Heading to Ann Arbor! Looking forward to connecting with colleagues and sharing some of the ongoing #NIHfunded work by the #harleylab.

Any good coffee shop suggestions in a2?

... as I have been at what we have been able to accomplish across the network/consortium. I also think this is a critical time to get the word out loud and clear about what all us #NIHfunded biomedical scientists are doing with support from the American public.

LinkedIn This link will take you to a page that’s not on LinkedIn

Exciting holiday present for the Gupta lab! 🎉 🎊

Our paper "Molecular mechanism of substrate transport by human peroxisomal ABCD3" is now published in @pnas.org !! 🎉 🎊 lnkd.in/gPaFdEMn.
@ohsunews.bsky.social #OHSU #mguptalab #NIHfunded

www.mguptalab.com

Image of an adult C. elegans with green microplastics inside its gut tube.

🎉 New research!

Microplastics don’t just pollute; they carry harmful chemicals. In #Celegans, this combo reduced lifespan & reproduction.

This study was led almost entirely by undergraduate researchers at StMU 💙💛
🔗 www.mdpi.com/3615716

#microplastics #NIHfunded #science #undergraduateresearch

Early results from our Luxa Biotech-sponsored and #NEIfunded #ClinicalTrial are out in #CellStemCell. The trial uses an adult RPE stem cell therapy for dry age-related #MacularDegeneration.

Beautiful cover art by Dr. Yangzi Isabel Tian.

Full Text | zurl.co/gQ2bq
@cellpress.bsky.social
#NIHfunded

IU scientist awarded $1.9 million NIH MIRA grant to advance cutting-edge research in biological imaging

Happy and excited to share that we are #NIHFunded thanks to the MIRA R35 mechanism from NIGMS. Now let's get to work and deliver cool Science with this taxpayer-funded award. 🔥 💰 🔥

Link: news.iu.edu/college/live...

Searching for safer pain medications A Leader in University Academics

Thomas Keck, a researcher at Rowan University, is developing safer medications for pain and addiction. Supported by the NIH, his work aims to reduce the risks of dependence and help people make healthier choices.

Read more at today.rowan.edu/news/2025/09...

#AddictionResearch #NIHfunded

Safety and tolerability of RPESC-RPE transplantation in patients with dry age-related macular degeneration: Low-dose clinical outcomes Retinal pigment epithelium (RPE) cell loss in dry age-related macular degeneration leads to progressive vision decline. Stern and others implanted adult RPE stem cell-derived RPE progeny at a 4-week p...

Big news! Early results from Cohort 1 of our Luxa Biotechnology-sponsored and #NEIfunded clinical trial are now available online at Cell Stem Cell!

Open Access Full Text | zurl.co/piAT4

#NIHfunded #MacularDegeneration #ClinicalTrials

Improvement of the Density Fitting Approach for the Gaussian Electrostatic Model via the use of the Discrete Picard Condition in Tychonov Regularization The Gaussian Electrostatic Model (GEM) is a density-based force field that employs Hermite Gaussian auxiliary basis sets (ABSs) to represent molec- ular electronic densities for accurate intermolecula...

Latest preprint from our group:
Improvement of the Density Fitting Approach for the Gaussian Electrostatic Model via the use of the Discrete Picard Condition in Tychonov Regularization |
#NIHfunded
ChemRxiv - doi.org/10.26434/che...

Bridging Minds Much like the inner workings of the brain itself, neural engineers from various departments at the University of Pittsburgh work together to study fundamental neuroscience and create translational app...

news.engineering.pitt.edu/bridging-min... #BCI #NeuroTech #NIHFunded #NeuralEngineering #PittResearch

Predicting Heart Failure Outcomes Using Patient-Reported Health Status: Real-World Validation of the KCCQ-12 - PubMed In outpatient heart failure care, lower KCCQ-OS scores were strongly associated with increased hospitalizations and mortality, with the greatest risk among patients with scores <25. Noncompletion of t...

