Geoff Faulkner
@faulknerlab.bsky.social
Professor, University of Queensland. Retrotransposons and genomics.
Views my own. Scholar publications: http://tinyurl.com/3k7r3xvj
Views my own. Scholar publications: http://tinyurl.com/3k7r3xvj
Reposted by Geoff Faulkner
New paper from my lab out in NAR. We found that young L1 elements are controlled by SETDB1 and H3K9me3 in human neural progenitor cells via a mechanism independent of HUSH and TRIM28/KZNFs.
academic.oup.com/nar/article/...
academic.oup.com/nar/article/...
Loss of SETDB1-mediated H3K9me3 in human neural progenitor cells leads to transcriptional activation of L1 retrotransposons
Abstract. Heterochromatin is characterized by an inaccessibility to the transcriptional machinery and is associated with the histone mark H3K9me3. However,
academic.oup.com
February 5, 2026 at 3:17 PM
New paper from my lab out in NAR. We found that young L1 elements are controlled by SETDB1 and H3K9me3 in human neural progenitor cells via a mechanism independent of HUSH and TRIM28/KZNFs.
academic.oup.com/nar/article/...
academic.oup.com/nar/article/...
Interesting preprint from Moran lab showing an alternate L1 endonuclease activity
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...
www.biorxiv.org
February 4, 2026 at 10:20 PM
Interesting preprint from Moran lab showing an alternate L1 endonuclease activity
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...
Reposted by Geoff Faulkner
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
happy i could be a part of this paper from the Gilan lab out now. Along with many other things, it provides strong evidence of chromatin memory for gene activation, and suggests that DOT1L is the missing link balancing the fast and slow arms of the MLL/Polycomb axis
happy i could be a part of this paper from the Gilan lab out now. Along with many other things, it provides strong evidence of chromatin memory for gene activation, and suggests that DOT1L is the missing link balancing the fast and slow arms of the MLL/Polycomb axis
DOT1L provides transcriptional memory through PRC1.1 antagonism - Nature Cell Biology
Neville, Ferguson et al. show that non-canonical Polycomb repressive complex 1.1-mediated gene silencing is antagonized by DOT1L and is required for the therapeutic efficacy of Menin and DOT1L inhibit...
www.nature.com
February 3, 2026 at 9:29 PM
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
happy i could be a part of this paper from the Gilan lab out now. Along with many other things, it provides strong evidence of chromatin memory for gene activation, and suggests that DOT1L is the missing link balancing the fast and slow arms of the MLL/Polycomb axis
happy i could be a part of this paper from the Gilan lab out now. Along with many other things, it provides strong evidence of chromatin memory for gene activation, and suggests that DOT1L is the missing link balancing the fast and slow arms of the MLL/Polycomb axis
Reposted by Geoff Faulkner
New preprint from the lab! We dig into the regulatory roles of TEs in the mouse placenta, with some surprising findings. Led by the awesome @smamante.bsky.social. Particular kudos to him for navigating the many twists and turns of the project.
www.biorxiv.org
February 2, 2026 at 10:25 AM
New preprint from the lab! We dig into the regulatory roles of TEs in the mouse placenta, with some surprising findings. Led by the awesome @smamante.bsky.social. Particular kudos to him for navigating the many twists and turns of the project.
Reposted by Geoff Faulkner
Nature has retracted a paper after an investigation at a U.K. institution found the first author — then a doctoral student — manipulated data.
Nature retracts paper for data manipulation by Ph.D. student
Nature has retracted a paper after an investigation at a U.K. institution found the first author — then a doctoral student — manipulated data. The paper, which looked at the sensitivity of lu…
retractionwatch.com
January 14, 2026 at 4:11 PM
Nature has retracted a paper after an investigation at a U.K. institution found the first author — then a doctoral student — manipulated data.
Reposted by Geoff Faulkner
Crick spinout Enara Bio, co-founded by group leader George Kassiotis, has raised $32.5 million to progress immunotherapies that target ‘Dark Antigens’, cancer-specific targets derived from genetic material that’s inactive in healthy cells
www.crick.ac.uk/news/2024-10...
www.crick.ac.uk/news/2024-10...
