Rod Rahimi

Excited to announce the opening of the applications for the Master in Biomedical Research.

An international, hands-on programme for students to think like scientists, work in real labs, and prepare for PhD training or R&D careers, in Lisbon. GIMM Institute
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Research Postdoctoral Fellow - Grant & Sengupta Labs in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States of America | Fellows, Students & Interns at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia Apply for Research Postdoctoral Fellow - Grant & Sengupta Labs job with Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States of America. Fellows, Students & Interns at Chil...

My lab is seeking to co-hire another postdoctoral fellow with the @shaonsengupta.bsky.social team. See details below!

careers.chop.edu/us/en/job/10...

Thanks for letting me know. The links seem to be working for me at the moment. Let me know if they still aren't working for you and I can submit a request to get the issue fixed

Will add them!

Stochasticity in cancer immunotherapy stems from rare but functionally critical Spark T cells Analysis of variations in the response of cancer immunotherapies in well-controlled ex vivo replicate cultures identifies a rare CD8+ T cell subset, Spark T cells, that drives stochastic responses. Sp...

"tumor cytotoxicity are highly variable at the macroscopic level...Stochastic activation of a rare subpopulation of T cells (so-called Spark T cells), coupled with a paracrine interferon (IFN)-γ-driven positive feedback, accounts for this measured “noise” in immunotherapeutic reactions."🧪#Immunology

TCF1 is a master regulator of T cell stemness – but can it make exhausted cells go backwards?

We setup a CRISPR KI system to ask this question, and the answer was unexpected.

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

A line graph shown the number of NIH new and competitive awards funded for fiscal year 2026 (through 2/13/26) compared with fiscal years 2021-2025. The fiscal year 2026 is lagging well behind with only 569 awards made through 2/13/26 compared to >2000 for previous fiscal years.

New and competitive renewal awards.

The number of awards is 569 compared with more than 2200 through the same date in earlier fiscal years.

All ICs have now made awards except for NIAAA, NCCIH, NLM, FIC, and OD. NEI (Eye Institute) made its first award during the new period.

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🧵 New preprint! Our 4-lab team evolved Streptococcus pneumoniae in antibiotic-treated mice of varying immune states and discovered something surprising: bacteria rarely evolved resistance. Instead, they found a different way to survive — by rewiring RNA turnover.
🔗 www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...

Tissue Regulatory T Cells FOXP3+ regulatory T cells (Tregs) have well-defined roles in limiting systemic immune responses against diverse stimuli. However, the observation that a subset of Tregs also enter nonlymphoid tissues,...

Our latest review is out, a comprehensive synthesis of #tissue #Tregs. It has been a decade since @annualreviews.bsky.social #immunology last reviewed #TissueTregs, and there have been enormous advances and conceptual leaps forward in the field

www.annualreviews.org/content/jour...

a pink calendar shows the date of february 14 ALT: a pink calendar shows the date of february 14

I accept you with minor revisions.

This is such a fun thread on a conceptual head twister of a paper. Bold hypothesis and clever selection scheme. Kudos to the authors!

A small polymerase ribozyme that can synthesize itself and its complementary strand The emergence of a chemical system capable of self-replication and evolution is a critical event in the origin of life. RNA polymerase ribozymes can replicate RNA, but their large size and structural ...

How could a simple self-replicating system emerge at the origins of life? RNA polymerase ribozymes can replicate RNA, but existing ones are so large that their self-replication seems impossible. Could they be smaller?

Excited to share our latest work in @science.org on a new small polymerase.
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Happy birthday to one of my favourite haters, Charles Darwin

Black-and-white portrait of an elderly man with a bald head and a long, full white beard. He faces the camera directly with a serious, contemplative expression. Deep lines mark his forehead and cheeks. He wears a dark, heavy coat, and the plain, softly lit background keeps attention on his face. The photograph has visible scratches and wear,

"There is grandeur in this view of life - that from so simple a beginning, endless forms most beautiful and most wonderful have been, and are being, evolved." Happy birthday to the only and only Charles Darwin. 🧪

Thrilled to share this study tracking Staph aureus carriage and transmission across the NICU using genomics! Work done w @pjplanet.bsky.social & @ahmedmicrobes.bsky.social and made possible by @centermicrobialmed.bsky.social.

