Rob on the Active Motif Epigenetics Podcast
Rob was a guest on Active Motif’s Epigenetics Podcast (episode #184), talking about how CpG islands help control gene expression and chromatin regulation during development. The conversation traces the lab’s work from the discovery that KDM2A and KDM2B recognise CpG islands and the development of BioCAP, through the links between CpG islands, PRC1 and PRC2 and how H2A ubiquitylation shapes Polycomb repression, to the lab’s current efforts to combine genomics with live-cell imaging, synthetic systems and mathematical models to understand how CpG islands, enhancers and promoters work together to control transcription.
Listen on the Active Motif website or watch the episode on YouTube.
Rob elected a Fellow of the Royal Society
Rob has been elected a Fellow of the Royal Society, the UK’s national academy of sciences, in recognition of his group’s work on how chromatin and CpG islands control gene expression. He was one of twelve Oxford scientists elected in 2026. Read the University of Oxford announcement and the Department of Biochemistry news story.
Huge thanks to all the students, postdocs and collaborators, past and present, whose work made this possible.
Photos from the admission ceremony at the Royal Society in London.
SET1/MLL complexes control transcription independently of H3K4me3
Au HYA, Szczurek AT, de Krijger I, Kjelstrup-Osorio N, Hughes AL, Lastuvkova A, Vermeulen M, Klose RJ.
Mapping chromatin structure at base-pair resolution unveils a unified model of cis-regulatory element interactions
Li H, Dalgleish JLT, Lister G, Maristany MJ, Huertas J, Dopico-Fernandez AM, Hamley JC, Denny N, Bloye G, Zhang W, Hentges L, Doll R, Wei Y, Maresca M, Dimitrova E, Pytowski L, Tunnacliffe EAJ, Kassouf M, Higgs D, de Wit E, Klose RJ, Schermelleh L, Collepardo-Guevara R, Milne TA, Davies JOJ.
Cell, 2025.
Chromatin profiling identifies putative dual roles for H3K27me3 in regulating cell type-specific genes and transposable elements in choanoflagellates
Gahan JM, Helfrich LW, Wetzel LA, Bhanu NV, Yuan ZF, Garcia BA, Klose RJ, de Mendoza A, Booth DS.
Nature Communications, 2025.
MGA directly recruits SETDB1/ATF7IP for histone H3K9me3 mark on meiosis-related genes in mouse embryonic stem cells
Uranishi K, Hirasaki M, Nishimoto M, Klose RJ, Okuda A, Suzuki A.
iScience, 2025.
The PNUTS phosphatase complex controls transcription pause release
Kelley JR, Dimitrova E, Maciuszek M, Nguyen HT, Szczurek AT, Hughes AL, Blackledge NP, Kettenbach AN, Klose RJ.
Molecular Cell, 2024.
Epi-microRNA mediated metabolic reprogramming counteracts hypoxia to preserve affinity maturation
Nakagawa R, Llorian M, Varsani-Brown S, Chakravarty P, Camarillo JM, Barry D, George R, Blackledge NP, Duddy G, Kelleher NL, Klose RJ, Turner M, Calado DP.
Nature Communications, 2024.
Paper celebration
Great to celebrate a recent paper acceptance with the team and collagues on the floor!
The Polycomb system sustains promoters in a deep OFF state by limiting pre-initiation complex formation to counteract transcription
Szczurek AT, Dimitrova E, Kelley JR, Blackledge NP, Klose RJ.
Nature Cell Biology 2024
Extensive DNA methylome rearrangement during early lamprey embryogenesis.
Angeloni A, Fissette S, Kaya D, Hammond JM, Gamaarachchi H, Deveson IW, Klose RJ, Li W, Zhang X, Bogdanovic O.
Nat Communication 2024.
Fun making competent bugs!
Competent bug making party!
Congratulations to Dr Au!
