Jeremy Martinson
@jjmartinson.bsky.social
Human genetics; epigenetics; infectious disease; ageing; dementia. The usual stuff. Oh, Public Health too. Faculty at the University of Pittsburgh.
Reposted by Jeremy Martinson
PIWI clade Argonautes are essential for transposon silencing. Without them, animals are sterile due to massive transposon activity.
But how does piRNA-guided target interaction translate into silencing?
PhD student Júlia Portell Montserrat has an intriguing answer
www.cell.com/molecular-ce...
But how does piRNA-guided target interaction translate into silencing?
PhD student Júlia Portell Montserrat has an intriguing answer
www.cell.com/molecular-ce...
September 17, 2025 at 10:39 AM
PIWI clade Argonautes are essential for transposon silencing. Without them, animals are sterile due to massive transposon activity.
But how does piRNA-guided target interaction translate into silencing?
PhD student Júlia Portell Montserrat has an intriguing answer
www.cell.com/molecular-ce...
But how does piRNA-guided target interaction translate into silencing?
PhD student Júlia Portell Montserrat has an intriguing answer
www.cell.com/molecular-ce...
Reposted by Jeremy Martinson
Delighted to review the latest findings on how malaria parasites get into our blood cells and how we might stop it!
New online! Erythrocyte invasion in malaria: from molecular mechanisms to rational vaccines
Erythrocyte invasion in malaria: from molecular mechanisms to rational vaccines
Nature Reviews Microbiology, Published online: 15 September 2025; doi:10.1038/s41579-025-01235-1If erythrocyte invasion is blocked during the blood stage of infection by Plasmodium parasites, malaria can be prevented. In this Review, structural insights on erythrocyte invasion by the merozoite form of Plasmodium are discussed in the context of rational design of a blood-stage malaria vaccine.
www.nature.com
September 16, 2025 at 6:50 AM
Delighted to review the latest findings on how malaria parasites get into our blood cells and how we might stop it!
Reposted by Jeremy Martinson
What was antibiotic resistance like before we ever used antibiotics? How did we change what antibiotic resistance genes looked like over 100 years?
Our paper looking at resistance genes from a century of NCTC historical isolates now out in mGen:
www.microbiologyresearch.org/content/jour...
Our paper looking at resistance genes from a century of NCTC historical isolates now out in mGen:
www.microbiologyresearch.org/content/jour...
Genomic resistance in historical clinical isolates increased in frequency and mobility after the age of antibiotics
Antibiotic resistance is frequently observed shortly after the clinical introduction of an antibiotic. Whether and how frequently that resistance occurred before the introduction is harder to determin...
www.microbiologyresearch.org
September 1, 2025 at 5:49 PM
What was antibiotic resistance like before we ever used antibiotics? How did we change what antibiotic resistance genes looked like over 100 years?
Our paper looking at resistance genes from a century of NCTC historical isolates now out in mGen:
www.microbiologyresearch.org/content/jour...
Our paper looking at resistance genes from a century of NCTC historical isolates now out in mGen:
www.microbiologyresearch.org/content/jour...
Reposted by Jeremy Martinson
Very proud of our paper on "scrambling-by-hopping" LADs, which was just published: www.nature.com/articles/s41.... Congrats to Lise Dauban and the rest of the team – this was a real tour-de-force!
September 2, 2025 at 5:26 PM
Very proud of our paper on "scrambling-by-hopping" LADs, which was just published: www.nature.com/articles/s41.... Congrats to Lise Dauban and the rest of the team – this was a real tour-de-force!
Reposted by Jeremy Martinson
📢 New preprint alert!
We designed synthetic proteins that can block bacterial immune systems, allowing phages + plasmids to overcome natural defenses.
This could transform phage therapy + genetic engineering.
Here’s what we found 🧵
Preprint🔗: www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
We designed synthetic proteins that can block bacterial immune systems, allowing phages + plasmids to overcome natural defenses.
This could transform phage therapy + genetic engineering.
Here’s what we found 🧵
Preprint🔗: www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
Synthetically designed anti-defense proteins overcome barriers to bacterial transformation and phage infection
Bacterial defense systems present considerable barriers to both phage infection and plasmid transformation. These systems target mobile genetic elements, limiting the efficacy of bacteriophage-based t...
www.biorxiv.org
September 2, 2025 at 7:36 AM
📢 New preprint alert!
We designed synthetic proteins that can block bacterial immune systems, allowing phages + plasmids to overcome natural defenses.
This could transform phage therapy + genetic engineering.
