Mike Robson
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drmrobson.bsky.social
Mike Robson
@drmrobson.bsky.social
Group leader of Chromatin (Dys)function lab @MDC-BIMSB
Former Postdoc @Mundlos lab
PhD @ Schirmer lab
https://www.mdc-berlin.de/robson
Pinned
The Robson lab's second paper! A truly fun collaboration with an unexpected and important finding - progenitors reconfigure 3D genomes organisation to commission loci for future cell fates. A heroic amount of work from a rockstar team.
🚨 Preprint 🚨
Ever wondered how cells prepare their genomes to enable new cell-fates? In this team up with the Kind lab, we show that genes are repositioned in the nucleus to get ready for future activation and tissue formation. Read 🧵👇 to find out how and when this happens!

doi.org/10.1101/2025...
Reconfiguration of genome-lamina interactions marks the commissioning of limb cell-fates
Diverse forms of heterochromatin block inappropriate transcription and safeguard differentiation and cell identity. Yet, how and when heterochromatin is reconfigured to facilitate changes in cell-fate...
www.biorxiv.org
Reposted by Mike Robson
✨Exciting news: the main story of my PhD is out in Science!

Together with Christine Moene @cmoene.bsky.social, we explored what happens when you scramble the genome—revealing how Sox2’s position shapes enhancer activation.

📖 Read the full story here: www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...
Functional maps of a genomic locus reveal confinement of an enhancer by its target gene
Genes are often activated by enhancers located at large genomic distances, and the importance of this positioning is poorly understood. By relocating promoter-reporter constructs into thousands of alt...
www.science.org
September 19, 2025 at 2:09 PM
Reposted by Mike Robson
🥳 Very grateful for the support of the ERC Starting Grant for my newly established lab! We will study how transposable elements contribute to mammalian embryonic development.
We will have positions available next year. Stay tuned!
📣 The ERC Starting Grant call results are out!

Find out which early-career researchers will receive funding this year, what they will be investigating, where they will be based... plus lots of other #ERCStG facts & figures for 2025!

➡️ buff.ly/IsafuFh

#FrontierResearch 🇪🇺#EUfunded #HorizonEurope
September 4, 2025 at 1:27 PM
Reposted by Mike Robson
Eva Nogales @nogaleslab.bsky.social introducing the 2025 CSH Mechanisms of Eukaryotic Transcription Meeting. Co-organizing with Wendy Bickmore @wbickmor.bsky.social and Joanna Wysocka. Will intermittently try to update as allowed
August 26, 2025 at 11:32 PM
Reposted by Mike Robson
Pathologists have used nuclear & tissue shapes to diagnose #cancer for decades, but what is the molecular basis for this? In our latest work, we develop a computational pipeline to figure this out in #colorectalcancer! Check out 🧵& preprint #mechanobiology #stemcells www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
August 15, 2025 at 10:50 AM
Reposted by Mike Robson
Another paper bluetorial! Today: how does the spatial location of genes influence their function? (1/n) www.nature.com/articles/s41...
The nuclear periphery confers repression on H3K9me2-marked genes and transposons to shape cell fate - Nature Cell Biology
Marin et al. report the role of lamin proteins and the lamin B receptor (LBR) in chromatin positioning at the nuclear periphery. Knockout of all lamins and LBR in mouse embryonic stem cells leads to h...
www.nature.com
July 22, 2025 at 5:10 PM
Reposted by Mike Robson
(1/n) DNA-PAINT imaging inside the nucleus at single antibody resolution using TIRF? Ultrathin sectioning makes it happen!

Grateful to share my postdoctoral work introducing “tomographic & kinetically-enhanced DNA-PAINT” or in brief: tkPAINT. Out in @pnas.org!
doi.org/10.1073/pnas...
👇🧵
August 13, 2025 at 2:19 PM
Reposted by Mike Robson
Celebrating 10 years of our lab with a new preprint:
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
How does enhancer location within a TAD control transcriptional bursts from a cognate promoter?
Experiments by Jana Tünnermann and modelling by Gregory Roth
March 29, 2025 at 12:46 PM
Reposted by Mike Robson
Finally out! 🥳 Our paper showing how a transposable element (TE) insertion can cause developmental phenotypes is now published @natgenet.nature.com 🧬🦠🐁
Below is a brief description of the major findings. Check the full version of the paper for more details: www.nature.com/articles/s41588-025-02248-5
Enhancer adoption by an LTR retrotransposon generates viral-like particles, causing developmental limb phenotypes - Nature Genetics
Activation of an LTR retrotransposon inserted upstream of the Fgf8 gene produces viral-like particles in the mouse developing limb, triggering apoptosis and causing limb malformation. This phenotype c...
www.nature.com
July 9, 2025 at 10:05 AM
Reposted by Mike Robson
Calling all aspiring Postdocs! One extra week to apply to join our exciting HFSP-funded project to uncover how chromatin moves to function.

