Guðjón Ólafsson

Amazing work Max, congratulations!

Ancient co-option of LTR retrotransposons as yeast centromeres - Nature Evolutionarily related ‘proto-point’ centromeres providing resolution to the evolutionary origins of point centromeres are identified in yeast, and comparison shows they evolved in an ancestor with re...

Our paper is now out in Nature:

“Ancient co-option of LTR retrotransposons as yeast centromeres”

www.nature.com/articles/s41...

A short thread on how retrotransposons helped give rise to yeast point centromeres.

1/14

☕Zhou et al. design protein-based artificial #kinetochore constructs as decoys to prevent premature #chromosomal separation in aged #oocytes. These constructs compete with chromosomal kinetochores, reducing excessive bipolar #microtubule pulling forces.
bit.ly/48g0oTa

Bluesky now platform of choice for science community It’s not just you. Survey says: “Twitter sucks now and all the cool kids are moving to Bluesky”…

Bluesky is now the platform of choice for the scientific community.

From @jenlucpiquant.bsky.social on @arstechnica.com

arstechnica.com/science/2025...

The Truong lab @nyuniversity (Programmable Regenerative Immunity) has an opening for a Postdoctoral Fellow to work in Mammalian Synthetic Biology in human iPSCs:

apply.interfolio.com/172424

This project uses large-scale human genome "rewriting" to build a Synthetic Thymus.

Assistant professor in life sciences at the Faculty of Medicine Two full time assistant professor positions are open for applications at the Department of Life Sciences, within the Faculty of Medicine at the University of Iceland.

Our department is advertising two academic positions. Come join us in beautiful Reykjavík. I can promise a very positive collegial atmosphere! #assistant_professor #physiology #cell_biology #physiology #neuroscience
euraxess.ec.europa.eu/jobs/368529

UI Science and Innovation Prize awarded for new technology that will accelerate cancer drug development The ProDiGY project, which is developing new technology that provides a systematic, rapid and cost-effective way to accelerate development of drugs to fight serious diseases such as cancer, has won th...

I´m very thankful for this award! Special thanks to my doctoral and postdoctoral mentors Peter Thorpe @thorpelab.bsky.social, Jef Boeke @jefboeke.bsky.social, and Eiríkur Steingrímsson
english.hi.is/news/ui-scie...

Ancient co-option of LTR retrotransposons as yeast centromeres The evolutionary origins of the genetic point centromere in the brewer's yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae, a member of the order Saccharomycetales, are still unknown. Competing hypotheses suggest that t...

It’s out! The evolutionary origins of yeast point centromeres uncovered!

“Ancient co-option of LTR retrotransposons as yeast centromeres”

www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

‘It’s human conceit to think we’re alone’: life must extend beyond Earth, leading space scientist says Exclusive: It is imperative humans expand their understanding of space, argues Dame Maggie Aderin-Pocock

‘It’s human conceit to think we’re alone’: life must extend beyond Earth, leading space scientist says www.theguardian.com/science/2025...

Is PubMed just down temporarily? I hope so just tried to access from UK. Is it down elsewhere? See below. In meantime go to @europepmc.org and use their resources which includes all current PMC records. Spread the word. #MedLibs

Stand up for science rally poster standupforscience2025.org

Hey! Any researchers out there that are visiting Iceland this spring (Feb-Jun) and would like to present their work at our weekly seminar series at the BioMedical Center (BMC) at the University of Iceland lifvisindi.hi.is Please let me know!

Proteome-wide forced interactions reveal a functional map of cell-cycle phospho-regulation in S. cerevisiae Dynamic protein phosphorylation and dephosphorylation play an essential role in cell cycle progression. Kinases and phosphatases are generally highly conserved across eukaryotes, underlining their ...

Happy to share with you a new paper from Peter Thorpe´s lab, where I did my PhD. www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....

I gladly bring this meeting to your attention so that you can mark dates in your calendar in case your are interest. Additional information will follow. Please circulate if possible.