News archive

A very warm welcome back to our former Summer-now Part II Biochemistry student Leilei Tang!

We are very sad to say Good Bye to Joe who is moving to the Centre for Genomic Regulation in Barcelona for his postdoc in Velten Lab.  Good luck with your next challenge, Joe!

Rebecca has left the lab and moved to the Institute of Developmental and Regenerative medicine (IDRM)/Department of Paediatrics at Oxford University to complete her Sir Henry Wellcome Postdoctoral fellowship. Good luck with the next stage of your career, Rebecca!

Good Bye to our Part II Undergraduate Biochemistry students Sophie, Jack and Lauryn. Good luck for the future!

Our manuscript "Xist-mediated silencing requires additive functions of SPEN and Polycomb together with differentiation-dependent recruitment of SmcHD1" is out in Cell Reports today! Congratulations to Joe and all co-authors!

Many congratulations to Joe & co-authors - their manuscript "Xist-mediated silencing requires additive functions of SPEN and Polycomb together with differentiation-dependent recruitment of SmcHD1" has been accepted for publication in Cell Reports today!

Many congratulations to Rebecca & co-authors - their manuscript "Locus-specific expression of transposable elements in single cells with CELLO-seq" has been published in Nature Biotechnology today!

Many congratulations to Joe who has finished 3rd in the 2021 Oxford Half marathon yesterday! Amazing achievement Joe!

Many congratulations to Komal who has recieved the best talk prize at the Annual Postgraduate symposium that was held earlier this week!

Many congratulations to Guifeng who has received an Award from the Medical Sciences Internal Fund (Pump Priming scheme) to support his research on the role of RBM15 and RNA m6A modification in physiological and pathological processes!

A very warm welcome to our new Part II Biochemistry students Sophie Marlow, Lauryn McLean-Deaville and Jack Palmer.

After 18 months of Zoom meetings we are finally together for our first in-person labmeeting in the brand new spacious meeting room.

Many congratulations to Komal who has won the best poster prize at the Annual Biochemistry Graduate Poster Symposium!

Many congratulations to Lisa on her graduation!

Joe has passed his viva today. Congratulations, Dr.Bowness!

"Acute depletion of METTL3 implicates N6-methyladenosine in alternative intron/exon inclusion in the nascent transcriptome" paper is out in Genome Research today! Many congratulations to Guifeng and all co-authors!

Many congratulations to Lisa, Heather and co-authors - their manuscript "Time-resolved structured illumination microscopy reveals key principles of Xist RNA spreading" has been published in Science today!

Many congratulations to Guifeng and co-authors - their manuscript "Acute depletion of METTL3 implicates N6-methyladenosine in alternative intron/exon inclusion in the nascent transcriptome" has been accepted for publication in Genome Research today!

We continue a long-running debate on the mechanism for Polycomb recruitment by mouse Xist RNA in our Developmental Cell letter that has been published today. Our perspective is that direct de novo recruitment is solely attributable to hnRNPK binding Xist repeats B + C and that repeat A only affects Polycomb recruitment indirectly.

Link to the letter can be found here

6 NOVEMBER

A very warm welcome to our new Part II Biochemistry students Will Bentley and Elvi Nimali! And welcome back to our former summer student Holly Roach who has returned to the lab for her Part II project! It is a remote welcome so far, but hope to see you all in the lab soon!

29 OCTOBER

Many congratulations to Guifeng, Neil and our alumna Tianyi - their paper "The PWWP2A Histone Deacetylase Complex Represses Intragenic Spurious Transcription Initiation in mESCs" has been published in iScience today!

6 OCTOBER

A very warm welcome back to our Wellcome Trust student Clelia Accalai and our former summer student Flavia Constantinescu who have returned to the lab for their DPhil projects!

25 SEPTEMBER

In spite of all challenges linked to the world pandemic, Lucy has completed her rotation with us and joined Doug Higgs lab at WIMM for her 3rd rotation. We wish you Good luck with your next project, Lucy!

