Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

Fyodor Urnov @urnov.bsky.social · 29d

How incredibly gracious and sweet they named the vehicle "Doc Ricketts."
"Canary Row" is one of my favorite books of all time and this story warmed my heart.
Plus the fish is totes adorbs.
www.nytimes.com/2025/09/08/s...

A New, ‘Adorable’ Deep-Sea Fish Swims Into View

www.nytimes.com

Fyodor Urnov @urnov.bsky.social · Sep 7

Of David's countless accomplishments is the important work that Matt Porteus did in his lab on early-stage genome editing with engineered nucleases (pubmed 12730593).
He and Matt both speak about this in the documentary "Human Nature."
A true titan.
www.nytimes.com/2025/09/07/s...

David Baltimore, Nobel-Winning Molecular Biologist, Dies at 87

www.nytimes.com

1 3 16

Fyodor Urnov @urnov.bsky.social · Sep 7

I will switch out of "dripping with scathing sarcasm" mode and cite a lovely paper by David, Shengdar, Mitch, et al - one of many such papers - where this technically trivial experiment is done.
www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Potent and uniform fetal hemoglobin induction via base editing - Nature Genetics

A comparison of fetal hemoglobin gene editing strategies using human sickle cell disease donor cells and in vivo transplantation finds that adenine base editing of the –175A>G site in the γ-globin ...

www.nature.com

4

Fyodor Urnov @urnov.bsky.social · Sep 7

If only, if ONLY there was some method to change these newly discovered TF binding "motifs" at endogenous gene regulatory regions to see if ANY of this new phenomenology has ANYTHING to do with actual gene regulation...
1. PHE PHE SER.
2. SER MET HIS.
www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Multiple overlapping binding sites determine transcription factor occupancy - Nature

A new method enables comprehensive screening and identification of low-affinity DNA binding sites for transcription factors, and reveals that nucleotides flanking high-affinity binding sites create ov...

www.nature.com

2 1

Fyodor Urnov @urnov.bsky.social · Sep 1

"Epigenetics: the way genes learn from experience" (Mikula BC, Genetics 140-379; 1985).
Here it is, folks - an atlas of human genes learning from experience.
Holy Waddington.
www.researchsquare.com/article/rs-7...

DNA Methylation Ageing Atlas Across 17 Human Tissues

Aging involves widespread epigenetic remodeling across tissues, yet the nature and consistency of these changes remain unclear. We conducted a meta-analysis of more than 15,000 human methylomes spanni...

www.researchsquare.com

1 8

Reposted by Fyodor Urnov

Nature Biotechnology @natbiotech.nature.com · Aug 26

In Brief: A new center in San Francisco will offer tailor-made CRISPR therapies to cure children with rare diseases www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Children with rare genetic diseases get CRISPR Cures center - Nature Biotechnology

Nature Biotechnology - Children with rare genetic diseases get CRISPR Cures center

www.nature.com

1 14 20

Fyodor Urnov @urnov.bsky.social · Aug 22

Fellow editors - nota bene 10x!

Griffiths Lab @griffithslab.bsky.social · Aug 4

Sometimes, knocking out a gene isn't a good way to figure out the function of that gene ...

In our new @jcellsci.bsky.social paper, we report potent transcriptional adaptation by cytotoxic T lymphocytes (CTLs) in response to CRISPR/Cas9-mediated deletion of the important polarity protein CDC42 🧵⬇️

3

Fyodor Urnov @urnov.bsky.social · Aug 22

PSA:
if you're not a mouse person you may enjoy knowing that mouse Sca1 (the hematopoiesis marker) is not encoded by Sca1 (spinocerebellar ataxia 1) but rather Ly6a.
I mean, OF COURSE it is. What else could it be?
I'm an hg38 person and below is a self-portrait while I was figuring this out.

2 1 7

Fyodor Urnov @urnov.bsky.social · Aug 13

F1.1 (Taz Urnov) acquired and edited this gem for Soho Press.
www.npr.org/2025/08/13/n...

A dogged reporter takes on a mysterious cabal in 'The Diary of Lies'

Philip Miller's sinister thriller is set in a Great Britain that's lost its bearings. But even when she's terrified, fictional journalist Shona Sandison will always risk everything to get the story.

www.npr.org

2

Fyodor Urnov @urnov.bsky.social · Aug 6

Around back then I became an ace at dispensing with it 500 ul PB into 20 qiagen columns without splashing chaotrope all over the bench.

3

Fyodor Urnov @urnov.bsky.social · Aug 5

+1
My students have a digital one and my reaction is - why?

1 3

Reposted by Fyodor Urnov

Ryan Cross @scienceboss.bsky.social · Jul 9

A new CRISPR Cures center, fuded by $20M from @chanzuckerberg.bsky.social and led by @urnov.bsky.social, will create 8 custom therapies for patients in the next 3 years.
“Our goal is to aggressively walk the walk of CRISPR platformization,” Urnov told me. @endpts.com endpoints.news/crispr-cures...

'CRISPR Cures' center launches with $20M to make customized gene editing therapies

Scientists seeking to make personalized gene editing therapies a reality for more people have launched a new initiative to develop cures for the rarest of diseases left behind by drug companies.

endpoints.news

4 11

Fyodor Urnov @urnov.bsky.social · Jun 17

"Quaternary kissing loops"👌

Korostelev Lab @korostelevlab.bsky.social · Jun 16

With our ‪@RTI-UMassChan.bsky.social‬ colleagues Xiaobin Ling and Wenwen Fang, we report cryo-EM structures of enigmatic bacterial RNA nanocages made of ROOL RNAs. Octamers are held by "A-minor staples" and other interactions. Congrats Xiaobin, Dima et al!
www.nature.com/articles/s41...

2

Reposted by Fyodor Urnov

Innovative Genomics Institute @innovativegenomics.bsky.social · Jun 12

Thanks to the BBC's The Inquiry program for great conversations with IGI's @jenniferdoudna.bsky.social @doudna-lab.bsky.social and @urnov.bsky.social about Baby KJ, #CRISPR on-demand, and the future of personalized medicine!

Listen here: www.bbc.com/audio/play/w...

Photo credit: TODAY

3 8

Fyodor Urnov @urnov.bsky.social · Jun 10

Paul Wade was my patient and gracious mentor in Alan Wolffe’s lab (‘97-99). He did gorgeous work back then and continues to do so.

Jackson Hoffman @jxhoffman.bsky.social · Jun 10

Congrats on the new paper to Krystal who "doesn't do social media" but does do a ton of ATAC and Cut&Run to show how GATA3 pioneers enhancers with BRG1 and sometimes AP-1! #NIEHS #NAR doi.org/10.1093/nar/...

Pioneering new enhancers by GATA3: role of facilitating transcription factors and chromatin remodeling

Abstract. Pioneer transcription factors (PTFs) bind to inaccessible chromatin and recruit collaborating transcription factors to promote chromatin accessib

doi.org

2

Fyodor Urnov @urnov.bsky.social · Jun 10

This is v helpful.
I'd love to know how many genes are like Car2.
Five percent? Ten percent?
Because looping is everywhere, and so-called TADs as well, but if 5% of the genes actually depend on looping for their control - well, this means the vast majority of looping is gene-control irrelevant.

1