We would love to support and host anyone interested in this in my lab. Get in touch if interested. royalsociety.org/grants/newto...

Restrictor slows early transcription elongation to render RNA polymerase II susceptible to termination at non-coding RNA loci https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.01.08.631787v1

In this study, Davidson et al. describe an alternative but conserved mechanism for RNA polymerase II transcription termination that occurs directly at T-tracts and independent of polyadenylation site-directed termination. #openaccess Learn more here: ➡️ tinyurl.com/gd351978

Happy New Year everyone. Time to crack on.

Happy Christmas everyone. I'm going from sporadic posts to none - for a week or so!

📢 Latest publication from the lab! We explore how cells manage the excess pA− RNAs generated by pervasive transcription. While the NEXT complex usually takes charge, in its absence, a network of tailing enzymes, export factors, and exonucleases steps in to modify and degrade these RNAs.

www.tasteatlas.com/best/regions. This can't be right - not one from the UK. I almost choked on my baked beans!

I'm taking my son to our first panto tomorrow. What's that you say? Oh yes I am!

This is great news! While we're working on adding Altmetric and making it easier to share eLife papers directly to Bluesky, you can tag us here for a boost!

As you make have seen, there is a special issue of JMB on "Controlling Transcription Elongation and Termination: More Than a Means to An End" curated by my colleague here at Pitt Karen Arndt and by Steve Buratowski from Harvard Medical School 🧪🧵 1/ www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

Here it is! Congratuations to @jesskelley.bsky.social @edimitrova.bsky.social @neilblackledge.bsky.social @aleksszczurek.bsky.social and the rest of the team (Maciej, Amy, and Hieu). This was a fab collaboration with Arminja Kettenbach. Also see a lovely complementary paper from Fei Chen's group.

As a long-term signatory of the Declaration on Research Assessment, we thank DORA for this supportive message. There has been an ongoing move away from journal-level metrics; we hope this will only accelerate now.

Are you looking for a PhD position starting 2025/26? Then check out our website www.exeter.ac.uk/research/ins... and apply for a PhD position at the Living Systems Institute in Exeter. It could be you in the photo next year. @uniofexeter.bsky.social

We are delighted to join the BlueSky community. The Living Systems Institute at University of Exeter is a pioneering interdisciplinary research centre focused on understanding the fundamental principles of living systems and applying this knowledge to address challenges in health and life sciences.

Bit of snow in Exeter today. My 7 year old Son declared that this was the first snow ever in Southern England! Not quite true but given how all the roads have ground to a halt, I forgive him for thinking it might be......

Quick intro: My lab studies mechanisms of transcriptional termination, but we like all things RNA. Important to note, we don't study DNA recombination and repair (that's the other Steve West!) but we do welcome all followers!!.

Interdisciplinary PhD studentships at the Living Systems Institute www.exeter.ac.uk/study/fundin...

Re-initiation!