Beth Westbrook
@bethwestbrook.bsky.social
Postdoc in the Santos Lab (The Francis Crick Institute)
Investigating how cells navigate change
Trying to appreciate the beauty in nature 🌱
Investigating how cells navigate change
Trying to appreciate the beauty in nature 🌱
Reposted by Beth Westbrook
Out today, our take on 6-methyladenine #6mA evolution in Eukaryotes @natgenet.nature.com. We asked a simple question, is really DNA 6mA common across the eukaryotes? The answer is "yes" if you're a unicellular eukaryote 🦠, not so if you're multicellular 🐝🌱🍄. www.nature.com/articles/s41... 1/9
Adenine DNA methylation associated with transcriptionally permissive chromatin is widespread across eukaryotes - Nature Genetics
Long-read sequencing in 18 unicellular eukaryotes reveals that 6mA is widespread across eukaryotes and is enriched at transcriptionally permissive regions, which are also marked by H3K4me3.
www.nature.com
November 18, 2025 at 12:00 PM
Out today, our take on 6-methyladenine #6mA evolution in Eukaryotes @natgenet.nature.com. We asked a simple question, is really DNA 6mA common across the eukaryotes? The answer is "yes" if you're a unicellular eukaryote 🦠, not so if you're multicellular 🐝🌱🍄. www.nature.com/articles/s41... 1/9
Reposted by Beth Westbrook
wait, wait, what 😱
Direct targeting and regulation of RNA polymerase II by cell signaling kinases in @science.org
www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...
Direct targeting and regulation of RNA polymerase II by cell signaling kinases in @science.org
www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...
November 7, 2025 at 8:32 AM
wait, wait, what 😱
Direct targeting and regulation of RNA polymerase II by cell signaling kinases in @science.org
www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...
Direct targeting and regulation of RNA polymerase II by cell signaling kinases in @science.org
www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...
Reposted by Beth Westbrook
1/ Excited to share our new study with @brumbaugh-lab.bsky.social, out in @natbiotech.nature.com! P-bodies selectively sequester RNAs encoding cell fate regulators, often from the preceding developmental stage. Releasing these RNAs can drive changes in cell identity. 🧵 www.nature.com/articles/s41...
Selective RNA sequestration in biomolecular condensates directs cell fate transitions - Nature Biotechnology
Stem cell differentiation is controlled by manipulating RNA condensates.
www.nature.com
October 28, 2025 at 4:02 PM
1/ Excited to share our new study with @brumbaugh-lab.bsky.social, out in @natbiotech.nature.com! P-bodies selectively sequester RNAs encoding cell fate regulators, often from the preceding developmental stage. Releasing these RNAs can drive changes in cell identity. 🧵 www.nature.com/articles/s41...
Reposted by Beth Westbrook
We had a blast tonight at the ‘Curious about the Crick’ event showcasing the science in our lab. Lots of enthusiasm and so many interesting questions. Was awesome to share this with my wonderful lab from brainstorming to communicating the science we love. Thank you to @crick.ac.uk for having us
October 21, 2025 at 9:44 PM
We had a blast tonight at the ‘Curious about the Crick’ event showcasing the science in our lab. Lots of enthusiasm and so many interesting questions. Was awesome to share this with my wonderful lab from brainstorming to communicating the science we love. Thank you to @crick.ac.uk for having us
Reposted by Beth Westbrook
🚨New preprint from the lab! This work led by @akshayjg.bsky.social & @smfernandezmoya.bsky.social shows how the RNA binding protein STAU2 regulates the timing of neurogenesis in iPSC-derived human cells
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
Staufen2 modulates the temporal dynamics of human neurogenesis in vitro
RNA-binding proteins (RBPs) play a central role in post-transcriptional regulation during brain development, yet their specific functions in coordinating human neural lineage decisions remain poorly u...