Deadline July 15th.

www.mdc-berlin.de/career/jobs/...
July 8, 2025 at 9:12 AM
Calling all aspiring Postdocs! One extra week to apply to join our exciting HFSP-funded project to uncover how chromatin moves to function.

Deadline July 15th.

www.mdc-berlin.de/career/jobs/...
July 8, 2025 at 9:12 AM
Reposted by Mike Robson
Postdoc🚨!

Come join our HFSP team to uncover how chromatin moves in cells and what this means for genome function! Great opportunity to combine single-cell genomics, live imaging and polymer physics in the unique mammalian retina with @andersshansen.bsky.social, Davide Michieletto & Sandra Tenreiro
Wissenschaftliche*r Mitarbeiter*in/ Postdoc (m/f/d)
Chromatin ist nicht unbeweglich. Es handelt sich um ein hochdynamisches Material, dessen 3D-Struktur zentrale genomische Prozesse – von der Transkription bis zur DNA-Reparatur – steuert. Doch wie verhält sich Chromatin als Material – als Flüssigkeit, Feststoff oder viskoelastisches Gel –, um diese Funktionen in lebenden Zellen auszuführen? Ohne eine Antwort auf diese Frage können wir nicht vollständig verstehen, wie Chromatin bei Krankheiten gestört wird.
www.mdc-berlin.de
June 20, 2025 at 7:58 AM
Reposted by Mike Robson
Our paper describing the Range Extender element which is required and sufficient for long-range enhancer activation at the Shh locus is now available at @nature.com. Congrats to @gracebower.bsky.social who led the study. Below is a brief summary of the main findings www.nature.com/articles/s41... 1/
Range extender mediates long-distance enhancer activity - Nature
The REX element is associated with long-range enhancer–promoter interactions.
www.nature.com
July 2, 2025 at 4:17 PM
Postdoc🚨!

Come join our HFSP team to uncover how chromatin moves in cells and what this means for genome function! Great opportunity to combine single-cell genomics, live imaging and polymer physics in the unique mammalian retina with @andersshansen.bsky.social, Davide Michieletto & Sandra Tenreiro
Wissenschaftliche*r Mitarbeiter*in/ Postdoc (m/f/d)
Chromatin ist nicht unbeweglich. Es handelt sich um ein hochdynamisches Material, dessen 3D-Struktur zentrale genomische Prozesse – von der Transkription bis zur DNA-Reparatur – steuert. Doch wie verhält sich Chromatin als Material – als Flüssigkeit, Feststoff oder viskoelastisches Gel –, um diese Funktionen in lebenden Zellen auszuführen? Ohne eine Antwort auf diese Frage können wir nicht vollständig verstehen, wie Chromatin bei Krankheiten gestört wird.
www.mdc-berlin.de
June 20, 2025 at 7:58 AM
We're thrilled to continue our deep dive into how chromatin mechanics govern how our genomes function with our A-team @andersshansen.bsky.social @Davide Michieletto, and @Sandra Tenreiro.

A huge thanks to the @dfg.de and @hfspo.bsky.social for supporting us.

Stay tuned! PhDs/Postdocs coming soon!
@drmrobson.bsky.social has won two grants from @dfg.de & @hfspo.bsky.social totaling over €2 million. He and his lab now work to decode the mechanics of #chromatin, hoping to finally define its physical state and better understand how it governs gene regulation
www.mdc-berlin.de/news/news/mi...
May 31, 2025 at 12:38 PM
Reposted by Mike Robson
@drmrobson.bsky.social has won two grants from @dfg.de & @hfspo.bsky.social totaling over €2 million. He and his lab now work to decode the mechanics of #chromatin, hoping to finally define its physical state and better understand how it governs gene regulation
www.mdc-berlin.de/news/news/mi...
May 30, 2025 at 12:50 PM
Reposted by Mike Robson
How to find Evolutionary Conserved Enhancers in 2025? 🐣-🐭
Check out our paper - fresh off the press!!!
We find widespread functional conservation of enhancers in absence of sequence homology
Including: a bioinformatic tool to map sequence-diverged enhancers!
rdcu.be/enVDN
github.com/tobiaszehnde...
Conservation of regulatory elements with highly diverged sequences across large evolutionary distances
Nature Genetics - Combining functional genomic data from mouse and chicken with a synteny-based strategy identifies positionally conserved cis-regulatory elements in the absence of direct sequence...
rdcu.be
May 27, 2025 at 12:19 PM
Reposted by Mike Robson
Making intrabodies from antibodies just got easier! Learn how we made 𝟭𝟵 intrabodies to bind and light up peptides and histone modifications in live cells. And thanks to Academia, all sequences are freely available. (video credit: Yuko Sato @YukoSatoT2) (1/15)
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
February 12, 2025 at 6:28 AM
The Robson lab's second paper! A truly fun collaboration with an unexpected and important finding - progenitors reconfigure 3D genomes organisation to commission loci for future cell fates. A heroic amount of work from a rockstar team.
🚨 Preprint 🚨
Ever wondered how cells prepare their genomes to enable new cell-fates? In this team up with the Kind lab, we show that genes are repositioned in the nucleus to get ready for future activation and tissue formation. Read 🧵👇 to find out how and when this happens!

