Jacob Corn

Jacob Corn

@jcornlab.bsky.social

Genome editing, functional genomics, and cells figuring out how to eat themselves without dying. Professor of Genome Biology at ETH Zürich.

525 followers112 following52 posts

Jacob Corn reposted

Excited to share our discovery of a new programmable RNA-guided DNA-targeting system hiding inside bacteriophages that predates CRISPR. We call it VIPR (Viral Interference Programmable Repeat), and it uses an entirely new logic to find its targets. Thread + link below.

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We saw the same SP100-dependent toxicity in cells from VODI patients who lack SP110. Regulated condensate disassembly may be a general requirement for maintaining cellular health!

This story is from the same Eric Aird who just published on the role of ERCC6L2 at staggered DSBs. The guy is on fire! And starting to plan his next steps afer his postdoc (hint hint to anyone looking to hire an amazing scientist and mentor).

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Using cryo-EM and AlphaFold, we found that SP110 physically binds SP100 via their CARD domains. In healthy cells, this interaction sequesters SP100 and dissolves PML bodies in mitosis. Without SP110, SP100 oligomerizes and wreaks havoc on the genome.

This phenomenon is relevant to any situation where the balance of SP110 versus SP100 expression is perturbed. Not just via interferon upregulation. SUMOylation is also a key regulator of toxicity.

The story started with a genome-wide CRISPRi screen for regulators of the innate immune response. We found that SP110 is a potent inhibitor of interferon-driven cell death. It specifically counteracts the toxic activity of another speckled protein, SP100.

What happens when SP110 is missing? SP100 becomes a "toxin." When upregulated, it forms large oligomers that fail to disassemble and persist into mitosis. These persistent SP100-PML bodies coat segregating chromosomes, causing massive DNA damage and genomic instability.

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What does ERCC6L2 actually do? It counteracts the activity of the MRN complex (MRE11–RAD50–NBS1), limiting excessive DNA end resection and promoting accurate end joining.

ERCC6L2 acts as a guardian during repair of staggered DSBs. This sheds light on ERCC6L2 mutations linked with BMF and leukemia and highlights caution for genome-editing approaches that generate DNA overhangs.

It’s been a fun first few week of my sabbatical. Many exciting meetings w/ @peterfineran.bsky.social lab, learning new stuff and brainstorming ideas. And my own lab has been off to a crazy great start to the year. The early/late zoom meetings have me burning the candle at both ends…

Sometimes I'm excited to read a paper and every paragraph blows me away. And sometimes I'm just as excited and every paragraph leaves me wondering if the referees were sleeping on the job. Today it was one of the latter.

Jacob Corn reposted

ERC Plus Grants • No career limit, current ERCs are not eligible • Major challenge, transformative research • Up to 7 million euros, up to 7 years • 30 grants per year, 2 years, only once per lifetime • Same application format, plus vision statement • Deadline in September 2026, 2 stage evaluation

Pedro Beltrao@pedrobeltrao.bsky.social

Webinar on the new ERC Plus Grants live starting now www.youtube.com/live/Dzkas7f...

I recently received an AI-generated referee report. Almost all suggested experiments were already main figures & referee admitted using AI when asked by the editor. But they claimed they only used AI to write. No way. Editors, what do you do in this case? Referees, at least read the paper!

Jacob Corn reposted

Jacob Corn reposted

957 proposals were submitted in the latest round of ERC Synergy applications. They expect to fund 50 which means around 5% success rate. This is really not sustainable and a lot of people are likely avoiding doing this knowing how poor the chances are. erc.europa.eu/news-events/...

erc.europa.euApplications for ERC Synergy Grants 2026: Facts and figuresThe ERC Synergy Grants 2026 call closed for applications on 5 November 2025. These are the preliminary data on the submitted proposals:

Jacob Corn reposted

Thanks to CRISPR/Cas technology, researchers can precisely edit genetic material to treat hereditary diseases. To achieve this, they need to identify undesirable cuts in the genome at an early juncture. Pioneer Fellow Lilly van de Venn is developing such testing methods. ethz.ch/en/news-and-...

ethz.chAn ETH spin-off aims to bring gene scissors to the clinicThanks to CRISPR/Cas technology, researchers can precisely edit genetic material to treat hereditary diseases. To achieve this, they need to identify undesirable cuts in the genome at an early junctur...

Ever noticed that #CRISPR editing results differ between cells? Awesome PhD student Moritz Schlapansky developed "scOUT-seq" to measure single cell transcriptomes + editing. 1.2 million cells, 74 cell types, living 🐭. Cell subtypes differ wildly from bulk average! www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

biorxiv.orgCell-stereotyped DNA repair outcomes are widespread during genome editingGenome editing outcomes are governed by DNA repair pathways that vary with cell type and state. We developed scOUT-seq (single-cell Outcomes Using Transcript sequencing), a scalable approach that join...

This was an incredible collaboration with the labs of Randall Platt, Gerald Schwank, Steve Jackson, Helmuth Gehart, and Timm Schroeder. Special thanks also to the NOMIS Foundation who supported some of the very ambitious experiments.

Ever noticed that #CRISPR editing results differ between cells? Awesome PhD student Moritz Schlapansky developed "scOUT-seq" to measure single cell transcriptomes + editing. 1.2 million cells, 74 cell types, living 🐭. Cell subtypes differ wildly from bulk average! www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

biorxiv.orgCell-stereotyped DNA repair outcomes are widespread during genome editingGenome editing outcomes are governed by DNA repair pathways that vary with cell type and state. We developed scOUT-seq (single-cell Outcomes Using Transcript sequencing), a scalable approach that join...

Jacob Corn reposted