Heng-Chang Chen

📢We are thrilled to share our streamlined in vitro transcription-based protocol, lentiviral integration site sequencing (#LISseq), to map single provirus integration sites. 📷See doi.org/10.1016/j.xpro… for the step-by-step protocol.

In a new Science study, researchers report that specific regions dense in cytosine and guanosine dinucleotides are epigenetically modified during inflammation to enable gene expression and that these changes persist during the animal’s lifetime. The finding has implications for understanding how the genome determines the longevity of memory, which affects tissue fitness. Learn more in a new #SciencePerspective: scim.ag/3PCKQU1

AlphaGenome is out in @nature today along with model weights! 🧬 📄 Paper: nature.com/articles/s4158… 💻 Weights: github.com/google-deepmin… Getting here wasn’t a straight path. We sat down @googledeepmind to discuss the story behind the model, paper & API: youtu.be/V8lhUqKqzUc

📣 CSBJ is now a Science Partner Journal published with @AAAS Press release: eurekalert.org/news-releases/… Submissions (same EM login/workflow): editorialmanager.com/csbj

🎓 Kolejni naukowcy Łukasiewicz – PORT z habilitacją! dr hab. Marek Wagner kieruje Grupą Badawczą Odporności Wrodzonej, dr hab. Heng-Chang Chen – Grupą Badawczą Wirusologii Ilościowej. Gratulacje! 👏 ➡️tiny.pl/yn11gpz-0 #biomedycyna #immunologia #wirusologia

New Article! Profiling active RNA polymerase II transcription start sites from total RNA by capped small RNA sequencing (csRNA-seq) dlvr.it/TQNMbM

Voting for the international society for antiviral research board members is open! Vote for me, if you want me aboard, or vote any of the great colleagues that have added their names. Join ISAR and attend the annual conference we hold around the world. linkedin.com/posts/isar-ica…

An overview of key online resources for human genomics: a powerful and open toolbox for in silico research academic.oup.com/bfg/advance-ar…

Before we say goodbye to 2025, JVI would like to end the year with a very attractive cover image. See our December issue! The image depicts 7 vaccine platforms under scientific development. Big thanks to George F. Gao, Guorui Peng, et al. See doi.org/10.1128/jvi.00…, #jvirology

Scikit-bio: a Python library for biological omic data analysis. nature.com/articles/s4159…

Excited to share "Claude Code for Everyone"—a set of step-by-step, hands-on tutorials to help you put AI to work on your laptop. It isn’t just an AI coding tool for developers; it is a powerful local AI agent to support research, writing, editing, and more. What’s inside: - Windows + Mac setup guides - A clear learning path: Basics → R / Python - Practical workflows with VS Code, Git, WSL (Windows), and Docker - Real projects (e.g., using Claude Code to help write a research paper) - Spanish, Chinese, and Japanese versions Check it out: gexijin.github.io/vibe/ I’d love your feedback (and topic or language requests)! #AI #ClaudeCode #Python #RStats #VSCode #Git #DeveloperTools #Productivity

Attention scientists from all over the world🙃 The Call for Letters of Intent for #HFSPResearchGrants 2027 is now open! Get your international & interdisciplinary team. It's time to put your bold research idea into practice! 🔗bit.ly/48VsGCG 📅 15 Dec 2025–26 Mar 2026

networkGWAS: A network-based approach to discover genetic associations academic.oup.com/bioinformatics…

🔴 Live now: Webinar on ERC Plus Grants. Join to learn how the scheme is being shaped to support outstanding principal investigators with bold ideas and a vision for transformative research. youtube.com/live/Dzkas7fs5… #ChooseEuropeforScience

The Journal of Virology celebrates these early-career virologists selected for JVI’s new minireview collection. Keep an eye out for their minireviews that will be published in 2026. Meet the New Voices: asm.social/2HY. #JVirology

Dr Heng-Chang Chen z Łukasiewicz–PORT dołączył do grona New Voices in Virology! 🎉🧬 Jego zespół bada uśpienie HIV i rozwija modele do analizy SARS-CoV-2, pomagając określić jego pochodzenie gatunkowe. 🔬📊 port.lukasiewicz.gov.pl/dwa-wirusy-w-c… #Virology #HIV #SARSCoV2

The Journal of Virology is proud to announce the selected candidates of the inaugural New Voices in Virology minireview collection. Congratulations to these early-career virologists who were chosen from over 275 applicants. See journals.asm.org/journal/jvi/jv…. #virology @JVirology

Developed by two Nobel Prize laureates, mRNA technology was used to create COVID-19 vaccines in a remarkably short timeframe. This innovative technology has opened up new possibilities of developing vaccines against influenza, zika and the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV). Drew Weissman and Katalin Karikó shared the 2023 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for their discoveries concerning nucleoside base modifications that enabled the development of effective mRNA vaccines against COVID-19. Their groundbreaking findings fundamentally changed our understanding of how mRNA interacts with our immune system and are being used to develop other mRNA vaccines against influenza, zika and rabies. One goal is to develop an mRNA vaccine that creates an antibody response to prevent the HIV virus from infecting healthy calls. If scientists succeed, such vaccines could save millions of lives. On 9 December, at the Nobel Week Dialogue, we bring together Nobel Prize laureates, academics, innovators and policymakers to explore one of the most urgent challenges of our time: how to deliver equitable, effective, and sustainable healthcare in the 21st century. Discussions will include the future of drug discovery, the rise of antimicrobial resistance, the economics of sustainable and affordable health provision and healthy diets. Join us as we consider the possibilities. bit.ly/4qEXEaz

Today we had a computational virology workshop with Profs. Veronika Bernhauerova (Charles University Czechia) and Bartek Lisowski (Jagiellonian University Krakow, @SpyrosLytras (Univ Tokyo) and Cedric Tan (UCL Crick Institute). 4 hours of chit chat and coming up with ways to collaborate.

The first really big piece of research coming out of our Singaporean lab, this is Fadi's work @biofadialnaji , started in Chris Brooke's lab and completed here, over a four year period. Fadi serially passaged Flu over 80 times in conditions favouring defective genomes. He observes interesting patterns of competition and population dynamics. He observes selection of defective genomes that get better at competing with WT virus! Interestingly this variant improves defective genome replication when it is on the defective genome, but if it hops onto the full virus genome, it is a nonviable mutation! Interesting improvement and safety feature for defective genomes as nucleic acid antiviral therapies! biorxiv.org/content/10.110…