iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Mel Eckersley-Maslin @meleckmas.bsky.social · 25/08/2026

Had a great time visiting @vonmeyenn.bsky.social at ETH Zürich yesterday and sharing some of the labs latest work. Thanks for the invite, lively discussions and good food! Next stop Heidelberg for the #EMBLTranscript meeting that starts later today

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Mel Eckersley-Maslin @meleckmas.bsky.social · 21/08/2026

Our lab had an international brunch where everyone brought in something from their culture to share. They even printed out little place-cards with flags and ingredients. So much delicious food!

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Mel Eckersley-Maslin @meleckmas.bsky.social · 22/03/2026

We propose DPPA2/4 act as chromatin amplifiers in a context dependent manner. In embryonic stem cells they amplify bivalent H3K4me3-H3K27me3 chromatin, while in lung cancer cells they alter H2AK119ub and H3K27ac. Thanks to all who contributed to the study! (8/8) genesdev.cshlp.org/content/earl...

Model describing how DPPA2/4 amplify active chromatin states. Full paper can be accessed here https://genesdev.cshlp.org/content/early/2026/03/18/gad.353102.125.full.pdf+html

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Mel Eckersley-Maslin @meleckmas.bsky.social · 22/03/2026

If we introduce DPPA2/4 in non-small cell lung cancer cells where it's not usually expressed, it binds active CpG rich regions. Here it changes the chromatin states at over half its binding sites to a more active state (as determined by ChromHMM) (7/8)

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Mel Eckersley-Maslin @meleckmas.bsky.social · 22/03/2026

What happens if DPPA2/4 is removed? Surprisingly, the classic bivalent marks it regulates in stem cells (H3K4me3 and H3K27me3) are unaltered. Neither is transcription or chromatin accessibility. Instead we see a loss of H2AK119ub at these unique active sites (6/8)

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Mel Eckersley-Maslin @meleckmas.bsky.social · 22/03/2026

PRC2 is at these sites, but not it's product H3K27me3. We noticed H3K27ac was also there so hypothesised it might be blocking PRC2 activity. However removing H3K27ac (using A-485), at least for 24hrs, did not lead to an increase in H3K27me3 (5/8)

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Mel Eckersley-Maslin @meleckmas.bsky.social · 22/03/2026

Interesting, some of these DPPA2/4 bound active regions had PRC1-deposited H2AK119ub but not PRC2-deposited H3K27me3. We applied our reChIP protocol (link.springer.com/article/10.1...) to confirm co-occurrence of H2AK119ub with H3K4me3, and rule out cellular heterogeneity. (4/8)

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Mel Eckersley-Maslin @meleckmas.bsky.social · 22/03/2026

Chromatin profiling in lung cancer cells that endogenously express DPPA2/4 revealed they like to bind open CpG rich regions of the genome. This is similar to their binding profiles in embryonic stem cells (see www.nature.com/articles/s41... and others) (3/8)

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Mel Eckersley-Maslin @meleckmas.bsky.social · 22/03/2026

Co-expression of Developmental Pluripotency Associated 2 and 4 (DPPA2/4) is linked with worse survival, in particular for non-small cell lung cancer. So we generated a series of knockdown, over-expression and knockout cell models to understand molecularly why this is (2/8)

plot showing survival of different cohorts of cancer patients that co-express DPPA2/4

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Mel Eckersley-Maslin @meleckmas.bsky.social · 05/02/2026

Lovely lab hike in Werribee Gorge to celebrate the EckMasLab’s 5th birthday 🎂

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Mel Eckersley-Maslin @meleckmas.bsky.social · 23/01/2026

Great to catch up with alumni @nchoy.bsky.social who stopped by to visit the lab. So great to hear about your internship adventures with @robertife.bsky.social and see you doing so well!

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Mel Eckersley-Maslin @meleckmas.bsky.social · 16/12/2025

Celebrating a wonderful end to 2025! Wishing everyone a happy festive season and happy new year

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Mel Eckersley-Maslin @meleckmas.bsky.social · 10/11/2025

Great first day of stem cell science on the beach at #ASSCR2025! Here is our @asscr.bsky.social president opening the conference. Highlights include keynote from @josh-brickman.bsky.social and presentation of @ausstemcell.bsky.social 2025 Metcalf awards. Congratulations to the worthy recipients!

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Mel Eckersley-Maslin @meleckmas.bsky.social · 06/10/2025

Melbourne Epigenetics club on today! Two fabulous speakers followed by a catered networking reception. If you’re in Melbourne please drop by!

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Mel Eckersley-Maslin @meleckmas.bsky.social · 18/09/2025

Constantly amazed by all the extra hidden talents by those in the lab! German blueberry cake with caramel baked by the talented Clare to celebrate a lab-mate’s birthday

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Mel Eckersley-Maslin @meleckmas.bsky.social · 22/05/2025

If you love #chromatin and are in Melbourne on 18th June, join us for the next Melbourne Epigenetics Club! Featuring Tim Johanson, Conny Bonifer and Brent Thomson @dtgenomics.bsky.social, followed by networking reception Free event but registration essential www.eventbrite.com.au/e/5th-melbou...

