Aleksander Szczurek

time to delve into it! Congrats guys!

Our man Alan speaking about his latest story! Make sure to join

Amazing news Dawid! Dobra robota!

Using degron technology to systematically deplete all SET1/MLL complexes, we find that they synergise to deposit H3K4me3 at gene promoters. Using mass spectrometry (thanks to Inge de Krijger and Michiel Vermeulen), we also identify a novel SET1B isoform that contributes substantially to H3K4me3.

SET1/MLL complexes control transcription independently of H3K4me3 Histone H3 lysine 4 trimethylation (H3K4me3) at gene promoters is thought to play a central role in gene transcription. H3K4 methylation is deposited by the SET1 (A/B) and MLL (1-4) multi-protein comp...

Excited to share our new preprint from the Klose lab, where we investigate how SET1/MLL complexes shape H3K4me3 and regulate transcription in mouse ES cells. www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...

Also @au-ho-yu.bsky.social probably holds the world record for the most degron-tagged proteins in the same line. Guess how many!

SET1/MLL complexes control transcription independently of H3K4me3 Histone H3 lysine 4 trimethylation (H3K4me3) at gene promoters is thought to play a central role in gene transcription. H3K4 methylation is deposited by the SET1 (A/B) and MLL (1-4) multi-protein comp...

An early Christmas present for those interested in chromatin and transcription! Fantastic work from @au-ho-yu.bsky.social and @aleksszczurek.bsky.social . Thanks to Inge and Michiel for their help. Please repost!

www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...

Trump’s university backlash drives US researchers towards Europe EU grant applications hit record in 2025 amid surge in interest from American academics

ERC starter grant applications from US researchers nearly triple in 2025 compared to 2024 as Trump restricts funding. Good for "Choose Europe" initiatives, but dire for global and national science, given the limited volume of non-US funding available.

A new, nerdy paper. We figured out (some) of the rules underlying cell-permeability of probes and designed ligands that light up, grab, and move proteins around. Awesome @hhmijanelia.bsky.social x @uwmadison.bsky.social x @stjuderesearch.bsky.social collaboration! www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...

Very interesting! Good job!

Single Nucleotide Resolution 4sU Sequencing (SNU-Seq) reveals the transcriptional responsiveness of an epigenetically primed human genome Genomes are pervasively transcribed, leading to stable and unstable transcripts that influence 3-dimensional genome organisation and gene regulation. High sensitivity and nucleotide resolution are req...

🧬 New preprint!
SNU-Seq maps nascent transcription at single-nucleotide resolution using 4sU labeling.
Together with sf4sU-Seq, it shows how epigenetically primed chromatin rapidly activates transcription after IFN-γ.
📄 doi.org/10.1101/2021...
#SNUSeq #RNAseq

Good job team! Congratulations!

Sequential verification of transcription by Integrator and Restrictor Estell and Łazowski et al. show that Integrator and Restrictor form distinct pathways for early attenuation of RNA polymerase II: Integrator acts at the promoter-proximal pause site, whereas Restricto...

I’m a fair-weather poster on here to say the least. However, I'm pleased to present our latest paper. A great effort from all authors and an interesting insight into transcriptional regulation (we think!).
www.cell.com/molecular-ce...

BIG ANNOUNCEMENT📣: I haven’t been this excited to be part of something new in 15 years… Thrilled to reveal the passion project I’ve been working on for the past year and a half!🙀🥳 (thread 👇)

If you are a computational biologist come, apply and join Howard & Klose lab in a joint Norwich-Oxford collaboration on chromatin dynamics!

If you are a computational biologist interested in how chromatin states are established and maintained to regulate transcription, this is the dream job for you! This will be in close collaboration with the Klose lab in Oxford and we have a lot of cool projects you can get involved in. Apply!

Happy Pluripotency Day! #Oct4

DDIAS is a single-stranded DNA-binding effector of the TOPBP1-CIP2A complex in mitosis DNA double-strand breaks and unresolved DNA replication intermediates are particularly dangerous during mitosis. Paradoxically, cells inactivate canonical DNA repair mechanisms during chromosome segre...

Delighted to share our lab's first preprint identifying DDIAS as a mitotic DNA repair protein. Great collaboration with the @andrewblackford.bsky.social, @tcr-miller.bsky.social and @profstewartlab.bsky.social labs, and many more. Read the paper here: www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

m6A and the NEXT complex direct Xist RNA turnover and X-inactivation dynamics - Nature Structural & Molecular Biology Wei et al. show that the primary function of m6A on the nuclear long noncoding RNA Xist, a master regulator of X inactivation, is to promote RNA degradation. Xist turnover is mediated by the nuclear e...

Double celebration on our floor @oxfordbiochemistry.bsky.social with @guifengwei.bsky.social from the Brockdorff lab and Dounia and Sherry from Fisher lab having their papers published today! And I hear there is more to come...

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

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

Do you know where transcription of a gene actually stops? Hint: it is not the annotated gene end.
In our new paper in Nucleic Acids Research we argue that phosphorylation on threonine 4 of RNA Pol II CTD is a marker of transcription termination in animals... 🧵
academic.oup.com/nar/advance-...

Affinity-ligand purification of native human low-abundance multi-protein complexes for structure determination In human cells, large multi-protein transcription co-activators, such as chromatin remodelers or histone acetyltransferases, play critical roles in gene-expression regulation and are often implicated ...

Check out our new collaborative preprint about Affinity-ligand purification of native human low-abundance multi-protein complexes doi.org/10.1101/2025...

well done guys, it's an interesting read! I have compared previously the effect of either gradual or instant denaturation on chromatin structure (academic.oup.com/nar/article/..., fig.2) - perhaps you'll find that interesting. Congrats!

Registration for Transcription and Chromatin UK is OPEN! Taking place from September 17 to 19, 2025, this conference will showcase cutting-edge research and is a ‘must-attend’ event for the UK transcription and chromatin community & both at home and abroad.
Pl register ow.ly/7QQb50W9Alo & share

good job Jei! :) Congratulations!

Selective interaction of the protein SMCHD1 with specific chromatin regions is governed by the loading factor LRIF1 and SMCHD1 ATPase activity The chromosomal protein SMCHD1 is a GHKL ATPase that plays important roles in epigenetic silencing, including on the inactive X chromosome (Xi) and at the D4Z4 macrosatellite linked to regulation of D...

Fresh preprint by @flavia-con.bsky.social from our lab uncovers how SMCHD1 finds & binds chromatin using live-cell single-molecule imaging🔬

She reveals how SMCHD1 dynamically engages chromatin, including the inactive X chromosome, to maintain gene silencing.

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

Check out new paper on single-molecule live-cell imaging of SMCHD1 binding to an inactive X chromosome by Flavia Constantinescu from Neil Brockdorff's team! :)

yup, very few attractive options for funding research in Europe. Basically ERC starting grant... and that's it

The first two blastomeres contribute unequally to the human embryo Labeling and live imaging of human embryos reveal that the majority of the future body originates, mostly, from one of the 2-cell stage blastomeres. Descendants of the first 2-cell stage blastomere to...

Also noted: The first two blastomeres contribute unequally to the human embryo. www.cell.com/cell/fulltex...

All you nuclear biologists out there: Here is a cautionary tale not to be fooled by peripheral organelle staining. It might just be that your antibody got trapped because it is "too good".

this is really cool! 😉