New paper with @statsepi.bsky.social and @deevybee.bsky.social in which we show there's really no evidence for a link between the gut microbiome and autism www.cell.com/neuron/fullt...

Conceptual and methodological flaws undermine claims of a link between the gut microbiome and autism

Claims that the gut microbiome causally contributes to autism regularly appear in the scientific literature and popular press. Mitchell et al. critically examine influential studies underpinning these...

cell.com

JOB ALERT 🚨 We are hiring TWO principal investigators in cell, molecular, systems, or chemical biology in Toronto, Canada at @sinaihealth.bsky.social. We provide a generous startup, fully funded salary and academic appointment at U of Toronto. www.nature.com/naturecareer... Please repost!

*new publication announcement* our first CRISPR screen paper is now out as Open Access in EMBO Journal. We find an unexpected role for LRRK2, an important gene/protein in Parkinson's disease, in controlling the uptake of both tau and synuclein by human neurons www.embopress.org/doi/full/10....

Tau uptake by human neurons depends on receptor LRP1 and kinase LRRK2 | The EMBO Journal

imageimageNeuronal uptake of extracellular tau protein is thought to propagate intracellular protein aggregation between neurons, contributing to the pathogenesis of Alzheimer’s and other neurodegener...

embopress.org

Unfortunately this has all the hallmarks of the tired old trope that there's no such thing as bad publicity (for a VC-backed company looking to raise on the best valuation possible). If nothing else, looks like Colossal have a v active PR/comms dept.

Brendan Maher@bmaher.bsky.social · last yr.

Dire-wolf drama continues to unfold. A scientist who has been critical of the company behind some audacious de-extinction claims believes that it has been trying to undermine the credibility of its critics ahead of major announcements. The company denies involvement. www.nature.com/articles/d41...

Now up, positively our lab's last word on Ptbp1. Developmental loss of function Ptbp1 turns out not to regulate neurogenesis or cell fate specification at all, but does alter splicing patterns and slightly accelerates expression of photoreceptor-specific genes./1 www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

Ptbp1 is not required for retinal neurogenesis and cell fate specification.

The RNA-binding protein Ptbp1 has been proposed as a master regulator of neuronal fate, repressing neurogenesis through its effects on alternative splicing and miRNA maturation. While prior studies us...

biorxiv.org

*New paper alert* - extracellular tau blocks synaptic plasticity in vivo via its microtubule-binding domain, which can be rescued by our Gen2 tau antibodies - all the product of a great collaboration with Michael Rowan and colleagues at @tcddublin.bsky.social link.springer.com/article/10.1...

Synaptotoxic effects of extracellular tau are mediated by its microtubule-binding region - Acta Neuropathologica

Immunotherapies targeting extracellular tau share the premise that interrupting cell-to-cell spread of tau pathology in Alzheimer’s disease (AD) will slow dementia pathogenesis. Whether these interven...

link.springer.com

Thank you @michaelrosenyes.bsky.social - full text here www.culturematters.org.uk/island-of-st...

This is quite the cover from the Economist

Mine in today’s @newyorker.com

Latest paper from the team @biorxivpreprint.bsky.social www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1... great collab w/ Michael Rowan and Igor Klyubin @tcddublin.bsky.social and Dominic Walsh on how synaptotoxic effects of extracellular tau are mediated by its microtubule-binding region (MTBR)

Synaptotoxic effects of extracellular tau are mediated by its microtubule-binding region

Immunotherapies targeting extracellular tau share the premise that interrupting cell-to-cell spread of tau pathology in Alzheimer’s disease (AD) will slow dementia pathogenesis. How these intervention...

biorxiv.org

Today I have resigned from my position as a Data Editor at Proceedings B. I believe the journal does great work, but it feels wrong to voluntarily spend my time holding authors to account on behalf of the Royal Society, while the Society refuses to hold its own Fellows to account.

Important initiative from @scurry.bsky.social - please read and consider supporting by signing

Stephen Curry@scurry.bsky.social · 2y ago

Now almost 450 signatories to my open letter calling on the @royalsociety.org to stand up for its values & deal with the widespread concerns raised by Elon Musk's Fellowship. Please consider signing & sharing: forms.gle/miDciq35oxyw... List of signatories here: occamstypewriter.org/scurry/2025/...

An open letter to the President of the @royalsociety.org – time to stand up for your values. occamstypewriter.org/scurry/2025/...

Proudly supporting LGBT+ History Month @dunnschool.bsky.social

Another filthy morning here, so it's certainly a day for The Best Cartoon:

Very nicely put. Truly bizarre thing for FT to publish.

Carl T. Bergstrom@carlbergstrom.com · 2y ago

Every now and then my mail includes a bizarre screed, sometimes typed on a blank postcard and heavily annotated in pen afterwards, always with strange capitalization, seldom with a return address. I remember one claiming proof that the pope and Mossad created HIV. Anyway, here’s Peter Thiel.

