iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

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Yuan He @yuanhejhu.bsky.social · 22/09/2026

A big week for the lab! Two new papers on how cells repair DNA double-strand breaks: one on getting NHEJ started in chromatin, one on processing the ends before ligation. Years of work by a fantastic team.

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Tyler Starr @tylernstarr.bsky.social · 18/09/2026

U of U Biochemistry is hiring! See links below -- we're searching for a cell biologist and an AI/ML/data scientist, both broadly defined. Reach out if you have any questions about our supportive and collegial department. utah.peopleadmin.com/postings/208... utah.peopleadmin.com/postings/208...

utah.peopleadmin.com

Assistant Professor - Cell Biology

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Aurele Piazza @aurelepiazza.bsky.social · 18/09/2026

What molecular mechanisms underlie the needle-in-a-haystack search for homology required to fix a DNA break? In this preprint, we reveal multiple controls of homology search in cells: onset, coordination, reach and inactivation. www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...

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bioRxivpreprint @biorxivpreprint.bsky.social · 18/09/2026

A superfamily 1 helicase translocates on double-stranded DNA www.biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/20…

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Aaron Quinlan (he/him) @aaronquinlan.bsky.social · 28/08/2026

I am delighted to announce that The Department of Human Genetics at the University of Utah is continuing a multi-year recruiting initiative for multiple tenure-track faculty positions at the rank of Assistant Professor. Please share and consider applying! utah.peopleadmin.com/postings/208...

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Peter Ly @peterlylab.bsky.social · 19/08/2026

We are recruiting new faculty at all levels who seek to solve fundamental problems in biology and disease. @cri-utsw.bsky.social is an exceptional and highly collaborative environment to build a research program and pursue ambitious science. Join us!

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Genome Damage and Stability Centre (GDSC) @gdsc-sussex.bsky.social · 13/08/2026

NEW PAPER: Human PIF1 clears secondary DNA structures by coupled DNA unwinding and rewinding activities — with contributions from Jessica Hudson and Ulrich Rass at the GDSC. genesdev.cshlp.org/content/earl...

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Adam Phillippy @aphillippy.bsky.social · 06/08/2026

For the past 30 years, “whole-genome sequencing” has been a misnomer. Today the T2T Consortium publishes a dozen papers heralding a future of truly complete genomes for humans and nearly any vertebrate 👨‍🔬🐒🐦🐀🦒🐎🫏🐹🐟 (sorry, no salamanders): www.cell.com/consortium/t... 🧵[1/15]

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c0nc0rdance @c0nc0rdance.bsky.social · 07/08/2026

1 in 280 people have Lynch syndrome; about 1 million in the US alone. It's a heritable condition where the DNA proofreading machinery fails, leading to VERY high rates of certain cancers (colorectal & endometrial). A new vaccine could intercept tumors in these patients, saving lives.

apnews.com

Testing is underway on vaccines to intercept brewing colon cancer before it takes root

Scientists are creating a new kind of vaccine that teaches the immune system to intercept a type of brewing colon cancer before it turns into a full-fledged tumor.

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Paul Knoepfler @stemcells.bsky.social · 05/08/2026

We (Department of Cell Biology & Human Anatomy) at UC Davis Med School are hiring an assist/assoc professor. Search is underway: recruit.ucdavis.edu/JPF07708

recruit.ucdavis.edu

Assistant/Associate Professor- Cell Biology & Human Anatomy

University of California, Davis is hiring. Apply now!

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Harmit Singh Malik @harmitmalik.bsky.social · 06/08/2026

Come be our colleague. I have been in this Division for 27 years (4 as a postdoc and 23 as a PI). It is an amazing place to work, collaborate, and be inspired. If you are applying to be an Assistant or Associate Professor this Fall, don't miss this deadline.

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Diedre Reitz @diedrereitz.bsky.social · 06/08/2026

Fantastic talks at the FASEB Genetic Recombination and Genome Rearrangements this year. Pictured here with Wolf Heyer, my postdoc mentor, and Aurèle Piazza. Very lucky to be part of this community.

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Genetics Society of America @genetics-gsa.bsky.social · 17/07/2026

Planning to apply for faculty positions this fall? Join the GSA Education Committee on July 22 for the New faculty workshop: "How to get a job and thrive in it!" Learn about applications, interviews, negotiations, and succeeding in your first year. 🔗Register now: buff.ly/WVy6b6T

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Fran Supek @fransupek.bsky.social · 10/07/2026

DNA mismatch repair (MMR) deficiency is an important driver of cancer genome instability. Yet it is usually treated as a binary label 0️⃣/1️⃣: MSI-high or not. Our new preprint -- fresh from the oven🔥 -- argues that this simple dichotomy obscures the underlying biology.