1 JUNE

Neil, Joe and Guifeng's review on Progress toward understanding chromosome silencing by Xist RNA is out and available in the latest issue of  Genes & Development.  Congratulations!

11 MAY

Mafalda, Joe and Neil's review on Polycomb complexes and RNA interplay is out and freely available in Curr Opin Gen & Dev.  Congratulations!

15 APRIL

A very warm welcome to our new Research Associate Gabriele Migliorini!

5 MARCH

A very warm welcome to our new Wellcome Trust DPhil Rotation student Lucy Cornell!

26 FEBRUARY

Clelia Accalai has completed her 1st rotation with us and joined Lars Jansen's lab for her 2nd rotation. Good luck with your new project, Clelia!

17 FEBRUARY

Many congratulations to Heather, Guifeng and co-authors - their paper "The role of the Xist 5’ m6A region and RBM15 in X chromosome inactivation" has been published in Wellcome Open Research today!

Link to the paper can be found here

4 NOVEMBER

A very warm welcome to our new Wellcome Trust DPhil Rotation student Clelia Accalai!

23 SEPTEMBER

A very warm welcome to our new Part II Biochemistry students Bramman Rajkumar and Xu (Reece) Wang

9 SEPTEMBER

A very warm welcome to Rebecca Berrens - Sir Henry Wellcome Postdoctoral Fellow - who has joined the group today!

30 AUGUST

Today we’ve said Goodbye to Michal who is moving back to Poland to set up his lab at the Faculty of Biology, Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznan. The best of luck, Michal! Stay in touch!

Michal is going to study the role of higher-order chromatin structure in developmental gene regulation and DNA replication. Currently he is looking for a postdoc - contact Michal (Twitter or e-mail) if interested!

16 JULY

Our latest paper "Systematic allelic analysis defines the interplay of key pathways in X chromosome inactivation" has been published in Nature Communications today! Many congratulations to all involved!

Link to the paper can be found here

15 JULY

Today we have said Good Bye to Leanne who is going back to the Netherlands to start her PhD project in Cryo-EM in the Friedrich Förster lab at the Bijvoet Center for Biomolecular Research, Utrecht University. Good luck for the future, Leanne! Keep in touch!

17 MAY

Many congratulations to Michal who has just got £400k grant from Polish National Science Centre to fund his research on the role of higher-order chromatin structure in developmental gene regulation and DNA replication.

Michal will set up his lab at the Faculty of Biology, Adam Mickiewicz University, Poznan, Poland this autumn. Currently he is looking for a postdoc. PhD student and lab manager positions are likely to be available next year. Contact Michal (@michal_gdula) if interested!

30 APRIL

Antonio has left the lab to start his career as a Protein Biochemist at OMass Therapeutics in Oxford. Good luck, Antonio!

24 APRIL

Many congratulations to Lisa who has won the best poster prize at the Annual Biochemistry Graduate Poster Symposium!

1 MARCH

Very warm welcome to our new postdoctoral scientist Adam Cawte!

22 FEBRUARY

Good Bye to our Part II Undergraduate Biochemistry student Jasmine. Good luck for the future!

3 JANUARY

Michal', Tatyana' and co-authors' paper "The non-canonical SMC protein SmcHD1 antagonises TAD formation and compartmentalization on the inactive X chromosome" has been published in Nature Communications today! Many congratulations!

Link to the paper can be found here

26 NOVEMBER

Very warm welcome to our new Master Student Leanne de Jager who has joined us today!

14 NOVEMBER

Many congratulations to Michal, Tatyana and co-authors - their paper "The non-canonical SMC protein SmcHD1 antagonises TAD formation and compartmentalization on the inactive X chromosome" has been accepted for publication in Nature Communications today!

18 SEPTEMBER

Tianyi', Guifeng' & co-authors' paper "A variant NuRD complex containing PWWP2A/B excludes MBD2/3 to regulate transcription at active genes" has been published in Nature Communications today! Many congratulations!

