iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Reposted by Max Wilkinson

Connor Horton @connorhorton.bsky.social · 11/08/2026

I'm excited to share our work providing the first complete mechanistic picture of how R2 proteins nick the second strand, out today in @pnas.org! ✂️🧬 This step in retrotransposition has long been mysterious, but crucial for understanding R2's. Check it out: www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/... A thread 🧵:

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Reposted by Max Wilkinson

Mart Krupovic @mkrupovic.bsky.social · 11/05/2026

With Eugene Koonin, we wrote a rather comprehensive review on the origin, evolution and organization of the #virosphere. We describe all 10 viral realms and the logic behind them, and so much more. Check it out! comptes-rendus.academie-sciences.fr/biologies/ar...

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Reposted by Max Wilkinson

Pujuan Poppy Deng @poppy-pujuan-deng.bsky.social · 16/04/2026

I am so excited to share our new findings with you! We provide the structural evidence for a direct protein-to-DNA information pathway, showing how a bacterial enzyme 'reads' its own structure to 'write' DNA. www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

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Reposted by Max Wilkinson

Peter Fineran @peterfineran.bsky.social · 04/03/2026

New post-doctoral research position in my phage-host interactions (Phi) laboratory in @otagomicroimmuno.bsky.social at @universityofotago.bsky.social New Zealand. The project is focused on defences against jumbo phages. Please share and if interested apply using the link in the comments.

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Reposted by Max Wilkinson

Joanna W Jachowicz @jjachowicz.bsky.social · 02/03/2026

If you want to explore ncRNA dynamics during mammalian development, love microscopy, and are not afaraid of transposons biology, apply‼️ We are looking for a postdoc to join our team at @imbavienna.bsky.social More details 👇🏻

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Max Wilkinson @maxewilkinson.bsky.social · 23/01/2026

this was such fun to help with. Lead author @glennli.bsky.social is a phenomenon! There were many surprises and twists in this story. It's a great example of the value of diving deeply into strange observations.

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Max Wilkinson @maxewilkinson.bsky.social · 12/12/2025

can someone run this on a nucleus tomogram please

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Reposted by Max Wilkinson

Simone Alma Evans @simone-alma.bsky.social · 15/11/2025

I am so excited to share our project with you! We find prokaryotic proteases activate toxic enzymes and pores as a modular strategy in phage defense. We studied four fascinating protease-toxin pairs that are abundant across bacterial genomes: www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

biorxiv.org

Proteolytic activation of diverse antiviral defense modules in prokaryotes

Linked protease–effector modules are widespread in prokaryotic antiviral defense, yet the mechanisms of most remain poorly understood. Here we show that four of the most prevalent modules—metallo-β-la...

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Max Wilkinson @maxewilkinson.bsky.social · 31/10/2025

The Wilkinson Lab is open for science! @mskcancercenter.bsky.social 🧬We'll be finding funky new RNA biology, mainly by looking at reverse transcriptases (i.e. the Best Enzymes In The World)🧬 annnd: I'm hiring - come join! Especially postdocs and PhD students - please get in touch (NYC is great)

wilkinsonlab.bio

Wilkinson Lab

We discover and study reverse transcriptases

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Max Wilkinson @maxewilkinson.bsky.social · 17/10/2025

a highly attractive hypothesis for the origin of telomerase, but imo more evidence is needed to rule out convergent evolution 1- other RT phylogenies place TERT within eukaryotic retroelement clades 2- template jumping could plausibly evolve into repeat synthesis activity multiple independent times

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Reposted by Max Wilkinson

Alexander Shakeel Bates @asbates.bsky.social · 02/08/2025

Public access to the first fly connectome that spans the whole CNS - BANC!: codex.flywire.ai?dataset=banc Different from prior connectomes - it is brain + cord (think spinal cord) We use it to ‘embody’ the system and find it resembles ‘subsumption architecture’ doi.org/10.1101/2025...

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Max Wilkinson @maxewilkinson.bsky.social · 03/07/2025

If you like transposons... If you you love genome editing... Or if you just like random bird animations, we have the paper for you! We (@kedmonds.bsky.social et al) are happy to share our work turning a songbird retrotransposon into a genome editing tool. 🐣 (1/n)

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Reposted by Max Wilkinson

Kelly Nguyen @kellythd-nguyen.bsky.social · 05/05/2025

Nice visit to the lovely Princeton campus. Could not be prouder of @automnenine.bsky.social. For those who are looking for a postdoc, there are exciting opportunities to join his lab!

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Max Wilkinson @maxewilkinson.bsky.social · 07/03/2025

Ridiculously good work by George on LINE-1 retrotransposition! Also the paper is an inspiring read - there's some really super biochem in it

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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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Max Wilkinson @maxewilkinson.bsky.social · 02/12/2024

please go check out this glowing pink blob and what it does to the shiny gold blob (it's a spliceosome! Truly it was a nostalgic pleasure to help out with this paper, a super fun collaboration with @uwmadisonrna.bsky.social & Kathy and Karli)

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Max Wilkinson @maxewilkinson.bsky.social · 18/11/2024

gonna start shamelessly crossposting some of my molecular movies from the Other Place. Starting with my favourite: showing how wacky reverse transcription can defeat viruses. Bonus: some noises 🎹🎻

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Reposted by Max Wilkinson

Alexander Shakeel Bates @asbates.bsky.social · 03/10/2024

Our fly brain connectome papers are now live (www.nature.com/immersive/d4...), and is getting traction (www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...). With ~139k neurons, >8k cell types, synapses annotated, transmitters predicted, ~134 evo-devo units denoted, so much is now possible in the fly.

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