Nature research paper: A nowhere-to-hide mechanism ensures complete piRNA-directed DNA methylation go.nature.com/4pDVgPq

Delighted to have a contribution in this issue together with @eliasfriman.bsky.social

The world’s problems may seem so huge that you feel helpless, but small innovations by smart people can make a world of difference.

My first Reith Lecture is now out in video form: A Time of Monsters. On moral decay, elite cowardice, and why we need a moral revolution. Watch here 👉 youtube.com/watch?v=fUJ-... (With one tiny edit at 4:28, for those who notice such things 😉)

Am I in my office, or in a Disney film? Sometimes Edinburgh just takes your breath away.

Key points on the need for continued animal use in scientific research. www.theguardian.com/science/2025...

Excited to start working on this BBSRC sLola project to decode the semantic rules of large regulatory domains, led by @ferencmueller.bsky.social with colleagues from Birmingham, Manchester, Crick, MRC-LMS and EBI-ENSEMBL institute-genetics-cancer.ed.ac.uk/decoding-the... bsky.app/profile/fere...

1. We start a major consortium programme funded by the sLoLa of BBSRC (shorturl.at/aUbnt) to decipher the semantic rules of enhancer arrangements driving regulator genes of development (shorturl.at/6qcjW).

To advance our knowledge about the role of ecDNAs in cancer, it would be helpful if people could at least acknowledge that not everyone concludes that ecDNAs form "hubs" in the nucleus. pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/40972571/ pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/41237767/ pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/36476408/

I’m fascinated to try this. It’s such a relief to see the journey we are on that started with the launch of BioRxiv and that could liberate us from the most depressing aspect of science - “getting published”.

So excited to be funded by @erc.europa.eu to work with this extraordinarily talented group of scientists on the GeneMotors project - unravelling how SMC motors work, how they are regulated and how they regulate gene expression. @ceesdekker.bsky.social @uoe-igc.bsky.social

It is with great sadness that we share the news of the death of our founder, colleague, mentor and friend, Professor Sir John Gurdon. His vision and dedication will continue to inspire generations of scientists. 🔗 www.gurdon.cam.ac.uk/nobel-laurea...

We're all ready for #DoorsOpenDays2025 tomorrow and looking forward to showing off a snapshot of the work we do at the Institute 🔬🧬🥼🧪 🧫 @cmvm-edinburghuni.bsky.social

Dan's latest song, for Stephen Colbert, Jimmy Kimmel, and all the comedians out there--

Honoured to be in Birmingham to mark Bryan Turner’s retirement- a gentleman and giant of epigenetics.

Well, we survived our ERC Synergy interview. So exciting working with this great GeneMotors team of SMC experts @ceesdekker.bsky.social Benjamin Rowland, Leonid Mirny. Here's hoping we can continue working together for the next 6 years.

preparing for our ERC Synergy Grant interview tomorrow! #rehearsingrehearsingrehearsing

Working class women makes inadvertent mistake and resigns. Posh bloke uses devious means to avoid paying income tax and stamp duty... and doesn't resign. www.theguardian.com/politics/202...

Our manuscript characterising tissue-specific consequences of tagged protein fusions in CRISPR-engineered mice is now online @PLOSGenetics. journals.plos.org/plosgenetics.... Thanks again to all coauthors, reviewers and editors for a smooth publication process. Brief summary below.

New paper out today in PLOS Comp Biol: journals.plos.org/ploscompbiol... Intrinsically disordered regions make variant prediction deceptively easy for benign changes but very hard for pathogenic ones. Our work shows why current tools struggle here, and why disorder-aware approaches are needed.

GWAS to mechanism: when non-coding is coding. Beautiful insightful science from @gweykopf.bsky.social @simonbiddie.bsky.social Joe Marsh and many colleagues. @uoe-igc.bsky.social @cmvm-edinburghuni.bsky.social www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

Great to see this published @genesdev.bsky.social. Evidence that enhancers can activate a bystander gene in an adjacent TAD, and that cohesin facilitates this. @uoe-igc.bsky.social. pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/40436628/

Exquisite work. Well done to the whole team.

