Sean M. Gibbons

🌌 𝗡𝗲𝘄 𝗘𝗱𝗶𝘁𝗼𝗿𝗶𝗮𝗹 𝗜𝗹𝗹𝘂𝘀𝘁𝗿𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻: 𝗔 𝗚𝗮𝗹𝗮𝘅𝘆 𝗼𝗳 𝗣𝗿𝗼𝘁𝗲𝗶𝗻 𝗗𝗼𝗺𝗮𝗶𝗻 𝗩𝗮𝗿𝗶𝗮𝗻𝘁𝘀 Exciting findings from a #Nature study led by Toni Beltran and Ben Lehner FRS FMedSci! The research reveals that most disease-causing mutations destabilize proteins, causing them to misfold, degrade, or clump together. Their team created 𝗛𝘂𝗺𝗮𝗻 𝗗𝗼𝗺𝗮𝗶𝗻𝗼𝗺𝗲 𝟭, the largest-ever library of 500,000+ protein variants, shedding light on how mutations lead to disease. This breakthrough holds the potential to revolutionize 𝗽𝗿𝗲𝗰𝗶𝘀𝗶𝗼𝗻 𝗺𝗲𝗱𝗶𝗰𝗶𝗻𝗲, paving the way for targeted treatments tailored to specific mutations. 📎 https://lnkd.in/dEsg2yjG PR by Centre for Genomic Regulation (CRG): https://lnkd.in/dZieWRMn ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ ✉️ hello@queralttolosa.com 🌐 www.queralttolosa.com ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ #Innovation #Science #Research #PrecisionMedicine #Genomics #Proteomics #RareDisease #Mutation #SciArt #SciComm

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Negar Janani, Ph.D., Yaning Liu, Troy Butler, Erin Austin and co-authors publish "A novel application of data-consistent inversion to overcome spurious inference in genome-wide association studies" in the journal "Genetic Epidemiology". DOI: 10.1002/gepi.22563 In this article, the authors, Negar Janani, Ph.D., Kendra Young, Gregory Kinney, MPH PhD, Matt Strand, John E. Hokanson, Yaning Liu, Troy Butler, and Erin Austin, propose an assumption-free model built upon data-consistent inversion (DCI), which is a recently developed measure-theoretic framework utilized for uncertainty quantification. This proposed DCI-derived model builds a nonparametric distribution on model inputs that propagates to the distribution of observed data without the required normality assumption of residuals in the regression model. This characteristic enables the proposed DCI-derived model to cover all genetic variants without emphasizing on additivity of the classic-GWAS model. Through simulations and a replication GWAS with data from the COPDGene, the authors demonstrate the ability of this model to control the Type-I error rate at least as well as the classic-GWAS (additive linear model) approach while having similar or greater power to discover variants in different genetic modes of transmission. Find the article at: https://lnkd.in/g9w8s7Kr

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Two updates to announce today: 1- The House might be done with appropriations for the moment, but we aren't done talking about them. I've actually written a recap of everything that is included in the bills they've passed so far - including calculations of what fraction of the funding will do directly to the performance of research (R&D Estimates) and how the agencies fared in terms of total appropriations. https://lnkd.in/dyqTwpEF 2- The Senate is marking up their next suite of appropriations bills in committee as we speak, and I've updated the FY 2025 dashboard with the accounts I could find in the bill summaries that have been released so far. I'll update them again later when the bill text and reports are released. https://lnkd.in/eNKVqyfh

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A new paper from our team led by Emily Kunselman​ reveals how temperature influences the deadly OsHV-1 virus in juvenile Pacific oysters in San Diego Bay. Key findings show: - OsHV-1 thrives and causes mortality at temperatures above 15°C. - Higher temperatures (21-24°C) accelerate oyster deaths. - Infection alters oyster microbiomes, weakening defenses and leading to bacterial infections. These insights are crucial for managing OsHV-1 in oyster farms, impacting both food security and ocean health. Dive into the details and stay informed about oyster aquaculture advancements! 🔬🌡️🦪 #MarineBiology #Aquaculture #Microbiome #OysterResearch #UCSD 📖 [Read the full study](https://lnkd.in/geK7S8dj)

