@pravrutharaman.bsky.social got super intrigued about EZHIP/CATACOMB, previously identified as a histone H3K27M mimic of PRC2. You can read about her efforts here: www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6... We hope these analyses will help spur more analyses in this very cool gene! 1/

2025 was an exceptional year for the Basic Sciences Division. We celebrated @fredhutch.org’s 50th anniversary, faculty, trainees, and staff receiving numerous awards, the retirements of Drs. Jon Cooper and Michael Emerman, and so much more. Get the highlights in our annual report: buff.ly/xQ8hsUM

Last seminar of 2025: Dr. @sanjaysrivatsan.bsky.social from @fredhutch.org discussed capsule-based genome sequencing and lineage tracing. Thank you to everyone who joined us in person and via Zoom. Recording available on our YouTube channel: youtu.be/ykS0q7Pl3xo?... @jlmcfalinefigueroa.bsky.social

Today we celebrated the retirement of research administration manager Katrina Akioka after 13 years @fredhutch.org. She leaves behind a legacy of service to Fred Hutch, the division, and the many faculty and labs she supported over the years. We wish her all the best in retirement.

Happening TODAY - Timothy Yu’s ( @timyu.bsky.social ) dissertation defense! Title: Epistasis and pleiotropy in viral protein evolution Lab: Bloom Lab, FH When: Monday, December 8, 2 p.m. PST Where: Fred Hutch Pelton Auditorium (Weintraub Building) & Zoom (email [email protected] for link)

It’s almost the best part of the week: Friday Afternoon Seminars! Can’t wait to learn about the latest research from Changkun Hu in the @suebiggins.bsky.social Lab and Haolong Li from the Human Biology Division. For all our @FredHutch.org colleagues, join us in Pelton at 4PM for two great talks!

Very proud of our lab manager, Aida de la Cruz, for winning the Nancy Hutchinson mentoring award (www.fredhutch.org/en/education...) based on her mentees' nominations. @fredhutch.org @basicsci.fredhutch.org Internal news: centernet.fredhutch.org/n/2025/12/sp...

Congratulations to Aida de la Cruz, lab manager in the @harmitmalik.bsky.social Lab, on receiving the Hutchison Award! The award, presented by @fredhutch.org SPAC and named for Dr. Nancy Hutchison, recognizes phenomenal mentorship. It also comes with an awesome personalized bobblehead.

See you next week for Timothy Yu’s (@timyu.bsky.social ) dissertation defense! Title: Epistasis and pleiotropy in viral protein evolution Lab: Bloom Lab, FH When: Monday, December 8, 2 p.m. PST Where: Fred Hutch Pelton Auditorium (Weintraub Building) & Zoom (email [email protected] for link)

We have two great speakers lined up for Friday Afternoon Seminars! For everyone @FredHutch.org, join us at 4:00 in Pelton to hear Gardenia Sanchez from the @yarimura.bsky.social and Saurabh Verma from Human Biology’s Nelson Lab share their latest discoveries!

We’re excited to have Edgar Fernandes from the Talbot Lab and Supriya Amonkar from Human Biology’s Galloway Lab sharing their latest research at Friday Afternoon Seminars. For all our @FredHutch.org colleagues, don’t miss two fantastic talks today at 4:00!

Excited for two great speakers at Friday Afternoon Seminars! For all our @FredHutch.org colleagues , join us at 4:00 in Pelton to hear Alina Lorant from the Koch Lab and Naomi Yamamoto from Human Biology’s Kugel Lab share their latest research!

Join us for Darren Mallett’s dissertation defense! Title: Uncovering the mechanisms that control unattached kinetochore clustering Lab: Biggins Lab, FH When: Friday, November 14, 10 a.m. PST Where: Fred Hutch Pelton Auditorium (Weintraub Building)

Congrats to Steven Henikoff, PhD, of @basicsci.fredhutch.org on receiving the 55th Lewis S. Rosenstiel Award for Distinguished Work in Basic Medical Research! @brandeisuniversity.bsky.social recognized Henikoff with this prestigious award for his innovative studies on gene expression.

