Podcasts about BioRxiv

The beginnings of our end — where the anus came from Our distant evolutionary ancestors had no anuses. Their waste was excreted from the same orifice they used to ingest food, much like jellyfish do today. Now a new study on bioRxiv that has yet to be peer-reviewed, scientists think they've found the evolutionary link in a worm with only a single digestive hole. Andreas Hejnol, from Friedrich Schiller University Jena, said he found genes we now associate with the anus being expressed in the worms in the opening where its sperm comes out, suggesting that in our evolutionary history a similar orifice was co-opted as a butt hole. Deepfake videos are becoming so real, spotting them is becoming increasingly diceyDetecting deepfake videos generated by artificial intelligence is a problem that's getting progressively worse as the technology continues to improve. One way we used to be able to tell the difference between a fake and real video is that subtle signals revealing a person's heart rate don't exist in artificially generated videos. But that is no longer the case, according to a new study in the journal Frontiers in Imaging. Peter Eisert, from Humboldt University and the Fraunhofer Heinrich-Hertz-Institute HHI in Germany, said detecting manipulated content visually is only going to become a lot more difficult going forward. Crows can use tools, do math — and now apparently understand geometryCrows are known to be among the most intelligent of animals, and a new study has explored their geometrical sophistication. Researchers including Andreas Nieder from the University of Tübingen found that crows can recognize and distinguish different kinds of quadrilateral shapes, an ability we had thought was unique to humans. The research was published in the journal Science Advances.There's gold in them thar magnetically charged neutron stars!Astronomers have discovered a new source of the universe's heavy elements — things like gold, platinum and uranium. A study led by astrophysicist Anirudh Patel found that magnetars — exotic neutron stars with ultra-powerful magnetic fields — may produce these elements in a process analogous to the way solar flares are produced by our Sun. The research, published in The Astrophysical Journal Letters, found that a single flare from a magnetar could produce the mass equivalent of 27 moons' worth of these heavy elements in one burst.It may not be big, but it's small — and stroppyYou might not expect an insect so tiny you need a magnifying glass to see it properly to be an aggressive defender of its territory, but that's because you haven't met the warty birch caterpillar. Its territory is just the tip of a birch leaf, but it defends it by threatening intruders with vigorous, if not precisely powerful, vibrations. Jayne Yack at Carleton University has been studying this caterpillar since 2008. This research was published in the Journal of Experimental Biology.Criminals beware — the microbiome leaves fingerprintsScientists have developed a new tool that can track location based on traces of the bacteria characteristic to different places. Eran Elhaik, from Lund University in Sweden, trained the AI tool using nearly 4,500 microbiome samples collected around the world from subway systems, soil and the oceans. He said they could identify the city source in 92 per cent of their urban samples, and in Hong Kong, where a lot of their data came from, they could identify the specific subway station samples were taken from with 82 per cent accuracy. The study was published in the journal Genome Biology and Evolution.

Big news! An American biotech company announced this week that they have brought the dire wolf back from extinction! We've honoured this great achievement by watching the prophetic film Dire Wolf (2009), a gory werewolf movie in which an American biotech company brought back the dire wolf from extinction... to create a military bioweapon! We've got our eyes on you, Colossal Biosciences... Watch Dire Wolf (2009) on Tubi: https://tubitv.com/movies/641656/dire-wolf The Dire Wolf (Aenocyon dirus): https://tarpits.org/stories/our-evolving-understanding-dire-wolves Bone Clones Dire Wolf Skull: https://boneclones.com/product/dire-wolf-skull-tarpit-finish-BC-020T Colossal Biosciences: https://colossal.com/ Colossal's Dire Wolf preprint on BioRxiv: https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.04.09.647074v1.abstract Perri et al. (2021) Dire wolves were the last of an ancient New World canid lineage: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-020-03082-x Janczewski et al. (1992) Molecular phylogenetic inference from saber-toothed cat fossils of Rancho La Brea: https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.89.20.9769 Hank Green – They Didn't Make Dire Wolves, They Made Something...Else: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ar0zgedLyTw Beth Shapiro (2020) How to Clone a Mammoth: https://press.princeton.edu/books/paperback/9780691209005/how-to-clone-a-mammoth

We used to believe focus was just about willpower: ignoring the buzz, the ping, the flashing screen. But a groundbreaking 2025 brain study rewrites that story. It turns out your mind is playing defense before the distractions even start. Hi, I'm Dr. Elhanan Gazit, and this is the Gameful Intelligence Podcast – One Study Corner. In this episode, I team up with my AI co-hosts, Marshal and Daphne, to explore how your brain predicts and suppresses distractions before they reach your awareness—and how this cutting-edge science backs the core of my Gameful Intelligence Approach for business performance and personal empowerment in the age of AI.

The gang discusses two papers that use morphometrics to investigate patterns of selection on bird morphology. The first paper looks at the morphology of feathers, while the second paper looks more broadly at various parts of the avian body. Meanwhile, James breathes new life into a classic, Amanda is passionate about formatting, and Curt exposes “the truth”.   Up-Goer Five (Curt Edition): The friends talk about two papers that look at animals that move in the air. Both of these papers look at how these animals look and try to find out why these animals look the way they do. The first paper looks at the different types of soft things that these animals use to fly and also to stay warm. They look at how these soft things look and how that look has changed over time and between groups. Some of these animals that don't fly have soft things that are different from the ones that do fly, but they way they are different is different with each group that does not fly. The second paper looks at parts of these animals like their mouths to see how they change between groups. They find that there are lots of things these animals could be doing that most of them are not doing. This makes them say that maybe there is something keeping the animals looking like that because if they change too much in one way it might be really really bad for them.   References: Sayol, Ferran, et al. "Biophysical constraints on avian adaptation and diversification." BioRxiv (2023): 2023-10. Saitta, Evan T., et al. "Feather evolution following flight loss in crown group birds: relaxed selection and developmental constraints." Evolution (2025): qpaf020.

L'image classique d'un Européen à la peau claire, aux yeux bleus et aux cheveux blonds ne correspond en réalité qu'à une évolution récente dans l'histoire humaine. Une nouvelle étude menée par Silvia Ghirotto et son équipe de généticiens de l'université de Ferrare, en Italie, bouleverse nos certitudes. En analysant 348 génomes anciens d'individus ayant vécu en Eurasie au cours des 45 000 dernières années, les chercheurs montrent que les traits clairs ne se sont généralisés qu'il y a environ 3 000 ans.Jusqu'à l'âge du fer, donc jusque vers 1000 av. J.-C., la majorité des Européens avaient encore la peau, les cheveux et les yeux foncés. Les premiers Homo sapiens arrivés en Europe, il y a environ 50 000 à 60 000 ans, étaient encore très proches génétiquement de leurs ancêtres africains, dont ils avaient hérité des traits pigmentaires foncés, dus à des centaines de gènes interconnectés.L'étude, publiée sur la plateforme scientifique BioRxiv.org, repose sur l'usage du système HIrisPlex-S, un outil utilisé en médecine légale pour prédire la couleur des yeux, de la peau et des cheveux à partir d'échantillons d'ADN même partiels. Grâce à une méthode appelée « inférence phénotypique probabiliste », les chercheurs ont pu reconstruire l'évolution des caractéristiques pigmentaires de nos ancêtres.Les premiers indices de peau claire apparaissent au Mésolithique, il y a environ 12 000 ans, avec un individu découvert en Suède, identifié comme le premier à posséder à la fois les yeux, la peau et les cheveux clairs. Toutefois, ce type physique restait alors très rare.C'est avec la diffusion des populations agricoles néolithiques, venues du Proche-Orient, que la fréquence des traits clairs commence à augmenter. Les mélanges génétiques, la migration et les sélections locales ont ensuite favorisé leur diffusion, notamment en Europe de l'Ouest.Mais pourquoi cette évolution ? Selon Ghirotto, la peau claire offrait un avantage évolutif : elle permettait une meilleure synthèse de la vitamine D dans les régions au faible ensoleillement, comme le nord de l'Europe. En revanche, la couleur claire des yeux, elle, n'aurait pas présenté de bénéfice biologique évident, et serait plutôt liée à la sélection sexuelle… ou au hasard.Ainsi, les Européens n'ont pas toujours eu la peau claire. Ce trait, emblématique aujourd'hui, est en fait le fruit d'une lente évolution, influencée par le climat, la migration et la génétique, bien plus tardive qu'on ne le pensait. Hébergé par Acast. Visitez acast.com/privacy pour plus d'informations.

Die Themen in den Wissensnachrichten: +++ Mammutfell-Mäuse gezüchtet +++ Klimawandel bedroht Ernteerträge +++ Frauen bei Weiterbildung benachteiligt +++**********Weiterführende Quellen zu dieser Folge:Multiplex-edited mice recapitulate woolly mammoth hair phenotypes. BioRxiv. 04.03.2025Climate change threatens crop diversity at low latitudes, Nature Food, 04.03.2025UND ES GIBT IHN DOCH! Der Gender Training Gap bei betrieblichen Weiterbildungen, WSI Report, März 2025Global, regional, and national prevalence of child and adolescent overweight and obesity, 1990–2021, with forecasts to 2050: a forecasting study for the Global Burden of Disease Study 2021, The Lancet 3.3.25Überraschender Strandfund: Historische Driftkarte von 1961 auf Juist entdeckt, Bundesamt für Seeschifffahrt und Hydrographie, 03.03.2025**********Ihr könnt uns auch auf diesen Kanälen folgen: TikTok auf&ab , TikTok wie_geht und Instagram .

Welcome back! Today, we're diving into an exciting new compound called SLU PP332, or "Slupp," which has the potential to mimic the benefits of exercise at a cellular level, even when you're not physically active. Tara shares her personal journey with Slupp emphasizing its role as a possible enhancement to exercise rather than a replacement. She discusses the groundbreaking research on Sloop, highlighting its effects on energy production, fat metabolism, and overall metabolic health. With insights from her own experience and feedback from friends and clients, she provides a comprehensive overview of how this compound could be a game-changer in optimizing health and fitness. Tune in to learn more about Slupp and its implications for those looking to maximize their wellness journey.Takeaways: The synthetic compound Slupp mimics exercise benefits at the cellular level without actual physical activity. Slupp acts as an agonist for estrogen-related receptors, enhancing energy production and fat metabolism. Research on Slupp shows significant fat loss and improved metabolic health in mice, although human studies are pending. Using Slupp can enhance workout results and serve as a safety net when unable to exercise. While Slupp is promising, it is essential to consult with healthcare practitioners before use. The compound shows potential in improving endurance and cognitive clarity during physical activities. West Wellness and Longevity LinksAre you ready to make change but don't know where to start. Book a free 30 min consultation here.https://www.westwellnessatx.com/get-started Have questions? Feel free to reach out to me at: tarawest@westwellnessatx.com Follow me on instagram @westwellnessatxSLU-PP-332 Research Links:Exercise-Mimicking Drug Sheds Weight, Boosts Muscle Activity in Mice: This article from the University of Florida News discusses how SLU-PP-332 led to significant weight loss and enhanced endurance in obese mice. University of Florida NewsA Synthetic ERR Agonist Alleviates Metabolic Syndrome: Published in the Journal of Pharmacology and Experimental Therapeutics, this study explores how SLU-PP-332 improves metabolic parameters in mouse models of obesity and metabolic syndrome. NewswiseA Synthetic ERRα Agonist Induces an Acute Aerobic Exercise Response and Enhances Exercise Capacity: This preprint study details how SLU-PP-332 activates an aerobic exercise genetic program in skeletal muscle, enhancing exercise endurance in mice. BioRxiv

University of Washington の浜崎伸彦さん(@Nobu_Hamazaki)がゲスト。Human RA-Gastruloid論文、条件探索のコツ、ステージング問題、卵子形成論文、PI生活、今後目指す合成的発生生物学の方向性など (12/12収録) Show Notes (番組HP): 浜崎ラボHP 博士課程(の後半)での所属ラボ：中島欽一ラボ 日本での所属ラボ：林克彦ラボ (現在は阪大) 日本にいたときの卵子形成転写因子論文 かぐや論文 Parthenogenesisのレビュー 留学先の所属ラボ：Jay Shendureラボ 留学先でのHuman RA-Gastruloid論文 最初にあったマウスGastruloid論文 Matrigel おすすめの発生生物学の教科書ギルバート発生生物学、ウォルパート発生生物学とラングマン人体発生学とそのムービー JayのGestalt イベントのレコーディング シュペーマンのオーガナイザー (pdf) Turner Syndrome Wntアゴニストのカイロン 下流のBrachyury (T)という転写因子 最近出ていた脊索が現れる3D trunk organoid論文 bioRxivに最初に出た論文 とその数日後にアップロードされた競合論文 その１ ２ ３ ４ の出版論文としての結果 1 2 3 4 最近溜まっているEmbryonic single cell data 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 10x sci-RNA-seq3 Smart-seq3 Wei Yangさん（Jayラボメンバーページ） マーカージーンをGPTに入れると予測してくる Mappingする方法  UMAPのco-embedding Foundation modelを作っていく例 今村さん とやっていたgene regulation Zygotic genome activation 精子のヒストンがプロタミンに置き換わる機構 残ったヒストンがinter-generationalなepigenetic memoryに関与する？（pdf） 父が肥満だと子が肥満になりやすい、母だとそうでもない ダーウィン vs ルイセンコ iPSで精子作成している例 減数分裂？に関するプレプリント パキテンで止まっている 山中論文は24から4へ 卵子が大きくなるためにはアクアポリンが必要。

Recent research has uncovered a fascinating phenomenon: when low on water, some plants emit high-pitched clicking noises, inaudible to human ears but detectable by certain insects. These ultrasonic “screams” might be nature's way of signalling distress—and they don't go unnoticed. New research published in the journal BioRXiv found that female moths use their sensitive hearing to listen to these ultrasonic signals steer clear of thirsty plants when laying eggs. This behaviour ensures their caterpillars hatch on healthier plants, with a better chance of survival. The researchers placed fertile female moths in a controlled arena. When given a choice between a hydrated tomato plant and a thirsty one, the moths overwhelmingly chose the silent, hydrated plant. But the researchers didn't stop there. In another experiment, two hydrated plants were placed in the arena, with a speaker next to one of them playing recorded distressed clicks. Again, the moths avoided the “noisy” plant, favouring the silent one. These results suggest that the sounds alone, even without visual or olfactory cues, are enough for moths to make a decision. What's even more fascinating is that these moths had no prior exposure to plants. Raised entirely in a lab, they had no opportunity to learn this behaviour. Their response to the ultrasonic signals appears to be hardwired in their genetics, highlighting the intricate connections between insects and plants in nature. This discovery isn't just a marvel of biology; it could have practical applications in the real-world. One could be pest management. By broadcasting ultrasonic distress signals, farmers might discourage moths from laying eggs on healthy crops, potentially reducing the need for chemical pesticides. Many insects have ultrasonic hearing, suggesting that this type of interaction might be widespread. This research invites us to rethink what we know about communication in nature. Beneath the threshold of human hearing lies a hidden world where plants and insects exchange critical information—a world we are only beginning to understand. LISTEN ABOVESee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Early people in North America had mammoth appetitesThe people of the Clovis culture, who lived across Ice Age North America 13,000 years ago, left behind many tools and artifacts that suggest they were skilled hunters. And now chemical analysis of the incredibly rare find of bones of a Clovis child has given us the first direct evidence of what they were eating. The research, co-led by James Chatters of McMaster University, revealed they were “super-carnivores” whose diet mostly consisted of mammoth meat, with elk and bison/camel showing up as well. By specializing in hunting megafauna, this would have helped the Clovis people rapidly spread throughout North America. The research was published in the journal Science Advances.Now we know the specific molecule that makes the Corpse flower smell like deathCorpse flowers are major botanical attractions because of their unique shape, their rare flowering and their incredible stench. Now researchers have identified the molecule that is the secret behind the stink. Alveena Zulfiqar, a research associate at the University of Minnesota, was a key part of the team led by G. Eric Schaller, a professor of biology at Dartmouth College. They published their research in the journal PNAS Nexus.The dinosaurs that became birds had distinctive drumsticksThe lineage of dinosaurs that ultimately evolved into birds didn't just have unique adaptations for wings and feathers. They also evolved unique drumsticks, specifically fibula bones that are detached at the ankle, which gave their knee joints unusual mobility, allowing them to twist by more than 100 degrees. Biomechanist Armita Manafzadeh, from Yale University, says it's certainly possible that this change in their mobility might have been key to their survival. Their research was published in Nature. A plant can spit out its seeds fast enough to take out an eyeIn the blink of an eye the squirting cucumber can eject its seeds faster than a greyhound can run, up to twelve meters from the plant. High speed video has enabled researchers to capture the process, which the plant manages without muscles or tendons. Derek Moulton, a professor of applied mathematics at the University of Oxford, was part of the team that published their research in the journal PNAS.Hacking photosynthesis: How we can improve the chemistry that's the foundation of lifeThe plants that make up the base of the Earth's food chain, use the sun's energy — along with carbon dioxide and water — to build their tissues. But the chemical process they use, photosynthesis, is extremely inefficient. To feed our growing population, scientists are working on ways to improve this very foundational chemical reaction by increasing its efficiency.One team developed a computer simulation of the entire photosynthetic process to systematically search for and test ways to enhance the process. Plant biologist Steve Long, from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, says if they combined all the individual gains they've discovered, he estimates they could improve efficiency by up to double. One of their latest studies is currently in the preprint bioRxiv. Another approach scientists are investigating involves replacing photosynthesis with more efficient chemical reaction to produce acetate as fuel for the plants' growth. This reaction could be powered by solar energy or any other form of electricity. Robert Jinkerson, a chemical engineer from the University of California in Riverside, said they're still developing this technology for plants, but they've shown that in single-celled photosynthetic algae that they can improve photosynthetic efficiency by at least four-fold. Their research is published in Joule. 

