Navin B. Ramakrishna
@navinbr.bsky.social
Sr Research Fellow, Jay Shin Lab, Genome Inst Singapore. Collab Bruno Reversade Lab
PhD Eric Miska & Azim Surani Labs, Gurdon Inst, Cambridge
Biochem Grad, Oxford
PhD Eric Miska & Azim Surani Labs, Gurdon Inst, Cambridge
Biochem Grad, Oxford
Pinned
Navin B. Ramakrishna
@navinbr.bsky.social
· Sep 15
Schematics of our increasing knowledge of in vivo human primordial germ cell development, and a summary of the exciting hPGCLC maturation protocols:
@dev-journal.bsky.social @biologists.bsky.social
@dev-journal.bsky.social @biologists.bsky.social
Reposted by Navin B. Ramakrishna
Issue 12 is complete!
Cover: Members of BiO's community, including a founding Editor, past & present Editors-in-Chief, our academic Editors and some of the reviewers from BiO's Fast & Fair peer review initiative. We would like to thank them all.
bit.ly/4piig6y
Cover: Members of BiO's community, including a founding Editor, past & present Editors-in-Chief, our academic Editors and some of the reviewers from BiO's Fast & Fair peer review initiative. We would like to thank them all.
bit.ly/4piig6y
January 5, 2026 at 8:04 PM
Issue 12 is complete!
Cover: Members of BiO's community, including a founding Editor, past & present Editors-in-Chief, our academic Editors and some of the reviewers from BiO's Fast & Fair peer review initiative. We would like to thank them all.
bit.ly/4piig6y
Cover: Members of BiO's community, including a founding Editor, past & present Editors-in-Chief, our academic Editors and some of the reviewers from BiO's Fast & Fair peer review initiative. We would like to thank them all.
bit.ly/4piig6y
Reposted by Navin B. Ramakrishna
Interested in the unexpected? How about a link between piRNAs and maternal histone mRNAs … Great collab with @sebastianfalk.bsky.social, @koenig-lab.bsky.social and Florian Steiner.
#piRNA #histone #mRNA #maternal #RNAbiology #RNASky
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...
#piRNA #histone #mRNA #maternal #RNAbiology #RNASky
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...
www.biorxiv.org
January 8, 2026 at 8:51 AM
Interested in the unexpected? How about a link between piRNAs and maternal histone mRNAs … Great collab with @sebastianfalk.bsky.social, @koenig-lab.bsky.social and Florian Steiner.
#piRNA #histone #mRNA #maternal #RNAbiology #RNASky
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...
#piRNA #histone #mRNA #maternal #RNAbiology #RNASky
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...
Reposted by Navin B. Ramakrishna
Our paper on the newest version of the Registry of candidate cis-Regulatory Elements (cCREs) is out 🧬
Huge thanks to the many collaborators, experimentalists, analysts and software developers who made this work possible — truly a team effort!
A "meme-torial" of the science is coming soon 👀
Huge thanks to the many collaborators, experimentalists, analysts and software developers who made this work possible — truly a team effort!
A "meme-torial" of the science is coming soon 👀
An expanded registry of candidate cis-regulatory elements - Nature
The existing ENCODE registry of candidate human and mouse cis-regulatory elements is expanded with the addition of new ENCODE data, integrating new functional data as well as new cell and tissue types...
www.nature.com
January 7, 2026 at 6:47 PM
Our paper on the newest version of the Registry of candidate cis-Regulatory Elements (cCREs) is out 🧬
Huge thanks to the many collaborators, experimentalists, analysts and software developers who made this work possible — truly a team effort!
A "meme-torial" of the science is coming soon 👀
Huge thanks to the many collaborators, experimentalists, analysts and software developers who made this work possible — truly a team effort!
A "meme-torial" of the science is coming soon 👀
Reposted by Navin B. Ramakrishna
This went under the radar but answers a fundamental question in Epigenetics...
From many hundreds of olfactory receptor genes, each neuron selects expression of only single one (near-randomly). How?
Outstanding work from Mathieu Boulard and colleagues
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...
From many hundreds of olfactory receptor genes, each neuron selects expression of only single one (near-randomly). How?
