Thiago Carvalho @cyrilpedia@social.cleverlibre.org

Issue 10 is now complete!

On the cover: newly differentiated fat bodies (green) with lipid droplets (magenta) in the abdomen of a pharate adult fly. See Research article by Tsuyama et al: https://journals.biologists.com/dev/article/150/10/dev200815/310416/Dynamic-de-novo-adipose-tissue-development-during

Also in Issue 10:
▪5 Research Highlights on DH31, Hobx, Shrub, EIF4A3 & morphogen gradients
▪Juan Modolell Obituary
▪Author interview with Zainab Afzal & Robb Krumlauf
▪Brain development & neurodegeneration Spotlight
▪Human embryo implantation Review

https://journals.biologists.com/dev/issue/150/10

'Meanwhile, a large cache of gene variants thought to be unique to humans, because they are found in Homo sapiens but not in the archaic human relatives called Neanderthals and Denisovans, has turned out to be widespread across primates. Almost two-thirds of the variants thought to be solely human were present in at least one other primate species, and more than half were found in two or more.'

https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-023-01776-6

Adam Mastroianni discusses the stifling of science innovation by treating it as a "weak-link problem" (here: https://www.experimental-history.com/p/science-is-a-strong-link-problem).

In the same way... I just wonder whether we're missing a drive to find real, innovative solutions because we're so worried about only reaching for answers we are allowed to think about.

9/n #AcademicChatter

Dervis A. Salih Genetic variation associated with human longevity and Alzheimer’s disease risk act through microglia and oligodendrocyte cross-talk https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.03.30.23287975v1.full.pdf

Fully-funded PhD positions in Biomedical Sciences at the MDC Berlin

Max Delbrück Center for Molecular Medicine (MDC) Berlin

See the full job description on jobRxiv: https://jobrxiv.org/job/max-delbruck-center-for-molecular-medicine-mdc-berlin-27778-fully-funded-phd-positions-in-biomedical-sciences-at-the-mdc-berlin/?feed_id...
https://jobrxiv.org/job/max-delbruck-center-for-molecular-medicine-mdc-berlin-27778-fully-funded-phd-positions-in-biomedical-sciences-at-the-mdc-berlin/?feed_id=47180

The speaker started their talk by saying the method might seem immediately problematic, but gave a number of reasons it was ultimately likely to be safe. 15 minutes later it was time for questions.

And so I asked my question (paraphrased): "so imagining you did this, what targets would you try to validate the approach?"

The room stifled their laughter and the speaker looked at me like I had just advised an entire nation to drink bleach.

3/n #AcademicChatter

I'll avoid specifics: I don't want to put someone "on blast."

Fundamentally it was a talk about a possible therapeutic treatment. The system was a novel way to deliver a therapy that was risky, but held great promise. Clinical trials were a decade away, assuming research validated its promise.

I thought it was neat and innovative.

2/n #AcademicChatter

Maybe the most impactful talk I've seen in the last few years was a simple weekly talk by a dept post-doc.

The article I just shared (https://fediscience.org/@MarkHanson/110489681649296930) reminded me of this talk... thinking about science exploration...

What was special? I asked a question that got laughed at by the speaker and room. I've wondered ever since whether that was because I was just ignorant? Or was everyone else just creatively restrained? I still don't know the answer... 1/n

#AcademicChatter

As with organ transplants, stem cells trigger an immune response when used in medical treatments, potentially leading to rejection of the cells.

To prevent this, Sana Biotechnology scientists have developed stem cells with removed HLA markers that survived uninhibited in rhesus macaques for months.

This opens up whole new prospects for medical treatment of organs and tissues.

#Medicine #Science #Biotech #Biotechnology #StemCell #StemCells #HLA #Biology #Scicomm

https://www.nature.com/articles/s41587-023-01784-x

#Viralimmunology #IDMastodon @Nature where are we with😷& Are you still 😷up ? #Longcovid cases are growing , Life go on so does #SARSCoV2 variants on the prowl, The #Omicron BA.1.23 subvariants displays strongly reduced neutralizing activity compared to the parental Omicron variants as well as ancestral SARS-CoV-2 variants.
📌 https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-023-38867-x
📌 https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/37270625/

Over in the bad place, Elon Musk this week re-platformed a Unite the Right nazi and a white supremacist who promotes accelerationism and says we should celebrate mass murderers like Dylann Roof and Brenton Tarrant. This comes amid an “unprecedented” rise in hate speech, and it’s creating a national security crisis that no one is prepared to address.

I wrote about this — and more: https://weaponizedspaces.substack.com/p/elon-musk-allows-domestic-extremists

That is why I am chuffed to introduce our most recent work, about the evolution of sleep in the Drosophila genus. Non peer-reviewed pre print available on biorXiv. Let me tell you what we did and what we found. 6/24

https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.05.27.541573v1