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Kaessmann Lab

@kaessmannlab.bsky.social
757 followers 185 following 165 posts

Our research group is interested in the molecular and cellular origins and evolution of vertebrate organs. Tweets by Henrik, usually in the name of our group. home.kaessmannlab.org

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Kaessmann Lab @kaessmannlab.bsky.social · 09/09/2026
Thanks so much Mari! And many thanks @camilleberthelot.bsky.social for this wonderful JC piece on our paper!!
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Kaessmann Lab @kaessmannlab.bsky.social · 31/08/2026
We’re hiring! Experimental #Postdoc and computational and/or experimental #PhD positions in evolutionary genomics are available in our lab in Heidelberg: home.kaessmannlab.org/openPositions Please repost and spread the word!
home.kaessmannlab.org
Kaessmann Lab
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Kaessmann Lab @kaessmannlab.bsky.social · 13/08/2026
Please check out this exciting work - such a wonderful collaboration!!
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Ioannis Sarropoulos @ioansarr.bsky.social · 06/08/2026
Our study of TE regulatory co-option in the primate cerebellum is now officially out! Proud to have co-supervised the stellar @tyamadat.bsky.social on this project, which builds on our earlier sequence-to-function AI models of the mammalian cerebellum: www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...
science.org
The evolution of gene regulation in mammalian cerebellum development
Gene regulatory changes are considered major drivers of evolutionary innovations, including the cerebellum’s expansion during human evolution, yet they remain largely unexplored. In this study, we com...
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Tetsuya Yamada @tyamadat.bsky.social · 30/07/2026
Our manuscript on the co-option of TEs as cerebellar CREs is now officially published in @natcomms.nature.com! Huge thanks to @kaessmannlab.bsky.social @marisepp.bsky.social, and @ioansarr.bsky.social for the fantastic collaboration throughout this project! www.nature.com/articles/s41...
nature.com
Gene regulatory innovations from transposable elements in primate cerebellum development - Nature Communications
The roles of transposable elements in primate brain development remain underexplored. Here, the authors identify transposable elements with ancestral regulatory potential that have been co-opted as ci...
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Kaessmann Lab @kaessmannlab.bsky.social · 29/05/2026
Thanks so much Maria!
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Kaessmann Lab @kaessmannlab.bsky.social · 29/05/2026
Many thanks Diego!
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Kaessmann Lab @kaessmannlab.bsky.social · 28/05/2026
Thanks so much Fany! It was so nice seeing you in Paris!
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Kaessmann Lab @kaessmannlab.bsky.social · 28/05/2026
...and huge congrats to you on your Royal Society Fellowship!! Fantastic!
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Kaessmann Lab @kaessmannlab.bsky.social · 28/05/2026
Thanks so much Patrick!
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Kaessmann Lab @kaessmannlab.bsky.social · 27/05/2026
Thank you!
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Kaessmann Lab @kaessmannlab.bsky.social · 27/05/2026
Thanks so much Maria-Elena! I really appreciate your message!
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Kaessmann Lab @kaessmannlab.bsky.social · 27/05/2026
Thanks so much Rob - very kind of you!
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Kaessmann Lab @kaessmannlab.bsky.social · 27/05/2026
Many thanks Cedric!
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Kaessmann Lab @kaessmannlab.bsky.social · 27/05/2026
Thanks so much Mari!❤️
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Kaessmann Lab @kaessmannlab.bsky.social · 27/05/2026
Thanks a lot James!!
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Kaessmann Lab @kaessmannlab.bsky.social · 27/05/2026
Many thanks Darío!!
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Kaessmann Lab @kaessmannlab.bsky.social · 27/05/2026
Thanks so much René!
