Michael Trakselis
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trakselis.bsky.social
Michael Trakselis
@trakselis.bsky.social
#Traklab PI studying DNA replication and DNA repair mechanisms. Genome Instability @Baylor Director of Graduate Affairs Chemistry & Biochemistry #soccerdad
Pinned
With all the new activity here, its time to reintroduce the #Traklab at Baylor. We are a diverse group of scientists studying the molecular, structural, genetic, biological, and enzymatic mechanisms of DNA replication and repair processes. Would love to connect with y'all! #replication #repair 🧬
Reposted by Michael Trakselis
We are recruiting a postdoctoral fellow to study mechanisms of DNA replication stress using single-molecule imaging tools. If you are excited about microscopy, replisome dynamics, and genome stability, we’d love to hear from you.

Application deadline: 24 December

www.crick.ac.uk/careers-stud...
Postdoctoral Fellow - H Yardimci Lab
www.crick.ac.uk
November 25, 2025 at 11:55 AM
Reposted by Michael Trakselis
Happy to share our most recent work www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/.... Here we describe how efficient DNA replication in E. coli is dependent on an interaction between SSB-ssDNA and the DNA polymerase (Pol III). Thanks to all the co-authors for their hard work!
Genome integrity relies on rapid recycling of DNA Pol III in bacteria | PNAS
DNA replication requires precise coordination between DNA unwinding and DNA synthesis. In all domains of life, protein–protein interactions at the ...
www.pnas.org
November 20, 2025 at 4:54 PM
Reposted by Michael Trakselis
Our latest collaboration with the talented Susi @sbantele.bsky.social and Jiri Lukas is out now @science.org 🤩. We reveal the hidden price for DNA repair, with potential implications for genome function, gene therapy and ageing👇
𝗖𝗮𝗻 𝗰𝗲𝗹𝗹𝘀 𝗲𝘃𝗲𝗿 𝘁𝗿𝘂𝗹𝘆 𝗿𝗲𝗰𝗼𝘃𝗲𝗿 𝗳𝗿𝗼𝗺 𝗗𝗡𝗔 𝗱𝗮𝗺𝗮𝗴𝗲?Excited to share our new study “Repair of DNA double-strand breaks leaves heritable impairment to genome function”, revealing DNA repair’s hidden cost, out now @science.org tinyurl.com/5n6zw3ye. Led by @sbantele.bsky.social and Jiri Lukas.🧵👇1/n
Repair of DNA double-strand breaks leaves heritable impairment to genome function
Upon DNA breakage, a genomic locus undergoes alterations in three-dimensional chromatin architecture to facilitate signaling and repair. Although cells possess mechanisms to repair damaged DNA, it is ...
tinyurl.com
November 7, 2025 at 8:34 AM
Reposted by Michael Trakselis
POSTDOCTORAL POSITION IN STRUCTURAL BIOLOGY
We need a structural biologist to work on several CryoEM datasets. For more information, please visit: www.antonylab.org

Expertise in structure refinement and model-building are required.

Please share.
ANTONY LAB SAINT LOUIS UNIVERSITY SCHOOL OF MEDICINE
Edwin Antony Lab Website
www.antonylab.org
November 18, 2025 at 7:05 PM
Wynton Marsalis and the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra blew me away tonight. Thanks Baylor and A&S for sponsoring.
November 14, 2025 at 4:05 AM
Reposted by Michael Trakselis
Interested in inherited chromosomal instability syndromes and DNA repair? We are looking for an enthusiastic person to join the Stewart lab at the University of Birmingham as a senior technician. Please checkout the job advert: www.jobs.ac.uk/job/DPH515/senior-research-technician
Senior Research Technician at University of Birmingham
An academic position as a Senior Research Technician is being advertised on jobs.ac.uk. Click now to find more details and explore additional academic job opportunities.
www.jobs.ac.uk
November 6, 2025 at 8:34 AM
Reposted by Michael Trakselis
Want to know how homologous recombination defects are caused upon loss of BRCA2? Check out our recent efforts in uncovering this phenomenon just out in Science!
www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...
FIGNL1 inhibits homologous recombination in BRCA2 deficient cells by dissociating RAD51 filaments
Homologous recombination (HR) deficiency upon Breast Cancer Gene 2 (BRCA2) loss arises from defects in the formation of RAD51 nucleoprotein filaments. We demonstrate that loss of the anti-recombinase ...
www.science.org
October 30, 2025 at 9:52 PM
Reposted by Michael Trakselis
Among the anti-recombinases, FIGNL1 rules them all. So much that inactivating it brings BRCA2-deficient cells to life. Who is responsible for RAD51 loading without BRCA2/FIGNL1, check out the paper to find out! Great collaboration with @raychaudhurilab.bsky.social

www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...
October 30, 2025 at 8:41 PM
Reposted by Michael Trakselis
Our paper in Science is out! @souravagrawal.bsky.social, @rlynn.bsky.social, @susvirkar.bsky.social, and the rest of the team show human RPA is a telomerase processivity factor essential for telomere maintenance. This reshapes our thinking about telomerase regulation. www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...
Human RPA is an essential telomerase processivity factor for maintaining telomeres
Telomerase counteracts telomere shortening by repeatedly adding DNA repeats to chromosome ends. We identified the replication protein A (RPA) heterotrimer as a telomerase processivity factor critical ...
www.science.org
October 30, 2025 at 10:07 PM
Happy to share a new publication on Mechanistic Coupling of Enzyme Activities at the Replisome in JBC. We #Traklab compare and contrast strategies used across organisms to coordinate the many enzymatic processes that occur during DNA replication. Hope it is helpful. doi.org/10.1016/j.jb...
October 24, 2025 at 6:12 PM
Reposted by Michael Trakselis
For ASBMB 2026, each meeting day will have a "theme" organized by session chairs. This theme "Racing the clock: Molecular Mechanisms of Aging" will feature Meng Wang as the keynote and is co-organized by Dan Jarosz @jaroszlab.bsky.social (?) and Roz Anderson.
Plenary speaker spotlight ✨ Meng Wang (@bcmhouston.bsky.social / @hhmi.org) at #ASBMB26: “Racing the clock: Molecular mechanisms of aging.”