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Yun S. Song @yun-s-song.bsky.social · 06/07/2026

I am thrilled to share that UC Berkeley and UCSF have launched a joint initiative in Computational Biomedicine! cdss.berkeley.edu/news/uc-berk... We will soon be recruiting new faculty and postdoctoral fellows. Please repost to help spread the word.

cdss.berkeley.edu

UC Berkeley and UCSF Launch Computational Biomedicine Initiative

UC Berkeley and UCSF have launched a joint program called the Bakar Computational Biomedicine Initiative to develop the frontier of AI and biomedicine, tremendously accelerating advances in clinical c...

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bioRxivpreprint @biorxivpreprint.bsky.social · 03/07/2026

Replication fork directionality reveals how structural variants arise under replication stress www.biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/20…

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bioRxivpreprint @biorxivpreprint.bsky.social · 11/06/2026

Replication protein A prevents unregulated priming and Rad51 loading on single-stranded DNA in nuclear extracts of Xenopus eggs www.biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/20…

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University of Iowa Department of Biology @uiowabiology.bsky.social · 03/06/2026

We invite applications for a tenure-track assistant professor position in evolutionary ecology, beginning in the academic year 2027. Review of applicants will begin on November 1, 2026 & will continue until the position is filled. For more details and to apply, visit: jobs.uiowa.edu/faculty/view...

jobs.uiowa.edu

Faculty Requisition Details - Jobs@UIOWA: Search and Apply for Jobs at The University of Iowa

Jobs@UIOWA: The official place to search and apply for jobs at The University of Iowa.

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James Dewar @jamesmdewar.bsky.social · 28/05/2026

🧬 ⛓️‍💥 Our paper is now out in @natsmb.nature.com ! We examined the fate of replication forks that collapse at single-strand DNA breaks (SSBs) in vertebrates 🐸, comparing the consequences of collapse at single vs convergent forks. www.nature.com/articles/s41...

nature.com

Distinct repair outcomes from single and convergent replication fork collapse - Nature Structural & Molecular Biology

Here the authors show that collapse of single replication forks causes recombination, end fusions or degradation but does not restart DNA synthesis. In contrast, collapse of convergent forks completes...

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Diedre Reitz @diedrereitz.bsky.social · 09/06/2026

Happy to share that I will be joining the Biology Department and Holden Comprehensive Cancer Center at University of Iowa as an assistant professor in summer 2027! My lab will study how recombination is regulated to prevent non-allelic repair and genome rearrangements, and their relation to cancer.

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Alberto Ciccia @albertociccia.bsky.social · 08/06/2026

Excited to finally share our preprint on mapping the genetic interaction network of the DNA damage response with combinatorial knockout screens led by Sam Hayward, Alina Vaitsiankova, and Tomas Lama-Diaz! www.biorxiv.org/cgi/content/...

biorxiv.org

Mapping the genetic landscape of the DNA damage response with Cas12a-based combinatorial knockout screens

The DNA damage response (DDR) is a complex network of cellular pathways that ensures the faithful maintenance of our genomes upon a wide array of genomic insults. To elucidate the functional architect...

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Juan Carvajal Garcia @jucarvag.bsky.social · 05/06/2026

The reason I’m coming back is because in July, I will start as a Ramón y Cajal investigator at the Instituto de Parasitología y Biomedicina López-Neyra, in the beautiful town of Granada. I am so excited about this.

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Juan Carvajal Garcia @jucarvag.bsky.social · 05/06/2026

At IPBLN, my lab will study how bacteria mutate, repair their DNA, and evolve antibiotic resistance. Again, thank you so much to everyone who made this possible.

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I-75 Scientist @flscitriguy.bsky.social · 05/06/2026

NOFO for the K32 postdoc award is published. NCI, NIDCR, NIAID, NINDS, NIBIB are signed on. files.simpler.grants.gov/opportunitie...

files.simpler.grants.gov

PAR-27-062: Academic Career Excellence (ACE) Award (K32 Independent Clinical Trial Not Allowed)

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Zha Lab @zhalab.bsky.social · 27/05/2026

Are you ready for the Summer? Social DNAing is! Check out the 2026 Summer line-up! Please note one schedule change on June 4th, 2026. Please RT! Sign up at cancer.columbia.edu/research/pro...

