Arata Wakimoto

when we say we want more streets to be pedestrianized, this is what we mean

Karel Svoboda and Jay Shendure elected to National Academy of Medicine The honor recognizes leaders who have demonstrated outstanding achievement and made lasting contributions to the advancement of the medical sciences, health care, and public health

Congratulations to Karel Svoboda and @jshendure.bsky.social on their election to the National Academy of Medicine (@nam.edu)! Election to the Academy is one of the highest honors in health and medicine. #NAMmtg

More on their journeys to this achievement: alleninstitute.org/news/karel-s...

Simplified In Vitro Generation of Human Gastruloids for Modelling Early Development The purpose of this study was to optimize the efficiency and cost of human gastruloid formation by testing and adjusting individual parameters using as examples two distinct human pluripotent stem cel...

www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
Simplified In Vitro Generation of Human Gastruloids for Modelling Early Development

Plasmidsaurus's 50$ RNA-seq is just amazing. I won't do qPCRs anymore

🦖 Something HUGE just hatched.

Plasmidsaurus now offers RNA sequencing for gene expression analysis:
• As fast as 3 day turnaround
• $50/sample for academia, $80 for industry
• Up to ~10M unique transcript 3’ end reads per sample
• Interactive results

Explore Plasmidsaurus RNA-Seq today.

Beautiful full moon last night

Happy Mid-Autumn Festival!!🥮🎑🌕
I love mooncakes so much

Image shows the first two printed pages of the paper “A forkhead-domain gene is mutated in a severe speech and language disorder” by Cecilia Lai and colleagues, published in Nature in 2001 (volume 413, pages 519-523). The abstract reads as follows: Individuals affected with developmental disorders of speech and language have substantial difficulty acquiring expressive and/or receptive language in the absence of any profound sensory or neurological impairment and despite adequate intelligence and opportunity. Although studies of twins consistently indicate that a significant genetic component is involved, most families segregating speech and language deficits show complex patterns of inheritance, and a gene that predisposes individuals to such disorders has not been identified. We have studied a unique three-generation pedigree, KE, in which a severe speech and language disorder is transmitted as an autosomal-dominant monogenic trait. Our previous work mapped the locus responsible, SPCH1, to a 5.6-cM interval of region 7q31 on chromosome 7. We also identified an unrelated individual, CS, in whom speech and language impairment is associated with a chromosomal translocation involving the SPCH1 interval. Here we show that the gene FOXP2, which encodes a putative transcription factor containing a polyglutamine tract and a forkhead DNA-binding domain, is directly disrupted by the translocation breakpoint in CS. In addition, we identify a point mutation in affected members of the KE family that alters an invariant amino-acid residue in the forkhead domain. Our findings suggest that FOXP2 is involved in the developmental process that culminates in speech and language.

Twenty-four years ago today, our paper “A forkhead-domain gene is mutated in a severe speech and language disorder” was published: www.nature.com/articles/350....
A personal thread about the ups & downs of the journey we took to get to that point....1/n
🗣️🧬🧪

A human-specific regulatory mechanism revealed in a pre-implantation model Nature - Genetic manipulation of blastoids reveals the role of recently emerged transposable elements and genes in human development.

Today in @nature.com, we present our work leveraging functional genomics and human blastoids to uncover a human-specific mechanism in preimplantation development driven by the endogenous retrovirus HERVK.
Special thanks to the reviewers whose comments improved our manuscript a lot! rdcu.be/eI3tD

A human-specific regulatory mechanism revealed in a pre-implantation model - Nature Genetic manipulation of blastoids reveals the role of recently emerged transposable elements and genes in human development.

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

Cool paper! Very happy to see my friend's name on it

📢📢An amazing work from my lab mates!🙌

New paper from my lab and @jshendure.bsky.social lab! Led by the brilliant @zukailiu.bsky.social and @cxqiu.bsky.social. We tackled how anterior and posterior progenitor cells cooperate to self-organize into an embryonic structure (termed AP-gastruloid). (1/n) www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

Thinking about interspecies differences is always fun. Glad to see this story from my previous lab is out!

