We have a 4 year fully-funded PhD opportunity to join our group @earlhaminst.bsky.social on an Eng Bio project: Engineering stable synthetic chromosomes. Jointly with the BioFoundry and @cgrandel.bsky.social. Read more about the project shorturl.at/GZMbB and about our research shorturl.at/HR6p5

Ready for #Yeast2025 in Paris tomorrow. Looking forward to the science and to seeing colleagues and friends.

However, most (80%) DNA replication initiation sites are dispersed throughout the genome with no specific chromatin signature and are missed by cell population studies. 6/7

Across the human genome 20% of replication initiation sites are ‘focused’ within open chromatin and with flanking transcription; remarkably these sites show concordance with sites identified by cell population studies, despite previous comparisons between these methods not showing concordance. 5/7

Combining DNAscent with @nanoporetech.com Cas9-targeted sequencing (nCATS) mapped replication initiation with depth at selected loci 4/7

These data allowed us to identify sites where DNA replication initiates across the human genome 3/7

DNAscent detects BrdU in @nanoporetech.com reads from cultured human cells allowing us to determine DNA replication dynamics on thousands of single sequenced molecules. Fantastic optimisation by the Technical Genomics Group @earlhaminst.bsky.social gave ultra-long reads with N50>120 kb 2/7

Group Christmas lunch 2024 with competition, secret Santa and more.

Beautiful dawn sky

Positive mass movement to Bluesky? I’ve picked up half my ‘followers’ in the last 24 hrs. Lots of science friends arriving.

Fabulous evening with
@robinince.bsky.social

Bluesky now has over 10 million users, and I was #1,818,607!