iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Reposted by Mia Levine

Cedric Feschotte @cedricfeschotte.bsky.social · 24/09/2026

Thrilled to see this published today! Truly special because we made the initial discovery >15 yrs ago! We found two copies of a human gene called BC200 embedded in a human poxvirus. BC200 blurs the line between gene & transposon—both functional & mutagenic! www.science.org/doi/10.1126/... 🧵1/n

science.org

Escape of the BC200 gene to a human poxvirus reveals its persistent transposition in primates

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...

216885

Reposted by Mia Levine

Julius Brennecke @juliusbrennecke.bsky.social · 27/09/2026

Five years ago, on a walk with @mayavoichek.bsky.social through the third district around the @viennabiocenter.bsky.social we concluded that "every day we do not work on the mysterious Env-independent infectivity of MDG1 retrotransposons is a lost day ... " The birth of an entire research domain.

26310

Reposted by Mia Levine

Sarah McAnulty, Ph.D. @sarahmackattack.bsky.social · 25/09/2026

If you care about keeping the Academy of Natural Sciences open to the public in Philadelphia, I need you to read and share this thread. Trish Wellenbach was sent from the mayor's office to oversee the Academy of Natural sciences situation. She needs to hear from us. Here comes the action item:

15549482

Reposted by Mia Levine

Sarah McAnulty, Ph.D. @sarahmackattack.bsky.social · 24/09/2026

The doors of the Academy of Natural Sciences will be closing on Sunday...for now. But this isn't over. We're meeting at the Academy of Natural Sciences when doors close to gather for a moment of resolve followed by a march to City Hall. Join us. art by @lindzeamays.bsky.social luma.com/7ggkgtjb

a t. rex holds a candle in front of the words This isn't over, next to save the academy candle vigil, 5pm Sunday Sept 27, 1900 ben franklin parkway

218389

Reposted by Mia Levine

Maya Voichek @mayavoichek.bsky.social · 24/09/2026

Super excited to share my postdoctoral work at @imbavienna.bsky.social @viennabiocenter.bsky.social - We discovered that some retrotransposons, or "jumping genes" 🧬, are able to spread from cell to cell via a new viral infectivity route. A short thread: 🧵👇 (1/7)

AI-generated illustration of the soma-to-germline transmission of retrotransposons described in our work

20256143

Reposted by Mia Levine

David L. Stern @gallseeker.bsky.social · 23/09/2026

1/n New paper! In collaboration with Angela Gronenborn's lab, we solved the crystal structures of 2 bicycle proteins. They share some similarity to saposins, but are clearly not saposins. Instead, this stable backbone provides a platform for crazy diversity of form and surface chemistry.

pnas.org

PNAS

Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS), a peer reviewed journal of the National Academy of Sciences (NAS) - an authoritative source of high-impact, original research that broadly spans...

0135

Reposted by Mia Levine

Sarah McAnulty, Ph.D. @sarahmackattack.bsky.social · 23/09/2026

Attention Philly Families! It is critical that we show Drexel and city government that our enthusiasm for the Academy of Natural Sciences is going strong! Bring your kids, friends, & neighbors down to the parkway on Saturday from 2-6pm. It's a kid-friendly rally to support the academy!

dinosaurs and bugs happily party together at the Save the Academy family rally. Saturday September 26, 2-6pm 1900 ben Franklin parkway, come dressed as your favorite dinosaur, insect, animal, or just yourself! There's a duck billed dino, a triceratops, a brachiosaurus, a pterodactyl, a millipede, dragonfly, and beetle!

3228144

Reposted by Mia Levine

Rebecca Tarnopol @tarnopol.bsky.social · 18/09/2026

Our latest work now on bioRxiv! We found evidence for multiple independent HGTs of the anti-parasitoid effector cdtB in drosophilids, including anciently in the last common ancestor of subgenus Drosophila 👀 You can browse our data here: trnpl.github.io/antiparasito...

trnpl.github.io

Drosophila Phylogeny Explorer

1153

Reposted by Mia Levine

Bernard Kim @bernardkim.bsky.social · 15/09/2026

Princeton EEB is running a very broad faculty search at the Assistant Professor level. Please consider applying to join us! This is a wonderful, collaborative, cohesive department with diverse interests and amazing colleagues. apply.interfolio.com/193474

apply.interfolio.com

Apply - Interfolio {{$ctrl.$state.data.pageTitle}} - Apply - Interfolio

0100101

Reposted by Mia Levine

Harmit Singh Malik @harmitmalik.bsky.social · 10/09/2026

Reposting this ongoing search (any discipline of biology) for an Assistant to Associate level colleague in the Division of Basic Sciences at Fred Hutch. Great city, great colleagues, great core facilities, great trainees.