Here’s what we found 🧵
Preprint🔗: www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
We designed synthetic proteins that can block bacterial immune systems, allowing phages + plasmids to overcome natural defenses.
This could transform phage therapy + genetic engineering.
Here’s what we found 🧵
Preprint🔗: www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
Reposted by Jeremy Martinson
New preprint reveals bacteria can't just collect all resistance genes like Pokemon cards.
We found mutually exclusive evolutionary pathways to multidrug resistance in E. coli & P. aeruginosa - some resistance mechanisms actively prevent others from coexisting www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
We found mutually exclusive evolutionary pathways to multidrug resistance in E. coli & P. aeruginosa - some resistance mechanisms actively prevent others from coexisting www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
Genomic constraints shape the evolution of alternative routes to drug resistance in prokaryotes
Background Variation within the prokaryotic pangenome is not random, and natural selection that favours particular combinations of genes appears to dominate over random drift. What is less clear is wh...
www.biorxiv.org
August 29, 2025 at 2:05 PM
New preprint reveals bacteria can't just collect all resistance genes like Pokemon cards.
We found mutually exclusive evolutionary pathways to multidrug resistance in E. coli & P. aeruginosa - some resistance mechanisms actively prevent others from coexisting www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
We found mutually exclusive evolutionary pathways to multidrug resistance in E. coli & P. aeruginosa - some resistance mechanisms actively prevent others from coexisting www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
Reposted by Jeremy Martinson
Day 3 of popgen we talked about effective population size. No, I don't really understand it. You probably don't either. But I highly recommend this fantastic guide about how to think about Ne onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...
The Idiot's Guide to Effective Population Size
This is a reference manual for the elegant, yet hideously complex concept of effective population size (Ne), inspired by a classic, self-published manual of automotive repair ‘for the compleat idiot’...
onlinelibrary.wiley.com
August 10, 2025 at 5:19 PM
Day 3 of popgen we talked about effective population size. No, I don't really understand it. You probably don't either. But I highly recommend this fantastic guide about how to think about Ne onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...
Reposted by Jeremy Martinson
OH COME ON
«GitHub CEO Thomas Dohmke has resigned, and now GitHub will be part of Microsoft’s AI engineering team.» 🫠
https://www.theverge.com/news/757461/microsoft-github-thomas-dohmke-resignation-coreai-team-transition
https://www.theverge.com/news/757461/microsoft-github-thomas-dohmke-resignation-coreai-team-transition
August 11, 2025 at 7:31 PM
OH COME ON
Reposted by Jeremy Martinson
I just got the notice that all the FlyBase people at Harvard, including me, will be laid off on October 12. I'm devastated.
August 11, 2025 at 6:12 PM
I just got the notice that all the FlyBase people at Harvard, including me, will be laid off on October 12. I'm devastated.
Reposted by Jeremy Martinson
After a quarter of a century, the UCSC Genome Browser remains an essential tool for navigating the genome and understanding its structure, function and clinical impact
https://go.nature.com/40wPxkB
https://go.nature.com/40wPxkB
’We couldn’t live without it’: the UCSC Genome Browser turns 25
After a quarter of a century, the website remains an essential tool for navigating the genome and understanding its structure, function and clinical impact.
go.nature.com
June 30, 2025 at 11:49 AM
After a quarter of a century, the UCSC Genome Browser remains an essential tool for navigating the genome and understanding its structure, function and clinical impact
https://go.nature.com/40wPxkB
https://go.nature.com/40wPxkB
Reposted by Jeremy Martinson
If you have ever wondered what might happen to short chain fatty acids made by the microbiome. Here is a large class of metabolites and how they link to biology. www.cell.com/cell/fulltex...
The microbiome diversifies long- to short-chain fatty acid-derived N-acyl lipids
Mass spectrometry data mining tools enabled the creation of an MS/MS spectral library
containing hundreds of N-acyl lipids, including conjugates with short-chain fatty
acids. This resource enabled the...
www.cell.com
June 12, 2025 at 5:56 PM
If you have ever wondered what might happen to short chain fatty acids made by the microbiome. Here is a large class of metabolites and how they link to biology. www.cell.com/cell/fulltex...
Reposted by Jeremy Martinson
"The husband-and-wife team worked out how microbes – including those that cause TB and measles – can stow away in tiny droplets that we release even when only quietly breathing. Air currents can keep these aloft for hours, and in an unventilated room, other people can readily breathe them in."
June 6, 2025 at 6:07 AM
"The husband-and-wife team worked out how microbes – including those that cause TB and measles – can stow away in tiny droplets that we release even when only quietly breathing. Air currents can keep these aloft for hours, and in an unventilated room, other people can readily breathe them in."
