JStark lab

Congrats to lab alum @ragini-bhargava.bsky.social @cityofhope.bsky.social for being named one of the 2026 #STATWunderkinds

Open Assistant Professor position in my department at Vanderbilt school of Medicine Basic Sciences. medschool.vanderbilt.edu/biochemistry...

A big week for the lab! Two new papers on how cells repair DNA double-strand breaks: one on getting NHEJ started in chromatin, one on processing the ends before ligation. Years of work by a fantastic team.

We are recruiting a postdoctoral fellow to study DNA damage repair via the homologous recombination pathway using quantitative cell biology approaches. The position will be initially supported for two years by the MSU Research Foundation Postdoctoral Scholars program. Please share! 1/5

Check out our published work: We show that L1 insertion intermediates can recombine with one another or with DNA breaks to form genome rearrangements, highlighting the risk of L1 retrotransposition causing genomic instability. @kathleenhburns.bsky.social www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Preprint of new collaborative study on MRI @fabferrage.bsky.social www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...

🔥 Published today, and just in time for summer conferences, here are your guidelines for presenting badly www.nature.com/articles/s41... rdcu.be/fqa92

Every child deserves to feel seen, heard, and loved – from Delaney Hall Detention Facility in New Jersey to Dilley Detention Center in Texas.

Institutions have to make choices on the kind of education they provide - lots of math classes still have a no calculator rule. I think if you state up front to not use LLMs for some tasks and ask for key assignments to be hand written during class time it would be reasonable to expect adherence.

Our PhD program is constantly debating appropriate use of LLMs/AI in completing homework. If the assignment is writing a Specific Aims page in a writing class, what do we do? We are finding “no LLMs allowed” is not feasible / antiquated. But isn’t writing how we learn to think?

Our latest publication by @jessel-ap.bsky.social is out in @cp-cellreports.bsky.social. We show that DNA damage in late mitosis triggers an ATM-dependent increase in RNF126 and BRAP, which promote cell survival under these conditions. With help from @rfreirelab.bsky.social doi.org/10.1016/j.ce...

WTF!!? 👀 Jeremy Stark — theonion.com/jeremy-stark/

Check out the GRC for DNA damage and Cancer! Join us in Summy California for a week of DNA repair and Cancer! www.grc.org/dna-damage-m...

basebybase.castos.com/episodes/mul...

Check this out 👇👇👇

New study from the lab on genetic relationship between 53BP1-RIF1 and DNA-PKcs on DSB repair outcomes. Led by PhD student @kaelamakins.bsky.social www.nature.com/articles/s41...

📢📢Apply now for GRS/GRC on DNA Damage Mutation & Cancer in sunny Ventura CA.

This data is really striking - mRNA vaccine priming ICI response in several tumors

Today I kicked off No Kings Day with hundreds of fired up patriots at NIH who are standing up to this lawless president. Together we said NO to his attacks on public health. NO to his assault on our Constitution. NO to kings in America. And YES to standing up for our democracy.

No Kings! In Pasadena

Registration is open for the 2025 SoCal Genome Stability Symposium. Free registration. All talks by trainees. www.cityofhope.org/genome-stabi...

www.nature.com/articles/s41... saw @lablegube.bsky.social present this last week. Provides important clarity on RNA at chromosomal DSBs. Including rigorously debunking the nascent synthesis idea.

Exciting to have 3 days to focus on this pathway.

It’s been a long time coming! Grateful to all co-authors and colleagues who supported this study, especially @yilanfan.bsky.social 🙌 We have been working on this complex for nearly 3 years together and finally managed to tame it. MRN gave us Many Restless Nights, but we’re More Relaxed Now 😎

L1 insertion intermediates recombine with one another or with DNA breaks to form genome rearrangements https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.09.17.676864v1

I’m using this icon for my talk at nhej2025.sciencesconf.org Guess the topic

Gearing up to head to Paris for nhej2025.sciencesconf.org but indulging in some LA delicacies before I go.

I’ve met many raw milk is healthy, we already have the cure for cancer, immunizations are dangerous, HIV isn’t the cause of AIDS people. As a scientist I thought it important to counter with respect and logic, and wonder how we are failing at public health. No more. New response - “that’s stupid!”

JOB ALERT 🚨 We are hiring TWO principal investigators in cell, molecular, systems, or chemical biology in Toronto, Canada at @sinaihealth.bsky.social. We provide a generous startup, fully funded salary and academic appointment at U of Toronto. www.nature.com/naturecareer... Please repost!

We have openings for a postdoctoral training program on DNA Damage and Oncogenic Signaling. Our past trainees have been very successful. Apply by Aug 31 for full consideration. See link for details. www.imgs-coh.edu/postdoctoral...

this is so wonderful and so critical right now

Advertisements for 2 tenure-track assistant professor positions at Vanderbilt School of Medicine Basic Sciences: www.nature.com/naturecareer... www.nature.com/naturecareer...

Beyond BRCA status: machine-learning assisted multichannel imaging platform for cell-by-cell analysis of HR competency, enabling patient stratification. “Editor’s Choice” in NAR Cancer. academic.oup.com/narcancer/ar...

Our sister journal, Nucleic Acids Research, has opened a search for an Executive Editor. Great opportunity for mid-career or senior investigator looking to be part of a great team, handle 100-150 papers per year, and attend the annual EE meeting. Details at: academic.oup.com/nar/pages/ex...

I was thinking about this too as I'm a standing member at NIH and review did the DoD. The amount of time and effort for no monetary benefit that is expected of us is unreasonable even at a 10th percentile funding rate. But at 4%.... what are we even asking of scientists?

4% payline demoralizing for reviewers - review 9 grants each taking 3-4hrs (total reviewed by all is 90) flying to DC, a hotel conference room to discuss the top half of grants (45) 15 min each, 3x a year for 4 yrs. Paid $300. 4% = maybe 3/90, 0-1 that you reviewed funded. I couldn’t.

Our new review on how the initiation of DNA replication is coordinated with transcription is now online! Congratulations to @syedshahidmusvi.bsky.social! www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

😢 RIP. Still to this day my favorite experiment in molecular biology.

Excited this study is out - we helped with an experiment on Paxx www.nature.com/articles/s41...

New twist on BRCA1-mediated DNA recombination repair and tumor suppression

Senator Durbin noted that some (I believe Republican Senators) had indicated the US had been doing more than its share of biomedical research and it was time for other countries take a turn. I felt I had to interrupt to respond...