Link to the paper can be found here

17 SEPTEMBER

Welcome back to our Wellcome Trust student Komal Yasmin who has returned to the lab for her DPhil project

5 SEPTEMBER

Lisa is selected to give a talk “Dissecting the Single-Cell Dynamics of Xist RNA in X Chromosome Inactivation by 3D Super-resolution Microscopy” at the EMBO/EMBL Symposium "Principles of Chromosome Structure and Function", EMBL Heidelberg, Germany, 5 - 8 Sep 2018.

Michal is presenting a poster there too and also is selected to present a Flash Talk "SmcHD1 antagonises TAD formation and compartmentalisation on the inactive X chromosome independent of transcription"

Meeting information can be found here  

2 AUGUST

Many congratulations to Tianyi, Guifeng and co-authors - their paper "A variant NuRD complex containing PWWP2A/B excludes MBD2/3 to regulate transcription at active genes" has been accepted for publication in Nature Communications today!

21 JULY

Today we are gathering for another lab reunion to celebrate Neil's election as a Fellow of the Royal Society and the Lab's 24th anniversary!

3 JULY

Goodbye to Mankgopo who has moved to Nuffield Department of Medicine, Oxford to continue her postdoctoral work. Good luck with your next project, Mankgopo!

15 JUNE

Komal has completed her rotation with us and joined Doug Higgs lab at WIMM for her 3rd rotation. We wish you Good luck with your next project, Komal!

1 JUNE

Today we are saying our tearful Goodbye to Greta... she is off to Boston to join Kevin Eggan lab for her postdoc. Good luck, Greta! We will miss you!

9 MAY

Many congratulations to Neil on his election as a Fellow of the Royal Society!

https://royalsociety.org/people/neil-brockdorff-13800/

23 APRIL

Huge congratulations to Heather who has completed the hottest on record London Marathon yesterday! Heather was running to raise money for the Cystic Fibrosis Trust. You still can support her if you wish! Thank you!

http://uk.virginmoneygiving.com/HeatherCobb  

12 MARCH

A very warm welcome to our new Wellcome Trust DPhil Rotation student Komal Yasmin  

23 FEBRUARY

Good Bye to our Part II Undergraduate Biochemistry students Anna and Devico. Good luck for the future!  

29 JANUARY

Many congratulations to Jeongyoon on the award of the Marie Skłodowska-Curie Individual Fellowship supported by the European Commission

22 JANUARY

Guifeng is selected to give a talk “Nascent Epitranscriptome Profiling Reveals Widespread Intronic m6A in Mouse ES Cells” at the 2018 Keystone Symposia on Molecular and Cellular Biology: DNA and RNA Methylation, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada.

Meeting information can be found here  

13 DECEMBER

Burcu has left the lab to start her career as a Senior Medical Writer at M3 EU, Stony Brook University, Oxford, UK. We wish you all the best in your new endeavour!

7 DECEMBER

Many congratulations to Greta, Guifeng and co-authors - their paper "hnRNPK Recruits PCGF3/5-PRC1 to the Xist RNA B-Repeat to Establish Polycomb-Mediated Chromosomal Silencing" is published in Molecular Cell today!

17 NOVEMBER

We are saying Good Bye to Chloe who has moved to MRC London Institute of Medical Sciences (LMS). We will miss you!

11 NOVEMBER

Many congratulations to Tianyi on her graduation today!

10 NOVEMBER

Many congratulations to Greta, Guifeng and co-authors - their paper "hnRNPK recruits PCGF3/5-PRC1 to the Xist RNA B-repeat to establish Polycomb mediated chromosomal silencing" has been accepted for publication in Molecular Cell today!

6 NOVEMBER

A very warm welcome to our new Wellcome Trust DPhil Rotation student Konstantinos Klaourakis

23 OCTOBER

Many congratulations to Jeongyoon - her paper "DNA binding by PHF1 prolongs PRC2 residence time on chromatin and thereby promotes H3K27 methylation" is published in NSMB today!

2 OCTOBER

Welcome back to our Wellcome Trust student Joe Bowness who has returned to the lab for his DPhil project

30 SEPTEMBER

Mafalda has graduated at Sheldonian Theatre, Oxford today. Many congratulations, Mafalda!

