Happy to report our new publication by Gaia Brezzo in @matrix biology from collaboration with Karen Horsburgh. Col4a1 mutation in mouse model of cerebral #small_vessel_disease causes white matter defects that can be modulated by targeting protein folding www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

Official link to apply to join my team as a lab assistant: lnkd.in/gpQgnVzX

Get your calendars, because the new 2027 EMBL Annual Poster has arrived: s.embl.org/2027-poster Whether you'd like to enhance your skills in a practical course or engage with the latest research at one of our conferences, we've got you covered. See you at EMBL in 2027! 🙌 #LifeSciences #EMBL

This epic paper, which has been a heroic 10 year journey for the lead author, Ricardo Barrientos, is finally out in Cell today! Many thanks to all co-authors, especially Billie Meadowcroft and Andela Saric for their beautiful MD simulations www.cell.com/cell/fulltex...

Basement membrane turnover controls cell shape

Basement membranes are scaffolds of proteins, like collagen, that give organs shape. During development, basement membranes must adapt to the growing organ. We infer how fast the basement membrane ada...

cell.com

Always enjoy grabbing lunch with the team. Getting away from the lab gets people to know each other, discuss ideas, and create a team bond..all while enjoying nice food

Induced Lox KO in Myh11+ Smooth Muscle Cell, but not PDGFRα+ fibroblast, ⏬Angiotensin II-induced 🐭Cardiac Fibrosis Cardiac hypertrophy remain unaltered in both Lox KO models A possible SMC-to-Fibroblast matrix/mechano-transducive cascade in fibrosis bioRxiv 2026 www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...

The aortic dissection that led to Senator Graham's sudden death. Could it have been prevented? What is being done to reduce the toll of aortic dissection with so many people having a dilated proximal aorta and so few progressing to a catastrophic event? www.statnews.com/2026/07/15/l...

Graham’s death from aortic dissection raises questions about preventing the rare disorder

When the body’s most important blood vessel tears from the inside, it’s a medical emergency that can be years in the making.

statnews.com

This is big. The first vaccine tested to PREVENT pancreatic cancer in high-risk individuals aacrjournals.org/cancerdiscov...

New paper from Alex Naba and her lab on a very poorly understood extracellular matrix protein. SNED1 modulates ECM architecture and cell proliferation via its LDV integrin-binding motif journals.biologists.com/jcs/article-...

SNED1 modulates ECM architecture and cell proliferation via its LDV integrin-binding motif

The extracellular matrix (ECM) is a complex scaffold of proteins that supports multicellular structures. Interactions between cells and the ECM via receptors, like integrins, govern cellular phenotype...

journals.biologists.com

Spotlight: 📗From our Special Issue on Fibrosis Benjamin D. Humphreys @humphreyslab.bsky.social provide a Review on the shared mechanisms of organ #fibrosis: doi.org/10.1172/jci.... @the-asci.org

Paying peer reviewers works. Benefits authors, editors & reviewers. Hopefully other journals will try this.

Nature@nature.com · 2mo ago

A biology journal trialled paying their reviewers and found it led to faster first editorial decisions – and increased review quality. go.nature.com/446SaLu

Highlights from Matrix Biology Europe 2026 #MBE2026, including the now traditional pics of past and present Rupert Timpl awardees and of the Dick Heinegård jury that I was honored to participate in this year again!

PhD project alert: if interested in learning more about stroke, vascular dementia and mitochondria (yes there is some matrix there as well!) Come and join us! collaboration with Kostas Tokatlidis Email me if interested. Application deadline: 12 January 2026 www.gla.ac.uk/colleges/mvl...

University of Glasgow - Colleges - College of Medical, Veterinary & Life Sciences - MVLS Graduate School - PhD Research Opportunities - College Futures Themes PhD Programme - Projects - Fundamentals of Life Projects

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gla.ac.uk

New paper out from Markus Ruegg lab on gene therapy for muscular dystrophy due to laminin mutations: Dual AAV gene therapy using laminin-linking proteins ameliorates muscle and nerve defects in LAMA2-related muscular dystrophy. www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

Dual AAV gene therapy using laminin-linking proteins ameliorates muscle and nerve defects in LAMA2-related muscular dystrophy

Adeno-associated virus (AAV)-mediated gene replacement holds promise for treating genetic diseases but faces challenges due to AAV's limited packaging capacity and potential immune responses to transg...

biorxiv.org

Really excited to tell you about our paper just out in the journal Matrix Biology. @erinboland.bsky.social set out to investigate what the impact of basement membrane defects are on adult heart function/biology. www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

Biomechanical and compositional basement membrane defects due to a Col4a1 mutation affect cardiac morphology and function

Collagen IV is a major constituent of basement membranes and mutations in the genes COL4A1 and COL4A2 present clinically as a variable, multi-system d…

sciencedirect.com

"My" latest review is online now. We need your creativity! 😎 👇👇👇 Collagen Biosynthesis and Its Molecular Ensemble: What Remains Unexplored | Biochemistry pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/...

