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Sam Sternberg

@shsternberg

Associate Professor at Columbia University / HHMI Investigator / CRISPR aficionado / Protein–RNA biochemist / Co-author of "A Crack In Creation"
New York, NY sternberglab.org Joined April 2015
659 Following 6.3K Followers 1.9K Posts

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Sam Sternberg @shsternberg
New work from @stephentang23 et al. that describes a fascinating set of reverse transcriptases involved in antiviral immunity. They synthesize tandem-repeat cDNAs that resemble telomeres, revealing an unexpected bacterial evolutionary origin of telomerase. Check out the thread!
Stephen Tang @stephentang23 Oct 17, 2025
Genome maintenance by telomerase is a fundamental process in nearly all eukaryotes. But where does it come from?

Today, we report the discovery of telomerase homologs in a family of antiviral RTs, revealing an unexpected evolutionary origin in bacteria.

doi.org/10.1101/2025.1…
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Sam Sternberg @shsternberg
So excited to see all the discoveries that will come out of your new lab, Diego! Congratulations on this fantastic next chapter — UCLA is lucky to have you!
Diego Rivera Gelsinger @tehhoyen Oct 8
Thrilled to be joining @dgsomucla and @UCLAGIHep as a member of the Goodman-Luskin Microbiome Center. We engineer the gut microbiome in vivo (and more!), both to understand basic biology and to develop new therapeutics. Recruiting techs, grad students, and postdocs. Come join me!
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Sam Sternberg @shsternberg
Check out Diego's thread on our new MetaEdit approach to manipulate microbiomes, using CAST tech. A wonderful team effort led by @tehhoyen, together with @harriswangnyc and many others
Diego Rivera Gelsinger @tehhoyen Nov 14, 2025
1/n Metagenomics lets us read microbiomes in nature without cultivation, but writing (editing) them in their native context is still a major challenge.

Meet MetaEdit: a platform for pathway-scale metagenomic editing inside the gut microbiome. science.org/doi/10.1126/sc…
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Sam Sternberg @shsternberg
Really proud to see this work published -- a thrilling detective story I was lucky to be a part of. Big kudos to @stephentang23 and the entire team for an impressive collaborative effort. See Stephen's thread below to learn more... (and read the paper!).

drive.google.com/file/d/1_paZuA…
Stephen Tang @stephentang23 Aug 8, 2024
Our story on RNA-templated gene synthesis in antiviral immunity is out today in @ScienceMagazine! We discovered a cryptic gene, neo, that is created de novo by infected cells in a remarkable feat of molecular gymnastics🤸

science.org/doi/10.1126/sc…
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Sam Sternberg @shsternberg
On the topic of RNA-guided biology emerging from transposons, you won't want to miss this one! In published work led by the talented @TannerWiegand, we uncovered the presence of pervasive, RNA-guided transcription factors in diverse biological contexts.

nature.com/articles/s4158…
www.nature.com TnpB homologues exapted from transposons are RNA-guided transcription factors Nature - RNA-guided transcription factors arose repeatedly via the domestication of transposon-encoded tnpB genes, representing a parallel evolutionary path to CRISPR-Cas adaptive immunity.
Tanner Wiegand @TannerWiegand Jun 26, 2024
Check out the latest story from the Sternberg group: phages coopted transposon-encoded nucleases (TnpB) and repurposed them for regulation of host genes!

nature.com/articles/s4158…

Thrilled to see this work in print, & a huge thanks to my amazing co-authors!!
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