Lars Velten
@larsplus.bsky.social
Group leader @crg.eu | blood, single cell, synthetic genomics
Pinned
Lars Velten
@larsplus.bsky.social
· May 8
Design principles of cell-state-specific enhancers in hematopoiesis
Screen of minimalistic enhancers in blood progenitor cells demonstrates widespread
dual activator-repressor function of transcription factors (TFs) and enables the model-guided
design of cell-state-sp...
www.cell.com
Out in Cell @cp-cell.bsky.social: Design principles of cell-state-specific enhancers in hematopoiesis
🧬🩸 screen of fully synthetic enhancers in blood progenitors
🤖 AI that creates new cell state specific enhancers
🔍 negative synergies between TFs lead to specificity!
www.cell.com/cell/fulltex...
🧵
🧬🩸 screen of fully synthetic enhancers in blood progenitors
🤖 AI that creates new cell state specific enhancers
🔍 negative synergies between TFs lead to specificity!
www.cell.com/cell/fulltex...
🧵
Reposted by Lars Velten
Are you looking for a PhD? Join us in Barcelona! You'll dive into a community of >100 PhD students from 30 countries exploring the frontiers of biology. You can also join an online workshop on 6 November (15:00 CET) to learn how to find the right lab for you.
More info: www.crg.eu/en/content/t...
More info: www.crg.eu/en/content/t...
October 23, 2025 at 7:56 AM
Are you looking for a PhD? Join us in Barcelona! You'll dive into a community of >100 PhD students from 30 countries exploring the frontiers of biology. You can also join an online workshop on 6 November (15:00 CET) to learn how to find the right lab for you.
More info: www.crg.eu/en/content/t...
More info: www.crg.eu/en/content/t...
Reposted by Lars Velten
Big, beautiful trees!!
SMART-PTA for whole-genome+transcriptome on thousand of single cells from the normal human esophagus 🤯 Massively scaling up the power of scWGS to build deep phylogenies and chart somatic evolution from birth throughout life.
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
SMART-PTA for whole-genome+transcriptome on thousand of single cells from the normal human esophagus 🤯 Massively scaling up the power of scWGS to build deep phylogenies and chart somatic evolution from birth throughout life.
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
October 14, 2025 at 2:37 PM
Big, beautiful trees!!
SMART-PTA for whole-genome+transcriptome on thousand of single cells from the normal human esophagus 🤯 Massively scaling up the power of scWGS to build deep phylogenies and chart somatic evolution from birth throughout life.
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
SMART-PTA for whole-genome+transcriptome on thousand of single cells from the normal human esophagus 🤯 Massively scaling up the power of scWGS to build deep phylogenies and chart somatic evolution from birth throughout life.
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
Reposted by Lars Velten
Early-career researchers: want to run your own lab? 🌟Max Planck Research Groups offer 6+ years, up to €2.7M in funding, open-topic freedom, team support & tenure-track opportunities. Intrigued? 😃Apply by Oct 14, 2025! www.mpg.de/max-planck-r...
September 15, 2025 at 9:27 AM
Early-career researchers: want to run your own lab? 🌟Max Planck Research Groups offer 6+ years, up to €2.7M in funding, open-topic freedom, team support & tenure-track opportunities. Intrigued? 😃Apply by Oct 14, 2025! www.mpg.de/max-planck-r...
This was a lot of fun! Thanks Daylon and @arunsharmaphd.bsky.social for being great hosts!
We have a new episode out!
Dr. Lars Velten from the Centre for Genomic Regulation talks about his research on #LineageTracing and #hematopoiesis: https://bit.ly/4gsvo5X
Dr. Lars Velten from the Centre for Genomic Regulation talks about his research on #LineageTracing and #hematopoiesis: https://bit.ly/4gsvo5X
September 18, 2025 at 10:09 AM
This was a lot of fun! Thanks Daylon and @arunsharmaphd.bsky.social for being great hosts!
www.economist.com/culture/2025...
To counter this, here’s my 3 fav reads 📚 from this summer:
- The dream of the Celt by Mario Vargas Llosa
- Paradise by Abdulrazak Gurnah
- Dzhamilia by Tsjyngyz Ajtmatov
To counter this, here’s my 3 fav reads 📚 from this summer:
- The dream of the Celt by Mario Vargas Llosa
- Paradise by Abdulrazak Gurnah
- Dzhamilia by Tsjyngyz Ajtmatov
Is the decline of reading making politics dumber?