www.biorxiv.org
October 2, 2025 at 4:40 PM
🚨New preprint from the lab! This work led by @akshayjg.bsky.social & @smfernandezmoya.bsky.social shows how the RNA binding protein STAU2 regulates the timing of neurogenesis in iPSC-derived human cells
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
Reposted by Beth Westbrook
Highlights of this year’s Ig Nobel recipients include a nutrition prize for studying the preferred pizza toppings of rainbow lizards at a seaside resort in Togo
go.nature.com/4n5HQv7
go.nature.com/4n5HQv7
Tipsy bats and perfect pasta: Ig Nobels celebrate ‘improbable’ research
The annual awards are a celebration of weird but thought-provoking science.
go.nature.com
September 19, 2025 at 9:27 AM
Highlights of this year’s Ig Nobel recipients include a nutrition prize for studying the preferred pizza toppings of rainbow lizards at a seaside resort in Togo
go.nature.com/4n5HQv7
go.nature.com/4n5HQv7
Reposted by Beth Westbrook
1/7 Really happy to see my PhD work published in ✨Developmental Cell✨ today! We find human endoderm is specified by two developmental trajectories 🔀, and the choice between alternate routes is dictated by the combinatorial BMP4/Activin signalling. www.cell.com/developmenta...
Combinatorial BMP4 and activin direct the choice between alternate routes to endoderm in a stem cell model of human gastrulation
Inge et al. show that human endoderm originates from two converging developmental
routes with distinct dynamics and efficiencies yet similar developmental potential.
Combinatorial activin and BMP4 sig...
www.cell.com
September 9, 2025 at 8:01 PM
1/7 Really happy to see my PhD work published in ✨Developmental Cell✨ today! We find human endoderm is specified by two developmental trajectories 🔀, and the choice between alternate routes is dictated by the combinatorial BMP4/Activin signalling. www.cell.com/developmenta...
Reposted by Beth Westbrook
Introducing five concepts from dynamical systems to decode developmental regulatory mechanisms, have a read! @perez-carrasco.bsky.social @roederlab.bsky.social @mpipz.bsky.social This effort started in a morphogenesis meeting @kitp-ucsb.bsky.social in 2023. journals.biologists.com/dev/article/...
August 4, 2025 at 6:42 AM
Introducing five concepts from dynamical systems to decode developmental regulatory mechanisms, have a read! @perez-carrasco.bsky.social @roederlab.bsky.social @mpipz.bsky.social This effort started in a morphogenesis meeting @kitp-ucsb.bsky.social in 2023. journals.biologists.com/dev/article/...
Reposted by Beth Westbrook
Predicting the translation efficiency of messenger RNA in mammalian cells go.nature.com/4mgXR0C
Predicting the translation efficiency of messenger RNA in mammalian cells - Nature Biotechnology
A deep convolutional neural network model predicts the influence of the full-length mRNA sequence on translation efficiency.
go.nature.com
July 25, 2025 at 3:37 PM
Predicting the translation efficiency of messenger RNA in mammalian cells go.nature.com/4mgXR0C
Reposted by Beth Westbrook
IGF2BP1 restricts the induction of human primordial germ cell fate in an m6A-dependent manner
IGF2BP1 restricts the induction of human primordial germ cell fate in an m6A-dependent manner
Zhang, Gu, Tong, et al. use human primordial germ cell-like cells induced from ESCs to show that germline entry is restricted via epitranscriptomic regulation of OTX2 by the m6A reader IGF2BP1. They demonstrate that an m6A-IGF2BP1-OTX2-MacroH2A.1-TFAP2C axis is essential to regulate human germ cell fate.
dlvr.it
July 3, 2025 at 11:36 PM
IGF2BP1 restricts the induction of human primordial germ cell fate in an m6A-dependent manner
Reposted by Beth Westbrook
Big welcome to the lab to physicist turned quantitative biologist Beth Westbrook @bethwestbrook.bsky.social! Beth did her PhD in Jonathan Chubb’s lab at UCL and has been very interested in how fate transitions are coordinated. We are lucky she joined our lab for her postdoc!
June 6, 2025 at 3:50 PM
Big welcome to the lab to physicist turned quantitative biologist Beth Westbrook @bethwestbrook.bsky.social! Beth did her PhD in Jonathan Chubb’s lab at UCL and has been very interested in how fate transitions are coordinated. We are lucky she joined our lab for her postdoc!