An international collaboration of researchers have discovered how archaea can form tissue-like structures from simple mechanical compression, unlocking a major secret to evolution. In ThePrint #̦PureScience, Sandhya Ramesh explains the findings and their significance.----more----Subscribe to the Pure Science Telegram Channel https://t.me/PureScienceWithSandhyaRamesh----more----Sources and further reading: BioRxiv preprint: Tissue-Like Multicellular Development Triggered by Mechanical Compression in Archaea https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2024.10.19.619234v1----more----Project lead Alex Bisson's visual explanation https://x.com/archaeon_alex/status/1848309481068753294?s=61

Chegou o momento do já tradicional episódio duplo sobre o IgNobel, que tem como missão "honrar estudos e experiências que primeiro fazem as pessoas rir e depois pensar", com as descobertas científicas mais estranhas do ano.Esta é a segunda e última parte sobre a edição 2024 do prêmio, que teve como tema a "Lei de Murphy", com as categorias Fisiologia, Probabilidade, Química, Demografia e Paz.Confira no papo entre o leigo curioso, Ken Fujioka, e o cientista PhD, Altay de Souza.> OUÇA (40min 55s)*Naruhodo! é o podcast pra quem tem fome de aprender. Ciência, senso comum, curiosidades, desafios e muito mais. Com o leigo curioso, Ken Fujioka, e o cientista PhD, Altay de Souza.Edição: Reginaldo Cursino.http://naruhodo.b9.com.br*REFERÊNCIASPRÊMIO DE FISIOLOGIA [JAPÃO, EUA]Ryo Okabe, Toyofumi F. Chen-Yoshikawa, Yosuke Yoneyama, Yuhei Yokoyama, Satona Tanaka, Akihiko Yoshizawa, Wendy L. Thompson, Gokul Kannan, Eiji Kobayashi, Hiroshi Date e Takanori Takebe, por descobrir que muitos mamíferos são capazes de respirar pelo ânus.REFERÊNCIA: “Mammalian Enteral Ventilation Ameliorates Respiratory Failure,” Ryo Okabe et al., Med, vol. 2, 11 de junho de 2021.QUEM FOI À CERIMÔNIA: Takanori Takebe, Toyofumi Chen-Yoshikawa, Ryo Okabe, Eiji Kobayashi, Yosuke Yoneyama, Yuhei Yokoyama.https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2666634021001537PRÊMIO DE PROBABILIDADE [HOLANDA, SUÍÇA, BÉLGICA, FRANÇA, ALEMANHA, HUNGRIA, REPÚBLICA TCHECA]František Bartoš, Eric-Jan Wagenmakers, Alexandra Sarafoglou, Henrik Godmann e muitos colegas, por mostrar, tanto na teoria quanto em 350.757 experimentos, que ao jogar uma moeda, ela tende a cair no mesmo lado que começou.REFERÊNCIA: “Fair Coins Tend to Land on the Same Side They Started,” František Bartoš et al., arXiv 2310.04153, 2023.QUEM FOI À CERIMÔNIA: Frantisek Bartos e Eric-Jan Wagenmakers.https://arxiv.org/abs/2310.04153Naruhodo #233 - O que é o "efeito cumbuca"?https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fW6uoBmt83cPRÊMIO DE QUÍMICA [HOLANDA, FRANÇA]Tess Heeremans, Antoine Deblais, Daniel Bonn e Sander Woutersen, por usar cromatografia para separar vermes bêbados de vermes sóbrios.REFERÊNCIA: “Chromatographic Separation of Active Polymer–Like Worm Mixtures by Contour Length and Activity,” Tess Heeremans et al., Science Advances, vol. 8, nº 23, 2022.QUEM FOI À CERIMÔNIA: Tess Heeremans, Antoine Deblais, Daniel Bonn, Sander Woutersen.https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/sciadv.abj7918Naruhodo #339 - Por que as coisas parecem girar quando estamos bêbados?https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YmK1Yq0mwW8Naruhodo #52 - No bar, fazer xixi uma primeira vez aumenta a vontade de urinar mais vezes?https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WMUrKMHJovcPRÊMIO DE DEMOGRAFIA [AUSTRÁLIA, REINO UNIDO]Saul Justin Newman, por trabalho investigativo que descobriu que muitas das pessoas famosas por terem as vidas mais longas viveram em lugares com péssimos registros de nascimento e morte.REFERÊNCIAS: “Supercentenarians and the Oldest-Old Are Concentrated into Regions with No Birth Certificates and Short Lifespans,” Saul Justin Newman, BioRxiv, 2019; https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/704080v1“Supercentenarian and Remarkable Age Records Exhibit Patterns Indicative of Clerical Errors and Pension Fraud,” Saul Justin Newman, BioRxiv, 2024.QUEM FOI À CERIMÔNIA: Saul Justin Newman.https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/704080v3PRÊMIO DA PAZ [EUA]B.F. Skinner, por experimentos para verificar a viabilidade de abrigar pombos vivos dentro de mísseis para guiar suas trajetórias.REFERÊNCIA: “Pigeons in a Pelican,” B.F. Skinner, American Psychologist, vol. 15, nº 1, 1960, pp. 28-37.QUEM FOI À CERIMÔNIA: A filha de B.F. Skinner, Julie Skinner Vargas.https://www.appstate.edu/~steelekm/classes/psy3214/Documents/Skinner1960.pdf*APOIE O NARUHODO PELA PLATAFORMA ORELO!Um aviso importantíssimo: o podcast Naruhodo agora está no Orelo: https://bit.ly/naruhodo-no-oreloE é por meio dessa plataforma de apoio aos criadores de conteúdo que você ajuda o Naruhodo a se manter no ar.Você escolhe um valor de contribuição mensal e tem acesso a conteúdos exclusivos, conteúdos antecipados e vantagens especiais.Além disso, você pode ter acesso ao nosso grupo fechado no Telegram, e conversar comigo, com o Altay e com outros apoiadores.E não é só isso: toda vez que você ouvir ou fizer download de um episódio pelo Orelo, vai também estar pingando uns trocadinhos para o nosso projeto.Então, baixe agora mesmo o app Orelo no endereço Orelo.CC ou na sua loja de aplicativos e ajude a fortalecer o conhecimento científico.https://bit.ly/naruhodo-no-orelo

In this episode, I talk with Maaike Vandermosten, Associate Professor in the Department of Neurosciences at KU Leuven, about the neural basis of developmental dyslexia, and neuroplasticity in recovery from aphasia.Vandermosten websiteVanderauwera J, Wouters J, Vandermosten M, Ghesquière P. Early dynamics of white matter deficits in children developing dyslexia. Dev Cogn Neurosci 2017; 27: 69-77. [doi]Beelen C, Vanderauwera J, Wouters J, Vandermosten M, Ghesquière P. Atypical gray matter in children with dyslexia before the onset of reading instruction. Cortex 2019; 121: 399–413. [doi]Phan TV, Sima D, Smeets D, Ghesquière P, Wouters J, Vandermosten M. Structural brain dynamics across reading development: A longitudinal MRI study from kindergarten to grade 5. Hum Brain Mapp 2021; 42: 4497-509. [doi]Clercq PD, Gonsalves AR, Gerrits R, Vandermosten M. Individualized functional localization of the language and multiple demand network in chronic post-stroke aphasia. bioRxiv 2024; 2024.01.12.575350. [doi]

Die Themen in den Wissensnachrichten +++ Westliche Flachland-Gorillas fressen häufig bestimmte Pflanzen mit antibakterieller und antioxidativer Wirkung +++ Lachen hilft gegen trockene Augen +++ Warum Grönlandhaie älter als 400 Jahre werden können +++**********Weiterführende Quellen zu dieser Folge:Antibacterial and antioxidant activities of plants consumed by western lowland gorilla (Gorilla gorilla gorilla) in Gabon. Plos One, 11.09.2024Wie ausbleibender Klimaschutz künftige Generation belastet. Kurzstudie im Auftrag von Greenpeace und Germanwatch, 12.09.2024Effect of laughter exercise versus 0.1% sodium hyaluronic acid on ocular surface discomfort in dry eye disease: non-inferiority randomised controlled trial. The BMJ, 11.09.2024Ancient Rapanui genomes reveal resilience and pre-European contact with the Americas. Nature, 11.09.2024The Greenland shark (Somniosus microcephalus) genome provides insights into extreme longevity. Preprint auf bioRxiv, 10.09.2024Alle Quellen findet ihr hier.**********Ihr könnt uns auch auf diesen Kanälen folgen: Tiktok und Instagram.

Laura Luebbert just finished her PhD in computational biology and will soon be a postdoc with Pardis Sabeti, to hunt some viruses. We talk about how she got into biology, how she created a widely-used software project (gget) with no prior coding experience, her recent reports when she discovered questionable data in key papers about honeybee dances, and much more.BJKS Podcast is a podcast about neuroscience, psychology, and anything vaguely related, hosted by Benjamin James Kuper-Smith.Support the show: https://geni.us/bjks-patreonTimestamps0:00:00: Why Laura studied biology in Leiden/the Netherlands (and the importance of early scientific training)0:13:41: How Laura ended up doing a PhD at Caltech with Lior Pachter (and how to choose one project if you're interested in many things)0:22:00: gget: Developing and maintaining a software tool with no prior programming experience0:54:07: Laura's future postdoc (with Pardis Sabeti): global virus-hunter0:59:34: Finding and reporting questionable data in published papers about honeybee dances1:36:43: A book or paper more people should read1:38:55: Something Laura wishes she'd learnt sooner1:40:38: Advice for PhD students/postdocs1:44:02: Bonus: should I learn Catalan?Podcast linksWebsite: https://geni.us/bjks-podTwitter: https://geni.us/bjks-pod-twtLaura's linksWebsite: https://geni.us/luebbert-webGoogle Scholar: https://geni.us/luebbert-scholarTwitter: https://geni.us/luebbert-twtBen's linksWebsite: https://geni.us/bjks-webGoogle Scholar: https://geni.us/bjks-scholarTwitter: https://geni.us/bjks-twtReferences and linksEpisode with Jessica Polka: https://geni.us/bjks-polkaEpisode with Elisabeth Bik: https://geni.us/bjks-bikEpisode with Joe Hilgard: https://geni.us/bjks-hilgardPrototype fund Germany: https://prototypefund.de/en/PubPeer: https://pubpeer.com/Aaronovitch (2014-). Rivers of London series.Frisch (1927). Aus dem Leben der Bienen.Luebbert, Sullivan, Carilli, Hjörleifsson, Winnett, Chari & Pachter (2023). Efficient and accurate detection of viral sequences at single-cell resolution reveals putative novel viruses perturbing host gene expression. bioRxiv.Luebbert & Pachter (2023). Efficient querying of genomic reference databases with gget. Bioinformatics.Luebbert & Pachter (2024). The miscalibration of the honeybee odometer. arXiv.https://liorpachter.wordpress.com/2024/07/02/the-journal-of-scientific-integrity/

This episode is a conversation between Neha and former dancer/current movement teacher Hannah Teutscher. Both Hannah and Neha reflect on the impact of dance and movement in their lives and how movement helps connect our minds to our bodies and unlock new ways of thinking and feeling about ourselves and the world around us. We hope this episode inspires you to think about how movement, in line with your own needs and abilities, can help you tear down your own “armours” and connect to your own authentic self. Additional Resources Al-Fawakhiri, N., Kayani, S., & McDougle, S. D. (2023). Evidence of an optimal error rate for motor skill learning. bioRxiv, 2023-07. Hennah mentioned that for motor learning tasks, failure helps people learn faster. These researchers theorized that motor skill learning is best when the error rate is about 30% and found evidence to support their theory. Buckingham, M. (2022 May-June). Designing work that people love. Harvard Business Review. Neha mentioned that when people can shape their roles themselves, they and their employer are better off. This is an accessible read that integrates, among other things, the idea that when people are able to inject their own selves into to the design of their work, you get better results. Foss, N., Klein, P. (10 November 2022). Greater autonomy and responsibility may aggravate (not cure!) quiet quitting. London School of Economics and Political Science blog post. Neha mentioned that when people have complete freedom and no parameters, the lack of structure can actually impair performance. This is a blog post from the London School of Economics and Political Science about people's preference for some degree of structure (i.e. predictability) in their work environment. Moore, C (8 January 2019) What is flow? PositivePscyhology.com. Hannah mentions how people can achieve flow through movement. If you've not heard this term before, here is a one-stop source about this psychological state as first popularized by psychologist Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi. Oppezzo, M., & Schwartz, D. L. (2014). Give your ideas some legs: the positive effect of walking on creative thinking. Journal of experimental psychology: learning, memory, and cognition, 40(4), 1142. Neha talks about movement unlocking creativity, and this is a primary research sources for this connection. The link goes to a Stanford University news summary of the research, but you can also access the full research article via the news summary.As always please send your feedback to droppingyourarmour@atrain.com Enjoy this episode!

Looking at an egg and wondering when and if it ever hosted life is a curiosity most of us are familiar with. But what about sea turtle eggs?With each sea turtle nest containing anywhere between 60-120 eggs, not all of them hatch into baby sea turtles - some instead exhibit hatching failure. But why do these eggs remain unhatched, and should we even care?In our third episode, we welcome Alessia Lavigne, a passionate young researcher who believes that hatching failure in threatened sea turtle populations is a cause for concern that demands investigation. After all, eggs hatching successfully is key to ensuring population renewal.So join Dr Minnie and Alessia, as they crack into the mystery surrounding sea turtle egg development, exploring the reasons behind hatching failure and their implications for sea turtle conservation.Links for additional reading:Understanding early reproductive failure in turtles and tortoise by Lavigne, A. M., Bullock, R., Shah, N. J., Tagg, C., Zora, A., & Hemmings, N. (2023). bioRxiv.A field key to the developmental stages of marine turtles (Cheloniidae) with notes on the development of Dermochelys by Miller, J.D., J.A. Mortimer & C.J. Limpus.(2023). Chelonian Conservation and Biology, 16: 111-122.Failure to launch: what's happening with Seychelles' turtle and tortoise eggs? A project by Alessia LavigneAlessia's InstagramWe would love to hear your questions, comments or suggestions about the podcast. Email us at: seaturtlestories@oliveridleyproject.orgOlive Ridley Project (ORP), a charity founded in 2013, is on a mission is to protect sea turtles and their habitats through rescue and conservation medicine, scientific research, and education and outreachTo support Olive Ridley Project's work in sea turtle conservation, you can, Name and Adopt a wild sea turtle, Adopt a turtle patient or Donate here: https://oliveridleyproject.org/donateFollow us on Instagram, Facebook, LinkedIn, Tiktok and YoutubeCredits:The Sea Turtle Stories podcast is presented by Olive Ridley ProjectThe host for the podcast series is Dr Minnie LiddellThe podcast is edited, mixed and mastered by Dev RamkumarThe podcast series is produced and researched by Anadya Singh

The gang discusses two papers that study ecological changes in the evolutionary history of some charismatic ancient animal groups. The first paper uses geographic data to infer the timing of the evolution of homeothermy in non-avian dinosaur groups, and the second paper looks at the mechanisms by which cats (and cat-like animals) developed saber teeth. Meanwhile, Curt makes some plans for Amanda, James muddles things over, and Amanda could use another.   Up-Goer Five (Curt Edition): The friends talk about two papers that look at how where animals live can change how they look and also maybe how they look can change where they can live. The first paper looks at old big angry animals and where they live to see if they can find when these animals were able to make themselves warm inside. We have other things that make us think that some of these big angry animals may have been able to get warm inside, but that this might have happened a few times in this group. By looking at where these animals were found in the past, they see that there are times when these animals move into places that are colder. They use this to say that these times may be because these animals now being able to make themselves warm inside. The second paper looks at animals that are cats and cat like animals. Some of these cats and cat like animals have very long teeth. This paper does a lot of things to study how these cats and cat like animals change their heads when they get these big teeth. They find that some of these cat like groups do this in a different way than cats, but also that cats start to change their heads to be a bit more like the cat like things when they get bigger teeth but also not in the same way.   References: Chiarenza, Alfio Alessandro, et al. "Early Jurassic origin of avian endothermy and thermophysiological diversity in Dinosauria." bioRxiv (2023): 2023-12. Chatar, Narimane, et al. "Evolutionary patterns of cat-like carnivorans unveil drivers of the sabertooth morphology." Current Biology (2024).