As people read less they think less clearly, scholars fear
www.economist.com
September 7, 2025 at 5:13 AM
www.economist.com/culture/2025...
To counter this, here’s my 3 fav reads 📚 from this summer:
- The dream of the Celt by Mario Vargas Llosa
- Paradise by Abdulrazak Gurnah
- Dzhamilia by Tsjyngyz Ajtmatov
To counter this, here’s my 3 fav reads 📚 from this summer:
- The dream of the Celt by Mario Vargas Llosa
- Paradise by Abdulrazak Gurnah
- Dzhamilia by Tsjyngyz Ajtmatov
New method from my former lab - combining targeted RNA-seq and DNA-seq from the same cell on the @missionbio.bsky.social platform. Congrats!
It can also be combined with targeted methylation profiling and clonal tracing.
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
It can also be combined with targeted methylation profiling and clonal tracing.
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
Functional phenotyping of genomic variants using joint multiomic single-cell DNA–RNA sequencing - Nature Methods
This study introduces SDR-seq, a droplet-based single-cell DNA–RNA sequencing platform, enabling the study of gene expression profiles linked to both noncoding and coding variants.
www.nature.com
September 2, 2025 at 9:56 AM
New method from my former lab - combining targeted RNA-seq and DNA-seq from the same cell on the @missionbio.bsky.social platform. Congrats!
It can also be combined with targeted methylation profiling and clonal tracing.
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
It can also be combined with targeted methylation profiling and clonal tracing.
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
A really powerful, easy and affordable method for profiling cellular interactions in the immune system. Congrats @dom60.bsky.social , @simonhaas.bsky.social and everyone involved!
Excited to share the latest publication from my PhD with @simonhaas.bsky.social at @dkfz.bsky.social, out now in Nature Methods!
A big thanks to all co-authors, especially Lea Jopp-Saile, Schayan Yousefian and @viktoriaflore.bsky.social for all their hard work.
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
A big thanks to all co-authors, especially Lea Jopp-Saile, Schayan Yousefian and @viktoriaflore.bsky.social for all their hard work.
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
Ultra-high-scale cytometry-based cellular interaction mapping - Nature Methods
Interact-omics, a high-throughput cytometry-based framework, resolves the cellular interaction landscape.
www.nature.com
August 13, 2025 at 12:11 PM
A really powerful, easy and affordable method for profiling cellular interactions in the immune system. Congrats @dom60.bsky.social , @simonhaas.bsky.social and everyone involved!
Reposted by Lars Velten
Our paper benchmarking foundation models for perturbation effect prediction is finally published 🎉🥳🎉
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
We show that none of the available* models outperform simple linear baselines. Since the original preprint, we added more methods, metrics, and prettier figures!
🧵
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
We show that none of the available* models outperform simple linear baselines. Since the original preprint, we added more methods, metrics, and prettier figures!
🧵
August 4, 2025 at 1:52 PM
Our paper benchmarking foundation models for perturbation effect prediction is finally published 🎉🥳🎉
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
We show that none of the available* models outperform simple linear baselines. Since the original preprint, we added more methods, metrics, and prettier figures!
🧵
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
We show that none of the available* models outperform simple linear baselines. Since the original preprint, we added more methods, metrics, and prettier figures!
🧵
Interesting piece on automated enhancer design from the Seelig lab: www.cell.com/cell-systems...
Iterative deep learning design of human enhancers exploits condensed sequence grammar to achieve cell-type specificity
Yin et al. demonstrate the use of iteratively retrained deep learning models to design
synthetic enhancers for progressively higher cell-type specificity. They show the
feasibility of model training f...
www.cell.com
July 15, 2025 at 6:19 AM
Interesting piece on automated enhancer design from the Seelig lab: www.cell.com/cell-systems...
Congrats @hoheyn.bsky.social , @lgmartelotto.bsky.social and team!
STAMP: Single-cell transcriptomics analysis and multimodal profiling through imaging @cellcellpress.bsky.social @lgmartelotto.bsky.social @hoheyn.bsky.social
www.cell.com/cell/fulltex...
www.cell.com/cell/fulltex...
June 23, 2025 at 7:13 AM
Congrats @hoheyn.bsky.social , @lgmartelotto.bsky.social and team!
Thanks to phenomenal work by @crg.eu and @irbbarcelona.org press offices, we got to communicate our findings on 🧬 methylation barcodes and 🩸 blood ageing to a wide audience. A cool experience!