18 SEPTEMBER

A very warm welcome to the lab to our new Part II Biochemistry students Anna Lewis and Devico Haojun Shi

15 SEPTEMBER

We are saying Good Bye to Laura who is going to the Dunn School of Pathology for her D.Phil.

29 JUNE

Mafalda has passed her viva today. Congratulations, Dr. Almeida!

19 JUNE

Welcome to our new Wellcome Trust DPhil Rotation student Laura Hankins and Biochemistry summer student Devico Haojun Shi

16 JUNE

Joe has completed his rotation with us and joined Doug Higgs lab at WIMM for his 3rd rotation. Good luck with your next project, Joe!

9 JUNE

Many congratulations to Mafalda and co-authors - their paper "PCGF3/5-PRC1 initiates Polycomb recruitment in X chromosome inactivation" is published in Science today!

26 MAY

Today we are saying Good Bye to our trainee student Bianca who is going back to Germany to complete her undergraduate degree. Good luck for the future! Keep in touch!

25 MAY

Congratulations to our collaborators Dawn Coverley, Justin Ainscough and their team and to Neil, Heather, Greta, Jonathan and Tatyana on publication of their CIZ1 paper in Genes and Development today!

12 MAY

Many congratulations to Mafalda and co-authors - their paper has been accepted for publication in Science today!

5 MAY

Many congratulations to Greta who has was won a poster prize and has been selected to give a talk “Functional analysis of Xist RNA" at the EMBO conference "Chromatin and Epigenetics", Heidelberg, Germany.

Meeting information may be found here 

3 APRIL

Many congratulations to Mankgopo who just has been awarded The Schlumberger Foundation Faculty for the Future fellowship!

Welcome to our new Interdisciplinary Bioscience DTP Rotation D.Phil Student Philipp Lorenz  

15 MARCH

Welcome to Dr. Mankgopo Kgatle - academic visitor from the University of Cape Town  

13 MARCH

Welcome to our new Wellcome Trust DPhil Rotation student Joe Bowness  

10 MARCH

Amy Hughes has completed her 1st rotation with us and joined Rob Klose's lab for her 2nd rotation. Good luck with your new project, Amy!  

24 FEBRUARY

Good Bye to our Part II Undergraduate Biochemistry student Qi. Good luck for the future!  

10 FEBRUARY

Today we are saying Good Bye to Sarah and wishing her all the best in her new job! Sarah is joining the Gaffney lab & the Bassett lab funded by Open Targets (joint Sanger GSK, Biogen) at the Sanger Institute in Cambridge to study target validation for neurodegenerative diseases.  

25 JANUARY

Congratulations to Tianyi on passing her DPhil viva!  

19 JANUARY

Congratulations to Antonio on passing his DPhil viva!  

16 JANUARY

Welcome to our new postdoctoral scientist Jeongyoon Choi  

16 DECEMBER

Congratulations to Greta on passing her DPhil viva!  

28 NOVEMBER

Jarid2 paper is out today in Nature Communications. Congratulations to Sarah, Anne, Lizzi and co.  

21 NOVEMBER

Welcome to our Wellcome Trust DPhil Rotation student Amy Hughes.

21 OCTOBER

Congratulations to Sarah, Anne, Lizzi and co. – their manuscript "Jarid2 binds mono-ubiquitylated H2A lysine 119 to mediate crosstalk between Polycomb complexes PRC1 and PRC2" has been accepted for publication in Nature Communications.  

OCTOBER

Welcome to our new D.Phil student Lisa Rodermund and postdoctoral scientist Antonio Biasutto  

3-5 OCTOBER

The group has attended 4th X inactivation meeting "X-chromosome inactivation: a tribute to Mary Lyon". The meeting took place at Royal Society in London. The last day was held on the Harwell Research Campus, Oxfordshire, where Mary Lyon worked for most of her career.

