The postdoc in the lab Carlos Gomez nailing it at the #AACR2026 - come check his work!

Congratulations to the postdoc in the lab, Carlos Gomez for obtaining an AACR @theaacr.bsky.social Early-Career Scholar Award for the upcoming Annual Meeting in San Diego! Well done Carlos! @muschollings.bsky.social

The recent Cancer Biology and Immunology retreat of MUSC’s Hollings Cancer Center was a big success! Huge congratulations to the postdoc in the lab Carlos Gomez for winning 2nd place award for an outstanding presentation!

We had a blast celebrating the season, birthdays, and another year of science in an appropriate fashion by playing “Publish or Perish”! I also loved my present, I think the lab knows a thing or two…Happy Holidays from our lab!

The graduate students in the lab Houda Mesnaoui and Jordan Jarvis gathering crowds at the @ascbiology.bsky.social #CellBio2025!

Congratulations to the PhD Students in the lab Houda Mesnaoui and Jordan Jarvis for obtaining not one, but TWO MUSC awards each: a T32 Research Enhancement Initiative Award and an Emerging Scholars Travel Award to participate in the upcoming @ascbiology.bsky.social Cell Bio meeting. Well done both!

Representative images of Caco2+LZRS, PIWIL2 KO+LZRS and PIWIL2 KO+PIWIL2-FLAG cells grown in anchorage independent conditions after 7 days.

@sciencealyssa.bsky.social, @kourtidislab.bsky.social & co investigate the PIWI-piRNA pathway in #coloncancer using a nuanced bioinformatic and cell-based approach, linking the downregulation of PIWIL2 to disease progression, transposable element activation and DNA damage. doi.org/10.1242/bio....

Big day for the lab today! Our DMD/PhD student Christina Kingsley and the PhD student Jordan Jarvis won 1st place poster and 1st place oral presentation Awards, respectively, during the MUSC College of Graduate Studies #ResearchDay! Congratulations to both!

I had a blast riding alongside more than 1500 bike riders for #lowvelo and #Hollings Cancer Center @muschealth.bsky.social to help raise money for life-saving #cancer #research! The fundraising continues, help me reach our goal! To learn more and donate: fundraise.musc.edu/fundraiser/6...

Happy Halloween from our lab!

The big day is here! We ride again on November 1st across #Charlestonsc to support the vital mission of Hollings Cancer Center at MUSC to discover new cures and fight #cancer. 100% of donated funds go directly to life-saving cancer #research. Learn more and donate: fundraise.musc.edu/fundraiser/6...

PIWIL2 downregulation in colon cancer promotes transposon activity and pro-tumorigenic phenotypes Summary: This study investigates the PIWI-piRNA pathway in colon cancer using a nuanced bioinformatic and cell-based approach, linking the downregulation of PIWIL2 to disease progression, transposable...

Excited to share our most recent publication, where we delve into the roles of the #PIWI - #piRNA pathway in #transposon regulation, in #epithelial #homeostasis and #cancer. Fabulous work by the recently graduated student in the lab @sciencealyssa.bsky.social journals.biologists.com/bio/article/...

It has been a little while since I have posted here on BlueSky but a huge thank you to the Kourtidis Lab team for making my defense so special! It is an honor!

Huge congratulations to Alyssa Risner @sciencealyssa.bsky.social for doing a phenomenal job and successfully defending her Thesis! Very proud of her for her hard work and outstanding contributions, but also for her being a true team player. Well done Dr. Risner, best of luck in the new life ahead!

Very insightful by Martin Schwartz, as always: Why would anyone want to be a scientist?

The subcellular topology of the RNAi machinery is multifaceted and reveals adherens junctions as an epithelial hub - Scientific Reports Scientific Reports - The subcellular topology of the RNAi machinery is multifaceted and reveals adherens junctions as an epithelial hub

Very happy to share our latest work revealing that localization of the #RNAi machinery at #adherens junctions is a universal feature of #epithelial cells and tissues. Great work and team effort by Joyce Nair-Menon, the lab and collaborators! @sciencealyssa.bsky.social www.nature.com/articles/s41...

The phosphorylated form of α-catenin localizes to the apical portion of adherens junctions. The image shows 3D surface rendering using Imaris software of a confocal image of a dividing kidney epithelial cell line (Madin–Darby canine kidney or MDCK cells). Phosphorylated α-catenin is shown in magenta and adherens junctions are in green.

🧪Phuong Le, Jeanne Quinn, @jfhorner.bsky.social @carajgottardi.bsky.social & co show that the adhesion protein α-catenin has a key modification that allows dividing cells to stay better connected to their neighbours, helping the tissue stick together during mechanical stress. doi.org/10.1242/bio....

Well done Rachel, Amy and amazing Team!

😄

Hope you get it through…we have delays on getting non-competing 2nd yr etc NOAs too, hopefully it’s only delays due to the current mess…

Oh no! Get well soon Diana!

Yes, we got one approved late February - after many days though that not even the NCE “button” on eRA commons was available…are you having issues with yours?

The NTDscope is a portable brightfield, darkfield, and fluorescence microscope used for the diagnosis of neglected tropical diseases (NTDs). Check out our latest preprint: www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1...

Fascinating!

graph of NIH basisfor new drugs

A pie graph worth keeping in mind as the NIH budget plummets jamanetwork.com/journals/jam... for 356 new FDA drugs approved

"When a complex system is far from equilibrium, small islands of coherence in a sea of chaos have the capacity to shift the entire system to a higher order." Iya Prigogine, Noble prize-winning chemist

"When a complex system is far from equilibrium, small islands of coherence in a sea of chaos have the capacity to shift the entire system to a higher order."

Iya Prigogine, Noble prize-winning chemist

me, as a senior PI: US science as we know it may be ending? Review these cool manuscripts? Serve on these grant review panels? Yes! All in! Going down in a blaze of glory!

😂

Fantastic work Ankita and especially amidst all that’s happening - huge congratulations!

CD44 and Ezrin restrict EGF receptor mobility to generate a novel spatial arrangement of cytoskeletal signaling modules driving bleb-based migration Cells under high confinement form highly polarized hydrostatic pressure-driven, stable leader blebs that enable efficient migration in low adhesion, environments. Here we investigated the basis of the...

As scientist I am going through difficult times (this is understatement of the year for me!!). Past one and half months have been horrible, however I am trying to pick myself up and super excited to share my postdoc work with the community! #cellmigration
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...