Mark Pownall

Honored to be among this year’s DP2 recipients

❗Postdoc positions available! We have multiple fully funded openings in the lab - please reach out if you’re interested. I’ll be at CSHL Epigenetics and Chromatin this week, so come find me if you’d like to learn more about the lab or potential projects

Next summer's Epigenetics GRC (I'm co-chairing with Deborah Bouch'is) is shaping up nicely with an all-star lineup of speakers working on a broad range of organisms and systems and everything from molecular mechanisms to new phenomena. Apply and put it on your calendar! www.grc.org/epigenetics-...

Why can't we explain enhancer action despite 2 decades of chromosome conformation technologies? 😬 Our new study spearheaded by Leonid Mirny's group points to a flaw in our assumptions, and to a solution from physical principles By @timothyfoldes.bsky.social 💻& @karissalhansen.bsky.social 🧪 🧵👇

Delighted to share our lab's latest (w/ inimitable @genophoria.bsky.social) in final form at @nature.com. Enormous lift by Sean Wang, @palindromephd.bsky.social & @martyyang.bsky.social to address extensive & constructive reviewer comments & see this through. (1/n) www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Our Mini Review went online last night in Current Opinion in Genetics & Development "Block copolymer concepts of how transcription organizes the stem cell genome" doi.org/10.1016/j.gd... Fig. 1: Stem cell–typical organization of the genome and transcription, and the block copolymer sorting concept.

@science.org 🧬🔬 Multiscale structure of #chromatin condensates explains phase separation and material properties | Science www.science.org/doi/10.1126/... @janhuemar.bsky.social et al.

Here is a copy of last year's Twitter thread explaining our preprint - jump to (21) for the new stuff 👀 Synergy between cis-regulatory elements can render cohesin dispensable for distal enhancer function now revised and journal accepted at www.science.org/doi/10.1126/... 🧵👇

New preprint with @gfudenberg.bsky.social We find the rate of cohesin loop extrusion in cells is set by NIPBL dosage and tunes many aspects of chromosome folding. This provides a molecular basis for NIPBL haploinsufficiency in humans. 🧵👇 www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

Our first expansion microscopy results. Imaged today on "normal" Zeiss LSM 900, revealing chromatin and RNA polymerase II clusters at an unreal level of detail. Our PhD student @mofrawe.bsky.social learned the protocol from amazing @mpownall.bsky.social 🙏 Months of preparation are paying off now!

Another paper bluetorial! Today: how does the spatial location of genes influence their function? (1/n) www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Excited to share our new paper in @cp-molcell.bsky.social Molecular Cell: "Catalytic-dependent and independent functions of the histone acetyltransferase CBP promote pioneer-factor-mediated zygotic genome activation" — the big part of my PhD! www.cell.com/molecular-ce...

First paper from the Pownall lab calls for a first post on bluesky! Check out our mini review on nanoscale imaging of the nucleus in vivo. We are excited to address some of these open questions and technical challenges through future work from the lab—stay tuned! portlandpress.com/biochemsoctr...