Dame lab at Leiden University
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Dame lab at Leiden University
@damelab.bsky.social
280 followers 400 following 25 posts
Interested in the organisation of chromatin in bacteria and archaea, its interplay with transcription and evolution. Methods: single-molecule and ensemble biochemistry, genetics, molecular microbiology, 3D genomics, (computational) structural biology.
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New article online: Modulation of archaeal hypernucleosome structure and stability by Mg2+

In this work, we dissect the effects of Mg2+ on hypernucleosomes formed by the canonical histones from M. fervidus (HMfA and HMfB) and T. kodakarensis (HTkA and HTkB).

www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
Modulation of archaeal hypernucleosome structure and stability by Mg2+
DNA-wrapping histone proteins play a central role in chromatin organization, gene expression and regulation in most eukaryotes and archaea. While the …
www.sciencedirect.com
November 6, 2025 at 7:53 AM
Soon available in my group: 1 PhD position to investigate prokaryotic histones. See our recent work that highlights the existence and diversity of prokaryotic histones (e.g. Schwab et al., TIBS, 2025; Schwab et al., Nat Comm, 2024; Hu et al., Nucl Acids Res, 2024). Please DM for informal enquiries.
November 5, 2025 at 12:57 PM
Reposted by Dame lab at Leiden University
dodonova-sveta.bsky.social
Lab’s first paper is out!! We show the first structures of #Asgard #chromatin by #cryo-EM 🧬❄️
Asgard histones form closed and open hypernucleosomes. Closed are conserved across #Archaea, while open resemble eukaryotic H3–H4 octasomes and are Asgard-specific. More here: www.cell.com/molecular-ce...
October 28, 2025 at 3:07 PM
Reposted by Dame lab at Leiden University
biochemsoc.bsky.social
That’s a wrap for The Biology and Physics of Prokaryotic Chromosomes VII 2025. A big thank you to all those who attended 🧪 #BioPhyChrom2025 #BiochemEvents
Group photo
September 19, 2025 at 8:50 AM
Tomorrow is the start of Biology and Physics of Prokaryotic Chromosomes VII. Great speakers and participants. Excellent support by the Biochem. Society. @biochemsoc.bsky.social
@danielabarilla.bsky.social @vslioy.bsky.social
@graingerlab.bsky.social
@damelab.bsky.social
#BioPhyChrom2025
September 15, 2025 at 8:29 AM
Time flies .. it is today 25 years ago that we published our studies that revealed that bacterial H-NS is a DNA bridging protein:
academic.oup.com/nar/article/... @narjournal.bsky.social
H-NS mediated compaction of DNA visualised by atomic force microscopy
Abstract. The Escherichia coli H-NS protein is a nucleoid-associated protein involved in gene regulation and DNA compaction. To get more insight into the m
academic.oup.com
September 15, 2025 at 8:20 AM
Reposted by Dame lab at Leiden University
danielabarilla.bsky.social
One week to go for The Biology & Physics of Chromosomes VII, but there is still time to register!
Join us! 🧬🧬🧬

@biophychrom.bsky.social @biochemsoc.bsky.social @vslioy.bsky.social @graingerlab.bsky.social @damelab.bsky.social
River Ouse in York and the Hospitium, the conference banquet venue.
September 8, 2025 at 5:21 PM
Reposted by Dame lab at Leiden University
tobiaswarnecke.bsky.social
Please re-post: If you know (or are!) somebody who might fancy doing a PhD (Oct 2026 start) in my group @oxfordbiochemistry.bsky.social, working on chromatin evolution in prokaryotes (or other things we're interested in), please have a look at www.bioch.ox.ac.uk/supervisors-...
Supervisors and Projects
www.bioch.ox.ac.uk
September 1, 2025 at 9:27 AM
Reposted by Dame lab at Leiden University
graingerlab.bsky.social
Talk slots full but we can take late breaking poster abstracts until August 7th. Hope to see you in York to hear about your chromosome story 🧬🦠🧫

www.eventsforce.net/biochemsoc/f...

