Cyclin-dependent kinase 9 (CDK9) inhibition represents a promising therapeutic strategy in cancers that disrupts RNA polymerase II pause release and collapses oncogenic transcripts. Here, we show that...

Transposable elements mobilize within and occasionally between genomes, including from host to virus. We identified two insertions of the human BC200 noncoding RNA gene in the poxvirus molluscum conta...

Of the two lineages of lentivirus that endemically infect chimpanzees, only one has served as a source of infections in hu-mans. Using HIV-CRISPR screening, we identify factors that limit the replicat...

The lab investigates the molecular mechanisms that control biological timing in mouse and human stem cells (Azzi & Rayon, Curr Opinions 2024; Nakanoh et al., Dev Cell 2026). The central aim of this ex...

This Review discusses how rare-disease-causing variants in the noncoding genome impact gene regulation, why these examples are so few and how new approaches could accelerate discovery of noncoding var...

Development depends on gene regulation by enhancers across long genomic distances. This Perspective discusses mechanisms enabling long-range enhancer–promoter communication and the potential advantage...

A longstanding mystery in antibody diversification is how AID specifically targets immunoglobulin V genes. Ancient LINE-1 retrotransposons embedded within the immunoglobulin locus provide a recruitmen...

We seek a highly motivated Postdoctoral Research Associate to join the laboratory of Professor Kathy Niakan. We are based in the Loke Centre for Trophoblast Research (LCTR), in the Department of Physi...

In Metazoa, transposon expression is suppressed by the piRNA pathway, and disruption of this pathway leads to rampant transposon expression. However, it remains unclear whether increased transposon ex...

This study uses a precise and efficient clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats (CRISPR) prime editing system to substitute lysine residues in histone H3, individually or in combinat...

SINEs are short transposable elements that make up large fractions of mammalian genomes. Known to be transcribed by RNA polymerase III, their regulation has remained largely unexplored. Schnabl-Baumga...

Sex-linked traits are widespread, but their genetic architecture has been challenging to characterize, due in part to the repetitive and structurally complex nature of sex chromosomes. In swordtails a...

This Perspective proposes the use of an integrative embedded ethics approach to evaluate human stem-cell-based embryo models and outlines a nested benchmarking strategy to periodically evaluate their scientific and ethical status.

Background The ability to deposit histone H3K27-trimethyl (me3) marks is essential for transcriptional repression by Polycomb Repressive Complex 2 (PRC2). This is largely attributed to Polycomb repres...

Nuclear speckles support the splicing of levelled exon–intron architecture transcripts, and their evolution shaped genome organization in amniotes.

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...