Peiwei Chen
@peiwei-chen.bsky.social
HHMI Hanna Gray Fellow & Postdoc with Andy Clark and Cedric Feschotte at Cornell | selfish genetic element, transposon, small RNA, evolution
peiweichen.com
peiweichen.com
Pinned
Peiwei Chen
@peiwei-chen.bsky.social
· Jan 8
Today we're thrilled to announce our 2024 #HannaGrayFellows! Please join us in welcoming and celebrating these outstanding early career scientists!
over the moon to share the news that I got selected as a
@hhmi.bsky.social HHMI Hanna Gray Fellow 😄 super humbled to join this wonderful community to learn and grow and do cool science!! 🔬🧪🧬 also thanks to so many of my mentors and friends who have supported me along the way 🙏 #HannaGrayFellows
@hhmi.bsky.social HHMI Hanna Gray Fellow 😄 super humbled to join this wonderful community to learn and grow and do cool science!! 🔬🧪🧬 also thanks to so many of my mentors and friends who have supported me along the way 🙏 #HannaGrayFellows
Reposted by Peiwei Chen
Natural and artificial variations of the standard genetic code
Great new review by Julius Lukes & colleagues 👇
www.cell.com/current-biol...
Great new review by Julius Lukes & colleagues 👇
www.cell.com/current-biol...
November 26, 2025 at 11:54 PM
Natural and artificial variations of the standard genetic code
Great new review by Julius Lukes & colleagues 👇
www.cell.com/current-biol...
Great new review by Julius Lukes & colleagues 👇
www.cell.com/current-biol...
Reposted by Peiwei Chen
Happy to share that my PhD project is finally published!🪱✨
Selfish genes are found across the tree of life. They can disrupt inheritance patterns and at the same time act as units for molecular innovation. Here we tried to answer one big question: how do selfish genes emerge in the first place?
Selfish genes are found across the tree of life. They can disrupt inheritance patterns and at the same time act as units for molecular innovation. Here we tried to answer one big question: how do selfish genes emerge in the first place?
Recurrent evolution of selfishness from an essential tRNA synthetase in Caenorhabditis tropicalis 🧪
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
Recurrent evolution of selfishness from an essential tRNA synthetase in Caenorhabditis tropicalis - Nature Ecology & Evolution
In Caenorhabditis tropicalis, three toxin–antidote elements arose via gene duplication from the essential tRNA-synthetase subunit FARS-3. The ancestral antidote probably acquired affinity for FARS-3, ...
www.nature.com
November 24, 2025 at 9:10 PM
Happy to share that my PhD project is finally published!🪱✨
Selfish genes are found across the tree of life. They can disrupt inheritance patterns and at the same time act as units for molecular innovation. Here we tried to answer one big question: how do selfish genes emerge in the first place?
Selfish genes are found across the tree of life. They can disrupt inheritance patterns and at the same time act as units for molecular innovation. Here we tried to answer one big question: how do selfish genes emerge in the first place?
Reposted by Peiwei Chen
🪱 Selfish genes are everywhere and drive some of biology’s biggest innovations (CRISPR, antibody recombination, epigenetics). Yet almost no one asks the obvious question: how does a selfish gene begin? Our new manuscript uncovers how selfishness can emerge directly from the host genome.
November 24, 2025 at 1:03 PM
🪱 Selfish genes are everywhere and drive some of biology’s biggest innovations (CRISPR, antibody recombination, epigenetics). Yet almost no one asks the obvious question: how does a selfish gene begin? Our new manuscript uncovers how selfishness can emerge directly from the host genome.
Reposted by Peiwei Chen
Thrilled to share my PhD work showing dopamine and serotonin form a gas-brake system for reward has won Stanford's Sammy Kuo Paper of the Year Award!
I'm at #sfn25 presenting new work that uncovers a key circuit mechanism underlying this opponency. Stop by poster AA3 Monday morning to learn more!
I'm at #sfn25 presenting new work that uncovers a key circuit mechanism underlying this opponency. Stop by poster AA3 Monday morning to learn more!
November 16, 2025 at 12:38 AM
Thrilled to share my PhD work showing dopamine and serotonin form a gas-brake system for reward has won Stanford's Sammy Kuo Paper of the Year Award!
I'm at #sfn25 presenting new work that uncovers a key circuit mechanism underlying this opponency. Stop by poster AA3 Monday morning to learn more!
I'm at #sfn25 presenting new work that uncovers a key circuit mechanism underlying this opponency. Stop by poster AA3 Monday morning to learn more!
