I’m excited to share our new paper in Genome Biology, where we show SMARCA4 protects against genome instability at G4 sites, using analysis of double-strand break mapping and whole genome sequencing. It has been a really interesting and collaborative project! link.springer.com/article/10.1...

@alison-harrod.bsky.social has her wonderful project on SMARCA4 and G quadruplex stability out now in Genome Biology link.springer.com/article/10.1...

New preprint from the lab! Our awesome @lillianwu.bsky.social drove this project with contributions from @kezlane.bsky.social @alison-harrod.bsky.social and collaborators @andrea-musacchio.bsky.social @chromatinlab.bsky.social and @claudioalfieri.bsky.social #CENP-B www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...

CENP-B binds hairpin motifs in chromosome arms influencing gene expression https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.04.10.717743v1

Our new review, looking into the roles of SWI/SNF in the chromatin environment around centromeres, is just out in Open Biology! @kezlane.bsky.social @thedownslab.bsky.social

The amazing @lillianwu.bsky.social is now the amazing Dr Lillian Wu 🎉 She passed her viva with flying colours. Massive thanks to her wonderful examiners @esashilab.bsky.social and @viji-draviam.bsky.social

Congratulations to Dr Noa Amin (times two since she was already a medical doctor but now has an amazing PhD)!!! #proudsupervisor Beautiful @icr.ac.uk award ceremony at the Guildhall

It was a pleasure to present my work at the AlterNAT meeting last week! Thank you to the organisers for a really interesting meeting, and for the opportunity to present my work. @biochemsoc.bsky.social

A little shout-out to the lab, who have been out in force lately presenting their work! Starting with @alison-harrod.bsky.social talking about her work with Pedro Zuazua Villar and @naghamg.bsky.social on SMARCA4 and G quadruplexes

New preprint from the lab on ARID1A, G quadruplexes, and repair: www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

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...

Delighted to share that our paper on the role of PBAF in centromere integrity is out now in @natcomms.bsky.social! It was a long journey but it was made so much easier thanks to my co-first author/coding whiz @alison-harrod.bsky.social, the whole @thedownslab.bsky.social team, & our wonderful boss!

Cheers @kezlane.bsky.social to our co-first author paper on PBRM1 and the centromere being published this week in @naturecomms.bsky.social! @thedownslab.bsky.social @icr.ac.uk

My lab is #hiring! I am recruiting for two #Postdoc positions investigating the Alternative Lengthening of Telomeres mechanism. www.jobs.ac.uk/job/DLO693/r... www.jobs.ac.uk/job/DLP016/r... #Telomere #DNAreplication #DNArepair #cancer #glioma #UKRI #MRC #universityofbirmingham #NGS

We are looking for someone to join our lab as a researcher (scientific officer). Advert and information on applying is here: jobs.icr.ac.uk/vacancies/10... It's a great team and a wonderful place to work!

Lab retreat 2024! We had days of excellent science, food, ideas, food, games, food, discussions, food, and brainstorming. And snacks.