A baby named KJ, born with a rare genetic disorder called CPS1 deficiency, is thriving thanks to the world’s first personalized gene-editing treatment. 🧬✨
Doctors at @childrensphila.bsky.social used base editing—a tool invented by HHMI Investigator David Liu and his lab at Harvard.
HHMI
💥🥳 At long last, our latest paper is out!
Gag proteins of endogenous retroviruses are required for zebrafish development
www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...
Led heroically by Sylvia Chang & @jonowells.bsky.social
A study which has changed the way I think of #transposons! No less! 🧵 1/n
TIM-3's role in microglia and Alzheimer's is unveiled! Found to influence neurodevelopment and neuroinflammation, affecting late-onset Alzheimer's risk. PMID:40205047, Nature 2025, @Nature https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-025-08852-z #Medsky #Pharmsky #RNA #ASHG #ESHG 🧪
A new study raises the odds that a strategy already successful against some cancers may be deployed against Alzheimer’s.
From @kuchroolab.bsky.social and colleagues, co-first authors Kimitoshi Kimura and @ayshwaryas.bsky.social
news.harvard.edu/gazette/stor...
Transposable elements (TEs) make up the bulk of eukaryotic genomes and examples abound
of TE-derived sequences repurposed for organismal function. ...
Microglia are the resident immune cells in the brain and have pivotal roles in neurodevelopment and neuroinflammation1,2. This study investigates the function of the immune-checkpoint molecule TIM-3 (encoded by HAVCR2) in microglia. TIM-3 was recently identified as a genetic risk factor for late-onset Alzheimer’s disease3, and it can induce T cell exhaustion4. However, its specific function in brain microglia remains unclear. We demonstrate in mouse models that TGFβ signalling induces TIM-3 expression in microglia. In turn, TIM-3 interacts with SMAD2 and TGFBR2 through its carboxy-terminal tail, which enhances TGFβ signalling by promoting TGFBR-mediated SMAD2 phosphorylation, and this process maintains microglial homeostasis. Genetic deletion of Havcr2 in microglia leads to increased phagocytic activity and a gene-expression profile consistent with the neurodegenerative microglial phenotype (MGnD), also referred to as disease-associated microglia (DAM). Furthermore, microglia-targ
I've never had any luck trying to explain what it's like to be from Michigan—but here on forward I think I'll send this article and call it good.
www.nytimes.com/2025/04/18/u...
Tom Cox
Outstanding Barbara McClintock Life Sciences Lecture by @michellemonje.bsky.social @cornell. And honored to have her as the first official visitor to our newly renovated space, and adding her favorite OPCs to our cell type leaderboard 🧫 🧠
Cedric Feschotte
Shicheng Guo
Harvard Brain Science Initiative
Breaking News: A baby with a rare disorder made medical history by receiving the first custom gene-editing treatment. The technique used has the potential to help people with thousands of other uncommon genetic diseases. nyti.ms/4j49xBy
Carl T. Bergstrom
A thread of interdimensional portals I've found on walks in the British countryside.