Bou-Nader lab
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bounaderlab.bsky.social
Bou-Nader lab
@bounaderlab.bsky.social
Our team studies #Rloop & #RNA 🧬 with #biochemistry #cryoEM 🔬❄️ #crystallography💎 to understand how they control life! Views from Charles
https://biochem.emory.edu/bou-nader-lab/
Pinned
Happy to share the news I've received the Beckman Young Investigator award 🥳 This recognizes the pioneering work done by my mentees to push the barriers of understanding and manipulating #R-loop biology 🧬 grateful for their hard work and for this recognition
Reposted by Bou-Nader lab
Thank you to our sponsors for the GA RNA Salon @rnasociety.bsky.social and Lexogen- we hosted Dr. Francesca Storici for our annual symposium yesterday @dunhamlab.bsky.social @ghaleilab.bsky.social
November 15, 2025 at 2:22 PM
Reposted by Bou-Nader lab
I’m very happy to share Zhong Han’s beautiful work on the biochemical function of Senataxin, encoded by a gene that is mutated in rare and early-disabling neurodegenerative diseases. Turns out it rescues backtracked RNA polymerase II during early transcription! www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
A role for human senataxin in contending with pausing and backtracking during transcript elongation
Senataxin (SETX) regulates RNA polymerase II (RNAPII) transcription and helps maintain genome stability, at least partly by suppressing R-loops. Howev…
www.sciencedirect.com
November 12, 2025 at 5:36 PM
Reposted by Bou-Nader lab
Thrilled to share that the final piece of my PhD work is now on bioRxiv! biorxiv.org/content/10.1... With support from @nvidia and the @NSF, we used AlphaFold to screen 1.6M+ protein pairs, revealing thousands of potential novel PPIs. All data can be viewed at predictomes.org/hp
Proteome-wide in silico screening for human protein-protein interactions
Protein-protein interactions (PPIs) drive virtually all biological processes, yet most PPIs have not been identified and even more remain structurally unresolved. We developed a two-step computational...
biorxiv.org
November 12, 2025 at 9:26 PM
Reposted by Bou-Nader lab
Regulated decay of microRNAs plays a critical role in controlling body size in mammals! Check out our new paper in @genesdev.bsky.social and see thread previously posted with our pre-print 👇 for more info. Congrats to Collette LaVigne, Jaeil Han, and all authors!
genesdev.cshlp.org/cgi/content/...
November 10, 2025 at 5:40 PM
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Tremendous paper from Narry Kim’s lab identifying a sequence element that recruits cellular factors to exogenous mRNAs to ‘rejuvenate’ their poly(A) tails leading to a huge boost in output. Significant implications for therapeutics. Now, I wonder what the factor X is…

www.nature.com/articles/s41...
RNA stability enhancers for durable base-modified mRNA therapeutics - Nature Biotechnology
A systematic screen identifies RNA elements that enhance the stability and translation of base-modified mRNA.
www.nature.com
November 10, 2025 at 9:34 PM
Reposted by Bou-Nader lab
New work from Tahirov x Lim collaboration! @qixianghe.bsky.social from my lab contributed the cryo-EM structures for this work. We are excited to help explain how anti-HSV drugs work and to guide their future development.
www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...
@unmc.bsky.social @uwbiochem.bsky.social
Structural basis of herpesvirus helicase-primase inhibition by pritelivir and amenamevir
Structural studies of HSV-1 helicase-primase revealed how pritelivir and amenamevir bind and block its helicase activity.
www.science.org
November 10, 2025 at 12:14 AM
Reposted by Bou-Nader lab
‼️ Excited to share our new paper out now in @science.org ‼️

We describe a new tetrameric RAD51 paralog complex – XRCC3-RAD51C-RAD51D-XRCC2 – which caps the end of RAD51 filaments.

Link: www.science.org/doi/epdf/10....