Willow Bioscience CEO Dr Chris Savile joined Steve Darling from Proactive to share the company's plans to raise approximately $3 million. This capital will be used to support Willow Bioscience's recent partnership announcement with Laurus Labs. Dr. Savile explained that the deal with Laurus is a multi-product development and licensing partnership with a leading research-driven pharmaceutical and biotechnology company. Laurus Labs, with a market cap of $3.9 billion, serves global pharmaceutical companies and offers Contract Development and Manufacturing Organization (CDMO) services. Since its inception, Laurus has commercialized over 80 products and operates nine manufacturing facilities, including those with fermentation capabilities. Willow Bioscience aims to leverage its AI-driven technology platform and extensive expertise in enzyme, strain, and process engineering to develop biobased processes for high-value Active Pharmaceutical Ingredients (APIs). This includes Willow's BioOxi™-based corticosteroid processes, intended for large-scale manufacturing, sales, and distribution at Laurus Labs. The first programs from this partnership are expected to reach commercial manufacturing by 2025. The planned fundraising will provide the necessary capital to advance these initiatives, ensuring that Willow Bioscience can effectively collaborate with Laurus Labs to bring innovative biobased pharmaceutical solutions to the market. #proactiveinvestors #willowbioscienceinc #tsx #wllw #otcqb #cansf #bioscience #biotech #LaurusLabs, #biotech, #partnership, #APIs, #bioRxiv, #corticosteroids, #fundraising, #pharmaceuticals, #CDMO, #fermentation, #chemistry, #sales, #marketing, #distribution, #commercialisation, #generics, #revenue, #biotechnology, #R&D#invest #investing #investment #investor #stockmarket #stocks #stock #stockmarketnews

In this 228th in a series of live discussions with Bret Weinstein and Heather Heying (both PhDs in Biology), we talk about the state of the world through an evolutionary lens.In this week's episode, we discuss the WHO, International Health Regulations, and this week's rally in Geneva. Also: major concessions in the Covid narrative. And: avian flu (H5N1). Finally: on the joys of motorcycling in the Alps with one's son.*****Our sponsors:Timeline: Accelerate the clearing of damaged mitochondria to improve strength and endurance: Go totimeline.com/darkhorse and use code darkhorse for 10% off your order. ARMRA: Colostrum is our first food, and can help restore your health and resilience as an adult. Go to www.tryarmra.com/DARKHORSE to get 15% off your first order.Helix: Excellent, sleep-enhancing, American-made mattresses. Go to www.HelixSleep.com/DarkHorse to get up to 30% of all mattress orders AND 2 free pillows.*****Join us on Locals! Get access to our Discord server, exclusive live streams, live chats for all streams, and early access to many podcasts: https://darkhorse.locals.com/Heather's newsletter, Natural Selections (subscribe to get free weekly essays in your inbox): https://naturalselections.substack.comOur book, A Hunter-Gatherer's Guide to the 21st Century, is available everywhere books are sold, including from Amazon: https://a.co/d/dunx3atCheck out our store! Epic tabby, digital book burning, saddle up the dire wolves, and more: https://darkhorsestore.org*****Mentioned in this episode:Tedros tweet: https://x.com/DrTedros/status/1796993038926897205Chan in the NYT on Covid origins: https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2024/06/03/opinion/covid-lab-leak.htmlThe Telegraph on excess deaths in 2020 – 2022: https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2024/06/04/covid-vaccines-may-have-helped-fuel-rise-in-excess-deaths/Mostert et al 2024. Excess mortality across countries in the Western World since the COVID-19 pandemic: ‘Our World in Data' estimates of January 2020 to December 2022. BMJ Public Health 2024;2:e000282. https://bmjpublichealth.bmj.com/content/bmjph/2/1/e000282.full.pdfThe WHO on avian flu: https://www.who.int/news-room/questions-and-answers/item/influenza-h5n1McCollough Substack on avian flu, June 4: https://petermcculloughmd.substack.com/p/breaking-publication-proximal-originHulscher et al 2024. Proximal Origin of Epidemic Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza H5N1 Clade 2.3.4.4b and Spread by Migratory Waterfowl. https://www.preprints.org/manuscript/202406.0060/v1Murawski et al 2024. Highly pathogenic avian influenza A (H5N1) virus in a common bottlenose dolphin (Tursiops truncatus) in Florida. Communications Biology, 7(1)476.: https://www.nature.com/articles/s42003-024-06173-x.pdfElsmo et al 2023. Pathology of natural infection with highly pathogenic avian influenza virus (H5N1) clade 2.3. 4.4 b in wild terrestrial mammals in the United States in 2022. BioRxiv, 2023-03.: https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.03.10.532068v2.full.pdfSupport the Show.

Subscribe to our channel: https://www.youtube.com/@optispan Part I: https://youtu.be/-ujIfZXGbDA At the Optispan Podcast, we aim to help you become your own detective of research in the geroscience field and beyond. Critical thinking is our compass. We want to help you dig into every aspect of a study: are the methods they used solid? Was the sample size big enough? Did they crunch the numbers right? What's the most reasonable interpretation of the data? Might a conflict of interest skew the results? In Part II of a two-part series about a recent study of how a supplement called "Leap Years" affects canine cognitive function, Matt takes a magnifying glass to a bioRxiv preprint describing the clinical trial's methodology and findings. Beginning with a sentence-by-sentence dissection of the study's abstract, he describes various things he finds unusual or questionable about the way researchers ran and publicized the clinical trial: exclusion of certain data, a lack of disclosure around the supplement's ingredients, the use of an assessment tool that was not validated for its intended purpose, and more. He discusses conclusions we can actually draw from the study based on the information the researchers have supplied, and whether or not he would give the supplement to his own dog. This episode is Part II of a two-part series. In part I, Matt talks about the press release announcing the drug's potential ability to reverse age-related decline and improve cognitive function in dogs, as well as the importance of interrogating bold advertising claims rather than taking them at face value. Producers: Tara Mei, Nicholas Arapis Video Editor: Jacob Keliikoa DISCLAIMER: The information provided on the Optispan YouTube channel is intended solely for general educational purposes and is not meant to be, nor should it be construed as, personalized medical advice. No doctor-patient relationship is established by your use of this channel. The information and materials presented are for informational purposes only and are not a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment. We strongly advise that you consult with a licensed healthcare professional for all matters concerning your health, especially before undertaking any changes based on content provided by this channel. The hosts and guests on this channel are not liable for any direct, indirect, or other damages or adverse effects that may arise from the application of the information discussed. Medical knowledge is constantly evolving; therefore, the information provided should be verified against current medical standards and practices. More places to find us: Twitter: https://twitter.com/optispanpodcast Twitter: https://twitter.com/optispan Twitter: https://twitter.com/mkaeberlein Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/optispan https://www.optispan.life/ Hi, I'm Matt Kaeberlein. I spent the first few decades of my career doing scientific research into the biology of aging, trying to understand the finer details of how humans age in order to facilitate translational interventions that promote healthspan and improve quality of life. Now I want to take some of that knowledge out of the lab and into the hands of people who can really use it. On this channel I talk about all things aging and healthspan, from supplements and nutrition to the latest discoveries in longevity research. My goal is to lift the veil on the geroscience and longevity world and help you apply what we know to your own personal health trajectory. I care about quality science and will always be honest about what I don't know. I hope you'll find these videos helpful!

In episode 046 Elle chats with Dr. Matthew Kasson: Mycologist and Plant Pathologist who studies fungus biodiversity centered around tree diseases and fungus-arthropod interactions.  Socials: https://x.com/ImperfectFunGuy https://twitter.com/plantdisease Research, Sci-Comm and related press and media: Online media, Nightmare-fuel fungi exist in real life, Popular Science (PopSci) https://www.popsci.com/environment/zombie-fungus-real-life-diseases/. Single author piece on the real-life fungal threats we face given all the attention fungi are getting from HBO's The Last of Us. Feb. 3, 2023.  Online media, How to keep your jack-o'-lantern from turning into moldy, maggoty mush before Halloween, The Conversation, How to keep your jack-o'-lantern from turning into moldy, maggoty mush before Halloween (theconversation.com). Single author piece on how fungi impact our seasonal celebrations and rituals particularly around Halloween. Oct. 6, 2022. Re-published by Scientific American, Popular Science, and PBS.  Printed and Online media, Wild mushrooms are curious organisms that require respect, The Washington Post, Wild mushrooms aren't all poisonous, but they all require caution - The Washington Post. Single author piece on how our fears of a small number of fungi shape our willingness to interact with them. August 24, 2022  Online media, Beyond flora and fauna: Why it's time to include fungi in global conservation goals, The Conversation, Beyond flora and fauna: Why it's time to include fungi in global conservation goals (theconversation.com). Co-authored piece with Brian Lovett (WVU PSS) and Patty Kaishian (Bard College) on how fungi are regularly excluded from talks on global conservation. May 17, 2022. Re-published in Indonesian.  Online media, Finding mental-health clarity under pandemic pressures. Nature. Finding mental-health clarity under pandemic pressures (nature.com) Single author column on my mental health struggles in academia. Dec. 14, 2021.   Research Podcast with Online Media, Episode 25: “Of Peeps and People…and Plant Pathology” Plantopia, https://www.plantopiapodcast.org/25.  The official podcast on The American Phytopathological Society featuring my work in forest pathology, science communication, and advocacy. July 21. 2022.  Podcast with Online Media, Episode 4: How cicadas become flying saltshakers of death Overheard at National Geographic, Episode 4: How cicadas become flying saltshakers of death (nationalgeographic.com) May 25, 2021.  National Radio with Online Media, Drugged Cicadas Mate Like Wild After Their Butts Fall Off, All Things Considered, National Public Radio., Drugged Cicadas Mate Like Wild After Their Butts Fall Off : NPR Coverage of Brood X and my lab's research of cicada fungus Massospora. May 18, 2021.  Online Media, Drugged, Castrated, Eager to Mate: the Lives of Fungi-Infected Cicadas, The New York Times, https://www.nytimes.com/2019/06/28/science/cicadas-fungus-butts.html, Coverage of our Fungal Ecology paper on cicadas " Psychoactive plant- and mushroom-associated alkaloids from two behavior modifying cicada pathogens.", July 28, 2019.  Online Media, This Parasite Drugs Its Hosts With the Psychedelic Chemical in Shrooms, The Atlantic, https://www.theatlantic.com/science/archive/2018/07/massospora-parasite-drugs-its-hosts/566324/, Coverage of our BioRxiv pre-print "Psychoactive plant- and mushroom-associated alkaloids from two behavior modifying cicada pathogens.", July 30, 2018.   SciComm  Online media, These fungi demand more pumpkin in their pumpkin spice lattes. Popular Science. Some fungi are fans of pumpkin spice lattes, too | Popular Science (popsci.com). Coverage of my Sept. 9, 2022 viral tweet seeing which fungi preferred growth media with real pumpkin compared with pumpkin spice and pumpkin spice latte-substituted growth media. Sept. 15, 2022.  National Radio with Online Media, A Disturbing Twinkie That Has, So Far, Defied Science, National Public Radio, Scientists Are Fascinated By An 8-Year-Old, Moldy Twinkie : NPR, Coverage of my viral Twitter experiment isolating fungi from moldy Twinkies. Oct. 15, 2020.  Online Media, Injecting Marshmallow Peeps With Fungi, for Science, The New York Times, https://www.nytimes.com/2019/03/29/science/marshmallow-peeps-fungus.html?searchResultPosition=1, Coverage of our Twitter #fungalPeeps project, March 29, 2019.   Expertise Online and printed media, Janet Yellen ate magic mushrooms. Here's why she didn't get high.  The Washington Post. Interview to talk about  Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen's trip to China and consumption of a mushroom known as jian shou qing. Aug. 16, 2023. Janet Yellen ate magic mushrooms. Here's why she didn't get high. - The Washington Post  Online media, The fungal threat to human health is growing in a warmer, wetter, sicker world. CNN. https://www.cnn.com/2023/02/07/health/fungus-health-threat-scn/index.html. Coverage on the fungal craze surrounding HBO's The Last of Us. Feb. 7, 2023.  Online media, We Asked a Mycologist About The Last of Us and It Got Weird. Esquire. https://www.esquire.com/entertainment/tv/a42760795/last-of-us-fungus-cordyceps-mycologist/ Interview to speak about the fungal craze surrounding HBO's The Last of Us. Feb. 5, 2023.  National Radio with Online Media, Finally, scientists have found a true millipede, All Things Considered, National Public Radio., Finally, scientists have found a true millipede : NPR Coverage of my colleague's discovery of the first true millipede with commentary from me. Dec. 20, 2021. Finally, scientists have found a true millipede : NPR   Elle Kaye socials www.instagram.com/ellekayetaxidermy www.twitter.com/ellektaxidermy Podcast socials www.instagram.com/specimenspod wwww.twitter.com/ellektaxidermy www.patreon.com/specimenspod www.ellekayetaxidermy.co.uk/product-page/specimenspodmerch Artwork ©  2021 Madison Erin Mayfield www.instagram.com/madisonerinmayfield www.twitter.com/MEMIllustration Music Giraffes - Harrison Amer via premiumbeat.com Researched, edited and produced by Elle Kaye Concept/Title ©  2020 Elle Kaye

Anand Muthusamy is a Fellow at Convergent Research, where he's laying the groundwork for a focused research organization (FRO) to monitor the real-time activity of biomarkers in humans. Anand is a chemist and neuroscientist. He recently completed his PhD at Caltech, worked at Janelia Research Campus, and did his undergrad at the University of Pennsylvania. Check out his recent paper on bioRxiv: https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2024.03.15.584894v1Defense talk on YouTube: https://youtu.be/OK1kBOKsaawFRO proposal overview: https://fas.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/08/Muthusamy-Garrett-Molecular-Modeling.pdf

Die Themen in den Wissensnachrichten: +++ Wie schnell sich Strohhalme im Meer auflösen +++ Hobby-Sportler können Tour de France schaffen +++ Gecko ist "Zootier des Jahres" +++**********Weiterführende Quellen zu dieser Folge:Strategies to Reduce the Environmental Lifetimes of Drinking Straws in the Coastal Ocean, ACS, 30.1. 2024The Tour de France, also possible for mortals? A comparison of a recreational and a World Tour cyclist, Journal of Applied Physiology, 4.1. 2024Zootier des Jahres, Zoologische Gesellschaft für Arten- und PopulationsschutzBeakiation: how a novel parrot gait expands the locomotor repertoire of living birds, Royal Society, 31.1. 2024From dust to seed: a lunar chickpea story, bioRxiv, 22.1. 2024Alle Quellen findet ihr hier.**********Ihr könnt uns auch auf diesen Kanälen folgen: Tiktok und Instagram.

