I have always been fascinated by transcriptional activators that display intrinsic specificity towards some but not other promoter types as this implies alternative mechanisms! Hcfc1 directly bridges TFs to TFIID to overcome a CGI-specific rate-limiting step and activate CGI transcription. (2/2)

Activator-promoter compatibility in mammals - Hcfc1 is a key and intrinsically CGI-promoter-specific co-activator that cannot activate non-CGI promoters. Lead by @nemcko.bsky.social & Kevin Sabath in collab. with @plaschkalab.bsky.social @impvienna.bsky.social www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6... (1/2)

Join @stirlingchurchman.bsky.social, @moffittlab.bsky.social, @saramostafavi.bsky.social, me and all speakers for the 2026 CSHL meeting Systems Biology: Global Regulation of Gene Expression, March 11-14. Abstract deadline January 9! More infos and registration at meetings.cshl.edu/meetings.asp...

Not that long ago, in vivo mouse enhancer design was a dream. Today, it's a reality! Using transfer deep learning to design de novo synthetic embryonic enhancers active in the heart, limb, and CNS. Great collab with @alex-stark.bsky.social lab! @ucibiosci.bsky.social @impvienna.bsky.social

Our preprint "Predictive design of tissue-specific mammalian enhancers that function in vivo in the mouse embryo" is on bioRxiv: www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6... . Amazing collaboration by @shenzhichen1999.bsky.social, Vincent Loubiere (@impvienna.bsky.social,@viennabiocenter.bsky.social),... (1/2)

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! 🧵

Here is a copy of last year's Twitter thread explaining our preprint - jump to (21) for the new stuff 👀 Synergy between cis-regulatory elements can render cohesin dispensable for distal enhancer function now revised and journal accepted at www.science.org/doi/10.1126/... 🧵👇

Register now for the EMBO Workshop "Limb development and regeneration: Quantitative, ecological, and diversification studies" in #Tokyo, Japan, 23–27 March 2026. Abstract submission/Registration deadline: 12/15 December 2025 https://meetings.embo.org/event/26-limb-dev#Tokyo#EMBOLimbDev #EMBOevents 🧪

I'm guest-editing a collection on "Enhancer-promoter interactions" at Genome Biology. Please send us your exciting stories! link.springer.com/collections/...

We are pleased to announce a new preprint by @mlweilert.bsky.social: “Widespread low-affinity motifs enhance chromatin accessibility and regulatory potential in mESCs” (www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...). See summary and longer recap below: (TLDR; low-affinity motifs matter as pioneers!)

Our new preprint is online! Viruses, bacteria and parasites use effector proteins to evade immunity and rewire host cell pathways. Together with @AlexanderStark8, we wondered if we could systematically map what these effectors, regardless of their origin, do in human cells. 1/8

Major new direction in the lab: hacking human cell biology with pathogen effectors (eORFs) - amazing collaboration with @miketilapia.bsky.social lab. Huge congrats to first authors Tomas & He & all co-authors! Check out the pre-print on @biorxivpreprint.bsky.social www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

The Kvon lab won departmental Pumpkin Decorating Contest! Featuring a transgenic mouse with retinal enhancer driving GFP reporter. Mice have green fluorescent eyes. Spooky!

📣 Paper alert! I am delighted that our paper exploring the impact of Neanderthal-derived variants on the activity of a disease-associated craniofacial enhancer has been published in Development today! journals.biologists.com/dev/article/...

The Kim Lab (sskimlab.org) at UC Irvine is recruiting motivated grad students interested in uncovering how transcriptional regulators direct cell fates. We accept students through the CMB (cmb.uci.edu) and MCSB (ccbs.uci.edu/education/mcsb/) PhD programs. Please share with prospective grad students!

Which mutations rewire function of regulatory DNA? Excited to share SEAM: Systematic Explanation of Attribtuion-based Mechanisms. SEAM is an explainable AI method that dissects cis-regulatory mechanisms learned by seq2fun genomic deep learning models. Led by @EESetiz 1/N 🧵👇

👀Next Wednesday, Oct 22nd, at #FragileNucleosome seminar, we are excited to host @alicelaigle.bsky.social and @seungsookim.bsky.social to tell us about amazing work they are doing! 🗓️Register here for upcoming session and the entire series: us06web.zoom.us/webinar/regi...

What is a promoter? And how does it work? We very happy to share our latest work trying to understand enhancer-promoter compatibility. I am very excited about the results of @blanka-majchrzycka.bsky.social, which changed the way I think about promoters www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

The #CSHA meeting on Systems Biology of Gene Regulation & Genome Editing kicks off next Monday! ⏳ Don’t miss your shot to dive into cutting-edge science. 👉 Check out the full program and register now on www.csh-asia.org?content/2767 Location: Suzhou. China | Oct.20-24, 2025

The @crick.ac.uk is recruiting Early Career Group Leaders - Lab set-up, research costs, salaries for up to 5 researchers - Support for up to 12 years - Access to our core facilities - Competitive salary - Fantastic colleagues - All areas of biology Deadline 27 Nov www.crick.ac.uk/careers-stud...

If you’re interested in exploring the relationship between chromatin organization and epigenetic memory using chromatin tracing microscopy, my group is recruiting a talented PhD student 🥳

🧵1/ Excited to share our new paper introducing a new #singlecell assay: scTF-seq, a high-throughput single-cell approach to explore how transcription factor (TF) dose shapes cell identity and reprogramming outcomes. 🔗 www.nature.com/articles/s41... Big congrats to the entire team @EPFL & @SIAT_China

Really excited to share our latest work led by @mattiaubertini.bsky.social and @nesslfy.bsky.social: we report that cohesin loop extrusion creates rare but long-lived encounters between genomic sequences which underlie efficient enhancer-promoter communication. www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1... A🧵👇

Asking BlueSky for help: For a review, I am trying to accurately credit the first paper that measured pairwise 3D distances between 2 pieces of DNA on the same chromosome (or cosmid). Is Trask 1989 the first? I know of earlier single-locus papers (1982). www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

Out today. 🙏 again to everyone for this wonderful piece of work, in particular to Aurelie @aurhin.bsky.social Chase @chasebolt.bsky.social and Brent @homeobox.bsky.social. 🙏 also to the Harris lab @fish4walking.bsky.social and @neilshubin.bsky.social @biology-unige.bsky.social @college-de-france.fr

Congrats to Aurelie Hinterman aurhin.bsky.social, Chase Bolt chasebolt.bsky.social, and Brent Hawkins @homeobox.bsky.social! Coverage in NYTimes by @carlzimmer.com: www.nytimes.com/2025/09/17/s...

Most neurodevelopmental disorders are caused by having 1 functional gene copy. Using SCN2A, we show that upregulating the functional copy rescues neuronal phenotypes. Amazing work with @neurobender.bsky.social led by Serena Tamura, Andrew Nelson, Perry Spratt & others. www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Very interesting new @wbickmor.bsky.social commentary on the mechanistic mystery that is very distal enhancer-promoter interactions www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Join this year's CSH Asia Systems Biology of Gene Regulation & Genome Editing meeting in beautiful Suzhou, China, Oct 20-24. Let's bring the international communities together! Abstract deadline Sept 19! Infos and registration at csh-asia.org?content/2767. Please repost!

Welcome Alex Stark @alex-stark.bsky.social to Bluesky!

Become our colleague at @fmiscience.bsky.social! The FMI is a very special place to start your lab: a vibrant international institute with world-class research groups and facilities, core funding, fantastic trainees, great colleagues😅, and a collegial culture. Get in touch if you're interested!

Honored to lead off such an amazing set of speakers 🧬 🌟

Join the Fragile Nucleosome Seminar featuring @gracebower.bsky.social, who will discuss our recent discovery of the Range Extender Element. (www.nature.com/articles/s41...)

Abstract deadline for CSH Asia meeting on Systems Biology of Gene Regulation and Genome Editing is extended to September 5th.

1) I am delighted to present this terrific tour de force research conducted by my post-doc Dr. Gayani Senevirathne @gayani.bsky.social and published today in Nature - www.nature.com/articles/s41...

New paper on the role of H3K4me3 at enhancers! We (led by Haoming Yu) used dCas9 epigenome editing to add H3K4me3 to intergenic enhancers. This was (1) sufficient to turn up transcription at open, active regions and (2) has no effect on target gene transcription. genesdev.cshlp.org/content/earl...

Abstract deadline for CSH Asia meeting on Systems Biology of Gene Regulation and Genome Editing is extended to September 5th.

New preprint with @gfudenberg.bsky.social We find the rate of cohesin loop extrusion in cells is set by NIPBL dosage and tunes many aspects of chromosome folding. This provides a molecular basis for NIPBL haploinsufficiency in humans. 🧵👇 www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

🚨New preprint from the lab🚨 🧬 What keeps certain chromatin domains anchored at the nuclear periphery? Our new genome-wide HiDRO screen uncovers a key role for RNA-binding protein hnRNPK. www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

“Our findings suggest the existence of tens of thousands of enhancers that remain undiscovered by currently available chromatin data, underscoring the continued need for expanding resources for enhancer discovery.” Great paper and very important finding - many congrats Axel & team! 👏👏

Enhancers are "just DNA" - finding all of them in the genome is hard. www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Hiding in plain sight - how close are we to mapping ALL 🧬enhancers🧬 in the genome? Our new paper by Mannion et al. takes a systematic look at "hidden enhancers" and why they remain so hard to find. With @mosterwalder.bsky.social, @jlopezrios.bsky.social & many more www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Our paper is now out in final form at Nature Genetics! For those who missed the preprint, we used large-scale Perturb-seq targeting transcription factors to push primary fibroblasts into diverse transcriptional states, including those observed in cell atlas studies.

Outstanding Faculty opportunity in the broad area of 'life sciences engineering' @EPFL School of Life Sciences, open to both junior and senior researchers. We may prefer metabolism-centric applications but remain open to outstanding applications across domains: www.epfl.ch/about/workin...

To all post-docs: The Genome Biology dept ‪@embl.org has an Independent faculty position. Fantastic place to set up your lab –great package: core funding, fantastic Ph.D. students, cutting edge core facilities & great colleagues. Closing date Sept 19th embl.wd103.myworkdayjobs.com/en-US/EMBL/j...

🧬 @jgi.doe.gov is hiring! We're seeking an Advanced Analysis Manager to lead data infrastructure and software engineering supporting the generation, analysis, and dissemination of genomics data Hybrid | SF Bay Area | Apply by Aug 7 jobs.lbl.gov/jobs/advance... @biosci.lbl.gov @berkeleylab.lbl.gov

Huge congratulations to Dr. Ethan Hollingsworth @ewholling.bsky.social for successfully defending his PhD thesis. Well done!

No new genes needed to fly - just rewire what you have! 🦇🧬 Great new paper from the labs of @fany-real.bsky.social @stemundi.bsky.social @dariloops.bsky.social doi.org/10.1038/s415... #EvoDevo #SingleCell #BatWings

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/

Some personal news…