Mia Levine

@joethorntonlab.bsky.social and I are thrilled to co-organize the 2027 Molecular Mechanisms in Evolution GRC, June 13–18, in beautiful Portland, Maine! See our ⭐stellar⭐ lineup of speakers ⬇️ spanning evolutionary biochemistry, cell biology, development, behavior... www.grc.org/molecular-me... 1/n

Stoked for this GRC and also for the corresponding GRS June 12-13, co-chaired by @meganbehrmann.bsky.social and myself. Will be an excellent meeting for students and postdocs in functional evolutionary genetics working in diverse model systems! More to come here: www.grc.org/molecular-me...

I am so excited for this conference. A stellar line-up of incredible researchers across disciplines, a beautiful location, and a great environment for younger scientists. And what a treat that I get to co-organize this with @levine-lab.bsky.social! www.grc.org/molecular-me...

The GRC Epigenetics conference is back to US next summer, in Holderness. Pleasure to have arranged a fantastic speaker line-up with @hitenmadhani.bsky.social. Apply before June 4. The sooner the better. The venue is very popular, we will select abstracts on the fly ! www.grc.org/epigenetics-...

Took us a bit, but this really special journey is now out, and much improved. Kudos to @agnisrota.bsky.social. It was wonderful to have had to privilege to co-advise you. A showcase of the power of collaboration - a thrill to have worked together on another story with @thebraunlab.bsky.social.

Most animal species pack sperm DNA with protamines instead of histones. Protamines are essential for male fertility. They are among the fastest-evolving genes in animals. That makes little sense. We think we know why, in a new paper led by @ching-hochang.bsky.social. www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

Now that we have moved coasts, I am thrilled to share that the ChromEvo (Raman) lab is officially open at UMass Boston 🎉 We ask how CHROMatin EVOlution leads to functional innovation and we are hiring at multiple levels. Read on and share with folks who maybe interested chromevoramanlab.github.io

One stop codon to evade two divergent immune systems www.fredhutch.org/content/www/... Great writeup by Ashley Person @fredhutch.org Original paper by @tamanash.bsky.social here: www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

Thrilled to share that our paper is finally out in Science Advances! 🔗 www.science.org/doi/10.1126/... TL;DR: A Drosophila protamine acts as shields resolving conflict between X and Y chromosomes. Disruption unleashes meiotic drive that kills X-bearing sperm and skews progeny sex ratios. 🪰🧬ᯡ

10 days left to apply for an Assistant Professorship in Evolutionary Biology at Columbia.

It's live! The next @embo.org #EvoChromo meeting will take place next year October in St Feliu de Guíxols (Spain), check it out here: meetings.embo.org/event/27-chr.... It's been great to co-organise with @dodonova-sveta.bsky.social @kellervalsecchi.bsky.social @cedricfeschotte.bsky.social & Nick I.

Our lab's first preprint! The antiphage protein Tiamat is an ATPase and DNase with homologs across the tree of life. What started as undergrad Shirley Yuan's summer project grew into a paper and a collaboration with @jpkbravo.bsky.social's group. Link: www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...

Thrilled to see this published today! Truly special because we made the initial discovery >15 yrs ago! We found two copies of a human gene called BC200 embedded in a human poxvirus. BC200 blurs the line between gene & transposon—both functional & mutagenic! www.science.org/doi/10.1126/... 🧵1/n

Five years ago, on a walk with @mayavoichek.bsky.social through the third district around the @viennabiocenter.bsky.social we concluded that "every day we do not work on the mysterious Env-independent infectivity of MDG1 retrotransposons is a lost day ... " The birth of an entire research domain.

If you care about keeping the Academy of Natural Sciences open to the public in Philadelphia, I need you to read and share this thread. Trish Wellenbach was sent from the mayor's office to oversee the Academy of Natural sciences situation. She needs to hear from us. Here comes the action item:

Very nice paper from @agnelsfeir.bsky.social and colleagues on the role of MMEJ in ecDNA maintenance and rearrangements. www.nature.com/articles/s41...

The doors of the Academy of Natural Sciences will be closing on Sunday...for now. But this isn't over. We're meeting at the Academy of Natural Sciences when doors close to gather for a moment of resolve followed by a march to City Hall. Join us. art by @lindzeamays.bsky.social luma.com/7ggkgtjb

Super excited to share my postdoctoral work at @imbavienna.bsky.social @viennabiocenter.bsky.social - We discovered that some retrotransposons, or "jumping genes" 🧬, are able to spread from cell to cell via a new viral infectivity route. A short thread: 🧵👇 (1/7)

1/n New paper! In collaboration with Angela Gronenborn's lab, we solved the crystal structures of 2 bicycle proteins. They share some similarity to saposins, but are clearly not saposins. Instead, this stable backbone provides a platform for crazy diversity of form and surface chemistry.

Attention Philly Families! It is critical that we show Drexel and city government that our enthusiasm for the Academy of Natural Sciences is going strong! Bring your kids, friends, & neighbors down to the parkway on Saturday from 2-6pm. It's a kid-friendly rally to support the academy!