En este episodio, actualizamos la neuroanatomía funcional del núcleo rojo a raíz del último trabajo pre-print de Krimmel (2024): The brainstem's red nucleus was evolutionarily upgraded to support goal-directed action. Aprovechamos para traer de vuelta la crítica al tracto rubroespinal que hicimos en el #1 de Hemispherics y argumentamos el sentido evolutivo y funcional del núcleo rojo y sus conexiones en el ser humano adulto. ¿Es el núcleo rojo motor? ¿O tiene más función como nodo en una red más amplia de control ejecutivo de la acción? ¡Lo vemos en este episodio! Referencias del episodio: 1. Habas, C., & Cabanis, E. A. (2006). Cortical projections to the human red nucleus: a diffusion tensor tractography study with a 1.5-T MRI machine. Neuroradiology, 48(10), 755–762. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00234-006-0117-9 (https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/16937147/). 2. Basile, G. A., Quartu, M., Bertino, S., Serra, M. P., Boi, M., Bramanti, A., Anastasi, G. P., Milardi, D., & Cacciola, A. (2021). Red nucleus structure and function: from anatomy to clinical neurosciences. Brain structure & function, 226(1), 69–91. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00429-020-02171-x (https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/33180142/). 3. Sung, Y. W., Kiyama, S., Choi, U. S., & Ogawa, S. (2022). Involvement of the intrinsic functional network of the red nucleus in complex behavioral processing. Cerebral cortex communications, 3(3), tgac037. https://doi.org/10.1093/texcom/tgac037 (https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9491841/). 4. Krimmel, S.R., et al. (2024). The brainstem's red nucleus was evolutionarily upgraded to support goal-directed action. bioRxiv. Preprint. https://doi.org/10.1101/2023.12.30.573730 (https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.12.30.573730v1). 5. Gordon, E. M., Chauvin, R. J., Van, A. N., Rajesh, A., Nielsen, A., Newbold, D. J., Lynch, C. J., Seider, N. A., Krimmel, S. R., Scheidter, K. M., Monk, J., Miller, R. L., Metoki, A., Montez, D. F., Zheng, A., Elbau, I., Madison, T., Nishino, T., Myers, M. J., Kaplan, S., … Dosenbach, N. U. F. (2023). A somato-cognitive action network alternates with effector regions in motor cortex. Nature, 617(7960), 351–359. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-023-05964-2 (https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/37076628/).

This is Garrison Hardie with your CrossPolitic Daily News Brief for Friday, January 19th, 2024. Samaritan Ministries January 2024 Tired of someone else telling you where to go when you have a medical need? Are you ready to take control of your health care? Then it’s time to take a look at Samaritan Ministries. It’s Biblical, affordable health care sharing, with no restrictive networks. Here’s how it works. When a medical need arises, you choose the health care provider that’s right for you and have a say in the treatment you receive. Send your medical bills to Samaritan Ministries, and they’ll notify fellow members to pray for you and send money directly to you to help you pay those bills. Join 80,000 Christian households across the nation who have already taken control of their health care. Go to samaritan ministries dot org slash cross politic. https://thenationalpulse.com/2024/01/18/gop-led-house-approves-bill-to-avoid-shutdown-without-border-spending-deals/ GOP-Led House Approves Bill to Avoid Shutdown Without Border, Spending Deals The U.S. House of Representatives voted late Thursday afternoon to extend government funding into early March and avoid a temporary partial government shutdown, sending the continuing resolution to President Biden to sign into law. The measure, which passed by a vote of 314 to 108, angered conservative Republicans who opposed any continuing resolution to fund the government without concessions by the Democrats on border security and spending. The House Freedom Caucus made an eleventh-hour plea to House Speaker Mike Johnson to permit an amendment to the House’s border security package, which Johnson rejected. Freedom Caucus Chairman Bob Good slammed his fellow Republicans who supported the continuing resolution ahead of the vote. “The more things change, the more things stay the same,” he said in a floor speech. “We’re not even willing to risk a temporary pause in the 15 percent of the non-essential part of the government in order to force change in Washington,” he said. “No, we’re going to continue the status quo.” Good’s statements echoed an official position on the measure released by the Freedom Caucus hours before the vote. “Americans did not give Republicans a majority in the House to continue Nancy Pelosi’s inflationary spending and Joe Biden’s failed policies,” the group wrote in a statement. “This is not what we promised the American people.” The vote is also likely to be unpopular with the Republican base, which consistently ranks immigration as one of the top issues facing the country. Over 80 percent of Republican voters agree with President Donald Trump that the ongoing border crisis is “poisoning the blood” of America. https://dailycaller.com/2024/01/17/blue-state-officials-pay-thousands-barring-church-preschool-lunch-program-beliefs-gender/ Blue State Officials Agree To Pay Thousands After Barring Church From Preschool Lunch Program For Beliefs On Gender California state officials agreed to settle with the Church of Compassion and Dayspring Christian Learning Center Tuesday for nearly $200,000 after trying to exclude the church from the state’s preschool lunch program. The church and the center, alongside Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF), filed a lawsuit in June last year alleging that officials with the U.S. Department of Agriculture and the California Department of Social Services barred them from participating in the “Child and Adult Food Care Program” because of their religious beliefs on gender and sex. ADF and state officials filed a settlement agreement this week requiring the defendants to pay $30,000 for meals paid out of pocket in the absence of state funding and $160,000 for attorney’s fees. “In the name of combatting discrimination, government officials excluded the church and preschool from serving the El Cajon community based solely on their religious beliefs and exercise,” Jeremiah Galus, senior counsel for ADF, said in a press release. “While it shouldn’t have taken a lawsuit to resolve this, at least now Church of Compassion can continue its vital outreach to needy children and families.” The center had been a part of the USDA’s program for nearly two decades when the department changed its rules in 2021 requiring all participants to commit to not discriminate on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity. In May 2023, the department also required state directors of USDA’s food and nutrition service programs to prohibit “discrimination on the basis of gender identity and sexual orientation.” Church of Compassion and Dayspring Christian Learning Center failed to meet these new requirements for the 2022-2023 school year because of their beliefs on “human sexuality” and their refusal to “use any child or employee’s ‘preferred’ pronouns that do not correspond to biological sex,” according to the lawsuit. ADF argued that the department and state officials were deliberately discriminating against the church and the learning center because of its faith in violation of the First Amendment. “The government can’t withhold food from families in need simply because their children attend a Christian preschool. The Constitution protects the right of Church of Compassion and its preschool to operate according to the dictates of their faith,” Galus said in the press release. https://townhall.com/tipsheet/madelineleesman/2024/01/17/lgbt-activist-arrested-child-predator-sting-n2633750 Director of LGBTQ+ Organization That Helps Minors Arrested in Child Sex Sting The executive director of the pro-LGBTQ+ organization Rainbow Research Center was apprehended on suspicion of attempting to engage in sexual activities with a minor, according to The Modesto Bee. Reportedly, a total of 17 men were arrested on suspicion of eliciting sex with a minor after an undercover sting conducted by the Turlock Police Department in California. Gerard Slayton, 42, was one of them (via the Bee): Slayton recently was appointed executive director of the Rainbow Center, a local nonprofit organization that provides resources to LGBTQ+ members of all ages. It particularly offers resources related to mental and physical health. In a statement shared on Facebook, the Rainbow Resource Center said that Slayton’s actions occurred “outside working hours and off-premises.” “Mr. Slayton’s actions do not represent our organization’s values or mission. In accordance with our unwavering commitment to upholding the highest standards of conduct and integrity, we are addressing the issue within the Rainbow Resource Center,” the statement read. “We are dedicated to rebuilding any trust that may have been affected by the situation. As an organization that is at the forefront of advocacy and support for the LGBTQ+ community, our actions must reflect our dedication to these principles,” it continued. https://dailycaller.com/2024/01/17/beijing-china-wuhan-covid-19-100-percent-death-mice-study-full-paper/ Mutant COVID-19 Strain With 100% Kill Rate Developed In China A pre-peer-reviewed study published in early January described how mice were exposed to a human-based “lethal infection” of COVID-19 with a 100% mortality rate. The Beijing-based research paper was submitted to the scientific preprint site BioRXiv and published prior to peer review, but the data held within the pages is significant. Two SARS-CoV-2-related pangolin coronaviruses (GD/2019, GX/2017) were identified prior to the major COVID-19 outbreak in late 2019 through early 2020, according to the study’s authors. The researchers then isolated “mutant” strains, which were cultured in labs between 2017 and 2020. When the infectivity and pathogenicity of the isolates were tested, it was found to easily infect golden hamsters and mice. The first isolate pCoV-GD01 had a higher homology than COVID-19, whereas GX_P2V didn’t seem to cause any disease in the animals despite infection. But an early passaged GX_P2V isolate, named GX_P2v(short_3UTR) not only infected mice with extremely high viral loads into their lung and brain tissue, but eventually killed 100% of the mice within the study. Even those mice who were given an inoculation (i.e., vaccinated) succumbed to the disease. Autopsy of the mice showed viral RNA in the brain, lung, turbinate, eye and trachea, killing all of the mice within eight days of infection. All of the mice’s eyes also went white the day before they died. The authors argued this is the first report that COVID-19-related pangolin coronavirus can cause 100% mortality rates in mice, suggesting a significant risk of the disease spilling over into humans. But since the study is not peer-reviewed, there are huge questions about the efficacy of the results. “I had a look at the preprint. It’s a terrible study, scientifically totally pointless. I can see nothing of vague interest that could be learned from force-infecting a weird breed of humanised mice with a random virus. Conversely, I could see how such stuff might go wrong …” University College London genetics director Francois Balloux wrote on Twitter. “The preprint does not specify the biosafety level and biosafety precautions used for the research.” Balloux’s statements were reiterated by Rutgers University chemistry professor Richard H. Ebright, who wrote “concur” under the comment. It appears the biggest concern is related to why scientists feel the need to develop these horrific diseases. “The absence of this information raises the concerning possibility that part or all of this research, like the research in Wuhan in 2016-2019 that likely caused the Covid-19 pandemic, recklessly was performed without the minimal biosafety containment and practices essential for research with potential pandemic pathogens,” Balloux concluded. And it’s pretty hard to argue with his stance. China is already inching back toward lockdowns as mysterious viruses spread throughout the country. Most of these illnesses are being blamed on influenza strains and other respiratory diseases, but no single culprit has been identified to date.

This is Garrison Hardie with your CrossPolitic Daily News Brief for Friday, January 19th, 2024. Samaritan Ministries January 2024 Tired of someone else telling you where to go when you have a medical need? Are you ready to take control of your health care? Then it’s time to take a look at Samaritan Ministries. It’s Biblical, affordable health care sharing, with no restrictive networks. Here’s how it works. When a medical need arises, you choose the health care provider that’s right for you and have a say in the treatment you receive. Send your medical bills to Samaritan Ministries, and they’ll notify fellow members to pray for you and send money directly to you to help you pay those bills. Join 80,000 Christian households across the nation who have already taken control of their health care. Go to samaritan ministries dot org slash cross politic. https://thenationalpulse.com/2024/01/18/gop-led-house-approves-bill-to-avoid-shutdown-without-border-spending-deals/ GOP-Led House Approves Bill to Avoid Shutdown Without Border, Spending Deals The U.S. House of Representatives voted late Thursday afternoon to extend government funding into early March and avoid a temporary partial government shutdown, sending the continuing resolution to President Biden to sign into law. The measure, which passed by a vote of 314 to 108, angered conservative Republicans who opposed any continuing resolution to fund the government without concessions by the Democrats on border security and spending. The House Freedom Caucus made an eleventh-hour plea to House Speaker Mike Johnson to permit an amendment to the House’s border security package, which Johnson rejected. Freedom Caucus Chairman Bob Good slammed his fellow Republicans who supported the continuing resolution ahead of the vote. “The more things change, the more things stay the same,” he said in a floor speech. “We’re not even willing to risk a temporary pause in the 15 percent of the non-essential part of the government in order to force change in Washington,” he said. “No, we’re going to continue the status quo.” Good’s statements echoed an official position on the measure released by the Freedom Caucus hours before the vote. “Americans did not give Republicans a majority in the House to continue Nancy Pelosi’s inflationary spending and Joe Biden’s failed policies,” the group wrote in a statement. “This is not what we promised the American people.” The vote is also likely to be unpopular with the Republican base, which consistently ranks immigration as one of the top issues facing the country. Over 80 percent of Republican voters agree with President Donald Trump that the ongoing border crisis is “poisoning the blood” of America. https://dailycaller.com/2024/01/17/blue-state-officials-pay-thousands-barring-church-preschool-lunch-program-beliefs-gender/ Blue State Officials Agree To Pay Thousands After Barring Church From Preschool Lunch Program For Beliefs On Gender California state officials agreed to settle with the Church of Compassion and Dayspring Christian Learning Center Tuesday for nearly $200,000 after trying to exclude the church from the state’s preschool lunch program. The church and the center, alongside Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF), filed a lawsuit in June last year alleging that officials with the U.S. Department of Agriculture and the California Department of Social Services barred them from participating in the “Child and Adult Food Care Program” because of their religious beliefs on gender and sex. ADF and state officials filed a settlement agreement this week requiring the defendants to pay $30,000 for meals paid out of pocket in the absence of state funding and $160,000 for attorney’s fees. “In the name of combatting discrimination, government officials excluded the church and preschool from serving the El Cajon community based solely on their religious beliefs and exercise,” Jeremiah Galus, senior counsel for ADF, said in a press release. “While it shouldn’t have taken a lawsuit to resolve this, at least now Church of Compassion can continue its vital outreach to needy children and families.” The center had been a part of the USDA’s program for nearly two decades when the department changed its rules in 2021 requiring all participants to commit to not discriminate on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity. In May 2023, the department also required state directors of USDA’s food and nutrition service programs to prohibit “discrimination on the basis of gender identity and sexual orientation.” Church of Compassion and Dayspring Christian Learning Center failed to meet these new requirements for the 2022-2023 school year because of their beliefs on “human sexuality” and their refusal to “use any child or employee’s ‘preferred’ pronouns that do not correspond to biological sex,” according to the lawsuit. ADF argued that the department and state officials were deliberately discriminating against the church and the learning center because of its faith in violation of the First Amendment. “The government can’t withhold food from families in need simply because their children attend a Christian preschool. The Constitution protects the right of Church of Compassion and its preschool to operate according to the dictates of their faith,” Galus said in the press release. https://townhall.com/tipsheet/madelineleesman/2024/01/17/lgbt-activist-arrested-child-predator-sting-n2633750 Director of LGBTQ+ Organization That Helps Minors Arrested in Child Sex Sting The executive director of the pro-LGBTQ+ organization Rainbow Research Center was apprehended on suspicion of attempting to engage in sexual activities with a minor, according to The Modesto Bee. Reportedly, a total of 17 men were arrested on suspicion of eliciting sex with a minor after an undercover sting conducted by the Turlock Police Department in California. Gerard Slayton, 42, was one of them (via the Bee): Slayton recently was appointed executive director of the Rainbow Center, a local nonprofit organization that provides resources to LGBTQ+ members of all ages. It particularly offers resources related to mental and physical health. In a statement shared on Facebook, the Rainbow Resource Center said that Slayton’s actions occurred “outside working hours and off-premises.” “Mr. Slayton’s actions do not represent our organization’s values or mission. In accordance with our unwavering commitment to upholding the highest standards of conduct and integrity, we are addressing the issue within the Rainbow Resource Center,” the statement read. “We are dedicated to rebuilding any trust that may have been affected by the situation. As an organization that is at the forefront of advocacy and support for the LGBTQ+ community, our actions must reflect our dedication to these principles,” it continued. https://dailycaller.com/2024/01/17/beijing-china-wuhan-covid-19-100-percent-death-mice-study-full-paper/ Mutant COVID-19 Strain With 100% Kill Rate Developed In China A pre-peer-reviewed study published in early January described how mice were exposed to a human-based “lethal infection” of COVID-19 with a 100% mortality rate. The Beijing-based research paper was submitted to the scientific preprint site BioRXiv and published prior to peer review, but the data held within the pages is significant. Two SARS-CoV-2-related pangolin coronaviruses (GD/2019, GX/2017) were identified prior to the major COVID-19 outbreak in late 2019 through early 2020, according to the study’s authors. The researchers then isolated “mutant” strains, which were cultured in labs between 2017 and 2020. When the infectivity and pathogenicity of the isolates were tested, it was found to easily infect golden hamsters and mice. The first isolate pCoV-GD01 had a higher homology than COVID-19, whereas GX_P2V didn’t seem to cause any disease in the animals despite infection. But an early passaged GX_P2V isolate, named GX_P2v(short_3UTR) not only infected mice with extremely high viral loads into their lung and brain tissue, but eventually killed 100% of the mice within the study. Even those mice who were given an inoculation (i.e., vaccinated) succumbed to the disease. Autopsy of the mice showed viral RNA in the brain, lung, turbinate, eye and trachea, killing all of the mice within eight days of infection. All of the mice’s eyes also went white the day before they died. The authors argued this is the first report that COVID-19-related pangolin coronavirus can cause 100% mortality rates in mice, suggesting a significant risk of the disease spilling over into humans. But since the study is not peer-reviewed, there are huge questions about the efficacy of the results. “I had a look at the preprint. It’s a terrible study, scientifically totally pointless. I can see nothing of vague interest that could be learned from force-infecting a weird breed of humanised mice with a random virus. Conversely, I could see how such stuff might go wrong …” University College London genetics director Francois Balloux wrote on Twitter. “The preprint does not specify the biosafety level and biosafety precautions used for the research.” Balloux’s statements were reiterated by Rutgers University chemistry professor Richard H. Ebright, who wrote “concur” under the comment. It appears the biggest concern is related to why scientists feel the need to develop these horrific diseases. “The absence of this information raises the concerning possibility that part or all of this research, like the research in Wuhan in 2016-2019 that likely caused the Covid-19 pandemic, recklessly was performed without the minimal biosafety containment and practices essential for research with potential pandemic pathogens,” Balloux concluded. And it’s pretty hard to argue with his stance. China is already inching back toward lockdowns as mysterious viruses spread throughout the country. Most of these illnesses are being blamed on influenza strains and other respiratory diseases, but no single culprit has been identified to date.