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Bill Dynan - NAR Cancer Editor @nar-cancer-editor.bsky.social · 27/05/2026

Can SMC5/6 status help guide precision cancer therapy? A new NAR Cancer study links deleterious SMC5/6 variants to tumor mutational burden and immunotherapy responses, driven via POLE dysfunction and mismatch repair deficiency.https://academic.oup.com/narcancer/article/8/2/zcag012/8688771

academic.oup.com

Disruption of the structural maintenance of chromosomes 5/6 complex enables tumor mutagenesis

Abstract. The structural maintenance of chromosomes (SMC) 5/6 complex is conserved and essential for mammalian development. SMC5/6 germline variants in cel

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bioRxivpreprint @biorxivpreprint.bsky.social · 27/05/2026

Pan-Cancer Genomic Scars of Alternative End Joining and Single-Strand Annealing www.biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/20…

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turrigiano.bsky.social @turrigiano.bsky.social · 26/05/2026

Amazing job opportunity at Brandeis - we are looking for a new manager of our Light Microscopy Facility! Cool instruments, a great community to work with, lots of opportunities for growth - please circulate! brandeis.wd5.myworkdayjobs.com/en-US/Jobs/j...

brandeis.wd5.myworkdayjobs.com

Light Microscopy Facility Manager

The main purpose of this job is to bring cutting-edge light microscopy research approaches to Brandeis researchers and oversee the day-to-day operations of the Brandeis light microscopy facility. The ...

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Doksani Lab @doksanilab.bsky.social · 30/04/2026

How do cancer-associated eccDNAs arise? Our work shows that single-strand DNA damage in repetitive sequences can trigger i-loop formation and eccDNA generation. What started at telomeres may reflect a much broader principle across the genome and help explain how ecDNA may emerge in cancer. 1/2

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bioRxivpreprint @biorxivpreprint.bsky.social · 22/04/2026

Topographical archetypes of somatic mutagenesis in cancer www.biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/20…

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Diedre Reitz @diedrereitz.bsky.social · 25/04/2026

Happy to see the poster from two fantastic undergraduate students working with me, Jasmine Jia and Lulu Schloss, at the @ucdavis.bsky.social Undergraduate Research Conference, along with other students from the Heyer lab. Both are graduating this year and continuing on to graduate school!

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bioRxivpreprint @biorxivpreprint.bsky.social · 21/04/2026

Tissue-Specific Prevalence and Clonal Architecture of BRCA1/2 LOH-Inducing Chromosomal Aneuploidy www.biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/20…

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PacBio @pacbio.bsky.social · 21/04/2026

Next up, a powerful discovery case. Standard testing missed it but HiFi long read WGS found it. PacBio HiFi revealed a balanced translocation that had gone undetected, changing the clinical report and the patient path forward. #AACR26 #PacBio #HiFisequencing

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GIIN @genomeiinetwork.bsky.social · 15/04/2026

Registration for the first edition of the meeting "Rad51 filament – molecular mechanisms and impact on genomic stability" is now open. 📅 September 30 – October 2, 2026 📍 Fontenay-aux-Roses (20 minutes from Paris, France) 🔗 Learn more & register: rad51-2026.sciencesconf.org

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brookscrickard1.bsky.social @brookscrickard1.bsky.social · 08/04/2026

Very exciting that our new paper on the forces exerted by the Rad51-Rad54 homology search complex is now online. This was a collaborative effort with the Wang here at Cornell, and this work performed primarily by a graduate student, Mitch Woodhouse genesdev.cshlp.org/content/earl...

genesdev.cshlp.org

The eukaryotic homology search complex distorts donor DNA structure to probe for homology

A biweekly scientific journal publishing high-quality research in molecular biology and genetics, cancer biology, biochemistry, and related fields

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Zha Lab @zhalab.bsky.social · 05/04/2026

Drs. Zhu and Jiang in the Zha lab developed FISH probes for murine rDNA (on Addgene:240559), uncovered high somatic and germline heterogeneities in inbred mice, and unique roles of ATM/LIG4/BRCA1 at rDNA, and proposed a model for single-ended DSB at rDNA loci. academic.oup.com/nar/article/...

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Zha Lab @zhalab.bsky.social · 05/04/2026

Thank you, Dr. Zhang, for a great talk. Dr. Yi from UCLA will take us to examine the hidden rearrangements - SCE in cancer genomes and, surprisingly, in normal cells as well. Sign up www.cancer.columbia.edu/research/pro...