Collagen Biosynthesis and Its Molecular Ensemble: What Remains Unexplored

Collagen embodies an intriguing paradox in protein biology. Despite being one of the most abundant protein superfamilies in vertebrates and having a seemingly simple structural organization, its biosy...

pubs.acs.org

Here's what it gets you

Am I back from the best conference ever? Yes! But do I also see a crucial tool for the analysis of the #ECMatrix in scRNAseq? Also yes!! Another fantastic tool in collaboration with @nabalabuic.bsky.social 🔥🔥🔥

Naba Lab UIC@nabalabuic.bsky.social · last yr.

Perfect timing on the last day of the 2025 #Collagen Gordon Research Conference! Our paper, in collaboration with @valerioizzi.bsky.social describing #MatriCom, a tool to infer ECM communication systems from scRNA-Seq datasets, is now published in @jcellsci.bsky.social! doi.org/10.1242/jcs....

Perfect timing on the last day of the 2025 #Collagen Gordon Research Conference! Our paper, in collaboration with @valerioizzi.bsky.social describing #MatriCom, a tool to infer ECM communication systems from scRNA-Seq datasets, is now published in @jcellsci.bsky.social! doi.org/10.1242/jcs....

MatriCom, a single-cell RNA-sequencing data mining tool to infer cell–extracellular matrix interactions

Highlighted Article: MatriCom is a web application devised to mine single-cell RNA-sequencing datasets to infer extracellular matrix (ECM)–ECM and cell–ECM communication systems across cell population...

doi.org

New data from the Deltas lab on targeting ER stress in Alport Syndrome. Chemical chaperone 4-phenylbutyrate treatment alleviates the kidney phenotype in a mouse model of Alport syndrome with a pathogenic variant in Col4a3 www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

Chemical chaperone 4-phenylbutyrate treatment alleviates the kidney phenotype in a mouse model of Alport syndrome with a pathogenic variant in Col4a3

Alport Syndrome is a severe inherited glomerulopathy caused by pathogenic variants in genes encoding collagen-IV, the most abundant component of the g…

sciencedirect.com

New paper in Nature Cell Biol from @johannaivaska.bsky.social and @ivaskalab.bsky.social Dynamic regulation of integrin β1 phosphorylation supports invasion of breast cancer cells rdcu.be/eoAUD

Dynamic regulation of integrin β1 phosphorylation supports invasion of breast cancer cells

Nature Cell Biology - Conway et al. show that integrin β1 phosphorylation is regulated through balanced activities of tyrosine kinases, such as Src and Arg, and phosphatases, such as PTP-PEST...

rdcu.be

Really excited to work with the Ruggiero lab over the summer as visiting professor at the Institute Genomics Functional De Lyon, ENS de Lyon. #Collagen. #Matrix and #disease treatments. @uofgmvls.bsky.social @uofgscmh.bsky.social

And how are you meant to drive away from here? Parking in Barcelona

And we recreated it 150 years later. www.gla.ac.uk/news/archive...

UofG recreates 150-year-old professors' photo for International Women's Day

Some of the University of Glasgow’s senior women leaders assembled to give their own historic take on a 150-year-old, all-male professors’ photo ahead of celebrations for International Women’s Day.

gla.ac.uk

Past Glasgow@pastglasgow.co.uk · last yr.

Professors of the University of Glasgow photographed on the Lion & Unicorn staircase at the Old College, High St on 29 July 1870. The following day the buildings were transferred to the City of Glasgow Union Railway Co and the Uni left its home after 400 years. 📷 City Archives

20 degrees in Edinburgh. those of you who know Scottish tenement flats built in early 1900s (in which I live) know this means opening the windows to warm the house 😂

Another collagen IV paper on the "to read" list... new review just out in the journal #matrix_biology "The life cycle of type IV collagen" by David Sherwood www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

So excited to share our first neuro focused paper from the lab, we show that CXCL4 (PF4) is transported into the brain by proteoglycans within the endothelial glycocalyx and that GAG binding also mediates the pro neurogenesis effects of CXCL4. www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

Curious about collagen?? There is an amazing program for the Collagen Gordon in New Hampshire this year. We have ample speaker slots reserved for abstract submissions. Come and join us! www.grc.org/collagen-con... July 6 - 11, 2025 www.grc.org/collagen-grs... July 5 - 6, 2025 Doug,Rachel,Alex

To all our undergraduate student's at @uofglasgow.bsky.social ..good luck with your exams!