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Mel Eckersley-Maslin @meleckmas.bsky.social · 19/05/2025

Stunning location for next stop of my Europe tour- the GRC cancer genetics and epigenetics conference. Thoroughly enjoying all the science presentations so far!

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Mel Eckersley-Maslin @meleckmas.bsky.social · 18/05/2025

One of my favourite parts of this Europe trip has been catching up with former students @nchoy.bsky.social (now intern with @robertife.bsky.social) and @elisakre.bsky.social (now pdoc with @priscaliberali.bsky.social). It’s so great to see you both doing so well!

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Mel Eckersley-Maslin @meleckmas.bsky.social · 13/05/2025

First time back in Europe since establishing the lab in Australia in 2021. First stop #EMBLChromatin! Stop by poster 200 or find me at coffee if you want to discuss Janith’s recent work on what happens when embryonic chromatin regulators are hijacked in cancers

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Mel Eckersley-Maslin @meleckmas.bsky.social · 28/04/2025

This raised a key Q: How can you have PRC1-deposited H2AK119Ub without PRC2-deposited H3K27me3? At many of K4-K119Ub sites, PRC2 is present, but high levels of H3K27ac is likely preventing its catalytic activity. If we forcefully remove H3K27ac, now H3K27me3 accumulates, silencing the genes. (5/6)

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Mel Eckersley-Maslin @meleckmas.bsky.social · 28/04/2025

Many of these DPPA2/4 bound promoters were poised with H3K4me3 and H2AK119Ub, but not H3K27me3. We validated these K4-K199 regions by reChIP, and found DPPA2/4 depletion leads to reduced K119Ub at these sites (4/6)

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Mel Eckersley-Maslin @meleckmas.bsky.social · 28/04/2025

Proteomics and biochemistry confirmed these proteins physically interact to bind nucleosomes. Interestingly DPPA2 seems to require DPPA4 for its stability (but not vice versa). We mapped their genome binding sites using both CUT&Run and ChIP - DPPA2/4 bind together at CpG rich promoters (3/6)

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Mel Eckersley-Maslin @meleckmas.bsky.social · 28/04/2025

Our pan-cancer analysis showed co-expression of DPPA2/4 was associated with significantly worse outcomes in lung squamous cell carcinoma, adenocarcinoma and low grade gliomas. In NSCLCs, it was also associated with dedifferentiated transcriptional states (2/6)

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Mel Eckersley-Maslin @meleckmas.bsky.social · 28/04/2025

Delighted to share the latest preprint from the lab led by Janith Seneviratne We reveal novel roles for #embryonic regulators DPPA2/4 in facilitating a H2AK119Ub primed #chromatin state when aberrantly up-regulated in non-small cell lung #cancers 🧬🔬 (1/6) www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

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Mel Eckersley-Maslin @meleckmas.bsky.social · 19/12/2024

At my 4 year old son’s kinder graduation today they were asked what they wanted to be when they grow up. From the 24 kids, 2 wanted to be scientists - both girls! #FutureWomenInStem 🧪👩‍🔬🔬

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Mel Eckersley-Maslin @meleckmas.bsky.social · 19/12/2024

Happy holidays from the EckMasLab! We have some exciting findings coming together that we hope to share with you all in 2025 🧬🧪🎄

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Mel Eckersley-Maslin @meleckmas.bsky.social · 06/12/2024

Lab minigolf party to farewell Natalie after a wonderful 2 years as a summer student, honours student and RA. Seems only fitting she won the tournament! (I wont disclose who came last…) The future is bright for you Natalie, we’ll miss you but wish you all the best with @robertife.bsky.social! 🧪🧬👩‍🔬

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Mel Eckersley-Maslin @meleckmas.bsky.social · 19/11/2024

Fantastic third instalment of the Melbourne Epigenetics Club featuring talks by Lee Wong and Hamish King, and a networking reception If you’re in Melbourne and interested in #chromatin #epigenetics or #GeneRegulation and interested in attending, visit www.eckmaslab.com/melbourne-ep... 🧪🧬

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Mel Eckersley-Maslin @meleckmas.bsky.social · 14/11/2024

Recent lab retreat to Daylesford- a spa town just north of Melbourne. We stepped back from the details of our projects to ask if we were chasing the right questions in the most effective way. Lots of good food and fun was had too!

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Mel Eckersley-Maslin @meleckmas.bsky.social · 12/01/2024

Celebrating our lab’s first paper acceptance! Amazing way to start 2024 🥳🧪🧬

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Mel Eckersley-Maslin @meleckmas.bsky.social · 11/01/2024

Lovely paper on BivalentChromatin in fungal invasion by Qin Gu's lab. reChIP in F. graminearum before/after infecting wheat heads reveals bivalency changes to silence genes involved in infection, potentially to host detection 🧪🧬 www.nature.com/articles/s41...

schematic of main findings from the paper

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Mel Eckersley-Maslin @meleckmas.bsky.social · 20/12/2023

Celebrating a wonderful 2023 with the lab. Turns out Scientists can paint too! Wishing everyone a happy festive season and new year. Excited to see what 2024 brings! 🧬🧪

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