@vslioy.bsky.social @damelab.bsky.social @graingerlab.bsky.social @biochemsoc.bsky.social @biophychrom.bsky.social
July 25, 2025 at 12:14 PM
Reposted by Dame lab at Leiden University
danielabarilla.bsky.social
Just few days left to register for this chromosome biology fête! 🧬🧬🧬

⏳📆 16 July

www.eventsforce.net/biochemsoc/f...

@vslioy.bsky.social @damelab.bsky.social @graingerlab.bsky.social @biochemsoc.bsky.social @biophychrom.bsky.social
Poster advertising the Biology and Physics of Prokaryotic Chromosomes conference that will be held in York, 16-19 September 2025.
July 14, 2025 at 12:47 PM
I am pleased to share our new review on the role of bacterial nucleoid-aasociated proteins in mediating responses to changes in environment. Important: some NAPs can directly ‘sense’ physico-chemical changes. www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti... @pingzhuangge.bsky.social
The role of nucleoid-associated proteins in mediating responses to environmental changes
Bacteria face diverse environmental challenges, such as changes in temperature, pH, and osmolarity, and exposure to antibiotics, which necessitate ada…
www.sciencedirect.com
July 10, 2025 at 6:21 AM
Reposted by Dame lab at Leiden University
danielabarilla.bsky.social
York calling! 📣 🧬🧬🧬

Join us at www.biochemistry.org/events-and-t...

⏳⏰ Early bird deadline approaching soon, 16 July! Do not miss out! Half of the talks selected from abstracts.
@damelab.bsky.social @vslioy.bsky.social @graingerlab.bsky.social @biochemsoc.bsky.social @biophychrom.bsky.social
View of a street in York with old houses on both sides and the towers of York Minster in the background.
July 2, 2025 at 5:22 PM
A must-read for histone afficionados: our new review on 'Histone-mediated chromatin organization in prokaryotes and viruses' www.cell.com/trends/bioch... @samuelschwab.bsky.social @vikramalva.bsky.social
Histone-mediated chromatin organization in prokaryotes and viruses
Histones are fundamental chromatin-organizing proteins in eukaryotes and archaea, where they assemble into (hyper)nucleosomes that wrap DNA. Recent studies have expanded the known repertoire of histon...
www.cell.com
June 30, 2025 at 7:35 AM
Reposted by Dame lab at Leiden University
danielabarilla.bsky.social
Chromosome Enthusiasts, join us at The Biology & Physics of Prokaryotic Chromosomes 🧬! Friendly community, fantastic speakers line-up, grant writing session for ECRs. Early-bird deadline approaching soon.
@damelab.bsky.social @vslioy.bsky.social @graingerlab.bsky.social @biophychrom.bsky.social
Flyer advertising The Biology and Physics of Prokaryotic Chromosome conference that will be held in York, 16-19 September 2025.
June 11, 2025 at 10:53 AM
Reposted by Dame lab at Leiden University
dodonova-sveta.bsky.social
We’ve uncovered Asgard chromatin structures formed by a Hodarchaeal histone : closed hypernucleosome conserved in archaea and an open form resembling the H3-H4 eukaryotic octasome. Fantastic work by @harshranawat.bsky.social!
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
#Chromatin #Asgard #Archaea #cryoEM
May 26, 2025 at 4:56 PM
Reposted by Dame lab at Leiden University
danielabarilla.bsky.social
Join us in York for the Biology & Physics of Prokaryotic Chromosomes! 🧬 #Microsky #Archaeasky

www.biochemistry.org/events-and-t...
@biochemsoc.bsky.social
@damelab.bsky.social @graingerlab.bsky.social @vslioy.bsky.social
May 15, 2025 at 8:00 PM
Reposted by Dame lab at Leiden University
danieltamarit.bsky.social
New vacancy in my team!

