iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Maja Kuzman @majakuzman.bsky.social · 14/07/2025

#DoOrDie #DNADamageResponse Thats a cool story : When a cells DNA is damaged, and needs a quick reaction, its actually the buildup of (errorenous) RNA that through ribosome confusion and bumping into each other actually signals the quick response for apoptosis. Makes a lot of sense.

quantamagazine.org

RNA Is the Cell’s Emergency Alert System | Quanta Magazine

How does a cell know when it’s been damaged? A molecular alarm, set off by mutated RNA and colliding ribosomes, signals danger.

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Maja Kuzman @majakuzman.bsky.social · 11/07/2025

#dopamine doesnt flood in brain but is instead released in disparate hotspots with millisecond precision – which suggests the brain can selectively target small neural populations with the neurotransmitter to fine-tune specific behaviors or decisions!! #NoPainNoGain newatlas.com/mental-healt...

newatlas.com

Brain breakthrough: Dopamine doesn't work at all like we thought it did

Dopamine doesn’t flood the brain as once believed – it fires in exact, ultra-fast bursts that target specific neurons. The discovery turns a century-old view of dopamine on its head and could transfor...

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Maja Kuzman @majakuzman.bsky.social · 03/07/2025

#baseEditing #personalizedMedicine #precisionGeneEditing We are there!! 💛🧬 As of June, at least 20 clinical trials with base or prime editors are underway. The newer base and prime editing medicines modify or insert specific nucleotides into the DNA without creating double-stranded breaks.

nature.com

Precision gene editing medicine makes history, and it’s just getting started - Nature Biotechnology

Despite their astounding success, custom-made base editors and prime editors will need time to broaden their clinical impact.

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Reposted by Maja Kuzman

Max Wilkinson @maxewilkinson.bsky.social · 01/03/2025

we recently found some really neat RNA-guided DNA-cutting systems in phages. Despite remarkable similarities to CRISPR systems, including encoding guide RNAs in arrays, they appear entirely evolutionarily distinct (but definitely related to snoRNAs 🤓) We decided to call them TIGR-Tas systems 🐯

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Maja Kuzman @majakuzman.bsky.social · 30/06/2025

#TransposableElements altho abundant in the human genome, are repressed by methylation and chromatin modifications. Here authors show another mechanism of repression; hierarchical chromatin topology (TADs) - when disrupted they can lead to co-option of LTRs as alternative promotors of #oncogenes!

nature.com

Disruption of TAD hierarchy promotes LTR co-option in cancer - Nature Genetics

NIPBL perturbation activates long terminal repeat (LTR)-derived alternative promoters due to reorganization of chromatin’s hierarchical structure, leading to LTR co-option and oncogene activation in m...

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Maja Kuzman @majakuzman.bsky.social · 27/06/2025

LOVE to encounter a good review! Feels like reading what should become a textbook in comparative immunology! Different organisms make intentional changes to their DNA, relying on similar mechanisms, function usually for immune defens or pathogenicity. Thanks authors @sebastianevda.bsky.social

nature.com

How and when organisms edit their own genomes - Nature Genetics

This Review describes the changes that some organisms make to their own DNA sequences, linking many to common genetic mechanisms built around canonical DNA repair and to a set of functional circumstan...

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Maja Kuzman @majakuzman.bsky.social · 26/06/2025

Another day, another wonder; Archea parasite with a circular genome of only 238Kbp (!) found within a dinoflagellate. It only encodes for replicative machinery: can replicate but not sustain itself, making that line between life and non-life blurry! What a life www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

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Maja Kuzman @majakuzman.bsky.social · 25/06/2025

Op op! Google introduces AlphaGenome - their tool to predict effect of mutations, including gene expression, splicing patterns, chromatin accessability, 3d genome structure. Also first model to predict splice junctions from sequence. Lets see how it works! #AlphaGenome #google #genomics

deepmind.google

AlphaGenome: AI for better understanding the genome

Introducing a new, unifying DNA sequence model that advances regulatory variant-effect prediction and promises to shed new light on genome function — now available via API.

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Reposted by Maja Kuzman

Bojan Žunar @bzunar.bsky.social · 14/06/2025

One last thanks to the #TCTeAC organisers, especially @svobodalab.bsky.social‬. And shoutout to all whom I met throughout the killing game: @majakuzman.bsky.social for organising, @da-bar.bsky.social for bodyguarding, @valeriyk1.bsky.social for scouting, @itaiyanai.bsky.social for enabling, /1

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Maja Kuzman @majakuzman.bsky.social · 19/06/2025

Would you trust a single base edit to rewrite your future? :) this could be a cool thing to follow up in few years. Eli Lilly just spent a billion dollars for a single base editing drug that lowers LDL levels by 50% by silencing PCSK9 gene in the liver with a single-course therapy.

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