Denise Fitzgerald

YouTube video by ALL Institute Could the eye be a window to the brain in MS? Dr. Michelle Naughton, Queens University Belfast

At AIMSRN2025, our team highlighted why the eye matters in MS research. Catch up on the talks via the YouTube links below - worth a watch!

Dr Gavin McDonnell
www.youtube.com/watch?v=kUtm...

Dr. Michelle Naughton
www.youtube.com/watch?v=P-f4...

Dr Lajos Csincsik
www.youtube.com/watch?v=EE5D...

Earlier this month, we trained on the new M2OCT at the NI Clinical Research Facility-thanks to Imagine Eyes! This hi-res tech will boost eye research in MS, glaucoma, Alzheimer’s & more, led by Queen’s University Belfast. Thanks to our funders incl. Jules Thorn Trust & iREACH Health! #MSResearchNI

Last week, Prof. Imre Lengyel and Dr. Lajos Csincsik joined the Eyes on the Brain meeting hosted by Optos in Edinburgh to explore how eye imaging and AI could help detect and monitor brain and nerve conditions, including MS. Thanks to Optos for the invitation and inspiring discussions!

#MS #retina

🔬 Last month, our NI MS Research Hub team shared how the retina may help us better understand Multiple Sclerosis (MS).

We presented at the World Sight Day & Pan-Ireland Ophthalmic Meeting in Belfast — a great chance to link eye and brain health to support people with MS. 👁️🧠

#MSResearchNI #WSD2025

🎉 Huge congrats to Nira for winning Best Postdoctoral Research Talk at the Irish Society of Immunology Conference in Galway! 👏

She presented exciting work on how the brain repairs itself in MS, highlighting immune receptors that support remyelination.

#MSResearchNI @qubelfastofficial.bsky.social

Can you add me to this starter pack please?

Join the Glia community on bluesky go.bsky.app/Lyzro3M

Hugely deserved, congratulations 🎉🎉

I hope this Nobel Prize gets people talking meaningfully about our amazing immune systems and the importance of basic research to human health (and funding basic research).

I am also glad young women get to see that women can not only work at this level, but that those who do can get recognized.

Oh how sad

Really a towering figure, whose work laid the ground for stem cells, regenerative biology etc

I go to know him well over many years and he was definitely one-of a-kind...

Great summary on the back story to this year's Nobel Prize

Huge congratulations Prof Dooley - delighted to hear of this so well deserved recognition!

Phenomenal achievement

Then moving from high to low budget (common at new PI stage) coupled with lots of unforeseen costs if setting up a new lab and the 'what if I mess this up' concern can make spending decisions challenging

I've experienced both and moving from low budget to high took some adjustment. More money to spend but greater expectations and shorter time frames for delivery.

Fantastic thread on budgeting from @labliston.bsky.social . Great advice for new (and not so new!) PIs. I would add awareness of how psychology impacts spending based on moving from low budget to high budget setting and vice versa....

For our #flowcytometry peeps, would you like to have a single fix/perm protocol that is optimised for everything? One that preserves fluorophores while allowing simultaneous TF and cytokine staining? How about 100-fold cheaper?

You got it:
currentprotocols.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/...

Love this!

Step inside an immersive experience to learn about the global threat of antimicrobial resistant infections, how bacteria develop resistance to antibiotics and the research from @wwiem-qub.bsky.social at @qubelfastofficial.bsky.social to fight it.

Where: W5, 2 Queens Quay Belfast
When: 1st-15th Sep

Horizon Europe 2028 - 2034: twice bigger, simpler, faster and more impactful Research and innovation news alert: As part of the next long-term EU budget 2028-2034, the Commission is proposing to double the budget of the research and innovation framework programme to €175 billi...

Very promising news on the next seven-year EU budget, with a proposed substantial increase for Horizon Europe including the ERC.

We are analysing the other parts of this proposal in more detail.

@Vonderleyen @EZaharievaEU

research-and-innovation.ec.europa.eu/news/all-res...

Very pleased to say we have an Assistant Professor job opening (tenure track) in the Department of Genetics at Trinity College Dublin! 😀
www.jobs.ac.uk/job/DOA399/a... - deadline is August 19th! Please repost!

Fantastic news, congratulations @franzeprogatzky.bsky.social !!

Professor Adrian Liston with Dr James Dooley in their lab

Catz Fellow ‪@labliston.bsky.social‬ (2023) is celebrating a £3M @wellcometrust.bsky.social‬ Discovery Award for research into the rules by which immune cells in our blood are able to enter the brain & drive repair processes during #MultipleSclerosis
📸 Louisa Wood/@babrahaminst.bsky.social‬

No advice either but keen to hear the recommendations

Great thread. Delighted to see Adrian's fantastic science, and approach to HOW research is done, supported by @erc.europa.eu

Had a great conversation with @lonelypipette.bsky.social and @labliston.bsky.social about building positive research culture. Great to hear the other perspectives on this podcast too. Out now on the ALBA-IBRO diversity podcast @network-alba.bsky.social

Fantastic news, congratulations Muzz!

Photo of Muzlifah Haniffa

An interview with Muzlifah Haniffa

We spoke to Muzz @mhaniffa.bsky.social following her receipt of the 2025 Tickle Medal from the British Society for Developmental Biology @bsdb.bsky.social‬ , to learn more about her career and her motivations:
journals.biologists.com/dev/article/...

Activity-driven myelin sheath growth is mediated by mGluR5 - Nature Neuroscience Employing pharmacology, genetics and all-optical approaches in zebrafish, Braaker et al. find that neuronal activity influences the growth of myelin sheaths along axons by signaling through metabotrop...

For those who want a distraction and/ or are interested, here's the latest from the group, led by Phil Braaker

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

Dear immune/glia lovers of brain, gut and beyond… We’re looking for a lab tech/manager to join our team! Pls see details for application here ucl.ac.uk/work-at-ucl/se… @ukdri.ac.uk @uclqsion.bsky.social - pls help circulate among networks who’d be of interest, thank you!