Jack Bateman
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jbateman01.bsky.social
Jack Bateman
@jbateman01.bsky.social
Biology professor at Bowdoin College. Genetics, flies, chromosomes, weird science 🥰
Pinned
I thought we could use a Drosophila starter pack, please let me know if you’d like to be added. (I think there is also a more general insect list out there somewhere that i cant find rn..) go.bsky.app/JGggkH3
AI learns from chromatin data to uncover gene interactions www.nature.com/articles/d41...
AI learns from chromatin data to uncover gene interactions
Machine-learning tool for predicting gene expression.
www.nature.com
December 30, 2025 at 6:12 PM
Medical breakthroughs in 2025 www.scientificdiscovery.dev/p/medical-br...
Medical breakthroughs in 2025
... and a happy new year.
www.scientificdiscovery.dev
December 30, 2025 at 4:09 PM
Reposted by Jack Bateman
"A mathematical model is a logical machine for converting assumptions into conclusions. If the model is correct and we believe its assumptions then we must, as a matter of logic, believe its conclusions. "

link.springer.com/article/10.1...
Models in biology: ‘accurate descriptions of our pathetic thinking’ - BMC Biology
In this essay I will sketch some ideas for how to think about models in biology. I will begin by trying to dispel the myth that quantitative modeling is somehow foreign to biology. I will then point o...
link.springer.com
December 26, 2025 at 1:01 PM
Reposted by Jack Bateman
Exciting new paper out! @allanaschooley.bsky.social and Sergey Venev led this project that let to the discovery of two chromosome folding programs: one inherited via mitotic chromosomes and one mitotic inherited through the cytoplasm!

www.nature.com/articles/s41...
Interphase chromosome conformation is specified by distinct folding programmes inherited through mitotic chromosomes or the cytoplasm - Nature Cell Biology
Schooley et al. find that mitotically bookmarked loci drive a transient chromosome folding state during G1 entry that is subsequently modulated by factors inherited through the cytoplasm.
www.nature.com
December 22, 2025 at 11:45 AM
Reposted by Jack Bateman
Very happy to share our paper rdcu.be/eUImj out today in @natcellbio.nature.com 🎉🎉🎉
We uncover an unexpected role for endogenous Xist RNA in regulating X-linked genes that escape X-inactivation.
Escape from X inactivation is directly modulated by Xist noncoding RNA
Nature Cell Biology - The authors show that increased Xist RNA levels can induce de novo silencing of genes that normally escape X inactivation. SPEN depletion prevents the silencing of escape...
rdcu.be
December 15, 2025 at 4:22 PM
Reposted by Jack Bateman
Functional maps of a genomic locus reveal confinement of an enhancer by its target gene | Science 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 23, 2025 at 9:04 AM
Mapping chromatin structure at base-pair resolution unveils a unified model of cis-regulatory element interactions www.cell.com/cell/fulltex...
Mapping chromatin structure at base-pair resolution unveils a unified model of cis-regulatory element interactions
Li et al. apply base-pair resolution Micro Capture-C ultra to map chromatin contacts between individual motifs within cis-regulatory elements and reveal a unified model of biophysically mediated enhan...
www.cell.com
December 11, 2025 at 11:40 PM
Multiscale structure of chromatin condensates explains phase separation and material properties www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...
Multiscale structure of chromatin condensates explains phase separation and material properties
The structure and interaction networks of molecules within biomolecular condensates are poorly understood. Using cryo–electron tomography and molecular dynamics simulations, we elucidated the structur...
www.science.org
December 6, 2025 at 10:15 PM
Reposted by Jack Bateman
"We find that the evidence for in vivo LLPS is often phenomenological and inadequate to discriminate between phase separation and other possible mechanisms. Moreover, the causal relationship and functional consequences of LLPS in vivo are even more elusive"
(2019)

pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/31594803/
Evaluating phase separation in live cells: diagnosis, caveats, and functional consequences - PubMed
The idea that liquid-liquid phase separation (LLPS) may be a general mechanism by which molecules in the complex cellular milieu may self-organize has generated much excitement and fervor in the cell biology community. While this concept is not new, its rise to preeminence has resulted in renewed in …
pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov
November 30, 2025 at 12:08 PM
Reposted by Jack Bateman
Check out this beautiful paper by @richardcsilva.bsky.social et al., out now in @natcomms.nature.com. Great new DSB sensors to track DNA break formation and repair in real-time
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
Engineered chromatin readers track damaged chromatin dynamics in live cells and animals - Nature Communications
DNA damage threatens genome stability, but its dynamics in living systems remain difficult to track. Here, the authors engineer MCPH1-based protein probes that specifically recognize γH2AX, enabling r...
www.nature.com
November 22, 2025 at 12:13 PM
Reposted by Jack Bateman
Some of the eggs laid by Iberian harvester ant queens contain males of another species, the builder harvester ant – and these males father all of the workers in the colony.
Queen ant makes males of another species for daughters to mate with
Bizarrely, Iberian harvester ant queens lay eggs that turn into male builder harvester ants, and some of her offspring are hybrids of the two species
www.newscientist.com
September 9, 2025 at 9:26 AM
Reposted by Jack Bateman
Identification of optimal fluorophores for use in the Drosophila embryo by Timothy E Saunders and team: www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
September 30, 2025 at 2:43 PM
Reposted by Jack Bateman
#Wolbachia has puzzled scientists with its power to rewire insect reproduction. What if I tell you that we found one of the keys Wolbachia use to rewire its host AND a small molecule inhibitor uses this key to mimic what this microbe has mastered for millions of years.

www.cell.com/cell-reports...
Beyond Wolbachia—Can a small molecule control insect reproduction?
Kaur et al. demonstrate reduced histone acetylation as a key mechanism underpinning Wolbachia’s paternal-effect embryonic lethality trait in Drosophila melanogaster. Recapitulation of this trait by in...
www.cell.com
October 3, 2025 at 12:58 PM
Site-specific DNA insertion into the human genome with engineered recombinases www.nature.com/articles/s41...
Site-specific DNA insertion into the human genome with engineered recombinases - Nature Biotechnology
Engineered DNA recombinases efficiently and specifically insert genetic cargos without the use of landing pads.
www.nature.com
November 12, 2025 at 11:10 PM
Heterozygosity at a conserved candidate sex determination locus is associated with female development in the clonal raider ant (Ooceraea biroi) elifesciences.org/articles/106...
Heterozygosity at a conserved candidate sex determination locus is associated with female development in the clonal raider ant (Ooceraea biroi)
A complementary sex determination locus is conserved in ants and dates back to approximately 112 million years ago.
elifesciences.org
November 10, 2025 at 1:55 PM
Mapping chromatin structure at base-pair resolution unveils a unified model of cis-regulatory element interactions www.cell.com/cell/fulltex...
Mapping chromatin structure at base-pair resolution unveils a unified model of cis-regulatory element interactions
Li et al. apply base-pair resolution Micro Capture-C ultra to map chromatin contacts between individual motifs within cis-regulatory elements and reveal a unified model of biophysically mediated enhan...
www.cell.com
November 9, 2025 at 3:42 PM
Reposted by Jack Bateman
Ever noticed that #CRISPR editing results differ between cells? Awesome PhD student Moritz Schlapansky developed "scOUT-seq" to measure single cell transcriptomes + editing. 1.2 million cells, 74 cell types, living 🐭. Cell subtypes differ wildly from bulk average! www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
Cell-stereotyped DNA repair outcomes are widespread during genome editing
Genome editing outcomes are governed by DNA repair pathways that vary with cell type and state. We developed scOUT-seq (single-cell Outcomes Using Transcript sequencing), a scalable approach that join...
www.biorxiv.org
October 24, 2025 at 8:44 AM
Transcriptional interference gates monogenic odorant receptor expression in ants www.cell.com/current-biol...
Transcriptional interference gates monogenic odorant receptor expression in ants
Ant pheromone communication relies on an expanded odorant receptor repertoire, with many genes in large genomic tandem arrays. Glotzer et al. describe a novel mechanism, conserved across ants and othe...
www.cell.com
October 20, 2025 at 11:23 PM
Reposted by Jack Bateman
High levels of Cas9 are toxic in sensory neurons. Reducing Cas9 levels with uORFs avoids toxicity and is compatible with efficient editing. From @thompsonpeerlab.bsky.social. Fly lines @vdrc-flies.bsky.social

#CRISPR #Drosophila

www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
October 4, 2025 at 9:10 PM
Kinetic organization of the genome revealed by ultraresolution multiscale live imaging www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...
Kinetic organization of the genome revealed by ultraresolution multiscale live imaging
Genome function requires regulated genome motion. However, tools to directly observe this motion in vivo have been limited in coverage and resolution. Here we introduce an approach to tile mammalian c...
www.science.org
September 19, 2025 at 9:54 AM