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Lennart Hilbert

@lennarthilbert.bsky.social

2.4K followers 1K following 480 posts

Studying the cell nucleus in search of inspiration for future DNA computers. Systems Biology professor at Karlsruhe Institute of Technology, post opinions mine alone. hilbertlab.org

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Lennart Hilbert @lennarthilbert.bsky.social · Sep 8

"Chromatin-associated condensates as an inspiration for the system architecture of future DNA computers"

Highly conceptual Perspective article, supported by fresh data & simulations from our group. Containing my now 40 years of accumulated "wisdom".

nyaspubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...

An analogy between the architectures of electronic computers and transcription factories. (A) Von Neumann computer architecture, in which a CPU is connected to different blocks in a working memory. (B) A transcription factory centrally stores the molecular transcription machinery and can selectively access genes. (C) The operation principle of a CPU-memory architecture based on synthetic DNA nanostructures.

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Lennart Hilbert @lennarthilbert.bsky.social · 14h

My condolences to all of Jochen’s family, students, and colleagues, indeed a great loss

Reposted by Lennart Hilbert

Max Planck Institute for the Science of Light (MPL) @mpi-scienceoflight.bsky.social · 14h

With deep sadness, we share that Prof. Jochen Guck, Director at the Max Planck Institute for the Science of Light passed away on October 3. His visionary work bridged physics and medicine. We have lost a brilliant scientist and dear friend.

mpl.mpg.de/news/article...
@fau.de

📸 Stephan Spangenberg

Professor Jochen Guck, Director at the Max Planck Institute for the Science of Light (MPL), He headed the division “Cell Physics” at MPL and the Max-Planck-Zentrum für Physik und Medizin (MPZPM).

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Lennart Hilbert @lennarthilbert.bsky.social · 1d

Sharing a recent, deep insight:

The concept of a membrane-less organelle is an interesting one, like calling something a house without walls

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Lennart Hilbert @lennarthilbert.bsky.social · 1d

Happy 200th bday KIT 🥳

Karlsruher Institut für Technologie (KIT) @kit.edu · 1d

Das #KITKarlsruhe hat heute, am 7. Oktober 2025, Geburtstag: Auf den Tag genau vor 200 Jahren unterschrieb Großherzog Ludwig I. von Baden das Gründungsdekret für die erste Vorgängerinstitution der heutigen Exzellenzuniversität, die Polytechnische Schule in #Karlsruhe. www.kit.edu/kit/pi_2025_...

Historische Darstellung aus dem KIT-Archiv, Urheber unbekannt: die Polytechnische Schule um 1840. Das 1836 errichtete, dreistöckige Gebäude von Heinrich Hübsch bildet heute den Westflügel des KIT-Hauptgebäudes an der Kaiserstraße.

Lennart Hilbert @lennarthilbert.bsky.social · 4d

Sadly, yes, and applies also past junior level! Sorry to everyone affected by my unreal email and task overload in the form of non-responsiveness 😣

Gautam Dey @gautamdey.bsky.social · 4d

If you’re applying to your dream lab for an internship/PhD/postdoc, always send a second email 1-2 weeks after the first one if you don’t hear back.

I promise we will be grateful rather than annoyed. My email inbox is a disaster and I’m quite junior - and very few of us have secretarial support

Lennart Hilbert @lennarthilbert.bsky.social · 10d

This might explain a lot of emails I am getting. Using Mac Mail…

Lennart Hilbert @lennarthilbert.bsky.social · 10d

Thought the same recently, glad we have an open and international discussion platform again! Still, engagement seems lower than on Twitter during the good days, despite the higher follower count here

Lennart Hilbert @lennarthilbert.bsky.social · 12d

I was about to ask :-)

Lennart Hilbert @lennarthilbert.bsky.social · 12d

Thanks, no need to defend, your points are clear & justified! We have data where gene and enhancer don’t come closer than ~200-300 nm, but do come into that distance systematically. I’m trying to understand whether that distance is sufficient to mainly rule out it’s driven by your/a cohesion effect.