Brand-new @jaccjournals.bsky.social - paper on predicting heart failure outcomes co-authored by Vanderbilt lead biostatistician Amy Perkins and professors Rob Greevy and Michael Matheny. #MachineLearning #HealthInformatics pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/40499980/ #PCORI #NIHfunded

VUMC-led research a step closer to understanding, preventing asthma Infants who develop a “wheezing illness” or infected by RSV before their 1st birthday are at increased risk for subsequent and severe viral infections and childhood asthma.

Nice piece this week about an asthma study co-authored by Vanderbilt Biostatistics' Tebeb Gebretsadik and Siyuan Ma: news.vumc.org/2025/06/17/c... #NIHfunded #pediatrics

Here Are the Nearly 2,500 Medical Research Grants Canceled or Delayed by Trump (Gift Article) Some cuts have been starkly visible, but the country’s medical grant-making machinery has also radically transformed outside the public eye.

🚨 What #NIHfunded research has been cancelled or delayed at your local US university? Type in your local university's name here to find out 👇🏻

At Penn State: work on kidney disease and viruses like West Nile, among other research. #SaveNIH

www.nytimes.com/interactive/...

Can AI help radiologists catch cancer earlier and reduce fatigue-related errors?
NIH-funded research at @UMBaltimore by Ahmed Sultan is showing how #AI can transform oral cancer detection.
#OralCancer #MedicalAI #NIHfunded #BreakthroughsCantWaitUMB

A new breakthrough in bone healing:
Dr. Abraham Schneider’s NIH-supported research is testing how a type 2 diabetes drug could promote craniofacial bone growth.
#MedicalScience #BoneRegrowth #MetforminResearch #NIHFunded #DentalInnovation #PublicHealth

That's a wrap! Sally Temple, Taylor Bertucci and Kate Tubbesing all spoke at the annual #NIHfunded Alzheimer's Disease Sequencing Project #FunctionalGenomics meeting at the @gladstoneinst.bsky.social.

#ADSP #FunGen #Alzheimers

Effects of a Cancer-Associated Mutation and Multiple Serine Phosphorylation on Poly(ADP-Ribose) Polymerase 2 Poly [ADP-ribose] polymerase 2 (PARP2) plays a crucial role in DNA repair. A common single-nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) in the PARP2 gene, rs3093921, has been associated with pancreatic cancer and ma...

Latest preprint from our group is out, where we explore the impact of PTMs and a cancer mutation on PARP2. Great job by REU student Bridget Hughes, @shubhamchatterjee.bsky.social and Mozhdeh Ghafari:
#NIHfunded
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

Structure of human MUTYH and functional profiling of cancer-associated variants reveal an allosteric network between its [4Fe-4S] cluster cofactor and active site required for DNA repair Nature Communications - MUTYH removes A mis-incorporated opposite oxidized guanine to thwart mutations. Here, the authors present crystal structures and assess functional impacts and molecular...

Finally online! Latest paper from our group, by @upeksha.bsky.social in collaboration with Carlos Trasviña and Sheila David:
#NIHfunded
rdcu.be/ehTLp

Excited to meet with Dr Blair Golden, here at UW-Madison! @blairgolden.bsky.social #delirium #nihfunded

A Patient's Perspective on Federal Science Laura Collins is a recently retired federal civil servant with nearly four decades of dedicated service to the American public. She also has a unique perspective on the importance of federally funded ...

Laura Collins, a longtime federal civil servant, has a unique perspective on the importance of federally funded research. In 2023, she received immunotherapy for #breastcancer... a therapy that emerged through #NIHfunded research.

silencedsciencestories.com/f/a-patients... @gloglita.bsky.social

Computational studies on the functional and structural impact of pathogenic mutations in enzymes Enzymes are critical biological catalysts involved in maintaining the intricate balance of metabolic processes within living organisms. Mutations in enzymes can result in disruptions to their functio...