🧵 with highlights in 5 languages and funny moments 😬😅
cadenaser.com/nacional/202... (1/n)
🧵 with highlights in 5 languages and funny moments 😬😅
cadenaser.com/nacional/202... (1/n)
"A partir de los 50 casi todas las células madre se llaman Rodríguez" (Y eso es malo)
Un estudio liderado por dos centros de investigación de Barcelona ha descubierto que, a partir de esa edad, cada vez tenemos menos células madre sanguíneas y las que hay se replican cada vez con más e...
cadenaser.com
May 31, 2025 at 12:44 PM
Thanks to phenomenal work by @crg.eu and @irbbarcelona.org press offices, we got to communicate our findings on 🧬 methylation barcodes and 🩸 blood ageing to a wide audience. A cool experience!
🧵 with highlights in 5 languages and funny moments 😬😅
cadenaser.com/nacional/202... (1/n)
🧵 with highlights in 5 languages and funny moments 😬😅
cadenaser.com/nacional/202... (1/n)
Reposted by Lars Velten
SUM-seq out @natmethods.nature.com !
🚀 Ultra-high-throughput Multiplexed snATAC+RNA
Used to:
⏳ link temporal macrophage GRNs to immune disease genetics
🩸 map T cell regulatory landscapes
🧬✂️ dissect TF function in hiPSC differentiation via CRISPRi/a screens
doi.org/10.1038/s41592-025-02700-8
🧵
🚀 Ultra-high-throughput Multiplexed snATAC+RNA
Used to:
⏳ link temporal macrophage GRNs to immune disease genetics
🩸 map T cell regulatory landscapes
🧬✂️ dissect TF function in hiPSC differentiation via CRISPRi/a screens
doi.org/10.1038/s41592-025-02700-8
🧵
Single-cell ultra-high-throughput multiplexed chromatin and RNA profiling reveals gene regulatory dynamics - Nature Methods
This work presents SUM-seq, an ultra-high-throughput method for co-profiling chromatin accessibility and gene expression in single nuclei across multiplexed samples, advancing the study of gene regula...
doi.org
May 26, 2025 at 9:33 AM
SUM-seq out @natmethods.nature.com !
🚀 Ultra-high-throughput Multiplexed snATAC+RNA
Used to:
⏳ link temporal macrophage GRNs to immune disease genetics
🩸 map T cell regulatory landscapes
🧬✂️ dissect TF function in hiPSC differentiation via CRISPRi/a screens
doi.org/10.1038/s41592-025-02700-8
🧵
🚀 Ultra-high-throughput Multiplexed snATAC+RNA
Used to:
⏳ link temporal macrophage GRNs to immune disease genetics
🩸 map T cell regulatory landscapes
🧬✂️ dissect TF function in hiPSC differentiation via CRISPRi/a screens
doi.org/10.1038/s41592-025-02700-8
🧵
Out @nature.com: Clonal tracing with somatic epimutations
🧬 Single cell methylome encodes cell state & clonal identity
🔨 EPI-Clone reads out both (+mutations, +RNA) at scale
🩸 Clonal expansions of HSCs are universal from age 50, not driven by CH mutations
doi.org/10.1038/s415...
🧵
🧬 Single cell methylome encodes cell state & clonal identity
🔨 EPI-Clone reads out both (+mutations, +RNA) at scale
🩸 Clonal expansions of HSCs are universal from age 50, not driven by CH mutations
doi.org/10.1038/s415...
🧵
Clonal tracing with somatic epimutations reveals dynamics of blood ageing - Nature
The discovery that DNA methylation of different CpG sites can serve as digital barcodes of clonal identity led to the development of EPI-Clone, an algorithm that enables single-cell lineage tracing th...
doi.org
May 21, 2025 at 3:44 PM
Out @nature.com: Clonal tracing with somatic epimutations
🧬 Single cell methylome encodes cell state & clonal identity
🔨 EPI-Clone reads out both (+mutations, +RNA) at scale
🩸 Clonal expansions of HSCs are universal from age 50, not driven by CH mutations
doi.org/10.1038/s415...
🧵
🧬 Single cell methylome encodes cell state & clonal identity
🔨 EPI-Clone reads out both (+mutations, +RNA) at scale
🩸 Clonal expansions of HSCs are universal from age 50, not driven by CH mutations
doi.org/10.1038/s415...
🧵
Reposted by Lars Velten
Super happy and proud of this one. We and others have developed tools for dimensionality reduction for many years. MOFA (linear) and other non-linear generalisations, space/time. scDORI fuses this with GRN inference. It’s a nice and useful piece of software. Here applied to GBM biology.
