For an update on our preprint about the mysterious signature SBS5, see: www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1.... New analyses throughout, but see Figure 5 in particular.

Congratulations to PMI student @febrigunawan48.bsky.social from Dr. Renfeng Li's laboratory on his upcoming PhD thesis defense! 🎉 🎈

New preprint

Proteomic Screening Identifies HNRNPA2B1 as an Epigenetic Repressor of Epstein-Barr Virus Reactivation https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.02.27.708571v1

RICHMOND! Join your local March 7th rally to take back our science! Learn more at standupforscience.net/march7 #March7 #rally #standupforscience #March7Richmond #science

NEJM Clinician Editor-in-Chief Raja-Elie Abdulnour, MD, explains a recent study on weight regain after stopping obesity medications showing projected return to baseline weight within 2 years. Read the full context and comment by Sarah E. Post, MD: jwat.ch/4a91gtO #MedSky #GLP1

Looking forward to #BPS2026 in San Francisco? Come by the NIH sponsored Transformative High-Resolution Cryo-Electron Microscopy National Centers for #CryoEM at booth 410. Our mission is to broaden access to high-resolution cryo-electron microscopy and tomography technologies - cryoemcenters.org

Nature research paper: PtdIns(3,5)P2 is an endogenous ligand of STING in innate immune signalling go.nature.com/4klvMp1

🧬📄 Preprint update (v2): We added new biochemical experiments that clarify how IWS1 associates with the transcription elongation complex and further define competition between IWS1 and RECQL5. 🧪⚙️ www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1... Structural model is already available in the PDB (9MLC).

At this point MAGA has actually gone far beyond the level of human rights abuses we took the trouble to document in other countries. Keep hold of your moral compasses, and continue to #resist #AltFam

A coworker took this from her apartment. I haven't seen a crowd this size before. Maybe the first Women's March? But it was much much warmer that day. ICE OUT OF MINNESOTA!

An early Christmas present for those interested in chromatin and transcription! Fantastic work from @au-ho-yu.bsky.social and @aleksszczurek.bsky.social . Thanks to Inge and Michiel for their help. Please repost! www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...

🧪For anyone interested in EBV in autoimmunity, I strongly urge you to read this incredible study by @shady-myounis.bsky.social, Bill Robinson, and @tobiaslanz.bsky.social. It is not only a scientific tour de force, it has a deeply provocative discussion that everyone in the field should consider 1/

Whoah EBV not only causes multiple sclerosis, it also might be the root of SLE www.science.org/doi/10.1126/... An EBV vaccine to rid ourselves of these horrible autoimmune conditions (and many cancers)? #lupus #medsky #RheumSky @christosargyrop.bsky.social

New OA Article: "RNA m6A regulates the transcription and heterochromatin state of retrotransposons in Arabidopsis" rdcu.be/eM95H m6A is recognized by nuclear readers CPSF30-L and ECT12, which associate with SUVH4/5/6 and ATXR5/6 to enhance histone methylation...

Pitt faculty taking a stand against the higher education "compact" www.wesa.fm/identity-com... I know of a few other news stories about similar faculty action. Please share them here.

Welp. Thanks to the Republican gov shutdown I have a bunch of hours back in my week due to a NIH study section not meeting. These poor applicants. They will be waiting week by week for government to reopen and to find out what will happen to their grant application.

The 2025 #NobelPrize in Physiology or Medicine has been awarded to Mary E. Brunkow, Fred Ramsdell and Shimon Sakaguchi for their groundbreaking discoveries concerning peripheral immune tolerance that prevents the immune system from harming the body 🧪 www.nobelprize.org/prizes/medic...

2025 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine #nobelprize E. Brunkow, Fred Ramsdell and Shimon Sakaguchi “for their discoveries concerning peripheral immune tolerance.”

Strengthening nucleic acid biosecurity screening against generative protein design tools www.science.org/doi/10.1126/... 🧬🖥️🧪

Imagine a scientific journal called Infection and Immunity not focusing on viruses and the immune response?!

Our enthusiastic student talk: Febri Gunawan Sugiokto from PMI #bgsa #symposium #studenttalks

Check out PMI talks tomorrow at the SOM Grad Student Symposium: @catmphelps.bsky.social (in @meisellab.bsky.social ), Daria Jelic (Doug Reed lab), Kelsey Ertwine (Abby Overacre lab), @febrigunawan48.bsky.social (in Renfeng Li lab), and @dariavantyne.bsky.social !

ASM 🥳

🚨 Microbiologists! We are recruiting Assistant / Associate Professors in 3 collaborative areas of our U. Pittsburgh School of Medicine. 1) MMG (my dept): fundamental research in med micro 2) Peds ID / I4Kids institute 3) Center for Vaccine Research 🔗 to all 3 w/info: www.linkedin.com/posts/vaughn...