This is Garrison Hardie with your CrossPolitic Daily News Brief for Friday, January 19th, 2024. Samaritan Ministries January 2024 Tired of someone else telling you where to go when you have a medical need? Are you ready to take control of your health care? Then it’s time to take a look at Samaritan Ministries. It’s Biblical, affordable health care sharing, with no restrictive networks. Here’s how it works. When a medical need arises, you choose the health care provider that’s right for you and have a say in the treatment you receive. Send your medical bills to Samaritan Ministries, and they’ll notify fellow members to pray for you and send money directly to you to help you pay those bills. Join 80,000 Christian households across the nation who have already taken control of their health care. Go to samaritan ministries dot org slash cross politic. https://thenationalpulse.com/2024/01/18/gop-led-house-approves-bill-to-avoid-shutdown-without-border-spending-deals/ GOP-Led House Approves Bill to Avoid Shutdown Without Border, Spending Deals The U.S. House of Representatives voted late Thursday afternoon to extend government funding into early March and avoid a temporary partial government shutdown, sending the continuing resolution to President Biden to sign into law. The measure, which passed by a vote of 314 to 108, angered conservative Republicans who opposed any continuing resolution to fund the government without concessions by the Democrats on border security and spending. The House Freedom Caucus made an eleventh-hour plea to House Speaker Mike Johnson to permit an amendment to the House’s border security package, which Johnson rejected. Freedom Caucus Chairman Bob Good slammed his fellow Republicans who supported the continuing resolution ahead of the vote. “The more things change, the more things stay the same,” he said in a floor speech. “We’re not even willing to risk a temporary pause in the 15 percent of the non-essential part of the government in order to force change in Washington,” he said. “No, we’re going to continue the status quo.” Good’s statements echoed an official position on the measure released by the Freedom Caucus hours before the vote. “Americans did not give Republicans a majority in the House to continue Nancy Pelosi’s inflationary spending and Joe Biden’s failed policies,” the group wrote in a statement. “This is not what we promised the American people.” The vote is also likely to be unpopular with the Republican base, which consistently ranks immigration as one of the top issues facing the country. Over 80 percent of Republican voters agree with President Donald Trump that the ongoing border crisis is “poisoning the blood” of America. https://dailycaller.com/2024/01/17/blue-state-officials-pay-thousands-barring-church-preschool-lunch-program-beliefs-gender/ Blue State Officials Agree To Pay Thousands After Barring Church From Preschool Lunch Program For Beliefs On Gender California state officials agreed to settle with the Church of Compassion and Dayspring Christian Learning Center Tuesday for nearly $200,000 after trying to exclude the church from the state’s preschool lunch program. The church and the center, alongside Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF), filed a lawsuit in June last year alleging that officials with the U.S. Department of Agriculture and the California Department of Social Services barred them from participating in the “Child and Adult Food Care Program” because of their religious beliefs on gender and sex. ADF and state officials filed a settlement agreement this week requiring the defendants to pay $30,000 for meals paid out of pocket in the absence of state funding and $160,000 for attorney’s fees. “In the name of combatting discrimination, government officials excluded the church and preschool from serving the El Cajon community based solely on their religious beliefs and exercise,” Jeremiah Galus, senior counsel for ADF, said in a press release. “While it shouldn’t have taken a lawsuit to resolve this, at least now Church of Compassion can continue its vital outreach to needy children and families.” The center had been a part of the USDA’s program for nearly two decades when the department changed its rules in 2021 requiring all participants to commit to not discriminate on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity. In May 2023, the department also required state directors of USDA’s food and nutrition service programs to prohibit “discrimination on the basis of gender identity and sexual orientation.” Church of Compassion and Dayspring Christian Learning Center failed to meet these new requirements for the 2022-2023 school year because of their beliefs on “human sexuality” and their refusal to “use any child or employee’s ‘preferred’ pronouns that do not correspond to biological sex,” according to the lawsuit. ADF argued that the department and state officials were deliberately discriminating against the church and the learning center because of its faith in violation of the First Amendment. “The government can’t withhold food from families in need simply because their children attend a Christian preschool. The Constitution protects the right of Church of Compassion and its preschool to operate according to the dictates of their faith,” Galus said in the press release. https://townhall.com/tipsheet/madelineleesman/2024/01/17/lgbt-activist-arrested-child-predator-sting-n2633750 Director of LGBTQ+ Organization That Helps Minors Arrested in Child Sex Sting The executive director of the pro-LGBTQ+ organization Rainbow Research Center was apprehended on suspicion of attempting to engage in sexual activities with a minor, according to The Modesto Bee. Reportedly, a total of 17 men were arrested on suspicion of eliciting sex with a minor after an undercover sting conducted by the Turlock Police Department in California. Gerard Slayton, 42, was one of them (via the Bee): Slayton recently was appointed executive director of the Rainbow Center, a local nonprofit organization that provides resources to LGBTQ+ members of all ages. It particularly offers resources related to mental and physical health. In a statement shared on Facebook, the Rainbow Resource Center said that Slayton’s actions occurred “outside working hours and off-premises.” “Mr. Slayton’s actions do not represent our organization’s values or mission. In accordance with our unwavering commitment to upholding the highest standards of conduct and integrity, we are addressing the issue within the Rainbow Resource Center,” the statement read. “We are dedicated to rebuilding any trust that may have been affected by the situation. As an organization that is at the forefront of advocacy and support for the LGBTQ+ community, our actions must reflect our dedication to these principles,” it continued. https://dailycaller.com/2024/01/17/beijing-china-wuhan-covid-19-100-percent-death-mice-study-full-paper/ Mutant COVID-19 Strain With 100% Kill Rate Developed In China A pre-peer-reviewed study published in early January described how mice were exposed to a human-based “lethal infection” of COVID-19 with a 100% mortality rate. The Beijing-based research paper was submitted to the scientific preprint site BioRXiv and published prior to peer review, but the data held within the pages is significant. Two SARS-CoV-2-related pangolin coronaviruses (GD/2019, GX/2017) were identified prior to the major COVID-19 outbreak in late 2019 through early 2020, according to the study’s authors. The researchers then isolated “mutant” strains, which were cultured in labs between 2017 and 2020. When the infectivity and pathogenicity of the isolates were tested, it was found to easily infect golden hamsters and mice. The first isolate pCoV-GD01 had a higher homology than COVID-19, whereas GX_P2V didn’t seem to cause any disease in the animals despite infection. But an early passaged GX_P2V isolate, named GX_P2v(short_3UTR) not only infected mice with extremely high viral loads into their lung and brain tissue, but eventually killed 100% of the mice within the study. Even those mice who were given an inoculation (i.e., vaccinated) succumbed to the disease. Autopsy of the mice showed viral RNA in the brain, lung, turbinate, eye and trachea, killing all of the mice within eight days of infection. All of the mice’s eyes also went white the day before they died. The authors argued this is the first report that COVID-19-related pangolin coronavirus can cause 100% mortality rates in mice, suggesting a significant risk of the disease spilling over into humans. But since the study is not peer-reviewed, there are huge questions about the efficacy of the results. “I had a look at the preprint. It’s a terrible study, scientifically totally pointless. I can see nothing of vague interest that could be learned from force-infecting a weird breed of humanised mice with a random virus. Conversely, I could see how such stuff might go wrong …” University College London genetics director Francois Balloux wrote on Twitter. “The preprint does not specify the biosafety level and biosafety precautions used for the research.” Balloux’s statements were reiterated by Rutgers University chemistry professor Richard H. Ebright, who wrote “concur” under the comment. It appears the biggest concern is related to why scientists feel the need to develop these horrific diseases. “The absence of this information raises the concerning possibility that part or all of this research, like the research in Wuhan in 2016-2019 that likely caused the Covid-19 pandemic, recklessly was performed without the minimal biosafety containment and practices essential for research with potential pandemic pathogens,” Balloux concluded. And it’s pretty hard to argue with his stance. China is already inching back toward lockdowns as mysterious viruses spread throughout the country. Most of these illnesses are being blamed on influenza strains and other respiratory diseases, but no single culprit has been identified to date.

Today we speak with Dr Clifton Barry from NIH in Bethesda, Maryland who is head of the most highly cited research group in the field of TB over the past year and has made extraordinary contributions to TB drug development. Dr Barry speaks about his involvement in the PREDICT TB study, the TB Drug Accelerator and some of the most exciting drug developments in recent years.REFERENCESGreen, Simon R., et al. "Lysyl-tRNA synthetase, a target for urgently needed M. tuberculosis drugs." Nature communications 13.1 (2022): 5992.https://predict-tb.com/Lange, Christoph, Clifton E. Barry III, and C. Robert Horsburgh Jr. "Treatments of multidrug-resistant tuberculosis: light at the end of the tunnel." American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine 205.10 (2022): 1142-1144.Khan, RM Naseer, et al. "Distributable, metabolic PET reporting of tuberculosis." bioRxiv (2023).Cole, STea, et al. "Deciphering the biology of Mycobacterium tuberculosis from the complete genome sequence." Nature 396.6707 (1998): 190-190.Finin, Peter, et al. "Chemical approaches to unraveling the biology of mycobacteria." Cell Chemical Biology 30.5 (2023): 420-435.Libardo, M. Daben J., et al. "Resistance of Mycobacterium tuberculosis to indole 4-carboxamides occurs through alterations in drug metabolism and tryptophan biosynthesis." Cell Chemical Biology 28.8 (2021): 1180-1191.Barry, Clifton E., Helena IM Boshoff, and Cynthia S. Dowd. "Prospects for clinical introduction of nitroimidazole antibiotics for the treatment of tuberculosis." Current pharmaceutical design 10.26 (2004): 3239-3262.Xie, Yingda L., et al. "Fourteen-day PET/CT imaging to monitor drug combination activity in treated individuals with tuberculosis." Science Translational Medicine 13.579 (2021): eabd7618.

In today's episode, we discuss the role of mentorship in academia. What are the characteristics of a good mentor-mentee relationship? What are the qualities of good mentors and good mentees? Does mentorship play a role in the development of scientific knowledge? And could mentors and mentees benefit from couples therapy? Note: D.I.H.C is pronounced 'dick' but this is meant to be a family-friendly podcast :)   Shownotes https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/emotional-fitness/201303/10-things-your-relationship-needs-thrive Roberts, L. R., Tinari, C. M., & Bandlow, R. (2019). An effective doctoral student mentor wears many hats and asks many questions. International Journal of Doctoral Studies, 14, 133. Sarabipour, S., Niemi, N. M., Burgess, S. J., Smith, C. T., Filho, A. W. B., Ibrahim, A., & Clark, K. (2023). Insights from a survey of mentorship experiences by graduate and postdoctoral researchers (p. 2023.05.05.539640). bioRxiv. https://doi.org/10.1101/2023.05.05.539640  

- Dlaczego wirusy tak opornie poddają się lekom?- Jaki słaby punkt koronawirusów odkryli polscy naukowcy i jak to pomogło w opracowaniu leku na COVID?- Co mają wspólnego leki na HIV z doustną terapią COVID-19?W tym odcinku Podcastu Crazy Nauki opowiadamy o tym, jak trudno było opracować naprawdę skuteczne leczenie COVID-19, które w dodatku działa też na inne koronawirusy! Jest to m.in. zasługą polskich naukowców, którzy znaleźli słaby punkt wirusa i sposób ugodzenia w niego. O tym, jak tego dokonali i jak to odkrycie pomogło w opracowaniu naprawdę skutecznych terapii doustnych, opowie w naszym podcaście prof. Marcin Drąg, szef grupy naukowej, która ma na koncie ten sukces. Tym razem usłyszycie, oprócz naszych głosów, komentarze dwóch uznanych specjalistek: prof. Agnieszki Szuster-Ciesielskiej i prof. Joanny Zajkowskiej. Opowiedzą m.in. o tym, dlaczego efektywnym uzupełnieniem takiego leczenia okazało się wykorzystanie leków, które od lat są stosowane w terapii HIV. Ten odcinek ma sponsora - jest nim Instytut Praw Pacjenta i Edukacji Zdrowotnej. Zapraszamy do posłuchania naszego podcastu! Przygotowując ten odcinek podcastu, korzystaliśmy z wielu źródeł. Oto bibliografia:Statement on the fifteenth meeting of the IHR (2005) Emergency Committee on the COVID-19 pandemic, World Health Organisation; 5 maja 2023;https://www.who.int/news/item/05-05-2023-statement-on-the-fifteenth-meeting-of-the-international-health-regulations-(2005)-emergency-committee-regarding-the-coronavirus-disease-(covid-19)-pandemic Raport zakażeń koronawirusem (SARS-CoV-2), Ministerstwo Zdrowia: https://www.gov.pl/web/koronawirus/wykaz-zarazen-koronawirusem-sars-cov-2 Substrate specificity profiling of SARS-CoV-2 Mpro protease provides basis for anti-COVID-19 drug design, M. Drąg i in.; bioRxiv;https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.03.07.981928v1 SARS-CoV-2 Mpro inhibitors and activity-based probes for patient-sample imaging, M. Drąg i in., Nature Chemical Biology, 22.10.2020;https://www.nature.com/articles/s41589-020-00689-z Targeting SARS-CoV-2 Proteases for COVID-19 Antiviral Development, Z. Lv, K.E. Cano, L. Jia, M. Drag, T.T. Huang, S.K. Olsen; Frontiers in Chemistry, 2021; 9: 819165, 3 lutego 2022; https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fchem.2021.819165/fullWHO recommends highly successful COVID-19 therapy and calls for wide geographical distribution and transparency from originator, World Health Organization; 22 kwietnia 2022,https://www.who.int/news/item/22-04-2022-who-recommends-highly-successful-covid-19-therapy-and-calls-for-wide-geographical-distribution-and-transparency-from-originator COVID drug Paxlovid was hailed as a game-changer. What happened?, Max Kozlov, Nature, 3 stycznia 2023, https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-022-04576-6 Jak powstają leki, INFARMA, https://www.infarma.pl/innowacje/jak-powstaja-leki/ WHO Coronavirus (COVID-19) Dashboard, https://covid19.who.int/ Raport zakażeń koronawirusem (SARS-CoV-2); dane z Ministerstwa Zdrowia z dnia 2023.09.25;https://www.gov.pl/web/koronawirus/wykaz-zarazen-koronawirusem-sars-cov-2

