Join us for a day of talks, posters, and discussions, featuring a morning joint lecture with Nobel Laureates Eric F. Wieschaus and Christiane Nüsslein-Volhard!
Date: Monday, May 4th, 2026
Location: University of Copenhagen, Mærsk Tower
sites.google.com/view/emergin...
Free to participate
The demystification of piRNA clusters
if you wonder how cells generate piRNAs specifically against transposons & you are looking for a weekend read
check out @86dominik.bsky.social's opus magna (or Dominik's great thread)
a shared project with the one and only Rippei Hayashi, lab alumnus & friend
How does the piRNA pathway solve the self vs. non-self problem? 🧬
Since piRNAs come from single-stranded RNA, how does the cell choose the right ones? For years, "piRNA clusters" were seen as THE privileged source. But are they really special and earmarked for biogenesis? (1/19)
Congrats Jackson! 👏
Check out our new paper in early access at Nature Communications!
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
The (Yoav) Voichek lab has opened its gates at the Weizmann Institute, and is actively recruiting students and researchers at all levels - come explore gene regulation and computational genomics in a fun, friendly sprouting lab 🤗🥼⚗️🧪
www.weizmann.ac.il/plants/voichek
Intrigued by a long-standing conundrum in small RNA biology—how nuclear Argonaute proteins silence transposons when they *need* target transcription for their own recruitment—we studied the piRNA pathway.
And found a hidden RNA-decay axis from Piwi to the RNA exosome.
Lastly, I’m excited to join @imbmainz.bsky.social in 2026 to start my own lab. We'll explore new mechanisms in eukaryotic gene expression, leveraging ‘evolutionary play’ to uncover how regulation, repurposing, and hijacking shape RNA biology. tinyurl.com/y4x29ctt
Thanks for reading! 20/20
Are you an early-stage graduate student (2nd or 3rd year) or early-stage postdoc based in the US or Canada, working primarily in Drosophila? Would you like to help improve the experience of all trainees working in Drosophila research? If so, read on.
(Please repost to reach a broad audience.)
Some impressions from the rather fabulous #EMBOmobilegenome Mobile Genome meeting in Heidelberg
Morning walk through the woods, exciting panel discussion, flash talks, lab community, drosophila friends, …
@events.embl.org
The transposon community is going very strong. see you all again in 2027!!
Graphical abstract: The Drosophila OSC Genome as a resource for transposon and piRNA biology. The figure illustrates the workflow and key findings. Left: De novo genome assembly using Oxford Nanopore Technologies (ONT) long reads and Hi-C data generates a phased assembly distinguishing unique (blue) and repetitive (orange) sequences. Dot plot comparison between OSC-r1.01 and dm6 reference genomes shows overall synteny with extensive structural variation. Middle: A freely accessible UCSC genome browser session displays multi-omics data tracks including gene models, transposon insertions, chromatin accessibility, transcription, small RNAs, and histone modifications. Right: New insights into flamenco piRNA cluster biology reveal >730 kb transcribed from a single promoter without major splicing. Tethering assays demonstrate long-range silencing effects across the locus, and genome browser tracks show coordinated regulation of piRNA production, transcription, and chromatin state. This resource enables comprehensive studies of transposon regulation and piRNA pathway function in a widely-used Drosophila cell line.
When transposons jump, genomes diverge - even in cultured cells.
I am happy to share our new preprint: a chromosome-scale genome assembly for Drosophila OSC cells, one of the key model systems in the piRNA field, especially for nuclear piRNA biology. 🧬🧵 (1/12)
1/ How do animals develop immunity against a newly encountered transposable element from scratch? Our study reveals that the mobility of TEs is their Achilles heel, allowing hosts to develop a powerful small RNA-mediated silencing response.
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
We wrote a review on the free nucleotide pool as a central playground in human, bacterial, and plant immunity – now out in Nature Reviews in Immunology
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
Was fun to write this piece with Dina Hochhauser!
Here is a thread to explain the premises
1/
We wrote a review on Transposable Elements (TEs) and almost all aspects of TE silencing and their roles in biological processes & disease.
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
Although we didn't make it to a cover, it was so wonderful to work with @mariadiazillus.bsky.social on designing an artwork inspired by our work. Thank you Maria! We love it and will be proudly showing it around.
Rover ERV wandering around the chromatin rapped around the moons of the solar system:
🚨📢 New paper alert!
