Journal Clubs in 2023

Florian Heyd describes a paper that pointed towards alternative splicing as a driver of human cognitive abilities.

Emily Wong describes a study that provided a quantitative methodology for analyzing ChIP experiments and shifted our understanding of the functionality of transcription factors.

Ernst and Renne highlight two papers, one that discovered and another that structurally defined the ER–mitochondria encounter structure (ERMES) that facilitates the exchange of lipids between the ER and mitochondria.

Two papers published in 1991 established a new class of human genetic disorders, caused by expansion of simple DNA repeats.

The first study to show, in C. elegans, that sensory neurons have a role in lifespan regulation.

Antennapedia proteins were among the first proteins found to be exchanged intercellularly. This discovery by Alain Prochiantz and colleagues has inspired researchers of various backgrounds.

Bulut-Karslıoğlu remembers the publication of two seminal papers that described bivalent chromatin and how this discovery continues to affect research to this day.

Anne West recounts the study that showed postnatal accumulation of non-CpG DNA methylation in neurons coinciding with postnatal synapse maturation, suggesting that it contributes to brain function.

Cutler and Vijg remind us of the publication that laid the foundation for genetic mutation theories of ageing.

Diana Pinheiro recounts two seminal papers describing how cell surface tension dictates how cells sort into different tissues during development.

Zuzana Storchová recounts the discovery of the subtle yet significant consequences of polyploidy.

The discovery that peripheral organs such as the spleen support blood formation following radiation has inspired haematology research for over five decades.

Thoru Pederson recalls the impact that a 1968 paper from Dan Brown’s lab had on his career.

Stable introns were serendipitously discovered just over a decade ago.

The lab of C. David Allis was among the pioneers of developing histone-PTM-specific antibodies to unlock the mysteries of chromatin.

Discovery of the wide conservation of the homeodomain provided revolutionary insight into gene function and ushered in the birth of evolutionary developmental biology (evo-devo).

Yonatan Stelzer highlights a landmark work from the lab of Howard Cedar that addresses how genome-wide DNA methylation patterns are established and instructed by the DNA sequence.