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Rakyan Lab

@rakyanlab.bsky.social
1.7K followers 1.9K following 219 posts

Blizard Institute, QMUL, London. Working on inter-individual genetic and epigenetic variation of mammalian ribosomal DNA.

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Rakyan Lab @rakyanlab.bsky.social · 22/09/2026
It's (super)califragilisticexpialidocious, Even though the sound of it is something quite atrocious, If you say it loud enough you'll always sound precocious, (Super)califragilisticexpialidocious…intelligence.
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Rakyan Lab @rakyanlab.bsky.social · 06/08/2026
Awesome!
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Rakyan Lab @rakyanlab.bsky.social · 03/08/2026
Oooh, very interesting! Well done all!
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Nicholas Bellono @nbellono.bsky.social · 09/07/2026
How did octopuses evolve novel traits? Rishav Mitra, Richard Han, Trey Scott, et al serendipitously discover a unique ribosome adaptation that increases the accuracy of protein synthesis and evolved alongside their elaborate nervous systems vs deep sea relatives. www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...
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Rakyan Lab @rakyanlab.bsky.social · 08/07/2026
Intriguing and positive! www.theguardian.com/business/202...
theguardian.com
Britain’s markets attracting generation of highly educated entrepreneurs
Nearly a quarter of market traders now hold master’s degree, PhD or medical doctorate, research shows
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Rakyan Lab @rakyanlab.bsky.social · 04/07/2026
Also very cool!
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Rakyan Lab @rakyanlab.bsky.social · 04/07/2026
Wow!
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Rakyan Lab @rakyanlab.bsky.social · 03/07/2026
Cool work!
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bioRxiv Evolutionary Biology @biorxiv-evobio.bsky.social · 29/06/2026
The evolution of structural variation across 500 million years of vertebrate evolution www.biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/20…
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Cedric Boeckx @cedricboeckx.bsky.social · 28/06/2026
Terrific resource, now on @biorxivpreprint.bsky.social: The Vertebrate Genomes Project Phase I: A global reference genome resource 🧪🧬 www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...
biorxiv.org
The Vertebrate Genomes Project Phase I: A global reference genome resource
The Vertebrate Genomes Project (VGP) aims to produce complete and near-error-free reference genomes for all ∼70,000 extant vertebrate species. Organized in four phases, it progressively targets all ve...
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Rakyan Lab @rakyanlab.bsky.social · 26/06/2026
Possibly what all British cats are currently thinking about.
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Rakyan Lab @rakyanlab.bsky.social · 26/06/2026
You’re moving to Denmark! Cool! Many congrats on the grant.
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“Dance to the music” @aceofmalts.bsky.social · 25/06/2026
Had to! "So we sailed on to the sun 'Til we found a sea of green" 🎵🎼🎶
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Kresten Lindorff-Larsen @lindorfflarsen.bsky.social · 25/06/2026
Great. Goes well with this paper on how to write bad papers: doi.org/10.1111/j.00...
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Rakyan Lab @rakyanlab.bsky.social · 25/06/2026
Agree 100%
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Rakyan Lab @rakyanlab.bsky.social · 15/06/2026
The official FIFA highlights of this game is literally the Cape Verde GK making save after save after save! 💪🏽
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Rakyan Lab @rakyanlab.bsky.social · 13/06/2026
Super interesting!
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bioRxiv Genomics @biorxiv-genomic.bsky.social · 11/06/2026
Interspecies variation of 45S ribosomal DNA in vertebrates www.biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/20…
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QMUL Centre for Epigenetics @qmulepigenetics.bsky.social · 05/06/2026
Our next guest speaker webinar is happening on Friday, 12th June, 15:30-16:30pm BST. Madzia Crossley, will be giving a talk on ''Distinct mechanisms generate immunogenic cytoplasmic RNA-DNA hybrids as signals of transcriptional dysregulation'' Follow this link to join: www.qmul.ac.uk/epigenetics/...