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Kaessmann Lab @kaessmannlab.bsky.social · 27/05/2026
Thrilled and honored to receive the Ernst Schering Prize 2026!🎉 Also deeply grateful to have been elected to the German Academy of Sciences. Both are recognitions of our whole group – I’m immensely thankful to all team members, past and present!❤️ tinyurl.com/hjrejv3p tinyurl.com/muw7j6mr
tinyurl.com
Ernst Schering Prize 2026 – Schering Stiftung
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Kaessmann Lab @kaessmannlab.bsky.social · 08/05/2026
Huge congrats from our whole lab to Sir David Attenborough on his 100th birthday!!! 🎉🥳❤️ I had the honor of meeting him - and being interviewed by him - in 2013 for his BBC documentary "Rise of Animals: Triumph of the Vertebrates", which featured part of our work.
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Mari Sepp @marisepp.bsky.social · 12/02/2026
It was a wonderful opportunity to reflect on our work on the development of the mammalian cerebellum. We thank our editors, Alexandra Joyner and James Li! Special thanks to Henrik @kaessmannlab.bsky.social for his unwavering support and mentorship!
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Mari Sepp @marisepp.bsky.social · 12/02/2026
How have concerted and mosaic evolutionary mechanisms shaped the expansion of the human cerebellum? Our review with @tyamadat.bsky.social and @ioansarr.bsky.social available free till March 29: authors.elsevier.com/a/1ma2wFzn7a...
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Lena Kutscher @lenakutscher.bsky.social · 10/02/2026
We hope our data can be useful to you, and to increase its usability, we've generated an exploratory web app as a resource and starting point to examine our data on the @kaessmannlab.bsky.social website apps.kaessmannlab.org/HindbrainExp...
apps.kaessmannlab.org
Hindbrain Explorer: A multi-omics atlas of human hindbrain development.
This app accompanies the paper: A multi-omics atlas of human hindbrain development. This interactive application allows users to explore the data presented in the study and use the machine learning mo...
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Lena Kutscher @lenakutscher.bsky.social · 10/02/2026
Excited to share our preprint on our new multi-omic atlas of human hindbrain development. Led by postdoc Piyush Joshi, in collaboration with @kaessmannlab.bsky.social and Pfister labs, our atlas represents the first comprehensive view of human hindbrain development. www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...
Brain with puzzle overlay to show that our study provides missing pieces of the puzzle of human brain development by delivering the most comprehensive picture of hindbrain development to date. We have strived to go beyond just another multi-omics atlas to gain deep insights by:
1. Meticulously annotating cell clusters
2. Extracting regulatory programs in terms of coordinated gene sets and accessible regulatory elements
3. Using deep learning to identify regulatory syntax
4. Resolving context-specific TF activity
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Kaessmann Lab @kaessmannlab.bsky.social · 05/02/2026
Many thanks for your - as always - super valuable contributions!❤️
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Kaessmann Lab @kaessmannlab.bsky.social · 31/01/2026
Many thanks Mary Beth!
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Universität Heidelberg @uniheidelberg.bsky.social · 30/01/2026
Using AI to Retrace the Evolution of Genetic Control Elements in the Brain – Researchers map evolutionary changes in the developing mammalian cerebellum www.uni-heidelberg.de/en/newsroom/...
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Kaessmann Lab @kaessmannlab.bsky.social · 30/01/2026
Many thanks Cedric!
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Kaessmann Lab @kaessmannlab.bsky.social · 29/01/2026
Many thanks Pradeepa! Hope all is well!
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Kaessmann Lab @kaessmannlab.bsky.social · 29/01/2026
Thanks a lot!
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Kaessmann Lab @kaessmannlab.bsky.social · 29/01/2026
Many thanks!
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Kaessmann Lab @kaessmannlab.bsky.social · 29/01/2026
Fantastic opportunity - Mari is an exceptional scientist and person and was an outstanding pillar of our lab!
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Mari Sepp @marisepp.bsky.social · 29/01/2026
I've started my own lab 🎉 PhD/postdoc positions available - reach out if curious about cerebellum evo-devo and autism spectrum disorders. We’re based at Uni Tartu, Institute of Genomics (home to Estonian Biobank), and funded by @simonsfoundation.org @embo.org, and the Estonian Research Council.
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Kaessmann Lab @kaessmannlab.bsky.social · 29/01/2026
Thank you!
