Peter Wang

Online Now: Small genomes, big lessons: What viruses teach us about structure-based riboregulation Online now:

Viruses have parasites too. Our new preprint shows how phages use VIPR to silence parasitic satellites, and how the satellites fight back with its own decoy VIPR RNAs that redirect VIPR to DNA REP elements in the host genome!! www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...

RNA structure prediction lags behind proteins for lack of data. RNASSTR, our new dataset, offers millions of RNA sequence-secondary structure pairs, split structurally to avoid train/test leakage. 📄 doi.org/10.1261/rna.... 📰 innovativegenomics.org/news/ai-mode...

Our AI-guided design of RNA-guided nucleases is now out in @science.org 💻🧬 We used structure and evolutionary data to generate minimal, active and divergent gene editors! www.science.org/doi/10.1126/... Congrats to @petrskopintsev.bsky.social @isabelesain.bsky.social @evandeturk.bsky.social & team!

Out today in @science.org, Doudna lab researchers describe an #AI-assisted method for designing enhanced genome editors, testing close to 2000 in lab. Read more: innovativegenomics.org/news/ai-desi...

Our lab is proud to present our latest work harnessing Bridge Recombinase for genome-scale editing in diverse bacteria, microbiome editing, and programmable horizontal gene transfer.

Check out this awesome discovery of the RNA-guided VIPR RNP by the Doudna lab. Everything about the system, from its functional context to its targeting code and structural geometry, is truly remarkable. Congrats to the team!

We present VIPR, a phage-encoded RNA-guided system that recognizes DNA with a noncontiguous code unlike CRISPR. Tiny, programmable, possibly ancestral to CRISPR immunity; VIPR is built around a striking RNA-DNA-DNA triplex.

The best thing since *before* sliced bread... VIPRs. www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6... www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...

Our work investigating mRNA 3' UTRs that trigger target-directed miRNA degradation is now published! genesdev.cshlp.org/content/earl...

MicroRNAs control gene expression by modulating the output and stability of messenger RNAs. How are these crucial regulators kept in check? go.nature.com/4bIecb0

Our work on the E3 ligase mechanism of target-directed microRNA degradation is now published! Amazing collaboration with Brenda Schulman’s lab led by @jakobfarnung.bsky.social and @elenaslo.bsky.social, with special thanks to @wyppeter.bsky.social, Lianne Blodgett, and Daniel Lin! tinyurl.com/Z8TDMD

The E3 ubiquitin ligase mechanism specifying target-directed microRNA degradation (TDMD) is now published! 🎉🍾 We, @bartellab.bsky.social and Schulman lab, describe how 2-RNA factors control protein degradation by recruiting an E3 ligase. @mpibiochem.bsky.social www.nature.com/articles/s41...

🧪🧬New preprint We present cryo-EM structures of reconstituted CTCF–nucleosome complexes, showing CTCF dimerization drives nucleosome oligomerization into defined higher-order assemblies. Disrupting CTCF–CTCF interfaces in mESCs reduces looping and impairs differentiation. tinyurl.com/CTCF-nucleos...

We’re excited to share our latest preprint on the mechanism of excised linear intron stabilization in yeast! This work was led by PhD student @glennli.bsky.social and was a wonderful collaboration with @maxewilkinson.bsky.social. Link: www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6... (1/4)

Check our latest collaboration with the Kleaveland Lab (kleavelandlab.org), led by Joanna Stefano and Lara Elcavage: academic.oup.com/nar/article/... (1/2)

New preprint 👉Doudna x Bryant x Jacobsen x Savage collaboration! Work led by @zehanzhou.bsky.social, I. Saffarian-Deemyad, @honglue.bsky.social, T. Weiss We dissect how stepwise DNA unwinding gates TnpB genome editing, revealing how unwound DNA states enhance cleavage www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...

When RNA Degradation 🤝 meets 🤝 Protein Degradation! tinyurl.com/E3TDMD In a collaboration of @bartellab.bsky.social and Schulman lab, we show that, in target-directed microRNA degradation (TDMD), 2-RNA-factors recruit an E3 ligase and induce the degradation of not only a protein but also RNA (1/5).