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Zeynep Baharoglu @zeynepbaharoglu.bsky.social · 01/06/2026
Ribosome heterogeneity in E. coli : ribosomal RNA (rRNA) sequence and modifications, r-protein stoichiometry and PTMs, and ribosome-associated proteins pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/... 🦠
pubs.acs.org
Ribosome Heterogeneity Revealed by Complex-Up Native Mass Spectrometry and Top-Down Proteomics
Characterization of large molecular machines, such as the ribosome, under a breadth of biological states to elucidate regulatory details remains challenging. Herein, a workflow combining complex-up na...
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Alex de Mendoza @alexdemendoza.bsky.social · 02/06/2026
Capolavoro 🎨 alert 🚨! What is the role of gene body methylation in invertebrates? Despite extensive speculation linking it to plasticity and environmental responses, its mechanistic effects and heritability remain unclear. Our take out in @natecoevo.nature.com: www.nature.com/articles/s41... 1/
nature.com
Gene body methylation suppresses intragenic transcription and permits epigenetic inheritance in a cnidarian - Nature Ecology & Evolution
Experiments in the cnidarian Nematostella vectensis show a role of gene body methylation in transposable element suppression and that epigenetic inheritance is constrained by chromatin context and tra...
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Rakyan Lab @rakyanlab.bsky.social · 22/05/2026
Very nice!
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Reese Richardson @reeserichardson.bsky.social · 21/05/2026
@johanduchene.bsky.social @sholtodavid.bsky.social Spent the last hour looking, found ten more apparently manipulated Western blots in Thermo Fisher's antibody verification data (across eight different catalogued products). Thread below. www.thermofisher.com/antibody/pro...
Apparent manipulation in the antibody verification data in Thermo Fisher's online catalog
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Peter Ly @peterlylab.bsky.social · 19/05/2026
Excited to share our latest paper! We found that large pieces of the human genome can transfer between cells upon direct contact, endowing recipient cells with heritable phenotypic changes. @cp-cell.bsky.social (1/7) www.cell.com/cell/fulltex...
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Rakyan Lab @rakyanlab.bsky.social · 17/05/2026
Truly embarrassing….
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Floris Barthel @florisbarthel.bsky.social · 17/05/2026
The human genome's most variable and clinically important regions (centromeres, telomeres, and acrocentric short arms) have been hardest to study at scale. Thrilled to share KaryoScope, our new preprint that brings them within reach. 🧵 www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...
KaryoScope karyotype of the HG002 diploid assembly. All 22 autosomes plus X and Y, each shown as paired haplotypes (h1, h2). Each chromosome has a full-length track colored by chromosome of origin, a centromere zoom panel showing satellite composition, and a subtelomere zoom panel. Legends map chromosomes, satellite families, and subtelomeric features to colors.
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Rakyan Lab @rakyanlab.bsky.social · 11/05/2026
Based on 25RM3 outcomes, #BBSRC success rate for standard research grants is now down to 13%….
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Rakyan Lab @rakyanlab.bsky.social · 06/05/2026
This will be a great resource! www.nature.com/articles/s41...
nature.com
Expanding the human proteome with microproteins and peptideins - Nature
A large-scale proteomics analysis of the dark proteome by the TransCODE Consortium reveals many translated non-canonical open reading frames to encode microproteins and peptideins.
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Rakyan Lab @rakyanlab.bsky.social · 26/04/2026
And Yomif Kejelcha was also under two hours!
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Rakyan Lab @rakyanlab.bsky.social · 26/04/2026
🤯
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Physalia-courses@ONLINE @physaliacourses.bsky.social · 20/04/2026
We are very happy to kick off the #DNAmethylation course with @alexdemendoza.bsky.social Hollie Marshall James Ord and a great group of attendees from all over the globe! www.physalia-courses.org/courses-work...
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Rakyan Lab @rakyanlab.bsky.social · 20/04/2026
Exciting news - a huge gain for JHU!
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Rakyan Lab @rakyanlab.bsky.social · 20/04/2026
Thanks Vikram!
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Rakyan Lab @rakyanlab.bsky.social · 17/04/2026
I don’t think AI solves the problem - the lack of funds and plunging success rates. Either all funding agencies increase funds available, or cap the amount of money that can be requested. Maybe also bring in some level of ‘lottery’ type of mechanism.
