Wendy Bickmore

Wendy Bickmore

@wbickmor.bsky.social

Scientist at University of Edinburgh. Director of MRC Human Genetics Unit but posting in my own capacity.

3K followers58 following83 posts

Wendy Bickmore reposted

Max-Planck-Gesellschaft
@maxplanck.de

A new study of UK #science curricula found that of 181 scientists referenced at A-level-equivalent just 3 (!) are women: a powerful reminder to make #womenScientists visible in science education. Because if girls never see themselves represented, why would they see a future for themselves in #STEM?

bbc.comOnly one female scientist named in GCSEs, research findsA new study finds Rosalind Franklin is the only woman named in Key Stage 4 science specifications.
Wendy Bickmore
@wbickmor.bsky.social

Very sorry to hear about the passing of Bob Williamson, a giant of human genetics and the mentor to so many of today's research leaders. I owe him a great debt of gratitude for the all support he gave me over my career. www.mcri.edu.au/news/news-st...

mcri.edu.auVale Professor Bob Williamson, former Director and pioneering molecular geneticist - Murdoch Children's Research InstituteMCRI honours former Director Professor Bob Williamson, a pioneering molecular geneticist whose research transformed human genetics and child health. Read more.
Wendy Bickmore
@wbickmor.bsky.social

Very interesting paper. These <10kb "protrusions" remind me, albeit at a different length scale, of the "looping out" of active regions from chromosome territories. www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

Anders Sejr Hansen@andersshansen.bsky.social

Very nice new paper from Paggi, Long, Zhang using physical modeling of RCMC data to reconstruct physical structures of euchromatin at the nucleosome scale: Euchromatin forms condensed domains and E-P interactions largely occur on the surface! www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Wendy Bickmore
@wbickmor.bsky.social

Emotional day yesterday celebrating alumni of the MRC Human Genetics Unit PhD programme across 3 decades. Wonderful to see old friends and hear about the amazing contributions our alumni are making across all walks of life. Closure of this training programme is such a loss. @uoe-igc.bsky.social

Wendy Bickmore
@wbickmor.bsky.social

Really sorry to hear this sad news. Terri had a razor-sharp mind and I particularly appreciated her willingness to call out bullshit when she saw it. A great loss.

Richard Sever@richardsever.bsky.social

Deeply saddened to learn of the death of my colleague Terri Grodzicker. She was an amazing molecular biologist who did fundamental work on adenovirus. Many will know her as the charismatic long-time editor of Genes & Development and organizer of CSHL meetings 1/2 en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Terri_G...

en.wikipedia.orgTerri Grodzicker - Wikipedia
Wendy Bickmore
@wbickmor.bsky.social

It was great working with students Kun and Ryan and @hannahlong.bsky.social, combing the literature to try and find examples of bona fide disease-causing variants in non-coding elements - promoters, enhancers and silencers. www.nature.com/articles/s41...

nature.comMechanisms underlying disease-causing variants in promoters and enhancers - Nature GeneticsThis Review discusses how rare-disease-causing variants in the noncoding genome impact gene regulation, why these examples are so few and how new approaches could accelerate discovery of noncoding var...
Wendy Bickmore
@wbickmor.bsky.social

Great to see this lovely functional genomics work from @gweykopf.bsky.social @jmarshlab.bsky.social @kennethbaillie.bsky.social @gorrellmsydney.bsky.social @simonbiddie.bsky.social published. What at first sight seemed to be non-coding turns out to be coding. www.nature.com/articles/s41...

nature.comDisease-associated genetic variants can cause missense effects in tissue-specific protein isoforms - Nature CommunicationsIsoforms are seldom considered in genetic variant interpretation. Here the authors map common and rare variants to alternative isoforms, which can be highly expressed and tissue-specific. A common DPP...

Wendy Bickmore reposted

Elias Friman
@eliasfriman.bsky.social

Great to see Giovanna's paper now out in PLoS Genetics! journals.plos.org/plosgenetics... @wbickmor.bsky.social @simonbiddie.bsky.social

journals.plos.orgIdentifying severe COVID-19 risk variants modulating enhancer reporter activity in lung cellsAuthor summary Individual humans show widely varying responses to viral infection, including from SARS-CoV-2, which causes COVID-19. Part of this variation is driven by host genetic factors, where gen...
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Wendy Bickmore
@wbickmor.bsky.social

Very honoured that the lab has been selected as the first UK Center for Excellence by the CdLS foundation www.cdlsusa.org/centers-for-.... We aim to advance knowledge about this genetic condition and to explore similarities to other rare genetic disorders that affect gene regulation.

cdlsusa.orgCenters for Excellence | CdLS FoundationOur expanded Centers of Excellence network is here — 8 designated centers, 10+ lead investigators, and the people turning lived experience into discovery. See who's part of Mission Possible.

