🆕 review with @jpunfried.bsky.social out in Nature SMB. Direct roles of lncRNAs in transcriptional activation. What do we understand about how lncRNAs lure Pol2 and set the stage for RNA production, and what do we still miss? www.nature.com/articles/s41...

If you accept an invitation to review a manuscript and then decide not to do it, please be a decent person and notify the editor. Otherwise, you're part of the problem.

Can anyone recommend a tool for calling "transcribed regions" from chromatin/nascent RNA-seq data? (ideally, using annotated genes as a starting point)

Despite EVERYTHING, we're still on for our annual Nucleic Acids Therapeutics next week at the Weizmann! There are still places to register (for free!), link in the first comment. Looking forward to meeting friends, great science, deep discussions, and great food, as always :-)

I was in a coffee place and I don’t know who this person is who left their laptop to charge on a water fountain for over an hour unattended, but this person is the chillest person alive. I am sweating every time someone places something with liquid two meters away from my computer

I’m looking for an automated way to read others’s scientific data without giving credit or acknowledgement, and also claim full credit for insights from it. And I want it to have a fitting name OAI: say no more

I can certainly sympathize with the plight of the panelists, but this is a wrong decision. The idea of ERC is encouraging high-risk proposals. Saying "if a couple of panelists think its too crazy", you are banned for 2-3 years is the opposite message of discouraging bold ideas

Super excited that our two companion papers on saturation genome editing (SGE) of RNU4-2 and discovery of a novel recessive neurodevelopmental disorder (NDD) were published yesterday 🥳 SGE experiment: www.nature.com/articles/s41... Recessive NDD characterisation: www.nature.com/articles/s41... 🧵

We are excited to share our new paper in Molecular Cell uncovering how the viral lncRNA RNA2.7 reshapes host cell biology! sciencedirect.com/science/authShare/S1097276526001565/20260324T143400Z/1?md5=16c84051c2f253c4665427f837a529d3&dgcid=author A thread 🧵

As a kid, watching Walker, Texas Ranger taught me that many problems in life can be solved by a well-timed roundhouse kick, a lesson that has served me well in academia

Timely reminder that a few years ago we named the Norris1 lncRNA, which remains quite enigmatic, but, fittingly for Chuck, is expressed primarily in the testis pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC...

Human DHX29 detects nonoptimal codon usage to regulate mRNA stability | @science.org www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

There has never been a better time to study functional and mechanistic biology at the organismal (!) level than now in the age of AlphaFold and CRISPR.

"This observation supports the error hypothesis and suggests that metazoan transcript diversity is largely deleterious." Love this since it matches my priors :-) dx.plos.org/10.1371/jour...

This line of business would make tons of $$$ in Israel this week

Out today: We discovered new viral proteins that target immune signaling molecules, solely based on their AlphaFold-predicted shapes www.science.org/doi/10.1126/... Congrats Nitzan Tal and coauthors! Thank you Kranzusch lab for the fun collaboration! Linking below previous thread on our findings

Don’t worry. Soon, everyone here will be an expert on air wars in the Middle East.

TFW you generously accepted review invitations thinking you'd have two ~18 hr flights TLV<->Cancun this week for reviewing, then war breaks out, but you still need to review these papers/grants

... and we're back to in-shelter selfies!

Our most recent work on the “function and evolution” of #nuclear-speckles is now online at Cell @cp-cell.bsky.social doi.org/10.1016/j.ce... Read the thread👇 for the highlights of our findings.

🤩💪 Out now! 3D regulatory hubs in sex determination With @mamartirenom.bsky.social & Capel labs, led by @imotagom.bsky.social & @jrotwitguez.bsky.social 1️⃣ METALoci – explore #3DGenome 🧬 2️⃣ Non-coding region controlling Fgf9 🧩 3️⃣ Meis genes = new key players 🌟 👉 rdcu.be/e5sm2 1/n Bluetorial 👇

Integrative multiomics analysis and CRISPR screening identify functional noncanonical translation loci in the mouse immune system. https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.02.23.707583v1

So awesome!