🧠 Excited to share my main PhD project! We mapped the regulatory rules governing Glioblastoma plasticity using single-cell multi-omics and deep learning. This work is part of a two-paper series with @bayraktarlab.bsky.social @oliverstegle.bsky.social and @moritzmall.bsky.social, Preprint at end🧵👇
May 19, 2025 at 3:38 PM
Super happy and proud of this one. We and others have developed tools for dimensionality reduction for many years. MOFA (linear) and other non-linear generalisations, space/time. scDORI fuses this with GRN inference. It’s a nice and useful piece of software. Here applied to GBM biology.
Reposted by Lars Velten
A triumph of perseverance from twitterless Tom Weber, Christine Biben and the team, our in vivo barcoding "LoxCode mouse" used to resolve epiblast fate to fetal organs is finally published in @cellpress.bsky.social and available through @jacksonlab.bsky.social www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
LoxCode in vivo barcoding reveals epiblast clonal fate bias to fetal organs
Much remains to be learned about the clonal fate of mammalian epiblast cells. Here, we develop high-diversity Cre recombinase-driven LoxCode barcoding…
www.sciencedirect.com
May 16, 2025 at 4:32 AM
A triumph of perseverance from twitterless Tom Weber, Christine Biben and the team, our in vivo barcoding "LoxCode mouse" used to resolve epiblast fate to fetal organs is finally published in @cellpress.bsky.social and available through @jacksonlab.bsky.social www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
Looking forward to hosting ISCO again in Barcelona next year!
📍🗓️ save the date: 28./29. May 2026
📍🗓️ save the date: 28./29. May 2026
Just wrapped up 2 inspiring days at ISCO – Innovations in Single Cell Omics! A great community came together to share science and fun. A big THANK YOU to all our fantastic speakers and interactive participants
May 14, 2025 at 8:27 AM
Looking forward to hosting ISCO again in Barcelona next year!
📍🗓️ save the date: 28./29. May 2026
📍🗓️ save the date: 28./29. May 2026
Very nice press coverage! It was fun working with the @crg.eu PR team & explaining synthetic enhancers to journalists in Spanish 😅
Un equipo de científicos liderados por @larsplus.bsky.social han creado un sistema de inteligencia artificial capaz de diseñar fragmentos de ADN que controlan la regulación genómica de células sanas de mamífero por primera vez. Escribe @nunodomin.bsky.social en @elpais.com
Un ADN ideado con ayuda de la inteligencia artificial controla el comportamiento de células de mamífero por primera vez
Científicos en Barcelona perfeccionan un sistema para diseñar fragmentos genéticos que determinan el destino de las células sanguíneas
elpais.com
May 10, 2025 at 8:40 AM
Very nice press coverage! It was fun working with the @crg.eu PR team & explaining synthetic enhancers to journalists in Spanish 😅
Reposted by Lars Velten
Finally published! We developed an epigenomics to therapeutics screening approach that identifies naturally occurring elements that can titrate expression of transgenes at various levels including single elements stronger than the B-globin LCR. www.nature.com/articles/s41...
Large-scale discovery of potent, compact and erythroid specific enhancers for gene therapy vectors - Nature Communications
This study presents a large-scale enhancer screening approach to optimize gene therapy vectors. A compact, potent, erythroid-specific enhancer used in a therapeutic vector, improved viral titers, tran...
www.nature.com
May 9, 2025 at 2:15 PM
Finally published! We developed an epigenomics to therapeutics screening approach that identifies naturally occurring elements that can titrate expression of transgenes at various levels including single elements stronger than the B-globin LCR. www.nature.com/articles/s41...
Reposted by Lars Velten
🧠 MPRA + AI to decipher rules of enhancer grammar.
I wrote some thoughts about the fantastic and inspiring work by Robert Frömel & colleagues from @larsplus.bsky.social lab at @crg.eu @upf.edu 👏👏👏
sciencemediacentre.es/en/design-dn...
I wrote some thoughts about the fantastic and inspiring work by Robert Frömel & colleagues from @larsplus.bsky.social lab at @crg.eu @upf.edu 👏👏👏
sciencemediacentre.es/en/design-dn...
Design DNA fragments that control genes in mammalian cells with AI
A team from the Centre for Genomic Regulation (CRG) and Pompeu Fabra University (UPF) in Barcelona has developed an artificial intelligence tool capable of designing regulatory sequences for genes that do not exist in nature. When introduced into cells, these enhancers can increase or decrease gene activity in a specific way depending on the type of cell targeted. According to the authors, ‘the potential applications are enormous. It's like writing software, but for biology.’ The results are published in the journal Cell.
sciencemediacentre.es
May 9, 2025 at 8:11 AM
🧠 MPRA + AI to decipher rules of enhancer grammar.
