gracebower.bsky.social
Grace Bower
@gracebower.bsky.social
300 followers 620 following 5 posts
PhD candidate in the Kvon Lab @ UC Irvine 👩🏻‍🔬🧬
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gracebower.bsky.social
Grace Bower @gracebower.bsky.social · Sep 2
Honored to lead off such an amazing set of speakers 🧬 🌟
fnucleosome.bsky.social
FragileNucleosome @fnucleosome.bsky.social · Sep 1
We're super excited to announce the entire lineup for the Fall season of Fragile Nucleosome Seminars, starting on Sept 10th at 1200 EDT / 1600 UTC with @gracebower.bsky.social and @creminslab.bsky.social!

register here for the entire series: us06web.zoom.us/webinar/regi...
Fragile Nucleosome Fall Seminars: September 10 Grace Bower, Kvon Lab @ UC Irvine, USA Jennifer Phillips-Cremins, UPenn, USA September 24 Ali Wilkening, Sanulli Lab @ Stanford, USA Juanma Schvartzman, Columbia University, USA October 8 Sanim Rahman, Greenberg Lab @ UPenn, USA Alex Federation, Talus Bio, USA October 22 Alice Laigle, Croll Lab @ University of Neuchâtel, Switzerland Seungsoo Kim, UC Irvine, USA November 5 Hannah Long, University of Edinburgh, UK Jeff Vierstra, Altius Institute, USA November 19 Ishtiaque Hossain, Pastor Lab @ McGill, Canada Sarah Teichmann, University of Cambridge, UK December 3 María Mariner Faulí, Rada Iglesias Lab @ IBBTEC, Spain Jonathan Henninger, Carnegie Mellon, USA December 17 Rebecca Berrens, Oxford University, UK Jean-Benoit Lalanne, University of Montreal, Canada
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Reposted by Grace Bower
julianeg.bsky.social
Juliane Glaser @julianeg.bsky.social · Jul 9
Finally out! 🥳 Our paper showing how a transposable element (TE) insertion can cause developmental phenotypes is now published @natgenet.nature.com 🧬🦠🐁
Below is a brief description of the major findings. Check the full version of the paper for more details: www.nature.com/articles/s41588-025-02248-5
Enhancer adoption by an LTR retrotransposon generates viral-like particles, causing developmental limb phenotypes - Nature Genetics
Activation of an LTR retrotransposon inserted upstream of the Fgf8 gene produces viral-like particles in the mouse developing limb, triggering apoptosis and causing limb malformation. This phenotype c...
www.nature.com
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gracebower.bsky.social
Grace Bower @gracebower.bsky.social · Jul 2
Speaking of T-Rex
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gracebower.bsky.social
Grace Bower @gracebower.bsky.social · Jul 2
I think the new highest honor in science is an adorable cartoon of your work 🌟
axelvisel.bsky.social
Axel Visel @axelvisel.bsky.social · Jul 2
Getting the message across from a distance:

🧬REX🧬 is a “Range EXtender” element that can turn short-range into looooooooooooong-range enhancers

Great collaboration led by @gracebower.bsky.social and @evgenykvon.bsky.social

www.nature.com/articles/s41...