Reposted by Jeremy Martinson
TF binding is usually anticorrelated with DNA methylation, but there are very few studies that actually investigate why. This is really nice work from Jacques Drouin's lab showing PAX7 physically interacts with UHFR1, blocking DNMT1 recruitment @ircm.bsky.social www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...
Dual DNA demethylation mechanisms implement epigenetic memory driven by the pioneer factor PAX7
Pioneer factor PAX7 highjacks control of DNA methylation maintenance, leading to enhancer demethylation and epigenetic memory.
www.science.org
May 21, 2025 at 1:04 PM
TF binding is usually anticorrelated with DNA methylation, but there are very few studies that actually investigate why. This is really nice work from Jacques Drouin's lab showing PAX7 physically interacts with UHFR1, blocking DNMT1 recruitment @ircm.bsky.social www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...
Way back in the mists of time, when Tw*tter was still useful, you could make a widget that you embedded in a webpage, and any tweet with a certain hashtag would end up being shown on the page. Can any @bsky.app @support.bsky.team wizards tell me if it's possible to do the same here?
May 12, 2025 at 7:34 PM
Way back in the mists of time, when Tw*tter was still useful, you could make a widget that you embedded in a webpage, and any tweet with a certain hashtag would end up being shown on the page. Can any @bsky.app @support.bsky.team wizards tell me if it's possible to do the same here?
Even with all the current uncertainty, we still have to get our papers out.
March 28, 2025 at 2:28 AM
Even with all the current uncertainty, we still have to get our papers out.
I wrote an email in a work thread a couple of days ago that was so informative that today's meeting on the topic has been cancelled as it's "no longer necessary".
You don't catch lightning in a bottle like that every day.
You don't catch lightning in a bottle like that every day.
January 10, 2025 at 3:36 PM
I wrote an email in a work thread a couple of days ago that was so informative that today's meeting on the topic has been cancelled as it's "no longer necessary".
You don't catch lightning in a bottle like that every day.
You don't catch lightning in a bottle like that every day.
Reposted by Jeremy Martinson
🧬📝🚨 Out today: A genomics learning framework for undergraduates
We hope this will be one more tool to help integrate genomics into undergraduate education by supporting evidence-based curriculum design with a set of standardized concepts.
journals.plos.org/plosone/arti...
We hope this will be one more tool to help integrate genomics into undergraduate education by supporting evidence-based curriculum design with a set of standardized concepts.
journals.plos.org/plosone/arti...
A genomics learning framework for undergraduates
Genomics is an increasingly important part of biology research. However, educating undergraduates in genomics is not yet a standard part of life sciences curricula. We believe this is, in part, due to...
journals.plos.org
January 9, 2025 at 7:32 PM
🧬📝🚨 Out today: A genomics learning framework for undergraduates
We hope this will be one more tool to help integrate genomics into undergraduate education by supporting evidence-based curriculum design with a set of standardized concepts.
journals.plos.org/plosone/arti...
We hope this will be one more tool to help integrate genomics into undergraduate education by supporting evidence-based curriculum design with a set of standardized concepts.
journals.plos.org/plosone/arti...
Reposted by Jeremy Martinson
Researcher: "We let the data speak for itself."
Earlier that day:
Earlier that day:
January 2, 2025 at 3:31 PM
Researcher: "We let the data speak for itself."
Earlier that day:
Earlier that day:
It's been known for a while that interbreeding with Neanderthals introduced immune response gene alleles into modern humans that increase resistance to some viruses. Looks like it may have been more important than we realised.
www.bbc.com/news/article...
www.bbc.com/news/article...
Humans may not have survived without Neanderthals
A new DNA analysis has shown that the arrival of modern humans from Africa was far from smooth.
www.bbc.com
December 29, 2024 at 6:41 PM
It's been known for a while that interbreeding with Neanderthals introduced immune response gene alleles into modern humans that increase resistance to some viruses. Looks like it may have been more important than we realised.
www.bbc.com/news/article...
www.bbc.com/news/article...
Oh, great. African trypanosomes can evolve to remove dependency on tsetse for transmission.
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
Mechanisms of life cycle simplification in African trypanosomes - Nature Communications
African trypanosomes can reduce their requirement for tsetse fly transmission, allowing an expanded geographical range. Here, molecular analyses of field and laboratory selected lines has identified a...
www.nature.com
December 29, 2024 at 6:34 PM
Oh, great. African trypanosomes can evolve to remove dependency on tsetse for transmission.
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
www.nature.com/articles/s41...