Today we celebrated Dr. Steve Henikoff receiving the Lewis S. Rosenstiel Award for Distinguished Work in Basic Medical Research. Dr. Henikoff will formally receive the award and present a lecture on his work next April @brandeisuniversity.bsky.social. www.brandeis.edu/stories/2025...

Congratulations to Dr. Steve Henikoff on receiving the 55th Rosenstiel Award for his research on genome organization and gene expression! The award is given for recent discoveries of particular originality and importance to basic medical research.

@jhigginswriter.bsky.social wrote an article about my lab and our frog 🐸 at the Hutch! Thank you!

"Foundation models for 3D genome architecture and tandem mass spectra" We’re excited to have @wnoble.bsky.social joining us from @uwgenome.bsky.social to share his latest research at today’s Current Biology Seminar! For all our @fredhutch.org colleagues, don’t miss a great talk at noon in Pelton!

When #science meets #spookyseason! 🧬🎃 We didn’t think it was possible, but our @basicsci.fredhutch.org and Human Biology Divisions raised the bar once again as they turned their creativity loose on some pumpkins during their annual pumpkin carving contest.

Dr. @yarimura.bsky.social brings frogs back to Fred Hutch after a long absence to study the structure of DNA-linked molecular complexes that change during the cell cycle and malfunction in cancer and other diseases. bit.ly/3J8S5Ae

More pictures of the brilliance that is (lab manager) Aida de la Cruz with her creation.

So many phenomenal pumpkins at this year’s carving contest! Congratulations to the Berger Lab for most humorous, the Talbot Lab for most horrific, the @melodygcampbell.bsky.social Lab for most artistic and the @harmitmalik.bsky.social Lab for most scientific!

The 2025 Pumpkin Carving Contest Kicks off at 4pm today! Can’t wait to see everyone and their amazing pumpkins!

In a study published in @science.org, Fred Hutch immunologist Meghan Koch, PhD, describes how breastmilk helps newborn mice develop immune tolerance to gut microbes and new foods, revealing a key mechanism that kicks in during the first week of life. https://bit.ly/4ogmQ53

It's a Basic Sciences double feature for Friday Afternoon Seminars! Excited to learn about the latest discoveries from Xiaohui Ju in the @jbloomlab.bsky.social and Matthew Chan in the @rasilab.bsky.social and @melodygcampbell.bsky.social Lab. See everyone at 4pm in Pelton for two great talks!

"Decoding the autoantibody reactome." We’re excited to have @aaronmring.bsky.social joining us from the Translational Science and Therapeutics Division to share his latest research at today’s Current Biology Seminar! For all our @FredHutch.org colleagues, don’t miss a great talk at noon!

Friday Afternoon Seminars are back! Kicking things off are @pravrutharaman.bsky.social from the @harmitmalik.bsky.social Lab and @christianloyo.bsky.social from Human Biology’s Salama Lab. Can’t wait to see everyone today at 4:00 pm in Pelton for two great talks!

For this Current Biology Seminar series, we’re hosting local luminaries from the pacific northwest. For the first talk of the series, we’re excited to have Dr. Eric Holland speaking today at noon in Pelton. For all our @FredHutch.org colleagues, don’t miss a great talk!

The Weintraub Award is seeking nominations for 2026! The award recognizes the outstanding achievements of grad students in biology and was established to honor the bold, creative, pioneering spirit embodied by Dr. Hal Weintraub. www.fredhutch.org/en/research/...

Congrats to Rina Hirano, postdoc in the Tsukiyama Lab, for receiving the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science's Overseas Research Fellowship in support of excellent young Japanese scientists working abroad! The fellowship helps further her research on how cells go in and out of quiescence.

It's National Research Administrator Day! On behalf of everyone in the division, we thank our research administrators for their vital role in advancing Basic Sciences. From managing labs and funding to resolving problems big and small, our division's success is thanks to their many contributions.

Fred Hutch immunologist Dr. Meghan Koch discovers a biological mechanism sprung in the first week of life that trains a mouse pup’s immune system to tolerate harmless gut bugs and new foods — insights that could lead to potential therapies for food allergies in newborns and infants.

