Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

Reposted by Sylvia Erhardt

University of Cambridge @cam.ac.uk · 1d

It is with great sadness that the University shares the news of the death of Professor Sir John Gurdon, founder of the @gurdoninstitute.bsky.social

Read our tribute to the visionary Nobel Laureate and watch an interview from 2012, just after he won: https://bit.ly/4mM8o3r

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Reposted by Sylvia Erhardt

dfachinetti.bsky.social @dfachinetti.bsky.social · 2d

Thanks to @erhardtlab.bsky.social for the news and views on our paper on DNA methylation¢romere www.nature.com/articles/s41....

Dipping into the function of DNA methylation at centromeres - Nature Genetics

Human centromeres contain a small chromatin region with low levels of DNA cytosine methylation that resides with CENP-A. Salinas-Luypaert et al. find a role of DNA methylation in maintaining the size and function of centromeres by controlling the binding affinity of key centromere components.

www.nature.com

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Reposted by Sylvia Erhardt

Harmit Singh Malik @harmitmalik.bsky.social · 3d

I am leaving Rochester NY after attending the retirement fest of four giants in the field of evolutionary biology including my PhD advisor. This visit gave me a chance to revisit old haunts and reflect on my own somewhat unlikely origin story. 1/n

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Reposted by Sylvia Erhardt

Needhi Bhalla 💅🏽 @needhibhalla.bsky.social · 14d

🧪

Needhi Bhalla 💅🏽 @needhibhalla.bsky.social · 14d

On October 6, please join me, @richardsever.bsky.social, @rachelzamzow.bsky.social, and @gabestein.com for a virtual panel: how can we make sure open science advances not just science itself, but society’s understanding of, trust in, and willingness to invest in research? Register here:

How Can Open Science Practices Increase Trust In Research? | Shorenstein Center

Join representatives from each stage of open science for a frank discussion of how each part of the publishing process must adapt to make sure open science advances not just science itself, but societ...

shorensteincenter.org

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Reposted by Sylvia Erhardt

Jay 🦋 @jay.bsky.team · 6d

“It actually doesn’t take much to be considered a difficult woman. That’s why there are so many of us.”
― Jane Goodall

💙 RIP to a real one. My childhood hero

Jane Goodall with monarch butterfly scarf

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Reposted by Sylvia Erhardt

Di Jiang @dijiang319.bsky.social · 9d

🧬🌉Online @science.org Megabase-scale human #genome rearrangement with programmable bridge recombinases | Science www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

Megabase-scale human genome rearrangement with programmable bridge recombinases

Bridge recombinases are naturally occurring RNA-guided DNA recombinases that we previously demonstrated can programmably insert, excise, and invert DNA in vitro and in Escherichia coli. In this study,...

www.science.org

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Reposted by Sylvia Erhardt

Tobias Warnecke @tobiaswarnecke.bsky.social · 9d

Become my colleague @oxfordbiochemistry.bsky.social !
2 Associate Professorships in the areas of
- prokaryotic/eukaryotic microbiology
- metabolism

my.corehr.com/pls/uoxrecru...

Job Details

my.corehr.com

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Reposted by Sylvia Erhardt

The EMBO Journal @embojournal.org · 9d

Embryonic signatures of intergenerational epigenetic inheritance across paternal environment & genetic background
@jamiehackett.bsky.social et al @embl.org see transcriptome changes in offspring after fertilisation by fathers exposed to gut dysbiosis or western diet
www.embopress.org/doi/full/10....

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Reposted by Sylvia Erhardt

Ben Werdmuller @werd.io · 11d

War ravaged Portland

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Gail Simone @gailsimone.bsky.social · 11d

Wut

Lætus @bajamothblast.bsky.social · 12d

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Rob Schneider @robertife.bsky.social · 16d

#Jobalert 🚨: Please RT !
Looking for a #PhD student for exciting project on the interphase between epigenetics and cellular metabolism:
How do (nuclear) metabolic enzymes reguate chromatin function ?
#epigenomics, #epigenetics, #metabolism
www.helmholtz-munich.de/en/ife/job-o...

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Reposted by Sylvia Erhardt

Artologica aka Michele Banks @artologica.net · 12d

Morning walk

Wheat paste poster that says the all the world is dying and the new world struggles to be born now is the time of monsters. There's a picture of Elmo

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Gesellschaft für Genetik @gfgenetik.bsky.social · 13d

Amazing 2. day at the GfG ‘Epigenetics & Chromatin’ symposium. Fantastic flash talks, a great first poster session and many memorable talks: among others @erhardtlab.bsky.social, @rodvilla.bsky.social, @thebraunlab.bsky.social, @flurylab.bsky.social, Ehrenhofer-Murray, Liefke, Heun, Imhof & Brehm.

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Reposted by Sylvia Erhardt

Vijay Ramani @vram142.bsky.social · 18d

Some (+)ve news to lighten another heavy weekend: our latest preprint (c/o Mattiroli + Ramani labs) is up!
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
A tour-de-force by 1st authors Bruna Eckhardt & @palindromephd.bsky.social, focusing on chromatin replication. RTs welcome; tweetorial in 3,2...(1/n)

The eukaryotic replisome intrinsically generates asymmetric daughter chromatin fibers

DNA replication is molecularly asymmetric, due to distinct mechanisms for lagging and leading strand DNA synthesis. Whether chromatin assembly on newly replicated strands is also asymmetric remains un...

www.biorxiv.org

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Reposted by Sylvia Erhardt

Aaron Reichlin-Melnick @reichlinmelnick.bsky.social · 18d

NEW: Hours before a new entry ban is supposed to go into effect, the federal government officially acknowledges for the first time that the restrictions do NOT apply to people who currently have H-1B visas.