Thread ⬇️ (1/8)
November 7, 2025 at 10:15 AM
Reposted by Bou-Nader lab
This paper validates the original work establishing this concept for the cGAS-STING pathway. Kudos to the authors.
@wyssinstitute.bsky.social
journals.asm.org/doi/10.1128/...
mRNAs encoding self-DNA reactive cGAS enhance the immunogenicity of lipid nanoparticle vaccines | mBio
Nucleic acid-based vaccines hold promise in preventing infections and treating cancer. The most common use of this technology is to encode antigenic proteins on mRNAs that are delivered to cells via l...
journals.asm.org
November 4, 2025 at 3:31 PM
Reposted by Bou-Nader lab
🎉 Joint paper from the Freudenthal and @tmweaver.bsky.social Labs!
Abbey Vito’s first publication discusses a tug-of-war between BER enzymes and chromatin for access to damaged DNA, a battle central to genome stability.
Built on Tyler's foundational work! tinyurl.com/ywkt2bt5
Base excision repair in chromatin: A tug-of-war for DNA damage
Base excision repair (BER) is a genome surveillance pathway responsible for repairing DNA base lesions distributed throughout the chromatinized eukary…
tinyurl.com
November 3, 2025 at 3:47 PM
Reposted by Bou-Nader lab
Interesting work profiling surface proteins from the Kossiakoff lab U Chicago. Corroborates the concept of @oawlab.bsky.social on cancer specific csU5-snRNP200 and our work on csNPM1 but here with more than 500 (!) novel Fabs and 40 antibodies developed. Very cool www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
Dynamic translocation of Inside-Out proteins to the cell surface underlies cellular adaptation to cancer-induced stress
Inside-out (I-O) protein display, the non-canonical surface localization of intracellular proteins, represents an underexplored feature of tumor cell biology. Here, we map the molecular landscape and ...
www.biorxiv.org
November 2, 2025 at 7:44 PM
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Our paper in Science is out! @souravagrawal.bsky.social, @rlynn.bsky.social, @susvirkar.bsky.social, and the rest of the team show human RPA is a telomerase processivity factor essential for telomere maintenance. This reshapes our thinking about telomerase regulation. www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...
Human RPA is an essential telomerase processivity factor for maintaining telomeres
Telomerase counteracts telomere shortening by repeatedly adding DNA repeats to chromosome ends. We identified the replication protein A (RPA) heterotrimer as a telomerase processivity factor critical ...
www.science.org
October 30, 2025 at 10:07 PM
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Exciting news for the RNA research community!

The Human RNome Project has been launched: a global effort to map all human RNAs and their chemical modifications. Proud to support it and contribute to the article in Genome Biology doi.org/10.1186/s130...
#RNA #bioinformatics #RNAstructure #modomics
Unlocking the regulatory code of RNA: launching the Human RNome Project - Genome Biology
The human RNome, the complete set of RNA molecules in human cells, arises through complex processing and includes diverse molecular species. While research traditionally focuses on four canonical nucl...
genomebiology.biomedcentral.com
October 25, 2025 at 10:27 PM
Reposted by Bou-Nader lab
Excited to share: DNA glycosylases are diverse antiviral effectors. They recognize phage base modifications and initiate genome destruction. A structure‑guided approach made the scope of this discovery possible! 🧪 #phagesky doi.org/10.1101/2025... #phage #microbiology
Antiviral Defence is a Conserved Function of Diverse DNA Glycosylases
Bacteria are frequently attacked by viruses, known as phages, and rely on diverse defence systems like restriction endonucleases and CRISPR-Cas to survive. While phages can evade these defences by cov...
doi.org
October 30, 2025 at 12:16 PM
Reposted by Bou-Nader lab
Among the anti-recombinases, FIGNL1 rules them all. So much that inactivating it brings BRCA2-deficient cells to life. Who is responsible for RAD51 loading without BRCA2/FIGNL1, check out the paper to find out! Great collaboration with @raychaudhurilab.bsky.social

www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...
October 30, 2025 at 8:41 PM
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Excited to share a new paper led by @andreaslaustsen.bsky.social, Anne Ljungars, @tpjenkins.bsky.social, Shirin Ahmadi and Nick Burlet. It was a privelege to be a part of this amazing team!