✨New preprint! 🧵1/4 Excited to share our work on AI-guided design of minimal RNA-guided nucleases. Amazing work by @petrskopintsev.bsky.social @isabelesain.bsky.social @evandeturk.bsky.social et al! Multi-lab collaboration @banfieldlab.bsky.social @jhdcate.bsky.social @jacobsenucla.bsky.social🧬 🔗👇

Check out the latest work from our lab, led by Daniel Lin and Lara Elcavage: www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1... (1/3)

My first first-author paper is out!🎉 Here we propose a model where a silencing complex, PIWI*, assembles on target RNAs to recruit effectors and shut down transposon activity. Huge thanks to the Brennecke and Plaschka labs, especially Julius and Clemens, and all co-authors!

Check out the latest work from Jordan Ray (@jordanray.bsky.social), a collaboration between our lab and David Sabatini’s lab. www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1... (1/2)

Our work on the function of miR-51/miR-100 is out! miR-100 is widely conserved across eumetazoans but its function has been mysterious. Emilio Santillán found in worms it regulates signaling and extracellular matrix genes, some of which seem to be conserved targets! www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

Argonautes are coming :-) ... soon at @imgprague.bsky.social ... finishing preparations. Still missing a few things like drums, guitar, badges, beer ... but it's under control. I think. I hope. :-)) #argonautes2025

"why [would] anyone intelligent enough to be a scientist choose to be one [given] the unfavorable risk-to-reward ratio "? One of the most intelligent people you could meet offers some answers: having ideas, watching them develop, and sharing them journals.biologists.com/jcs/article/...

Check out the latest study from our lab, led by Coffee Xiang (@coffeebond007.bsky.social) www.nature.com/articles/s41... (1/2)

Beautiful work by Katya Khalizeva from @iaincheeseman.bsky.social lab, uncovering a surprising feedback loop to globally suppress mRNA decay during mitosis! This helps explain how cells maintain their transcriptome during a mitotic arrest without new transcription! www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

New preprint! We solve a mystery you didn't know existed. Mitotic cells lack new transcription but require ongoing translation. Interphase mRNA half life is only 2-4 hrs. So how do cells arrest in mitosis for hours without depleting their transcriptomes? www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

Nucleic acid structural biologists expose that many CASP16 predictions, even ones obtaining high scores by CASP metrics, are inaccurate in the most functionally relevant regions! Read more insights on functionally relevant features by the expert structure determiners (doi.org/10.1101/2025...).

AlphaFold is amazing but gives you static structures 🧊 In a fantastic teamwork, @mcagiada.bsky.social and @emilthomasen.bsky.social developed AF2χ to generate conformational ensembles representing side-chain dynamics using AF2 💃 Code: github.com/KULL-Centre/... Colab: github.com/matteo-cagia...

Don’t miss this Q&A with Dr. Michelle Frank (@michelle-frank.bsky.social), an awesome postdoc in our lab!

What was that you said? You are looking for new #RNA research to read in the weekend? You are in luck! 📣 📣 Check out the new preprint from our lab!!!! 📣 📣 www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

Preprint alert! ✨ In this project that I co-led with @benadler.bsky.social, we show that a miniature CRISPR-Cas10-like enzyme, mCpol, uses a novel inverse signaling mechanism to prevent the spread of viruses that attempt immune evasion by depleting host cyclic nucleotides. Check it out:

Congrats Jimmy and team! Excited to see this work out

Congrats Leo and all!

Check out the latest study from our lab, led by @mhall98.bsky.social : www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1... (1/2)

Check out the latest work led by @mhall98.bsky.social in the Bartel lab! Matt solved a long-standing mystery about miRNA targeting, and drove the story to impressive mechanistic detail. More information below:

ARGONAUTES 2025 The grassroot meeting of Argonaute afficionados is looking for afficionados! Full coverage of Argonautes from prokaryotes to #RNAi, #piRNA and #microRNA Join us in Prague at @imgprague.bsky.social during 27-30/8, 2025. Registration, program and more info here: argonautes.img.cas.cz

Today we're thrilled to announce our 2024 #HannaGrayFellows! Please join us in welcoming and celebrating these outstanding early career scientists!

After a remarkable 300 columns, David Goodsell has retired from the Molecule of the Month. We are very grateful for his service. @jiwasa.bsky.social will continue the series, beginning with January's article on Assembly Line Polyketide Synthases Details: cdn.rcsb.org/rcsb-pd...

Bartel Lab bids a fond farewell to our incredible lab manager, Asia Stefano. Wishing you all the best on your new adventures in the Rocky Mountains, Asia—thank you for the amazing time we shared together!