Research scientist; chromosome biology; DNA replication; genomics; nanopore sequencing
Group leader at Earlham Institute, Norwich
https://www.earlham.ac.uk/profile/conrad-nieduszynski
https://tinyurl.com/kvmdxdp8
ORDID: 0000-0003-2001-076X
Funded PhD in my lab
🧬 Decoding DNA replication origins using genome language models (w/ Ke Li's group) — then engineering new ones. AI + nanopore sequencing + Biofoundry automation ⚙️ (w/ @cgrandel.bsky.social).
We validate computationally AND experimentally.
⏰Deadline 30 Nov 2026. shorturl.at/6jYFP
New preprint🎉
Happy to share our collaborative manuscript, where we provide in vivo and genome-wide evidence linking MCM2-7 helicase activation, DNA extrusion to initial origin melting, thereby adding a new mechanistic layer to how eukaryotic DNA replication is initiated.
👉 doi.org/10.64898/202...
Hiring: Group Leader in Microbiome Studies! ✨
The successful candidate would establish & lead a new research group in human microbiome science, advancing understanding of microbe-microbe and microbe-host interactions in health & disease.
Apply by 22 Dec.
www.ndorms.ox.ac.uk/jobs/kennedy...
💡 PhD student position at the University of Birmingham, UK. Fully funded by MRC AIM doctoral training programme. 4 years. Open to 🇬🇧 🇪🇺 & 🌎. DNA replication 🧬 . Collaboration with Prof Andrew Wilson (Chemistry). Deadline midday (GMT) 9 January 2026. Please share 😀👍
www.findaphd.com/phds/project...
📣 Looking for a 3-Year Postdoc @johninnescentre.bsky.social to join my Wellcome project.
This is a highly interdisciplinary project that explores chromatin dynamics in 🌱 plant responses across timescales, from circadian rhythms to seasonal changes
📅 Closes on 10 Dec.
www.jic.ac.uk/vacancies/36...
PHD: Building on recent research to develop the first "designer" eukaryotic chromosome, this fully-funded #PhDproject with @conradn.bsky.social and @cgrandel.bsky.social will clarify and test the design principles for stable maintenance of fully synthetic chromosomes.
buff.ly/l3dTmAf#synbio
PHD: Building on recent research to develop the first "designer" eukaryotic chromosome, this fully-funded #PhDproject with @conradn.bsky.social and @cgrandel.bsky.social will clarify and test the design principles for stable maintenance of fully synthetic chromosomes.
buff.ly/l3dTmAf#synbio
Congratulations to Aykut Shen, one of my first PhD students, who has successfully passed his viva yesterday. Many thanks to examiners @conradn.bsky.social and @adamcribbs.bsky.social and co-supervisor/collaborator. @whaerty.bsky.social. @nrpdtp.bsky.social@biouea.bsky.social
📣 Applications have just opened for our 2026 #PhD programme as part of the @nrpdtp.bsky.social and @aries-dtp.bsky.social!
Begin your academic career with the expert scientists, technology, and facilities at the Earlham Institute in Norwich.
buff.ly/327FNrX#genomics#findaphd#AcademicSky
Fantastic to welcome researchers for another Norwich #Nanopore Day at the Earlham Institute - bringing together the research community using @nanoporetech.com! 🧬
📣 We're pleased to open applications for a new Group Leader in Artificial Intelligence (#AI) in Biology.
Join our collaborative and inter-disciplinary research environment, exploring the natural world through the lens of #genomics.
🗓️ Applications close: 24 Oct
➡️ buff.ly/YRz3YLe#machinelearning
Our preprint on Pol-η usage during genome replication has been uploaded. It addresses the biased use of Pol-η in the lagging strand and late-replicating regions, which may be correlated with cancer mutagenesis.
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
Checkout our latest research in @natcomms.nature.comrdcu.be/eBqBI A high-resolution, nanopore-based artificial intelligence assay for DNA replication stress in human cancer cells. A collaboration with Mike Boemo’s team
how (yeast) cells re-climb the fitness landscape when they are reprogrammed to a different telomere DNA sequences (human-like)? read the latest from @melaniadangiolo.bsky.social etal , with great help and insights from Eric Gilson, Jonas Warringer and @juliamuenzner.bsky.social (& Ralser lab)
Superhappy to share the last paper from my PhD in @litinice.bsky.social lab. We evolved yeasts with humanized telomeric repeats and discovered that they adapt through amplification of telomere-binding proteins and inactivation of the DNA damage response.
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
Next week at #Yeast2025 Dr Sathish Thiyagarajan will be presenting work from the @conradn.bsky.social group at the Earlham Institute using #nanopore#sequencing to identify pause sites in DNA replication.
📄 Plenary session 4
🗓️ Wednesday, 23 July 2025
🕤 9:30am - 11:00am
It is finally out 👍😀. Great job of the team (mostly absent from Bsky) and @m-saponaro.bsky.social
CDK-driven phosphorylation of TRAIP is essential for mitotic replisome disassembly and MiDAS url: academic.oup.com/nar/article/...
📢 New paper out in Mol Syst Biol!
During the development of WT yeast colonies, small cell subpopulations experience transient, high-intensity mutational bursts. Such hypermutation episodes are modulated by the DNA damage tolerance pathway 🧬
🔗 www.embopress.org/doi/full/10....