Reposted by Peiwei Chen
November 15, 2025 at 10:13 PM
Genomic features underlying the origin of sociality and the diversification of caste systems in termites
academic.oup.com/mbe/advance-...
academic.oup.com/mbe/advance-...
Genomic features underlying the origin of sociality and the diversification of caste systems in termites
Abstract. Termite colonies consist of distinct castes whose developmental pathways fall into two types and vary among lineages. Understanding caste evoluti
academic.oup.com
November 10, 2025 at 7:43 PM
Genomic features underlying the origin of sociality and the diversification of caste systems in termites
academic.oup.com/mbe/advance-...
academic.oup.com/mbe/advance-...
Reposted by Peiwei Chen
The Leading Edge Fellows gathered this week to celebrate Zara Weinberg, a beloved member of our community. Our 7th cohort of Leading Edge Fellows (2026) will be named in her honor.
The Zara Weinberg Leading Edge Cohort application is now open! Due Feb 2.
www.leadingedgesymposium.org/apply/
The Zara Weinberg Leading Edge Cohort application is now open! Due Feb 2.
www.leadingedgesymposium.org/apply/
November 5, 2025 at 5:48 PM
The Leading Edge Fellows gathered this week to celebrate Zara Weinberg, a beloved member of our community. Our 7th cohort of Leading Edge Fellows (2026) will be named in her honor.
The Zara Weinberg Leading Edge Cohort application is now open! Due Feb 2.
www.leadingedgesymposium.org/apply/
The Zara Weinberg Leading Edge Cohort application is now open! Due Feb 2.
www.leadingedgesymposium.org/apply/
Reposted by Peiwei Chen
New article from the lab out today, in which we discuss how social behavior evolves at the molecular level. From parenting across the animal tree of life to caste systems in social insects, it’s all connected (and, therefore, slowly starts to make sense)…
Parental care, and more complex cooperative systems of care, have independently evolved in hundreds of animal lineages. In an article published today, we explore how these behaviors evolve 𝘢𝘵 𝘢 𝘮𝘰𝘭𝘦𝘤𝘶𝘭𝘢𝘳 𝘭𝘦𝘷𝘦𝘭l shorturl.at/g5OPw /1
Convergent evolution of a conserved molecular network underlies parenting and sociality - Nature Reviews Genetics
Kay et al. review evidence that parental care, and more complex social behaviour based on parental care, evolved in multiple species through the repeated co-option of members of a pleiotropic molecula...
shorturl.at
November 4, 2025 at 4:41 PM
New article from the lab out today, in which we discuss how social behavior evolves at the molecular level. From parenting across the animal tree of life to caste systems in social insects, it’s all connected (and, therefore, slowly starts to make sense)…
Reposted by Peiwei Chen
Spoke recently to the great folks at the science foundation on their efforts to fund curiosity-driven science. They have a new RFA out for catalytic awards (up to $10K).
Take a look if you’re itching to expand or try out a new idea.
science-foundation.org
Take a look if you’re itching to expand or try out a new idea.
science-foundation.org
Public Science, Public Good – Public Science, Public Good
science-foundation.org
November 4, 2025 at 12:33 AM
Spoke recently to the great folks at the science foundation on their efforts to fund curiosity-driven science. They have a new RFA out for catalytic awards (up to $10K).
Take a look if you’re itching to expand or try out a new idea.
science-foundation.org
Take a look if you’re itching to expand or try out a new idea.
science-foundation.org
Reposted by Peiwei Chen
My awesome grad student Shashank and I wrote this paper trying to look at broader patterns of HT in TEs. HT is happening everywhere! DNA transposons jump further than other classes! www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
Recent horizontal transfer of transposable elements in Drosophila
Transposable elements (TEs) are genetic elements also known as "jumping genes" that increase their copy numbers within a host through various mechanisms of transposition. TEs can also move between spe...
www.biorxiv.org
October 31, 2025 at 3:58 PM
My awesome grad student Shashank and I wrote this paper trying to look at broader patterns of HT in TEs. HT is happening everywhere! DNA transposons jump further than other classes! www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
Reposted by Peiwei Chen
1/12 Excited to share our new paper. Many essential functions, like DNA packaging and chromosome integrity, are encoded in highly repetitive, "recalcitrant" parts of the genome. But these regions have been incredibly hard to study. Until now. genome.cshlp.org/content/35/9...
