Thanks so much, Andi! 🙏💫

Thank you for your words, Fillip! Some of my most cherished memories in my scientific career are those from my time working alongside you during your postdoc @mrclmb.bsky.social ✨ thanks for introducing me to the amazing Drosophila and showing me how fun science can be!

Thank you, Moritz! 🙌

Thanks, 2 m Peter! 🤩

So incredibly grateful and excited to be joining the @mpi-cbg.de as a RGL from January 2026! If you are interested in becoming part of a growing team studying how zebrafish embryos know how much protein to make and when as they develop, embedded in a thriving research community, please apply.

So cool to see this work out! Congrats ✨

How cool! 🙌

I still do RNA extractions the „old school“ way i.e. using regular tubes and hand precision.

Thank you all in the schierlab.bsky.social for constant support and especially Alex for giving me the freedom to geek out on 5′ UTRs. Thank you Georg and Sebastian for your enthusiasm and the great collaboration!

Shoutout to Sebastian (Seelig lab) for developing the deep learning model DaniO5P that disentangles the contribution of 5′ UTR elements to predict translational behaviors based on the 5′ UTR sequence alone.

The answer is yes! We observe that 5′ UTR length is a major determinant of translation initiation in vivo and identify cis-acting motifs associated with differential translation initiation.

We developed an in vivo 5′ UTR MPRA during early zebrafish embryogenesis and found that the 5′ UTR is sufficient to confer translational dynamics. The MPRA recapitulates the effect of known elements like uORFs and the TIS context. But do other 5′ UTR features drive translational dynamics?