➡️Dive into the biochemical basis of aging, from metabolism to the genome: ow.ly/68i150X37Pm.
#MakeItPossibble #AgingResearch #FutureOfScience
October 20, 2025 at 2:24 PM
New #Traklab publication in @narjournal.bsky.social "Residues in the little finger domain of the Y-family Dpo4 DNA polymerase communicate to restrict synthesis past 8-oxoguanine lesions" academic.oup.com/nar/article/...
Residues in the little finger domain of the Y-family Dpo4 DNA polymerase communicate to restrict synthesis past 8-oxoguanine lesions
Abstract. Endogenous reactive oxygen species are responsible for abundant 8-oxo-7,8-dihydroguanine (8-oxoG) lesion formation in all three domains of life.
academic.oup.com
October 17, 2025 at 7:35 PM
Reposted by Michael Trakselis
Things are at a standstill with the govt shutdown, the year has been one of 'constant chaos' at the NIH — & the worst may be yet to come folks said on my panel

Read a recap of our talk w/ @jeremymberg.bsky.social @malar0ne.bsky.social & Eric Green here

www.statnews.com/2025/10/16/f...
Former NIH leaders lament ‘constant chaos’ at the agency, and caution it’s not over
“It's been like living in a washing machine, it's been constant chaos,” former NIH official Jeremy Berg said at the #STATSummit
www.statnews.com
October 16, 2025 at 8:31 PM
My scientific grandfather. What a gentleman scientist. RIP
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
October 8, 2025 at 1:27 AM
Reposted by Michael Trakselis
I feel like this photo of masked, armed men pepper spraying a pastor protecting his community is going to be a defining picture of this moment in America for a long, long time.
October 7, 2025 at 11:29 PM
Reposted by Michael Trakselis
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
October 7, 2025 at 5:49 PM
Reposted by Michael Trakselis
"You couldn’t stop me from pursuing science. . . . It was just part of who I am." - Mona Minkara. cen.acs.org/physical-che... #chemsky 🧪
Mona Minkara uncovers patterns in how our lungs interact with airborne viruses
The 2025 Trailblazers guest editor uses computational models to study lung chemistry while building resources that help blind scientists succeed
cen.acs.org
September 27, 2025 at 7:51 PM
Reposted by Michael Trakselis
We have an open post-doc position in my group to study mRNA cleavage and polyadenylation using biochemical reconstitution and cryoEM.

Please get in touch if you are interested in joining this amazing team! 🔬🧬🤩
#RNA #cryoEM
September 27, 2025 at 11:07 AM
Reposted by Michael Trakselis
Continuing efforts to hurt the research pipeline, the very late NSF GFRP solicitation no longer allows 2nd year PhD students to apply. Lots of these students chose not to apply last year because they were told they would have a better change once in their thesis lab www.nsf.gov/funding/oppo...
NSF Graduate Research Fellowship Program (GRFP)
www.nsf.gov
September 26, 2025 at 6:42 PM
Reposted by Michael Trakselis
Frequent user of epitope tags? Try ours!

IPI epitope tag antibodies & plasmids are now available through our partner @addgene.bsky.social!

buff.ly/YEuZDIp
Epitope tag antibody collection
Epitope tags are short amino acid sequences fused to a protein’s N- or C-terminus. When paired with an antibody that specifically recognizes this sequence, epit
buff.ly
September 23, 2025 at 6:02 PM
Reposted by Michael Trakselis
A frenzy of grantmaking in August has the NIH seemingly on pace to spend its entire $47 billion budget by the end of the fiscal year on Sept. 30
www.statnews.com/2025/09/12/n...
After lagging far behind, NIH now seems on pace to spend its entire $47 billion budget by Sept. 30
A frenzy of grantmaking in August has the NIH seemingly on pace to spend its entire $47 billion budget by the end of the fiscal year on Sept. 30
www.statnews.com
September 12, 2025 at 4:14 PM
Reposted by Michael Trakselis
shocking to read over and over the stories of close colleagues who can't run their lab anymore. I know Karen well and it's heartbreaking. Also #PIinthelab! www.washingtonpost.com/education/20...
Harvard’s research is shrinking amid the Trump administration’s freeze
Even if grants at Harvard are suddenly restored, there is deep-rooted uncertainty about the damage already done and the future of basic science research in the U.S.
www.washingtonpost.com
August 25, 2025 at 7:42 PM
Heading to #FallACS2025. Check out the #TOXI program. Some great talks and award sessions. See you soon! @sturlalab.bsky.social @laurakiessling.bsky.social @acs.org
August 13, 2025 at 2:52 PM
Reposted by Michael Trakselis
DO NOT GIVE UP!

Our advocacy is working.

A key Senate committee has indicated that it will reject Trump’s proposed cuts to science agencies including NASA and the NSF.

Keep speaking up and calling your electeds 🗣️🗣️🗣️
July 11, 2025 at 7:03 PM
Reposted by Michael Trakselis
What an incredible few days it’s been with the amazing #Nucleic25 participants! 🌟
We can’t wait to celebrate all together at the Gala Dinner this evening! 🎉
July 6, 2025 at 7:53 AM