Eric Topol (00:00):Hello, this is Eric Topol, and I'm thrilled to have a chance to have a conversation with Magdalena Skipper, who is the Editor-in-Chief of Nature. And a historic note. Back in 2018, she became the first woman editor of Nature in its 149 years, and only the eighth editor of all times. Having taken over for Philip Campbell, who had been previously the editor for 22 years, we're going to ask her if she's going to do 22 or more years, but we're going to have a fun conversation because there's so much going on in medical publishing, and I think, you know, that Nature is the number one cited science journal in the world. So, welcome, Magdalena.Magdalena Skipper (00:41):Thank you very much. Real pleasure to be here and chatting with you today, Eric. Thank you.How COVID-19 Affected NatureEric Topol (00:47):Well, you know, we're still, of course, in the pandemic world. It's obviously not as bad as it had been, but there's still things going on with new variants and Long Covid, and it's not, the virus isn't going away. But first thing I wanted to get into was how did Nature handle this frenetic craziness? I mean, it was putting out accelerated publications on almost a daily or weekly basis and putting out like a speed, velocity of the likes that we've not seen. This must have been really trying for the whole crew. What, what do you think?Magdalena Skipper (01:29):It was! And, you know, the first thing I, I think I will recognize two things at the same time. So the first one, as you say, at a time, such as the pandemic, but actually at any point when there is a, a new health emergency that is spreading, especially something as unknown, as new as, as it was the case with SARS-CoV-2. And of course, in the beginning, we really knew nothing about what we were facing if speed is of the essence, but equally what's truly important is of course, the rigor itself. So that combination of needing to publish as quickly as possible, but at the same time as rigorously evaluating the papers as possible, that was actually quite a challenge. And of course, you know, what we sometimes forget when we talk about, well, researchers themselves, but also editors and publishers is of course, as individuals, as human beings.(02:33):They are going through all the trauma, all the constraints associated with various lockdowns concerns about the loved ones, perhaps those ones who are in the care. You know, in many cases of course there would've been the elderly who are individuals would've been concerned by or indeed children, because of course, schools in so many places were. And all the while, while we were dealing with these very human, very ordinary daily preoccupations, we were very focused on the fact that we had a responsibility and a duty to publish papers and evaluate them as quickly as possible. It really was an extraordinary time. And, and you know, one other thing I should emphasize is, of course, it's not just the manuscript editors who evaluate the research, it's the reporters on my team as well who are going out of their the way to find out as much information to report as robustly, find as many sources to, to interview as possible.(03:44):And, and, you know, I also have to mention colleagues who work on production side of nature actually make Naturehappen, be published online on a daily and then of course weekly basis. And literally from one week to the next all our operations had to be performed from home. And it's really remarkable that the issue was not late. We published the issue, just as you know, from as lockdowns came in. And as it happens, the production side of Nature is mainly based in, in London. So most of that team effectively found themselves not being able to go to the office effectively from one day to the next. So it really was an extraordinary time and, and a time that as I said was, was a time of great responsibility. But looking back on it, I'm actually incredibly proud of, of my team, what, what they achievedEric Topol (04:47):Did they hold up? I mean, they hadn't, they didn't get burnout from lack of sleep and lack of everything. Are they still hanging in there?Magdalena Skipper (04:55):So they are hanging in there. You'll be glad to hear. But I think, very importantly, we were there for one another insofar that we could be, of course, we were all at home remotely. We were not meeting, but we had virtual meetings, which were regular of course in as a whole team, but also in, in subgroups as we sub-teams, as we worked together, that human contact in addition to of course, loved ones and families and friends, that human contact in a professional setting was, was really, really necessary. And clearly what I'm describing was affected all of us one way or another. Sometimes there is a tendency not to remember. That also applies to editors, publishers, and of course researchers themselves. I mean, very clearly they were at the forefront of the issue facing the same problems.Nature and Challenge of Generative A.I.Eric Topol (05:57):Well, a new challenge has arisen, not that the pandemic of course has gone away, but now we have this large language models of AI, Generative AI, which you've written editorials at Nature, which, of course, is it human or is it the machine? What do you think about that challenge?Magdalena Skipper (06:19):Well of course, you know, the way I like to think about it is AI, of course, broadly is, has been around for a very long time, a number of decades, right? And steadily over the last several years, we have seen AI emerge as a really powerful and important tool in research right across a number of disciplines. The reason why we are all talking about AI right now, and I really think all of us are talking about AI all the time, is, of course, specifically the emergence of generative AI, the large language models that, that you just mentioned. And they sort of burst onto the scene for all of us really last year in the autumn with chat GPT and GPT-4 and so on. But it's important to remember that, of course, when we talk about AI, there are other models, other approaches, and machine learning in general has been creating quite some revolution in research already.(07:36): You know, probably the best example that will be familiar to many of the  listeners was of course Alpha Fold which, you know, Nature published a couple of years ago and, and has been really revolutionized structural biology. But, of course, there are many other examples which are now becoming developing much more rapidly, becoming much more, I would say, commonplace in, in research practice. You know, not just predicting structure from sequencing from sequence. And I say just so flippantly now, of course, it was such and it continues to be such an incredible tool. But of course now we have AI approaches, which actually suggest new protein design, new, new small molecule design. We've had in the last couple of years, we've had identification of new potential antibiotics that are effective against bacterial strains that have otherwise been resistant to any known antibiotics.(08:48):And, and of course, it's not just in biomedicine. Material science--I think it's very helpful, hopeful when it comes to, to AI tools as well. And then, and of course, generative AI indeed helps us in some of these contexts already. But I think your question perhaps was more focused on the publishing, the communication, the sort of output of, of research, which of course is also very important. In some way. The reason why I answered, I began to answer the question the way I did, is because I'm actually very excited about harnessing the power of AI in augmenting research itself. Helping navigate enormous data sets generate hypotheses to be tested finding new ways to advance projects. I think that's a very exciting opportunity. And we're just beginning to see the first applications of it.(10:04):Now, in terms of publishing you referred to some editorials that we wrote about this. And right at the beginning of the year, there was a flurry of excitement associated with the ability of generative AI to indeed generate text. There were some manuscripts which were published in journals that were co-authored by Chat GPT. I I even believe there was an editorial which was co-authored by Chat GPT. So in response to that, we felt very strongly that, that clearly there was a need to, to come out with a, a clear position, just as in doing research, we see AI tools as tools to support writing, but clearly they don't have the ability to fulfill authorship criteria. Clearly, they cannot be authors. Clearly, they must only remain as tools supporting researchers and individuals writing and communicating their research.(11:23):And so we, we wrote a very clear editorial about this, essentially summarizing what I just explained and asking the community to be transparent about how AI tool has been used, just as you would be transparent about your methodology, how you have arrived at the results that you're reporting and, and results that support your conclusions. So for us, it's a relatively simple set of recommendations. As I say, we ask for transparency. We understand it can be a tool that can be used to help write a paper. What we also ask at this stage that generative AI tools are not used to generate figures or images in papers, simply because there are a number of outstanding copyright issues, a number of outstanding privacy issues, they remain unresolved. And for as long as they remain unresolved, we feel it's not an appropriate application of these tools. So that's our editorial position.Eric Topol (12:42):Yeah, no, that's very helpful. I mean, where do you think, if you write a manuscript and then you put it into let's say GPT-4 and say, please edit this, is that okay? Or is that something that, and it's acknowledged that the paper was written by us researchers, but then we had it tweaked by chatbot or is that something that it wouldn't go over too well?Magdalena Skipper (13:10):Well, my preference, and actually what I would hope is that if you were writing this paper and then you felt the need to put it through a chatbot as you just put it, although I find it hard to imagine that you would find no need for that,Eric Topol (13:29):I wouldn't do it. But I know there's people out there that are working on it.Magdalena Skipper (13:32):Yeah, absolutely. But then I would hope that the last pass, the final word, would rest with you as the author. Because, of course, if you are using a tool for whatever it is that you do, you want, at the end of the day to make sure that what that tool has returned is aligned with what you intended that you perform some kind of a sense check. We, of course, all know that although GPT-4 has less of a tendency to hallucinate, so to essentially come up with fabricated sort of statements and, and reality, if you like, it remains an issue. It can remain an issue. And very clearly any, any scientific communication has to be rooted in facts. So, in the scenario that you propose, I would hope that if a researcher felt compelled to run the manuscript through a chatbot, and for example, one consideration may for an individual whose English is not their first language, who feel may feel more comfortable with a sort of support of this kind. But in the end, the final check, the final sign off, if you like, on that manuscript before submission would need to come from the researcher, from the corresponding author, from the writing group. and indeed assistance from a chatbot would need to be disclosed.Eric Topol (15:14):For us. Yeah, I mean, it's really interesting because you can almost foresee the shortcut of having to go get all the references and all the links, you could say, you know, please insert these, but you better check them because they may be fabricated Absolutely. It's going to be really interesting to see how this plays out and the difficulty of detecting what is written by a large language model versus a person.Nature and PreprintsNow another topic that I think is really in play is the preprint world and publishing via preprints. And as you know there's been Michael Eisen and the whole idea of how things would move with his journal eLife. And you will remember when you and I were together at a conference. I organized Future of Genomic Medicine many years ago at the kind of dawn of life science preprints. And some people in the audience sai, “what's a preprint?” Right? Nobody else asks about that now. It's come a long way over this decade. And where do we go with this? Should journals like the top journals in the world like Nature require a paper to be vetted through the pre-print mechanism? Where is this headed, do you think?Magdalena Skipper (16:40):Yeah, it's an excellent question. And, and you know, by the way, I have such wonderful memories from, of that conference. I think this must have been like 11 years ago or something like that. It was a long time ago. And I actually remember presenting this, this vision of a rather radical vision of, of the future of publishing. And here we are in the future as compared to then, and we have moved relatively little by comparison to where we were then. But back to your question. So, you know, the first thing to say is that, of course, just as a reminder, preprints have been around for more than two decades now. And, and of course they initially were really spearheaded and advanced by the physical sciences community. archive itself is, as I say, more than two decades old. So, you know, for us at Nature as a multidisciplinary journal where of course, we've been publishing in the physical sciences since the very beginning of our existence as soon as preprints first emerged in those communities, we realized that we could coexist very harmoniously as a journal peer-review based journal with preprints.(17:59):So when initially biological sciences community embraced them and bioRxiv was established, and then of course, many other archives and then subsequently actually really spearheaded by Covid, the medical and clinical community began to embrace preprints. in many ways, for us, that was nothing new. It was just an extension of something that we worked with before. Although our own our own policies have evolved. So, for example, during the pandemic we actually mandated deposition of papers that were submitted to us that were Covid related. We mandated the deposition in a preprint server. The authors had the choice which server they deposited, but we wanted those manuscripts to be available to the community for the scrutiny as soon as they were finalized, as soon as they were actually written. So while we were reviewing them again as quickly as rigorously, but as quickly as possible, the preprint was already available for the community just before the pandemic.(19:17):As it happens, we also took a step forward with our policy. So previously, let's just say we were completely fine with preprints. We saw preprints as compatible with submission to, to Nature, and for that matter to the other journals in the Nature Portfolio. But actually just in the year before COVID started, we decided to actively encourage our authors to deposit preprints. We could see that preprint sharing had great advantage. You know, the, the usuals of advantages, which are often listed first are of course ability to make that primacy claim, make a stake that, that you have been working on something and, and this is your project. You have a set of results that you are ready to communicate to, to the community at large. And of course, another very important one is that sort of community and, and almost public form of peer review and, and ability to comment.(20:30):And incidentally, I remember as you know, my, my history as an editor very well. We've known each other for a long time. I remember when the genomics community, which is sort of my, my background is sort of my old hat, if you like, that, that I used to wear when the genomics community began to embrace preprints especially the population and evolutionary genomicists really embraced this idea that this was like a group peer review. And the authors of those preprints were very grateful to the community for improving the papers before they were submitted to journals, or sometimes that sort of community review was going on while a paper was being considered at a journal. And we, as editors actually encouraged sort of formal submission of these reviews, if you like, I mean, formal maybe is the wrong word, but we were saying that we would take those comments into account when evaluating papers.(21:38):So there has been an interesting evolution that more and more disciplines, more and more fields have embraced preprints as a way of disseminating information. Preprints service themselves have also grown and matured in the sense that there is now realization that, for example, clinical preprints need a higher degree of scrutiny they're posted on a preprint server than maybe let's say theoretical physics or theoretical biology preprints. So overall all communities collectively have grown and matured. Where are we going with this? I mean, who knows? I was predicting 12 years ago you know, a bit of a different, more advanced future today. It's very difficult to predict the future. I do think, however, that what we are seeing today, that sort of hand in glove coexistence of preprints with journals, with peer reviewed papers is going to continue into the future. And I think actually that's a really valuable and interesting combination. So it's a great development to see and great to see that communities right across disciplines have really embraced this.Eric Topol (23:11):Yeah, I think it does complement, obviously the traditional peer review of a few expert reviewers with, you know, could be hundreds if not thousands of people that weigh in on, on a pre-print. So yeah, it's fascinating to see. And it's, I still remember the vision that you portrayed for it, and how we we're not quite there yet, but I'm sure there'll be further evolution.Women in Science: Where Do We Stand?Now, another area that I think is particularly good to get your input, because you're a woman in science, as you mentioned, you know, grounded obviously in genetics and genomics, and here you are, one of the most influential women in science at a time when there's been a reckoning that women in science have been shortchanged historically, I mean, for hundreds of years. Do you see that this is starting to get better? Are there palpable signs that we're finally getting kind of equal rights here? Or are we, is it, is it just still a long fight ahead?Magdalena Skipper (24:20):So the, the optimist in me and, and I should say, you know, my, my glass, my glass is always half full. The optimist in me says that it is getting better, but the realist in me has to add immediately that the changes too slow. It really is too slow. We do see many more women prominently able to make the contributions that they should, they can, and they should make to whatever discipline whatever aspect of the research community and beyond they wish to, to make. I still think it costs them too much. I still think we don't appreciate and support women sufficiently.(25:23):Maybe we have moved on the bottleneck in the, in the pipeline a little bit further, towards more seniority. But we still, we still don't sufficiently support women. As I say, we, I think we still default to an expectation that successful women in science in research more broadly will somehow emulate how success has looked in the past. And that's a shame, that's a shame not just for those women who are trying to come in and make a difference, but it's a shame for all of us because it means that we are denying diversity in that picture of success. Yes. So yes, I think, I think that we have seen many changes, but I think the change is not happening fast enough.Eric Topol (26:23):Yeah. One of the things that I've noticed since of particular interest in AI is that the very profound imbalance of researchers, the gender imbalance there is just, you know, I'm not even sure if it's 10% women researchers in AI, so that has to be changed. And so this, there's so many things that are holding us back, but, but that's certainly one of, of many.Magdalena Skipper (26:49):Absolutely. And, and, and if I can just add, there are some outstandingly influential female researchers in the AI field, as you say, they are just outnumbered. Yes. , I think not given the opportunity to, to fully blossom, if you like, considering their capabilities and, and their contributions already.Eric Topol (27:11):You know, it's so true. I just interviewed Melanie Mitchell from the Santa Fe Institute, and I work with Fei- Fei Li. And when I, when Fei-Fei Li and I spoke some months ago about a book (Genius Makers) that Cade Metz, the New York Times journalist had written, and I say, why didn't he bring up or emphasize the role of any women in the whole book . Yes--who work in A--I mean, she, she obviously was, was did not take that particularly well, and as did I.Too Many Nature Portfolio Journals?So one of the other areas that I think you already touched on, which is separating Nature, the flagship journal from the Nature Portfolio of, I don't know what it's up to now, 200, 300, I'm not sure how many journals are. So do you, do you have to over oversee that? Do you have input on that? Because what I worry about is, you know, people quote a Nature journal and it may not be, you know, at that level that you would be proud of. What, what are your thoughts about this endless proliferation of the nature portfolio?Magdalena Skipper (28:17):Well, I, I'm, first of all, I'm not sure if it's endless, butEric Topol (28:20):Oh, that's good. .Magdalena Skipper (28:22):So, so  let me, I think in your question, you touched on a number of things. So first of all, a clarification. So my role is as Editor-in-Chief of Nature, and of course, that is my main focus. there is another aspect to my role, which is Chief Editorial Advisor for the Nature Portfolio. So in that sense each of the journals within the Nature portfolio has its own chief editor. but by virtue, I guess, of my seniority, and also by virtue of multi-disciplinarity of Nature I have this advisory role to my colleagues in the other journals. I like to think about the Nature Portfolio as an ecosystem, actually. And it's an ecosystem, like any ecosystem. It has different niches, each of which fulfills a different role. Some of them are bigger, some of them are smaller, some of them are very specialized, others are more general.(29:22):And I think you know, working with researchers for many years as an editor now, I can see benefits to having that sort of almost an ecosystem type approach to publishing. You know, for example, we mentioned already earlier that in my previous sort of incarnation as an editor, my focus was on genomics especially in the context of human genomics. of course starting from the Human Genome Project, these were very large or have, where, why, why am I using past tense? They are, to this day, very large collaborative projects involving many different labs, many different approaches these days that they're not just focused on genomics, but of course other omics go hand in hand with them. So when a project comes to fruition, when, when it comes to be published, there are many different pieces that need to be communicated, many different papers of different sizes of different value.(30:32):And for example what value maybe is the wrong word of different utility? So, for example, there may be a flagship paper that is published in the pages of my journal of Nature, but there may be papers that specifically described development of methodology that was part of the same stage of the project. And those papers may be published in Nature Methods, which is part of the Nature Portfolio. There are other journals that are part of Nature Portfolio, which have different editorial bar. And so, you know, one example is Scientific Reports, which is a journal which does not require conceptual novelty in the papers that it publishes. Of course, it requires rigor and, and robustness in the papers that it publishes, like every journal should. But there is utility in publishing papers in a journal like this.(31:36):There may be replications that are published there that further add further evidence to support conclusions that are already well known, but nevertheless, they're useful. I should however, add that in Nature itself, we also publish replications, right? There are different degrees of influence and impact that, of course, different studies be there, replications or not that can carry. So, that will be my way of conceptualizing the Nature Portfolio. and, you know, coming back to your, to your comment that it seems like it's endless. I think well, nothing, nothing is endless. Of course. Nothing, nothing, right, grows forever. I do think that we have in the launches within the portfolio, we have been able to capture and at the same time serve an interesting evolution in the research ecosystem itself. So the final comment I will make on this is, if you look at some of the more recent launches in the portfolio, they've been what we like to call thematic journals, such as, for example, Nature Food or Nature Water.Eric Topol (33:10):Right?Magdalena Skipper (33:10):And here we are really capitalizing on that multi-disciplinarity of these emerging themes that, especially in the context of sustainable development goals, have acquired their own identity. They don't belong to one discipline or another discipline. And, and so these journals, they're new journals, relatively new journals, some of them very new Nature Waters is, is quite new, but they provide a focal point for researchers who come together to solve a particular set of problems from different disciplines. And I think that's an interesting function in, as I say, for the community.What About the Paywalls?Eric Topol (33:53):Yeah, there's no question some of the newer journals and their transdisciplinary mission --they're needed and they become extremely popular and well -cited very quickly to prove that. So along that line obviously the public is all fired up about paywalls and you know, and obviously for Covid, there was no paywalls, which is pretty extraordinary. Do you see someday that journals will have a hard time of maintaining this? I mean, you have what I consider an extraordinary solution, which is the ReadCube postings anyone can access, you just can't download the PDF, and I wish authors would always routinely put that out there because that would solve part of the problem. But do you think we're going to go to a free access that's much more wide, perhaps even routine, in the years ahead?Magdalena Skipper (34:52):So certainly open access as in ability to access a manuscript, published manuscript without any payment or barrier associated with a Creative Commons license is something that is advanced as a, as a preferred future by many researchers, by many funders. and for that matter, actually many publishers as well. You know, let me make one thing very clear. As an editor, I would love as many people as possible to read the papers that I publish in my journal.Magdalena Skipper (35:30):That should go without saying. Sure. at the same time, publishing papers, of course, is associated with a cost, and, and that cost has to be somehow covered. In the old days it was exclusively covered by library subscriptions or site licenses or personal subscriptions. Now the focus is shifting. And of course, Nature itself as well as the other research journals such as, for example, Nature Medicine or indeed Nature Water, as I mentioned before are what we call transformative journals. So effectively we are hybrid journals that advocate for open access. So today, when you submit a paper to Nature, you can publish under the traditional publishing model, or you can choose to publish open access, which is associated with an article processing charge. That should, in my view, be part of your costs of doing research, because after all, I'm a firm believer in the fact that publishing your research should be seen as part of doing research, not sort of an add-on.(36:47):Now, I'm glad you mentioned read Read Cube and this functionality that we call shared it. We developed it actually quite some years ago. I would say at least a decade ago. it remains curiously underappreciated. Yeah. I just don't understand it. Yeah, exactly. And, and we, we inform the authors that they are free to use that link. And, and just to clarify, it's a linked as you exactly as you explained to an online version of the paper. It's the final version, the record version of the paper. You can't download it, but you can share that link. Anyone can share that link once they have it Infinite number of times. So it's not like the link expires, or it's a, a finite number of, of that it has a number of finite number of uses in addition to that nature.(37:49):And for that matter, the whole of Springer Nature is part of Research4Life. Now, that's an organization that provides free access to all content from publishers. And Springer Nature is not the only publisher that's part of Research for Life that provides full access to all of our content in the countries which are designated as low and middle income countries by the World Bank. So that we've been part of that. And, and previously for many, many years, in fact, decades, again, that is curiously underappreciated, including in the low and middle income countries. So, you know, recently had an opportunity to do some visits in Africa. And my, my take home message there was, if there is one thing that you remember from our conversation or from my presentation, please remember about Research4Life.Magdalena Skipper (38:52):Because that content is freely available if you follow, if you go to our content through Research4Life. And incidentally, there's also training, which is available there. So part of Nature portfolio in addition to journals, we have Nature Master classes, which is training for researchers. And that is also completely freely available in those countries. So there are a number of approaches to, to getting content open access is definitely growing, but there are those other ways to gain access to content which is not open access at the moment.Eric Topol (39:33):I'm really glad you reviewed that because a lot of people who are going to be listening are going to really cue into that. Now the last question for you is, you know, it's not just every Wednesday, 51 or whatever, 50 weeks a year, that you're getting the journal ready, but it's every day now that you're putting out stuff and on the Nature website. Features that are by the way, free or full access and many other things to keep Nature out there on a daily, if not minute to minute basis. So this is really a big charge to, you know, do this all so well. So what keeps you up at night about Nature is this, this must be a very tough position.Magdalena Skipper (40:28):So the first thing I would say that is that of course it's, it's not me. I'm just the person here talking to you representing Nature. I have an outstanding team.Eric Topol (40:44):I've met them, and they're amazing.Magdalena Skipper (40:46):And it's really them who are making it possible on a minute by minute, certainly day by day basis. And so the reason why I sleep relatively well is thanks to them actually, okay,Eric Topol (41:00):. Okay.What Keeps You Up At Night?Magdalena Skipper (41:01):But more, but more broadly. and this is a thought which is bigger than Nature itself. What actually keeps me up at night these days is the rather difficult light in which science and research is portrayed these days increasingly.Magdalena Skipper (41:27):And I think it's very unfortunately being to support other goals and other ends forgetting about the fact that science is an ongoing process that science takes steps back when it needs to revise its position, that it still continues to be true, that s science progresses through self-correction. Even if that self-correction doesn't happen overnight, it takes time to realize that a correction is required, takes time to evaluate judiciously that correction is required and what kind of correction is required, right? These are the things that of course, you and I know very well. But the, sometimes if for individuals who are not close to the process of how science research fact-based discovery is conducted, if you just look at information on social media or in general media, you may walk away with an impression that science is not worth paying attention to that science is in some deep crisis.Magdalena Skipper (43:04):And I think that's, that's a shame that that's a picture that we have other things that need other things in science, in research that need correcting, that need sorting out. Of course, we mustn't forget that research is done by humans and, and after all it is human to air. But overall, that's actually something that keeps me up at night. That overall, I really hope that those of us who are engaged in one way or another within the research enterprise, we can continue to advance the right kind of image that it's not perfect in some artificial way, but actually, at the same time, it's the only way that we can move forward. We can understand the world around us, and we can wake, make the world around us better, actually.Eric Topol (44:11):Yeah. I'm so glad you've emphasized this because just like we talked earlier about distinguishing between human and AI content generated here, we have science and anti-science blurring facts, blurring truths, and basically taking down science as a search for truth and making it trying to, you know, obscure its mission and, in many ways, we, we saw it with not just anti-vax, but it's much bigger. The political motives are obvious extraordinary, particularly as we see here in the U.S. but other countries as well. So I almost didn't hit you for that question, just because it's so profound. We don't have the answers, but the fact that you're thinking about it tells, tells us all a lot. So Magdalena, this has been a joy. I really appreciate all your candid and very thoughtful responses to some of these questions.(45:09):Some of them pretty tough questions I have to say. And I look forward to our conversations and chances to visit with you again in the future. And congratulations again on taking on the leadership of Nature for five years now-- I believe just past your five-year anniversary now. You could say that's small out of 155 years, but I think it's a lot. particularly since the last few years have been, you really challenging. But to you and your team ultimately –-major kudos. I'm on the Nature website every single day. I mean, even, I when I'm on vacation, I'll be checking out the Nature site. So you can tell that I think so highly of the its content and we'll look forward to future conversations going forward.Magdalena Skipper (45:52):Thank you very much. Thank you very much, Eric. It's always a pleasure to talk to you. Thank you. Get full access to Ground Truths at erictopol.substack.com/subscribe