Crick Spinout raises $32.5 million to progress immunotherapies targeting ‘Dark Antigens’
Enara Bio has announced $32.5 million in Series B financing to advance its pipeline of TCR-based immunotherapies against novel Dark Antigen targets for solid tumours.
www.crick.ac.uk
October 3, 2024 at 4:10 PM
Crick spinout Enara Bio, co-founded by group leader George Kassiotis, has raised $32.5 million to progress immunotherapies that target ‘Dark Antigens’, cancer-specific targets derived from genetic material that’s inactive in healthy cells
www.crick.ac.uk/news/2024-10...
www.crick.ac.uk/news/2024-10...
Reposted by Geoff Faulkner
Very happy that this part of my postdoc work is now out as a preprint!! Our findings reveal a new mechanism by which retroviral pandemics may have shaped primate brain evolution 🧬🐒🧠 This was a true team effort! w/ @ofeliakarlsson.bsky.social @raquelgarza.bsky.social @jakobssonlab.bsky.social #TEsky
New preprint from our lab: ‘Retroviral insertions contributed to the divergence of human and chimpanzee brains’. Very proud of this piece which took almost a decade to finish.
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...
Retroviral insertions contributed to the divergence of human and chimpanzee brains
Over the past 5 to 7 million years, humans and chimpanzees have diverged in brain size, structural complexity, and cognitive abilities despite high conservation of protein-coding genes. Notably, the e...
www.biorxiv.org
December 14, 2025 at 10:10 PM
Very happy that this part of my postdoc work is now out as a preprint!! Our findings reveal a new mechanism by which retroviral pandemics may have shaped primate brain evolution 🧬🐒🧠 This was a true team effort! w/ @ofeliakarlsson.bsky.social @raquelgarza.bsky.social @jakobssonlab.bsky.social #TEsky
Reposted by Geoff Faulkner
📣We are looking for a Project Assistant to join my group at the Wallenberg Center for Molecular Medicine at Umeå University. Join us if you are interested in transposable elements, epigenetics and human brain aging. 🧠🧬 Dont hesitate to reach out with any questions! 📣
umu.varbi.com/en/what:job/...
umu.varbi.com/en/what:job/...
Project Assistant
The Department of Medical and Translational Biology at the Faculty of Medicine is now seeking a project assistant for a research project related to human brain aging. The position is full-time and lim
umu.varbi.com
December 6, 2025 at 8:06 PM
📣We are looking for a Project Assistant to join my group at the Wallenberg Center for Molecular Medicine at Umeå University. Join us if you are interested in transposable elements, epigenetics and human brain aging. 🧠🧬 Dont hesitate to reach out with any questions! 📣
umu.varbi.com/en/what:job/...
umu.varbi.com/en/what:job/...
Reposted by Geoff Faulkner
Very excited to share my Phd/early post-doc work, out now in Cancer Research! Using multiomic data from multi-site tumors from ovarian cancer patients, we show that the tumors continue to acquire LINE-1 insertions after metastatic spread and find determinants of LINE-1 permissivity in this disease.
Dynamic and Ongoing De Novo L1 Retrotransposition Contributes to Genome Plasticity and Intrapatient Heterogeneity in Ovarian Cancer
Abstract. L1 retrotransposons are the only protein-coding active transposable elements in the human genome. While typically silenced in normal cells, they are highly expressed in many human epithelial...
aacrjournals.org
November 20, 2025 at 10:54 PM
Very excited to share my Phd/early post-doc work, out now in Cancer Research! Using multiomic data from multi-site tumors from ovarian cancer patients, we show that the tumors continue to acquire LINE-1 insertions after metastatic spread and find determinants of LINE-1 permissivity in this disease.
Reposted by Geoff Faulkner
The Medical Research Future Fund (MRFF) funds medical research in Australia. Only half the funds have been released. If you're an Australian and able to vote please use the form below to email your local MP to release the full amount of the MRFF
aamri.org.au/mrff/
aamri.org.au/mrff/
Half the Funding. Half the Future. - AAMRI
The Medical Research Future Fund (MRFF) was designed to deliver $1 billion each year in new, lifesaving funding for medical research. We know through financial modelling that the full amount can be re...
aamri.org.au
November 16, 2025 at 9:14 PM
The Medical Research Future Fund (MRFF) funds medical research in Australia. Only half the funds have been released. If you're an Australian and able to vote please use the form below to email your local MP to release the full amount of the MRFF
aamri.org.au/mrff/
aamri.org.au/mrff/
Reposted by Geoff Faulkner
New 🧬✂️ pre-print! We show that paired prime editing can efficiently generate large deletions — even >1 Mb — with high precision and at scale. We use this to perform the first pooled prime deletion screen across the human genome.