Our latest work now on bioRxiv! We found evidence for multiple independent HGTs of the anti-parasitoid effector cdtB in drosophilids, including anciently in the last common ancestor of subgenus Drosophila 👀 You can browse our data here: trnpl.github.io/antiparasito...

Princeton EEB is running a very broad faculty search at the Assistant Professor level. Please consider applying to join us! This is a wonderful, collaborative, cohesive department with diverse interests and amazing colleagues. apply.interfolio.com/193474

Reposting this ongoing search (any discipline of biology) for an Assistant to Associate level colleague in the Division of Basic Sciences at Fred Hutch. Great city, great colleagues, great core facilities, great trainees.

My lab @ Edinburgh university is recruiting a postdoc to work on the weird and wonderful germline-specific chromosomes of flies. elxw.fa.em3.oraclecloud.com/hcmUI/Candid... collaboration with @germline.bsky.social and yukiko yamashita funded by @novonordisk.bsky.social please repost!

New paper from the Capelson Lab in collaboration with the @ranganlab.bsky.social where they found that Nup93-2 only partially overlaps with mature NPCs. This off-pore Nup pool helps silence Polycomb domains. 🤩https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.08.28.747911v1

We are recruiting a PhD student 🥼🙋 Topic: how germ cells bend gene expression dogmas Fly genetics + proteomics + genomics. Fully funded. Aarhus University 🇩🇰 info on the project and how to apply👇 mbg.au.dk/en/peter-and... I'd really appreciate it if you'd help spread the word. Thanks

New preprint in collaboration with the Capelson lab. Roles for nucleoporin paralogs.

Insights into longevity & virus-driven adaptation from Myotis bat genomes International & fantastic collab. with @psudmant.bsky.social @denard.bsky.social Labs ! Major credit to the 2 leading scientists: Juan Vazquez & @lauterbur.bsky.social now with their own labs! You 2 rock! (1/n)

We watched piRNAs and transposons across development, saw them dance tightly and wrote a paper about it. It's so cool to see it online and we will make a thread about it all very soon. Stay tuned :-)

Open your lab here at Utah! utah.peopleadmin.com/postings/208...

MxA is one of the broadest antiviral proteins mammals make. It’s a big reason most bird flu strains never get a foothold in people. The rare ones that succeed have learned to dodge it. How MxA actually recognizes viral targets at the molecular level is unknown for a bunch of technical reasons.

Terrific opportunity! Damian is a wonderful mentor with an exceptionally creative and compelling research program.

🚨NEW PAPER 🚨 "Deconstructing empirical fitness seascapes across scales of granularity" published in #G3 (@genetics-gsa.bsky.social) 1/2 The fitness landscape has been among the most influential instruments in evolutionary theory for nearly a century. But we often treat them as fixed and static.

CRISPR-mediated centromere fission generates neochromosomes with distorted meiotic inheritance in Arabidopsis biorxiv.org/content/10.6... new preprint from us - includes changing the Arabidopsis karyotype from 5 -> 6 chromosomes using Cas9 & outcomes of 5/6 chromosome hybrid meiosis

mtDNA deletions cause incurable diseases. Our CRISPR screen found a fix: deleting MTERF1 restores mitochondrial function, not by clearing bad genomes, but by making the healthy ones work harder. Simple Biology! New preprint 👇 @tatakavlashvili.bsky.social www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...

Hello World ! We have another postdoc position open in the lab! Are you a freshly minted Ph.D. with a passion for chromatin and evolution ? Come join our ERC project #EvoEpi ! Inclusive environment + cool people + great science = success details 👉 tinyurl.com/3r6zk54n Repost are always appreciated

How do transposons jump when they’re released from host control? I babysat two chromosomes for 2 years, making sure they are ok without most piRNAs. Here’s what we found & excited to share my 1st postdoc paper: “piRNA loss unleashes episodic transposition bursts” www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...

I know it seems like a heretical idea, but one way to figure out if a preprint is really interesting (to you) is... to read the preprint. Then, in the spirit of sharing, send a note to authors: a simple kudos or a more detailed question. I do this a dozen times a year. It's awesome. Try it.

After some good funding news, we are hiring! Looking for a postdoc to join our team and lead our explorations into transposon repression by the nuclear lamina. Check out the full ad on our lab website at buchwalter-lab.github.io/postdoc-ad.pdf + contact me to learn more!

1/n Check out our new paper, spearheaded by @fborne.bsky.social, just out in PLoS Genetics doi.org/10.1371/jour....

#SMBE2026 S24: Molecular mechanisms of selfish elements and strategies 🗓️ Mon Jun 29, 10:20am 🔗 smbe2026.org/programme Talks by: @levine-lab.bsky.social Yu Hua @cecilecourret.bsky.social @eleanoreritter.bsky.social Elli Cryan @alexand-kwak.bsky.social Steve Perlman @antisense.bsky.social