Nezha Benabdallah
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nsbenab.bsky.social
Nezha Benabdallah
@nsbenab.bsky.social
Group leader at the University of Edinburgh.
Chromatin, Gene Regulation & Sarcoma
https://www.benabdallah-lab.com/
Pinned
SS18::SSX activates Polycomb target genes without BAF ❌
Instead, transcription relies on EP300 via the SS18 QPGY domain
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...
➡️ Coactivator targeting emerges as a new therapeutic strategy in synovial sarcoma 🎯
Team work from @banitolab.bsky.social and @uoe-igc.bsky.social
www.biorxiv.org
Reposted by Nezha Benabdallah
📣 I'm excited to share our latest preprint!

We adapt and characterise a neurosphere-based CNCC differentiation protocol, and demonstrate utility for quantitative phenotyping and craniofacial disease modelling! 🧫

Read about Array-CNCC here:
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...

@uoe-igc.bsky.social
January 28, 2026 at 2:37 PM
Reposted by Nezha Benabdallah
Synovial sarcoma is driven almost exclusively by a single oncofusion – SS18-SSX

For years, the assumptions on disease mechanisms were simple:

➡️ SS18-SSX works by hijacking SWI/SNF chromatin remodeling activity

Our new study shows that assumption was wrong 🧵👇

www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...
SS18-SSX co-opts P300 to sustain oncogenic transcription independent of SWI/SNF activity
Synovial sarcoma is driven by the SS18-SSX fusion oncoprotein, which has been assumed to promote tumorigenesis through its incorporation into the SWI/SNF chromatin remodeling complexes. Accordingly, therapeutic efforts have focused on targeting SS18-SSX containing SWI/SNF assemblies, yet these approaches have produced limited clinical benefit. Here, we demonstrate that SS18-SSX sustains oncogenic transcription independent of SWI/SNF activity. Despite efficient degradation and dismantling of SWI/SNF complexes, fusion occupancy at target loci and associated gene expression programs remain largely intact. Instead, we identify the acetyltransferase P300 as an essential co-factor supporting SS18-SSX chromatin binding and transcriptional activation. Targeting P300 displaces the fusion from chromatin, suppresses its transcriptional output, compromising synovial sarcoma viability. Notably, dual PROTAC mediated degradation of P300 and SWI/SNF produces strong synergistic effects, broadly disrupting SS18-SSX localization and function. These findings redefine the mechanistic basis of synovial sarcoma and reveal a mechanistically anchored therapeutic strategy for targeting its core oncogenic driver. ### Competing Interest Statement C.R.V. has been a consultant for Flare Therapeutics, Roivant Sciences and C4 Therapeutics; has served on the advisory boards of KSQ Therapeutics, Syros Pharmaceuticals and Treeline Biosciences; has received research funding from Boehringer Ingelheim and Treeline Biosciences; and owns stock in Treeline Biosciences. S.A.A. has been a consultant and/or shareholder for Neomorph, Imago Biosciences, Hyku Therapeutics, C4 Therapeutics, Accent Therapeutics and Nimbus Therapeutics; and has received research support from Janssen and Syndax. N.O.C. is a co-founder, shareholder and management consultant for PhenoTherapeutics Ltd; and a shareholder in Amplia Therapeutics Ltd All other authors declare no financial interests UKRI, EP/X039633/1 Worldwide Cancer Research, https://ror.org/031tfbz57, 21-0271 Science Foundation Ireland, https://ror.org/0271asj38, 18/SIRG/5573
www.biorxiv.org
January 28, 2026 at 9:54 AM
SS18::SSX activates Polycomb target genes without BAF ❌
Instead, transcription relies on EP300 via the SS18 QPGY domain
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...
➡️ Coactivator targeting emerges as a new therapeutic strategy in synovial sarcoma 🎯
Team work from @banitolab.bsky.social and @uoe-igc.bsky.social
www.biorxiv.org
January 28, 2026 at 10:20 AM
Reposted by Nezha Benabdallah
Anyone know anything about Jennifer Harvey, who first isolated the virus containing HRAS (Harvey-Ras) at Mill Hill in 1967?