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The Chan Zuckerberg Initiative has awarded $14M to four cell biology research collaboratives to develop technology for better understanding cells. The multi-year grants will bring together regional labs in California, the Mid-Atlantic, and the Research Triangle in North Carolina to explore the frontiers of genomics, cell biology, and synthetic biology by developing new measurement technologies. These projects will focus on developing technologies to engineer cell and tissue models, exploring cellular responses to genetic and environmental stressors, understanding the role of #RNA in metabolism, and more. More on each project below: Exploratory cell networks to decode and program cellular behavior: Caltech, UCLA, and the University of Southern California will engineer, manipulate, and analyze complex multicellular systems, starting with muscle and immune cells. Findings from the project could help unlock a variety of cell and gene therapies to treat diseases such as #cancer, #musculardystrophy, and #autoimmune conditions. Innovative approaches for charting state-dependent RNA metabolic networks: The Salk Institute for Biological Studies, Scripps Research, and UC San Diego will create a set of technologies to research RNA and cellular metabolism. These methods will clarify how cells respond and adapt to genetic and environmental stresses, including aging and diseases linked to RNA dysregulation, such as #Alzheimer’s disease. Revealing the hidden topologies of the human kinome: Duke University, North Carolina State University, and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill will develop a suite of new tools capable of monitoring and manipulating protein kinases, which are not only key biological regulators but also a frequent target for therapeutic intervention. This work will help researchers better understand cellular organization, nervous system function, and neurological diseases. Technologies for mapping RNA/protein flux, assembly, and aging through condensates: Princeton University, The Rockefeller University, and the University of Pennsylvania will develop technologies to clarify how RNA and proteins move and are metabolized within cells, with a specific focus on membrane-less compartments in cells. These new tools will fill a gap in foundational biology and may be helpful for understanding a core process impacting disease diagnosis and aging. Read more here: https://lnkd.in/gBngZ2_R

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Article on Science Careers... Good news coming out of NIH for early career scientist. Find a #Postdoc who checks off all the boxes by promoting your search in the May 10 Postdoc Job Focus issue of Science. Attract highly qualified candidates across all disciplines, let them know you're hiring and target a pool of potential postdocs who align with your research focus. 📧 me today for additional information. #postdocs #unversities #recruiters #principalinvestigators

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Why space? because it forces you to be your best. In your health, in your performance, in how you recycle everything, in how you maximize resources, in how you do healthcare, in how you do mental health, in how your don't take all the precious resources on earth for granted, in how you solve problems. Come apply your curiosity and thirst for knowledge about human adaptability to extreme environments in a science project to advance our exploration of space.

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Presenting an ASM Webinar for Undergraduate and Graduate Students on careers in microbial ecology!

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A paper from our group was just published on PLOSONE with Dr. Katherine Swanson (now at Cal Poly) as first author and in collaboration with Dr. David Hendrix, Dr. Duo Jiang, and Dr. Michelle Kutzler (all from Oregon State University). The objective was to assess the effect of feeding milk to adipose stem cells. By using pig as animal model, we analyzed the transcriptome of the porcine adipose stem cells besides the analysis of the miRNA in circulating exosomes and milk exosomes, besides performing in vitro adipogenic differentiation of the adipose stem cells. Our data revealed that feeding milk affects the biology and the transcriptome of the adipose stem cells, but, different than what originally hypothesized, the effect was not due to milk exosomes, as indicated by the lack of a vertically transfer (i.e., milk exosomes were not detected in circulation) and by the analysis of the transcriptomic data. https://lnkd.in/gZA5ZHy3

