Meet your worm avatar: How microscopic worms are helping find new drugs for rare diseases New research from the MRC Laboratory of Medical Sciences (LMS) provides a powerful, scalable method for finding treatments for rare genetic diseases using tiny, transparent worms.

By engineering worms with the same mutations found in patients and rapidly testing existing medicines, they're working toward faster, more affordable paths to treatment.

@imperialmed.bsky.social @imperialcollegeldn.bsky.social

Meet your worm avatar: How microscopic worms are helping find new drugs for rare diseases New research from the MRC Laboratory of Medical Sciences (LMS) provides a powerful, scalable method for finding treatments for rare genetic diseases using tiny, transparent worms.

🧬🐛 Meet your worm avatar.

What if we could use tiny worms to find treatments for thousands of rare genetic diseases?

New research from the LMS shows it’s possible – cheaply, quickly, and at scale.

#RareDisease #DrugDiscovery #Science #WormAvatars #Biotech

Study reveals the hidden benefits of weight loss on fat tissue Scientists from the MRC Laboratory of Medical Sciences (LMS) and Imperial College London have produced the first detailed characterisation of the changes that weight loss causes in human fat tissue by...

A new study, published today in Nature, reveals the hidden benefits of weight loss on fat tissue.

A better understanding of how weight loss leads to health improvements at a molecular level could help inform the development of therapies for diseases such as type 2 diabetes in the future.

Emerging Innovators Fellowship - MRC Laboratory of Medical Sciences The Emerging Innovators Fellowship is a new 3-year fully-funded postdoctoral fellowship for scientists from Black Heritage Backgrounds.

There's still time to apply for an Emerging Innovators Fellowship for scientists of Black heritage!

If you’re ready to take the next step in your career and make an impact in the world of biomedical research, we encourage you to apply.

Applications close 11 May 2025.

Find out more 👇

The Worm That No Computer Scientist Can Crack One of the simplest, most over-studied organisms in the world is the C. elegans nematode. For 13 years, a project called OpenWorm has tried—and utterly failed—to simulate it.

We should really make a worm simulation. Great Wired article on OpenWorm and proposals to reverse engineer a worm.
www.wired.com/story/openwo...

Cool, thanks!

Thanks for hosting. Great questions and fun conversations at an amazing institute!

micropublication.org/journals/bio...

You can deliver mRNA to worms by feeding using nanogel encapsulation. Not germ line (yet) but already useful for quickly testing gene function in an animal. What libraries should test?

Fantastic day celebrating the science of @mrc-lms.bsky.social held at the beautiful Royal Institution. Thank you for all the inspiring talks, proud to be part of this great community!

Amazing resource on the history of psychopharmacology. Glad it's public!

Shipwreck: The Psychopharmacologists

Full text of all the interviews in The Psychopharmacologists is available here: samizdathealth.org/shipwreck-re...

(official link endorsed by David Healy)

Jack Scannell on Twitter: