NIH Funding Led to a 250 Percent Economic Return on Investment | The Scientist Research advocacy group United for Medical Research reported that NIH grant money stimulated the US economy, but certain funding mechanisms may limit future benefits.

Every $1 from NIH that Oregon gets stimulates $2.50 in economic activity. Better returns than Vegas, kids.

We need your support to keep the NIH, the NSF, and other federal agencies supporting science funded and thriving.
www.the-scientist.com/nih-funding-...

Epigenetic memory of colitis promotes tumour growth - Nature Colonic stem cells retain a memory of inflammation following disease resolution and there is a mechanistic link between chronic inflammation and malignancy, suggesting potential strategies to mitigate...

It’s well known that inflammation increases cancer risk, but how?

The answer: the epigenome "remembers" inflammation and primes stem cells for cancer.

Here is our paper: nature.com/articles/s41...
And a special shoutout to the lead author
@snaga13.bsky.social

A 🧵

I love when @jesshebert.bsky.social catches my finest moments in science

The molecular basis of force selectivity by PIEZO2 - Nature PIEZO2 is intrinsically more rigid than PIEZO1, and disparate mechanical stimuli paradoxically evoke opposite conformational and gating responses in each channel.

Very excited to share our new manuscript – published today!

Why are PIEZO1 and PIEZO2 are tuned to transduce different types of mechanical force? I was lucky to work with some extraordinary colleagues to begin to figure out why.

www.nature.com/articles/s41...

An overview of the results below ⬇️ ⬇️

The molecular basis of force selectivity by PIEZO2 - Nature PIEZO2 is intrinsically more rigid than PIEZO1, and disparate mechanical stimuli paradoxically evoke opposite conformational and gating responses in each channel.

So proud of my lab mate @ericmulhall.bsky.social and honored to help with this amazing project he led using MINFLUX to study why PIEZO2 behaves differently than PIEZO1 from the lab of @ardemp.bskyverified.social share.google/2Uln5O5OyqhM...

I think you were still a postdoc when I took it and we had a good laugh

Preliminary Valentine's data from my postdoc work with @ardemp.bskyverified.social - RNAscope of Piezo2 transcript (green) and a nociceptor marker (magenta) in a mouse dorsal root ganglion 💜

🧠⚡️💊New @nature.com publication !

Mimicking opioid analgesia in cortical pain circuits

We built a brain-behavior framework to decode spontaneous chronic pain in mice—and to biologically mimic morphine with a synthetic opioid gene therapy

nature.com/articles/s41...

@pennmedicine.bsky.social

Nice way to end the year being part of this paper in Cell showing that PIEZO2 is an essential regulator of renin by @rose-hill.bsky.social and top scientists including @ardemp.bskyverified.social
www.cell.com/cell/fulltex...
@cellpress.bsky.social @nu-nephrology.bsky.social@nufeinbergmed.bsky.social

Study reveals a key hormonal circuit in the kidneys

A new @cp-cell.bsky.social study led by @ardemp.bskyverified.social and @rose-hill.bsky.social identifies a kidney mechanism that allows renin to adjust in real time, showing that PIEZO2 enables cells to sense physical forces and fine-tune renin release.

Thank you for always believing in me and the project! We did it.

Our story on mechanosensation in baroreceptor cells of the kidney is finally out! Well worth the wait on this project we began in 2020 that turned into a massive collaborative effort within the kidney field. 🫘 www.sciencedirect.com:5037/science/arti...

It's crazy how p&t committees (at least what I've heard from colleagues at other universities) seem to be unsympathetic to global/national events and their impact on junior faculty...

This is not looking good for early career researchers, or any researchers.

A Reference Atlas of the Human Dorsal Root Ganglion Somatosensory perception largely emerges from diverse peripheral sensory neurons whose cell bodies reside in dorsal root ganglia (DRG). Damage or dysfunction of DRG neurons is a major cause of chronic...

The BIG DRG paper is now up on @biorxiv-neursci.bsky.social www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1... so many people worked so hard to make this happen. Props to the whole PRECISION Human Pain Network.

First ION lab Halloween! Left to right: Mint Spice (TRPM8), Ginger Spice (TRPA1), Bactrachotoxin Spice (NaV), Capsaicin Spice (TRPV1) 🧊 🧄 🐸 🌶️

Guess which TRP channel agonist I dressed as? Honored to stand next to my childhood hero @jesshebert.bsky.social Ms. Frizzle

Zara Weinberg passed away earlier this week. She joined my lab earlier this year when her postdoc lab formally closed.
She was a brilliant scientist, supportive mentor, dear friend, avid music fan, rabid believer in public transit, open science champion, and above all just an amazing human.

Zara Weinberg was a brilliant light both in and out of science. She changed the lives of everyone she interacted and loved for the better. Her legacy will live on through all of us and we will fight for a better world on behalf of her memory.

Neuronal architecture of the mouse insular cortex underlying its diverse functions The insular cortex integrates interoceptive and exteroceptive information to mediate bodily homeostasis, emotion, learning, and potentially consciousness.[1][1]–[4][2] However, the cellular and circui...

A tour de force study by my colleague Tianyi Mao's lab
@volluminstitute.bsky.social. Must read if one is interested in interoception, the insular cortex, or circuit architecture of associative cortices.
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

Meet the real rainbow fish 🌈🐟 Using Cre-mediated recombination, each zebrafish cell expresses a unique fluorescent color, creating a living rainbow of developmental history 🎨✨ Image by Bret Pearson #FluorescenceFriday #Zebrafish #DevBio

Stolen from the Internet, a sign that says "If Elevator does not move do a small jump it should move after", and a dirty-white freight elevator wall and aged elevator controls with only floors 1 and 2." I have no idea where this really is, I just stole it off Wikimedia.

University administration:
"We need you to complete 26 hours of lab safety training 🧪 each year so that everyone is safe and responsible."

Also university administration:

I’m extremely honored to be a recipient of the NIH Director’s Pioneer Award!

I remember discussing the scurfy mouse in immunology class, which initially arose from basic research done at a national lab with government funds (Oak Ridge NL, near where my father grew up)...what an important finding to earn this year's Nobel Prize.

Congratulations to Mary Brunkow, Fred Ramsdell and Shimon Sakaguchi for this year's Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine. It also demonstrates the fairness of the prize, as Mary Brunkow is a Senior Program Manager (not a professor) at the @isbscience.org
hood.isbscience.org/people/mary-...

Figure from our review paper showing various fluorescence microscopy images of cells and structures of the kidney

Sharing this excellent review now out from postdoc Sarah McLarnon! Lots of useful info on 3D imaging, quantification of imaging data, and how this has been applied to the kidney. And since it's #FluorescenceFriday, sharing a figure with our own imaging data!
www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

Can confirm that was said

Exploring the correspondence between gene expression and thalamic nuclei using the THALMANAC resource The thalamus connects the sensory organs and major subcortical brain regions with the neocortex. The thalamus has long been divided into multiple discrete nuclei, based on cytoarchitecture, histochemi...

Check out our resource for navigating and analyzing spatial transcriptomics data in the thalamus, which we fondly call "the THALMANAC" (𝐓𝐇𝐀𝐋amus 𝐌ERFISH 𝐀𝐍alysis and 𝐀𝐂cess), now live on bioRxiv:
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

We’re hiring!
My new Gut–Brain Axis Lab at Northwestern is looking for a Research Technologist 2 to help build the lab and explore how the nervous system shapes gut health and disease.
🔬 Apply here: myhr.northwestern.edu/psp/hrnu/EMP...