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So, something very exciting - a paper that I have been working on for YEARS (since postdoc) finally got published! Thanks, Nat Communications Biology! King, S.E., Schatz, N.A., Babenko, O. et al. Prenatal maternal stress in rats alters the epigenetic and transcriptomic landscape of the maternal-fetal interface across four generations. Commun Biol 8, 38 (2025). https://lnkd.in/e9j2htxw This study highlights just how much stress and trauma during pregnancy can have a lasting impact, not just on the individual going through that stress, but also how it can impact their children, grandchildren, and even great-grandchildren. The study, conducted on rats, demonstrates that prenatal exposure to maternal stress/trauma can lead to changes in both the brain and placenta that perpetuates through generations. Prenatal exposure to maternal stress has been long associated with increased risk of developing depression, anxiety, attention/learning deficits, and even immune/inflammatory conditions. We showed that there were persisting molecular changes in the brain three generations after exposure. What's even more striking is that we found many of the same changes reflected in the placenta. This suggests the potential for the placenta to be used as a window to observe what may be happening inside a newborn's brain - to use the placenta to determine if a newborn has been affected by stress exposure either directly or indirectly from generations past. Why does this matter for humans? While our study was in rats, the mechanism of controlling gene expression (epigenetics) is very similar across mammal species. This is molecular evidence to help explain how ancestral trauma can echo through families, a phenomenon that we have seen in several cohort studies looking at multiple generations in humans, a phenomenon shown to impact the health of affected individuals. However, it also provides hope. You can't treat a condition if you don't know it exists. If we can correctly identify affected newborns, we can initiate interventions like therapy or mindfulness practices from an early age, tailored for individuals at elevated risk. By acting early, we could reduce the chances of developing conditions like depression or anxiety in those with prenatal or ancestral exposure to prenatal stress. I'm very proud of this research and I hope it will be one more step towards making preventative medicine available and accessible.

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🚨 Episode 2 of our Commercialization Basics conversations is out now! 🚨 Rocky Mountain REACH Co-Director Karen Brown spoke with Monica Serban, Director of the Montana Biotechnology Center (BIOTECH), about her experience commercializing her research and bridging the gap between academics and industry. Check out the clip below and watch the full video on our YouTube channel. Don't forget to register for our REACH Ready workshop series where you can learn from experts (including Monica!) more details on what you need to commercialize your research. Register at https://bit.ly/reach-ready. https://lnkd.in/gC2pQg85

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Most people tune in to Peter Attia to learn tips to live longer and healthier lives. This episode on gene editing is mostly about the near future of biomedical engineering, but has a nice vignette on how transformational educational experiences and exceptional teachers influence one's motivation to pursue scientific research. Feng Zhang (who could have easily been included in the 2020 Nobel Prize for discoveries around CRISPR-Cas9 gene editing) might have gone a different route. But . . . -his Chinese mother (computer science) was on a visiting fellowship to the US and got a chance to visit a school in Iowa. She realized there was more hands on learning happening in the US compared to the rote memorization characteristic of Chinese schools at the time, and decided to permanently move to the US -in the 7th grade, it turns out biology does mostly involve rote memorization (the parts of a frog, kinds of trees) for Zhang, but a teacher with a passion for science invites him and fellow students to do some wet lab work, and he gets hooked on biology -that teacher comes back in the 10th grade to tell the students of an internship at a newly opened lab doing early work on genetics, and Zhang lands an internship for more hands on experience -having fallen in love with biology, he goes to Harvard and studies . . . physics and chemistry. He knew he needed a broad understanding of the physical sciences to make advances in biological engineering -he goes on to grad school to have advisors who support open-science, giving back, and emphasize the importance of mentoring others He's obviously brilliant and could have done almost anything, but nice to hear him point to rich hands on experiences and passionate teachers as deeply influential on his journey.

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Tomorrow, December 11, at 2 pm EST, tune in for a free #webinar to learn about the Great Lakes Atlas of Multi-omics Research (GLAMR), a publicly accessible website and database being used to collect and standardize the ever-growing volume of ‘omics data (DNA or RNA sequences, metabolomics, etc.) produced by Great Lakes researchers. Register here: https://lnkd.in/eTYNp3Km #ocean #exploration #omics #data #GreatLakes

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#CZBiohubSF is “computational biologists’ heaven,” says Yasin Şenbabaoğlu, Biohub SF’s new Director of Computational Biology. That’s because “Biohub researchers are generating unique, large datasets that aren’t being prioritized by industry or academia.” Şenbabaoğlu brings to his new role a wealth of experience in cancer immunology and genomics as well as the development of multimodal AI tools for biological discovery. Read about his journey and his vision for future projects: https://lnkd.in/ggjaWR-x #computationalbiology #datascience #genomics #cancer #AI