Outstanding work from Mathieu Boulard and colleagues
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...
The transcription of a single olfactory receptor per neuron is enforced by epigenetic silencing of their enhancers
The ability to discriminate thousands of odors in our environment requires each olfactory neuron to express a single olfactory receptor from hundreds of available genes. The biochemical mechanism enfo...
www.biorxiv.org
January 5, 2026 at 12:51 PM
This went under the radar but answers a fundamental question in Epigenetics...
From many hundreds of olfactory receptor genes, each neuron selects expression of only single one (near-randomly). How?
Outstanding work from Mathieu Boulard and colleagues
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...
From many hundreds of olfactory receptor genes, each neuron selects expression of only single one (near-randomly). How?
Outstanding work from Mathieu Boulard and colleagues
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...
Reposted by Navin B. Ramakrishna
Helping the next generation of scientists find their voice. 📣
Discover how @seahsamantha.bsky.social empowers students through her path from preLights to Executive Editor of the Journal of Emerging Investigators.
Interview: prelights.biologists.com/news/from-pr...
Discover how @seahsamantha.bsky.social empowers students through her path from preLights to Executive Editor of the Journal of Emerging Investigators.
Interview: prelights.biologists.com/news/from-pr...
December 11, 2025 at 11:16 AM
Helping the next generation of scientists find their voice. 📣
Discover how @seahsamantha.bsky.social empowers students through her path from preLights to Executive Editor of the Journal of Emerging Investigators.
Interview: prelights.biologists.com/news/from-pr...
Discover how @seahsamantha.bsky.social empowers students through her path from preLights to Executive Editor of the Journal of Emerging Investigators.
Interview: prelights.biologists.com/news/from-pr...
Reposted by Navin B. Ramakrishna
I don't think scientists should work for anyone else. They should work for discovery and for their own curiosity.
–Maria Leptin, ERC President @marialep.bsky.social on 'The Night Science Podcast'
–Maria Leptin, ERC President @marialep.bsky.social on 'The Night Science Podcast'
December 10, 2025 at 4:08 AM
I don't think scientists should work for anyone else. They should work for discovery and for their own curiosity.
–Maria Leptin, ERC President @marialep.bsky.social on 'The Night Science Podcast'
–Maria Leptin, ERC President @marialep.bsky.social on 'The Night Science Podcast'
Reposted by Navin B. Ramakrishna
Another envelope protein in the human genome. Expressed in the placenta, of course.
The human endogenous retroviral envelope HEMO protein interacts with BACE2: Novel partnership acquired in the primate lineage - PubMed
Endogenous retroviruses (ERV) represent 8 to 10% of mammalian genome. While most ERV are defective, a few retroviral genes, such as the envelope syncytins, were exapted during evolution and likely contributed to the emergence of placental mammals. We have previously identified the oldest full-length …
pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov
December 4, 2025 at 8:32 AM
Another envelope protein in the human genome. Expressed in the placenta, of course.
High-quality mouse reference genomes [PacBio Long Read genomes of 17 strains] reveal the structural complexity of the murine protein-coding landscape, Cell Genomics. www.cell.com/cell-genomic... Genomes and annotations here: projects.ensembl.org/mouse_genomes/
High-quality mouse reference genomes reveal the structural complexity of the murine protein-coding landscape
Helmy et al. provide a collection of high-quality mouse reference genomes. They were
able to resolve some of the most complex regions among mouse genomes that are involved
in immune defense. These fin...