www.nature.com/articles/s41...
Nanobody-based recombinant antivenom for cobra, mamba and rinkhals bites - Nature
A recombinant antivenom composed of eight nanobodies provides broad protection against venom-induced lethality and dermonecrosis in mice challenged with venoms from cobras, mambas and rinkha...
www.nature.com
October 30, 2025 at 8:47 AM
Reposted by Bou-Nader lab
Our study of pseudouridines in RNA was just published - it turns out that they stabilize RNA from cleavage by having much less nucleophilic 2'-OH groups:
pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/acscentsci.5c01345
October 28, 2025 at 2:24 PM
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Lab’s first paper is out!! We show the first structures of #Asgard #chromatin by #cryo-EM 🧬❄️
Asgard histones form closed and open hypernucleosomes. Closed are conserved across #Archaea, while open resemble eukaryotic H3–H4 octasomes and are Asgard-specific. More here: www.cell.com/molecular-ce...
October 28, 2025 at 3:07 PM
Reposted by Bou-Nader lab
'In this manuscript, we show that tag fusions often change protein expression to a degree that is highly dependent on cell and tissue context. We characterise two underlying mechanisms, providing information that should help others to design more effective transgenic strategies'
Tissue-specific consequences of tag fusions on protein expression in transgenic mice
Author summary To better understand the function of specific proteins, researchers need ways to quantify their abundance, to visualise their movements, to understand what other molecules they interact...
journals.plos.org
October 26, 2025 at 6:18 PM
Reposted by Bou-Nader lab
See our paper “Mechanism of trinucleotide repeat expansion by MutSβ-MutLγ and contraction by FAN1”. Using biochemistry, we show how DNA incisions by the MutLγ nuclease can lead to expansions, and how expansion is prevented by FAN1. Well done Issam and Valentina!

www.nature.com/articles/s41...
October 27, 2025 at 1:12 PM
Reposted by Bou-Nader lab
Happy to share our latest work, led by Sierra Love and in collaboration with Melissa Jurica's lab at UCSC and @danglab.bsky.social at U. Minnesota-Twin Cities. This work was funded by the Edward P. Evans Foundation/EvansMDS.

www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
A Yeast-Based High-Throughput Screening Platform for the Discovery of Novel pre-mRNA Splicing Modulators
Pre-mRNA splicing is a crucial process in eukaryotic gene expression, and splicing dysregulation has been linked to various diseases. However, very few small molecules have been discovered that can mo...
www.biorxiv.org
October 21, 2025 at 8:43 PM
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Our paper describing enhanced hybridization-proximity labeling technology is finally out! Enhanced HyPro can identify proteins associated with small RNA compartments and even some individual transcripts, such as pathological C9orf72 transcripts: www.nature.com/articles/s41...
Enhanced hybridization-proximity labeling discovers protein interactomes of single RNA molecules - Nature Communications
Systematic discovery of proteins interacting with low-abundance RNAs is challenging. Here, the authors develop an enhanced HyPro technology to identify proteins associated with compact RNA compartment...
www.nature.com
October 21, 2025 at 8:46 AM
Reposted by Bou-Nader lab
The enzyme cGAS senses DNA damage, but in humans and mice it inhibits a DNA repair pathway (homologous recombination), which reduces genome stability. In naked mole-rats, altering 4 amino acids in cGAS changes its role: instead of hampering repair, it boosts it.

www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...
A cGAS-mediated mechanism in naked mole-rats potentiates DNA repair and delays aging
Efficient DNA repair might make possible the longevity of naked mole-rats. However, whether they have distinctive mechanisms to optimize functions of DNA repair suppressors is unclear. We find that na...
www.science.org
October 18, 2025 at 12:42 PM
Reposted by Bou-Nader lab
Colliding ribosomes are potent signals of cellular stress. But do cells use ‘programmed’ ribosome collisions to regulate gene expression? I’m excited to present a new story from my lab led by Frederick Rehfeld(@fred-rehfeld.bsky.social) which revealed that the answer is YES! Read on to find out how👇
Oxidative stress sensing by the translation elongation machinery promotes production of detoxifying selenoproteins
Selenocysteine, incorporated into polypeptides at recoded termination codons, plays an essential role in redox biology. Using GPX1 and GPX4, selenoenzymes that mitigate oxidative stress, as reporters,...
www.biorxiv.org
October 14, 2025 at 10:28 PM
Reposted by Bou-Nader lab
Test the activity of 300+ natural enzymes against 100+ substrates, discover 200+ new enzymatic reactions, and train machine learning models to predict which enzymes can do which reactions.

@aepaton.bsky.social @gabegomes.bsky.social @alisonnarayan.bsky.social

www.nature.com/articles/s41...
October 2, 2025 at 8:11 PM