TALK. TO. PEOPLE. Build community. This is how we win 🧪
Cledi Cerda-Jara
@cledicj.bsky.social
Dr. (rer. nat.) 🧠 Neuronal gene regulation 🔬 Non-coding RNAs and synaptic plasticity 👩🔬Chilean scientist in Germany | She/Her
If your argument is that "some people have access to world class colleagues while others do not", the problem is that you think only some people (we all know who) do good science 🧪
New paper! How do RNAs "know" where to go inside a cell? We dug into the sequence elements that route RNAs to the right place. It turns out that, in mammals, they're surprisingly massive (>200 nt), multipartite, and wonderfully complicated. 🧵
New @biorxivpreprint.bsky.social preprint led by @pranujanp.bsky.social, studying errors such as incorrect primer sequences and contaminated #CellLines in #circRNA papers in high impact factor journals. We found reagent errors in 51% of n=118 circRNA papers in high IF journals in 2022 (1/4)🧪
biorxiv.org
Whats most exciting: In a Xenium mouse brain dataset we predicted four GABAergic markers (Gad1, Gad2, Hapln1, Kcnmb2) to co-localize in neuronal projections. Experimental validation confirmed our predictions. (Col19a1 is used as negative control bellow)
Really proud to have contributed to this collaboration 🧠✨ Check out! @lstrngr.bsky.social cool new tool!
Leon Strenger@lstrngr.bsky.social · 3mo agoI'm very excited to announce that my PhD work is out on biorxiv! pyTrance is a computational method to predict and quantify subcellular RNA co-localization from spatial transcriptomics data. www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...
Thank you to @dailyneuron.bsky.social for this nice piece about our work on Cdr1as and RNA networks in the brain. dailyneuron.com/circular-rna...
A Circle of RNA Once Dismissed Now Looks Essential - Daily Neuron
Inside every mammal brain sits a small ring of genetic code biologists called junk for forty years. They were wrong about what it does.
dailyneuron.com
🚨 Our new review is out! What makes a circular RNA actually functional? We revisit Cdr1as/ciRS-7, one of the most studied circular RNAs, and bring together 15+ years of work to understand what makes it functionally unique. Check it out here 👇 www.nature.com/articles/s41...
The history and function of a circular RNA - Nature Communications
In this paper, the authors review how the circular RNA Cdr1as and its interacting non-coding RNAs regulate neuronal stress responses and synaptic activity, highlighting general principles of RNA-based...
nature.com
🚨In our new preprint we show that miRNAs act within a precise temporal window to control cell fate decisions in the human forebrain. 🧠 A study of miRNA expression dynamics and functions during early human brain development. @mdc-bimsb.bsky.social Check it out! www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...
MicroRNAs are required within a critical time window to define neural patterning during early human brain development
MicroRNAs (miRNAs) are key post-transcriptional regulators of cell state transitions, yet their function in early human brain development is largely unknown. Here, we present a longitudinal analysis of miRNA function in developing human forebrain organoids. We show that mRNAs and miRNAs expression mirrors known developmental gene programs and that miRNA biogenesis peaks at neural commitment. To test the function of miRNAs in regulating commitment, we impaired their biogenesis at defined stages. miRNA disruption during pre-neuronal commitment caused severe patterning defects, whereas post-commitment perturbation had minimal impact on forebrain identity. We show that miRNA loss during pre-commitment increased WNT and BMP signaling, thus shifting cell fates towards non-forebrain identity such as midbrain/hindbrain. These effects could be partially rescued by expressing five miRNAs. Our findings uncover a critical time window where miRNAs regulate morphogen signaling in early human neurodevelopment, establishing them as essential temporal determinants of cell fate and brain regional identity. ### Competing Interest Statement The authors have declared no competing interest.
biorxiv.org
"we propose that the protoribosome was a parasite (...). If this view is correct, then like the spliceosome in the stem eukaryote, a repurposed host-parasite interaction led to a dramatic change in cell biology at the base of the tree of life, in this case leading to the exit from an RNA world"
A symbiotic origin of the ribosome?
Abstract. The origin of life is one of the great mysteries of science. Of the multiple unsolved problems, the origin of the translation system (the means b
academic.oup.com
Evidence suggests that transcriptionally similar cells can be functionally diverse go.nature.com/3N4lT2d
Does a cell’s gene expression always reflect its function?
Transcriptionally similar neurons can be functionally diverse.
go.nature.com
Your new batch of cortical organoids resulted in mixed regional identities closer to hindbrain. Why is patterning so hard?😩 ✨Our latest paper might help you✨ tinyurl.com/neorgpat #morphogen #neuralorganoids #patterning #scRNAseq @graycamplab.bsky.social @ethz.ch @nazbukina.bsky.social
Getting Rosalind Franklin’s story right is crucial, because she has become a role model for women going into science www.nature.com/articles/d41...
What Rosalind Franklin truly contributed to the discovery of DNA’s structure
Franklin was no victim in how the DNA double helix was solved. An overlooked letter and an unpublished news article, both written in 1953, reveal that she was an equal player.
nature.com
Brain organoids are getting better at mimicking brains in a dish. But how good is too good? I take a look at the latest developments in my story today in the Times. Gift link: nyti.ms/496PPnC
nyti.ms
BIG ANNOUNCEMENT📣: I haven’t been this excited to be part of something new in 15 years… Thrilled to reveal the passion project I’ve been working on for the past year and a half!🙀🥳 (thread 👇)
🚀 Another edition of the Molecular Biosystems Conference is in the books! #mbiosys25 Thank you to our amazing speakers, participants, and sponsors, including ICGEB and @unubiolac.bsky.social, for making Puerto Varas a hub of exciting discussions on gene regulation and functional genomics. 🔽
1 To predict the behaviour of a primate, would you rather base your guess on a closely related species or one with a similar brain shape? We looked at brains & behaviours of 70 species, you’ll be surprised! 🧵Thread on our new preprint with @r3rt0.bsky.social , doi.org/10.1101/2025...
I’m really happy to present #SCALPEL, a new #Nextflow tool to quantify transcript isoforms at the single-cell level using conventional 3’ scRNA-seq data #scRNA-seq #single-cell #tools #isoforms www.nature.com/articles/s41...
Quantification of transcript isoforms at the single-cell level using SCALPEL - Nature Communications
Single-cell RNA-seq facilitates the study of transcriptome diversity in individual cells. Here, authors introduce a tool for isoform quantification at the single-cell level using 3’ scRNA-seq data, co...
nature.com