Shihui Chen
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shihuichen.bsky.social
Shihui Chen
@shihuichen.bsky.social
PhD Candidate in the Phillips lab @University of Southern California | C. elegans, epigenetics, gene regulation, small RNAs
Reposted by Shihui Chen
Another paper bluetorial! Today: how does the spatial location of genes influence their function? (1/n) www.nature.com/articles/s41...
The nuclear periphery confers repression on H3K9me2-marked genes and transposons to shape cell fate - Nature Cell Biology
Marin et al. report the role of lamin proteins and the lamin B receptor (LBR) in chromatin positioning at the nuclear periphery. Knockout of all lamins and LBR in mouse embryonic stem cells leads to h...
www.nature.com
July 22, 2025 at 5:10 PM
Reposted by Shihui Chen
I am thrilled to share our preprint where we take advantage of the unique opportunities offered by human blastoids to uncover a human-specific mechanism potentially playing a role in preimplantation 🧵. www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
May 12, 2025 at 8:25 PM
Reposted by Shihui Chen
Our recent study exploring the mechanisms behind hybrid incompatibility in Caenorhabditis Elegans nematodes is now available at @currentbiology.bsky.social!

Many thanks to my collaborators at UCSD - @odlab.bsky.social @greenbeegreen.bsky.social and the Rifkin Lab!
www.cell.com/current-biol...
Hybrid incompatibility emerges at the one-cell stage in interspecies Caenorhabditis embryos
Bloom et al. show that hybrid incompatibility between Caenorhabditis elegans group nematode species pairs arises immediately after fertilization, before zygotic gene expression. Primary defects in spe...
www.cell.com
July 3, 2025 at 12:10 AM
Reposted by Shihui Chen
Finally out! 🥳 Our paper showing how a transposable element (TE) insertion can cause developmental phenotypes is now published @natgenet.nature.com 🧬🦠🐁
Below is a brief description of the major findings. Check the full version of the paper for more details: www.nature.com/articles/s41588-025-02248-5
Enhancer adoption by an LTR retrotransposon generates viral-like particles, causing developmental limb phenotypes - Nature Genetics
Activation of an LTR retrotransposon inserted upstream of the Fgf8 gene produces viral-like particles in the mouse developing limb, triggering apoptosis and causing limb malformation. This phenotype c...
www.nature.com
July 9, 2025 at 10:05 AM
Reposted by Shihui Chen
Excited to share our work on the specificity of PRC2 subcomplexes in stem cell and differentiation. We show that PRC2.1 and PRC2.2 exhibit distinct H3K27 methylation specificity in human pluripotent stem cells and opposing role in differentiation. Now online at Mol Cell: www.cell.com/molecular-ce...
Distinct specificity and functions of PRC2 subcomplexes in human stem cells and cardiac differentiation
Much et al. reveal that the PRC2 subcomplexes PRC2.1 and PRC2.2 play distinct roles in the epigenetic repression of developmental genes in human stem cells. Interactions between the PRC2 core and its ...
www.cell.com
August 12, 2025 at 3:38 PM
Reposted by Shihui Chen
We 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...
Transcriptional and post-transcriptional regulation of transposable elements and their roles in development and disease - Nature Reviews Molecular Cell Biology
Transposable elements (TEs) comprise nearly half of the human genome. This Review discusses transcriptional and post-transcriptional mechanisms that repress TE activity, how TEs escape this suppressio...
www.nature.com
June 30, 2025 at 1:12 PM
Reposted by Shihui Chen
What controls condensate composition and function beyond binding stoichiometry? We show that condensate microenvironments play a key role, and can be probed by a micropeptide killswitch in live cells. www.nature.com/articles/s41... in @nature.com ‬ with @yaotianzhang.bsky.social Denes Hnisz & team.
www.nature.com
June 4, 2025 at 3:29 PM