I am so honored to give the Ira Herskowitz Award lecture at #Yeast26! Please join us, it’s going to be a fantastic meeting! @genetics-gsa.bsky.social

SMC and recombination enthusiasts: we updated our work describing the loop extrusion properties of budding yeast condensin and its function in biasing donor usage for mating-type switching. Lots of cool new data, check it out! www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

Our paper is now out in Nature: “Ancient co-option of LTR retrotransposons as yeast centromeres” www.nature.com/articles/s41... A short thread on how retrotransposons helped give rise to yeast point centromeres. 1/14

Unquestionably the result of combined effort from all current and former lab members, support from colleagues @CSU and @CU, and support from @hhmi-science.bsky.social and NIH over decades. A heartfelt 🙏 to my nominators and of course @vilcekfoundation.bsky.social. vilcek.org/prizes/prize...

So proud of my former PhD student ‪@tadasu443.bsky.social‬ for starting his own lab at @umassamherst.bsky.social ! Wishing him all the best in this exciting new chapter. Looking forward to his future discoveries! 🎉🧬

Excited to share our latest fully in-house paper! 🎉 We show how cohesin integrates loop extrusion with sister tethering to guide the homology search during DNA repair. Huge congratulations to all authors, and to @fedeteloni.bsky.social for leading this work 👏 We’re excited to see his next steps!

I am happy to share that my postdoctoral work in the @gerlichlab.bsky.social at @imbavienna.bsky.social is finally out 🎉! Our study reveals how cohesin guides focused and accurate homology search. Read more 👉 www.science.org/doi/10.1126/... Follow along for key insights and updates! 🧵

Thrilled to share that my postdoc research is published today in @science.org! We found that DNA repair uses cohesin complexes to build new chromatin loops that guide the homology search and boost accurate repair! 1/n www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

Chromosome Dynamics 2026 @ Awaji Japan www.fbs.osaka-u.ac.jp/labs/fukagaw...

I launched my lab at UMass Amherst this fall. We study the mechanisms of meiotic homolog pairing using advanced live‑cell and super‑resolution imaging. Currently in budding yeast, with plans to expand to other eukaryotes. #Chromosome #Meiosis #Mitosis www.umass.edu/biology/abou...

We found a new asymmetry in the large-scale chromosome structure: sister chromatids are systematically shifted by hundreds of kb in the 5′→3′ direction of their inherited strands! The work was led by Flavia Corsi, in close collaboration with the Daniel Gerlich lab. www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1... 1/

Dynamic chromosomes

In the latest #Yeast research article of the series #FantasticYeasts, Pei-Jie Han, Feng-Yan Bai & team describe a new yeast species isolated from a Chinese forest: Saccharomycopsis yichangensis, that can prey on Saccharomyces cerevisiae and other yeasts 😲 onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/...

Please see our latest paper on the role of EXO1 in meiosis: "EXO1 promotes the meiotic MLH1-MLH3 endonuclease through conserved interactions with MLH1, MSH4 and DNA". Congratulations to both first authors, Megha Roy and Aurore Sanchez and thanks to all our collaborators!

🧬My retrospective chromatin review is out @Proc Jpn Acad: doi.org/10.2183/pjab... The textbook view of #chromatin as 30-nm fibers is fading. A new paradigm: chromatin forms #liquid-like domains—locally dynamic, yet globally stable at the chromosome level (viscoelastic)—supporting genome function. ✨

A blutorial on my latest manuscript, which will appear as a Hypothesis article in Journal of Cell Science (no embargo requested as far as I am aware). If you are interested in mitosis/meiosis/kinetochores/evolution/deep phylogeny, please read it (1/n)

New open access review from Jon Harper and George Brown—charting the evolutionary history of Spo11 and its regulation. portlandpress.com/biochemsoctr... #meiosis4eva

I’m pleased to announce that I have now officially started my research group at the University of Dundee, UK. My laboratory focus on how transcription factors orchestrate epigenetic reprogramming in mammalian embryos.

Excited to share our latest work on how cells fold their genomes, and build mitotic chromosomes! Out in Science today! Lots of interesting results and proposals for those interested in loop extrusion, and chromosomes! With @golobor.bsky.social, Leonid Mirny, Bill Earnshaw labs. See thread below:

James M. Berger will Deliver the Paul Doty Lecture on April 10 www.mcb.harvard.edu/department/n... @rachellegaudet.bsky.social @dulaclab.bsky.social @neurovenki.bsky.social @naoshigeuchida.bsky.social @rivaselenarivas.bsky.social @fleshball.bsky.social @jeeyunc.bsky.social @hekstralab.bsky.social

Our new paper is out@ScienceAdvances👇 www.science.org/doi/10.1126/... 🧬Our Repli-Histo labeling marks nucleosomes in euchromatin and heterochromatin in live human cells. 🔍 @katsuminami.bsky.social et al. have developed a chromatin behavior atlas within the nucleus. 1/2

Check out our review on DNA end resection! With Raphael Ceccaldi, www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Countdown to an epic new pre-print. Mitochondria are cells within our cells. They need the same core activities - replication, transcription, translation. How do cells enable these diverse activities in both compartments? We uncover an unexpected + broad strategy with ancient origins. Stay tuned!

