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Changwei YU

@changweiyu

Postdoc in the Brennecke lab @IMBA, Vienna | Alumni: PhD @igbmc @unistra | enthusiast of transcription, chromatin, germline/early development, and transposon biology

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13.11.2024
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Latest posts by Changwei YU @changweiyu

RNA-guided genome protection The genome carries information across generations, ensuring species survival. To preserve faithful transmission of genetic information, RNA-directed mechanisms safeguard the genome integrity in diver…

Join us at the EMBO Workshop “RNA-guided genome protection” 🇨🇭 June 16–20. Transposon silencing • stem cell biology • RNA-guided immunity. Keynotes: Déborah Bourc’his + Ian MacRae. Register now + submit your abstract! meetings.embo.org/event/26-gen...

04.03.2026 15:42 👍 12 🔁 11 💬 0 📌 0
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The role of KRAB zinc-finger proteins in expanding the domestication potential of transposable elements - Nature Genetics This Perspective explores the co-evolution of transposable elements and KRAB zinc-finger proteins in relation to their integration into human gene regulatory networks, highlighting their potential eff...

Find our latest Perspective article in Nature Genetics on "The role of KRAB zinc-finger proteins in expanding the domestication potential of transposable elements" at www.nature.com/articles/s41..., with implications for the future of research on the cause of human disease.

02.03.2026 13:40 👍 38 🔁 18 💬 0 📌 1
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Decoding the molecular logic of rapidly evolving ZAD zinc finger proteins in Drosophila Identification of ZAD-ZnF genes as key regulators of genome organization during Drosophila embryogenesis.

Diving into evolutionary biology! What is the origin of the most abundant class of insect transcription factors, ZAD-ZnFs? We suggest that they evolved from ancestral insulator-binding proteins that control 3D genome topology.

www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

27.02.2026 19:51 👍 32 🔁 15 💬 0 📌 0
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Concurrent L1 retrotransposition events promote reciprocal translocations in human tumorigenesis LINE-1 (L1) retrotransposition generates somatic genomic variation in human cancer, but short-read sequencing has limited our understanding of its structural consequences and dynamics. Using long-read...

Today in
@science.org:
We are pleased to present our last work entitled:
"Concurrent L1 retrotransposition events promote reciprocal translocations in human tumorigenesis"
by Zumalave et al.
www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

26.02.2026 19:08 👍 39 🔁 26 💬 3 📌 0
Redirecting

Our most recent work on the “function and evolution” of #nuclear-speckles is now online at Cell @cp-cell.bsky.social
doi.org/10.1016/j.ce...
Read the thread👇 for the highlights of our findings.

25.02.2026 16:01 👍 122 🔁 59 💬 9 📌 5
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We are hiring! Join the Jachowicz lab as a postdoctoral researcher. The project focuses on understanding the dynamics of ncRNAs using high-resolution and single-molecule microscopy approaches. Link below 👇

25.02.2026 08:35 👍 9 🔁 6 💬 1 📌 2

Fellowship application dealdine for students from low income countries 🌐will be in 1️⃣ week.
Dont miss out on this opportunity ! Hands on Summer School.
Cut&Run, Cut@Tag, ChIP, ATACseq and analyse your own data ! ➡️Unique opportunity ! 15 exiting days ➕ Daily high profile lectures.
👉 bit.ly/4oGDR8f

20.02.2026 10:34 👍 7 🔁 11 💬 0 📌 0

The giant viruses surprised us at almost every turn of this project, but ultimately led us down a very rewarding path. Happy to share this work is now available online 🧪

17.02.2026 17:07 👍 48 🔁 23 💬 0 📌 0
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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.

1/14

18.02.2026 16:03 👍 226 🔁 115 💬 8 📌 10

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)

13.02.2026 15:11 👍 90 🔁 51 💬 2 📌 4
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A small polymerase ribozyme that can synthesize itself and its complementary strand The emergence of a chemical system capable of self-replication and evolution is a critical event in the origin of life. RNA polymerase ribozymes can replicate RNA, but their large size and structural ...

How could a simple self-replicating system emerge at the origins of life? RNA polymerase ribozymes can replicate RNA, but existing ones are so large that their self-replication seems impossible. Could they be smaller?