Link to bioRxiv paper: http://biorxiv.org/cgi/content/short/2023.08.02.551383v1?rss=1 Authors: Cohen, M. L., Brumwell, A. N., Ho, T. C., Montas, G., Golden, J. A., Jones, K. D., Wolters, P. J., Wei, Y., Chapman, H. A., Le Saux, C. J. Abstract: Reciprocal interactions between alveolar fibroblasts and epithelial cells are crucial for lung homeostasis, injury repair, and fibrogenesis, but underlying mechanisms remain unclear. To investigate this, we administered the fibroblast-selective TGF{beta}1 signaling inhibitor, epigallocatechin gallate (EGCG), to Interstitial Lung Disease (ILD) patients undergoing diagnostic lung biopsy and conducted single-cell RNA sequencing on spare tissue. Unexposed biopsy samples showed higher fibroblast TGF{beta}1 signaling compared to non-disease donor or end-stage ILD tissues. In vivo, EGCG significantly downregulated TGF{beta}1 signaling and several pro-inflammatory and stress pathways in biopsy samples. Notably, EGCG reduced fibroblast secreted Frizzle-like Receptor Protein 2 (sFRP2), an unrecognized TGF{beta}1 fibroblast target gene induced near type II alveolar epithelial cells (AEC2s). In human AEC2-fibroblast coculture organoids, sFRP2 was essential for AEC2 trans-differentiation to basal cells. Precision cut lung slices (PCLS) from normal donors demonstrated that TGF{beta}1 promoted KRT17 expression and AEC2 morphological change, while sFRP2 was necessary for KRT5 expression in AEC2-derived basaloid cells. Wnt-receptor Frizzled 5 (Fzd5) expression and downstream calcineurin-related signaling in AEC2s were required for sFRP2-induced KRT5 expression. These findings highlight stage-specific TGF{beta}1 signaling in ILD, the therapeutic potential of EGCG in reducing IPF-related transcriptional changes, and identify the TGF{beta}1-non-canonical Wnt pathway crosstalk via sFRP2 as a novel mechanism for dysfunctional epithelial signaling in Idiopathic Pulmonary Fibrosis/ILD. Copy rights belong to original authors. Visit the link for more info Podcast created by Paper Player, LLC

Link to bioRxiv paper: http://biorxiv.org/cgi/content/short/2023.08.03.551824v1?rss=1 Authors: Qin, K., Wu, X. Abstract: The nuclear mitochondrial DNA (NUMT) is found in cancer cells, but the mitochondrial DNAs entering the nuclei in normal cells have not been captured. Here, we utilized super-resolution optical imaging to capture the phenomenon by the probe PicoGreen and found mitochondrial DNAs and mitochondria accumulated in the nucleoli by four probes and overexpressing the MRPL58-DsRed. Our results provide an new explanation for mtDNA carryover and lay the foundation for the involvement of nuclear export of nucleoli in de novo mitochondrial biogenesis in another of our unpublished articles. Copy rights belong to original authors. Visit the link for more info Podcast created by Paper Player, LLC

Link to bioRxiv paper: http://biorxiv.org/cgi/content/short/2023.08.04.551608v1?rss=1 Authors: Gomez-Ferrer, M., Amaro-Prellezo, E., Albiach-Delgado, A., Ten-Domenech, I., Kuligowski, J., Sepulveda, P. Abstract: Premature infants (PIs) are at risk of suffering necrotizing enterocolitis (NEC), and infants consuming human milk (HM) show a lower incidence than infants receiving formula. The composition of HM has been studied in depth, but the lipid content of HM-derived small extracellular vesicles (HM sEVs) remains unexplored. We isolated HM sEVs from HM samples and analyzed their oxylipin content using liquid chromatography coupled to mass spectrometry, which revealed the presence of anti-inflammatory oxylipins. We then examined the efficacy of a mixture of these oxylipins in combating inflammation and fibrosis, in vitro and and in a murine model of inflammatory bowel disease (IBD). HM-related sEVs contained higher concentrations of oxylipins derived from docosahexaenoic acid, an omega-3 fatty acid. Three anti-inflammatory oxylipins, 14-HDHA, 17-HDHA, and 19,20-DiHDPA ({omega}3 OXLP), demonstrated similar efficacy to HM sEVs in preventing cell injury, inducing re-epithelialization, mitigating fibrosis, and modulating immune responses. Both {omega}3 OXLP and HM sEVs effectively reduced inflammation in IBD-model mice, preventing colon shortening, infiltration of inflammatory cells and tissue fibrosis. Incorporating this unique cocktail of oxylipins into fortified milk formulas might reduce the risk of NEC in PIs and also provide immunological and neurodevelopmental support. Copy rights belong to original authors. Visit the link for more info Podcast created by Paper Player, LLC

Link to bioRxiv paper: http://biorxiv.org/cgi/content/short/2023.08.04.552031v1?rss=1 Authors: Lang, C. F., Anneken, A., Munro, E. Abstract: The PAR polarity network is a paradigmatic example of how systems of mutually antagonism interactions among peripheral membrane binding proteins allow them to form and maintain complementary polar domains in response to a transient polarizing cue. The oligomeric scaffolding protein PAR-3 has emerged as a keystone member of the PAR network in many different contexts. In early C. elegans embryos, PAR-3 is required for all other PAR asymmetries, and it can form stable unipolar asymmetries when its known inhibitors are absent and all other members of the PAR network are cytoplasmic or spatially uniform on the membrane. But how PAR-3 forms stable unipolar asymmetries absent mutual antagonism is unknown. Here we combine single particle analysis with quantitative modeling and experimental manipulations to determine how the dynamics of PAR-3 membrane binding, oligomerization and dissociation allow PAR-3 to maintain stable asymmetries in the one cell C. elegans embryo. We find that two forms of positive feedback contribute to sustaining PAR-3 asymmetries: First, a sharp size-dependent decrease in oligomer dissociation rates makes the effective dissociation rate of PAR-3 decrease sharply with its membrane density. Second, membrane-bound PAR-3 promotes additional binding of PAR-3 to the membrane through a mechanism that requires the presence of anterior polarity proteins CDC-42, PAR-6 and PKC-3. Through a combination of modeling and quantitative measurements, we show that these two feedback loops are sufficient to dynamically stabilize asymmetries of the magnitude observed in polarized C. elegans zygotes. These results establish a dynamic basis for stabilizing monopolar PAR-3 asymmetries; they underscore a crucial role for the oligomerization and add to the growing body of evidence that point to a central role for oligomerization of peripheral membrane proteins in the establishment and maintenance of cell polarity. Copy rights belong to original authors. Visit the link for more info Podcast created by Paper Player, LLC

Link to bioRxiv paper: http://biorxiv.org/cgi/content/short/2023.08.03.551799v1?rss=1 Authors: Yao, Y., Lou, X., Du, G., Jin, L., Li, J., Liu, J., Chen, Y., Cheng, S., Zhao, T., Ke, S., Zhang, L., Zhang, P., Xu, Y., He, L., Li, H. Abstract: High-performance biosensors are crucial for elucidating the spatiotemporal regulatory roles and dynamics of membrane lipids, but there is a lack of improvement strategies for biosensors with low sensitivity and low-content substrates detection. Here we developed universal optogenetic strategies to improve a set of membrane biosensors by trapping them into specific region and further reducing the background signal, or by optically-controlled phase separation for membrane lipids detection and tracking. These improved biosensors were superior to typical tools and light simulation would enhance their detection performance and resolution, which might contribute to the design and optimization of other biosensors. Copy rights belong to original authors. Visit the link for more info Podcast created by Paper Player, LLC

Link to bioRxiv paper: http://biorxiv.org/cgi/content/short/2023.08.04.551988v1?rss=1 Authors: Zhang, Z., Huang, Y., Tao, W., Wei, Y., Xu, L., Gong, W., Zhang, Y., Han, Y., Kuang, C., Liu, X. Abstract: Stimulated emission depletion microscopy (STED) is a powerful tool for studying nanoscale cell structure and activity, but the difficulties it encounters in multicolor imaging limit its application in biological research. To overcome the disadvantages of limited number of channels and high cost of multicolor STED imaging based on spectral identity, we introduced lifetime into live-cell multicolor STED imaging by separating selected dyes of the same spectrum by phasor analysis. Experimental results show that our method enables live-cell STED imaging with at least 4 colors, enabling observation of cellular activity beyond the diffraction limit. Copy rights belong to original authors. Visit the link for more info Podcast created by Paper Player, LLC