I wrote some thoughts about the fantastic and inspiring work by Robert Frömel & colleagues from @larsplus.bsky.social lab at @crg.eu @upf.edu 👏👏👏
sciencemediacentre.es/en/design-dn...
I wrote some thoughts about the fantastic and inspiring work by Robert Frömel & colleagues from @larsplus.bsky.social lab at @crg.eu @upf.edu 👏👏👏
sciencemediacentre.es/en/design-dn...
Reposted by Lars Velten
Now online! Design principles of cell-state-specific enhancers in hematopoiesis
Design principles of cell-state-specific enhancers in hematopoiesis
Screen of minimalistic enhancers in blood progenitor cells demonstrates widespread dual activator-repressor function of transcription factors (TFs) and enables the model-guided design of cell-state-specific enhancers.
dlvr.it
May 8, 2025 at 2:59 PM
Now online! Design principles of cell-state-specific enhancers in hematopoiesis
Out in Cell @cp-cell.bsky.social: Design principles of cell-state-specific enhancers in hematopoiesis
🧬🩸 screen of fully synthetic enhancers in blood progenitors
🤖 AI that creates new cell state specific enhancers
🔍 negative synergies between TFs lead to specificity!
www.cell.com/cell/fulltex...
🧵
🧬🩸 screen of fully synthetic enhancers in blood progenitors
🤖 AI that creates new cell state specific enhancers
🔍 negative synergies between TFs lead to specificity!
www.cell.com/cell/fulltex...
🧵
Design principles of cell-state-specific enhancers in hematopoiesis
Screen of minimalistic enhancers in blood progenitor cells demonstrates widespread
dual activator-repressor function of transcription factors (TFs) and enables the model-guided
design of cell-state-sp...
www.cell.com
May 8, 2025 at 4:07 PM
Out in Cell @cp-cell.bsky.social: Design principles of cell-state-specific enhancers in hematopoiesis
🧬🩸 screen of fully synthetic enhancers in blood progenitors
🤖 AI that creates new cell state specific enhancers
🔍 negative synergies between TFs lead to specificity!
www.cell.com/cell/fulltex...
🧵
🧬🩸 screen of fully synthetic enhancers in blood progenitors
🤖 AI that creates new cell state specific enhancers
🔍 negative synergies between TFs lead to specificity!
www.cell.com/cell/fulltex...
🧵
This method has already proven super useful to us!
April 8, 2025 at 7:44 PM
This method has already proven super useful to us!
I agree, you don’t want to miss it! Technical barriers that have so far impeded most lineage tracing in human are falling and the potential of this field is vast.
EMBO workshop on Single cell Lineage Tracing!
Sept 18-21 in Sant Feliu, Girona, Spain.
Registration OPEN!!!!!
Tons of opportunities for talks (including some full length ones).
You don’t want to miss it!
meetings.embo.org/event/25-lin...
Sept 18-21 in Sant Feliu, Girona, Spain.
Registration OPEN!!!!!
Tons of opportunities for talks (including some full length ones).
You don’t want to miss it!
meetings.embo.org/event/25-lin...
Lineage tracing: Dynamics, cellular memory, and somatic evolution
Recent advances in high-resolution lineage tracing technologies and single-cell genomics are allowing researchers to quantify cell state dynamics at unprecedented scales. Across cancer and immunity, …
meetings.embo.org
April 8, 2025 at 6:55 PM
I agree, you don’t want to miss it! Technical barriers that have so far impeded most lineage tracing in human are falling and the potential of this field is vast.
Very cool study on leukemic stem cells, thank you @kentsisresearch.bsky.social for letting us be part of it!
A new KRG study led by Sumiko Takao @naturecomms.bsky.social uncovers how epigenetic mechanisms control human leukemia stem cells (LSCs) that fuel therapy resistance in AML. www.nature.com/articles/s41...
Epigenetic mechanisms controlling human leukemia stem cells and therapy resistance - Nature Communications
Acute myeloid leukemia (AML) arise from mutations of stem and progenitor cells. Here, authors identify a quiescent, label-retaining cell population in AML patient specimens that have tumor-initiation ...
www.nature.com
April 4, 2025 at 5:17 PM
Very cool study on leukemic stem cells, thank you @kentsisresearch.bsky.social for letting us be part of it!