Wendy Bickmore reposted

Joe Marsh
@jmarshlab.bsky.social

New work led by Hasan Cubuk: moving from interpreting variants individually to combining both alleles in recessive disease. DMS of >8000 ADSL variants → inferred enzyme activity → additive biallelic scores that track patient phenotypes. Great collab with the Kudla lab! www.cell.com/cell-systems...

cell.comMechanistic modeling of recessive disease through allelic integration of variant effectsRecessive diseases arise from the combined effects of two alleles, yet most variant interpretation methods consider variants individually. Çubuk et al. map more than 8,000 variants in the recessive en...
Wendy Bickmore
@wbickmor.bsky.social

Sad to hear that Pat Jacob has died aged 91. Pat was a seminal figure in the early days of human genetics. She co-discovered the 1st human chromosome abnormality - XXY Kleinfelter's syndrome in 1959, published contemporaneously with the discovery of trisomy 21 in Down’s syndrome by a French group.

Wendy Bickmore
@wbickmor.bsky.social

Nice review of 3D interactions medicated by polycomb. Also worth considering this study showing how such interactions can be rapidly and reversibly disrupted by hexanediol. www.life-science-alliance.org/content/6/10...

life-science-alliance.orgDispersal of PRC1 condensates disrupts polycomb chromatin domains and loopsPolycomb repressive complex 1 (PRC1) strongly influences 3D genome organization, mediating local chromatin compaction and clustering of target loci. Several PRC1 subunits have the capacity to form bio...
Miles Huseyin@mileshuseyin.bsky.social

I had a lot of fun putting this together with @suminkim.bsky.social and @andersshansen.bsky.social! Glad to have had the chance to work on it!

Wendy Bickmore reposted

Matthew Freeman
@mjafreeman.bsky.social

Helpful update into UKRI and research council funding changes from Zoe Kleinman @zsk.bsky.social But please more focus on 2 things... 1) Immediate effects (eg funding decisions expected in March) 2) Likely disproportionate effects on early career scientists www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

bbc.co.ukUK’s £8bn research fund faces “hard decisions” as it pauses new grantsUKRI boss Ian Chapman said it had been told by the government to
Wendy Bickmore
@wbickmor.bsky.social

At a time when the UK should be capitalising on its global reputation as a great place to do science, this is an enormous own goal. I am so sorry for all those who jobs are going to be impacted.

Mark A. Hanson@hansonmark.bsky.social

Both MRC and BBSRC responsive modes now withdrawn until further notice. Existing applications unlikely to succeed (late 2025 round expecting 1-5% success rate). Listen, I get that UKRI wants to pivot. But killing both at once is devastating. Let's hope at least one opens by summer... #AcademicSky

researchprofessionalnews.comMRC instructs grant review boards to slash funding rates - Research Professional NewsBoards asked to recommend just three applications for funding, as BBSRC also suspends calls

Wendy Bickmore reposted

Mark A. Hanson
@hansonmark.bsky.social

Both MRC and BBSRC responsive modes now withdrawn until further notice. Existing applications unlikely to succeed (late 2025 round expecting 1-5% success rate). Listen, I get that UKRI wants to pivot. But killing both at once is devastating. Let's hope at least one opens by summer... #AcademicSky

researchprofessionalnews.comMRC instructs grant review boards to slash funding rates - Research Professional NewsBoards asked to recommend just three applications for funding, as BBSRC also suspends calls
Wendy Bickmore
@wbickmor.bsky.social

Delighted to have a contribution in this issue together with @eliasfriman.bsky.social

Alexis Verger 🧬🧫🧪@alexis-verger.cpesr.fr

There is a special Current Opinion in Genetics & Development issue about genome architecture and expression and it looks great including reviews by @lennarthilbert.bsky.social @yghavi.bsky.social and @wbickmor.bsky.social www.sciencedirect.com/special-issu...

sciencedirect.comCurrent Opinion in Genetics & Development | Genome Architecture and Expression (2026) | ScienceDirect.com by ElsevierThis collection summarizes key aspects of our current experimental and theoretical understanding of eukaryotic genome folding and its relationship with the molecular processes governing cell fate. Ove...
Wendy Bickmore
@wbickmor.bsky.social

The world’s problems may seem so huge that you feel helpless, but small innovations by smart people can make a world of difference.

Bin Days Edinburgh App@bindaysapp.bsky.social

Do you live in Edinburgh? Is your recycling bin being picked up this Wednesday or next Tuesday? Still not sure? This app is for you. Built by volunteers. Free for everyone. #BinDaysEdinburgh #Reminders #Edinburgh #Recycling #Waste

Wendy Bickmore
@wbickmor.bsky.social

Excited to start working on this BBSRC sLola project to decode the semantic rules of large regulatory domains, led by @ferencmueller.bsky.social with colleagues from Birmingham, Manchester, Crick, MRC-LMS and EBI-ENSEMBL institute-genetics-cancer.ed.ac.uk/decoding-the... bsky.app/profile/fere...

institute-genetics-cancer.ed.ac.ukDecoding the genome’s hidden grammar | Institute of Genetics and Cancer | Institute of Genetics and CancerAn ambitious synthetic biology project involving researchers from the Institute of Genetics and Cancer (IGC) has been awarded £5m to test a fundamental rule of life - how the information regulating co...
Ferenc Mueller@ferencmueller.bsky.social

1. We start a major consortium programme funded by the sLoLa of BBSRC (shorturl.at/aUbnt) to decipher the semantic rules of enhancer arrangements driving regulator genes of development (shorturl.at/6qcjW).

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Wendy Bickmore
@wbickmor.bsky.social

To advance our knowledge about the role of ecDNAs in cancer, it would be helpful if people could at least acknowledge that not everyone concludes that ecDNAs form "hubs" in the nucleus. pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/40972571/ pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/41237767/ pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/36476408/

pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.govExtrachromosomal DNA associates with nuclear condensates and reorganizes chromatin structures to enhance oncogenic transcription - PubMedExtrachromosomal, circular DNA (ecDNA) is a prevalent oncogenic alteration in cancer genomes, often associated with aggressive tumor behavior and poor patient outcome. While previous studies proposed a chromatin-based mobile enhancer model for ecDNA-driven oncogenesis, its precise mechanism and impa …
Wendy Bickmore
@wbickmor.bsky.social

I’m fascinated to try this. It’s such a relief to see the journey we are on that started with the launch of BioRxiv and that could liberate us from the most depressing aspect of science - “getting published”.

Oded Rechavi@odedrechavi.bsky.social

IT'S HAPPENING! 💥 I'm psyched to launch the collaboration between @qedscience.bsky.social & @openrxiv.bsky.social @biorxivpreprint.bsky.social! Preprint + q.e.d = your science is out there, and anyone can appreciate it. Let's care about making discoveries, and not on “getting published” (1/3) 👇

Wendy Bickmore reposted

Andrew Wood
@andrewwood.bsky.social

Our manuscript characterising tissue-specific consequences of tagged protein fusions in CRISPR-engineered mice is now online @PLOSGenetics. journals.plos.org/plosgenetics.... Thanks again to all coauthors, reviewers and editors for a smooth publication process. Brief summary below.

journals.plos.orgTissue-specific consequences of tag fusions on protein expression in transgenic miceAuthor summary To better understand the function of specific proteins, researchers need ways to quantify their abundance, to visualise their movements, to understand what other molecules they interact...
Andrew Wood@andrewwood.bsky.social

Pleased to share our latest work and the first manuscript from the Degron Tagging Cluster in the MRC National Mouse Genetics Network. If you work with protein tags, particularly in tissue biology models, this should be of interest: www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

biorxiv.orgbiorxiv.org

Wendy Bickmore reposted

Joe Marsh
@jmarshlab.bsky.social

New paper out today in PLOS Comp Biol: journals.plos.org/ploscompbiol... Intrinsically disordered regions make variant prediction deceptively easy for benign changes but very hard for pathogenic ones. Our work shows why current tools struggle here, and why disorder-aware approaches are needed.

journals.plos.orgAssessing variant effect predictors and disease mechanisms in intrinsically disordered proteinsAuthor summary Some parts of proteins, known as intrinsically disordered regions, do not fold into fixed shapes. Instead, they stay flexible and play key roles in controlling how cells work, often by ...