On this day, in 1961, two articles appeared in Nature announcing the isolation of messenger RNA (mRNA) www.cell.com/current-biol...

How does a scanning ribosome decide where to start protein synthesis? In our new bioRxiv preprint, we identify an extended translation initiation sequence, the eTIS, an ~80-nt region around the start codon that shapes initiation efficiency: www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6... #Ribosome #CryoEM #mRNA

Excited to share our work uncovering SNOR, a ribosome-associated factor that promotes translation restart after dormancy published in Nature!! This was, as usual, a wonderful collaborative effort between our group and the Mattei Lab @simonemattei.bsky.social @embl.org www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Ribosome collisions trigger tmRNA-mediated rescue through mRNA disengagement www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6... 🦠

New paper from the lab. "Cap-adjacent 2′-O-ribose methylation of RNA in C. elegans is required for postembryonic growth and germline development in the presence of the decapping exonuclease EOL-1". This thread explains the background to the paper and our key findings. doi.org/10.1093/nar/... 1/15

10 days left – Sign up now for the EMBO Workshop "#RNA metabolism: Perspective from physiology to brain disorder" in Darjeeling, #India, 25–28 Oct 2026. Deadline: 15 May https://meetings.embo.org/event/26-rna-metabolism#RNA#India#EMBOrnaMetabolism #RNAsky #LifeSciences #research #conference #EMBOevents 🧪

Happy to share our latest paper: www.nature.com/articles/s41... Great collaboration with @ifremer.bsky.social, @cbitoulouse.bsky.social & @pasteur.fr. Studying stress in P. abyssi with near-native, minimally purified ribosomes, we identified HibA, a new hibernation factor widespread in Archaea.

The hidden rules behind mRNA transport. A collaborative study between @simonbullock11.bsky.social & @carter-lab.bsky.social’s groups has found a structural code that explains how cells selectively transport mRNAs. Read more: mrclmb.ac.uk/news-events/... #LMBNews @cellbiol-mrclmb.bsky.social 🧪

📻️ Again, live on air (well, pre-recorded) at BBC Radio! Together with Dr Nick Gaunt, I will be talking about our Keep it Science podcast. This season, we put a spotlight on Rare Disease. > www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p... Big thanks to our wonderful guests! #podcast #rareDisease #autoimmune

"Pancreatic cancer mRNA vaccine shows lasting results in an early trial: Scientists caution that more research is needed, but nearly all of the patients who responded to the personalized vaccine are still alive six years later."

Variations in ribosomal rRNAs linked to human phenotypes (height, weight..etc) #RNASky #ribosome 🧪 www.cell.com/cell-genomic... www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1...

Gcn2 deficiency triggers anemia and hypoxic intolerance in zebrafish

🧬A new review article discusses the consequences of mutations in genes associated with rare hereditary diseases linked to #G-quadruplex -induced replisome stalling, as well as the molecular functions and cellular pathways of these G4-interacting proteins. doi.org/10.1038/s420...

#RNAsky 🤓

Join us for the final Slice of RNA meeting of the year! 📅 April 14 | ⏰ 1–3 PM 📍 CU Anschutz Speakers: Adam Koch (CSU) Michael Nagel (CU Boulder) Georgia Barone (CU Boulder) RSVP: docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1F... Supported by @rnasociety.bsky.social, Lexogen & RNA Bioscience Anschutz.

[The Apollo 11 plaque] reads: "We came in peace for all Mankind." As the United States was dropping 7 ½ megatons of conventional explosives on small nations in Southeast Asia, we congratulated ourselves on our humanity. We would harm no one on a lifeless rock. - Carl Sagan

Exciting News! Grant-witness.us now has dynamic funding curves like mine for NIH available. grant-witness.us/funding_curv... 1/2

My first PhD student‘s, Kavan Gor, paper on 5-color single-molecule imaging of co-transcriptional RNA folding is out in @science.org Advances! He finds how RNA modification enzymes, antisense oligonucleotides and ribosomal proteins re-route nascent RNA folding. See more details in EMBL post below!

Mutual feedback regulation between Poly(A)-specific ribonuclease (PARN) and its cognate microRNAs 🔁🧬 RNA doesn’t just get regulated — it regulates back. A dynamic circuit controlling stability, decay, and fine-tuned gene expression. www.life-science-alliance.org/content/9/5/...

Got my first conference attendee scam. Assume they targeted names on the website for: #RNASociety See lots more of this lately.

