Simona Shenbakar (Kafedjiska)

🔟 DAYS TO GO!
📍 IFFS World Congress 2025
🗓 April 26–29 | Tokyo, Japan

📣 Countdown with us, the future of reproductive health awaits in Tokyo!

@who.int

IFFS World Congress 2025 Tokyo - iffs2025-tokyo.jp

#IFFS2025 #10DaysToGo #healthcare #EACCME #CMEAccredited #fertility #reproductivemedicine

The Invisible Threat of Microplastics - goop New research confirms even the healthiest among us are full of these tiny toxins. Here’s how they enter your body—and what you can do to reduce your exposure.

"Woodruff points out that, at five millimeters, #microplastics are the same size as the tiny air pollution particles that the EPA strictly regulates—called particulate air matter pollution...."

goop.com/wellness/hea...

Trump’s EPA Plans to Stop Collecting Greenhouse Gas Emissions Data From Most Polluters Climate experts expressed shock and dismay at the move. “It would be a bit like unplugging the equipment that monitors the vital signs of a patient that is critically ill,” one said.

"Losing the data will make it harder to know how much climate-warming gas an economic sector or factory is emitting and to track those emissions over time."

www.propublica.org/article/trum...

An IVF mix up case discovered in Australia.
Interesting to see whether the birth parents will retain custody.

The mix up case in Israel is awaiting supreme court decision.

www.thetimes.com/article/db36...

April 10 at 11 AM GMT, learn from 3 experts who are expanding access to infertility care on the African continent. Join us to spread more joy!

Register: us06web.zoom.us/webinar/regi...

#Africa #freewebinar #fertility #reproduction #morejoy #southafrica #nigeria #egypt #kenya #morocco #zimbabwe

Pink and orange light micrograph image depicting ovarian follicles with developing eggs. Around the image is the text "New Collection: Frontiers in Reproduction Science – Rising Stars at the Society for Reproductive Biology 2023. Free to read for 1 month in Reproduction, Fertility and Development". Photo by Science Photo Library.

New in #RepFertDev: Frontiers in Reproduction Science – Rising Stars at the Society for Reproductive Biology 2023

Showcasing the breadth of research by early & mid-career researchers in Australia. #FreeToRead: www.publish.csiro.au/rd/Collectio...
@repfertdev.bsky.social @reproductionsrb.bsky.social

Porträt von Helmut Schwarz mit weißem Haar und Brille, der freundlich lächelt. Er trägt ein dunkles Sakko, im Hintergrund sind unscharfe Vorhänge zu sehen. (Bild: Helmut Schwarz) Portrait of Helmut Schwarz with white hair and glasses, smiling gently. He is wearing a dark jacket, with blurred curtains in the background. (Photo: Helmut Schwarz)

Die Leopoldina gratuliert ihrem Mitglied Helmut Schwarz zu dessen Auszeichnung mit dem #WolfPrize. Der Chemiker und ehemalige Präsident der @humboldt-foundation.de wird für seine Leistungen in der Organometallchemie ausgezeichnet. Zum Beitrag: www.leopoldina.org/mitglieder/m...

Über 12.000 Wissenschaftler fordern entschlossene Klimapolitik von der Bundesregierung

www.saarbruecker-zeitung.de/app/consent/...

Autonomous follicle quality control mechanisms: Innate immune signaling capabilities of granulosa cells - PubMed We synthesize current evidence that granulosa cells possess unique innate immune signaling capabilities. We suggest the novel concept that this serves as a quality control surveillance mechanism by in...

Congratulations Prianka Hashim and her co-authors their publication in Reproduction!

pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/40111977/

Biological sex erased from official data in the UK with harmful consequences This new 232-page government-commissioned study, called “the Sullivan Report” after its leader, opens this way (click on the screenshot below to see the whole thing). This independent r…

whyevolutionistrue.com/2025/03/20/b...

My review of computational methods for anthropological genetics with @kwittadna.bsky.social is out for the Yearbook issue of AJBA.

We talk about all sorts of cool methods that YOU could use too!

Also check out this great figure we commissioned from @janey1216.bsky.social

doi.org/10.1002/ajpa...