Link: www.uscis.gov/sites/defaul...

J.S. Citizenshit and Immigratior
Services
September 20, 2025
Memorandum
TO:
Associate Directors,
Deputy Associate Directors, Program Office Chiefs
FROM:
JOSEPH B
Digitaly signed by
JOSEPH B EDLOW
Joseph B. Edlow
EDLOW
Date: 2025.09.20
Director, United States Citizenship and Immigration Services **00
SUBJECT: Proclamation, Restriction on Entry of Certain Nonimmigrant Workers, H-IB
On September 19, 2025, the President issued a Proclamation, Restriction on Entry of Certain Nonimmigrant Workers, to address systemic abuse of H-1B nonimmigrant visas. Pursuant to sections 212(f) and 215(a) of the Immigration and Nationality Act (INA), 8 U.S.C. 1182(f) and 1185(a), the entry into the United States of aliens as nonimmigrants to perform services in a specialty occupation under section 101(a)(15)(H)(i)(b) of the INA, 8 U.S.C.
1101(a)(15)(H)(i)(b), is restricted, except for those aliens whose petitions are accompanied or supplemented by a payment of $100,000. This guidance applies to H-IB employment-based petitions filed after 12:01 AM ET on September 21, 2025.|
This proclamation only applies prospectively to petitions that have not yet been filed. The proclamation does not apply to aliens who: are the beneficiaries of petitions that were filed prior to the effective date of the proclamation, are the beneficiaries of currently approved petitions, or are in possession of validly issued H-1B non-immigrant visas. All officers of United States Citizenship and Immigration Services shall ensure that their decisions are consistent with this guidance. The proclamation does not impact the ability of any current visa holder to travel to or rom the United States.
cc: David V. Roy, Chief Counsel (A)
FOUO, For Official Use Only

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Sylvia Erhardt @erhardtlab.bsky.social · 18d

Congratulations Needhi 🍸

American Society for Cell Biology @ascbiology.bsky.social · 19d

🎉 Congratulations to Needhi Bhalla, UC Santa Cruz (www.bhallalab.com
), named a 2025 #ASCB Fellow! This honor celebrates her outstanding contributions to cell biology, leadership, & service. Fellows will be recognized at #CellBio2025 in Philadelphia this December. #CellBiology

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Reposted by Sylvia Erhardt

Dr. Sedona Murphy @sedonamurphy.bsky.social · 19d

Congrats to my friends in the Boettiger lab for this really beautiful live imaging work. A big leap forward in understanding the dynamic side of genome organization. www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

Kinetic organization of the genome revealed by ultraresolution multiscale live imaging

Genome function requires regulated genome motion. However, tools to directly observe this motion in vivo have been limited in coverage and resolution. Here we introduce an approach to tile mammalian c...

www.science.org

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Reposted by Sylvia Erhardt

Julius Brennecke @juliusbrennecke.bsky.social · 21d

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...

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Reposted by Sylvia Erhardt

Julius Brennecke @juliusbrennecke.bsky.social · 21d

My favorite experiment:
targeted mutations in Piwi in flies that prevent it from binding Gtsf1/Asterix generate a Piwi protein that is loaded with piRNAs, translocates into the nucleus, but is unable to silence transposons, causing full sterility. A mutation we have been dreaming of for years.

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Reposted by Sylvia Erhardt

DZIF - Deutsches Zentrum für Infektionsforschung @dzif.bsky.social · 22d

🧬DZIF researchers have discovered that #HIV does not randomly integrate into the genome: the virus follows R-loops as signposts, with the enzyme Aquarius enabling the process. These findings open new avenues for potentially curative treatments.

@marinalusic.bsky.social @natmicrobiol.nature.com

How HIV enters the genome – Researchers identify previously unknown mechanism | German Center for Infection Research

Researchers at the German Center for Infection Research (DZIF) at Heidelberg University Hospital have decoded a previously unknown mechanism by which

www.dzif.de

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Reposted by Sylvia Erhardt

Andrea Musacchio @andrea-musacchio.bsky.social · 23d

The BUB1 and BUBR1 paralogs scaffold the kinetochore fibrous corona | Science Advances www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

Congratulations @vcmentowski.bsky.social for solving a remarkably challenging molecular puzzle

The BUB1 and BUBR1 paralogs scaffold the kinetochore fibrous corona

The kinetochore fibrous corona docks on CENP-E and a second elusive receptor identified as the checkpoint protein BUB1.

www.science.org

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Reposted by Sylvia Erhardt

siddhartha jena @epijenatics.bsky.social · 27d

Excited to share my postdoc work, out on bioRxiv today! Histones package DNA into nucleosomes to form the building blocks of chromatin, but how modular and programmable is this system? 1/9

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Lee Zimmerman @zim2918.bsky.social · Sep 7

The Fates

This work © 2025 by Lee Zimmerman is licensed under Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International

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Reposted by Sylvia Erhardt

Yasin Dagdas @plantophagy.bsky.social · Sep 6

They do know how to 💥 🧨 🎇 🎆 in #Heidelberg

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Sylvia Erhardt @erhardtlab.bsky.social · Sep 6

It’s just insane….sorry Needhi.

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