New from BARIs Jeroen Roose: Rasgrp1 fine-tunes EGFR signals so the mammary gland can elongate and branch properly during puberty. Lose that control and terminal end buds linger while proliferation runs high. A lovely example of signaling balance in organ development. #developmentalbiology
BARI spotlight: Dengke Ma and team reveal that rhythmic proton/ionic stress in the intestine coincides with (and can drive) developmental sleep in C. elegans. Their new GENTIS sensor makes these dynamics visible in real time. #neuroscience #sleepscience www.science.org/doi/epdf/10....
Big congratulations to BARI’s Jeanne Paz on this elegant new eNeuro paper! Deleting c-Maf only in somatostatin interneurons triggers absence-like spike-and-wave activity in mice, while the same change in parvalbumin cells does not.
BARI spotlight: Aric Prather & team find that racial differences in non-REM sleep (especially reduced deep-sleep delta power) contribute to memory differences overnight. Sleep may be a critical pathway for supporting cognitive resilience! www.ovid.com/jnls/bsam/fu...
Big congrats to BARI’s David Toczyski on this new paper in EMBO reports! His team uncovered how FBXO42 and CCDC6 keep protein phosphatase 4 under control, and why that matters for the survival of certain cancer cells. Beautiful mechanistic work that could open new doors! #cancerresearch #cellbiology
Some chemical scaffolds just keep surprising us. New work from BARI’s Kevan Shokat shows that certain benzoxaboroles selectively bind the mRNA cap-binding pocket of eIF4E (a tough-to-drug proto-oncogene).
How does a tiny zebrafish rebuild its tail after injury? One key player is a carefully timed shift in intracellular pH. New work from BARI’s Diane Barber shows that after tail amputation, cells first drop then raise their internal pH.
BARI spotlight: Isha Jain’s new study shows hypoxia can rescue a severe form of mitochondrial disease caused by protein quality control defects. In mice, it dramatically extends life, rescues striatal degeneration, and corrects the toxic tissue hyperoxia that arises when complex I becomes unstable.
Big congrats to BARI’s Peggy Cawthon and team on this new paper! Using radiomics on thigh CT scans, they tracked how subtle muscle ‘texture’ patterns change over 5 years in older adults, and found these patterns help explain shifts in strength and real-world function
Ever wonder how a fish that lives just a few months could unlock secrets of aging and suspended animation? BARI’s Param Priya Singh just launched Killiverse: an interactive platform that brings together multi-omics data from killifish species like the African turquoise killifish.
Congrats to BARI’s Margaret Wallhagen on this thoughtful new review in The Gerontologist! Her team looked at what raises or lowers depression risk in older adults with vision loss and found that social support and good coping skills really help. Useful insights for supporting healthy aging!
Big congratulations to BARI’s Suneil Koliwad on this important JCI Insight paper! People with HIV show a distinct form of scarring in their body fat that drives insulin resistance and higher diabetes risk, even in those who are not obese. Real progress toward protecting metabolic health in HIV!
BARI spotlight: John Greenland’s new review beautifully links the origins of rapamycin on Easter Island to today’s innovative nanoparticle approaches for lung transplantation.
Huge congratulations to BARI’s Roarke Kamber on being selected as a 2026 Pew-Stewart Scholar for Cancer Research! His lab is digging into how macrophages and cancer cells interact, work that could lead to smarter ways to fight tumors! #PewScholars #CancerResearch geroscience.ucsf.edu/news/pioneer...
Huge congrats to BARI’s Orion Weiner on this stunning Nature Cell Biology paper! Migrating cells don’t just have a front and back, they actively help each other across the whole cell.
BARI spotlight: Alexis Combes and team turned routine biopsy samples into rich maps of what’s happening in inflamed guts. Their work highlights cellular patterns linked to treatment success, offering new paths to help patients with ulcerative colitis get the right therapy sooner. #GutHealth #IBD
Big cheers for BARI’s Paul Wolter’s on this breakthrough! Telomere-stressed AT2 cells turn profibrotic early in lung fibrosis, p53 is the driver. Inhibiting it reverses damage, boosts healthy AT2 cells & halts fibrosis. Hopeful step toward better IPF therapies! academic.oup.com/ajrccm/artic...
Proud to highlight Christopher Hernandez’s review urging the field to target bone matrix quality for better fragility fracture prevention. Matrix mechanical properties matter as much as density, and they’re modifiable. A compelling case for new therapeutic strategies beyond current approaches.
BARI spotlight: Dena Dubal urges a shift in how we approach Alzheimer’s, recognizing women’s unique mix of vulnerability and resilience. Strong call for more research on female biology, sex-tailored care, and discoveries that help everyone age better. Important perspective! #Alzheimers #Womenshealth
Check this out from BARI’s Kevan Shokat: Chai-1 deep learning makes crystal-quality models of covalent K-Ras complexes fast, accurate, and works great with covalent restraints for tough targets. Super useful for speeding up drug discovery! #Kras #drugdiscovery
Big cheers for BARI’s Sarah Knox on this new iScience paper! Simple PBS rewetting restores damaged corneal stroma in autoimmune dry eye, fixing collagen, basement membrane & shifting keratocytes to reparative mode. Game-changer for dry eye! #opthalmology #dryeye www.cell.com/action/showP...
Big cheers for BARI’s Jayanta Debnath on this new Autophagy review! Membrane ATG8ylation helps cells secrete proteins, load EVs, and handle everything from metabolism to immune responses via clever non-degradative autophagy routes. Super interesting deep dive! pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/42178909/
BARI’s celebrating Dengke Ma’s latest in Cell Reports! They uncovered how the ER guards itself against H2O2 with ERGU-1/TMEM161B, keeping protein folding smooth and supporting reproduction & stress responses. Outstanding discovery! pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/42241275/
Congratulations to BARI/Hillblom fellows Lea Baskin Monk, who received the ARCS Scholarship, and Yujie (York) Zhang, who received the Fletcher Jones Fellowship!
BARI is celebrating Rushika Perera’s Molecular Cell study! They uncovered how pancreatic cancer cells use an autophagic capture complex to degrade ER-stalled MHC-I, reducing surface presentation. Links inefficient antigen loading and NFXL1 to immune escape. Beautiful work!
BARI is celebrating Andrew Yang’s Cell study! They developed genetic tracing to show brain protein clearance is regionally organized, with specialized border niches. Neuroinflammation and amyloid disrupt it differently, key for understanding neurodegeneration. Beautiful work!
Big cheers for BARI’s Katrina Abuabara on her new JAAD review! Atopic dermatitis is still diagnosed the old-fashioned way, history + exam + established criteria, but standardized tools make assessment clearer and care more consistent. Super practical guidance for clinicians!
BARI is celebrating Dengke Ma’s Nature Comms study! They found a simple way to trigger reversible suspended animation in worms using just crowded liquid conditions. Multi-omics, imaging, and genetics reveal how animals pause life and wake back up, fantastic work! #suspendedanimation
Check out Max Krummel’s new Nature Immunology study: Comparing mouse and human tumor microenvironments, they highlight key differences in how these immune ecosystems assemble, plus conserved gene programs that track with patient outcomes. Excellent work and a handy new resource!
BARI is celebrating Kevan Shokat’s new ACS Chem Biol study! They designed long-acting CFTR potentiators by tweaking the protein-membrane interface, longer lipophilic chains dramatically extend activity via enhanced membrane retention. Exciting for CF and membrane drug design!