Genetic variation in recalcitrant repetitive regions of the Drosophila melanogaster genome
An international, peer-reviewed genome sciences journal featuring outstanding original research that offers novel insights into the biology of all organisms
genome.cshlp.org
October 31, 2025 at 9:37 PM
1/12 Excited to share our new paper. Many essential functions, like DNA packaging and chromosome integrity, are encoded in highly repetitive, "recalcitrant" parts of the genome. But these regions have been incredibly hard to study. Until now. genome.cshlp.org/content/35/9...
Reposted by Peiwei Chen
🪰 folks! Despite Harvard lawsuit outcome, FlyBase NIH grant was not released. FlyBase now runs on the public, like NPR, PBS etc. If we don't step up, it can go away! Donations site on flybase.org homepage. Note: it links to IU stock center, but its for FlyBase, see instructions. pls give+share! 2/2
FlyBase Homepage
FlyBase: a database for drosophila genetics and molecular biology
flybase.org
October 29, 2025 at 12:31 PM
🪰 folks! Despite Harvard lawsuit outcome, FlyBase NIH grant was not released. FlyBase now runs on the public, like NPR, PBS etc. If we don't step up, it can go away! Donations site on flybase.org homepage. Note: it links to IU stock center, but its for FlyBase, see instructions. pls give+share! 2/2
Reposted by Peiwei Chen
Why curiosity-driven research is so fundamental & important, and requires sufficient funding. It's a corner stone of scientific discovery, which has always been and will always be inherently unpredictable!!
Nektarios Tavernarakis on why curiosity-driven research, not focusing on application, is fundamental to problem solving and requires government support in @emboreports.org doi.org/10.1038/s443...
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.
doi.org
October 29, 2025 at 2:39 PM
Why curiosity-driven research is so fundamental & important, and requires sufficient funding. It's a corner stone of scientific discovery, which has always been and will always be inherently unpredictable!!
Reposted by Peiwei Chen
Come be our colleague! The University of Rochester is hiring a TT Assistant Professor in evolutionary genetics and genomics: apply.interfolio.com/173431.
Apply - Interfolio
{{$ctrl.$state.data.pageTitle}} - Apply - Interfolio
apply.interfolio.com
October 29, 2025 at 2:12 PM
Come be our colleague! The University of Rochester is hiring a TT Assistant Professor in evolutionary genetics and genomics: apply.interfolio.com/173431.
Reposted by Peiwei Chen
I'm thrilled to announce that I’m opening my own research team in the Department of Genome Biology at I2BC @i2bcparissaclay.bsky.social ! #ATIP-Avenir
Very excited to start this new adventure! www.i2bc.paris-saclay.fr/equipe-intra...
Very excited to start this new adventure! www.i2bc.paris-saclay.fr/equipe-intra...
Equipe Courret – Institute for Integrative Biology of the Cell
www.i2bc.paris-saclay.fr
October 24, 2025 at 3:39 PM
I'm thrilled to announce that I’m opening my own research team in the Department of Genome Biology at I2BC @i2bcparissaclay.bsky.social ! #ATIP-Avenir
Very excited to start this new adventure! www.i2bc.paris-saclay.fr/equipe-intra...
Very excited to start this new adventure! www.i2bc.paris-saclay.fr/equipe-intra...
Reposted by Peiwei Chen
Guo et al. generated haplotype-resolved genome assemblies of black carp, identifying dmrt1 as the sex-determining locus, with a 13.4 kb insertion containing TEs functioning as cis-regulatory modules that mediate Y-specific activation.
🔗 doi.org/10.1093/molbev/msaf239
#evobio #molbio #TEsky
🔗 doi.org/10.1093/molbev/msaf239
#evobio #molbio #TEsky
Transposable Element-Mediated Cis-Regulation Drives the Evolution of dmrt1 as a Candidate Master Sex-Determining Gene in Black Carp
Abstract. Sex determination in vertebrates exhibits remarkable evolutionary plasticity, with diverse mechanisms and master sex-determining (MSD) genes aris
doi.org
October 21, 2025 at 9:47 AM
Guo et al. generated haplotype-resolved genome assemblies of black carp, identifying dmrt1 as the sex-determining locus, with a 13.4 kb insertion containing TEs functioning as cis-regulatory modules that mediate Y-specific activation.