16468

Reposted by Mia Levine

Laura Ross @laurarossevo.bsky.social · 10/09/2026

My lab @ Edinburgh university is recruiting a postdoc to work on the weird and wonderful germline-specific chromosomes of flies. elxw.fa.em3.oraclecloud.com/hcmUI/Candid... collaboration with @germline.bsky.social and yukiko yamashita funded by @novonordisk.bsky.social please repost!

16665

Reposted by Mia Levine

Pau Pascual @paupascual.bsky.social · 09/09/2026

New paper from the Capelson Lab in collaboration with the @ranganlab.bsky.social where they found that Nup93-2 only partially overlaps with mature NPCs. This off-pore Nup pool helps silence Polycomb domains. 🤩https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.08.28.747911v1

biorxiv.org

Distinct functions of Nup93 paralogs in tumor growth and Polycomb-mediated repression of JAK/STAT signaling

Nuclear pore complexes (NPCs) are nuclear envelope (NE)-embedded protein assemblies that mediate nucleocytoplasmic exchange and interact with the genome, including binding of an NPC component Nup93 to...

065

Reposted by Mia Levine

Peter Andersen @germline.bsky.social · 08/09/2026

We are recruiting a PhD student 🥼🙋 Topic: how germ cells bend gene expression dogmas Fly genetics + proteomics + genomics. Fully funded. Aarhus University 🇩🇰 info on the project and how to apply👇 mbg.au.dk/en/peter-and... I'd really appreciate it if you'd help spread the word. Thanks

03246

Reposted by Mia Levine

Rangan Lab @ranganlab.bsky.social · 01/09/2026

New preprint in collaboration with the Capelson lab. Roles for nucleoporin paralogs.

032

Reposted by Mia Levine

Peter Andersen @germline.bsky.social · 29/08/2026

We watched piRNAs and transposons across development, saw them dance tightly and wrote a paper about it. It's so cool to see it online and we will make a thread about it all very soon. Stay tuned :-)

49443

Reposted by Mia Levine

Nels Elde @elearlybird.bsky.social · 28/08/2026

Open your lab here at Utah! utah.peopleadmin.com/postings/208...

14029

Reposted by Mia Levine

Harmit Singh Malik @harmitmalik.bsky.social · 13/08/2026

MxA is one of the broadest antiviral proteins mammals make. It’s a big reason most bird flu strains never get a foothold in people. The rare ones that succeed have learned to dodge it. How MxA actually recognizes viral targets at the molecular level is unknown for a bunch of technical reasons.

25923

Mia Levine @levine-lab.bsky.social · 11/08/2026

Terrific opportunity! Damian is a wonderful mentor with an exceptionally creative and compelling research program.

041

Reposted by Mia Levine

C. Brandon Ogbunu @cbo.bsky.social · 04/08/2026

🚨NEW PAPER 🚨 "Deconstructing empirical fitness seascapes across scales of granularity" published in #G3 (@genetics-gsa.bsky.social) 1/2 The fitness landscape has been among the most influential instruments in evolutionary theory for nearly a century. But we often treat them as fixed and static.

35126

Reposted by Mia Levine

Ian Henderson @hendersi.bsky.social · 25/07/2026

CRISPR-mediated centromere fission generates neochromosomes with distorted meiotic inheritance in Arabidopsis biorxiv.org/content/10.6... new preprint from us - includes changing the Arabidopsis karyotype from 5 -> 6 chromosomes using Cas9 & outcomes of 5/6 chromosome hybrid meiosis

06430

Reposted by Mia Levine

Agnel Sfeir @agnelsfeir.bsky.social · 17/07/2026

mtDNA deletions cause incurable diseases. Our CRISPR screen found a fix: deleting MTERF1 restores mitochondrial function, not by clearing bad genomes, but by making the healthy ones work harder. Simple Biology! New preprint 👇 @tatakavlashvili.bsky.social www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...

biorxiv.org

MTERF1 loss buffers against pathogenic mtDNA deletions through transcriptional regulation

Large-scale mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) deletions cripple oxidative phosphorylation once they exceed a critical heteroplasmy threshold, causing incurable mitochondrial pathologies. Using a genome-wide C...