Excited to share our latest work in @science.org on a new small polymerase.
1/n

13.02.2026 11:42 👍 497 🔁 209 💬 10 📌 28
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Loss of SETDB1-mediated H3K9me3 in human neural progenitor cells leads to transcriptional activation of L1 retrotransposons Abstract. Heterochromatin is characterized by an inaccessibility to the transcriptional machinery and is associated with the histone mark H3K9me3. However,

New paper from my lab out in NAR. We found that young L1 elements are controlled by SETDB1 and H3K9me3 in human neural progenitor cells via a mechanism independent of HUSH and TRIM28/KZNFs.

academic.oup.com/nar/article/...

05.02.2026 15:17 👍 30 🔁 15 💬 1 📌 1

Does the noncoding genome actually carry more genetic information than coding seqs? Motivated by this question we mutated every bp in the 10kb MYC locus. Results are even more exciting: Decoding the MYC locus reveals a druggable ultraconserved RNA element www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...

31.01.2026 01:13 👍 128 🔁 47 💬 4 📌 6
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Tissue-specific restriction of transposon-derived regulatory elements safeguards cell-type identity Milovanović et al. uncover a mechanism by which KZFPs restrict the activity of transposon-derived cis-regulatory elements to safeguard cardiomyocyte functionality. This work extends the classical TE-K...

It is finally out! If you are interested in TE-derived CREs, and newly described, but evolutionary old KZFP-TE mechanistic modalities, read it at www.cell.com/cell-reports....
Thankful to everyone who took part in this work, namely @orpsf.bsky.social and other @trono-lab.bsky.social members. 🫀🧬✨

29.01.2026 14:20 👍 40 🔁 14 💬 0 📌 1
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Pre-assembly of biomolecular condensate seeds drives RSV replication Nature - Viral ribonucleoprotein–viral protein networks form pre-replication centres that nucleate viral factories and drive respiratory syncytial virus replication.

Now out in Nature! We visualize infection of the RNA virus RSV in real-time with single-vRNP resolution to understand how RSV establishes viral factories, biomolecular condensates that act as sites of viral replication. A huge collaborative effort led by Dhanushika Ratnayake!

rdcu.be/e1bBW

28.01.2026 20:38 👍 91 🔁 35 💬 1 📌 2
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We’re excited to share our latest preprint on the mechanism of excised linear intron stabilization in yeast! This work was led by PhD student @glennli.bsky.social and was a wonderful collaboration with @maxewilkinson.bsky.social. Link: www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6... (1/4)

23.01.2026 16:14 👍 58 🔁 25 💬 1 📌 2

Check out our preprint where we describe, characterize and trace the origin of a novel human-specific isoform of TAF8, a scaffold subunit in TFIID. We were surprised to discover that TAF8 recently underwent genetic changes generating a truncated isoform with altered properties in humans!

20.01.2026 11:59 👍 6 🔁 3 💬 1 📌 0
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A genetically encoded device for transcriptome storage in mammalian cells Understanding how cells make decisions over time requires the ability to link past molecular states to future phenotypic outcomes. We present TimeVault, a genetically encoded system that records and s...

🧬🔬@science.org A genetically encoded device for #transcriptome storage in mammalian cells | Science www.science.org/doi/10.1126/... @broadinstitute.org

15.01.2026 20:30 👍 55 🔁 25 💬 1 📌 3

TF-MINDI is out! A new method to learn cis-regulatory codes through rich embeddings of TF binding sites. TF-MINDI decomposes motif neighbourhoods, and works downstream of any sequence-to-function deep learning model. We deeply study the enhancer code in human neural development, check out the thread

15.01.2026 12:32 👍 60 🔁 38 💬 1 📌 0
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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

11.01.2026 20:41 👍 44 🔁 32 💬 0 📌 0

Our work on TFIID is finally out as preprint!

09.01.2026 23:52 👍 13 🔁 4 💬 0 📌 0

Congratulations to Dr Feng! Songjie is the genome whisperer who is simply amazing when it comes to editing the genome! And one of the nicest person to have around!

09.01.2026 12:47 👍 11 🔁 1 💬 0 📌 0
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H4K16 acylations destabilize chromatin architecture and facilitate transcriptional response during metabolic perturbations Nitsch et al. show that short-chain acylations of histone H4K16, acetylation (C2), propionylation (C3), and butyrylation (C4) modulate chromatin structure in vitro. These effects can translate in vivo...

