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Paco Cardenas

@paccardenas.bsky.social

Curator of zoology at Museum of Evolution (Uppsala University), in charge of the Linnaeus collection, marine biologist (sponges), naturalist and wannabe natural product researcher.

136 Posts178 Follower150 Folgt
Paco Cardenas@paccardenas.bsky.social · 4d ago

Thanks to our participants for a successful workshop in South Africa! Hopefully they will spread the knowledge of the deep-sea💧and sponges🪸 to their own countries and institutes.

SponBIODIV@sponbiodiv.bsky.social · 4d ago

Day 5 of our "Deep-sea Biodiversity and Applied Taxonomy Workshop" 🇿🇦 End of the group assignments (identification of 3 unknown sponges) with measurements 📐 and use of the scanning electron microscope! Followed by presentations. Congratulations to all! 😃 Thanks to @biodiversa.eu and @fao.org.

Paco Cardenas@paccardenas.bsky.social · 6d ago

What a fantastic day at the Iziko Museum. It's not just about white sharks and coelacanths 😊 The marine biodiversity is amazing due to the fact that South Africa is between two oceans: the Atlantic (cold)🥶 and the Indian Ocean (warm)🥵.

SponBIODIV@sponbiodiv.bsky.social · 6d ago

Day 3 of our "Deep-sea Biodiversity and Applied Taxonomy Workshop" in Cape Town 🇿🇦 Discussions about the importance of natural history collections followed by a visit of the rich Iziko Museum zoology collections, more than 500 000 specimens! 🤩 @biodiversa.eu @fao.org @dsbsoc.bsky.social

Paco Cardenas@paccardenas.bsky.social · last mo.

The tropical reef #sponge #Rhabdastrella is beautiful, but classified in the wrong family 😕 We correct this using morphology 🧽, molecular data 🧬and unique sterols🧪 🤩 @biodiversa.eu @uu.se @ucriverside.bsky.social

Morphological, molecular, and chemical characters support the transfer of the tropical demosponge genus Rhabdastrella to the family Geodiidae

Abstract. Rhabdastrella is a subtropical/tropical demosponge genus holding 18 species distributed predominantly in the Indo-Pacific region. Rhabdastrella i

doi.org

Paco Cardenas@paccardenas.bsky.social · last mo.

'Bynesian decay' is a chemical reaction which often attacks shells🐚 in collections. We have a handful of damaged shells in our Linnaean collection😕 Here is 'Neritopsis radula' described by #Linnaeus 268 years ago in the Swedish Queen's collection. Washing 🛁 and drying now to limit the damage!

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Paco Cardenas@paccardenas.bsky.social · 4mo ago

This natural product study started in 2018 and it took us a while to understand these #sponge #knottins! Peptides in deep-sea sponges are super interesting but challenging 😅 Congrats to the Gunasekera Lab in Uppsala 🙌

Discovery of Ribosomally Synthesized and Post-translationally Modified Knottins from the Deep-Sea Sponge Stryphnus fortis

Knottins are stable, structurally constrained mini-proteins with diverse bioactivities. This work presents the first report of a novel family of knottins, ‘stryphnines’, from the deep-sea sponge Stryp...

pubs.acs.org

Paco Cardenas@paccardenas.bsky.social · 4mo ago

Two new activities for #barettin, extracted from my pet sponge 'Geodia barretti' : promising activity against 1) chronic pain and 2) the most common and aggressive type of pancreatic cancer! Two papers from the Cartmell Lab👇 www.mdpi.com/1660-3397/24... doi.org/10.1021/acs....

Barettin, a Nonopioid, Nonhallucinogenic Marine Natural Product with Antihyperalgesic Properties Mediated by 5HT2A Inverse Agonism

Despite increasing interest, there remain limited treatments for chronic pain, with opioids continuing to be one of the top prescribed medications. Marine natural products present a wealth of untapped potential for new treatments for chronic pain. In this study, we investigated the analgesic effects of the sea sponge ligand barettin in a mouse model of chemotherapy-induced peripheral neuropathy (CIPN). Barettin exhibited efficacious antihyperalgesic activity in male mice with no efficacy shown in females. Through the use of a PRESTO-Tango assay, we found that barettin acts as an inverse agonist at the 5HT2A receptor while also presenting no activity at the μ-opioid receptor. Head twitch experiments confirmed no hallucinogenic activity, suggesting that barettin may be a promising nonopioid, nonhallucinogenic, marine-derived therapeutic agent for the treatment of chronic pain.

doi.org

Paco Cardenas@paccardenas.bsky.social · 5mo ago

This morning, we were on the plateau of TV4 Nyhetsmorgon (Swedish National TV) to talk about our upcoming Greenpeace 'Deep Arctic' expedition and sponges! 🤩 @greenpeace.de @sponbiodiv.bsky.social @biodiversa.eu @uu.se

Unik djuphavsexpedition till Arktis

En unik expedition till Arktis djuphav, med stöd av Greenpeace, utforskar okända ekosystem och biologisk mångfald på 3000 meters djup. Målet är att samla bevis för att skydda regionen, där knappt 2 pr...

tv4play.se

Paco Cardenas@paccardenas.bsky.social · 6mo ago

Happy to be featured in this gallery of Swedish natural history #collectors portraits featured in the The Guardian! 😊 (You might recognize several others). #naturalists

In the footsteps of Linnaeus: scientists share their passion for species from tiny wasps to hairy plants – in pictures

For his project ‘De Oförtrutna’ (The Relentless), photographer Christer Björkman pictured Swedish scientists working in the spirit of Carl Linneaus, the botanist who created the modern taxonomic syste...

theguardian.com

Paco Cardenas@paccardenas.bsky.social · 6mo ago

✨Unlocking the past with Al and biodiversity data Britt Andermann just published a new dataset @gbif.org Sweden based on the Kullenberg Excursions (1948-1996) from the Museum of Evolution @uu.se -bringing thousands of historical insect records into the global data landscape. Curious to know more?👇

Mobilizing historical biodiversity data with AI - new dataset from Uppsala University

A new dataset has recently been published through GBIF Sweden, based on digitized material from the Kullenberg Excursion Journals (1948–1996), held at the Museum of Evolution, Uppsala University.

gbif.se