Prepping a lecture including the discovery of Ras oncogenes and wanted to add pics of the scientists involved.

The Internet has NOTHING

#sciencehistory #forgottenwomen
January 23, 2026 at 10:17 AM
Very cool! Can't wait to see single-cell TimeVault 🤩
January 23, 2026 at 12:22 AM
Reposted by Nezha Benabdallah
Reposted by Nezha Benabdallah
We are looking for a postdoc to join our team! If you're interested in translating a cutting edge genomics technology (www.nature.com/articles/s41...) to real-life applications in hematology, this is for you. We offer a unique working environment ON THE BEACH: recruitment.crg.eu/content/jobs...
November 20, 2025 at 9:36 AM
We have an exciting PhD opportunity through the EASTBIO programme, co-supervised with Diego Oyarzún. This project combines synthetic and systems biology to uncover the gene-regulatory circuitry hijacked in a cancer model. We’re looking for candidates with a strong interest in functional genomics.
EASTBIO - Dissecting CIC::DUX4 oncogenic circuitry through single-cell perturbation profiling and network inference at University of Edinburgh on FindAPhD.com
PhD Project - EASTBIO - Dissecting CIC::DUX4 oncogenic circuitry through single-cell perturbation profiling and network inference at University of Edinburgh, listed on FindAPhD.com
www.findaphd.com
November 19, 2025 at 1:15 PM
Reposted by Nezha Benabdallah
I'm a longtime fan of Affinity Designer as an affordable Illustrator-killer for figures, and... it's now free?! www.canva.com/newsroom/new...
Highly recommended if you're sick of paying Adobe $. Maybe Canva can buy NPG too and get rid of the OA fees.
Why we made Affinity free, and how we’ll keep it that way
We’ve made Affinity completely free, empowering professional designers with studio-grade creative software, supported by Canva’s sustainable ecosystem.
www.canva.com
November 18, 2025 at 11:28 PM
Reposted by Nezha Benabdallah
📣Job Opportunity: Develop machine learning of cellular automata models with applications to in vitro developmental biology.
More info: edin.ac/49Mr7ZQ
November 12, 2025 at 2:30 PM
Reposted by Nezha Benabdallah
Congratulations @nsbenab.bsky.social and fellow experts joining the Independent Scientific Advisory Panel! 👏
@cmvm-edinburghuni.bsky.social
Last week, we welcomed eight incredible experts to our Independent Scientific Advisory Panel (ISAP) 🔬

We asked our new members: what does being part of ISAP mean to you?

Learn more about the panel: ow.ly/OBTO50XiWbj

#Research #UntilTheresACure less
November 12, 2025 at 3:16 PM
Beautiful (jaw-dropping 😉) work from Hannah Long’s group revealing how Neandertal enhancers influence facial morphology!
📣 Paper alert!

I am delighted that our paper exploring the impact of Neanderthal-derived variants on the activity of a disease-associated craniofacial enhancer has been published in Development today!
journals.biologists.com/dev/article/...
November 10, 2025 at 11:42 AM
Reposted by Nezha Benabdallah
I guess I need to apologize to the writers of Alien: Prometheus. it turns out scientists really do touch everything like that
World's biggest spiderweb discovered inside 'Sulfur Cave' with 111,000 arachnids living in pitch black.

www.livescience.com/animals/spid...
November 8, 2025 at 4:29 PM
Reposted by Nezha Benabdallah
🥁This Wednesday , in #FragileNucleosome seminar, we are excited to host @hannahlong.bsky.social and @jeffvierstra.bsky.social to tell us about amazing work they are doing!
🗓️Register here for upcoming session and the entire series:
us06web.zoom.us/webinar/regi...
November 3, 2025 at 12:03 PM
Reposted by Nezha Benabdallah
Ever wondered what drives enhancer-promoter specificity? Why would an enhancer activate one gene rather than another neighboring one?

