With Eugene Koonin, we propose a concept of “the selfish ribosome”, under which evolution of life is viewed as a ribosomal takeover, where the ribosome evolved to consume most of the cell’s resources, while other cellular componentry ensures the propagation of the ribosome. arxiv.org/abs/2602.23268

Advances in CLIP-derived methods have enabled high-resolution mapping of individual RNA binding protein-RNA interactions as well as RNA binding protein-associated RNA–RNA interactions #RNA #CLIP @evannostrandlab.bsky.social bit.ly/4bYjAsg

How could a simple self-replicating system emerge at the origins of life? RNA polymerase ribozymes can replicate RNA, but existing ones are so large that their self-replication seems impossible. Could they be smaller? Excited to share our latest work in @science.org on a new small polymerase. 1/n

How did life arise from simple chemical building blocks? New #LMBResearch led by @edogia.bsky.social in @philholliger.bsky.social group has identified a small self-replicating ribozyme that could be the answer. Read more: mrclmb.ac.uk/news-events/...

Scientists have a new tool for keeping on top of the exponentially growing body of research papers, which broke 4 million in 2024: an #AI program designed specifically to analyze the scientific literature. https://scim.ag/4a0OzCs

Single-round evolution of RNA aptamers with GRAPE-LM go.nature.com/4bFDI22

It has been widely reported that the inclusion of pseudouridine or other uridine analogs in exogenous RNA prevents innate immune responses. This is why mRNA vaccines have these modified nucleotides (Moderna = modified RNA). We find something else is going on.

SWARM is an AI framework for nanopore direct RNA sequencing that detects m6A, pseudouridine (Ψ), and m5C mods at single-nucleotide & single-molecule resolution. Key innovation: Crosstalk-aware training with non-target mods & validated cellular signals to reduce false positives. 2/6

KATMAP infers splicing factor activity and regulatory targets from knockdown data - @daspliceisright.bsky.social go.nature.com/47ycrMJ

DNA and RNA modification mapping methods based on next-generation sequencing and long-read sequencing technologies go.nature.com/47yAbPc

ICYMI: New Online! Single-cell research in Latin America and the Caribbean builds genomics datasets for equitable AI-powered precision medicine

ICYMI: New Online! The new era of single-molecule RNA modification detection through nanopore base-calling models

New Online! Revealing the hidden coding potential of the human genome

We have been busing working on models to detect all 2'Ome-RNA modified nucleotides on top of PseudoU, m6A, m5C and Inosine using @nanoporetech.com direct RNA sequencing. This is still very preliminary but here are a few examples of what it looks like on Human #rRNA prepared with standard lib prep 🤩