It’s been a fun first few week of my sabbatical. Many exciting meetings w/ @peterfineran.bsky.social lab, learning new stuff and brainstorming ideas. And my own lab has been off to a crazy great start to the year. The early/late zoom meetings have me burning the candle at both ends…

Dunedin welcomed me to my sabbatical at @universityofotago.bsky.social with @peterfineran.bsky.social with style.

Sometimes I'm excited to read a paper and every paragraph blows me away. And sometimes I'm just as excited and every paragraph leaves me wondering if the referees were sleeping on the job. Today it was one of the latter.

ERC Plus Grants • No career limit, current ERCs are not eligible • Major challenge, transformative research • Up to 7 million euros, up to 7 years • 30 grants per year, 2 years, only once per lifetime • Same application format, plus vision statement • Deadline in September 2026, 2 stage evaluation

What controls expansion & contraction of DNA repeats (e.g. Huntington's)? We were thrilled to collaborate w/ the lab of Marta Olejniczak to find out. Check out the cool screen from @sebasiegner.bsky.social and @matthiasmuhar.bsky.social that reads out repeat sequence. www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

I’m very grateful to @ethz.ch @vseth.ethz.ch.web.brid.gy for a Golden Owl award. People who know me know that I respectfully decline science awards. But recognition directly by students hits different!

Congratulations to @sebasiegner.bsky.social who defended his PhD on Friday! His name will be on 6-7 papers by the time he leaves the lab, including a co-first Nature paper. What a superstar! Keep an eye out for his postdoc application 😉

I recently received an AI-generated referee report. Almost all suggested experiments were already main figures & referee admitted using AI when asked by the editor. But they claimed they only used AI to write. No way. Editors, what do you do in this case? Referees, at least read the paper!

It has been disappointing to see the general lack of interest and investment into population genetics and genomic medicine in Switzerland. While we can resort to other national cohorts for research the country can only benefit if the know-how can be applied locally www.sfa-phrt.ch/success-stor...

957 proposals were submitted in the latest round of ERC Synergy applications. They expect to fund 50 which means around 5% success rate. This is really not sustainable and a lot of people are likely avoiding doing this knowing how poor the chances are. erc.europa.eu/news-events/...

Congrats to Moritz Schlapansky, who successfully defended his PhD thesis on Friday! You can read his work on "scOUT-seq" profiling of single cell transcriptomes + editing outcomes in millions of cells and living mice at www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

In 2026 I'm taking a sabbatical in @peterfineran.bsky.social lab @universityofotago.bsky.social. I'm looking forward to learning a lot from Peter's lab and excited to get back to my prokaryotic/viral roots! Also planning to some trips to the rest of the Pacific and Asia. So much to look forward to!

Sometimes #Cas9 is too dang big. But mini Cas proteins are bad at both NHEJ & HDR. PhD student Fedor Gorbenko used mammalian cell evolution for *HDR* to make REALLY super #Cas12f1 and #TnpB. As good as or better than Cas9! Base editors included! www.biorxiv.org/cgi/content/short/2025.10.27.684765v1

Thanks to CRISPR/Cas technology, researchers can precisely edit genetic material to treat hereditary diseases. To achieve this, they need to identify undesirable cuts in the genome at an early juncture. Pioneer Fellow Lilly van de Venn is developing such testing methods. ethz.ch/en/news-and-...

Ever noticed that #CRISPR editing results differ between cells? Awesome PhD student Moritz Schlapansky developed "scOUT-seq" to measure single cell transcriptomes + editing. 1.2 million cells, 74 cell types, living 🐭. Cell subtypes differ wildly from bulk average! www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

Long time no see, everyone! Things have been a bit more busy than ususal, hence the radio silence. But stay tuned for some fun news in the next few days.

Excited to share our latest preprint. Work led by PhD student @jordancjwilson.bsky.social with @profmarciniak.bsky.social, @villungerlab.bsky.social & our @erc.europa.eu partners @jcornlab.bsky.social & @loizoulab.bsky.social, that sheds light on the action of WEE1 inhibitors. bit.ly/4bDpxZl

Do you want to know about the invisible secrets of #HDR during #CRISPR genome editing? Check out our preprint at www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1.... New methods, crazy biology, and theft from the genome! From PhD student @charlesyeh.bsky.social

New #preprint from the lab! Do you want to see the invisible? So did we! When DNA genomes get broken, cells somehow find related sequences to fix the break. But how do they find it? We developed a way to look at sequence *search*, not just sequence usage. doi.org/10.1101/2025...

Cells are filled with toxic stuff that damages healthy proteins. Is that garbage just left to rot on the curb? No way! Ubiquitin ligases have evolved to recognize chemical damage and clean it up! www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Join Helle D. Ulrich & experts this April to explore DNA replication errors, breaks, repair, and cancer! Submit abstracts and scholarships by Jan. 28 (11:59pm MST)! keysym.us/KSDNARep25 #KSDNARep25 #DNAreplicationgaps @cantorlab.bsky.social @albertociccia.bsky.social @labvincenzo.bsky.social