Check our latest preprint, led by @mmasoura.bsky.social, to find out!
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
Promoter-proximal gatekeepers restrict pleiotropic enhancer inputs to achieve tissue specificity
Developmental enhancers are central regulatory elements that can activate multiple genes, yet how they selectively regulate one gene over its neighbours remains unclear. Using the Drosophila twist E3 ...
www.biorxiv.org
October 16, 2025 at 12:34 PM
Reposted by Nezha Benabdallah
What is a promoter? And how does it work?

We very happy to share our latest work trying to understand enhancer-promoter compatibility.
I am very excited about the results of @blanka-majchrzycka.bsky.social, which changed the way I think about promoters

www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
Enhancer-promoter compatibility is mediated by the promoter-proximal region
Gene promoters induce transcription in response to distal enhancers. How enhancers specifically activate their target promoter while bypassing other promoters remains unclear. Here, we find that the p...
www.biorxiv.org
October 16, 2025 at 3:06 PM
Reposted by Nezha Benabdallah
Programmable promoter editing for precise control of transgene expression - @mitcheme.bsky.social @mitdeptofbe.bsky.social go.nature.com/4h9wlR1
October 13, 2025 at 7:11 PM
Reposted by Nezha Benabdallah
🦖 Something HUGE just hatched.

Plasmidsaurus now offers RNA sequencing for gene expression analysis:
• As fast as 3 day turnaround
• $50/sample for academia, $80 for industry
• Up to ~10M unique transcript 3’ end reads per sample
• Interactive results

Explore Plasmidsaurus RNA-Seq today.
October 15, 2025 at 4:02 PM
Reposted by Nezha Benabdallah
If you’re interested in exploring the relationship between chromatin organization and epigenetic memory using chromatin tracing microscopy, my group is recruiting a talented PhD student 🥳
🚨 Please share! We are seeking motivated PhD students who wish to work at the intersection of molecular life sciences and computational sciences.
#IMPRS #IMPRSBAC @freieuniversitaet.bsky.social @maxplanck.de
Check out our projects and apply by Jan 7th, 2026!
www.molgen.mpg.de/IMPRSPhDproj...
October 8, 2025 at 5:05 PM
Reposted by Nezha Benabdallah
🧵1/ Excited to share our new paper introducing a new #singlecell assay: scTF-seq, a high-throughput single-cell approach to explore how transcription factor (TF) dose shapes cell identity and reprogramming outcomes. 🔗 www.nature.com/articles/s41... Big congrats to the entire team @EPFL & @SIAT_China
Dissecting the impact of transcription factor dose on cell reprogramming heterogeneity using scTF-seq - Nature Genetics
This study introduces single-cell transcription factor (TF) sequencing, a single-cell barcoded and doxycycline-inducible TF overexpression approach that reveals dose-sensitive functional classes of TFs and cellular heterogeneity by mapping TF dose-dependent transcriptomic changes during the reprogramming of mouse embryonic multipotent stromal cells.
www.nature.com
October 6, 2025 at 6:57 AM
Reposted by Nezha Benabdallah
And look at this graphic abstract….. 😱🤯
October 5, 2025 at 2:00 AM
Reposted by Nezha Benabdallah
'Innovation does not occur in a vacuum. It requires raw materials: the findings of basic research. We are currently burning through a stockpile of knowledge accumulated during a more enlightened era of public investment, while allocating insufficient resources for replenishing it.'
For the love of frontier research, or why Elon’s rockets keep blowing up | EMBO reports
EMBO Press is an editorially independent publishing platform for the development of EMBO scientific publications.
www.embopress.org
October 3, 2025 at 8:43 AM
Fascinating!
See this? This = implanting mouse embryo. Usually this happens inside its mother and is invisible to us, but we can actually watch implantation ex vivo with the hope of understanding why implantation goes awry in embryos of older women. A 🧵...
October 3, 2025 at 8:45 PM
Reposted by Nezha Benabdallah
Lancet editor: "I can’t forgive Bhattacharya and Makary...both know reliable evidence does not exist to restrict paracetamol use during pregnancy...both know evidence linking vaccines to autism simply doesn't exist. What are they doing?"

[politics - that's what]

www.thelancet.com/action/showP...
www.thelancet.com
October 3, 2025 at 3:30 PM
Reposted by Nezha Benabdallah