03218

Reposted by Mia Levine

Antoine Molaro @antoinemolaro.bsky.social · 17/07/2026

Hello World ! We have another postdoc position open in the lab! Are you a freshly minted Ph.D. with a passion for chromatin and evolution ? Come join our ERC project #EvoEpi ! Inclusive environment + cool people + great science = success details 👉 tinyurl.com/3r6zk54n Repost are always appreciated

11926

Reposted by Mia Levine

Peiwei Chen @peiwei-chen.bsky.social · 17/07/2026

How do transposons jump when they’re released from host control? I babysat two chromosomes for 2 years, making sure they are ok without most piRNAs. Here’s what we found & excited to share my 1st postdoc paper: “piRNA loss unleashes episodic transposition bursts” www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...

biorxiv.org

piRNA loss unleashes episodic transposition bursts

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...

715369

Reposted by Mia Levine

Harmit Singh Malik @harmitmalik.bsky.social · 24/06/2026

I know it seems like a heretical idea, but one way to figure out if a preprint is really interesting (to you) is... to read the preprint. Then, in the spirit of sharing, send a note to authors: a simple kudos or a more detailed question. I do this a dozen times a year. It's awesome. Try it.

1229264

Reposted by Mia Levine

Abby Buchwalter @abbybuch.bsky.social · 21/06/2026

After some good funding news, we are hiring! Looking for a postdoc to join our team and lead our explorations into transposon repression by the nuclear lamina. Check out the full ad on our lab website at buchwalter-lab.github.io/postdoc-ad.pdf + contact me to learn more!

02521

Reposted by Mia Levine

Society for Molecular Biology and Evolution @official-smbe.bsky.social · 12/06/2026

#SMBE2026 S24: Molecular mechanisms of selfish elements and strategies 🗓️ Mon Jun 29, 10:20am 🔗 smbe2026.org/programme Talks by: @levine-lab.bsky.social Yu Hua @cecilecourret.bsky.social @eleanoreritter.bsky.social Elli Cryan @alexand-kwak.bsky.social Steve Perlman @antisense.bsky.social

076

Reposted by Mia Levine

Matthew Hahn @3rdreviewer.bsky.social · 02/06/2026

Very happy to announce a big new paper from the lab, led by grad students @smishra677.bsky.social and Laia Pomar-Pallarès (in collaboration with @roblanfear.bsky.social). We introduce a new way to study introgression, with accompanying software (DAFT) 1/n 🧵 www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...

biorxiv.org

49467

Reposted by Mia Levine

Cedric Feschotte @cedricfeschotte.bsky.social · 29/05/2026

📣 POSTDOC position available in the Feschotte Lab at Cornell to work on #TRANSPOSONS! More details below. Pls send informal application or inquiry ASAP by DM or email to cf458_at_cornell.edu. Pls spread the word 🙏 #TEsky www.thefeschottelabatcornell.com

thefeschottelabatcornell.com

The Feschotte Lab at Cornell

17499

Reposted by Mia Levine

Alejandro Burga @arburga.bsky.social · 18/05/2026

🧬 New research from the Burga lab! We took a closer look at a rogue selfish protein and caught evolution in the act of turning something old into something radically new 💡 (a.k.a. neofunctionalization) @imbavienna.bsky.social www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6... Curious? Here’s a breakdown:

15121

Reposted by Mia Levine

The EMBO Journal @embojournal.org · 18/05/2026

Host-transposable element coexistence: a matter of resistance, tolerance and trade-off Read this new review by Séverine Chambeyron, Charlotte Grimaud, Mikiko Siomi et al link.springer.com/article/10.1...

04027

Reposted by Mia Levine

Needhi Bhalla 💅🏽 @needhibhalla.bsky.social · 12/05/2026

👀"These results establish that naturally occurring copy-number variation within repetitive pericentromeric DNA is not merely noise, but a functional source of variation in chromosome segregation and gene regulation."