This year, Fred Hutch Cancer Center turned the big 5-0 and celebrated all year long with stories highlighting the people and moments that have truly defined the organization. 👉 https://bit.ly/4nengsC #FH50

The 2025 Basic Sciences retreat continues today with talks from division faculty. Can’t wait to meet the first-year postbacs and @mcbseattle.bsky.social students. Excited for another great day of science!

The 2025 Basic Sciences retreat kicks off today at 2:00 p.m. with the main poster session in the Behnke Suites in Arnold Building. Can’t wait to hear about all the latest research happening in the division!

My awesome Drosophila colleague Akhila Rajan at Fred Hutch (Seattle) is recruiting both a staff scientist and a postdoc to study fat–brain communication, innate immunity, mitochondrial signaling, and brain senescence. Great team, great environment. Apply here: careers-fhcrc.icims.com/jobs/30062/j...

Changkun Hu, PhD, is our featured fellow! Dr. Hu uses in vitro reconstitution and TIRF microscopy (😍😍) to investigate the kinetochore, a protein complex that's required for the proper segregation of chromosomes. 1/

So excited to see the first part of my thesis work with @harmitmalik.bsky.social and @melodygcampbell.bsky.social in print! www.science.org/doi/10.1126/... We have a bit of evolution and a whole lotta structure to figure out how new protein domains work

In new study led by Xiaohui Ju, we define how mutations to Chikungunya virus envelope proteins affect entry in human vs mosquito cells. Sheds light on functional constraints & enables us to make loss-of-tropism mutants, which could be of use for vaccines. www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

Drs. Steve Hahn and Lakshmi Mahendrawada sit down with the Double-stranded Podcast. Check out a great conversation and learn about their recent @nature.com paper that’s rewriting our understanding of transcription factors: youtu.be/lXgdvmveA_k?...

Preparing to say goodbye to two outstanding scientists from the lab: Ching-Ho Chang (‪@ching-hochang.bsky.social‬) and Yu-Ying Phoebe Hsieh (‪@hsiehyp.bsky.social‬) who are both leaving the lab at the end of the month to start their own independent labs at the prestigious Academia Sinica in Taipei

In new study led by @bdadonaite.bsky.social, we measure how spike mutations affect function & antigenicity of spike of KP.3.1.1 strain of SARS-CoV-2. Sheds light on how key neutralizing epitopes are changing & importance of RBD up/down motion. www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

Our lab has an opening for a research technician to contribute to our efforts to understand RSV evolution & its impact on antibody countermeasures (see journals.asm.org/doi/full/10....). The tech will also help w lab management. If interested, apply here: careers-fhcrc.icims.com/jobs/29940/job

Wanted to flag this interesting study led by our collaborators @kinglabipd.bsky.social suggesting that at least in some contexts, the immunogenicity of H5 influenza vaccines can be improved by mutations that stabilize the HA protein.

Final version of this paper is published in Journal of Virology: journals.asm.org/doi/10.1128/... If you are interested in implementing RSV pseudovirus neutralization assays, the plasmids are now available in AddGene (www.addgene.org/browse/artic...) and we are happy to share the 293T-TIM1 cells.

During his 36-year career at Fred Hutch, @memerman.bsky.social made fundamental discoveries about HIV, co-founded the field of paleovirology and mentored generations of scientists. bit.ly/4nMqOmr @hutchbasicsci.bsky.social

"Signals, forces and cells: Force sensing in epithelial tissues" We’re excited to have Dr. Jennifer Zallen joining us from @mskcancercenter.bsky.social for a special guest seminar. For all our @FredHutch.bsky.social colleagues, don’t miss a great talk today at noon!

Staff, faculty, providers and furry friends 🐶 came out to celebrate Fred Hutch's 50th Anniversary at the South Lake Union campus. #fredhutch #fh50 #cancer #cancerresearch #cancertreatment #seattle

Scenes from the 51st @seattlepride.bsky.social! #fredhutch

For all our @FredHutch.bsky.social colleagues, don’t miss a special talk today at noon hosted by the Fred Hutch Chromatin Club. We’re excited to have Dr. Zhiguo Zhang joining us from @columbiamed.bsky.social to share his latest discoveries on chromatin replication.