Thanks to @asm.org and colleagues for stadning up for public health. Call Congress today and demand Kennedy's resignation asm.org/press-releas...

#1 Centromeres are epigenetic loci defined by CENP-A, positioned in unmethylated DNA flanked by highly methylated regions. Our work, published in @natgenet.nature.com in collaboration with @naltemose.bsky.social investigates the role of DNAme at human centromeres www.nature.com/articles/s41...

As RFK testifies in front of the Senate today, ASV wants to emphasize the risks posed by his decisions related to virus outbreaks and the public health of Americans. Together with our partner organizations, we call for RFK's resignation: asm.org/press-releas...

🧬 New preprint! We find PIAS1 regulates EBNA1, the key EBV protein for episome maintenance. PIAS1 binds oriP & SUMOylates EBNA1, stabilizing episomes + restricting lytic replication. 🚨 PIAS1 may also regulate KSHV & HPV → a potential pan-viral therapeutic target?

EBNA1 SUMOylation by PIAS1 Suppresses EBV Lytic Replication and Enhances Episome Maintenance https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.09.01.673444v1

Win for #openscience!

Mars: simplifying bioinformatics workflows through a containerized approach to tool integration and management academic.oup.com/bioinformati... 🧬🖥️🧪 github.com/GenomicAI/mars

NIH PostBac program is open again! And I will be hiring! #JobPostComing www.training.nih.gov/research-tra...

Challenging times. Harvard at risk of losing $9 billion in federal funds as US launches review www.reuters.com/world/us/us-...

New this evening (3/28): Major update in NIH grant termination numbers. ❌ 695 NIH grants now terminated (up from 429) ❌ 232 on HIV/AIDS ❌ 44 on cancer ❌ 28 on Alzheimer's ❌ 123 on Covid* *And this doesn't count cancelled non-NIH Covid grants. HUGE THANKS to @noamross.net for pushing the updates!

“If large numbers of academics working in the U.S. do decide to leave, Gold doubts other countries will be able to absorb them all. The end result, he warns, could be an exodus of talent from global science. “My biggest fear,” he says, is that “we’re going to lose a cohort of researchers.”” 🧪

Some scientists in the United States have told Nature that they are considering leaving the country in the wake of widespread disruption to research brought in by the Trump administration Are you thinking about leaving? https://go.nature.com/4bMGd0J

A #SciencePerspective by @zalaly.bsky.social and @erictopol.bsky.social identifies key issues that need to be prioritized in the study of #LongCovid. Learn more on #LongCovidAwarenessDay: scim.ag/3XKbds3

Uncovering the road to MIS-C… -TGFβ links EBV to multisystem inflammatory syndrome in children- Brilliant work by a massively brilliant team. #LongCovid #MISC #KD www.nature.com/articles/s41...

This is really, really bad. Columbia made the mistake of thinking that placating the administration would spare them. Other universities made the mistake of thinking it would stop with Columbia. It won’t stop without disciplined pushback; it’s an existential question for American universities.

Breaking news: Thousands of researchers and their supporters, including recently fired federal workers, have gathered across the U.S. in response to layoffs and funding cuts ordered by the Trump administration. scim.ag/41zlPv4

If you like chromatin remodellers and centromeres, this might be of interest. In it, we generated omics data from isogenic PBRM1 cell lines, which we hope is of use to the community, freely available (when evil forces aren't messing with the publicly funded websites 🙄) www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Wow Just Wow youtu.be/G8ECt04qPos?...

Heartbreaking chats this week with students thinking of giving up on their dreams of getting a PhD. They worry about getting in PhD programs and careers post PhD. My suggestions: don’t be hasty, think broadly incl EU & Canada, & careers beyond traditional academia. What’re you telling your students?

Many US students don’t know how to seek opportunities outside the US. With some help from our colleagues in EU and Canada, we could put together a consolidated website of PhD opportunities and scholarships outside the US, organized by field. There might still be time for this year in some places.

Altered immune landscape of cervical lymph nodes reveals Epstein-Barr virus signature in multiple sclerosis | Science Immunology www.science.org/doi/abs/10.1...

Wondering if your study section cancelled? I update this sheet daily. As of today, 56/124 study sections that should have met since Jan 2, 2025 have "not met as scheduled." docs.google.com/spreadsheets...

The University of Pittsburgh confirmed Friday that there would be no new Ph.D. offers of admission while Pitt works to understand how reduced federal aid could impact the institution.

Freeze meetings -> reviews stop Reviews stop -> no scores No scores -> no recommendations No recommendations -> no awards No awards -> no $ No $ -> job & career loss, projects halted, lost discovery/cures/innovation + more We have a narrow window before the science supply chain grinds to a halt.

Statement by the American Society for Microbiology. Their website @asm.org has links to actions and more info. bsky.app/profile/asm....