Welcome

This workshop will encompass transcription as a key biological mechanism shaped by evolutionary selection. It will integrate transcriptional mechanisms from bacteriophages, bacteria, archaea, and diverse model and non-model eukaryotic systems to highlight shared principles and unique mechanisms that govern transcriptional regulation. Key themes include the evolution of transcriptional machinery, regulation of transcription initiation, elongation, and termination, transcription in chromatin, chromosomal and the nuclear contexts, dynamic control of gene expression, stress responses, genome instability, and transcription in pathogenesis and disease. The workshop will incorporate recent advances in imaging, single-molecule and single-cell approaches, structural biology, genomics, and computational and machine-learning methods, which now provide the opportunity to explore novel mechanistic questions across model and non-model systems. A central objective is to foster cross-disciplinary dialogue, engage early career scientist, and provoke discussion by amassing researchers who rarely interact even though they work on closely related processes. Uniquely, this workshop is designed to be highly interactive, emphasizing discussion, highlighting conversation and divergence, and promoting technical exchanges, to reframe transcriptional regulation within an evolutionary context. This will catalyze new collaborations and research directions that can stimulate a deeper mechanistic understanding of gene regulation.

Julie Soutourina, Mo Motamedi, Folkert Van Werven, Kristina Žumer

Course Organizers

Registrations open December 1, 2026

Main sponsors