PhD student position on microbial genome evolution, focusing on the evolutionary principles underlying bacterial genome architecture.

Please repost and share with talented MSc students in #evobio, bioinformatics or related :)

www.uu.nl/en/organisat...

#MEvoSky #MicroSky
May 14, 2025 at 2:07 PM
Reposted by Dame lab at Leiden University
vikramalva.bsky.social
Excited to share our new preprint on HLp—a bacterial histone from Leptospira perolatii that forms stable tetramers and wraps ~60 bp of DNA: "DNA Wrapping by a Tetrameric Bacterial Histone" www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

@mpi-bio-fml.bsky.social
A snapshot of the HLp tetramer (purple) wrapping ~60 bp of DNA (green).
May 12, 2025 at 9:17 AM
Reposted by Dame lab at Leiden University
molecularmicro.bsky.social
Chromatin aficionados take note:
Second of two special issues on Prokaryotic Chromosome Organization now published!
(6 review/perspective articles and 2 research articles)
Guest edited by @damelab.bsky.social
#MicroSky #Chromatin

onlinelibrary.wiley.com/toc/13652958...
Prokaryotic Chromosome Organization: part 2: Molecular Microbiology: Vol 123, No 3
Molecular Microbiology is a broad-scope microbiology journal for basic and translational research that contributes to understanding molecular principles in microbes.
onlinelibrary.wiley.com
March 11, 2025 at 3:35 PM
Reposted by Dame lab at Leiden University
jvhooff.bsky.social
Exciting news! I'm looking for a computational biologist to join my lab at Wageningen University & Research! It's a 3-year postdoc position on Holomycota genome architecture and evolution. Spread the word! www.wur.nl/en/vacancy/p...
Postdoc Comparative genomics and genome architecture in early-diverging fungi and their protist relatives (3-year position)
www.wur.nl
March 5, 2025 at 11:56 AM
Reposted by Dame lab at Leiden University
danielabarilla.bsky.social
Can I tempt some young minds to consider Old York for a PhD?

Some days left to apply.
Open to applicants WORLDWIDE 🌎.
River Ouse at sunset with some orange light on the horizon.
March 4, 2025 at 8:56 PM
Returning from a great visit to the Dodonova lab at EMBL to discuss archaeal histones and hypernucleosomes. Nice also to see a tribute to the hypernucleosome on EMBL premises !#Archaeasky
February 28, 2025 at 10:22 AM
Reposted by Dame lab at Leiden University
molecularmicro.bsky.social
First of two special issues on Prokaryotic Chromosome Organization now published! Guest edited by @damelab.bsky.social

#MicroSky #Chromatin

onlinelibrary.wiley.com/toc/13652958...
Prokaryotic Chromosome Organization: part 1: Molecular Microbiology: Vol 123, No 2
Molecular Microbiology is a broad-scope microbiology journal for basic and translational research that contributes to understanding molecular principles in microbes.
onlinelibrary.wiley.com
February 21, 2025 at 1:28 PM
Reposted by Dame lab at Leiden University
biophychrom.bsky.social
Really great to see the Reviews, Perspectives and Research articles of these special issues published. Many thanks to all contributors, and for the support of the field for the BioPhyChrom meeting series. Registration is open for the upcoming incarnation of the meeting in York, UK, Sept. 16-19 2025.
February 20, 2025 at 8:19 PM
In @molecularmicro.bsky.social: two special issues on Prokaryotic Chromosome Organization. Many excellent contributions, including a vision article: 'Future directions of the Prokaryotic Chromosome Field', outcome of BioPhyChrom 2023 @biophychrom.bsky.social onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...
Future Directions of the Prokaryotic Chromosome Field
In September 2023, the Biology and Physics of Prokaryotic Chromosomes meeting ran at the Lorentz Center in Leiden, The Netherlands. As part of the workshop, those in attendance developed a series of ....
onlinelibrary.wiley.com
February 20, 2025 at 8:14 PM