Non-profit journals are on the critical list. The cause: academics obsession with the Nature brand, coupled with the APC $ model. Some will argue it doesn’t matter (“all as bad as each other”). But the fact is undeniable and it’s good guys who put money back into science like COB who are losing..

Excited to share our new paper out today in @cp-molcell.bsky.social! We show that the H3K27M oncohistone rewires cPRC1, creating a unique dependency on CBX4/PCGF4-containing complexes, and also reveal a previously unknown function of CBX4. Highlights below (1/11).

“I certainly do not let myself be underpaid as many women do. There are people who write to me and think because I am a woman I will ask less than a man. This I never do. I know my profession and charge accordingly, as all women should do.” I love this 💞 www.theguardian.com/society/2025...

Read more about this study by @jmarshlab.bsky.social 👇

ZC3HC1 and TPR is not required for TPR localisation at the nuclear pore basket, and the two have different functions. wellcomeopenresearch.org/articles/10-...

Eric Green is a giant of the Human Genome Project. His legacy of discoveries, enhancing human knowledge and humanity, is engraved in the scientific literature and cannot be erased. Something these philistines who have seized power will never understand. www.deiwatchlist.com/dossier/eric...

OK, I'm not going to say a word about this. Go ahead and list what's wrong with this study. We need a generation of reviewers to be confident expressing their concerns, just as we need researchers not to perform these wasteful and damaging studies in the first place. www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Sign up now for the 'Enter the Dark Genome - Instructions Hidden in Plain Sight' talk by @katarney.bsky.social at @rcpedin.bsky.social on 2 April from 6-7pm, followed by a drinks reception: edin.ac/4ip4egz

Unpicking non-coding genetic variation: Structure-guided modelling holds promise for evaluating how single nucleotide variants affect transcription factor binding. www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1.... @uoe-igc.bsky.social

Edinburgh people! I'm delighted to have been invited to give a public lecture on 2nd April at the Royal College of Physicians, ahead of the Dark Genome conference. Details here: institute-genetics-cancer.ed.ac.uk/news-events/... Book a free ticket here: www.eventbrite.com/e/enter-the-...

Take a trip to the frontiers of biology to explore the weird & wonderful world inside your DNA at a free public lecture by award-winning science communicator & author Dr Kat Arney at the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh on 2 April from 6-7pm, followed by a drinks reception: edin.ac/4ip4egz

Feels like a small act of defiance, or at least group therapy. Packed audience in Edinburgh 2nite.

Marci Shore on Ukraine and America, on reality and unreality, and the lethal price we can make others pay for our own lies to ourselves. @marcishore.bsky.social www.youtube.com/watch?v=nhEi...

“A chasm in values between Europe and Trump’s hegemony” Feels like the Atlantic Ocean just got a lot wider. JD Vance’s Munich speech laid bare the collapse of the transatlantic alliance

Welcome to Bluesky Edinburgh Epigenetics @edinepigenetics.bsky.social

Dear rational and fair-minded fellow scientists - how did we let the world get to this state of affairs? www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025...

Our new paper showing how loss of the nuclear pore protein TPR leads to activation of an inflammatory gene expression programme in senescence is now published in eLife: bit.ly/4h1VcFi @wbickmor.bsky.social @uoe-igc.bsky.social @elife.bsky.social

Couldn't agree more with Paul Nurse that “Research institutes and units play a unique, beneficial role in the UK’s RDI landscape and this sector should be expanded....” So the MRC should rethink their regressive decision to close MRC Units. www.science.org/content/arti...

Stunning winter morning in Edinburgh. Can you beat this for a view from your office?

Interested in difficult to access parts of genetics, cellular & structural biology? Join us in Edinburgh 2-4th April 2025 for "Hidden Cell, Dark Genome" Regulation in the dark genome Uncharted proteins, RNA complexity Atomic structures at cellular scale Cell diversity www.ed.ac.uk/c/hidden-cel...

One enhancer can activate two endogenous genes simultaneously and across a TAD Boundary. Check out our new preprint. www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

New to Bluesy. Can anyone point me to Starter Packs related to Gene Regulation or Genome Folding?