László Tora

It was a special privilege to give a Lifetime Achievement Award Lecture at the 6th Danube Conference on Epigenetics in Budapest this week.Thanks to Tamás Arányi and Lóránt Székvölgyi (Epigenetcs Section, Hungarian Biochemical Society) and @ferencmueller.bsky.social for the great introduction.

Pierre Chambon was one of the driving architects of modern molecular biology, whose scientific vision transformed the understanding of gene regulation in eukaryotic cells. His passing in May 2026 represents the loss of an extraordinary scientist. www.nature.com/articles/s41...

AlphaFold can now predict protein complexes at unprecedented scale. But once we have a predicted complex, the core question of how much we should trust the interface remains. Existing confidence scores are useful, but their meaning is not always obvious. #alphafold

New review by @tlaszlo.bsky.social and colleagues: Step-brothers in arms, SAGA and ATAC co-activator complexes, use different strategies link.springer.com/article/10.1...

Join is in Budapest in October! For the 6th time, all things epigenetics, gene and genome regulation and more. A fantastic opportunity to present, to talk to speakers and colleagues in a friendly, informal setting at a great location. Please note, travel grant deadline will expire soon.

#RIP Pierre Chambon (1931-2026) 1963 PARP 1970 RNA Pol II 1975 Nucleosome 1977 Split genes 1980 Promoter 1983 enhancer 1986 Nuclear receptor

#RIP Pierre Chambon (1931-2026) Great memories of the 50th anniversary of the discovery of the 3 activities of eukaryotic RNA Pol in honor of Drs. Robert Roeder & Pierre Chambon back in 2018 at @institutcurie.bsky.social (photo credit: Ramin Shiekhattar)

www.lalsace.fr/science-et-t...

Pierre Chambon was a great scientist. And a good man too. He alone opposed to leading British embryologists during the evaluation of a case of scientific misconduct more than 40 years ago, to defend young scientists against an establishment to which he belonged. An unforgettable lesson. RIP Pierre 💐

Human SAGA complex

See the new paper by Mylène Damilot et al in Science Advances, where the authors use a novel affinity purification method to obtain the SAGA complex for cryo-EM, and reveal the splicing like module of SAGA at high resolution. DOI: 10.1126/sciadv.aec8104,

A few highlights from the issue (1/2): 📝"The TATA box regulates TATA-binding protein (TBP) dynamics in vivo" from @tlaszlo.bsky.social and H. Th. Marc Timmers 📝"The human Mediator complex: a versatile, genome-wide regulator of transcription" from Dylan Taatjes

This story started during my post-doc with @tlaszlo.bsky.social while looking at TAFs isoforms for another project. Striking that a fundamental component of the basal transcription machinery can undergo such species-specific (rather drastic) evolutionary innovations. Thanks to everyone involved!

Check out our preprint where we describe, characterize and trace the origin of a novel human-specific isoform of TAF8, a scaffold subunit in TFIID. We were surprised to discover that TAF8 recently underwent genetic changes generating a truncated isoform with altered properties in humans!

High-resolution binding data of TFIID and cofactors show promoter-specific differences in vivo https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2025.12.22.691305v1

Read our new preprint where we uncover a hierarchy in human PIC assembly and establish a quantitative framework that connects factor exchange kinetics to the regulation of Pol II activity in living human cells. doi: doi.org/10.64898/202... By A. Oravecz and our collaborators @molinalab.bsky.social

Intrigued by a long-standing conundrum in small RNA biology—how nuclear Argonaute proteins silence transposons when they *need* target transcription for their own recruitment—we studied the piRNA pathway. And found a hidden RNA-decay axis from Piwi to the RNA exosome.

All of this was spearheaded by the exceptional experimentalist & scientist @changweiyu.bsky.social who came with a strong background in transcription from @tlaszlo.bsky.social and developed into a remarkable RNA biologist.

Please RT 📧 Registration open for ➡️"Summer School on Chromatin Biology" Our 2 weeks hands on expedition 🧪👩‍💻August 2026. 3. edition. Learn CUT@Tag, CUT@Run, ChIPseq, ATACseq AND to analyse your own data at @helmholtzmunich.bsky.social Daily letures by experts in the field ! ▶️ shorturl.at/jrA8i

Structure of the transcriptional co-activator SAGA complex (from fungus Chaetomium thermophilum), including the histone acetyltransferase module #cryoEM www.cell.com/molecular-ce...