🔗 biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
A short thread (by Juliane Weller)👇
🔗 biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
A short thread (by Juliane Weller)👇
Generating long deletions across the genome with pooled paired prime editing screens
Engineered deletions are a powerful probe for studying genome architecture, function, and regulation. Yet, the lack of effective methods to create them in large numbers and at multi-kilobase scale has...
biorxiv.org
November 5, 2025 at 2:17 PM
New 🧬✂️ pre-print! We show that paired prime editing can efficiently generate large deletions — even >1 Mb — with high precision and at scale. We use this to perform the first pooled prime deletion screen across the human genome.
🔗 biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
A short thread (by Juliane Weller)👇
🔗 biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
A short thread (by Juliane Weller)👇
Reposted by Geoff Faulkner
1/ It's long been assumed that AEBP2 recruit PRC2 to chromatin. Now, we show that AEBP2 usually does the exact opposite:
The only isoform of AEBP2 that is expressed in most cell types and tissues inhibits the chromatin-binding activity of PRC2. www.embopress.org/doi/full/10....
The only isoform of AEBP2 that is expressed in most cell types and tissues inhibits the chromatin-binding activity of PRC2. www.embopress.org/doi/full/10....
Auto-inhibition of PRC2 by the broadly expressed long isoform of AEBP2 | The EMBO Journal
imageimageAEBP2 is an accessory subunit of the PRC2 complex previously implicated both in promoting
and antagonizing Polycomb repressive activity. This study reveals that its alternative
isoforms, AEB...
www.embopress.org
October 31, 2025 at 10:42 PM
1/ It's long been assumed that AEBP2 recruit PRC2 to chromatin. Now, we show that AEBP2 usually does the exact opposite:
The only isoform of AEBP2 that is expressed in most cell types and tissues inhibits the chromatin-binding activity of PRC2. www.embopress.org/doi/full/10....
The only isoform of AEBP2 that is expressed in most cell types and tissues inhibits the chromatin-binding activity of PRC2. www.embopress.org/doi/full/10....
Reposted by Geoff Faulkner
For obvious reasons, I've become fascinated with retrotransposons. So we ( @alexwhiteley.bsky.social and I) wrote an article now out in Neuron @cellpress.bsky.social on how we think retrotransposons influence brain function and health! kwnsfk27.r.eu-west-1.awstrack.me/L0/https:%2F...
October 20, 2025 at 8:00 PM
For obvious reasons, I've become fascinated with retrotransposons. So we ( @alexwhiteley.bsky.social and I) wrote an article now out in Neuron @cellpress.bsky.social on how we think retrotransposons influence brain function and health! kwnsfk27.r.eu-west-1.awstrack.me/L0/https:%2F...
Reposted by Geoff Faulkner
We are recuiting two new Associate Professors here in Oxford Biochemistry. Come join us! Reach out to me if you have any questions. Please repost! tinyurl.com/mr3m7bd3
October 17, 2025 at 2:56 PM
We are recuiting two new Associate Professors here in Oxford Biochemistry. Come join us! Reach out to me if you have any questions. Please repost! tinyurl.com/mr3m7bd3
Reposted by Geoff Faulkner
We're now recruiting early career group leaders at the Crick to lead ambitious research programmes and explore bold scientific questions.
Hear our Director, Edith Heard, explain why the Crick is a unique place for curiosity-driven research.
Apply now ➡️ www.crick.ac.uk/careers-stud...
Hear our Director, Edith Heard, explain why the Crick is a unique place for curiosity-driven research.
Apply now ➡️ www.crick.ac.uk/careers-stud...
October 9, 2025 at 2:06 PM
We're now recruiting early career group leaders at the Crick to lead ambitious research programmes and explore bold scientific questions.
Hear our Director, Edith Heard, explain why the Crick is a unique place for curiosity-driven research.