💬 "These technologies have the power to remove breeding bottlenecks that have stymied development of new and improved #crops."
A new project - funded by a £8.5M from @aria-research.bsky.social - will leverage advances in #engineeringbiology to establish #synthetic#plant chromosome technologies.
Modern agriculture faces significant challenges, from climate change to soil degradation and food security.
Scientists at the Earlham Institute are part of a new multi-million project developing #synthetic#plant#chromosome technologies to speed up the introduction of novel traits to plants.
Here ends our foray into rDNA variation in model organisms—w/ Christine Queitsch, Bonnie Brewer, and many others. Especially Ashley Hall and Elizabeth Morton.
tl;dr: In natural ranges of rDNA copy number, phenotypes are rare (yeast + C. elegans).
But outside those ranges? Some things happen.
1/3
Very excited to be part of this project and to continue working with our longstanding collaborator, the amazing Yizhi (Patrick) Cai from @uommib.bsky.social
🆕 Scientists at the Earlham Institute, @uommib.bsky.social, and @johninnescentre.bsky.social are partnering to develop #synthetic plant chromosome technologies, to rapidly design and deliver beneficial traits to crops, as part of a new £8.5m @aria-research.bsky.social project.
➡️ buff.ly/n80muy0
Thank you Norwich Research Park & @nnuh.bsky.social for showing me around their impressive institutes today. Great to discuss their wide-ranging work including on microbiological research, public health improvement & new diagnostic techniques
@earlhaminst.bsky.social@quadraminstitute.bsky.social
💬 “When we looked at the replication start sites we’d identified, we discovered only 20% of them had been reported previously. The majority were newly discovered with this approach."
📃 Researchers use ultra #longreads to reveal #DNAreplication sites in the #humangenome.
@conradn.bsky.social
Basically molecular biologists can either use incorporation (eg, BrdU) or modification (eg, bacterial enzymes tethered to antibodies) or chemical modification (eg, radicals etc) and then the read out is the DNA (or RNA, see below).
My amateur energy transition watching continues for GB grid. Reasonably windy days in the summer now have manageable gas peaks that could be replaced by batteries. I know there is a lot of battery storage going in so it will be interesting to see how this impacts the grid (from: grid.iamkate.com)
3rd edition of the fantastic UK DNA replication meeting is happening next September in Edinburgh. Don't miss out 🧬🏴
www.biochemistry.org/events-and-t...
Something a bit different from Comment is Freed - a guest post from Ilan Gur, the CEO of the UK government’s Advanced Research and Invention Agency (ARIA) on some of the technologies they ate exploring - on neurotechnologies, synthetic plants, and AI. (Free) samf.substack.com/p/three-tech...
A study from the Earlham Institute and @ox.ac.uk has generated ultra #longread@nanoporetech.com reads, to reveal the majority of the human #genome is replicated from dispersed initiation sites, with around 80% of the sites never reported before. 🖥️🧬
@conradn.bsky.social@drkarimgharbi.bsky.social
New paper! Most human DNA replication initiation is dispersed throughout the genome with only a minority within previously identified initiation zones
genomebiology.biomedcentral.com/articles/10....
Identifying human DNA replication initiation sites on single molecules by @nanoporetech.com 1/7
However, most (80%) DNA replication initiation sites are dispersed throughout the genome with no specific chromatin signature and are missed by cell population studies. 6/7
New paper! Most human DNA replication initiation is dispersed throughout the genome with only a minority within previously identified initiation zones
genomebiology.biomedcentral.com/articles/10....
Identifying human DNA replication initiation sites on single molecules by @nanoporetech.com 1/7
Across the human genome 20% of replication initiation sites are ‘focused’ within open chromatin and with flanking transcription; remarkably these sites show concordance with sites identified by cell population studies, despite previous comparisons between these methods not showing concordance. 5/7
New paper! Most human DNA replication initiation is dispersed throughout the genome with only a minority within previously identified initiation zones
genomebiology.biomedcentral.com/articles/10....
Identifying human DNA replication initiation sites on single molecules by @nanoporetech.com 1/7
DNAscent detects BrdU in @nanoporetech.com reads from cultured human cells allowing us to determine DNA replication dynamics on thousands of single sequenced molecules. Fantastic optimisation by the Technical Genomics Group @earlhaminst.bsky.social gave ultra-long reads with N50>120 kb 2/7
Today we're looking forward to welcoming our Scientific Advisory Board - chaired by @katherinedenby.bsky.social - to a day of talks and presentations showcasing the latest from Earlham Institute scientists and technicians.
Stay tuned as we share more throughout the day.
🚨 PhD project alert: Engineering a soil bacteria to sense and record soil health. 🦠 🪴 🥼 🧑💻 🌍
Fully funded PhD studenship in my group, open for international students. @earlhaminst.bsky.social
Please share widely! Deadline: 14th of May
www.earlham.ac.uk/studentship/...
I have a PhD project funded by the John Innes Foundation, "Uncovering Genetic Drivers of Gene Expression in Elite Wheat Varieties", from the 1st of October 2025. #wheat#bioinformatics Apply now www.earlham.ac.uk/studentship/...
MSCA postdoctoral fellowship applications are opening soon. If you are interested in applying and would like to join our lab to research RNA modifications and splicing, please get in touch by end of April. Check your eligibility at marie-sklodowska-curie-actions.ec.europa.eu/calls/msca-p...