www.cell.com
December 2, 2025 at 4:30 AM
High-quality mouse reference genomes [PacBio Long Read genomes of 17 strains] reveal the structural complexity of the murine protein-coding landscape, Cell Genomics. www.cell.com/cell-genomic... Genomes and annotations here: projects.ensembl.org/mouse_genomes/
Reposted by Navin B. Ramakrishna
🚨Reposts appreciated‼️If I had read this PhD offer five years ago, I wouldn’t have hesitated for a second to apply 😉
Passionate about gene regulation, chromatin, and developmental biology? Just contact @radaiglesiaslab.bsky.social at @ibbtec.bsky.social 🧬✨
#PhD #3DGenome
Passionate about gene regulation, chromatin, and developmental biology? Just contact @radaiglesiaslab.bsky.social at @ibbtec.bsky.social 🧬✨
#PhD #3DGenome
November 15, 2025 at 9:53 AM
🚨Reposts appreciated‼️If I had read this PhD offer five years ago, I wouldn’t have hesitated for a second to apply 😉
Passionate about gene regulation, chromatin, and developmental biology? Just contact @radaiglesiaslab.bsky.social at @ibbtec.bsky.social 🧬✨
#PhD #3DGenome
Passionate about gene regulation, chromatin, and developmental biology? Just contact @radaiglesiaslab.bsky.social at @ibbtec.bsky.social 🧬✨
#PhD #3DGenome
Research Highlight: Mouse In vitro oogenesis breaks free of the ovary www.cell.com/developmenta... @cp-devcell.bsky.social
In vitro oogenesis breaks free of the ovary
In this issue of Developmental Cell, Nosaka et al. differentiate mouse pluripotent
stem cells to large germinal vesicle-stage oocyte-like cells in the absence of ovarian
somatic cells. Their paradigm ...
www.cell.com
November 9, 2025 at 2:01 PM
Research Highlight: Mouse In vitro oogenesis breaks free of the ovary www.cell.com/developmenta... @cp-devcell.bsky.social
Reposted by Navin B. Ramakrishna
Reposted by Navin B. Ramakrishna
Learn more in the open access Nature Genetics paper: www.nature.com/articles/s41...
Complete genome assemblies of two mouse subspecies reveal structural diversity of telomeres and centromeres - Nature Genetics
Telomere-to-telomere assemblies of two mouse inbred strains, C57BL/6J and CAST/EiJ, offer improvements over the current mouse reference genome by adding telomere and centromere sequences that lead to ...
www.nature.com
October 27, 2025 at 11:51 AM
Learn more in the open access Nature Genetics paper: www.nature.com/articles/s41...
Reposted by Navin B. Ramakrishna
We are recuiting two new Associate Professors here in Oxford Biochemistry. Come join us! Reach out to me if you have any questions. Please repost! tinyurl.com/mr3m7bd3
October 17, 2025 at 2:56 PM
We are recuiting two new Associate Professors here in Oxford Biochemistry. Come join us! Reach out to me if you have any questions. Please repost! tinyurl.com/mr3m7bd3
Reposted by Navin B. Ramakrishna
A TE insertion controls throat colour in wheatears. The gene involved (ASIP) is the same one that is epigenetically affected by an IAP insertion the famous Avy mice.
As if we needed more reasons to love TEs.
As if we needed more reasons to love TEs.
A mosaic of modular variation at a single gene underpins convergent plumage coloration
The reshuffling of genomic variation from multiple origins is an important contributor to phenotypic diversification, yet insights into the evolutionary trajectories of this combinatorial process and ...
www.science.org
October 17, 2025 at 11:43 AM
A TE insertion controls throat colour in wheatears. The gene involved (ASIP) is the same one that is epigenetically affected by an IAP insertion the famous Avy mice.
As if we needed more reasons to love TEs.
As if we needed more reasons to love TEs.
The quest to make babies with lab-grown eggs and sperm.
An excellent news feature by Nature: tempered optimism, with critical caveats underscored. And great to see commentary from so many names in the field! www.nature.com/articles/d41...
An excellent news feature by Nature: tempered optimism, with critical caveats underscored. And great to see commentary from so many names in the field! www.nature.com/articles/d41...
The quest to make babies with lab-grown eggs and sperm
Sex cells made from scratch could revolutionize human reproduction. But researchers are struggling to translate promising results in mice into benefits for humans.
www.nature.com
October 16, 2025 at 3:52 PM
The quest to make babies with lab-grown eggs and sperm.
An excellent news feature by Nature: tempered optimism, with critical caveats underscored. And great to see commentary from so many names in the field! www.nature.com/articles/d41...
An excellent news feature by Nature: tempered optimism, with critical caveats underscored. And great to see commentary from so many names in the field! www.nature.com/articles/d41...
Reposted by Navin B. Ramakrishna
The 'Handler genome' of OSCs, a rare and stably growing cell line that runs a piRNA pathway to silence transposons.