doi.org/10.1101/2025...
Reconfiguration of genome-lamina interactions marks the commissioning of limb cell-fates
Diverse forms of heterochromatin block inappropriate transcription and safeguard differentiation and cell identity. Yet, how and when heterochromatin is reconfigured to facilitate changes in cell-fate...
www.biorxiv.org
May 8, 2025 at 10:47 AM
Reposted by Mike Robson
Very excited to share our latest work revealing a prominent role for LADs in commisioning cell fates in mouse organ & tissue development, particularly of the limb. Amazing work by Isabel and Samy together with @stemundi.bsky.social & @drmrobson.bsky.social
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
Reconfiguration of genome-lamina interactions marks the commissioning of limb cell-fates
Diverse forms of heterochromatin block inappropriate transcription and safeguard differentiation and cell identity. Yet, how and when heterochromatin is reconfigured to facilitate changes in cell-fate...
www.biorxiv.org
May 8, 2025 at 9:18 AM
Reposted by Mike Robson
This year I am climbing the alpe d’Huez by bike 6 times to raise money for cancer research. 100% of the funds are directly invested into cancer research. Please click on the link below if you wish to fund this cause and help me reach my goals. Thanks!

www.opgevenisgeenoptie.nl/fundraisers/...
Jop Kind
Ik doe mee aan Alpe d’HuZes omdat ik geloof dat wij samen kunnen werken aan een wereld waarin je niet meer doodgaat aan kanker, wil jij mij steunen?
www.opgevenisgeenoptie.nl
April 28, 2025 at 7:42 AM
Reposted by Mike Robson
🚨 Preprint 🚨
Ever wondered how cells prepare their genomes to enable new cell-fates? In this team up with the Kind lab, we show that genes are repositioned in the nucleus to get ready for future activation and tissue formation. Read 🧵👇 to find out how and when this happens!

doi.org/10.1101/2025...
Reconfiguration of genome-lamina interactions marks the commissioning of limb cell-fates
Diverse forms of heterochromatin block inappropriate transcription and safeguard differentiation and cell identity. Yet, how and when heterochromatin is reconfigured to facilitate changes in cell-fate...
www.biorxiv.org
May 8, 2025 at 9:43 AM
And modelling extraordinaire @gfudenberg.bsky.social who somehow got missed!
Grateful to my wonderful collaborators worldwide:
Yuko Sato, Xingchi Yan, Simon Ulrich, @watanyatra.bsky.social, Lothar Schermelleh, Hiroshi Kimura, IrinaSolovei & my supervisor @drmrobson.bsky.social. Thank you for your hard work & support throughout! 🌍🙏
April 23, 2025 at 5:38 PM
Reposted by Mike Robson
Grateful to my wonderful collaborators worldwide:
Yuko Sato, Xingchi Yan, Simon Ulrich, @watanyatra.bsky.social, Lothar Schermelleh, Hiroshi Kimura, IrinaSolovei & my supervisor @drmrobson.bsky.social. Thank you for your hard work & support throughout! 🌍🙏
April 14, 2025 at 8:08 PM
Reposted by Mike Robson
😱 A very hungry #PacManoid ate the original post 🍬🍬🍬

Here’s the 🧵 on our latest in @cp-cellstemcell.bsky.social again!

Gastruloids w/ a sweet tooth better model natural embryos: doi.org/10.1016/j.st...

Spearheaded by @cryaaa.bsky.social & Alba Villaronga-Luque @mpi-cbg.de @poldresden.bsky.social
April 19, 2025 at 8:49 AM