Maya Voichek
Studying the twilight zone between transposons and endogenous retroviruses // Scientist, mom, bioart enthusiast
- Reposted by Maya VoichekCheck out our new paper in early access at Nature Communications! www.nature.com/articles/s41...
- The (Yoav) Voichek lab has opened its gates at the Weizmann Institute, and is actively recruiting students and researchers at all levels - come explore gene regulation and computational genomics in a fun, friendly sprouting lab 🤗🥼⚗️🧪 www.weizmann.ac.il/plants/voichek
- Reposted by Maya VoichekIntrigued by a long-standing conundrum in small RNA biology—how nuclear Argonaute proteins silence transposons when they *need* target transcription for their own recruitment—we studied the piRNA pathway. And found a hidden RNA-decay axis from Piwi to the RNA exosome.
- RNA decay via the nuclear exosome is essential for piwi-mediated transposon silencing biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/20…
- Reposted by Maya VoichekLastly, I’m excited to join @imbmainz.bsky.social in 2026 to start my own lab. We'll explore new mechanisms in eukaryotic gene expression, leveraging ‘evolutionary play’ to uncover how regulation, repurposing, and hijacking shape RNA biology. tinyurl.com/y4x29ctt Thanks for reading! 20/20
- Reposted by Maya VoichekAre you an early-stage graduate student (2nd or 3rd year) or early-stage postdoc based in the US or Canada, working primarily in Drosophila? Would you like to help improve the experience of all trainees working in Drosophila research? If so, read on. (Please repost to reach a broad audience.)
- Reposted by Maya VoichekSome impressions from the rather fabulous #EMBOmobilegenome Mobile Genome meeting in Heidelberg Morning walk through the woods, exciting panel discussion, flash talks, lab community, drosophila friends, … @events.embl.org The transposon community is going very strong. see you all again in 2027!!
- Reposted by Maya VoichekWhen transposons jump, genomes diverge - even in cultured cells. I am happy to share our new preprint: a chromosome-scale genome assembly for Drosophila OSC cells, one of the key model systems in the piRNA field, especially for nuclear piRNA biology. 🧬🧵 (1/12)
- Reposted by Maya Voichek1/ How do animals develop immunity against a newly encountered transposable element from scratch? Our study reveals that the mobility of TEs is their Achilles heel, allowing hosts to develop a powerful small RNA-mediated silencing response. www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
- Antisense transposon insertions into host genes trigger piRNA mediated immunity biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/202…
- Reposted by Maya VoichekWe wrote a review on the free nucleotide pool as a central playground in human, bacterial, and plant immunity – now out in Nature Reviews in Immunology www.nature.com/articles/s41... Was fun to write this piece with Dina Hochhauser! Here is a thread to explain the premises 1/
- Reposted by Maya VoichekWe wrote a review on Transposable Elements (TEs) and almost all aspects of TE silencing and their roles in biological processes & disease. www.nature.com/articles/s41...
- Reposted by Maya VoichekAlthough we didn't make it to a cover, it was so wonderful to work with @mariadiazillus.bsky.social on designing an artwork inspired by our work. Thank you Maria! We love it and will be proudly showing it around. Rover ERV wandering around the chromatin rapped around the moons of the solar system:
- Reposted by Maya Voichek🚨📢 New paper alert! A study led by Kirsten Senti and Julius Brennecke offers new insights into how ancient endogenous retroviruses diversified to exploit different cell “niches” in the fruit fly ovary, and how the host’s defenses adapted in return. imba.science/Brennecke_EMBOJ
- Reposted by Maya VoichekREFEREE 1: “I conclude with a simple, direct statement - this is the best paper I have read all year!” #TransparentPeerReview Co-evolving infectivity and expression patterns drive the diversification of endogenous retroviruses @juliusbrennecke.bsky.social et al www.embopress.org/doi/full/10....
- Reposted by Maya VoichekFlybase lost all of the NIH support overnight - it is a disaster for the community. Please consider donating. I just did! www.philanthropy.cam.ac.uk/give-to-camb...
- Reposted by Maya VoichekHappy #FluorescenceFriday !🌈 Today, sperm cells & developing gametes (Dapi, 🟢🟡🟠🔴) and testis muscles (Phalloidin (🔵🟢) in/on a #Drosophila non-melanogaster (guess the species and you’re the 🐐) #cellbio #devbio #science #sciart #microscopy Scope: Zeiss Airyscan 980❤️@zeiss-microscopy.bsky.social
- Reposted by Maya Voichek📣 Our new VIP3 Postdoc program is accepting applications! Wondering what's it's like to do a postdoc at the Vienna Biocenter? Find out here👇 🎉
- Reposted by Maya Voichek#drosophila @flybase.bsky.social request emergency funding: "As it stands, by the end of July, 2025, there will be no future updates to FlyBase, and in the worst case scenario access to the website will also be lost" => please donate! www.philanthropy.cam.ac.uk/give-to-camb...