Action Item...Action Item...Action Item Time to comment on the Framework for the NIH-Wide Strategic Plan grants.nih.gov/grants/guide... Comments due by May 16, 2026

Like #hemocytes? I'm advertising a 3 year, BBSRC #postdoc position, in #Edinburgh, using #Drosophila & human cells to understand sex differences in the regulation of #macrophage function, an exciting collaboration with the Bénézech and Wood labs. Please share! 🪰🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿 www.jobs.ac.uk/job/DQU604/p...

Hot off the press from the Zamore & Gainetdinov labs: Cleavage of mRNAs by a minority of pachytene piRNAs improves sperm fitness 🏊️ buff.ly/O40kIi3 #piRNA #mRNA #fertility

I'm not sure what to make of this. The mechanism seems a bit goofy (that m6A increases the hydrophobicity of mRNA, increasing NPC-association? really?) www.nature.com/articles/s41...

#TEsky A retroelement-derived mammalian ARC protein exhibits selective RNA recognition and nucleic acid chaperone functions pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/41797537/

On International Women’s Day, we celebrate technology pioneers and recognize the mentorship that is necessary to inspire the current generation and those of the future. go.nature.com/4umbgcz

Nuclear import of malaria RNA rewires splicing in host immune cells

Establishing a commercial solution for extremely rare genetic diseases go.nature.com/4aHSIvu

New paper alert: Paralog interference contributes to the preservation of genetic redundancy www.cell.com/current-biol...

To counteract the deluge of bad information on social media, pro-science content creators are taking strategies straight out of the influencer playbook. 🧪

I’m thrilled to share that my PhD work has been just published in Cell. After a long and bumpy ride, we uncovered the core function of nuclear speckles -splicing of GC-levelled exons- and traced the evolution of this gene architecture and condensates themselves to amniotes.

🚨Publication Alert🚨 New work from our #CRC1678 members Niels Gehring and @volkerboehm.bsky.social published in @natcomms.nature.com shows that SMG5 & SMG6 PIN domains form a composite endonuclease (cPIN) enabling efficient mRNA cleavage🧬

The most important #RNA conference of the year with lots of amazing science and a really friendly atmosphere. This year in beautiful Montreal 🇨🇦 ! www2.rnasociety.org

🎉Proud to present our latest paper, out now in Nature Communications: www.nature.com/articles/s41... RNA Binding Proteins (RBPs) are often full of intrinsically disordered regions (IDRs), but what these regions do during RNA recognition is often unclear. 1/10 #RNA #IDR #RBP

"Here, we discover that giant DNA viruses encode a distinct and functional IF4F translation-initiation complex to drive protein synthesis, thereby blurring the line between cellular and acellular biology" www.cell.com/cell/fulltex...

Interested in antisense oligonucleotides? Check our story about downstream-of-gene ASOs (DG-ASOs)! Together with the Roche Innovation Center we identified transcription termination windows of protein-coding genes as ASO target regions. link to BioRxiv: www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...

New Online! Mechanisms and disease relevance of mitochondrial translation in humans

🧪✨ Introducing BenchAid🧪! Our new molecular biology AI agent is live at benchaid.farnunglab.com. Over the last months, we built BenchAid🧪 to streamline many of our bench workflows to help move our lab faster. Try it out!

Stress testing reveals selective vulnerabilities in protein homeostasis

Gut–heart–brain links in heart failure: microbial dysbiosis and metabolites like TMAO connect cardiac and cognitive decline, pointing to the microbiome as a new therapeutic frontier. #HeartFailure #Microbiome www.mdpi.com/2075-4426/15...

The way UK govt funds science is in the midst of a major transition, with creation of a much more direct link between government priorities & UKRI research funding. My attempt to set in context the biggest upheaval in UK science funding policy since the 1980s: softmachines.org?p=3252

Why m⁶A? An RNA surveillance model. @SchragaSchwartz and colleagues review recent findings on the interplay between RNA methylation and RNA processing machinery to propose a surveillance model for m6A. http://dlvr.it/TQp3XV

Translational perspectives on brain-heart interplay: From methodologies to clinical applications www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

Our new review on proteostasis of organelles in aging & disease is now online in The FEBS Journal! We discuss recent insights on how #proteostasis safeguards organelle integrity and function across the cell in #aging and disease doi.org/10.1111/febs...

I miss these pieces so much...sigh...

Our new book "Self-Doubt" is written by scientists for scientists. You might think you are alone when you doubt your ability or suitability for science - you aren't. We all question ourselves and carry doubt with us daily. www.amazon.co.uk/Self-Doubt-A...

4 - Still lots to learn about this mysterious factor. 🔗 Read the paper: academic.oup.com/nar/article/... Funded by @dfg.de via SFB TRR319-RMaP 🙏 #RibosomeBiology #TranslationQC #RNA #Nanopore #Yeast #PhDPosition #DFG #RMaP #New1