Aurele Piazza

The Expanding Roles of Homologous Recombination Proteins in Genome Stability
@labvincenzo.bsky.social review how RAD51 shields DNA from nucleolytic processing, promotes fork reversal, suppresses replicative DNA gaps, binds abasic sites to avert cytotoxic conversion
link.springer.com/article/10.1...

📣 16th edition of the French 3R meeting “Replication, Recombination, Repair” - Registrations are open!

📆 May 18 to 21, 2026
📍 Belambra Club Presqu’île du Ponant in La Grande-Motte, France

🔗 www.2026.3r-meeting.fr/page/home/

Flyer for symposium: https://ctrlepiedit.sciencesconf.org/

Very excited to announce the FIRST symposium on epigenome editing! These tools are becoming widely used in mol bio, ag & therapy. It's time to bring leaders together to discuss this rapidly growing and exciting field. And why not in Paris! Please register & share! (1/2) ctrlepiedit.sciencesconf.org

Our OA author manuscript is always available here: hal.science/hal-05520503

A local search phase is under control by SMC complexes; and a distant search phase dependent on the Rad51 filament's dynamic structure, largely emancipated from constraints imposed by chromosome organizers.

We just published a short conceptual review together with @angela-taddei.bsky.social on the spatial controls of homology search in both bacteria and eukaryotes. We discuss an emerging framework for homology search in cells with two main phases. Check it out: authors.elsevier.com/c/1mjyh,LqAZ...

Great collaboration with the lab of @djost-physbiol.bsky.social!

SMC and recombination enthusiasts: we updated our work describing the loop extrusion properties of budding yeast condensin and its function in biasing donor usage for mating-type switching. Lots of cool new data, check it out!
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

Rescuing the bacterial replisome at a nick requires recombinational repair and helicase reloading - Nature Communications DNA damage can lead to cell death. Here, the authors show that a simple cut on either strand of DNA can inactivate bacterial chromosome replication. Surprisingly, only a core set of recombination prot...

A cool genetic system to study site-pecific replication fork collapse and repair from the brilliant @winterhalterlab.bsky.social

www.nature.com/articles/s41...

🚨Our work on the impact of DNA replication on 3D genome is out in Genome Biology: replication-dependent loop extrusion by sister-forks, wave of replication, no evidence for large-scale replication factory. Great collab with @aurelepiazza.bsky.social. More here: link.springer.com/article/10.1...

Cohesin drives chromatin scanning during the RAD51-mediated homology search Cohesin folds genomes into chromatin loops, the roles of which are under debate. We found that double-strand breaks (DSBs) induce de novo formation of chromatin loops in human cells, with the loop bas...

Thrilled to share that my postdoc research is published today in @science.org! We found that DNA repair uses cohesin complexes to build new chromatin loops that guide the homology search and boost accurate repair! 1/n
www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

Cohesin guides homology search during DNA repair using loops and sister chromatid linkages Accurate repair of DNA double-strand breaks (DSBs) is essential for genome stability, and defective repair underlies diseases such as cancer. Homologous recombination uses an intact homologous sequenc...

I am happy to share that my postdoctoral work in the @gerlichlab.bsky.social at @imbavienna.bsky.social is finally out 🎉!
Our study reveals how cohesin guides focused and accurate homology search.
Read more 👉 www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...
Follow along for key insights and updates! 🧵

The 21st Course on Epigenetics which will take place from March 25th to April 1st, 2026 at the Institut Curie (Paris).
The Course is open to M2 and PhD students. Application via the Advanced Training Office website before December 15th, 2025 at:
minilien.curie.fr/3avv47

From genotype to phenotype with 1,086 near telomere-to-telomere yeast genomes - Nature A newly compiled atlas of species-wide structural variants and gene-based and graph pangenomes derived from highly complete assemblies of genomes from 1,086 natural isolates enable integrative genome-scale studies of Saccharomyces cerevisiae.

