We’re pleased to share that Professor Sir Leszek Borysiewicz has been named as the government’s preferred candidate for Chair of UKRI. Sir Leszek is expected to take up the role later this summer and will succeed the current UKRI Chair, Sir Andrew Mackenzie. More: www.ukri.org/news/sir-les...

Monthly median Received to Accepted time (days) at Nature Genetics

Do we grow wiser as we age? I spent 15+ years chasing glam journals, wasting time and energy (and frustrating my team and co-authors). I don’t want to wake up at 70 and realize my life went into convincing a few editors my work was trendy enough. Enough. I’ll try to be smarter.

Our man Alan speaking about his latest story! Make sure to join

Using degron technology to systematically deplete all SET1/MLL complexes, we find that they synergise to deposit H3K4me3 at gene promoters. Using mass spectrometry (thanks to Inge de Krijger and Michiel Vermeulen), we also identify a novel SET1B isoform that contributes substantially to H3K4me3.

Excited to share our new preprint from the Klose lab, where we investigate how SET1/MLL complexes shape H3K4me3 and regulate transcription in mouse ES cells. www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...

Also @au-ho-yu.bsky.social probably holds the world record for the most degron-tagged proteins in the same line. Guess how many!

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...

ERC starter grant applications from US researchers nearly triple in 2025 compared to 2024 as Trump restricts funding. Good for "Choose Europe" initiatives, but dire for global and national science, given the limited volume of non-US funding available.

A new, nerdy paper. We figured out (some) of the rules underlying cell-permeability of probes and designed ligands that light up, grab, and move proteins around. Awesome @hhmijanelia.bsky.social x @uwmadison.bsky.social x @stjuderesearch.bsky.social collaboration! www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...

🧬 New preprint! SNU-Seq maps nascent transcription at single-nucleotide resolution using 4sU labeling. Together with sf4sU-Seq, it shows how epigenetically primed chromatin rapidly activates transcription after IFN-γ. 📄 doi.org/10.1101/2021... #SNUSeq #RNAseq

I’m a fair-weather poster on here to say the least. However, I'm pleased to present our latest paper. A great effort from all authors and an interesting insight into transcriptional regulation (we think!). www.cell.com/molecular-ce...

BIG ANNOUNCEMENT📣: I haven’t been this excited to be part of something new in 15 years… Thrilled to reveal the passion project I’ve been working on for the past year and a half!🙀🥳 (thread 👇)

If you are a computational biologist come, apply and join Howard & Klose lab in a joint Norwich-Oxford collaboration on chromatin dynamics!

If you are a computational biologist interested in how chromatin states are established and maintained to regulate transcription, this is the dream job for you! This will be in close collaboration with the Klose lab in Oxford and we have a lot of cool projects you can get involved in. Apply!

Happy Pluripotency Day! #Oct4

Delighted to share our lab's first preprint identifying DDIAS as a mitotic DNA repair protein. Great collaboration with the @andrewblackford.bsky.social, @tcr-miller.bsky.social and @profstewartlab.bsky.social labs, and many more. Read the paper here: www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

Double celebration on our floor @oxfordbiochemistry.bsky.social with @guifengwei.bsky.social from the Brockdorff lab and Dounia and Sherry from Fisher lab having their papers published today! And I hear there is more to come... www.nature.com/articles/s41... www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Do you know where transcription of a gene actually stops? Hint: it is not the annotated gene end. In our new paper in Nucleic Acids Research we argue that phosphorylation on threonine 4 of RNA Pol II CTD is a marker of transcription termination in animals... 🧵 academic.oup.com/nar/advance-...

Check out our new collaborative preprint about Affinity-ligand purification of native human low-abundance multi-protein complexes doi.org/10.1101/2025...

Registration for Transcription and Chromatin UK is OPEN! Taking place from September 17 to 19, 2025, this conference will showcase cutting-edge research and is a ‘must-attend’ event for the UK transcription and chromatin community & both at home and abroad. Pl register ow.ly/7QQb50W9Alo & share

Fresh preprint by @flavia-con.bsky.social from our lab uncovers how SMCHD1 finds & binds chromatin using live-cell single-molecule imaging🔬 She reveals how SMCHD1 dynamically engages chromatin, including the inactive X chromosome, to maintain gene silencing. www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

Check out new paper on single-molecule live-cell imaging of SMCHD1 binding to an inactive X chromosome by Flavia Constantinescu from Neil Brockdorff's team! :)

Also noted: The first two blastomeres contribute unequally to the human embryo. www.cell.com/cell/fulltex...