Study co-led by the amazing @qianxuan.bsky.social & Lakshmi Srinivasan!

A line graph of all NIH awards made in fiscal year 2026 compared to 2021-2025. There is a lag for the first 2 months due to the government shutdown, but the pace (through February 6th) is approaching the historically normal rate.

My weekly update.

Some good(ish) news.

The pace of NIH grantmaking appears to be picking up.

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Antigen specificity of clonally enriched CD8+ T cells in multiple sclerosis - Nature Immunology Sabatino and colleagues examine expanded CD8+ T cell clonotypes from a small cohort of multiple sclerosis patients. They identified several cognate peptide epitopes that derive from Epstein–Barr virus...

Overjoyed to share our new work exploring the antigen specificity of CSF-expanded CD8+ T cells in #multiplesclerosis #EBV in @natimmunol.nature.com #immunology 🧪🧵1/

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

Very cool work from the Beattie lab. Beautiful experiments. #Immunology @forum-gd.bsky.social

To strengthen the European research on early life immunology we have started the EFIS study ELINE
Info and seminar announcement 👇🏼
#EFIS#ELINE#immunology

On the balance of knowledge - Nature Reviews Immunology Ruslan Medzhitov shares his thoughts on the balance between generating data and developing theories in immunology, with a focus on exploring the rules that govern complex systems.

Too much data, too little thinking.
A important essay from Ruslan Medzhitov on the importance of understanding data, not just generating it. A must read.
@Yale
www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Atlas-guided discovery of transcription factors for T cell programming - Nature A comprehensive atlas platform integrating transcriptional and epigenetic data enables more precise engineering of T cell states, accelerating the rational design of more effective cellular immunother...

New study—and exciting collaboration with Wei Wang, Cong Liu (UCSD), and Kay Chung (new lab at UNC)—that provides a platform for designing T cells into specific states. We identified state-selective TFs for CD8 T cell states that enable “recipes” for cell engineering! www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Happy to share a new preprint of one of my post doc projects. For those interested in tissue macrophages, immuno-metabolism and post-translational modification. Feedback welcome!

O-GlcNAcylation and low glycolysis underpin Th2 polarization by dendritic cells https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.02.03.703465v1

@biorxivpreprint.bsky.social The CD8 immgenT framework as a universal reference of mouse CD8 Tαβ cell differentiation states
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...

Atlas-guided discovery of transcription factors for T cell programming @nature.com @salkinstitute.bsky.social @tcellogic.bsky.social @ucsdmedschool.bsky.social
www.nature.com/articles/s41...

My outstanding postdoc is looking for a research job in Albany, NY. Please forward all leads and RT!

B cell-intrinsic IL-2 signaling regulates inflammation by promoting IL-10 expression in CD25+ age-associated B cells B cells transiently increase interleukin (IL)-2 receptor expression upon activation. Gauthier et al. examine the B cell-intrinsic role of IL-2 and define an IL-2-MAF axis that promotes the differentiation of CD25+ age-associated B cells toward a regulatory, IL-10-producing phenotype that is protective in neuroinflammation.

Online now: B cell-intrinsic IL-2 signaling regulates inflammation by promoting IL-10 expression in CD25+ age-associated B cells

Peter H. Duesberg, 89, Renowned Biologist Turned H.I.V. Denialist, Dies

Fascinating obituary of Peter Duesberg who went from renowned scientist discovering the first viral oncogene to HIV denialist who influenced Thabo Mbeki and HIV policy in S. Africa which led to millions dying.
Human beings are complex creatures indeed.
www.nytimes.com/2026/01/27/s...

William H. Foege, Key Figure in the Eradication of Smallpox, Dies at 89

An incredible life and legacy

“He said the strategy — now known as ‘ring vaccination’ — was based on principles he learned when he spent summers fighting wildfires in the American West as a younger man.”🧪🩺

Distinct phenotypes and repertoires of bronchoalveolar and airway mucosal T cells in health and allergic asthma from @rodrahimi.bsky.social and colleagues: www.mucosalimmunology.org/article/S193...