@biosci.lbl.gov @berkeleylab.lbl.gov
Two-panel cartoon set in a desert with mountains and cacti. Top panel: A green box labeled “ENHANCER” stands on the left, shouting weakly “Turn on, please?!?” toward a distant blue spiky blob labeled “GENE” on the right, who is asleep with a “Zzz.” Bottom panel: The enhancer now uses a microphone connected to a large purple speaker labeled “REX,” which amplifies the message “Turn on!!” in a bold speech bubble across the desert. The gene is now awake and alert with wide eyes and a happy expression. Image credit: Emma Visel
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gracebower.bsky.social
Grace Bower @gracebower.bsky.social · Jul 2
A dream come true: my first first-author publication! 🧬 🎉 Working to unravel the mysteries of long-range gene regulation has been an incredible journey. Endless gratitude to Evgeny, the lab, and all of the amazing collaborators who helped make this happen 🙌
evgenykvon.bsky.social
Evgeny Kvon @evgenykvon.bsky.social · Jul 2
Our paper describing the Range Extender element which is required and sufficient for long-range enhancer activation at the Shh locus is now available at @nature.com. Congrats to @gracebower.bsky.social who led the study. Below is a brief summary of the main findings www.nature.com/articles/s41... 1/
Range extender mediates long-distance enhancer activity - Nature
The REX element is associated with long-range enhancer–promoter interactions.
www.nature.com
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Reposted by Grace Bower
evgenykvon.bsky.social
Evgeny Kvon @evgenykvon.bsky.social · Jun 23
How do non-coding variants in enhancers lead to disease? Happy to share our recent work, led by @ewholling.bsky.social, in which we discovered that poised chromatin sensitizes enhancers to aberrant activation by non-coding mutations, contributing to disease. www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1... 1/
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Reposted by Grace Bower
jmschreiber91.bsky.social
Jacob Schreiber @jmschreiber91.bsky.social · Mar 3
Awesome summary of the field. An important point is to separate the design method from the oracle model being used. Sometimes, people say they're proposing a new design method but mean a cool new oracle model.

Modelling and design of transcriptional enhancers

www.nature.com/articles/s44...
Modelling and design of transcriptional enhancers - Nature Reviews Bioengineering
Enhancers are genomic elements critical for regulating gene expression. In this Review, the authors discuss how sequence-to-function models can be used to unravel the rules underlying enhancer activit...
www.nature.com
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Reposted by Grace Bower
mikepazin.bsky.social
Mike Pazin @mikepazin.bsky.social · Mar 3
pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/39579740/ I liked this thoughtful review
Genetic factors mediating long-range enhancer-promoter communication in mammalian development - PubMed
Enhancers are remotely located noncoding DNA sequences that regulate gene expression in response to developmental, homeostatic, and environmental cues. Canonical short-range enhancers located <50 kb f...
pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov
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Reposted by Grace Bower
pedroprocha.bsky.social
Pedro Rocha @pedroprocha.bsky.social · Feb 26
Here is the peer-reviewed version of our study showing how some TAD borders are essential for gene regulation and development.

Loss of a single CTCF motif is sufficient to cause embryonic lethality.

www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
Deletion of a single CTCF motif at the boundary of a chromatin domain with three FGF genes disrupts gene expression and embryonic development
Chromatin domains delimited by CTCF can restrict the range of enhancer action. However, disruption of some domain boundaries results in mild gene dysr…
www.sciencedirect.com
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Reposted by Grace Bower
mcgambetta.bsky.social
MC Gambetta @mcgambetta.bsky.social · Feb 13
We highlighted new research from the past two years on examples of long-range gene regulation - within large TADs, across TADs, and across chromosomes - comparing mechanisms in flies and mammals 🪰❤️🐁.

www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
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gracebower.bsky.social
Grace Bower @gracebower.bsky.social · Nov 22
It was exciting to dig into all the new discoveries in long range gene regulation while writing this!
evgenykvon.bsky.social
Evgeny Kvon @evgenykvon.bsky.social · Nov 22
In this review @gracebower.bsky.social & I discuss recent evidence showing that, unlike canonical enhancers, long-range enhancers located hundreds of kb from their targets rely on additional mechanisms to ensure robust gene activation during mammal development. www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
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Reposted by Grace Bower
axelvisel.bsky.social
Axel Visel @axelvisel.bsky.social · May 27
REX - a mammalian "range extender" element that can turn short-distance enhancers into long-distance enhancers.

New preprint from a collaboration led by Grace Bower and Evgeny Kvon.

doi.org/10.1101/2024...
Schematic overview of the proposed mode of action of the newly discovered REX element. Top: An enhancer can activate a gene at a short distance, but not at at long range. Middle: Presence of (C/T)AATTA motifs within an enhancer enable it to act over long distances. Bottom: Coupling a short-range enhancer to the REX element containing the same motifs turns it into a long-range enhancer.
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