"The TATA box regulates TATA-binding protein (TBP) dynamics in vivo" from @tlaszlo.bsky.social and H. Th. Marc Timmers 📝"The human Mediator complex: a versatile, genome-wide regulator of transcription" from Dylan Taatjes
This story started during my post-doc with @tlaszlo.bsky.social while looking at TAFs isoforms for another project. Striking that a fundamental component of the basal transcription machinery can undergo such species-specific (rather drastic) evolutionary innovations. Thanks to everyone involved!
Check out our preprint where we describe, characterize and trace the origin of a novel human-specific isoform of TAF8, a scaffold subunit in TFIID. We were surprised to discover that TAF8 recently underwent genetic changes generating a truncated isoform with altered properties in humans!
bioRxivpreprint@biorxivpreprint.bsky.social · 7mo agoA recently evolved TAF8 isoform arising from an Alu insertion increases TFIID assembly complexity in the human lineage https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.01.19.699933v1
High-resolution binding data of TFIID and cofactors show promoter-specific differences in vivo https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2025.12.22.691305v1
Read our new preprint where we uncover a hierarchy in human PIC assembly and establish a quantitative framework that connects factor exchange kinetics to the regulation of Pol II activity in living human cells. doi: doi.org/10.64898/202... By A. Oravecz and our collaborators @molinalab.bsky.social
RNA polymerase II initiation factors show different dynamic behaviour upon induced transcription in live cells
Transcription by RNA polymerase II (Pol II) requires the ordered action of general transcription factors (GTFs) forming the pre-initiation complex (PIC). How these events unfold kinetically remains un...
doi.org
Intrigued by a long-standing conundrum in small RNA biology—how nuclear Argonaute proteins silence transposons when they *need* target transcription for their own recruitment—we studied the piRNA pathway. And found a hidden RNA-decay axis from Piwi to the RNA exosome.
bioRxivpreprint@biorxivpreprint.bsky.social · 8mo agoRNA decay via the nuclear exosome is essential for piwi-mediated transposon silencing https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2025.12.16.694471v1
All of this was spearheaded by the exceptional experimentalist & scientist @changweiyu.bsky.social who came with a strong background in transcription from @tlaszlo.bsky.social and developed into a remarkable RNA biologist.
Please RT 📧 Registration open for ➡️"Summer School on Chromatin Biology" Our 2 weeks hands on expedition 🧪👩💻August 2026. 3. edition. Learn CUT@Tag, CUT@Run, ChIPseq, ATACseq AND to analyse your own data at @helmholtzmunich.bsky.social Daily letures by experts in the field ! ▶️ shorturl.at/jrA8i
Structure of the transcriptional co-activator SAGA complex (from fungus Chaetomium thermophilum), including the histone acetyltransferase module #cryoEM www.cell.com/molecular-ce...
What is a promoter? And how does it work? We very happy to share our latest work trying to understand enhancer-promoter compatibility. I am very excited about the results of @blanka-majchrzycka.bsky.social, which changed the way I think about promoters www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
Enhancer-promoter compatibility is mediated by the promoter-proximal region
Gene promoters induce transcription in response to distal enhancers. How enhancers specifically activate their target promoter while bypassing other promoters remains unclear. Here, we find that the p...
biorxiv.org
Today it was announced that Sir John Gurdon passed away. His ground-breaking discovery was that differentiated cells can be reprogrammed. He was a creative and distinguished developmental biologist, a kind person with a great inquisitive mind and original ideas www.cam.ac.uk/research/new...
Nobel Laureate Professor Sir John Gurdon dies aged 92
It is with great sadness that the University shares the news of the death of Professor Sir John Gurdon, founder of the Gurdon Institute.
cam.ac.uk
With self-deprecating humor, Sir John loved to tell the story of his Biology teacher (1949)
Do not forget to apply to the FEBS Advanced Lecture Course: 6th Danube Conference on Epigenetics (19–22 October 2026, Budapest, Hungary. Will be a great meeting as always. Check out the site: network.febs.org/posts/febs-a...
FEBS Advanced Lecture Course: 6th Danube Conference on Epigenetics
The FEBS Advanced Lecture Course: 6th Danube Conference on Epigenetics will take place 19–22 October 2026 in Budapest, Hungary. Here we give a taste of the scientific content, flag some of the speaker...
network.febs.org
"In our view, it [hexanediol] should thus be avoided and not be used as evidence for the formation of an assembly via phase separation or the fluid-like nature of a condensate in vitro or in vivo." doi.org/10.1038/s414...
Current practices in the study of biomolecular condensates: a community comment - Nature Communications
The realization that the cell is abundantly compartmentalized into biomolecular condensates has opened new opportunities for understanding the physics and chemistry underlying many cellular processes1...
doi.org
Read this interesting preprint from the lab of Krishnamurthy Natarajan: Cotranslational assembly confers specificity for in vivo target heterodimerization of paralogous H2B-like TAF12 proteins in the human fungal pathogen Candida albicans doi: doi.org/10.1101/2025...
Cotranslational assembly confers specificity for in vivo target heterodimerization of paralogous H2B-like TAF12 proteins in the human fungal pathogen Candida albicans
The fidelity of assembly of multiprotein complexes is essential for the formation of stable and functional protein complexes that are critical for cell growth and survival. In this context, TBP-associ...
doi.org
One more movie! Using the RL algorithm (from pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...), @masaashimazoe.bsky.social analyzed our nucleosome tracking data and classified them by their mobility. Hotter color = faster motion (Slow🔵→ 🟢 → 🟡 → 🟠 Fast)
Shiori Iida@shiori-iida.bsky.social · 11mo agoOur new preprint is out! We combined single-nucleosome imaging and 3D-SIM to reveal: 🔹 Euchromatin forms condensed domains, not open fibers 🔹Cohesin loss increases nucleosome mobility without decompaction 🔹Cohesin prevents neighboring domain mixing Full story & movies👇
Check out our new collaborative preprint about Affinity-ligand purification of native human low-abundance multi-protein complexes doi.org/10.1101/2025...
Affinity-ligand purification of native human low-abundance multi-protein complexes for structure determination
In human cells, large multi-protein transcription co-activators, such as chromatin remodelers or histone acetyltransferases, play critical roles in gene-expression regulation and are often implicated ...
doi.org
Exquisite work. Well done to the whole team.
Daniel Ibrahim@danielibrahim.bsky.social · last yr.How to find Evolutionary Conserved Enhancers in 2025? 🐣-🐭 Check out our paper - fresh off the press!!! We find widespread functional conservation of enhancers in absence of sequence homology Including: a bioinformatic tool to map sequence-diverged enhancers! rdcu.be/enVDN github.com/tobiaszehnde...
🚨 New preprint out! Do you think Single Molecule Footprinting and Fiber-seq are super cool but aren't sure how to unlock their full potential? HiddenFoot can help you: www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
Friday we celebrated my 40 years of scientific career in France, with present and past lab members and many friends. It was a fantastic day full of emotions, memories and great science. Thanks for making the day so memorable !
The importance of moving away from bulk! Occupancy of Pol II at promoters is dramatically different between fly and mouse cells! When looking single molecule! Proud of the team! @kasitc.bsky.social @molinalab.bsky.social doi.org/10.1038/s443...
Two more weeks to send us your abstract! >20 abstract selected talks. Priority to junior scientists and cool biology on gene regulation (DNA/RNA/protein). Come to meet the world leaders in single molecule genomics and single molecule imaging! Help shaping the future of the field in the workshops!