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Kaessmann Lab @kaessmannlab.bsky.social · 29/01/2026
Thanks so much Stein for the wonderful collaboration!!
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Kaessmann Lab @kaessmannlab.bsky.social · 29/01/2026
We are thrilled that our study on the evolution of gene regulation in mammalian cerebellum development – led by @ioansarr.bsky.social, @marisepp.bsky.social and @tyamadat.bsky.social, in collaboration with @steinaerts.bsky.social – is now out in @ScienceMagazine! www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...
science.org
The evolution of gene regulation in mammalian cerebellum development
Gene regulatory changes are considered major drivers of evolutionary innovations, including the cerebellum’s expansion during human evolution, yet they remain largely unexplored. In this study, we com...
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Kaessmann Lab @kaessmannlab.bsky.social · 17/10/2025
Thank you!
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Kaessmann Lab @kaessmannlab.bsky.social · 17/10/2025
Thanks so much Rob!
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Kaessmann Lab @kaessmannlab.bsky.social · 16/10/2025
Our study presents the first comprehensive, cell type-resolved analysis of TE regulatory co-option across primate evolution, revealing how TEs contribute to species-specific regulatory divergence and phenotypic evolution.
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Kaessmann Lab @kaessmannlab.bsky.social · 16/10/2025
Species-specific accessible HERVL copies contribute to divergent gene expression patterns – including elevated expression of neurodevelopmentally relevant genes such as C9orf72 and MGST2 in humans.
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Kaessmann Lab @kaessmannlab.bsky.social · 16/10/2025
Comparative analysis across primates and mouse show that although the regulatory potential for HERVL co-option is conserved, different HERVL copies become accessible in each species, creating lineage-specific regulatory landscapes.
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Kaessmann Lab @kaessmannlab.bsky.social · 16/10/2025
Accessibility of individual HERVL copies is governed by two complementary factors: the preservation of transcription factor binding motifs and positioning within active chromatin neighborhoods.
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Kaessmann Lab @kaessmannlab.bsky.social · 16/10/2025
Luciferase reporter assays using consensus sequences of HERVL and related TEs demonstrated that HERVL specifically exhibits enhancer activity in primary cultures of mouse granule cells.
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Kaessmann Lab @kaessmannlab.bsky.social · 16/10/2025
We discovered that HERVLs – primate-specific retrotransposons – are preferentially co-opted as regulatory elements in cerebellar granule cells and other rhombic lip-derived neuroblasts in the pons and medulla, facilitated by the presence of sequences that resemble ATOH1 and NFI binding motifs.
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Kaessmann Lab @kaessmannlab.bsky.social · 16/10/2025
Our deep learning-based pipeline systematically screened TE fragments for regulatory potential, and identified 17 TE subfamilies whose ancestral sequences contain cis-regulatory motifs that resemble those found in elements accessible in cerebellar cells.
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Kaessmann Lab @kaessmannlab.bsky.social · 16/10/2025
We found that TEs are significantly enriched in species- and cell type-specific elements – particularly in later-developing, less constrained cell types. This pattern is further supported by datasets spanning multiple human organs across development.
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Kaessmann Lab @kaessmannlab.bsky.social · 16/10/2025
By combining comprehensive single-cell multiomics atlases of mammalian cerebellum development with deep learning-based modeling of enhancer grammar, we systematically investigated how TEs contribute to gene regulatory programs across developing cerebellar cell types.
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Kaessmann Lab @kaessmannlab.bsky.social · 16/10/2025
However, their contribution to mammalian organ development at the cellular level has remained largely unexplored, owing to the lack of cell type-resolved datasets and suitable analytical frameworks.
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Kaessmann Lab @kaessmannlab.bsky.social · 16/10/2025
TEs make up nearly half of the human genome and have long been hypothesized to drive gene expression innovation through their capacity to rewire regulatory networks.
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Kaessmann Lab @kaessmannlab.bsky.social · 16/10/2025
In that study, we traced evolutionary history of human cis-regulatory elements (CREs) and highlighted many candidate CRE innovations from single-nucleotide substitutions or small insertions and deletions (indels). But what about TEs?
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