All you nuclear biologists out there: Here is a cautionary tale not to be fooled by peripheral organelle staining. It might just be that your antibody got trapped because it is "too good".

🧵 1/6 Just dropped in @naturecomms.bsky.social We’ve engineered the most photostable yellow fluorescent proteins (YFPs) to date—mGold2s and mGold2t—with up to 25× greater photostability than mVenus and mCitrine, without compromising brightness. 👇 🔗 www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Transcription and Chromatin UK is back for 2025 in Manchester! Make sure you register your interest to be kept in the loop about registration and abstract submission. www.biochemistry.org/events-and-t...

Cool perspective on cohesin as a "disruptor" by Adrian Bird: www.cell.com/molecular-ce...

Our new findings on how chromosomes get ready for cell division are now published in @cellpress.bsky.social! Congratulations, Kai, @andibrunner.bsky.social and everyone else involved! 🤩 www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

📣 We are advertising for a postdoc to join our team at the University of Edinburgh! Our lab studies gene regulatory mechanisms in development, and how genetic changes may impact these processes to alter development and shape human craniofacial form and function 🧬🧪

Very interesting finding!

The archetype of the scientist who sacrifices everything might’ve been romantic 50 years ago when there weren’t alternative high paying jobs. If we won’t make science FUN, reduce bureaucracy, and make it easier to secure funding and publish, few will stay in academia.

I know everyone's busy with all the political turmoil but just wanted to remind everyone that Russia invaded Ukraine exactly 3 years ago. This conflict lead to 400k and 800k killed/wounded Ukrainians and Russians (wiki). We must continue to aid UA to end this conflict on their terms more than ever!

This is a new level of madness. I don't know how it can be stopped

Online Now: Identification of molecular determinants of gene-specific bursting patterns by high-throughput imaging screens

Research @oxfordbiochemistry.bsky.social @ox.ac.uk supported by the Wellcome Trust (UK) and NIH (USA) reveals essential new player in the process of deciding whether genes should be made or not. Great work @jesskelley.bsky.social @robklose.bsky.social @edimitrova.bsky.social 👏 bit.ly/202502-klose

Our first deep dive into TEs and piRNAs in African cichlids is finally published! genomebiology.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.... rdcu.be/d69S5 Our main findings below 🧵 #TEsky

Want to come and set up a group at our wonderful institute?

More than 40 percent of #postdocs leave academia. Those who landed a coveted faculty position were more likely to have had a highly cited paper, changed their research topic between their #PhD and postdoc, or moved abroad after receiving their doctorate. www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/... @pnas.org

Mechanisms of synergistic Mediator recruitment in RNA polymerase II transcription activation revealed by single-molecule fluorescence https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2024.12.10.627625v1

Have a look at important thread by Emilia's on why you should approach with caution non-callibrated genomics data ;)

First attempt in a (loosely defined) Single-Molecule Biophysics starter pack. Please share and (self-) nominate. go.bsky.app/CteFZM5

Very excited that our paper describing a critical role for the PNUTS-PP1 phosphatase complex in transcription pause release is up online! This was a massive team effort with @edimitrova.bsky.social and the rest of the @robklose.bsky.social lab www.cell.com/molecular-ce... A short thread: (1/8)

Here it is! Congratuations to @jesskelley.bsky.social @edimitrova.bsky.social @neilblackledge.bsky.social @aleksszczurek.bsky.social and the rest of the team (Maciej, Amy, and Hieu). This was a fab collaboration with Arminja Kettenbach. Also see a lovely complementary paper from Fei Chen's group.

The final countdown 😀

A preview on the latest work from @robklose.bsky.social lab where Aleks (Not made the bluesky transition yet) used single molecule approaches to address how Polycomb controls transcription. He found that Polycomb limits the frequency with which a promoter can enter a permissive transcribing state.