Now final version out: Our manuscript connecting histone modifications with metabolism: How H4K16 acylations regulate inter +intranucleosomal interactions and confer resilience to metabolic challenges in vivo. Thanks to the team+ @sandrani.bsky.social

Enjoy 👇👇 www.cell.com/molecular-ce...

09.01.2026 12:22 👍 38 🔁 20 💬 1 📌 1
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Pervasive cis-regulatory co-option of a transposable element family reinforces cell identity across the mouse immune system Transposable elements (TEs) make up about half of the human and mouse genomes and play important regulatory roles in immune responses. However, the cis -regulatory contribution of TEs to immune cell d...

New Year, New Paper!🎊

Pervasive cis-regulatory co-option of a transposable element family reinforces cell identity across the mouse immune system
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...

Centerpiece of Jason Chobirko's PhD, talented PhD student co-mentored by Andrew Grimson & me. Really excited about it!🧵

07.01.2026 19:45 👍 54 🔁 18 💬 1 📌 2
Read in Nature: nature.com/articles/s41586-025-09899-8

Read in Nature: nature.com/articles/s41586-025-09899-8

Stress controls epigenetic inheritance!

A histone ubiquitylation-based regulatory hub links stress/environmental signaling to heterochromatin self-propagation and epigenetic inheritance-reshaping how we think about development, drug resistance, and cancer
👉 nature.com/articles/s41586-025-09899-8

07.01.2026 16:46 👍 35 🔁 22 💬 3 📌 4
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When RNA Degradation 🤝 meets 🤝 Protein Degradation! tinyurl.com/E3TDMD In a collaboration of @bartellab.bsky.social and Schulman lab, we show that, in target-directed microRNA degradation (TDMD), 2-RNA-factors recruit an E3 ligase and induce the degradation of not only a protein but also RNA (1/5).

06.01.2026 08:04 👍 117 🔁 50 💬 1 📌 4
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RNA polymerase II initiation factors show different dynamic behaviour upon induced transcription in live cells Transcription by RNA polymerase II (Pol II) requires the ordered action of general transcription factors (GTFs) forming the pre-initiation complex (PIC). How these events unfold kinetically remains un...

Read our new preprint where we uncover a hierarchy in human PIC assembly and establish a quantitative framework that connects factor exchange kinetics to the regulation of Pol II activity in living human cells. doi: doi.org/10.64898/202...
By A. Oravecz and our collaborators @molinalab.bsky.social

24.12.2025 13:35 👍 24 🔁 12 💬 0 📌 0
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Predictive design of tissue-specific mammalian enhancers that function in vivo in the mouse embryo Enhancers control tissue-specific gene expression across metazoans. Although deep learning has enabled enhancer prediction and design in mammalian cell lines and invertebrate systems, it remains uncle...

Our preprint "Predictive design of tissue-specific mammalian enhancers that function in vivo in the mouse embryo" is on bioRxiv: www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6... . Amazing collaboration by @shenzhichen1999.bsky.social, Vincent Loubiere (@impvienna.bsky.social,@viennabiocenter.bsky.social),... (1/2)

24.12.2025 15:05 👍 103 🔁 47 💬 2 📌 3
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H4K16 acylations destabilize chromatin architecture and facilitate transcriptional response during metabolic perturbations Histone modifications play crucial roles in genome function. However, how chromatin integrates physiological and metabolic responses at the molecular …

Excited to share new manuscript on histone acylations, exploring how H4K16 acylations regulate inter and intranucleosomal interactions and how they confer resilience to metabolic challenges in vivo. Thanks to all authors +1 author @sandrani.bsky.social Enjoy 👇👇
www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

19.12.2025 17:17 👍 34 🔁 11 💬 2 📌 1

Happy to share two BioRxiv manuscripts from our lab. One on genetic Argonaute interaction and unexpected non-correlation between small RNAs and their targets:

doi.org/10.64898/202...

The second on IDR processing and IDR-mediated Argonaute loading control:

doi.org/10.64898/202...

Merry Xmas😊

22.12.2025 14:06 👍 21 🔁 9 💬 0 📌 0