iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Alicia Byrd @byrdlab.bsky.social · 02/08/2026

We enjoyed having Youtong Zhang from Arkansas School for Mathematics, Sciences, and the Arts and Lillie Ballany from the University of Arkansas in the lab this summer.

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Alicia Byrd @byrdlab.bsky.social · 21/07/2025

@thompsonlab-lyon.bsky.social with his coffee cup to celebrate his first 1st author paper from the lab. (I stole this idea from someone who posted about it in 2020 or 2021, but I don't remember who. If it was you, please let me know so I can give you credit.)

Picture of Matthew Thompson with his coffee mug with a picture of his paper on the mug.

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Alicia Byrd @byrdlab.bsky.social · 21/07/2025

We noticed a surprising similarity between the untargeted CUT&Tag and ATAC-seq. He showed that background Tn5 cleavage in accessible chromatin makes a substantial contribution to the reads in G4 CUT&Tag. This contribution is negligible for high abundance targets like histones.

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Alicia Byrd @byrdlab.bsky.social · 27/06/2025

I'm excited that my first graduate student, @thompsonlab-lyon.bsky.social, is now Dr. Matthew Thompson! He's had a busy week with a first author paper accepted and his dissertation defense. Starting this fall, Dr. Thompson will be an Assistant Professor of Chemistry at Lyon College.

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Alicia Byrd @byrdlab.bsky.social · 26/06/2025

We're excited to be able to have summer students in the lab this year. Welcome to Zaryah Smith (Emory University), Carmella Lewis (University of Arkansas), and Luis Vidal (Arkansas School for Mathematics, Sciences, and the Arts).

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Alicia Byrd @byrdlab.bsky.social · 22/04/2025

Congratulations to Carmella Lewis, an @armathsciarts.bsky.social high school student who did her capstone research project in our lab. She won 3 awards at the regional and state science fairs and qualified for ISEF!

Picture of Carmella Lewis with her science fair poster

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Alicia Byrd @byrdlab.bsky.social · 22/04/2025

Congratulations to PhD student Matthew Thompson! He won 1st place for the best cancer research presentation from the Winthrop P. Rockefeller Cancer Institute and 3rd place for the Bhuvan Award for Excellence in Biochemistry Research at Student Research Day.

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Reposted by Alicia Byrd

The Transmitter @thetransmitter.bsky.social · 18/02/2025

A large portion of grants awarded by the U.S. National Institutes of Health cannot be funded for the foreseeable future because of an indefinite hold on submissions to the Federal Register, according to an email reviewed by The Transmitter. By @avaskham.bsky.social bit.ly/3X8ngz8

thetransmitter.org

Federal Register hold makes ‘end run’ around court pause on NIH funding freeze

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Alicia Byrd @byrdlab.bsky.social · 18/02/2025

That looks pretty good for the first column.

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Alicia Byrd @byrdlab.bsky.social · 01/10/2024

I'm excited to share graduate student Matthew Thompson's first preprint. He found a surprising similarity in untargeted CUT&Tag, BG4 CUT&Tag, and ATAC-seq enrichment. We plan to submit for review soon and would appreciate feedback. www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

biorxiv.org

Untargeted CUT&Tag and BG4 CUT&Tag are both enriched at G-quadruplexes and accessible chromatin

G-quadruplex DNA structures (G4s) form within single-stranded DNA in nucleosome-free chromatin. As G4s modulate gene expression and genomic stability, genome-wide mapping of G4s has generated strong r...

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