We just published a thing! In this study, we provide compelling evidence that a lack of microglia during early brain development does not lead to wholesale alterations of synaptic and cellular function. www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Typical development of synaptic and neuronal properties can proceed without microglia in the cortex and thalamus - Nature Neuroscience

Microglia are proposed to have a role in brain development through synaptic engulfment and paracrine signaling. O’Keeffe et al. show that certain neurodevelopmental processes attributed to microglia c...

nature.com

Still no formal response from the Royal Society, or the wider fellowship? If so, reflects badly on UK science establishment. Disappointing lack of leadership.

Dorothy Bishop@deevybee.bsky.social · 2y ago

hard to believe it’s just 5 days since I gave an update on my Royal Soc resignation - at that time, Musk seemed deeply unpleasant and still stirring up trouble, but he now seems totally unhinged deevybee.blogspot.com/2025/01/retr...

Best thing I've read in a while - yes it's funny and v well written, but raises some serious points.

Patrick Freyne@patrickfreyne.bsky.social · 2y ago

I'm launching a new career as a demotivational speaker (thanks to everyone who got in touch this morning - it's nice to hear it strikes a chord) www.irishtimes.com/life-style/p...

Great respect for @deevybee.bsky.social for speaking out and taking action. I haven't seen any statements from @royalsociety.bsky.social so far - continued silence is not a good look, hopefully there is an active discussion within the wider fellowship. Anything less starts looking like complicity.

Dorothy Bishop@deevybee.bsky.social · 2y ago

For those who missed it: Elon Musk, the Royal Society, and me deevybee.blogspot.com/2024/11/why-...

*Preprint news* We've posted a substantial update to our study of an important aspect of Alzheimer's disease biology thought to contribute to disease spreading through the brain: how neurons take up extracellular tau. www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

Today is International Trans Day of Remembrance. This is the toughest time in history to be trans and visible in the world, thanks to certain politicians, billionaires, trash media and Evangelicals. And it’s particularly tough for children and teens. Now, more than ever, we need our allies. Ty ❤️🏳️‍⚧️🏳️‍🌈

November 18 is the International Day of LGBQTIA+ People in STEM! Today more than ever we want to stress the importance of communities, building connections, and raising each other up. Let's keep leaving our mark for the betterment of us all! 🏳️‍⚧️🏳️‍🌈 #QueerinSTEM prideinstem.org/lgbtstemday/

Just finding my way on this platform and finding some friends old and new. Mainly preoccupied with protein kinase signalling pathways, how they work & what they do. Group Leader and Director of the Babraham Institute, which is home to my brilliant colleagues in Signalling, Epigenetics and Immunology

Are there plans for @biorxivpreprint.bsky.social to link to #bsky from the article pages? Currently it only tracks the toxic bird site, which is rapidly becoming a waste of time (as well as tricky to defend, given that the owner is coming after universities). One for you @richardsever.bsky.social?

With the big science migration finally underway to bsky, I've finally deactivated my legacy account on the other site. Content and contacts here have improved greatly in recent weeks, no more need to sift through the toxic garbage over on the bird site to find thoughtful posts etc.

Our first preprint announcement on bluesky! Using human iPSC and Drosophila models of a frontotemporal dementia, we find that key pathologies can be corrected by targeting the NAT10 acetyltransferase #biosky www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

Targeting the acetyltransferase NAT10 corrects pathologies in human frontotemporal dementia neurons and extends lifespan in an in vivo Drosophila tauopathy model

Disruption of the neuronal nuclear membrane and perturbation of nucleocytoplasmic transport are features of neurodegenerative diseases, including Alzheimer's disease, that involve the microtubule-asso...

biorxiv.org

Interesting arguments on how to go about target ID and validation to ensure higher rates of success in drug development. Broadly v much agree - although defining what constitutes causal human biology (and genetic evidence for targets) could do with further refinement, not least in neurology.

David Shaywitz@dshaywitz.bsky.social · 2y ago

"Causal Human Biology": great unlock for biopharma R&D - or le mot du jour, bereft of meaning through exuberant overuse? For Vertex, at least, this phrase+approach seems to really mean something, as I discuss in my latest column: timmermanreport.com/2024/10/can-.... #biosky @dereklowe.bsky.social

Open letter from a group of sleuths re problems with editors/papers at Scientific Reports deevybee.blogspot.com/2024/10/an-o... They've published 23K papers in 2024 with APC of £2090, raising £48 million from this journal alone, so should be able to put resource into cleaning this up.

V nice neuronal cell biology study - congrats to all involved.

Christophe 🔬 Leterrier@christlet.bsky.social · 2y ago

The big one is out! So over the moon to see our latest work with Stéphane Vassilopoulos published in Science. Check out how we reveal the unique architecture of clathrin-coated pits and endocytosis at the axon initial segment: www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...