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Rakyan Lab @rakyanlab.bsky.social · 10/04/2026
And a very nice article by @cofford.bsky.social in Science covering our work: www.science.org/content/arti...
science.org
Differences in cells’ protein factories may help explain human diversity
Study links mutations in ribosome genes to traits such as height and weight
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Adam Phillippy @aphillippy.bsky.social · 30/03/2026
More acrocentric investigations, this one led by @arhie.bsky.social 🕵🏻‍♀️ “Biobank-scale genotyping of Robertsonian translocations reveals hidden structural variation on the human acrocentric chromosomes” 🧵[1/8] 📄 www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...
biorxiv.org
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Rakyan Lab @rakyanlab.bsky.social · 10/04/2026
Also many thanks to @qmulepigenetics.bsky.social, @ukri.org, @bartscharity.bsky.social, @qmul.bsky.social
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Rakyan Lab @rakyanlab.bsky.social · 10/04/2026
In the future, it will be fascinating to understand how variants within ESs mechanistically impact ribosome function.
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Rakyan Lab @rakyanlab.bsky.social · 10/04/2026
There seems to be an enrichment of associations with variants found in expansion segment 15L (ES15L), particularly with body size traits. ESs are found in all eukaryotic ribosomes, but their precise function is still somewhat enigmatic.
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Rakyan Lab @rakyanlab.bsky.social · 10/04/2026
The use of monozygotic twins to establish the technical robustness of our rDNA variant calls was crucial.
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Rakyan Lab @rakyanlab.bsky.social · 10/04/2026
Now, we show that sequence variants (SNVs and INDELs) also show association with human traits. Crucially, these variants are found within the 28S rRNA and so are incorporated into the mature ribosome.
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Rakyan Lab @rakyanlab.bsky.social · 10/04/2026
Despite the essential nature of human rDNA, it shows substantial sequence variation within the human population. We previously showed that rDNA copy number is associated with human traits - www.cell.com/cell-genomic...
cell.com
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Rakyan Lab @rakyanlab.bsky.social · 10/04/2026
Led by the awesome Fran (@franrodalg.bsky.social) and in collaboration with our superstar friends @aphillippy.bsky.social, @mardakheh.bsky.social, @sergek.bsky.social and Dave Evans, Maria Conte, Maia Cooper, Elliott Whittaker (not on Bluesky)!
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Rakyan Lab @rakyanlab.bsky.social · 10/04/2026
Super happy to share the published version of our study: “Germline sequence variation within the ribosomal DNA is associated with human complex traits” in Cell Genomics www.cell.com/cell-genomic...!
cell.com
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Rakyan Lab @rakyanlab.bsky.social · 10/04/2026
Very interesting!
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Rakyan Lab @rakyanlab.bsky.social · 31/03/2026
Hi Chris - yes, good question. I still shy away from using AI chatbots for writing tasks, but I did enter your post into ChatGPT and, must admit, it did return some ideas that could be useable.
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Olivier Duss @olivierduss.bsky.social · 25/03/2026
My first PhD student‘s, Kavan Gor, paper on 5-color single-molecule imaging of co-transcriptional RNA folding is out in @science.org Advances! He finds how RNA modification enzymes, antisense oligonucleotides and ribosomal proteins re-route nascent RNA folding. See more details in EMBL post below!
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Tom Francis @pentadact.com · 24/03/2026
Ominous seating arrangements.
Restaurant bathroom. Three wooden chairs face the toilet.
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Alex de Mendoza @alexdemendoza.bsky.social · 23/03/2026
May 5th: if you are around London, please join the London #EvoDevo symposium at QMUL / Charterhouse campus, as usual we will have selected talks and post-event 🍻. A warm up for #EED2026 in Glasgow. Registration £0, more info here: londonevodevo.co.uk
londonevodevo.co.uk
LondonEvoDevo
meeting's website
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James Gahan @jgahan.bsky.social · 19/03/2026
It’s a pity other countries don’t adopt this idea. Maybe something to consider for our new funding agency @researchireland.ie ?
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