iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Reposted by Franzi Lorbeer

Arnaud Krebs @arnaudkr.bsky.social · 10/09/2026

EMBL QBMM is back this year with an outstanding line-up! Plenty of talks will be selected from submitted abstracts, with emphasis on junior scientists and representation across diverse fields. The abstract deadline is the end of this week, so don’t miss out! www.embl.org/about/info/c...

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Franzi Lorbeer @florbeer.bsky.social · 21/08/2026

8/ Beyond bursting, BARe-seq opens a door: any biological question that needs single-copy resolution but benefits from the scale of bulk sequencing could use this approach. We're excited to see where this new method takes us next.

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Franzi Lorbeer @florbeer.bsky.social · 21/08/2026

7/ For the MPRA-aficionados: STARR-seq + BARe-seq + bursting = STARBURST. 🍬 This is the gist, we couldn't resist.

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Franzi Lorbeer @florbeer.bsky.social · 21/08/2026

6/ Here's the unexpected part: while enhancers globally drive burst frequency, specific transcription factor motifs within them can also control burst size.

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Franzi Lorbeer @florbeer.bsky.social · 21/08/2026

5/ Promoters tune both burst size and frequency — TATA-box promoters drive larger bursts, DPE promoters drive more frequent ones. Enhancers primarily control burst frequency. Crucially, we can link all of this to sequence motifs — and these rules hold across different promoter/enhancer combinations.

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Franzi Lorbeer @florbeer.bsky.social · 21/08/2026

4/ We applied BARe-seq to two types of regulatory DNA: promoters, which sit directly at genes and kick off transcription, and enhancers, which act as remote switches that tune gene activity.

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Franzi Lorbeer @florbeer.bsky.social · 21/08/2026

3/ To tackle this, we developed BARe-seq. By barcoding individual plasmids in a pooled library, we can track the RNA output of each copy separately — from a bulk sequencing experiment. That gives us the resolution to infer burst size and frequency at scale.

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Franzi Lorbeer @florbeer.bsky.social · 21/08/2026

2/ Each gene bursts in its own characteristic pattern — but what in the DNA sequence establishes that pattern? Some genes produce occasional big bursts, others produce small bursts more frequently. Both shape how reliably a gene is expressed, with consequences for development and disease.

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Franzi Lorbeer @florbeer.bsky.social · 21/08/2026

1/ Transcription is in our DNA — but genes don't transcribe at a steady rate, they burst. What in the DNA controls how big those bursts are, and how often? We measured 1000 promoters and 1000 enhancers to find out.

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Franzi Lorbeer @florbeer.bsky.social · 21/08/2026

0/ New preprint from the Stark and Grün labs! @reyna-rosales.bsky.social @dominicgrun.bsky.social @alex-stark.bsky.social We developed BARe-seq to ask what in the DNA controls transcriptional bursting - key findings for anyone working on transcription, gene regulation, or cis-regulatory elements 🧵

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Franzi Lorbeer @florbeer.bsky.social · 09/12/2024

Super excited to have continued support for my postdoc project by the FWF!

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