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Saccharomyces Genome Database @yeastgenome.bsky.social · 02/04/2026

👍 Fine-tuning DNA replication: #Yeast DNA polymerase ε thumb insertion balances processivity & proofreading. Small changes can either boost or reduce performance -> subtle regulation with major consequences for genome stability 🧬 #YeastResearch 🔬 #SGD 🧪 www.yeastgenome.org/reference/S1...

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Aurele Piazza @aurelepiazza.bsky.social · 23/03/2026

Delighted to see our work now published at the EMBO Journal! Check also this concomitant paper by the Bai and Mirny labs with an orthogonal approach that aligns well with our measurements www.nature.com/articles/s41... Great system to study how SMCs facilitate/regulate target search in chromatin!

nature.com

Condensin accelerates long-range intra-chromosomal interactions - Nature Communications

Long‑range chromosome encounters in cells are hard to quantify. Here, the authors induce artificial contacts in yeast and show that intra‑chromosomal interactions form faster than inter‑chromosomal on...

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Nick Pannunzio @pannunziolab.bsky.social · 13/03/2026

Our lab at the UC Irvine is currently hiring a postdoctoral researcher. We have a thriving and growing biomedical research campus and are looking for candidates with a strong interest in DNA damage and repair, cancer etiology, and cancer health disparities. Apply at recruit.ap.uci.edu/JPF09440

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University of Iowa Department of Biology @uiowabiology.bsky.social · 19/03/2026

Diedre Reitz ( @diedrereitz.bsky.social ), PhD, a Postdoctoral Fellow in the Department of Microbiology and Molecular Genetics at UC Davis, will be giving a seminar on Monday, March 23rd at 4:00pm in Kollros Auditorium. We hope to see you there!

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Nature Biotechnology @natbiotech.nature.com · 18/03/2026

Transposable elements, such as retrotransposons and endogenous retroviruses, are increasingly recognized for their important roles in genome function and impact on disease development go.nature.com/4tQ1zTn rdcu.be/e8Eci

go.nature.com

Transposable elements in the dark genome - Nature Biotechnology

Transposable elements (TEs), such as retrotransposons and endogenous retroviruses, are increasingly recognized for their important roles in genome function and impact on disease development. Residing ...

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Michael Baym @baym.lol · 17/03/2026

Annual reminder: if you’ve been accepted to multiple graduate programs and are still deciding, please let the ones you’re definitely not going to know as soon as possible! -Someone who got into his PhD off the waitlist the day after the deadline

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Aaron Quinlan (he/him) @aaronquinlan.bsky.social · 12/03/2026

In collab w @hdashnow.bsky.social, we have a new preprint out on tandem repeat (TR) mutagenesis! Using HiFi sequencing, we profiled nearly 8 million TR loci across four generations of a large CEPH/Utah family and identified 1,270 de novo expansions and contractions. www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...

biorxiv.org

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Admirable Women @admirablewomen.bsky.social · 09/03/2026

Geneticist Evelyn Witkin (b. #OTD 1921) pioneered work on DNA damage repair & mutagenesis. Her discovery of the SOS response revealed how cells actively respond to genetic threats, laying foundations for insights into cancer, aging, radiation effects & chemotherapy resistance. #WomenInSTEM #WHM

A color outdoor portrait of American bacterial geneticist Evelyn Witkin in her later years, standing in a sun-dappled garden or courtyard setting with green foliage and a brick building in the soft-focus background. She is an elderly woman with fair skin, short wavy white hair, gentle smile lines, and warm, thoughtful eyes gazing directly at the camera with a kind, serene expression. She wears a white button-up blouse with subtle textured patterns, small earrings, and a distinctive beaded necklace featuring dark and light beads. A small silver dragonfly brooch is pinned to the left side of her blouse, symbolizing her pioneering work on DNA damage repair (often likened to cellular "rescue" mechanisms). The natural daylight softly illuminates her face, highlighting her dignified and approachable presence as a trailblazing scientist and a Lasker Award and National Medal of Science recipient. The overall mood is one of quiet wisdom, resilience, and quiet celebration of a long, impactful career in #WomenInScience. #WomensHistoryMonth

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bioRxivpreprint @biorxivpreprint.bsky.social · 07/03/2026

PARP inhibitor synthetic lethality reveals homologous recombination sub-pathway architecture www.biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/20…

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