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🌱✨ After compiling this comprehensive list of early-career programs in plant science and editorial roles, I’m excited to share these valuable opportunities designed to support emerging researchers and communicators. Each program offers unique experiences that can foster professional growth and expand networks within the scientific community. If you find this resource helpful, please consider liking and sharing it with your peers. Your support can help empower more early-career scientists to take advantage of these opportunities! 1. eLife Community Ambassadors Program 2. Plantae Fellows Program 3. ASPB Ambassador Program 4. Genetics Society of America (GSA) Early Career Leadership Program 5. Assistant Features Editor for Plant Physiology 6. Assistant Features Editor for The Plant Cell 7. Journal of Experimental Botany (JXB) Editorial Internships 8. The Company of Biologists Traveling Fellowships 9. Elsevier Student Ambassador Program These programs provide valuable experience in editorial processes, science communication, and leadership in scientific publishing. Deadlines and eligibility vary, so checking each program’s official page is recommended for specific timelines and requirements. <<For details: Check comments section>>

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$100,000 For #Researchers, #Builders and #Creatives: The #O’Shaughnessy #Fellowships & #Grants The O’Shaughnessy Fellowships & Grants is a #one-year program that unites the world’s most bold and undiscovered researchers, builders and creatives to find, build and spread new #ideas. In just two years, we’ve scoured over 140 countries to find and fund 55 extraordinary innovators, leading to six companies & non-profits, five documentaries, >2.2 billion views on YouTube, and the blossoming of numerous scientific, creative, and technological projects. Application Process: Timeline 2025 January 1, 2025 to February 28, 2025 #Stage 1: Early Application Window To apply, please complete the Fellowships & Grants application form. Applications are evaluated on a rolling basis, so the earlier you apply, the earlier your application will be reviewed. We’ll let you know if you’re shortlisted for the next round as soon as we make a decision, usually in 30 days. March 1, 2025 to April 30, 2025 Extended Application Window Missed the early application window? Don’t worry. You still have a chance to apply for the Fellowships after March 1st. Fill out the application form, and we’ll add it to our backlog and review it as soon as possible. Till May 30, 2025 #Stage 2: Intro calls with the Team Shortlisted applicants will be invited to a short call with members of the OSV Team. This is your chance to share ideas, demonstrate your curiosity, and solve problems with the rest of the group. Till May 30, 2025 #Stage 3: Longer chats with the team You’ll get to meet and interact with other members of the OSV team and our extended network. Each interaction is a step closer to joining the Fellowship. We’ll let you know the final decision by June 1st, 2025. 1st July 2025 onwards #Fellowship & Grants Commencement Buckle up for a life-changing year. We’ll kick off the Fellowships & Grants Programs for all our Fellows and Grantees for more about the fellowship and previous #awardees, visit: https://lnkd.in/db5PKh8P

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In this session, Sarah Hokanson, Ph.D. (Boston University, Postdoc Academy), will provide a framework for postdocs to use when preparing for different types of feedback conversations with supervisors and/or mentors💬Postdocs will also reflect on ways to receive and take action on feedback effectively. Register for April's #NPASmartSkills course at the 🔗https://ow.ly/2Gwy50RaMzf // #postdocs #postdoctoralscholars #SmartSkills #feedback #professionaldevelopment #careerdevelopment #webinar

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In this session, Sarah Hokanson, Ph.D. (Boston University, Postdoc Academy), will provide a framework for postdocs to use when preparing for different types of feedback conversations with supervisors and/or mentors💬Postdocs will also reflect on ways to receive and take action on feedback effectively. Register for April's #NPASmartSkills course at the 🔗https://ow.ly/2Gwy50RaMzf // #postdocs #postdoctoralscholars #SmartSkills #feedback #professionaldevelopment #careerdevelopment #webinar

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In this article, Dr. Justin Siegel explores the role of computational #protein design in addressing the complex challenges around human and planetary health. The groundbreaking research of Dr. David Baker, one of the 2024 #NobelLaureates in Chemistry, and the collaborative scientific communities like Rosetta Commons, are revolutionizing our ability to navigate the vast universe of proteins. "There are an estimated 10^500 unique proteins that could exist—a number so astronomical it dwarfs the number of stars in the observable universe, which is about 10^24" says Dr. Siegel. "The integration of computational tools with biological science is unlocking solutions to problems once thought insurmountable." 📖 read more here: https://lnkd.in/gC2rUnrv #NobelPrize #ProteinInnovation #FoodandHealth #UCDavis #Foodinnovation #Healthinnovation #FoodScience #HealthScience University of California, Davis | University of California, Davis - Graduate School of Management | The March Group | Digestiva | VinZymes

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