Apply now ➡️ www.crick.ac.uk/careers-stud...
Hear our Director, Edith Heard, explain why the Crick is a unique place for curiosity-driven research.
Apply now ➡️ www.crick.ac.uk/careers-stud...
Reposted by Geoff Faulkner
Another neurodegenerative disease caused by an SVA insertion. Not intron retention as seen in XPD, but aberrant splicing.
Deep Intronic SVA_E Insertion Identified as the Most Common Pathogenic Variant Associated With Canavan Disease | Neurology Genetics
Background and ObjectivesCanavan disease (CD) is a neurodegenerative disorder in which biallelic pathogenic
variants in ASPA result in spongiform degeneration of the cerebral white matter, leading to ...
www.neurology.org
September 25, 2025 at 12:23 PM
Another neurodegenerative disease caused by an SVA insertion. Not intron retention as seen in XPD, but aberrant splicing.
Reposted by Geoff Faulkner
Our study on the role of LTR5HS and SVAs in regulation of human neural crest migration is now published as peer-reviewed paper on @molsystbiol.org!
Congrats to first author brilliant postdoc Laura Deelen, and all the authors involved! @imperialsci.bsky.social
www.embopress.org/doi/full/10....
Congrats to first author brilliant postdoc Laura Deelen, and all the authors involved! @imperialsci.bsky.social
www.embopress.org/doi/full/10....
September 22, 2025 at 11:24 AM
Our study on the role of LTR5HS and SVAs in regulation of human neural crest migration is now published as peer-reviewed paper on @molsystbiol.org!
Congrats to first author brilliant postdoc Laura Deelen, and all the authors involved! @imperialsci.bsky.social
www.embopress.org/doi/full/10....
Congrats to first author brilliant postdoc Laura Deelen, and all the authors involved! @imperialsci.bsky.social
www.embopress.org/doi/full/10....
Reposted by Geoff Faulkner
Our new review is out in Trends in Cancer. We had fund writing this :) We discuss the roles of retrotransposons in immune modulation in normal and malignant
hematopoiesis. www.cell.com/trends/cance...
hematopoiesis. www.cell.com/trends/cance...
Reawakening retrotransposons: immune modulation in normal and malignant hematopoiesis
Retrotransposons are mobile repetitive elements that constitute around 43% of the
human genome. Normally silenced through epigenetic mechanisms, retrotransposons can
become reactivated in response to ...
www.cell.com
September 3, 2025 at 5:02 AM
Our new review is out in Trends in Cancer. We had fund writing this :) We discuss the roles of retrotransposons in immune modulation in normal and malignant
hematopoiesis. www.cell.com/trends/cance...
hematopoiesis. www.cell.com/trends/cance...
Reposted by Geoff Faulkner
Applications are now open! We are recruiting 20 Assistant Professors in a wide range of subject areas. We're looking for early-career researchers with strong scientific merits and future potential.
🔗 All positions: ki.se/en/about-ki/...
🔗 All positions: ki.se/en/about-ki/...
June 25, 2025 at 10:01 AM
Applications are now open! We are recruiting 20 Assistant Professors in a wide range of subject areas. We're looking for early-career researchers with strong scientific merits and future potential.
🔗 All positions: ki.se/en/about-ki/...
🔗 All positions: ki.se/en/about-ki/...
Reposted by Geoff Faulkner
New paper from our lab! We found that LINE-1 transposons contribute to early human brain development.
Funded by @asapresearch.parkinsonsroadmap.org
www.cell.com/cell-genomic...
Funded by @asapresearch.parkinsonsroadmap.org
www.cell.com/cell-genomic...
LINE-1 retrotransposons mediate cis-acting transcriptional control in human pluripotent stem cells and regulate early brain development
Adami et al. demonstrate that evolutionarily young L1s are expressed in human pluripotent
stem cells and are dynamically regulated throughout neural differentiation. The study
examines the role of L1s...
www.cell.com
August 23, 2025 at 9:47 AM
New paper from our lab! We found that LINE-1 transposons contribute to early human brain development.
Funded by @asapresearch.parkinsonsroadmap.org
www.cell.com/cell-genomic...
Funded by @asapresearch.parkinsonsroadmap.org
www.cell.com/cell-genomic...