🔗 doi.org/10.1093/molbev/msaf239
#evobio #molbio #TEsky
🔗 doi.org/10.1093/molbev/msaf239
#evobio #molbio #TEsky
Reposted by Peiwei Chen
Our department @ucdavisvetmed.bsky.social @ucdavis.bsky.social is hiring! We welcome research that diversifies or complements existing strengths in gastrointestinal, neuroimmune, musculoskeletal, cardiorespiratory
systems and/or developmental biology. @socdevbio.bsky.social @ascbiology.bsky.social
systems and/or developmental biology. @socdevbio.bsky.social @ascbiology.bsky.social
October 22, 2025 at 10:44 PM
Our department @ucdavisvetmed.bsky.social @ucdavis.bsky.social is hiring! We welcome research that diversifies or complements existing strengths in gastrointestinal, neuroimmune, musculoskeletal, cardiorespiratory
systems and/or developmental biology. @socdevbio.bsky.social @ascbiology.bsky.social
systems and/or developmental biology. @socdevbio.bsky.social @ascbiology.bsky.social
Reposted by Peiwei Chen
Horizontal gene transfer - a typical source of a major innovation in evolution or a positive publication bias? In the latest preprint from Bourguignon Lab, termite genomes provide a story less frequently told. www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
October 21, 2025 at 8:10 PM
Horizontal gene transfer - a typical source of a major innovation in evolution or a positive publication bias? In the latest preprint from Bourguignon Lab, termite genomes provide a story less frequently told. www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
Reposted by Peiwei Chen
When 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)
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)
October 14, 2025 at 8:34 PM
When 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)
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 Peiwei Chen
🚨🚨 1 week left to apply to our department's faculty search! We are an interactive and interdisciplinary department for biochemistry, genetics, cell, developmental, and molecular biology. If your work addresses aging or infectious disease, you should especially apply! 🚨🚨
apply.interfolio.com/171941
apply.interfolio.com/171941
Apply - Interfolio
{{$ctrl.$state.data.pageTitle}} - Apply - Interfolio
apply.interfolio.com
October 10, 2025 at 1:44 PM
🚨🚨 1 week left to apply to our department's faculty search! We are an interactive and interdisciplinary department for biochemistry, genetics, cell, developmental, and molecular biology. If your work addresses aging or infectious disease, you should especially apply! 🚨🚨
apply.interfolio.com/171941
apply.interfolio.com/171941
Reposted by Peiwei Chen
The Weintraub Award is seeking nominations for 2026! The award recognizes the outstanding achievements of grad students in biology and was established to honor the bold, creative, pioneering spirit embodied by Dr. Hal Weintraub. www.fredhutch.org/en/research/...
Harold M. Weintraub Graduate Student Award
Annual award to honor the bold, creative, pioneering spirit embodied by Hal Weintraub. The Harold M. Weintraub Graduate Student Award recognizes outstanding achievements during graduate studies in the...
www.fredhutch.org
October 1, 2025 at 4:53 PM
The Weintraub Award is seeking nominations for 2026! The award recognizes the outstanding achievements of grad students in biology and was established to honor the bold, creative, pioneering spirit embodied by Dr. Hal Weintraub. www.fredhutch.org/en/research/...
Cooperation and conflict in termite societies -- Judith Korb
www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
Cooperation and conflict in termite societies
Termites are social cockroaches that evolved eusociality independently from social Hymenoptera (ants, bees, and wasps). Thus, they are diploid organis…
www.sciencedirect.com
October 9, 2025 at 5:15 AM
Cooperation and conflict in termite societies -- Judith Korb
www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
Reposted by Peiwei Chen
Which journal would publish such a fragmented mess?
www.cell.com/current-biol...
www.cell.com/current-biol...
October 8, 2025 at 11:48 AM
Which journal would publish such a fragmented mess?
www.cell.com/current-biol...
www.cell.com/current-biol...
Reposted by Peiwei Chen
Having personally sworn for years that insects don’t use GPCRs for odour detection, Suguru Takagi (@sugurutakagi.bsky.social) discovers that, in fact, they sometimes do …
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
A GPCR signaling pathway in insect odor detection
Odor detection differs fundamentally in vertebrates, which use G protein-coupled receptors (GPCRs), and insects, which employ ion channels. Here, we report the first evidence for a GPCR defining tunin...
www.biorxiv.org
October 6, 2025 at 4:17 AM
Having personally sworn for years that insects don’t use GPCRs for odour detection, Suguru Takagi (@sugurutakagi.bsky.social) discovers that, in fact, they sometimes do …
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
Reposted by Peiwei Chen
Visiting UT Austin in Integrative Biology and came across this fantastic opportunity for senior grad students in the life sciences.
October 6, 2025 at 11:13 PM
Visiting UT Austin in Integrative Biology and came across this fantastic opportunity for senior grad students in the life sciences.