Dominik (@86dominik.bsky.social) assembled the genome of this Drosophila cell line.
Besides making some cool findings, the goal was to turn this into useful resource for the field.
Dominik (@86dominik.bsky.social) assembled the genome of this Drosophila cell line.
Besides making some cool findings, the goal was to turn this into useful resource for the field.
When transposons jump, genomes diverge - even in cultured cells.
I am happy to share our new preprint: a chromosome-scale genome assembly for Drosophila OSC cells, one of the key model systems in the piRNA field, especially for nuclear piRNA biology. 🧬🧵 (1/12)
I am happy to share our new preprint: a chromosome-scale genome assembly for Drosophila OSC cells, one of the key model systems in the piRNA field, especially for nuclear piRNA biology. 🧬🧵 (1/12)
October 15, 2025 at 12:18 PM
The 'Handler genome' of OSCs, a rare and stably growing cell line that runs a piRNA pathway to silence transposons.
Dominik (@86dominik.bsky.social) assembled the genome of this Drosophila cell line.
Besides making some cool findings, the goal was to turn this into useful resource for the field.
Dominik (@86dominik.bsky.social) assembled the genome of this Drosophila cell line.
Besides making some cool findings, the goal was to turn this into useful resource for the field.
Reposted by Navin B. Ramakrishna
Read ‘Sperm sequencing reveals extensive positive selection in the male germline’ from @sangerinstitute.bsky.social and collaborators in @nature.com below:
nature.com/articles/s41...
nature.com/articles/s41...
Sperm sequencing reveals extensive positive selection in the male germline - Nature
A combination of whole-genome NanoSeq with deep whole-exome and targeted NanoSeq is used to accurately characterize mutation rates and genes under positive selection in sperm cells.
nature.com
October 8, 2025 at 3:36 PM
Read ‘Sperm sequencing reveals extensive positive selection in the male germline’ from @sangerinstitute.bsky.social and collaborators in @nature.com below:
nature.com/articles/s41...
nature.com/articles/s41...
Reposted by Navin B. Ramakrishna
It is with great sadness that we share the news of the death of our founder, colleague, mentor and friend, Professor Sir John Gurdon. His vision and dedication will continue to inspire generations of scientists.
🔗 www.gurdon.cam.ac.uk/nobel-laurea...
🔗 www.gurdon.cam.ac.uk/nobel-laurea...
October 8, 2025 at 1:15 PM
It is with great sadness that we share the news of the death of our founder, colleague, mentor and friend, Professor Sir John Gurdon. His vision and dedication will continue to inspire generations of scientists.
🔗 www.gurdon.cam.ac.uk/nobel-laurea...
🔗 www.gurdon.cam.ac.uk/nobel-laurea...
Sad to hear this. John was a brilliant scientist and also someone who engaged with everyone personally & as equals, especially young scientists and students. www.cam.ac.uk/research/new...
Nobel Laureate Professor Sir John Gurdon dies aged 92
It is with great sadness that the University shares the news of the death of Professor Sir John Gurdon, founder of the Gurdon Institute.
www.cam.ac.uk
October 7, 2025 at 5:15 PM
Sad to hear this. John was a brilliant scientist and also someone who engaged with everyone personally & as equals, especially young scientists and students. www.cam.ac.uk/research/new...
Reposted by Navin B. Ramakrishna
So sad to hear the news - John truly was an inspiration to so many, and one of a kind.
www.cam.ac.uk/research/new...
www.cam.ac.uk/research/new...
Nobel Laureate Professor Sir John Gurdon dies aged 92
It is with great sadness that the University shares the news of the death of Professor Sir John Gurdon, founder of the Gurdon Institute.
www.cam.ac.uk
October 7, 2025 at 4:02 PM
So sad to hear the news - John truly was an inspiration to so many, and one of a kind.
www.cam.ac.uk/research/new...
www.cam.ac.uk/research/new...
Very candid responses from Azim Surani here on his initially turbulent scientific journey, & accounts of genomic imprinting and the pioneering of mammalian scRNA-seq. Great to see this put together by Ashley Moffett & @geraldinejowett.bsky.social journals.biologists.com/dev/article/...