Lennart Hilbert @lennarthilbert.bsky.social · 12d

Warming up for October start of KIT teaching by guest lecturing for @unistra.fr Cell Physics Master “Active Droplets”. First of three lectures today. 3:00 h sharp, start to finish 💪

Some travel impressions, including fancy and very white “Le Studium” on Strasbourg Central Campus 🤍

And, Gyoza 🥟

Lennart Hilbert @lennarthilbert.bsky.social · 12d

Right, that makes sense, also and especially considering the question of your study. I was wondering how close a gene would have to cone to an enhancer to be “caught” by a cohesion. It would help distinguish what type of event we see in our own data. Any idea?

Lennart Hilbert @lennarthilbert.bsky.social · 13d

One question, after reading your short overview:

How close, in terms of nm distance, would one locus have to come to a second locus for them to be caught into this type of cohesin-based long-lived engagement? Something below 100 nm? I hope my question makes sense…

Reposted by Lennart Hilbert

TanentzapfLab @tanentzapflab.bsky.social · Aug 13

The goal of a PhD is not to learn some facts or read a few papers or learn a bunch of techniques. The goal of a PhD is to learn independence, problem solving, how to finish things you start, resilience, & gain the ability to adapt & think creatively. Learning these things is hard.

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Lennart Hilbert @lennarthilbert.bsky.social · 15d

Very much on the case, also motivated as the project came back today during the defense in Erlangen 👌

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Lennart Hilbert @lennarthilbert.bsky.social · 15d

☺️

Lennart Hilbert @lennarthilbert.bsky.social · 15d

It’s moving for you! ☺️

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Lennart Hilbert @lennarthilbert.bsky.social · 15d

It was a pleasure and an honor to walk this part of the path together, and amazing to look back at the achievements today. Also, two very smart oral examiners, Alexandra Chambony & Helmut Brandstätter, quite insightful and sharp questions! They’re here, right after the grade was announced.

Lennart Hilbert @lennarthilbert.bsky.social · 15d

What a great doctoral defense by Tim Klingberg @fau.de

Based in the group of our collaborator @vasilyzaburdaev.bsky.social Tim decisively contributed to at least 3 of our own lab’s foundational projects, which he showed today at “Max Planck Zentrum Physik und Medizin”

Some impressions

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Lennart Hilbert @lennarthilbert.bsky.social · 19d

Welcome on board, happy to see you joined!

Reposted by Lennart Hilbert

GBM (Gesellschaft für Biochemie und Molekularbiologie) @gbmev.bsky.social · 20d

Congratulations to the Fritz Lipmann Lecturer Michael Rosen (Dallas) by the GBM president Harald Kolmar.

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Reposted by Lennart Hilbert

GBM (Gesellschaft für Biochemie und Molekularbiologie) @gbmev.bsky.social · 20d

GBM Compact Focus on Condensate Biology is opened by Edward Lemke. Looking forward to a great meeting!

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Lennart Hilbert @lennarthilbert.bsky.social · 20d

If you are at GBM compact "Focus on Condensate Biology", we will be happy to talk to you at our lab's posters:

Mona Wellhäuser, MC15 @mofrawe.bsky.social
Yuzhi Bao, CA03 @yuzhibao.bsky.social
Lennart Hilbert, MC06

Conference abstracts:

gbm-compact.org/abstracts.html

*sketch added as click bait

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Lennart Hilbert @lennarthilbert.bsky.social · 27d

The label maker is the single most gratifying machine one can buy for a lab!

Reposted by Lennart Hilbert

Karlsruher Institut für Technologie (KIT) @kit.edu · 29d

Molekulare #Bionik: Der Zellkern als Vorbild für DNS-basierte #Computerchips. Forschende des #KITKarlsruhe (u. a. @lennarthilbert.bsky.social) nutzen zelluläre Informationsverarbeitung als Inspiration für die #Biotechnologie. www.kit.edu/kit/pi_2025_...

Um das Verhalten der DNS nachvollziehbar und vorhersagbar zu machen, kombinieren die Forschenden Laborexperimente mit Computersimulationen.

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Lennart Hilbert @lennarthilbert.bsky.social · 29d

If you want actual evidence for cis and trans interactions, this might be one classic paper that has it:

www.nature.com/articles/ng....

Preferential associations between co-regulated genes reveal a transcriptional interactome in erythroid cells - Nature Genetics

Peter Fraser and colleagues report a genome-wide analysis of transcription interactions involving the globin genes in mouse erythroid cells. They demonstrate that the transcription factor Klf1 mediate...

www.nature.com

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