New review on how computational simulations help understand and/or predict effects of pathogenic mutations in enzymes.
Great collaborative work by
@upeksha.bsky.social, @arkanil.bsky.social, Yazdan, Sarthi and Tanay
#NIHFunded
onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10....

Comparison of Magnesium and Manganese Ions on the Structural and Catalytic Properties of Human DNA Polymerase Gamma DNA polymerases are essential enzymes responsible for accurate genome replication and repair, with divalent metal cofactors playing a crucial role in their catalytic function. Polymerase gamma (Pol γ) is the primary DNA polymerase in mitochondria, ensuring the faithful replication of mitochondrial DNA. The choice of metal cofactor, typically magnesium (Mg²⁺) or manganese (Mn²⁺), influences its structural stability, enzymatic activity, and fidelity. In this study, we employed molecular dynamics (MD) simulations and hybrid quantum mechanics/molecular mechanics (QM/MM) calculations to investigate how Mg²⁺ and Mn²⁺ affect the flexibility, active site stabilization, and catalytic efficiency of Pol γ. It is seen that Mn²⁺ increases overall protein flexibility, whereas Mg²⁺ provides greater active site stabilization. Intermolecular interaction analysis of individual residues are consistent with experimental mutagesis reports, and highlight the importance of specific residues, many of which are evolutionarily conserved, and some are involved in pathogenic mutations. Despite this, Mn²⁺ enhances catalytic efficiency, exhibiting higher exoergicity (-3.65 kcal/mol vs. -1.61 kcal/mol for Mg²⁺) and a lower activation barrier. Inter-molecular interaction analysis reveals that Mn²⁺ provides a larger stabilization of the transition state and product complex, favoring reaction progression. Investigation of the effects of electric field in the active site suggest that the O3’ atom on the DNA primer base experiences a larger polarization in the system with Mn2+ ions when compared to Mg2+, with dipole directions consistent with the catalytic reaction progress. Our findings highlight a trade-off between structural stability and catalytic efficiency, providing insights into the role of metal ions in mitochondrial polymerase function and their implications for mutagenesis and mitochondrial disorders.

Latest preprint from our group, great job by Arkanil Roy @arkanil.bsky.social to investigate the structural, dynamical and catalytic differences in human DNA polymerase gamma in Mg(II) or Mn(II) solutions
#NIHfunded
chemrxiv.org/engage/chemr...

FEBS Press Reactive oxygen species induce mutagenic DNA lesions, such as 8-oxo-2′-deoxyguanosine (8-oxodG), which acts as a template for dCMP and dAMP incorporation through its anti and syn conformations. Speci....

Latest paper from the group is out, great contribution by @upeksha.bsky.social for a collaboration with CINVESTAV and LANGEBIO colleagues in México
febs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...
#NIHFunded

Impact of a Cancer-Associated Mutation on Poly(ADP-ribose) Polymerase1 Inhibition Poly(ADP-ribose) polymerase1 (PARP1) plays a vital role in DNA repair, and its inhibition in cancer cells may cause cell apoptosis. In this study, we investigated the effects of a PARP1 variant, V762A, which is strongly associated with several cancers in humans, on the inhibition of PARP1 by three FDA-approved inhibitors: niraparib, rucaparib, and talazoparib. Specifically, we compared the inhibition of the mutant to that of wild-type (WT) PARP1. Additionally, we investigated how the mutation influences the binding of these inhibitors to PARP1. Our work suggests that while mutant PARP1 exhibits only minor differences in residual fluctuations, backbone deviations, and residue motion correlations compared to the WT under niraparib and rucaparib inhibitions, it shows significant and distinct differences in these features when inhibited by talazoparib. Among the three inhibitions, talazoparib inhibition uniquely lowers the average residue fluctuations in the mutant than the WT including lower fluctuations of mutant’s N- and C-terminal residues in the catalytic domain, conserved H-Y-E traid residues, and donor loop (D-loop) residues which are important for catalysis more effectively than other inhibitions. However, talazoparib also significantly enhances destabilizing interactions between the mutation site in the HD domain in the mutant than WT. Further, among the three inhibitions, talazoparib inhibition uniquely and significantly disrupts the functional fluctuations of terminal regions in the mutant, which are otherwise present in the WT. The mutation and inhibition do not significantly affect PARP1’s essential dynamics. Lastly, these inhibitors bind to the V762A mutant more effectively than to the WT, with similar binding free energies between them.