Heather is selected to give a talk “m6A modification of Xist RNA is critical for its effective silencing ability”

19 SEPTEMBER

Welcome to Bianca Bloechl - our undergraduate Trainee from Eberhard Karls University Tuebingen, Germany, and Biochemistry Part II undergraduate student Qi Pan  

31 AUGUST

Neil’s talk “The molecular mechanism of X chromosome inactivation” is available in the Henry Stewart Talk series. Access talk here

12 AUGUST

Benoit has left the lab to start his career as a Lecturer at the Institut de Biologie Intégrative de la Cellule, Paris, France. Good luck, Benoit! 

JUNE

Congratulations to Anne, Sarah and co. for publication of their Aebp2 paper in Development!

Nicolae has left the lab to start his career as Protein Biochemist at Heptares Therapeutics UK. Good luck!

MAY

Lizzi has moved to Manchester to work as a Senior Scientist at AstraZeneca. Good luck! 

MARCH

Mafalda is selected to give a talk “Mechanisms of Xist-dependent Polycomb Recruitment” at the 2016 Keystone Symposia on Chromatin and Epigenetics, Whistler, British Columbia, Canada.

Meeting information may be found here 

JANUARY

Benoit’s and Neil’s review is out in Seminars in Cell & Developmental Biology  

15 JANUARY

Congratulations to Sarah on birth of her baby daughter!  

OCTOBER

Congratulations to Tianyi, Sarah and Neil - their review is out in EMBO reports.  

Welcome to our Wellcome Trust D.Phil Rotation Student Ines Alvarez Rodrigo . 

21 SEPTEMBER

Congratulations to Nick & co. for publication of their paper in MCB - out today!

SEPTEMBER

Welcome to our Princeton University Exchange Student Angela Liang and Biochemistry Part II student Siobhan Tarry.

AUGUST

Welcome to Dr. Guifeng Wei who has joined the lab.

28 JULY

Congratulations to Benoit, Andrea and co. for publication of their paper in Cell Reports!

18 JULY

Brockdorff lab is 21! Alumni, join us for celebration!

20 MAY

Anne has moved to London to work as a Management consultant at Oliver Wyman firm. Good bye and good luck, Anne!

30 JANUARY

Welcome to Dr. Michal Gdula who has joined the lab.

8 DECEMBER

Congratulations to Anna on passing her DPhil viva! Good bye and good luck for the future!

MARCH

Welcome to Dr.Nicolae Solcan who has joined the lab

FEBRUARY

Welcome to our new Research Assistant Chloe Roustan!

30 JANUARY

Congratulations to Anne on passing her DPhil viva!

13 JANUARY

Welcome to Dr.Lizzi Underwood who has joined the lab today

DECEMBER

Andrea is leaving the lab to continue his research on X inactivation in EMBL Monterotondo, Italy. Good luck, Andrea!

JULY

Nuclear Run-On team has completed the challenge! Many thanks to everyone who sponsored us and donated to CR UK

18 JUNE

Congratulation to Jayati on passing her DPhil viva! Good bye and good luck for the future! Keep in touch!

10 JUNE

Congratulation to Anne-Valerie and co. with publication of their latest SmcHD1 story.

JUNE

A very warm welcome to our new Laboratory assistant Emma!

Girls from Brockdorff and Klose groups entered a Race for Life event and have started training!

We are very grateful for your support!

MARCH

This month we are saying Good Bye to our Part II Undergraduate Biochemistry student Ray. Good luck for the future! 

DECEMBER

Merry Christmas! The Brockdorff and Klose labs are celebrating Christmas at St. John's college

NOVEMBER

MOVEMBER! Several lab members participated in the month long fundraising activity of growing moustaches in support of Men's health.

Welcome to our new D.Phil Student Mafalda Almeida and Dr.Burcu Anil Kirmizitas!

2 OCTOBER

Welcome to our new D.Phil Student Tianyi Zhang and Dr.Benoit Moindrot!

Brockdorff, Klose and Fisher labs are heading to Tarbena, Spain for a Scientific Retreat!

5 NOVEMBER

CONGRATULATIONS, LIGIA! Ligia has graduated at Sheldonian Theatre, Oxford. She has moved back to Porto, Portugal to do her first postdoc.