An interview with Azim Surani
Professor Azim Surani is the Director of Epigenomics and Germline Imprinting at the Gurdon Institute in Cambridge, UK. He is this year's recipient of both the prestigious Kyoto Prize and the Paul Ehrl...
journals.biologists.com
October 3, 2025 at 4:33 PM
Very candid responses from Azim Surani here on his initially turbulent scientific journey, & accounts of genomic imprinting and the pioneering of mammalian scRNA-seq. Great to see this put together by Ashley Moffett & @geraldinejowett.bsky.social journals.biologists.com/dev/article/...
Reposted by Navin B. Ramakrishna
Today in @nature.com, we present our work leveraging functional genomics and human blastoids to uncover a human-specific mechanism in preimplantation development driven by the endogenous retrovirus HERVK.
Special thanks to the reviewers whose comments improved our manuscript a lot! rdcu.be/eI3tD
Special thanks to the reviewers whose comments improved our manuscript a lot! rdcu.be/eI3tD
A human-specific regulatory mechanism revealed in a pre-implantation model
Nature - Genetic manipulation of blastoids reveals the role of recently emerged transposable elements and genes in human development.
rdcu.be
October 1, 2025 at 6:08 PM
Today in @nature.com, we present our work leveraging functional genomics and human blastoids to uncover a human-specific mechanism in preimplantation development driven by the endogenous retrovirus HERVK.
Special thanks to the reviewers whose comments improved our manuscript a lot! rdcu.be/eI3tD
Special thanks to the reviewers whose comments improved our manuscript a lot! rdcu.be/eI3tD
Reposted by Navin B. Ramakrishna
Excited to share our latest News & Views published in Nature! @nature.com
rdcu.be/eI2NJ
Sherif Khodeer and I discuss how stem cell-based embryo models provide evidence that viral DNA sequences that entered the human genome in the past were repurposed to aid early stages of embryonic development.
rdcu.be/eI2NJ
Sherif Khodeer and I discuss how stem cell-based embryo models provide evidence that viral DNA sequences that entered the human genome in the past were repurposed to aid early stages of embryonic development.
October 1, 2025 at 3:37 PM
Excited to share our latest News & Views published in Nature! @nature.com
rdcu.be/eI2NJ
Sherif Khodeer and I discuss how stem cell-based embryo models provide evidence that viral DNA sequences that entered the human genome in the past were repurposed to aid early stages of embryonic development.
rdcu.be/eI2NJ
Sherif Khodeer and I discuss how stem cell-based embryo models provide evidence that viral DNA sequences that entered the human genome in the past were repurposed to aid early stages of embryonic development.
Reposted by Navin B. Ramakrishna
I do think this human egg story is being massively overhyped. To be clear, no eggs have been "generated", "created" or "made" from human skin cells - rather, existing human eggs have been given the DNA from skin cells using a kind of cloning 1/
September 30, 2025 at 4:45 PM
I do think this human egg story is being massively overhyped. To be clear, no eggs have been "generated", "created" or "made" from human skin cells - rather, existing human eggs have been given the DNA from skin cells using a kind of cloning 1/
Reposted by Navin B. Ramakrishna
Embryonic signatures of intergenerational epigenetic inheritance across paternal environment & genetic background
@jamiehackett.bsky.social et al @embl.org see transcriptome changes in offspring after fertilisation by fathers exposed to gut dysbiosis or western diet
www.embopress.org/doi/full/10....
@jamiehackett.bsky.social et al @embl.org see transcriptome changes in offspring after fertilisation by fathers exposed to gut dysbiosis or western diet
www.embopress.org/doi/full/10....
September 29, 2025 at 10:25 AM
Embryonic signatures of intergenerational epigenetic inheritance across paternal environment & genetic background
@jamiehackett.bsky.social et al @embl.org see transcriptome changes in offspring after fertilisation by fathers exposed to gut dysbiosis or western diet
www.embopress.org/doi/full/10....
@jamiehackett.bsky.social et al @embl.org see transcriptome changes in offspring after fertilisation by fathers exposed to gut dysbiosis or western diet
www.embopress.org/doi/full/10....