iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Belen Pachano @belenpachano.bsky.social · 12/06/2026

Very happy to share that I've been awarded an EMBO Postdoctoral Fellowship 🎉. I'm especially grateful that this project has now received support from both the MSCA and EMBO. Many thanks to Nicolai and all the @siegel-lab.bsky.social for the support, mentoring, and ideas behind this project.

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Belen Pachano @belenpachano.bsky.social · 11/02/2026

🥳 I still can’t quite believe this is real: I’ve been awarded a Marie Skłodowska-Curie Postdoctoral Fellowship (#MSCA) with a 100% evaluation score. Excited for what’s ahead at @lmu.de (@bmc-lmu.bsky.social) in the @siegel-lab.bsky.social ✨

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Reposted by Belen Pachano

Mohamed-Ali HAKIMI @hakimi.bsky.social · 05/11/2025

Nature Com. now live! 🎉 Silvia’s amazing PhD supervised by Alex “the Greatest” & Christopher’s big-bang contribution. Huge thanks to our stellar team & collaborators. We went fishing in the FDA pond and hooked LY2090314 🎣 Blocks GSK3 🎯in #Toxoplasma & #Crypto www.nature.com/articles/s41...

nature.com

Structural and functional characterization of TgGSK3, a druggable kinase in Toxoplasma gondii - Nature Communications

Researchers identify the cancer drug LY2090314 as a potent inhibitor of Toxoplasma gondii and Cryptosporidium and report the first crystal structure of the parasite kinase TgGSK3 bound to it, validati...

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Belen Pachano @belenpachano.bsky.social · 13/10/2025

Closing 4 wonderful years of PhD in the ParaFrap & EMBO Workshop in a beautiful french island. Thank you @hakimi.bsky.social and @parafrap.bsky.social for this wonderful learning journey 💕

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Belen Pachano @belenpachano.bsky.social · 06/09/2025

I’m excited to share our new preprint! We’ve been investigating a specific domain in TgSNF2L that forms decamers in vitro. Every time we attempted to break them apart, they just snapped back together. That tenacity earned it the nickname Hydra. 🐉 🔗 www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

biorxiv.org

Hydra domain drives SNF2L multimerization and marks ISWI diversification in parasites

ISWI chromatin remodelers are conserved regulators of nucleosome positioning and chromatin accessibility across eukaryotes, yet their evolutionary diversification is poorly understood. In the apicompl...

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Reposted by Belen Pachano

Mohamed-Ali HAKIMI @hakimi.bsky.social · 06/09/2025

Zeus had his Hydra ⚔️, now Toxoplasma has its own. Meet Hydra: not a monster, but a brand-new protein domain. It multimerizes like crazy & rewrites the chromatin landscape 🧬 in Toxoplasma. Our team and colleagues from @embl.org #Grenoble just dropped the preprint 👉 www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

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Belen Pachano @belenpachano.bsky.social · 25/07/2025

Thank you for providing me an amazing environment to learn and work. I could not have asked for a better mentor!

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Reposted by Belen Pachano

Mohamed-Ali HAKIMI @hakimi.bsky.social · 19/05/2025

🧵 Ever wondered what Toxoplasma is doing in your brain years after that undercooked steak 🥩 or a sip of contaminated water? Turns out, it's been hiding in your brain 🧠and we finally have a way to spot it. New study just dropped in EMBO Molecular Medicine 👇 doi.org/10.1038/s443...

doi.org

Uncovering biomarkers for chronic toxoplasmosis detection highlights alternative pathways shaping parasite dormancy | EMBO Molecular Medicine

imageimageDespite their clinical relevance, bradyzoite-filled cysts - the hallmark of chronic toxoplasmosis - are largely overlooked in current diagnostics. This study highlights bradyzoite serologica...

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Belen Pachano @belenpachano.bsky.social · 13/04/2025

Open Sesame: The Protein Behind Parasite Stage Switching "To make sense of this genomic jungle, the parasite relies on an extra layer of regulation to ensure precise gene activation at the right time and in the right place" go.nature.com/3RJNMfb

go.nature.com

Open Sesame: The Protein Behind Parasite Stage Switching

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Reposted by Belen Pachano

Mohamed-Ali HAKIMI @hakimi.bsky.social · 11/04/2025

In the silence of chromatin, Toxoplasma whispers change. TgSNF2h sculpts the genome - MORC in the backseat. Some genes wake. Others sleep. A dance of nucleosomes shaping space for life parasite stages to unfold. Now in Nature Microbiology: rdcu.be/ehkWp

rdcu.be

Nature Microbiology - Toxoplasma gondii evolved two ISWI remodellers, TgSNF2h and TgSNF2L. TgSNF2h forms a complex that insulates active genes, regulates MORC-driven sexual commitment and ensures...

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Reposted by Belen Pachano

Mohamed-Ali HAKIMI @hakimi.bsky.social · 11/04/2025

A humorous reflection on the first article from my stellar PhD student, Belen Pachano. communities.springernature.com/posts/open-s...

communities.springernature.com

Open Sesame: The Protein Behind Parasite Stage Switching

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