This is a fascinating paper that reveals defined and clear mechanism for a phenomenon that for some seemed unbelievable- the up regulation of genes paralogous to those with specific types of inactivating mutations. This is called transcriptional adaptation 1/ www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

Tread -1- EpiSci - I am very proud to share with you our new study that you can access on @biorxivpreprint.bsky.social (see link below) "The Interaction with Nanotopographical Environment regulates nuclear mechanoresponse in mESCs via Histone Demethylase KDM3A. www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...

Ever notice that when one gene is disrupted, its orthologs get upregulated? This phenomenon, known as transcriptional adaptation, has been controversial and mysterious - glad to see that we are starting to learn how it works.

Ooooh. Cool new paper on origins of life. A simple 45-nucleotide RNA molecule that can perfectly copy itself. www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

😂

Nup42 safeguards heat-induced mRNAs from nuclear condensation tosupport chaperone synthesis https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.02.10.705189v1

Does the noncoding genome actually carry more genetic information than coding seqs? Motivated by this question we mutated every bp in the 10kb MYC locus. Results are even more exciting: Decoding the MYC locus reveals a druggable ultraconserved RNA element www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...

Save the date! May 4th this year will be both Star Wars Day, and the 3rd installment of our Nucleaic Acid Therapeutics meeting at the Weizmann Institute. As in 2023 and 2025, we aim for an audience of ~300 researchers interested in RNA and DNA therapies, ~50/50% academy and industry.

pretty sure he meant the other thing, grok, but very cool that those are your two things

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

🧪 An EMBO Meeting on Axon Biology in Okinawa, Japan Iconic science at an amazing venue. Please join us! EMBO | COB Workshop on Axonal degeneration and regeneration meetings.embo.org/event/26-axo...

Our new paper is out in Nature 🎉. We show that m1Ψ in mRNA vaccines doesn’t just quiet immunity, it also directly enhance translation by reshaping ribosome dynamics in a sequence-dependent way 🧬 Full paper : rdcu.be/eY5gx

As usual this time of year, started drafting the list of gene regulation conferences for 2026, enjoy! generegulation.org/conferences-... Know of a relevant event that’s missing? Please reply below

I gues the coffee doesn't taste like sfDORA

Junction-targeting designs limit the application of CRISPR-Cas13d in circular RNA perturbation studies url: academic.oup.com/nar/article/...

When RNA Degradation 🤝 meets 🤝 Protein Degradation! tinyurl.com/E3TDMD In a collaboration of @bartellab.bsky.social and Schulman lab, we show that, in target-directed microRNA degradation (TDMD), 2-RNA-factors recruit an E3 ligase and induce the degradation of not only a protein but also RNA (1/5).

🧪 Truth…!

Do transcriptional activators work on any promoter? Our data says no. 🙅‍♂️ Despite driving ~2/3 of mammalian genes, CpG island (CGI) promoters have remained a puzzle. We identified >50 activators that are exclusively compatible with this promoter class. 🧬

"Peer review is broken" is trending, and I indeed have been doing a bit less of it this year. Partially because of new responsibilities, but partially because it hasn't been a particularly strong year in my specific field(s)?

Any great tips out there for getting rid of transfected plasmids before doing qRT-PCR?

RAFTER: a releasing factor tethered RNA editing system for quantifying mRNA translation https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2025.12.12.693956v1

I guess it's fitting that it's a reimagined, worse version of someone else's artwork

Skimmed through the first part and considered the biochemistry, and quite sure the answer to the question in title is a "no"

Announcing the 2026 edition of the EMBO workshop on RNA localization and local translation! This meeting will be held June 30 - July 4 near Porto, Portugal. Come for exciting updates in the field from both established investigators and trainees. See the link below for details!

Deadline Extended⏲️ Final places remain for our upcoming #GenReg26 conference taking place in Mexico! If you're interested in joining discussions surrounding genome regulation and RNA-based mechanisms in biology, register before 16 Dec 2025 to secure your place➡️http://bit.ly/4mrQ5Bx

Finally out in @nature.com! We uncovered a mechanistic framework for a general and conserved mRNA nuclear export pathway. www.nature.com/articles/s41.... 1/

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