HUJI Department of Genetics

As a return to our #geneticseminarseries🧬, this Wednesday 31.10, we are glad to have Dr. Eran Blacher @EranBlacher @HebrewU @LifeHuji1925 for a what hopes to be a fascinating lecture titled "The gut 🦠🧫as a novel front of #immune activation after #stroke 🧠. Be sure to be there

Congratulations to Alana Amelan on the Muchrik 2025 PhD award and a great talk! Paper: “CRISPR knockout screens reveal genes and pathways essential for neuronal differentiation and implicate PEDS1 in neurodevelopment” (Nat Neurosci).nature.com/articles/s4159…)

CRISPR Screen Uncovers Genes Driving Brain Cell Development, Neurodevelopmental Disorder By editing thousands of genes in mouse #stemcells, scientists identified a list of over 300 that are crucial for #neuraldifferentiation @SagivShifman @HebrewU #CRISPR hubs.li/Q03ZGZcL0

1/6 Thrilled to share our new paper in Nature Neuroscience with an amazing team of collaborators: CRISPR knockout screens map essential genes/pathways for neuronal differentiation and implicate PEDS1 in neurodevelopment. nature.com/articles/s4159…

According to the basic telomere dogma, mammalian telomeres shorten with age, contributing to aging phenotypes. Here, we show that mouse telomeres do not shorten with age, at least not in blood and tail. academic.oup.com/nar/article/53…

The role of telomeres in aging is challenged yet again

SYMPOSIUM OUTLOOK: Scaling life as an interspecies hallmark of aging By Itamar Harel @ItamarHarel ➡️ genesdev.cshlp.org/content/39/15-… @HebrewU @GeneticsDepart1 #aging #evolution #naturalselection #temporalscaling #mortalityrisk #lifespan #reproduction #environment #molecular

@HebrewU @GeneticsDepart1

Full study: academic.oup.com/nar/article/53…

7/ Bottom line: * mRNA clearance is tempo-tuned to species and env. conditions * 3′UTR motifs and poly(A) tails govern scalable mRNA decay * QUANTA provides a quantitative framework to study mRNA turnover (and not just in embryos) #mRNAdecay #zebrafish #mzt #compbio #devbio

6/ To test this, we slowed and accelerated zebrafish development by changing the temperature. Result: unstable mRNAs failed to adapt - they degraded too fast. But by stabilizing them -- via longer poly(A) tails or modifying 3′UTRs -- timing improved.

5/ But not all transcripts follow the rule. Some degrade faster or slower than expected, hinting at species-specific tuning. What's behind this?

4/ Using QUANTA, we analyzed time-series data from 4 species: Zebrafish, Frog, Mouse and Human, and revealed a conserved logic despite different tempos: mRNA clearance onset and rate globally scale with species’ developmental speed.

3/ We built QUANTA, a tool to analyze time-series RNA-seq data, and quantify mRNA turnover dynamics and related regulatory motifs.

2/ Embryos begin life loaded with maternal mRNAs. As development progresses, these must be cleared to let the embryo’s own (zygotic) genes take over. But how is this clearance timed across species with wildly different developmental speeds?

How embryos stay “on time” as they grow? Happy to share our recent publication: Quantitative modeling of mRNA degradation reveals tempo-dependent mRNA clearance in early embryos (1/7) academic.oup.com/nar/article/53…

1/4 🚨 New Outlook in @GenesDev: "Scaling life as an interspecies hallmark of aging" We propose temporal scaling as a new hallmark—linking lifespan diversity to conserved aging mechanisms. 🔗 tinyurl.com/3a4wawym @HebrewU @GeneticsDepart1

A kind invitation by the Cell Biology Department of @CharlesUniPRG brought Israeli scientist stranded in Prague after the #TCTeAC to do what we love best - participate in exciting scientific discussions!

A great conversation on imprinting and a reporter system for imprinted gene expression. Listen here tinyurl.com/2ffebmn3 or where you get your podcasts & read the full article tinyurl.com/hxavm36u. @gal_keshet @ISSCR @WashUDevBio @washumedicine @HebrewU @GeneticsDepart1

השבוע בסמינר המחלקה של מדעי הצמח והסביבה @HebrewU @LifeHuji1925

I am honored to receive this grant. I am hopeful that it will allow us to learn more about the mechanisms involved in the increased risk of autism among boys.