Intrigued by a long-standing conundrum in small RNA biology—how nuclear Argonaute proteins silence transposons when they *need* target transcription for their own recruitment—we studied the piRNA pathway. And found a hidden RNA-decay axis from Piwi to the RNA exosome.

Lastly, I’m excited to join @imbmainz.bsky.social in 2026 to start my own lab. We'll explore new mechanisms in eukaryotic gene expression, leveraging ‘evolutionary play’ to uncover how regulation, repurposing, and hijacking shape RNA biology. tinyurl.com/y4x29ctt Thanks for reading! 20/20

Are you an early-stage graduate student (2nd or 3rd year) or early-stage postdoc based in the US or Canada, working primarily in Drosophila? Would you like to help improve the experience of all trainees working in Drosophila research? If so, read on. (Please repost to reach a broad audience.)

Some impressions from the rather fabulous #EMBOmobilegenome Mobile Genome meeting in Heidelberg Morning walk through the woods, exciting panel discussion, flash talks, lab community, drosophila friends, … @events.embl.org The transposon community is going very strong. see you all again in 2027!!

When transposons jump, genomes diverge - even in cultured cells. I am happy to share our new preprint: a chromosome-scale genome assembly for Drosophila OSC cells, one of the key model systems in the piRNA field, especially for nuclear piRNA biology. 🧬🧵 (1/12)

1/ How do animals develop immunity against a newly encountered transposable element from scratch? Our study reveals that the mobility of TEs is their Achilles heel, allowing hosts to develop a powerful small RNA-mediated silencing response. www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

We wrote a review on the free nucleotide pool as a central playground in human, bacterial, and plant immunity – now out in Nature Reviews in Immunology www.nature.com/articles/s41... Was fun to write this piece with Dina Hochhauser! Here is a thread to explain the premises 1/

We wrote a review on Transposable Elements (TEs) and almost all aspects of TE silencing and their roles in biological processes & disease. www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Although we didn't make it to a cover, it was so wonderful to work with @mariadiazillus.bsky.social on designing an artwork inspired by our work. Thank you Maria! We love it and will be proudly showing it around. Rover ERV wandering around the chromatin rapped around the moons of the solar system:

🚨📢 New paper alert! A study led by Kirsten Senti and Julius Brennecke offers new insights into how ancient endogenous retroviruses diversified to exploit different cell “niches” in the fruit fly ovary, and how the host’s defenses adapted in return. https://imba.science/Brennecke_EMBOJ

REFEREE 1: “I conclude with a simple, direct statement - this is the best paper I have read all year!” #TransparentPeerReview Co-evolving infectivity and expression patterns drive the diversification of endogenous retroviruses @juliusbrennecke.bsky.social et al www.embopress.org/doi/full/10....

Flybase lost all of the NIH support overnight - it is a disaster for the community. Please consider donating. I just did! www.philanthropy.cam.ac.uk/give-to-camb...

Happy #FluorescenceFriday !🌈 Today, sperm cells & developing gametes (Dapi, 🟢🟡🟠🔴) and testis muscles (Phalloidin (🔵🟢) in/on a #Drosophila non-melanogaster (guess the species and you’re the 🐐) #cellbio #devbio #science #sciart #microscopy Scope: Zeiss Airyscan 980❤️@zeiss-microscopy.bsky.social

📣 Our new VIP3 Postdoc program is accepting applications! Wondering what's it's like to do a postdoc at the Vienna Biocenter? Find out here👇 🎉

#drosophila @flybase.bsky.social request emergency funding: "As it stands, by the end of July, 2025, there will be no future updates to FlyBase, and in the worst case scenario access to the website will also be lost" => please donate! www.philanthropy.cam.ac.uk/give-to-camb...

Did you know? 🧪 "The Interactive Fly" is a wonderful website hosted by @socdevbio.bsky.social where you can learn about their development, the history of gene discovery/name, and it is full of super useful resources for the #DevBio community 🪰https://www.sdbonline.org/sites/fly/aimain/1aahome.htm

Blurring the lines between retrotransposons & viruses! sORF2 enables direct transmission of retrotransposons challenging our understanding of mobile genetic elements. #preprint @juliusbrennecke.bsky.social Lab #preLight from Ally Simpson & Alyss Humphrey! 👉 prelights.biologists.com/highlights/d...

Stop for a second and try to imagine this: a heat shock protein relocalizes to the cell surface and mediates dsRNA binding and internalization! Intrigued? Read our newly minted paper in Science Advances www.science.org/doi/10.1126/... Congrats to all the authors and thanks to reviewers and editor!

We are hiring! Join the BioOptics team as a Data Scientist in Image Analysis and contribute to the team’s mission of providing microscopy applications, flow cytometry, and image analysis services. Link below. #europe #research #lifesciences

Online now at @cp-cell.bsky.social , the culmination of a 12-year effort. 🧵 to follow later this evening www.cell.com/cell/fulltex...

💥🥳 At long last, our latest paper is out! Gag proteins of endogenous retroviruses are required for zebrafish development www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/... Led heroically by Sylvia Chang & @jonowells.bsky.social A study which has changed the way I think of #transposons! No less! 🧵 1/n

I have exhorted others to share positive news even in these uncertain times for US science. I am really excited that @tamanash.bsky.social’s first paper on the remarkable evolutionary gymnastics of dual-host viruses (even in single codons) is now online. Follow along here 🧪🧵

Our field has lost an amazing scientist, mentor, and old friend. Benny, along with Mike Hoffman, had a brilliant idea in the early 1980s. The first oncogenes were being cloned and they realized if we wanted to understand their roles in cancer, we needed to understand their normal function 1/n 🧪

Do you have transposon-related research cooking, with some cool results you are exciting to share? Start thinking about registering to #EMBOMobileGenome workshop! Nov 4-7 2025 in Heidelberg. One of the historical TE meetings, with a diverse and welcoming community. www.embl.org/about/info/c... 1/3

we received so many nice comments for this work on this platform, it is really wonderful. Thank you all so much!!