Recycling of modified H2A-H2B provides short-term memory of chromatin states
Flury V, Reverón-Gómez N, Alcaraz N, Stewart-Morgan KR, Wenger A, Klose RJ, Groth A. Cell. 2023 Mar 2;186(5):1050-1065.e19. Epub 2023 Feb 6.
PMID: 36750094; PMCID: PMC9994263.
doi: 10.1016/j.cell.2023.01.007.
A CpG island-encoded mechanism protects genes from premature transcription termination
Hughes AL, Szczurek AT, Kelley JR, Lastuvkova A, Turberfield AH, Dimitrova E, Blackledge NP, Klose RJ.
Nat Commun. 2023 Feb 9;14(1):726.
doi: 10.1038/s41467-023-36236-2. PMID: 36759609; PMCID: PMC9911701.
Changes in PRC1 activity during interphase modulate lineage transition in pluripotent cells
Asenjo HG, Alcazar-Fabra M, Espinosa-Martínez M, Lopez-Onieva L, Gallardo A, Dimitrova E, Feldmann A, Pachano T, Martorell-Marugán J, Carmona-Sáez P, Sanchez-Pozo A, Rada-Iglesias Á, Klose RJ, Landeira D. Nat Commun. 2023 Jan 12;14(1):180. PMID: 36635295; PMCID: PMC9837203.
doi: 10.1038/s41467-023-35859-9.
PCGF1-PRC1 links chromatin repression with DNA replication during hematopoietic cell lineage commitment
Takano J, Ito S, Dong Y, Sharif J, Nakajima-Takagi Y, Umeyama T, Han YW, Isono K, Kondo T, Iizuka Y, Miyai T, Koseki Y, Ikegaya M, Sakihara M, Nakayama M, Ohara O, Hasegawa Y, Hashimoto K, Arner E, Klose RJ, Iwama A, Koseki H, Ikawa T. Nat Commun. 2022 Nov 28;13(1):7159.
PMID: 36443290; PMCID: PMC9705430.
doi: 10.1038/s41467-022-34856-8.
Distinct roles for CKM-Mediator in controlling Polycomb-dependent chromosomal interactions and priming genes for induction
Dimitrova E, Feldmann A, van der Weide RH, Flach KD, Lastuvkova A, de Wit E, Klose RJ. Nat Struct Mol Biol. 2022 Oct;29(10):1000-1010.
doi: 10.1038/s41594-022-00840-5.
Epub 2022 Oct 11. PMID: 36220895; PMCID: PMC9568430.
The molecular principles of gene regulation by Polycomb repressive complexes
Blackledge NP, Klose RJ.
Nat Rev Mol Cell Biol. 2021 Dec;22(12):815-833.
doi: 10.1038/s41580-021-00398-y.
Epub 2021 Aug 16. PMID: 34400841; PMCID: PMC7612013.
PRC1 drives Polycomb-mediated gene repression by controlling transcription initiation and burst frequency
Dobrinić, P., Szczurek, A.T. & Klose, R.J
Nat Struct Mol Biol 28, 811–824 (2021).
https://doi.org/10.1038/s41594-021-00661-y
Getting under the skin of Polycomb-dependent gene regulation
Neil P. Blackledge and Robert J. Klose
doi:10.1101/gad.348257.121Genes & Dev. 2021. 35: 301-303
Congratulations Dr Dobrinic and Dr Szczurek
on their recent publication PRC1 drives Polycomb-mediated gene repression by controlling transcription initiation and burst frequency
Variant PCGF1-PRC1 links PRC2 recruitment with differentiation-associated transcriptional inactivation at target genes
Sugishita H, Kondo T, Ito S, Nakayama M, Yakushiji-Kaminatsui N, Kawakami E, Koseki Y, Ohinata Y, Sharif J, Harachi M, Blackledge NP, Klose RJ, Koseki H. Nat Commun. 2021 Sep 9;12(1):5341.
doi: 10.1038/s41467-021-24894-z.
PMID: 34504070; PMCID: PMC8429492.
Congratulations to Dr Amy Hughes for sucessfully defending her PhD