Our new findings on how chromosomes get ready for cell division are now published in @cellpress.bsky.social! Congratulations, Kai, @andibrunner.bsky.social and everyone else involved! 🤩 www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

There are ~180 chromosomes in this diplonemid, which organize into two rings during mitosis. Chromosomal passenger complex proteins localize in between the rings. Indirect evidence suggests that the cell is in metaphase but the two rings are separated by up to 1 µm. How are they connected?

I am happy to share a preprint on the marine plankton project I started one year ago (thanks to Julius and Drahomira's help) www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

Happy that Jon Chen @jonchenjk.bsky.social's cryo-ET and confocal study of RPE-1 chromatin in situ is online www.embopress.org/doi/full/10.1038/s44318-025-00407-2 Congrats also to coauthors Tingsheng Liu, @shujuncai.bsky.social, Cai Tong Ng, Jian Shi and collaborators Weimei Ruan Uttam Surana.

NEW #research from the Zanders Lab & Halfmann Lab in @plos.org shows how selfish genes “cheat” inheritance to ensure they’re passed to the next generation. Learn how the discovery could help scientists better understand #fertility & #neurodegeneration. Learn more: bit.ly/41uOr8V WATCH: (part 1/3)

We are finally published in HCB journal! My sincere gratitude to all co-authors who made it possible, and separate thanks to my supervisor, Dr. Kazuhiro Maeshima, for his strong initiative to reporting our important findings! PDF link: rdcu.be/dHXJF

Our (@jeffsekelsky.bsky.social, Corbin Jones, & me) #Meiosis, Recombination & Evolution of Sex class @uncchapelhill.bsky.social loved talking w/ Bengt Hansson from @lund-university.bsky.social about his lab's #G3journal paper on bird male-biased CO patterning + new work: doi.org/10.1093/g3jo...

In this wonderful collaboration with K Maeshima and M Shimazoe we show that H1 in living cells acts as a liquid-like glue not a driver of stiff zigzag fibers 🔥🔥🔥 Each H1 bridges multiple nucleosomes and exchanges nucleosomes frequently: boosting both compaction and dynamical behaviour of chromatin

Our new preprint is out＠bioRxiv: www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1... @masaashimazoe.bsky.social et al. reveal that linker histone H1 acts as a liquid-like glue to organize chromatin in living cells. 🎉 Fantastic collab with @rcollepardo.bsky.social @janhuemar.bsky.social and others—huge thanks! 🙌 1/

Zhi Yang Tan & @shujuncai.bsky.social's comparative study of G0 (quiescent) and interphase fission yeast cells is out in @jcellsci.bsky.social doi.org/10.1242/jcs.263654. This study combines multiple cell-biological analyses with in situ cryo-ET. Raw data: www.ebi.ac.uk/empiar/EMPIAR-10339

Telomeric transposons are pervasive in linear bacterial genomes | Science www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

New Akera's lab paper! Congrats @takashiakeralab.bsky.social and Eddie!

Are you curious about eukaryotic plasmids? PhD student Fabien Girard with Axel Cournac in the lab explore the positioning of plasmid 2u, one of these rare (known) episomes, in the budding yeast nucleus. The results were surprising. #plasmids #chromatin #3Dgenome www.embopress.org/doi/full/10....

🔖 New collaborative work! It has been fun to team up with Birgitte Regenberg’s group in University of Copenhagen to explore the biology of #circularDNA 👉Now in @naturecomms.bsky.social rdcu.be/eaQsp

An enzyme involved in meiosis can now be studied in detail https://go.nature.com/416Fnqt

Is chromatin ordered or disordered? It all depends on the linker DNA length. Check our latest work with Mike Rosen and Sy Redding. We explore how changes in linker DNA length (as small as 1 bp) fine-tune chromatin structure, between order and disorder, and the properties of chromatin droplets

How do cells prioritize molecular machines working on DNA? With which functional consequences? Here bs-less Yasmina Djeghmoum discovered and characterized transcription-recombination priority rules, and their role in promoting genome maintenance. 🧵 www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

🚀Excited to share preprint as my last work in the Tachibana lab! Our study shows how the pioneer factor NR5A2 ensures robust gene activation through feed-forward regulatory loops with lineage-determining factors. A quick summary follows (1/n) www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

We're delighted to share our work on scrambling the human genome using prime editing, repetitive elements, and recombinases in @science.org , led by @jonaskoeppel.bsky.social , @f-raphael.bsky.social , with @proftomellis.bsky.social and George Church. www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

Excited to share our work on archaeal 3D genome! This paper revealed how an archaeal SMC complex sculpts TAD-like domains by cooperating with a roadblock NAP and physical properties of DNA. Many congrats to our talented PhD student Kodai! www.nature.com/articles/s41...

🥳Just published @nature.com. Over 25 years after the discovery of SPO11 as the enzyme responsible for initiating meiotic recombination, we finally succeeded in reconstituting its DNA cleavage activity.🧵 www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Our new review on how the #chromatin domain is formed in the cell is now available @Curr Opin Struct Biol.📄✨ We critically discuss the domain formation mechanism from a physical perspective, including #phase-separation and #condensation. 📥 Free-download link: authors.elsevier.com/a/1keGn,LqAr...

1/n Excited to share our new preprint! Using live imaging in Drosophila embryos, we show that RNA Pol II clusters switch from sites of initiation to elongation during zygotic genome activation and that they are stably associated with an active gene: www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

A tribute to my friend R. Scott Hawley: biologue.plos.org/2025/02/11/r...