Nature research paper: From genotype to phenotype with 1,086 near telomere-to-telomere yeast genomes

go.nature.com/4nVsl9z

For the love of frontier research, or why Elon’s rockets keep blowing up | EMBO reports EMBO Press is an editorially independent publishing platform for the development of EMBO scientific publications.

excellent read. www.embopress.org/doi/full/10....

Offer PhD Position Team Lambert | PDF | Genetics | Life Sciences 3-year PhD offer in biology to mechanisms of complex rearrangements of the genome.

A three-year PhD position is available within the team, starting no later than October 2026, to decipher the molecular signatures of chromosomal instability in response to replication stress and how nuclear architecture shapes these signatures in yeast. Please RT.
fr.scribd.com/document/934...

Happy that the final version of our Lamassu work @yli18smc.bsky.social is now out:

www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Thanks again to our awesome collaborators @mblokesch.bsky.social and David and co and Mark Szczelkun and @steven-shaw.bsky.social and the DCI Lausanne @fbm-unil.bsky.social

Loop extrusion provides mechanical robustness to chromatin Chromosomes are complex biopolymers folded into dynamic loops via a loop extrusion process and may experience various mechanical forces in vivo . We develop a force-dependent model of chromatin loop e...

New preprint from the lab !! Loop extrusion may provide mechanical robustness to chromatin. Great work by Hossein Salari. @cnrs.fr @lbmcinlyon.bsky.social
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

Reaffirming the value of model organisms in training scientific minds - Nature Cell Biology As biomedical research prioritizes human models and translational promise, classic model organisms are increasingly dismissed. Here we argue that they have a lasting value, both in enabling discovery and in cultivating scientific thinking, by training researchers in systems reasoning, integrative thinking and independent inquiry.

PREACH!

www.nature.com/articles/s41...

A thought-provoking piece!

🍽️🧬 How do diet and gut microbes shape fertility across generations? 🪱🔬 Our Laboratory at #InstitutPasteur is recruiting a PhD student to study epigenetic inheritance of fertility using C. elegans. Fully funded via the International PPU program. Apply now! 🌍 #PhDposition #Epigenetics #Inheritance

Is euchromatin really “open”? Our new study @bioRxiv suggests otherwise. Using super-resolution imaging @shiori-iida.bsky.social‬ @masaashimazoe.bsky.social reveals: Euchromatin forms condensed domains in live cells. Cohesin constrains them and prevents domain mixing.
www.biorxiv.org/cgi/content/...

Our paper is now out in Molecular Cell!

Check the thread in this former post:

www.cell.com/molecular-ce...

Shout-out to @ydjeghmoum.bsky.social who single-handedly led this beautiful work during her PhD! Thanks @erc.europa.eu and the FRM for funding this work.

Finally, transcription specifically suppressed non-allelic recombination, while it authorized allelic repair. Consequently, transcription prevent chromosomal rearrangements between highly transcribed paralogous genes, and compensating the detrimental impact of transcription in generating DNA lesions

D-loop suppression by transcription was independent of, and even more potent than conserved recombination regulators known to promote genome maintenance and suppress tumor formation in humans (such as BLM-TOP3-RMI and FANCM homologs).

Transcription orientation mattered: co-linear orientation suppressed D-loops more efficiently than head-on orientation. This suggests the preferential usage of one DSB end for repair in highly-transcribed genes.

By putting two donors in competition and transcribing only one of them, we could show that transcription suppressed D-loops in cis! In fact, it even redirected D-loops from the transcribed to the non-transcribed donor.

This effect of transcription could be induced and repressed in minutes, suggesting it reflected a direct effect of RNA PolII passage. Indeed, secondary effect of transcription (RNA, RNA:DNA hybrids, nuclear relocalization, endogenous TFs, …) were not involved in D-loop suppression.

We used a highly efficient DNA break induction system in budding yeast, and quantified D-loops (the earliest DNA joint molecule formed upon homology identification) formed at a donor whose transcriptional level could be manipulated. Transcription caused a massive drop of D-loops.