Interested in how cancer mutations affect drug inhibition?
Check out our latest paper, Published as part of The Journal of Physical Chemistry B special issue “At the Cutting Edge of Theoretical and Computational Biophysics”.
#NIHFunded #UTDScience
pubs.acs.org/doi/full/10....

A photo of wrinkly and smooth colonies on a petri plate. The wrinkly colonies are mutants of Pseudomonas fluorescens that were experimentally evolved by high school students, selecting for biofilm on plastic beads in test tubes.

Timeline cleanse:

An awesome teacher doing our @evolvingstem.bsky.social curriculum just sent this photo and note:

"As always, I love this curriculum. Thank you. I have another student who published some work as an offshoot from it, I’ll send along when it is done."

❤️🧫🧪 #nihfunded

Day 4: The discovery of Green Fluorescent Protein (GFP) by Dr. Osamu Shimomura, Dr. Douglas Prasher, Dr. Martin Chalfie, and Dr. Roger Tsien, funded partly by the NIH, has enabled countless discoveries in molecular biology.

✨ Also it looks cool✨
#CellBiology #NIHfunded #Science

Stromal KITL/SCF maintains pancreas tissue homeostasis and restrains tumor progression Abstract. Components of normal tissue architecture serve as barriers to tumor progression. Inflammatory and wound-healing programs are requisite features of solid tumorigenesis, wherein alterations to...

Happy to share our new #NIHfunded study! Led by Kath Oñate + crew of #WomenInSTEM 💪🏽💪🏻💪, we ID potential of normal mesenchyme to restrain #inflammation, epithelial identity, & #pancreaticcancer via KITL, a cue lost in transition to a CAF state. Now at Cancer Discovery aacrjournals.org/cancerdiscov...

Dog size and patterns of disease history across the canine age spectrum: Results from the Dog Aging Project Age in dogs is associated with the risk of many diseases, and canine size is a major factor in that risk. However, the size patterns are complex. While small size dogs tend to live longer, some diseas...

In addition to co-authoring a new paper in Frontiers in Genetics, #VUMCbiostat PhD student Yunbi Nam is first author of a #NIHfunded paper published @plosone.org a year ago. journals.plos.org/plosone/arti... It has nearly 8K views & has been cited 10 times to date.

Central or Peripheral Venoarterial Extracorporeal Membrane... : Pediatric Critical Care Medicine amine a large, international dataset of venoarterial ECMO patients for pediatric sepsis to identify outcomes associated with flow and cannulation site. Design: Retrospective analysis of the Extraco...

New today in Pediatric Critical Care Medicine: paper on reducing pediatric sepsis co-authored by #VUMCbiostat research associate professor Heidi Chen w/colleagues in VUMC pediatrics, @uarkansas.bsky.social & Medical University of SC #NIHfunded journals.lww.com/pccmjournal/...

Investigation of the Stability of D5SIC-DNAM-Incorporated DNA duplex in Taq Polymerase Binary system: A Systematic Classical MD Approach DNA polymerases are fundamental enzymes that play a crucial role in processing DNA with high fidelity and accuracy ensuring the faithful transmission of genetic information. The recognition of unnatur...

Just online in PCCP 25th anniversary issue:
Structural/Dynamical study of D5SIC-DNAM incorporated DNA in water, and in complex with Taq DNA polymerase. Beautiful job by Tanay Debnath, #NIHfunded, #FulbrightProgram

doi.org/10.1039/D3CP...
doi.org/10.1039/D3CP...