Reposted by Geoff Faulkner
New paper from Bin Cao, showing that placenta-specific KO of ADAR1 is embryonic lethal.
ADAR1 as a Placental Innate Immune Rheostat Sustaining the Homeostatic Balance of Intrinsic Interferon Response at the Maternal‐Fetal Interface
This study reveals that ADAR1, an RNA-editing enzyme, fine-tunes immune responses in the placenta by preventing the accumulation of immunogenic double-stranded RNAs (dsRNAs) from interferon-stimulate...
advanced.onlinelibrary.wiley.com
August 22, 2025 at 11:28 AM
New paper from Bin Cao, showing that placenta-specific KO of ADAR1 is embryonic lethal.
Reposted by Geoff Faulkner
This preprint is now a published peer-reviewed paper! Thanks to all the co-authors involved, to the funders and to @reviewcommons.org and @embopress.org @emboreports.org for a smooth editorial process! Excited to see this in press! www.embopress.org/doi/full/10....
@imperiallifesci.bsky.social
@imperiallifesci.bsky.social
August 20, 2025 at 1:23 PM
This preprint is now a published peer-reviewed paper! Thanks to all the co-authors involved, to the funders and to @reviewcommons.org and @embopress.org @emboreports.org for a smooth editorial process! Excited to see this in press! www.embopress.org/doi/full/10....
@imperiallifesci.bsky.social
@imperiallifesci.bsky.social
Reposted by Geoff Faulkner
At the same time, we made thousands of synonymous mutations in endogenous yeast genes and measured their growth. We used careful statistics and controls. Only 3%, 204 of 6874, had a fitness effect! This goes against a controversial recent result that most synonymous mutations had fitness effects.
August 7, 2025 at 8:29 AM
At the same time, we made thousands of synonymous mutations in endogenous yeast genes and measured their growth. We used careful statistics and controls. Only 3%, 204 of 6874, had a fitness effect! This goes against a controversial recent result that most synonymous mutations had fitness effects.
Reposted by Geoff Faulkner
I believe that over the past ~ two decades, since the breakthrough papers on UHRF1, this is the first reported DNA methylation phenotype of its close paralog, UHRF2 (and not for lack of trying). Congrats to Ambre Bender and Michael Weber on this fantastic study! www.nature.com/articles/s41...
UHRF2 mediates resistance to DNA methylation reprogramming in primordial germ cells - Nature Communications
DNA methylation in mouse primordial germ cells (PGCs) is restricted to transposable elements, but how this unique DNA methylome is established is poorly understood. Here, the authors identify UHRF2 as...
www.nature.com
August 9, 2025 at 6:26 PM
I believe that over the past ~ two decades, since the breakthrough papers on UHRF1, this is the first reported DNA methylation phenotype of its close paralog, UHRF2 (and not for lack of trying). Congrats to Ambre Bender and Michael Weber on this fantastic study! www.nature.com/articles/s41...
Reposted by Geoff Faulkner
last call!
submit your abstract by tonight to be selected for one of the many oral presentations at the leading European Transposon Meeting. We are very much looking forward to your contribution and attendance!
submit your abstract by tonight to be selected for one of the many oral presentations at the leading European Transposon Meeting. We are very much looking forward to your contribution and attendance!
⏰ Abstract deadline for 'The mobile genome' is 29 July!
👉 https://s.embl.org/mge25-01-bl
Join us 4–7 Nov 2025 at EMBL Heidelberg (or online) to explore the impact of TEs across biology. 🧬🔍
⭐🧑🏼🔬 24 talks + 15 flash talks from posters – don't miss out!
#EMBOMobileGenome
👉 https://s.embl.org/mge25-01-bl
Join us 4–7 Nov 2025 at EMBL Heidelberg (or online) to explore the impact of TEs across biology. 🧬🔍
⭐🧑🏼🔬 24 talks + 15 flash talks from posters – don't miss out!
#EMBOMobileGenome
July 29, 2025 at 8:41 AM
last call!
submit your abstract by tonight to be selected for one of the many oral presentations at the leading European Transposon Meeting. We are very much looking forward to your contribution and attendance!
submit your abstract by tonight to be selected for one of the many oral presentations at the leading European Transposon Meeting. We are very much looking forward to your contribution and attendance!