- Reposted by Maya VoichekDid you know? 🧪 "The Interactive Fly" is a wonderful website hosted by @socdevbio.bsky.social where you can learn about their development, the history of gene discovery/name, and it is full of super useful resources for the #DevBio community 🪰https://www.sdbonline.org/sites/fly/aimain/1aahome.htm
- Reposted by Maya VoichekBlurring the lines between retrotransposons & viruses! sORF2 enables direct transmission of retrotransposons challenging our understanding of mobile genetic elements. #preprint @juliusbrennecke.bsky.social Lab #preLight from Ally Simpson & Alyss Humphrey! 👉 prelights.biologists.com/highlights/d...
- Reposted by Maya VoichekStop for a second and try to imagine this: a heat shock protein relocalizes to the cell surface and mediates dsRNA binding and internalization! Intrigued? Read our newly minted paper in Science Advances www.science.org/doi/10.1126/... Congrats to all the authors and thanks to reviewers and editor!
- Reposted by Maya VoichekWe are hiring! Join the BioOptics team as a Data Scientist in Image Analysis and contribute to the team’s mission of providing microscopy applications, flow cytometry, and image analysis services. Link below. #europe #research #lifesciences
- Reposted by Maya VoichekOnline now at @cp-cell.bsky.social , the culmination of a 12-year effort. 🧵 to follow later this evening www.cell.com/cell/fulltex...
- Reposted by Maya Voichek💥🥳 At long last, our latest paper is out! Gag proteins of endogenous retroviruses are required for zebrafish development www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/... Led heroically by Sylvia Chang & @jonowells.bsky.social A study which has changed the way I think of #transposons! No less! 🧵 1/n
- Reposted by Maya VoichekI have exhorted others to share positive news even in these uncertain times for US science. I am really excited that @tamanash.bsky.social’s first paper on the remarkable evolutionary gymnastics of dual-host viruses (even in single codons) is now online. Follow along here 🧪🧵
- Our study exploring the evolutionary mechanism of alphavirus opal codon retention is now online! www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...
- Reposted by Maya VoichekOur field has lost an amazing scientist, mentor, and old friend. Benny, along with Mike Hoffman, had a brilliant idea in the early 1980s. The first oncogenes were being cloned and they realized if we wanted to understand their roles in cancer, we needed to understand their normal function 1/n 🧪
- Reposted by Maya VoichekDo you have transposon-related research cooking, with some cool results you are exciting to share? Start thinking about registering to #EMBOMobileGenome workshop! Nov 4-7 2025 in Heidelberg. One of the historical TE meetings, with a diverse and welcoming community. www.embl.org/about/info/c... 1/3
- Reposted by Maya Voichekwe received so many nice comments for this work on this platform, it is really wonderful. Thank you all so much!!
- 1/ Transposable elements are often called "jumping genes" because they mobilize within genomes. 🧬 But did you know they can also jump 𝘣𝘦𝘵𝘸𝘦𝘦𝘯 cells? 🤯 Our new study reveals how retrotransposons invade the germline directly from somatic cells. www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1... A short thread 🧵👇
- Reposted by Maya VoichekThis new mechanism of retrotransposon invasion will be a landmark finding in retrotransposon biology Very creative and thorough genetic and mechanistic dissection. Excited to see what studies of more transposon-encoded peptides and proteins like sORF2 will uncover! biology is just really cool
- 1/ Transposable elements are often called "jumping genes" because they mobilize within genomes. 🧬 But did you know they can also jump 𝘣𝘦𝘵𝘸𝘦𝘦𝘯 cells? 🤯 Our new study reveals how retrotransposons invade the germline directly from somatic cells. www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1... A short thread 🧵👇
- Reposted by Maya VoichekIn the ‘90s, Pelisson et al. found that gypsy retrotransposons in flies can go viral—literally—thanks to an envelope gene. Now, @mayavoichek.bsky.social uncovers a wild new path to retrotransposon infectivity. A fascinating story—see Maya's thread www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.03.14.642691v2
- 1/ Transposable elements are often called "jumping genes" because they mobilize within genomes. 🧬 But did you know they can also jump 𝘣𝘦𝘵𝘸𝘦𝘦𝘯 cells? 🤯 Our new study reveals how retrotransposons invade the germline directly from somatic cells. www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1... A short thread 🧵👇
- 1/ Transposable elements are often called "jumping genes" because they mobilize within genomes. 🧬 But did you know they can also jump 𝘣𝘦𝘵𝘸𝘦𝘦𝘯 cells? 🤯 Our new study reveals how retrotransposons invade the germline directly from somatic cells. www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1... A short thread 🧵👇
- 2/ LTR retrotransposons are similar to retroviruses (like HIV), but lack the fusogenic Envelope protein that’s needed for viruses to infect cells. 🧫 This usually confines retrotransposons to the cells where they’re expressed. But we found a group in 𝘋𝘳𝘰𝘴𝘰𝘱𝘩𝘪𝘭𝘢 that breaks this rule❕
- 3/ These retrotransposons are expressed in somatic cells of the ovary, and are then able to cross over to the oocyte 𝘄𝗶𝘁𝗵𝗼𝘂𝘁 an Envelope. How do they do it? 🤔
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View full threadThanks to @imbavienna.bsky.social and VBC core facilities!
