New Study uses a CRISPR-based screening approach to identify a new therapeutic target for acute myeloid leukemia. #UpennCAMB, ShiLab, PennCDB, BergerLab, PennCancer, PennEpiInst.

https://www.pennmedicine.org/news/news-releases/2021/august/crispr-screening-tool-identifies-new-drug-target-for-leukemia

Our speckles paper led by Kate Alexander is now in print! We think it’s specktacular!

Mysterious ‘nuclear speckle’ cell structures may help block cancers https://penntoday.upenn.edu/news/mysterious-nuclear-speckle-structures-inside-cells-enhance-gene-activity-may-help-block

Congrats to our graduate student Michael Gilbert for receiving a fellowship from NIA to study the proteomic landscape that defines social behavior in Camponotus floridanus! Also co-mentored by Ben Garcia.

Excited to share our research highlighting a new role for the transcription factor p53 in re-locating its target genes within the nucleus in relation to nuclear speckles, phase-separated nuclear bodies, that boost gene expression of select target genes.

https://www.cell.com/molecular-cell/fulltext/S1097-2765(21)00174-X

Mysterious “nuclear speckle” structures inside cells enhance gene activity and may help block cancers:

https://www.pennmedicine.org/news/news-releases/2021/april/mysterious-nuclear-speckle-structures-inside-cells-enhance-gene-activity-may-help-block-cancers

Congratulations to Shelley L. Berger, Ph.D., and M. Celeste Simon, Ph.D., for being named 2021 fellows of the American Association for Cancer Research, recognized for their contributions that have propelled innovation and progress against cancer.

https://www.pennmedicine.org/news/news-releases/2021/march/shelley-l-berger-phd-and-m-celeste-simon-phd-named-2021-fellows-of-the-aacr-academy

Congratulations to our postdoc Paula Agudelo Garcia for receiving an NRSA F32 Fellowship to study how metabolism regulates the epigenetic landscape in T cell exhaustion! A very exciting grant co-mentored by John Wherry.

Our postdoc Lacey Luense wrote a preview for this month’s Cell Host and Microbe on recent work by Deborah Bourchis and colleagues on m6A methylation of ERVKs. Also, check out the latest genre-bending artwork from our postdoc Karl Glastad.

https://www.cell.com/cell-host-microbe/fulltext/S1931-3128(21)00094-9

We are excited to introduce our newest postdoc Naemeh Pourshafie coming from the ⁦National Institutes of Health (NIH)! Naemeh plans to study neurodegenerative diseases, including Alzheimer’s disease and senescence. Welcome, Naemeh!