Link to bioRxiv paper: http://biorxiv.org/cgi/content/short/2023.08.02.551716v1?rss=1 Authors: Ilyinsky, N. S., Bukhalovich, S. M., Bagaeva, D. F., Nesterov, S. V., Alekseev, A. A., Tsybrov, F. M., Bogorodskiy, A. O., Moiseeva, O. V., Vlasova, A. D., Kovalev, K. V., Mikhailov, A. E., Rogachev, A. V., Bamberg, E., Ivanovich, V., Borshchevskiy, V. I. Abstract: Lysosome protective, metabolic, signaling functions are highly dependent on their pH. A lack of tools of high spatial and temporal resolution for pH control is a bottleneck of lysosome related cell research. Light-driven inward proton pump NsXeR, targeted to the lysosomes of mammalian cells, produces lysosome alkalization simply by light. Complementary use of outward proton pumping Arch3 rhodopsins in lysosomes offers an approach to vary pH in a range from around 5 to 6.5 in both directions (alkalization and acidification). Lyso-NsXeR optogenetics efficiency was demonstrated, in particular, by its ability to inhibit lysosome proteolytic enzymes. Unprecedented time resolution of the optogenetic approach allowed direct in situ monitoring of vATPase activity. Thus, optogenetic monitoring and regulation of the lysosome function, through pH control over a wide range, could serve as an approach to studying fundamental cell processes, and rational drug design. Copy rights belong to original authors. Visit the link for more info Podcast created by Paper Player, LLC

Link to bioRxiv paper: http://biorxiv.org/cgi/content/short/2023.08.04.552008v1?rss=1 Authors: Talavera, R. A., Prichard, B. E., Sommer, R. A., Leitao, R. M., Sarabia, C. J., Hazir, S., Paulo, J. A., Gygi, S., Kellogg, D. Abstract: Cell growth is required for cell cycle progression. The amount of growth required for cell cycle progression is reduced in poor nutrients, which leads to a reduction in cell size. In budding yeast, nutrients influence cell size by modulating the duration and extent of bud growth, which occurs predominantly in mitosis. However, the mechanisms are unknown. Here, we used mass spectrometry to identify proteins that mediate the effects of nutrients on bud growth. This led to the discovery that nutrients regulate numerous components of the Mitotic Exit Network (MEN), which controls exit from mitosis. A key component of the MEN undergoes gradual multi-site phosphorylation during bud growth that is dependent upon growth and correlated with the extent of growth. Furthermore, activation of the MEN is sufficient to over-ride a growth requirement for mitotic exit. The data suggest a model in which the MEN integrates signals regarding cell growth and nutrient availability to ensure that mitotic exit occurs only when sufficient growth has occurred. Copy rights belong to original authors. Visit the link for more info Podcast created by Paper Player, LLC

Link to bioRxiv paper: http://biorxiv.org/cgi/content/short/2023.08.03.551843v1?rss=1 Authors: Sun, S., Tranchina, D., Gresham, D. Abstract: Cells arrest growth and enter a quiescent state upon nutrient deprivation. However, the molecular processes by which cells respond to different starvation signals to regulate exit from the cell division cycle and initiation of quiescence remains poorly understood. To study the role of protein expression and signaling in quiescence we combined temporal profiling of the proteome and phosphoproteome using stable isotope labeling with amino acids in cell culture (SILAC) in Saccharomyces cerevisiae (budding yeast). We find that carbon and phosphorus starvation signals activate quiescence through largely distinct remodeling of the proteome and phosphoproteome. However, increased expression of mitochondrial proteins is associated with quiescence establishment in response to both starvation signals. Deletion of the putative quiescence regulator RIM15, which encodes a serine-threonine kinase, results in reduced survival of cells starved for phosphorus and nitrogen, but not carbon. However, we identified common protein phosphorylation roles for RIM15 in quiescence that are enriched for RNA metabolism and translation. We also find evidence for RIM15-mediated phosphorylation of some targets, including IGO1, prior to starvation consistent with a functional role for RIM15 in proliferative cells. Finally, our results reveal widespread catabolism of amino acids in response to nitrogen starvation, indicating widespread amino acid recycling via salvage pathways in conditions lacking environmental nitrogen. Our study defines an expanded quiescent proteome and phosphoproteome in yeast, and highlights the multiple coordinated molecular processes at the level of protein expression and phosphorylation that are required for quiescence. Copy rights belong to original authors. Visit the link for more info Podcast created by Paper Player, LLC

Link to bioRxiv paper: http://biorxiv.org/cgi/content/short/2023.08.04.551943v1?rss=1 Authors: Bagley, D. C., Russell, T., Ortiz-Zapater, E., Fox, K., Redd, P. F., Joseph, M., Rice, C. D., Reilly, C. A., Parsons, M., Rosenblatt, J. Abstract: Asthma is a common disease characterized by airway constriction, excess mucus, and inflammation. Although asthma is an inflammatory disease, subclassed by different endotypes, triggers, and immune responses, the defining diagnostic symptom is mechanical bronchoconstriction from uncontrolled smooth muscle contraction. We previously discovered a conserved process that drives epithelial cell death in response to mechanical cell crowding called epithelial cell extrusion (1,2). Because modest crowding triggers extrusion to maintain constant homeostatic epithelial cell densities, we reasoned that the pathological crowding from bronchoconstriction might potentially destroy the airway epithelial barrier, causing the typical inflammatory period that follows an asthma attack. Here, using immune-primed mice, we show that the crowding of bronchoconstriction causes excess epithelial cell extrusion and damage, resulting in inflammation in distal airways, and mucus secretion in proximal airways. Surprisingly, relaxing airways following bronchoconstriction with the current rescue treatment, albuterol, did not prevent epithelial extrusion and destruction, inflammation, or mucus secretion. However, inhibiting canonical live cell extrusion signaling during bronchoconstriction with stretch-activated/TRP channel or sphingosine 1-phosphate (S1P) inhibitors blocked all downstream symptoms. Our findings propose a new etiology for asthma where the extreme mechanical crowding from a bronchoconstrictive attack causes inflammation by wounding airway epithelium. Whereas most therapies focus on modulating downstream inflammatory symptoms, our studies suggest that blocking epithelial extrusion could prevent the feed-forward asthma inflammatory cycle. Copy rights belong to original authors. Visit the link for more info Podcast created by Paper Player, LLC

Link to bioRxiv paper: http://biorxiv.org/cgi/content/short/2023.08.04.552066v1?rss=1 Authors: Charles-Orszag, A., van Wolferen, M., Lord, S. J., Albers, S.-V., Mullins, D. Abstract: Type IV pili are ancient and widespread filamentous organelles found in most bacterial and archaeal phyla where they support a wide range of functions, including substrate adhesion, DNA uptake, self aggregation, and cell motility. In most bacteria, PilT-family ATPases disassemble adhesion pili, causing them to rapidly retract and produce twitching motility, important for surface colonization. As archaea do not possess homologs of PilT, it was thought that archaeal pili cannot retract. Here, we employ live-cell imaging under native conditions (75{degrees}C and pH 2), together with automated single-cell tracking, high-temperature fluorescence imaging, and genetic manipulation to demonstrate that S. acidocaldarius exhibits bona fide twitching motility, and that this behavior depends specifically on retractable adhesion pili. Our results demonstrate that archaeal adhesion pili are capable of retraction in the absence of a PilT retraction ATPase and suggests that the ancestral type IV pilus machinery in the last universal common ancestor (LUCA) relied on such a bifunctional ATPase for both extension and retraction. Copy rights belong to original authors. Visit the link for more info Podcast created by Paper Player, LLC

Link to bioRxiv paper: http://biorxiv.org/cgi/content/short/2023.08.03.551778v1?rss=1 Authors: Ohno, Y., Nakamura, T., Iwasaki, T., Katsuyama, A., Ichikawa, S., Kihara, A. Abstract: Protein-bound ceramides, specialized ceramides covalently bound to corneocyte surface proteins, are essential for skin permeability barrier function. However, their exact structure and target amino acid residues are unknown. Here, we found that epoxy-enone (EE) ceramides, precursors of protein-bound ceramides, as well as their synthetic analog, formed stable conjugates only with Cys among nucleophilic amino acids. NMR spectroscopy revealed that the beta-carbon of the enone was attached by the thiol group of Cys via a Michael addition reaction. We confirmed the presence of Cys-bound EE ceramides in mouse epidermis by mass spectrometry analysis of protease-digested epidermis samples. EE-ceramides were reversibly released from protein-bound ceramides via sulfoxide elimination. We found that protein-bound ceramides with reversible release properties accounted for approximately 60% of total protein-bound ceramides, indicating that Cys-bound EE ceramides are the predominant protein-bound ceramides. Our findings provide clues to the molecular mechanism of skin barrier formation by protein-bound ceramides. Copy rights belong to original authors. Visit the link for more info Podcast created by Paper Player, LLC

Link to bioRxiv paper: http://biorxiv.org/cgi/content/short/2023.08.04.551992v1?rss=1 Authors: Quiroz, E. J., Kim, S., Gautam, L. K., Borok, Z., Kintner, C., Ryan, A. L. Abstract: A core pathophysiologic feature underlying many respiratory diseases is multiciliated cell dysfunction, leading to inadequate mucociliary clearance. Due to the prevalence and highly variable etiology of mucociliary dysfunction in respiratory diseases, it is critical to understand the mechanisms controlling multiciliogenesis that may be targeted to restore functional mucociliary clearance. Multicilin, in a complex with E2F4, is necessary and sufficient to drive multiciliogenesis in airway epithelia, however this does not apply to all cell types, nor does it occur evenly across all cells in the same cell population. In this study we further investigated how co-factors regulate the ability of Multicilin to drive multiciliogenesis. Combining data in mouse embryonic fibroblasts and human bronchial epithelial cells, we identify RBL2 as a repressor of the transcriptional activity of Multicilin. Knockdown of RBL2 in submerged cultures or phosphorylation of RBL2 in response to apical air exposure, in the presence of Multicilin, allows multiciliogenesis to progress. These data demonstrate a dynamic interaction between RBL2 and Multicilin that regulates the capacity of cells to differentiate and multiciliate. Identification of this mechanism has important implications for facilitating MCC differentiation in diseases with impaired mucociliary clearance. Copy rights belong to original authors. Visit the link for more info Podcast created by Paper Player, LLC

Link to bioRxiv paper: http://biorxiv.org/cgi/content/short/2023.08.03.551853v1?rss=1 Authors: Chen, J., Yue, F., Kim, K. H., Zhu, P., Qiu, J., Tao, W. A., Kuang, S. Abstract: Mitochondria are not only essential for energy production in eukaryocytes but also a key regulator of intracellular signaling. Here, we report an unappreciated role of mitochondria in regulating cytosolic protein translation in skeletal muscle cells (myofibers). We show that the expression of mitochondrial protein FAM210A (Family With Sequence Similarity 210 Member A) is positively associated with muscle mass in mice and humans. Muscle-specific Myl1Cre-driven Fam210a knockout (Fam210aMKO) in mice reduces mitochondrial density and function, leading to progressive muscle atrophy and premature death. Metabolomic and biochemical analyses reveal that Fam210aMKO reverses the oxidative TCA cycle towards the reductive direction, resulting in acetyl-CoA accumulation and hyperacetylation of cytosolic proteins. Specifically, hyperacetylation of several ribosomal proteins leads to disassembly of ribosomes and translational defects. Transplantation of Fam210aMKO mitochondria into wildtype myoblasts is sufficient to elevate protein acetylation in recipient cells. These findings reveal a novel crosstalk between the mitochondrion and ribosome mediated by FAM210A. Copy rights belong to original authors. Visit the link for more info Podcast created by Paper Player, LLC

Link to bioRxiv paper: http://biorxiv.org/cgi/content/short/2023.08.03.551815v1?rss=1 Authors: Salvador-Garcia, D., Jin, L., Hensley, A., Golcuk, M., Gallaud, E., Chaaban, S., Port, F., Vagnoni, A., Planelles-Herrero, V. J., McClintock, M. A., Derivery, E., Carter, A. P., Giet, R., Gur, M., Yildiz, A., Bullock, S. L. Abstract: The cytoplasmic dynein-1 (dynein) motor organizes cells by shaping microtubule networks and moving a large variety of cargoes along them. However, dynein's diverse roles complicate in vivo studies of its functions significantly. To address this issue, we have used gene editing to generate a series of missense mutations in Drosophila Dynein heavy chain (Dhc). We find that mutations associated with human neurological disease cause a range of defects in larval and adult flies, including impaired cargo trafficking in neurons. We also describe a novel mutation in the microtubule-binding domain (MTBD) of Dhc that, remarkably, causes metaphase arrest of mitotic spindles in the embryo but does not impair other dynein-dependent processes. We demonstrate that the mitotic arrest is independent of dynein's well-established roles in silencing the spindle assembly checkpoint. In vitro reconstitution and optical trapping assays reveal that the mutation only impairs the performance of dynein under load. In silico all-atom molecular dynamics simulations show that this effect correlates with increased flexibility of the MTBD, as well as an altered orientation of the stalk domain, with respect to the microtubule. Collectively, our data point to a novel role of dynein in anaphase progression that depends on the motor operating in a specific load regime. More broadly, our work illustrates how cytoskeletal transport processes can be dissected in vivo by manipulating mechanical properties of motors. Copy rights belong to original authors. Visit the link for more info Podcast created by Paper Player, LLC

Link to bioRxiv paper: http://biorxiv.org/cgi/content/short/2023.08.03.551216v1?rss=1 Authors: Zaharija, B., Bradshaw, N. J. Abstract: An emerging approach to studying major mental illness is through proteostasis, with the identification of several proteins that form insoluble aggregates in the brains of patients. One of these is Disrupted in Schizophrenia 1 (DISC1), a neurodevelopmentally-important scaffold protein, and the product of a classic schizophrenia risk gene. DISC1 was seen to aggregate in post mortem tissue from patients with schizophrenia, bipolar disorder and major depressive disorder, as well as in a variety of model systems, although the mechanism by which it does so is still unclear. Aggregation of two other proteins implicated in mental illness, TRIOBP-1 and NPAS3, was shown to be dependent on very specific structural regions of the protein. We therefore looked to the recently determined domain structure of DISC1, and investigated which structural elements were key for its aggregation. While none of the known DISC1 regions (named D, I, S and C respectively) formed aggregates individually when expressed in neuroblastoma cells, the combination of the D and I regions, plus the linker region between them, formed visible aggregates. Further refinement revealed that a region of approximately 30 amino acids between these two regions is critical to aggregation, with deletion of this region from full length DISC1 sufficient to abolish its aggregation propensity. This finding from mammalian cell culture contrasts with the recent determination that the extreme C-terminal of DISC1 can aggregate in vitro, although we did see some indication that combinations of C-terminal DISC1 regions can also aggregate in our system. It therefore appears likely that DISC1 aggregation, implicated in mental illness, can occur through at least two distinct mechanisms. Copy rights belong to original authors. Visit the link for more info Podcast created by Paper Player, LLC

In this week's episode, Katrina gets us an early review of a study that looks at the role that periodontitis plays in neuroinflammation in the brain. Resources: More Fast Facts: https://www.ataleoftwohygienists.com/fast-facts/ Katrina Sanders Website: https://www.katrinasanders.com  Katrina Sanders Instagram:   https://www.instagram.com/thedentalwinegenist/  Ha, J. Y., Seok, J., Kim, S. J., Jung, H. J., Ryu, K. Y., Nakamura, M., ... & Lee, H. J. (2023). Periodontitis promotes bacterial extracellular vesicle-induced neuroinflammation in the brain and trigeminal ganglion.bioRxiv, 2023-07.

In this episode I am joined by my friend Daníel Magnússon as he and I attempt to explore COVID-19. We cover our immune system, RNA vaccine technology, weather or not you should trust the CDC, quarantine and how lifestyle affects survival rate. Daníel studies biomedical sciences and works as a researcher at the University of Iceland. He recently had a research paper publish on RNA editing technologies and desires to contribute with more research related to immunology. Link to bioRxiv and Daníel's paper entitled "hyperTRIBER:a flexible R package for the analysis of differential RNA editing" by Sarah Rennie, Daniel Heidar Magnusson, and Robin Andersson: https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.10.20.465108v1 CDC article "6 Tips to Enhance Immunity": https://www.cdc.gov/nccdphp/dnpao/features/enhance-immunity/index.html To connect with and gain support from other leaders who are trying to improve their health and get stronger go to: https://www.facebook.com/groups/steelbodyfitness To connect with me on Instagram follow my account @coachjordanriding I hope you enjoy the first episode of 2022. --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/jordan-riding/message