Large MAF transcription factors reawaken evolutionarily dormant fast-glycolytic type IIb myofibers in human skeletal muscle - Skeletal Muscle Background Small mammals such as mice rely on type IIb myofibers, which express the fast-contracting myosin heavy chain isoform Myh4, to achieve rapid movements. In contrast, larger mammals, including...

Sadaki, S., Tsuji, R., Hayashi, T. et al. Large MAF transcription factors reawaken evolutionarily dormant fast-glycolytic type IIb myofibers in human skeletal muscle. Skeletal Muscle 15, 19 (2025). doi.org/10.1186/s133...

Are there any reagents/technique available to quench fluorescent proteins (like mCitrin)?

My cell line has a few fluorescent reporters so that they use up channels and I cant stain multiple targets.
Appearently they are still very bright after 4% PFA fixation.

This is cool. BCL2+MYCL overexpression seemed to support human cells' survival during E9.5-E12.5 and enhanced human-mouse chimerism. Still low chimerism, but I believe its an important milestone.

Also these human cells showed interesting tropism towards heart and vein?

The generation of viable, structurally integrated human-mouse chimaeras through enhanced hPSCs proliferation

bioRxiv 2025.06.24.661270; doi: doi.org/10.1101/2025...

🐟 Zebrafish (Danio rerio): Clear as glass, zebrafish embryos let you watch organs form in real time. A powerhouse for studying organogenesis and regeneration, they’re also champions of transgenic expression of fluorescent proteins 🌈 image from Gopi Shah 🧪 #ModelMonday #DevBio

Gemini's Gcal integration is not reliable at all... It cant hook up schedules from multiple calendars

First time to see empty I-5

Comparative single-cell analyses reveal evolutionary repurposing of a conserved gene programme in bat wing development - Nature Ecology & Evolution Single-cell comparison of developing bat and mouse limbs reveals conservation of cell populations and gene expression patterns, and suggests repurposing of genes involved in proximal limb development ...

Comparative single-cell analyses reveal evolutionary repurposing of a conserved gene programme in bat wing development
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
"Bats are the only mammals capable of self-powered flight"
so cool

No new genes needed to fly - just rewire what you have! 🦇🧬

Great new paper from the labs of @fany-real.bsky.social @stemundi.bsky.social @dariloops.bsky.social

doi.org/10.1038/s415...

#EvoDevo #SingleCell #BatWings

A cognitive fingerprint in human random number generation - Scientific Reports Scientific Reports - A cognitive fingerprint in human random number generation

Apparently if you write down 300 random numbers, researchers can identify you with 96.5% accuracy. Cool.

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

Most AI tools for research help me find more papers to read but... what I recently need is AI that helps me read fewer papers.

Drowning in literature, I need it to suggest to me which 8 of my current 50 papers I can safely skip.

Grateful for Seattle's scientific community and my family for their incredible support👏

A pebble beach on Vashon Island with calm sea

This week marks a year since I moved to Seattle! 🏔️ 🌊🏙️
Pivoting from mouse embryo work to a human embryo model, while moving to a new country, has been a real challenge. But I feel more equipped now - looking forward to what year two brings!

I've seen them working hard in labs while juggling part-time jobs just to survive.
I believe this restriction will hurt Japan's scientific future (even further).
Again, please don't let nationalism divide science.

I was in the very first cohort supported by SPRING. Growing up alongside international students made me someone who can work anywhere in the world.

あなたの声がチカラになります 博士課程の学生を国籍で差別しないでください！ ― SPRING制度「日本人限定」見直し方針に反対します ―

Japan's SPRING fellowship shouldn't exclude international PhD students. Diverse research teams create better learning opportunities. Please don't let nationalism divide science.

www.change.org/p/%E5%8D%9A%...

I know! but now it doesn't seem the case anymore😲