What is a promoter? And how does it work? We very happy to share our latest work trying to understand enhancer-promoter compatibility. I am very excited about the results of @blanka-majchrzycka.bsky.social, which changed the way I think about promoters www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

Today it was announced that Sir John Gurdon passed away. His ground-breaking discovery was that differentiated cells can be reprogrammed. He was a creative and distinguished developmental biologist, a kind person with a great inquisitive mind and original ideas www.cam.ac.uk/research/new...

With self-deprecating humor, Sir John loved to tell the story of his Biology teacher (1949)

Do not forget to apply to the FEBS Advanced Lecture Course: 6th Danube Conference on Epigenetics (19–22 October 2026, Budapest, Hungary. Will be a great meeting as always. Check out the site: network.febs.org/posts/febs-a...

www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

"In our view, it [hexanediol] should thus be avoided and not be used as evidence for the formation of an assembly via phase separation or the fluid-like nature of a condensate in vitro or in vivo." doi.org/10.1038/s414...

Read this interesting preprint from the lab of Krishnamurthy Natarajan: Cotranslational assembly confers specificity for in vivo target heterodimerization of paralogous H2B-like TAF12 proteins in the human fungal pathogen Candida albicans doi: doi.org/10.1101/2025...

One more movie! Using the RL algorithm (from pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...), @masaashimazoe.bsky.social analyzed our nucleosome tracking data and classified them by their mobility. Hotter color = faster motion (Slow🔵→ 🟢 → 🟡 → 🟠 Fast)

Exquisite work. Well done to the whole team.

🚨 New preprint out! Do you think Single Molecule Footprinting and Fiber-seq are super cool but aren't sure how to unlock their full potential? HiddenFoot can help you: www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

Friday we celebrated my 40 years of scientific career in France, with present and past lab members and many friends. It was a fantastic day full of emotions, memories and great science. Thanks for making the day so memorable !

The importance of moving away from bulk! Occupancy of Pol II at promoters is dramatically different between fly and mouse cells! When looking single molecule! Proud of the team! @kasitc.bsky.social @molinalab.bsky.social doi.org/10.1038/s443...

Two more weeks to send us your abstract! >20 abstract selected talks. Priority to junior scientists and cool biology on gene regulation (DNA/RNA/protein). Come to meet the world leaders in single molecule genomics and single molecule imaging! Help shaping the future of the field in the workshops!

www.cell.com/cell/fulltex...

Friends! The science that we love is under threat. World-wide, there're forces seeking to make it corporate-like, focused on deliverables, or even the enemy of society. Take a stand & celebrate science & music! #theconferencetoendallconferences - Registration starts NOW! woodstock.img.cas.cz

Thrilled to share our collaborative work on the structural basis and myeloma disease link of the midnolin-proteasome pathway with Chris Nardone from the Elledge lab, Jingjing Gao from the Shao lab @sshaolab.bsky.social and all the co-authors who put in the hard work! www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

‼️ This Wednesday! Don’t forget to register as we host three amazing ECR scientists! @manucazottes.bsky.social @robertadolling1.bsky.social @leandrosboukas.bsky.social ⚡️Our recurring registration link: us06web.zoom.us/webinar/regi...

Interesting piece on the role of intrinsically disordered regions in #transcriptionfactor specificity, target search etc. ➡️ www.nature.com/articles/s41... #generegulation

Search gets faster, binding longer, bound fraction of cohesin and CTCF goes up, especially at and after ZGA

Single molecules, in living zebrafish embryos, during hour-long period of development: Jonas' work on binding kinetics of cohesin and CTCF around ZGA now online. Great collab with labs of @lucagiorgetti.bsky.social @akispapantonis.bsky.social doi.org/10.1038/s414...

Program is out for our first EMBL #singlemolecule gene regulation meeting! Check out the dedicated panel sessions on single molecule genomics, single molecule imaging and theory where we would like to brainstorm the future of the field: Registration is open! 👇 www.embl.org/about/info/c...

The latest publication from our lab is online in @narjournal.bsky.social . Congratulations to @marcelwerner.bsky.social and Manuel Trauner for developing a novel system in mammalian cells to study Transcription-Replication conflicts and pointing DOT1L as a transcription mediator at TRC sites!

The first paper from our lab is online! A wonderful collaboration with @scottbscience.bsky.social lab. We discover that Pol II is extensively regulated by Ubiquitin at the beginning of the transcription cycle! www.cell.com/molecular-ce...

Today is #WorldCancerDay. Behind every diagnosis is a person, family, and friends who feel the devastating effects of cancer. Our work has never been more vital. With pioneering cancer research and groundbreaking discoveries, we can continue bringing hope to future generations.