Congrats to the newest PhD from the @siegenthalerlab.bsky.social, Dr. Sophia Kim! Beautiful thesis document & presentation! 🧠🦠🔬🎉
Sophia's thesis work on arachnoid barrier breakdown in meningitis is on bioRxiv - check it out!
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...
Yessss, amazing news!! Congrats Professor!! 🎉🎉🎉
Beautiful work as always 🧠🔬🤩 Congrats Sophia and team!! 🎉🎉
![graphical schematic of the meninges on top depicting the three layers [dura, arachnoid and pia] and other immune and vascular cell types. Inset shows Claudin-11 junction proteins connecting two sides of arachnoid barrier cells
bottom schematic is the same but in inflammation with bacteria, junctions breakdown, depiction of cytokine release by vascular, meningeal and immune cells - at side of graphic is summary of defects we observe in infection: 'increased barrier permeability' 'mislocalization of Cldn11+ tight junction' 'BAM activation' and "increased inflammatory response'](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:ghkjazitflwyaczzoo6mwmld/bafkreig7atwvlrm776nsb46y2ctlhldvpkornt4kfr33iptb7eaidm32hm)
graphical schematic of the meninges on top depicting the three layers [dura, arachnoid and pia] and other immune and vascular cell types. Inset shows Claudin-11 junction proteins connecting two sides of arachnoid barrier cells bottom schematic is the same but in inflammation with bacteria, junctions breakdown, depiction of cytokine release by vascular, meningeal and immune cells - at side of graphic is summary of defects we observe in infection: 'increased barrier permeability' 'mislocalization of Cldn11+ tight junction' 'BAM activation' and "increased inflammatory response'
🚨 New preprint from our lab led by Sophia Kim w/ @kellydoran.bsky.social group @cuanschutz.bsky.social -- using neonatal 🐭 model of bacterial meningitis ➡️ arachnoid barrier is leaky, Cldn11 junctions are disrupted & cytokines are part of the problem. Lots of 🤩🧠🦠🔬 & compelling data, check it out! 1/5
Conserved cellular architecture and developmental mechanisms of the zebrafish www.biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.02...
Excited to share my final postdoc project published. We looked into the striking amyloidosis of important brain waste clearance sites (bridging veins) in mouse and human. A great collaborative project with Rupal Mehta at Rush who did all the human studies. Thanks to everyone who contributed!
Postnatal Cerebral Perivascular Fibroblast
#SciArt
Fibroblast PDGFRα KO🐭(P0)
👉⏬Perivascular Fibroblast & Perivascular Mφ coverage of penetrating vessels (P10)
👉↔️SMC/Astrocyte coverage
@hejcell.bsky.social
@siegenthalerlab.bsky.social
@devbiol.bsky.social 2025
www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
thank you friend ❤️❤️❤️
I missed teaching with you this year!! Looks like you had a great class! 🐣🦎🐟🪱
& a great time to share a life update! (better late than never) I’ve recently started as a Postdoc in the Wills lab at University of Washington where I’ll be studying the role of fibroblasts during regeneration in Xenopus 🐸🧠 On my way to becoming a frog wrangler @frogwranglers.bsky.social
🥰🥰🥰
Thrilled to share this last little bit of my thesis work w/ @siegenthalerlab.bsky.social! 🐭🧠 Generating the PDGFRa cKO line we use in this paper was no trivial task, spanning multiple years (& a pandemic!) We were extremely excited to see this phenotype & even more excited to share it with everyone!
Our work out in @devbiol.bsky.social, PDGFra is needed for 🧠 perivascular fibroblast development... ⬇️ perivascular fibroblast = ⬇️ perivascular macrophage...cross-talk? 👀
Led by Hannah Jones @hejcell.bsky.social w/ Kelsey Abrams, Sophia Kim, excited for more projects w/ @fantauzzolab.bsky.social!
SAVE THE DATE! Stoked to organize the 2026 Santa Cruz Developmental Biology Meeting with @rashmi-priya.bsky.social, @lowelab.bsky.social, and Shelbi Russell. Come learn about Biomedicine, Biomechanics, and the Biosphere, August 24-28, 2026. Registration dates, etc., coming soon! Please RT
"If we lose hope, we're doomed."
We must continue Dr. Jane Goodall's mission and all fight for the future of the planet.
PhD Timeline xkcd.com/3081
@cshlmeetings.bsky.social Brain Barriers 2025 is a wrap! It was an honor to co-organize this meeting in 2023 & 2025, a highlight of my scientific career.
I am amazed by all the great science presented by these awesome scientists over the last five days...the future of CNS barrier biology is 🤩 💫!
🚨 A new Daneman Lab preprint!! 🚨
Reid Larsen, one of the brightest scientists I know, studied the BBB glycocalyx, identified its structure, composition, and function and uncovered what makes the CNS glycocalyx unique. It was a true pleasure to be a part of this seminal study!
shorturl.at/Wkhxr
microscope image of a postnatal mouse brain showing the entry point of blood vessel into the brain - fibroblasts (yellow: S100a6) form a layer at the brain's edge (meninges) and surround the blood vessel. Astrocyte endfeet (magenta, GFAP) form a layer at the brain's edge, apposed to the fibroblasts. Image also shows macrophages (cyan; CD206) and cell nuclei (DAPI, blue)
I was imaging this weekend, took this image because it was beautiful to me, the blood vessels, fibroblasts, astrocytes, & macrophages as steadfast guardians at the brain's edges. Cheers to the 'guardians' of all that is important. ❤️
More white coats, less white robes! @eddpasquier.bsky.social #standupforscience #standupforscience2025
sign that says in block letters “this machine kills fascists” with a cartoon of a micropipette in the center
“protect diversity & equity in STEM” written in block letters, below a cartoon of a gloved hand holding a micropipette overlaid with the female gender symbol
sign with hand written bold letters saying “vaccines cause adults”
sign with hand written bold letters saying “mRNA is literally already inside of you”
we’re standing up for science tomorrow! Made some signs tonight with Denver @standupforscience.bsky.social organizers ❤️🧬🔬🥼
"downsizes" is a weak way of saying "forced to cancel dozens of programs, which jeopardizes future STEM careers of talented undergrads" @science.org www.science.org/content/arti...
"Memoli had no choice, he insisted: He was following the direction of three HHS officials—Dorothy Fink, then the acting secretary; Heather Flick Melanson, chief of staff; and Hannah Anderson, deputy chief of staff of policy—who told him, in no uncertain terms, that the pause was to continue..."
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A small museum says all but one sponsor of a Girls in STEM event backed out, fearing retaliation from the Trump administration over "DEI." Evan Kruegel reports for @nexton9news.bsky.social. www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zg1n...
Join us! Science Homecoming helps scientists reconnect with communities by writing about the importance of science funding in their hometown newspapers. We’ve mapped every small newspaper in the U.S. and provide resources to get you started. Help science get back home 🧪🔬🧬 🏠
sciencehomecoming.com
Maybe I wasn’t clear about this. I wanted more egg and no plane crash, not many plane crash and no egg.
“It’s really an elaborate infrastructure that’s required to do this research. One of the things that concerns me is the magnitude and rapidity of these changes.”
VC for Research Tom Flaig, MD, recently spoke to @cbsnews.com about the potential impact the proposed NIH cuts could have on our campus.
