Our work on chromatin evolution in brown algae is now published in @natecoevo.nature.com! We show that developmentally complex brown algae evolved without epigenetic silencing pathways long thought universal, underscoring why non-model lineages are important to study. www.nature.com/articles/s41...

#AcademicSky #GeoSky #EconSky

Bay Area Chromatin Club today at UCSF Mission Bay. Great mechanistic talks from UCSF, Berkeley, Stanford, UCSC, and Genentech. High attendance, awesome posters, many great questions and interactions. (Photo credit to Active Motif, who generously support this awesome series). See you at the next one!

Cara will continue her work on coevolution between DNA satellites and essential host proteins in her new lab in the Dept of Genetics at Rutgers! See: genetics.rutgers.edu/people/facul...

Our full BACC lineup of speakers is up! Looks to be a fun program with talks from UCSC, Berkeley, Stanford, UCSF, and Genentech. Take a peek- still slots available to register and present a poster. March 5, 1-5pm www.eventbrite.com/e/bay-area-c...

Fun as ever at amazing w-qBIO! This year the kids that grew up in this meeting kicked it off and introduced some plenary speakers. A wonderful tradition and great science. Here organizers that got us going- @hanascientist.bsky.social and Wendell Lim. The work I presented was Entirely qBIO inspired.

Register for the Bay Area Chromatin Club in 2026! It’s free. March 5, 1-5pm Genentech Hall. We have speakers from UCSF, Stanford, Cal, and more ! It’s a great event for trainees to discuss their work and get feedback- bring a poster ! Hang with old and new friends. urldefense.com/v3/__https:/...

Happy Valentine’s Day! My 12 yr old son got this rose on Jan 22nd for doing a talk in his schools TedX youth event. The rose is still alive after! He says as long as it’s alive he’ll remember his talk. It was really a fun experience, starting August with research, Oct-Dec writing, and talk prep. 1/2

Interested in transcriptional regulation, enhancers and 3D genome folding? In this new study we wondered about the role of cohesin loading at enhancers for long-range transcriptional control www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6... detailed 🧵👇

Maybe it’s my German roots but I generally cannot abide by American Football. But that Half Time show was divine. Bad Bunny, genius.

We are starting Bay Area Chromatin Club up again in 2026! Fist event March 5th at UCSF Mission Bay! Details and registration HERE: If you like to nominate a person for a talk- DM me. It's been a great experience in the past. urldefense.com/v3/__https:/...

Blissfully ignoring a national celebration of CTE

Kudos to Dana Kennedy, for making this lovely, pressed flower cover image for her paper. "Pressed-flower art representing heterochromatin gene silencing in Schizosaccharomyces pombe. Each distinct flower symbolizes HP1/Swi6, Clr4, nucleosomes, and post-translational modifications (cont)

Whimsical addition seen tonight outside a Café trottoir

Introduce yourself with what almost killed you. Glucose 6 phosphate dehydrogenase deficiency

After much illness finished out at THE French Brasserie- Bofinger just down the street from were we stayed. much history - great meal. First place to serve draft beer in Paris in 1864.

Of two unplanned things on this trip one I didn’t expect: that everyone got sick in Paris in December - ok not surprised. That we had a full blown snow ball fight- wasn’t on my bingo card

Paris in a new light

NYE stroll in Paris with family and friends. Second NY here (most of the in laws have moved here) and definitely can’t complain. Ok- it’s a little cold :-)

Spotted at duty free. Let’s say … doubtful?

Lab workshop today: Molecular Dynamics ! The nucleosome looks perfect for the season

Our study with @stadtfeldlab.bsky.social on the dual mechanism by which EHMT2 is repressing totipotency-associated vs lineage-specific loci is now out @emboreports.org. See thread by @cmuyehara.bsky.social who led the study with K Chatterjee. Full article here link.springer.com/article/10.1...

Fantastic #EvoChromo25. Wonderful iteration, learned a lot - and loved the Nirenberg gold Luger nucleosome prize ! Humor sun and outstanding and thought-provoking science.

Took us a bit, but proud of this published version. We now examine the genetic interaction of phosphorylation with oligomerization and where bulk and phospho-Swi6 localize. Wonder if chromatin affinity tuning to enable Suv39 H3K9me3 spreading is a conserved mechanism ? doi.org/10.1093/nar/...

Excited to attend my second #EvoChromo meeting! We were very inspired to think about heterochromatin in an evolutionary context at the first one. Now I am excited introduce our collaborative work with the @kaushikr.bsky.social lab on Schizosaccharomycota HP1 silencing and epigenetic inheritance.

Everybody ready for #EMBOevoChromo25 ? I, for one, cannot wait. It's like scientific Christmas come early :)

Yeah, this is going to give many people nightmares, yet delight others: "ensuring equitable geographic funding distribution"

Congratulations Scotland !! That game to directly qualify for the first time to the World Cup since '98 was one of the most exciting things I have ever seen. Looking forward to seeing that team next year! Maybe you get to play in SF !

First one! Did it.

TFW for once, just once, you get 3 reasonable reviews that are actually doable in 3 months.

Biggest ever democratic win for VA gov (since 1961!) : tonight. By a lot. With big BIG coattails. Look for Spanberger.

Walking to lab not thinking of much, being greeted by this lovely creature that dutifully waited at the traffic light once it reached the end of Kezar triangle… slightly surreal. Big one too.

Nicely done @oaklandroots.bsky.social great win to end season and what fireworks!

Money does talk, it turns out.

Well, I guess it’s time to carry that passport in my work bag. Especially bizarre as a naturalized citizen of German upbringing…..

Boy, am I sick of mediocre $5 Bay Area croissants.

Nice view of work

Morning after the rain

Very proud of this story and the amazing Agnisrota Mazumder @agnisrota.bsky.social. An exciting joint journey of exploration with @thebraunlab.bsky.social in subtelomeric heterochromatin. Many surprises but, one that stuck are the unique co-existing epigenetic states in the same domain.

Best weekend feeling. Co coaching your kids competitive team and they come back to win against a very physical opponent, first time playing on a full regulation field. The best.

why won't Youtube understand I just don't like Chopin. Esp when I work. AI should take care of that no?

“Critics call it extortion.”

The Bay Area job market for young people (undergrads, PhD grads) is truly dismal. It's very hard to see this.

A 37.5% cut being implemented now by NIH. Less because the policy is only effective for part of a fiscal year. But if congress does nothing, a 50% cut next fiscal year. Nefarious accounting trick from the ONB to thwart the intent of Congress.

Scenes from a science crisis: a selection of recent developments 🧵1/6

The NIH ‘s new forward funding approach is an accounting trick designed to artificially reduce the budget by committing next year’s funds to this year’s budget without making the funds available. It’s an excuse to fund fewer grants. Bureaucratic authoritarianism to nullify congressional intent.

Slack enabled /launched AI today. I disabled it for our workspaces. Right call? Unnecessary?

Last days of Japan- Paris trip. Not ready to go.

Paris is gleaming everywhere