1257

Reposted by Mia Levine

Cedric Feschotte @cedricfeschotte.bsky.social · 07/05/2026

👋 Transposon lovers: registration is now open for the CSHL TE meeting! We have a 🔥 lineup of invited speakers and many slots for short talks selected upon abstract across all areas of TE biology. 🧬➰🧬 #TEsky Abstract deadline: July 10 meetings.cshl.edu/meetings.asp...

15838

Reposted by Mia Levine

Jae Young Choi @jychoi.bsky.social · 30/04/2026

I'm looking to hire a postdoc. Please share if you can!

04561

Reposted by Mia Levine

Laura Ross @laurarossevo.bsky.social · 27/04/2026

Did you know that many organisms delete parts of their genome during development? To know more please join us at the Roscoff meeting on "Mechanistic and Evolutionary Basis of Programmed DNA Elimination" Sep21- 25, 2026. Please share! cjm.sb-roscoff.fr/en/conferenc...

cjm.sb-roscoff.fr

The mechanistic and evolutionary basis of programmed DNA elimination | CNRS - Conférences Jacques Monod (CJM)

03716

Reposted by Mia Levine

Molly Schumer @mollyschumer.bsky.social · 23/04/2026

Please share widely! We will imminently be posting a technician position in our lab group since @rheasood.bsky.social is off to grad school 🙌! If you know of anyone excited about molecular biology, evolution, and functional genomics please have them reach out (schumer at stanford). Start date ~June

06482

Reposted by Mia Levine

Emilie Brasset @emiliebrasset.bsky.social · 09/04/2026

Love Drosophila genetics — this journal club was a great way to share that enthusiasm and pay tribute to the pioneers of transposons regulation 🪰 How classical genetics uncovered key determinants of TE silencing #transposon @igred.fr @igred.fr 👇👇

02513

Reposted by Mia Levine

Peter Andersen @germline.bsky.social · 01/04/2026

Germ cells have their own versions of core transcription factors and fertility depends on them. We're hiring a PhD student to figure out how! 📢 Fly genetics + proteomics + genomics. Fully funded. Aarhus University 🇩🇰 Deadline May 1 👇 Please share with anyone who might be interested!

phd.nat.au.dk

03442

Reposted by Mia Levine

Li Zhao @lizhao.bsky.social · 24/03/2026

We wrote a review on using machine learning to study evolutionary genetics and molecular evolution in Trends in Genetics. It is open access—please take a look if you are interested in this topic www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti... @cp-trendsgenetics.bsky.social

sciencedirect.com

Machine learning for evolutionary genetics and molecular evolution

Over the past decade, the rapid expansion of large-scale data and advances in computational power have allowed machine learning (ML), especially deep …

0198

Reposted by Mia Levine

Colin Conine @colinconine.bsky.social · 19/03/2026

There is accumulating evidence that sperm miRNAs function to regulate embryonic gene expression and transmit inherited phenotypes to offspring but how does this work since sperm cargo is massively diluted in the egg upon fertilization. Here we directly address this ? www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...

biorxiv.org

33212

Reposted by Mia Levine

The Lewis Lab @peterlewislab.bsky.social · 23/03/2026

New preprint from our lab! An H3.3 knockout does two things at once: it removes H3.3 from chromatin and destabilizes DAXX. We disentangle those functions and find that DAXX-mediated H3.3 deposition can be uncoupled from ERV silencing. www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...

24820

Reposted by Mia Levine

Arjun Raj @arjunraj.bsky.social · 21/03/2026

One of my very favorite papers from the lab! Shows that individual cells can learn by forming memories. Amazing work by Jess Li!

14215

Reposted by Mia Levine

Takashi Akera Lab @takashiakeralab.bsky.social · 22/03/2026

We are hiring POSTDOC now!🚨please repost! Fully-funded 5-year position 👩🏻‍🔬👨‍🔬🧬Looking forward to your application!✉️

05449

Reposted by Mia Levine

Harmit Singh Malik @harmitmalik.bsky.social · 18/03/2026

Magnesium depletion by Candida albicans unleashes two unusual modes of colistin resistance in Pseudomonas aeruginosa with different fitness costs. @hsiehyp.bsky.social, Robert Ernst lab, @ajaidandekar.bsky.social, my lab. journals.plos.org/plosbiology/... ipmb.sinica.edu.tw/en/activitie...

32911