A study led by Kirsten Senti and Julius Brennecke offers new insights into how ancient endogenous retroviruses diversified to exploit different cell “niches” in the fruit fly ovary, and how the host’s defenses adapted in return. https://imba.science/Brennecke_EMBOJ
REFEREE 1: “I conclude with a simple, direct statement - this is the best paper I have read all year!”
#TransparentPeerReview
Co-evolving infectivity and expression patterns drive the diversification of endogenous retroviruses
@juliusbrennecke.bsky.social et al
www.embopress.org/doi/full/10....
Flybase lost all of the NIH support overnight - it is a disaster for the community. Please consider donating. I just did! www.philanthropy.cam.ac.uk/give-to-camb...
Microscopic picture of Drosophila Sperm (green, yellow, orange, red) and Muscle cells (teal, blue). Depth coded.
Happy #FluorescenceFriday !🌈
Today, sperm cells & developing gametes (Dapi, 🟢🟡🟠🔴) and testis muscles (Phalloidin (🔵🟢) in/on a #Drosophila non-melanogaster (guess the species and you’re the 🐐)
#cellbio #devbio #science #sciart #microscopy
Scope: Zeiss Airyscan 980❤️@zeiss-microscopy.bsky.social
📣 Our new VIP3 Postdoc program is accepting applications! Wondering what's it's like to do a postdoc at the Vienna Biocenter? Find out here👇 🎉
#drosophila @flybase.bsky.social request emergency funding:
"As it stands, by the end of July, 2025, there will be no future updates to FlyBase, and in the worst case scenario access to the website will also be lost" => please donate!
www.philanthropy.cam.ac.uk/give-to-camb...
A screencapture of the page dedicated to the transcription factor isl1/tailup. There is information about the flybase ID, function, classification, keywords, and a very long wall of text under BIOLOGICAL OVERVIEW. Fly people rock tbh
The Interactive Fly logo, showing a cartoon of two adult Drosophila melanogaster on a yellow background. There's subtext that reads "A cyberspace guide to Drosophila development and metazoan evolution".
Did you know? 🧪 "The Interactive Fly" is a wonderful website hosted by @socdevbio.bsky.social where you can learn about their development, the history of gene discovery/name, and it is full of super useful resources for the #DevBio community 🪰https://www.sdbonline.org/sites/fly/aimain/1aahome.htm
Blurring the lines between retrotransposons & viruses!
sORF2 enables direct transmission of retrotransposons challenging our understanding of mobile genetic elements. #preprint @juliusbrennecke.bsky.social Lab
#preLight from Ally Simpson & Alyss Humphrey!
👉 prelights.biologists.com/highlights/d...
Thanks Sonya! Indeed this story had its share of twists and turns... Very kind of you :)
Stop for a second and try to imagine this: a heat shock protein relocalizes to the cell surface and mediates dsRNA binding and internalization!
Intrigued? Read our newly minted paper in Science Advances www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...
Congrats to all the authors and thanks to reviewers and editor!
We are hiring! Join the BioOptics team as a Data Scientist in Image Analysis and contribute to the team’s mission of providing microscopy applications, flow cytometry, and image analysis services. Link below. #europe #research #lifesciences
Online now at @cp-cell.bsky.social , the culmination of a 12-year effort. 🧵 to follow later this evening
www.cell.com/cell/fulltex...
💥🥳 At long last, our latest paper is out!
Gag proteins of endogenous retroviruses are required for zebrafish development
www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...
Led heroically by Sylvia Chang & @jonowells.bsky.social
A study which has changed the way I think of #transposons! No less! 🧵 1/n
I have exhorted others to share positive news even in these uncertain times for US science.
I am really excited that @tamanash.bsky.social’s first paper on the remarkable evolutionary gymnastics of dual-host viruses (even in single codons) is now online.
Follow along here 🧪🧵
Our colleague Prof. Benny (Ben Zion) Shilo passed away this morning @WeizmannScience . Benny worked at the forefront of world science in the study of molecular and developmental genetics. Among other things, he won the A.M.T. Prize in the field of genetics in 2013. He was also a great explainer of science, a kind teacher - and an artist photographer with a sharp eye and a sensitive soul. Benny, we will miss you very much. May his memory be blessed.
Our field has lost an amazing scientist, mentor, and old friend. Benny, along with Mike Hoffman, had a brilliant idea in the early 1980s. The first oncogenes were being cloned and they realized if we wanted to understand their roles in cancer, we needed to understand their normal function 1/n 🧪
