Ben Martin

Pls re-post: My department @oxfordbiochemistry.bsky.social are recruiting for several new faculty positions (links below). Broad search in molecular biology/biochemistry, across prokaryotes and eukaryotes. Interested in understanding life at the molecular level, this job might be for you!
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The team worked incredibly hard to get this out the door in time to share with grant review committees, and I am so grateful for their effort.

If you have thoughts, questions, or ideas for where this platform could (or should) go next, we would love to hear from you.

Evolution navigated billions of challenges to get to us to where we are today. Directed evolution compresses this to a 1D axis.

Imagine if you could sample 200 dimensions at once, with data to boot 📈

First @chorylab.bsky.social PACE preprint on our new system to tackle this: bit.ly/turboprance

A reminder that we are actively recruiting a geneticist to the Department of Genetics at Albert Einstein College of Medicine

careers-einstein.icims.com/jobs/17847/a...

Incredibly proud to share our new preprint, lead by the Incomparable Rithika Sankar.
Here we temporally dissect the role of FACT in mES cells, finding that FACT loss drives progressive deterioration of chromatin architecture, leading to transcriptional collapse.
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...

Three @biorxivpreprint.bsky.social preprints on acute depletion of FACT in ES cells. First, from my colleague at Pitt Sarah Hainer's lab 1/ www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...

a drawing of a stick figure next to a soap box ALT: a drawing of a stick figure next to a soap box

Saw a few papers recently in CNS injury using transgenic lines to target 'pericytes' in the CNS & broad markers that are not specific, also label fibroblasts - imprecise tools & language = assigning functions in fibrosis to pericytes when other cells like fibroblasts are primarily involved 1/4

Join us tomorrow for two exciting enhancer talks!

The most important #RNA conference of the year with lots of amazing science and a really friendly atmosphere. This year in beautiful Montreal 🇨🇦 !

www2.rnasociety.org

Next week on Fragile Nucleosome:

🧬 Pavan Choppakatla from the Levine lab will share his work on long-distance enhancer-promoter search

🧬 @moorejille.bsky.social will tell us about millions of enhancers in the registry of candidate CREs

Register here and join us!: us06web.zoom.us/webinar/regi...

Papers are like buses... You wait for ages, then two come along at once.

Huge congrats to @bornanovak.bsky.social and @jefflotthammer.bsky.social for pushing and driving every aspect of this work, preprinted ~1 year ago to the day (Friday before BPS), now published!

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

Ancient co-option of LTR retrotransposons as yeast centromeres - Nature Evolutionarily related ‘proto-point’ centromeres providing resolution to the evolutionary origins of point centromeres are identified in yeast, and comparison shows they evolved in an ancestor with re...

Our paper is now out in Nature:

“Ancient co-option of LTR retrotransposons as yeast centromeres”

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

A short thread on how retrotransposons helped give rise to yeast point centromeres.

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Register for the Bay Area Chromatin Club in 2026! It’s free. March 5, 1-5pm Genentech Hall. We have speakers from UCSF, Stanford, Cal, and more ! It’s a great event for trainees to discuss their work and get feedback- bring a poster ! Hang with old and new friends.

urldefense.com/v3/__https:/...

Mechanisms linking cytoplasmic decay of translation-defective mRNA to transcriptional adaptation Transcriptional adaptation (TA) is a genetic robustness mechanism through which mutant messenger RNA (mRNA) decay induces sequence-dependent up-regulation of so-called adapting genes. How cytoplasmica...

This is a fascinating paper that reveals defined and clear mechanism for a phenomenon that for some seemed unbelievable- the up regulation of genes paralogous to those with specific types of inactivating mutations. This is called transcriptional adaptation 1/ www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

Tread -1- EpiSci - I am very proud to share with you our new study that you can access on @biorxivpreprint.bsky.social (see link below)
"The Interaction with Nanotopographical Environment regulates nuclear mechanoresponse in mESCs via Histone Demethylase KDM3A.
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...

1/ Excited to share a new preprint from the lab! We identify NSD3 as a novel regulator of chromatin 3D structure. 🧵

🚨Preprint alert🚨 How does chromatin “architecture” form at CTCF sites? Our new preprint with @voslab.org and @andersshansen.bsky.social shows CTCF dimerization promotes nucleosome oligomerization on chromatin. tinyurl.com/CTCF-nucleos...

We've got two exciting chromatin talks coming up on Wednesday next week:

@epijenatics.bsky.social from @jbuenrostro.bsky.social's lab and @ambystoma22.bsky.social!

register and join us: us06web.zoom.us/webinar/regi...

Please share this with your network: Postdoctoral position available in my group.

www.linkedin.com/jobs/view/43...

The chromatin remodeller CHD4 regulates transcription factor binding to both prevent activation of silent enhancers and maintain active regulatory elements CHD4 directly limits transcription factor binding to chromatin, which prevents activation of silent or cryptic enhancers but facilitates activity of active enhancers.

Final version of our paper now published.
elifesciences.org/articles/109...

Take homes:
CHD4/NuRD directly limits transcription factor residence times. At active enhancers this keeps them working efficiently. At inactive enhancers it prevents TFs from getting a foothold and causing activation. 1/n

Research Unit Director – IRCM Cancer Research Center Job reference code: IRCM-Cancer

Principal investigator job alert @ircm.bsky.social! We are recruiting a new junior faculty member working in the field of cancer. Apply before February 22nd. Contact me if you have more questions.

www.ircm.qc.ca/en/position-...

🧬📄 Preprint update (v2): We added new biochemical experiments that clarify how IWS1 associates with the transcription elongation complex and further define competition between IWS1 and RECQL5. 🧪⚙️
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

Structural model is already available in the PDB (9MLC).

New work from the lab by @eli-elder.bsky.social !! Tread to follow shortly...

SS18::SSX activates Polycomb target genes without BAF ❌
Instead, transcription relies on EP300 via the SS18 QPGY domain
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...
➡️ Coactivator targeting emerges as a new therapeutic strategy in synovial sarcoma 🎯
Team work from @banitolab.bsky.social and @uoe-igc.bsky.social

#FragileNuclesome is back tomorrow! Join us to hear about exciting talks from:

- @au-ho-yu.bsky.social in @robklose.bsky.social's group about transcriptional control by SET1/MLL complexes

- @gcloner.bsky.social at @epicypher.bsky.social about the histone PTM landscape of the immune system

Question for the crowd :

Do you have any examples of subunits which have a function independent of the multiprotein complex to which they belong?

I am currently thinking about writing a review (focusing on the Mediator complex and examples of specific subunit functions, such as PMID: 41414671).

Come to hear Alan's great new story on SET1/MLL proteins and transcription next Wednesday. @fnucleosome.bsky.social

🥁 #FragileNucleosome is back on Jan 28! We are very excited to host @au-ho-yu.bsky.social and @gcloner.bsky.social as our first speakers of 2026!
📋Please don't forget to register for our 2026 seminar series: us06web.zoom.us/webinar/regi...

The Vlaming lab continues to grow!
It's an exciting time in the Vlaming lab: we've just had our 2nd PhD student join, and the 3rd is joining in February. Now, we're looking to recruit a postdoc!

Happy New Year!🎉 We hope everyone has enjoyed the holidays! If you have an exciting chromatin/transcription story, or if you know someone with one, please fill out the form or get in contact with us! 😉
forms.gle/TBi38UgYxPAB...