This new mechanism of retrotransposon invasion will be a landmark finding in retrotransposon biology Very creative and thorough genetic and mechanistic dissection. Excited to see what studies of more transposon-encoded peptides and proteins like sORF2 will uncover! biology is just really cool

In the ‘90s, Pelisson et al. found that gypsy retrotransposons in flies can go viral—literally—thanks to an envelope gene. Now, @mayavoichek.bsky.social uncovers a wild new path to retrotransposon infectivity. A fascinating story—see Maya's thread www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.03.14.642691v2

1/ Transposable elements are often called "jumping genes" because they mobilize within genomes. 🧬 But did you know they can also jump 𝘣𝘦𝘵𝘸𝘦𝘦𝘯 cells? 🤯 Our new study reveals how retrotransposons invade the germline directly from somatic cells. www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1... A short thread 🧵👇

This #InternationalWomensDay I want to tell the story of Lilian Vaughan Morgan. I learned of Lilian this past year - what a badass. Lilian was a leading scientist when women weren't welcome in the lab, nor even the department. But she contributed immensely to the genetics of sex determination 1/n

More about me and my work in @the_Node SciArt profiles! thenode.biologists.com/sciart-profi...

Because it never loses its relevance. “Measles: A Dangerous Illness” — a letter by Roald Dahl #VaccinesSaveLives

Vaccines work! As measles cases have recently been reported in Alaska, Georgia, New York, Rhode Island and Texas, it's important to remember that prior to the introduction of the measles vaccine in 1963, measles killed 400-500 people and resulted in ~48,000 hospitalizations per year.

We will soon welcome @svenklumpe.bsky.social to the Vienna BioCenter, where he will use cryo-Electron Tomography to study - among other things - how #transposons shape #germlines. Sven's lab will be @imbavienna.bsky.social *AND* the IMP. Full story: www.viennabiocenter.org/about/news/s...

Hi Friends, Thought I'd kick off my posts on #MEvoSky with a short love letter to my favorite genetic element, the Himar1 mariner transposon! I'll go over some key literature and my plans for this intrepid mariner in my own microbial evolution research. 🧵 1/13

If you have been affected by the fires in LA, or are concerned about your ability to keep precious Drosophila strains going during the latest funding crisis, we will host your strains as a backup. Please email me. Please amplify. If you are also able to host fly strains, add your name as well.

Our paper out @CellCellPress: Structure guided discovery of viral proteins that inhibit host immunity Congrats Erez Yirmiya, Azita Leavitt, Gil Amitai, our collaborators at the Kranzusch lab, and coauthors A 🧵 1/10 www.cell.com/cell/abstrac...

I ❤️ Diversity-Generating Retroelements! DGRs are abundant in prokaryotes and have been domesticated to create protein diversity via reverse transcription. This new structural study reveals a unique way of priming RT via precise positioning of the RNA around the enzyme. www.nature.com/articles/s41...

A year in the Pauli lab 'in pictures'. It's already a little tradition to look back at the many happy memories of the past year. Excited to see what 2025 will bring - may it be another happy, fun, successful and fulfilling year!

Nine countries eliminated a disease in 2024. Here's how Pakistan pulled it off — fulfilling a young boy's dream of eliminating blindness caused by bacterial infections.

Before this hysteria spreads any further, a graphical explanation of what ICTV does and doesn't do. None of the virus names have been changed or will ever be changed by ICTV (it's outside the remit). Only species names have changed. This has been explained so many times... doi.org/10.1007/s007...

Check out this beautiful representation of our work by @munafomarzia.bsky.social uncovering the molecular bridge between sperm and egg! 🔑🤩 We had lots of fun brainstorming together with Marzia and seeing our discoveries come to life in this artistic rendition 🧵

The life of each of us began when a sperm and an egg came together. But what happens at a molecular level? Our latest work in Cell led by @vdeneke.bsky.social & Andreas Blaha reveals a conserved fertilization complex that bridges sperm and egg in vertebrates! (1/11) www.cell.com/cell/fulltex...

I’m excited to share our latest study led by @giuliapasquesi.bsky.social out today in @cellpress.bsky.social , uncovering a new way transposons have been repurposed for human interferon signaling! Read on for a thread on cryptic splice variants, decoy receptors, and viruses (1/N) 👇🧵 #TESky 🧪

#NotOnlyParasites! 2 Cell papers by @edchuong.bsky.social lab & Amigorena lab demonstrate that transposable elements #TEs can exonize giving rise to functional (often shorter) proteins with distinct functions: eg a decoy short IFNAR2 that inhibits #interferon signaling! www.cell.com/cell/fulltex...

The piRNA pathway mediates transcriptional silencing of LTR retrotransposons in the soma and germline of Aedes mosquitoes https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2024.11.28.623418v1

I made a (very incomplete) list of folks at the Vienna BioCenter (VBC). Please let me know if I should add you, or anybody else.

9️⃣ go.bsky.app/7t5GQAP