The chemical industry wants to block a new EPA rule protecting people from cancer-causing TCE – and Congress may help them Right now, Congress is considering overturning an EPA rule that would stop people in the U.S. from getting cancer, birth defects and Parkinson’s Disease from a toxic chemical that has already poisoned...

"Right now, Congress is considering overturning an EPA rule that would stop people in the U.S. from getting cancer, birth defects and Parkinson’s disease from a toxic chemical that has already poisoned millions of Americans, including our soldiers." #TCE

prheucsf.blog/2025/03/20/t...

🇲🇰

I interviewed to ESHRE's (@eshre.bsky.social) Focus on Reproduction magazine.

We discussed strategies to reduce disease burden in the next generation using embryo selection or editing: promises, realities, and possible harms.

(Open to ESHRE members)
www.focusonreproduction.eu/science-and-...

Another interesting finding is observed with deep WGS of samples from two donors. Virtually all "clonal" variants that existed in the early time point also appeared in the later time point, remarkably with very similar frequencies. This suggests stability of germline mosaicism in males.

This is the key figure. Each line connects the number of de novo (single nucleotide) variants in a single donor between the two time points.
The slopes are shown on the right. The de novo variant count increases *for all donors*, at a rate around 0.5e-9 per year per bp, or 1.5 variants genome-wide.

a Schematic of study design. For each individual, sperm were profiled from timepoints T1 and T2, with the timespan between T1 and T2 ranging from 10 to 33 years. Either blood or saliva were collected at T2 along with a questionnaire. Illustrations created in BioRender. Evrony, G. (2025) https://BioRender.com/r30q384. b Ages of individuals at T1 and T2, ordered top-to-bottom by the age at T1. See Supplementary Data 1 for details. c Substitution mutation burdens (mutations per base pair (bp)) measured by NanoSeq for all sperm samples (T1 and T2). Dots and error bars show point estimates and their Poisson 95% confidence intervals. The dashed line and shaded region show a weighted least-squares linear regression and its 95% confidence interval. P values for the intercept and slope are from the linear regression (two-sided t test). See Supplementary Data 4 for complete burden statistics. d Sperm indel mutation burdens (mutations per base pair (bp)) measured by NanoSeq for all sperm samples (T1 and T2). Dots and error bars show point estimates and their Poisson 95% confidence intervals. The dashed line and shaded region show a weighted least-squares linear regression and its 95% confidence interval. P values for the intercept and slope are from the linear regression (two-sided t test). See Supplementary Data 4 for complete burden statistics and Supplementary Fig. 1b for individual-specific plots. e Sperm substitution mutation burdens measured by NanoSeq, with each colored line representing a different individual where the line connects the mutation burdens at T1 and T2. The dashed line shows a weighted least-squares linear regression. f Individual-specific sperm substitution mutation rates between T1 and T2 for all profiled individuals. Thick and thin horizontal lines indicate the median and the 1st/3rd quartiles, respectively.

It is known that each additional year of paternal age is associated with ~1-2 additional de novo mutations.
However, this is an association based on samples from different people.

Here, the authors used high-fidelity duplex sequencing to estimate the mutation rate trajectory **within individuals**.

Direct measurement of the male germline mutation rate in individuals using sequential sperm samples - Nature Communications Mutations accumulate with age in the male germline, and can lead to genetic diseases in offspring. Here, the authors collect from individuals sequential sperm samples separated by long timespans, whic...

Very cool study. The authors sequenced two sperm samples from each of 23 donors, with sampling times separated by 10-33 years.

This provides important information on the effect of paternal age on de novo mutation rates.

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

An aberrant protamine ratio is associated with decreased H4ac levels in murine and human sperm Abstract. Protamine 2 (Prm2/PRM2), together with Protamine 1 (Prm1/PRM1), constitute the two protamines found in both murine and human sperm. During spermi

The findings reveal that PRM2 is necessary for maintaining specific histone post-translational modifications, such as #acetylation, essential for proper #spermatogenesis and particularly for proper chromatin #remodelling.

#EditorChoice
🔗📚👇
academic.oup.com/molehr/artic...

In this study, using a Prm2-deficient mouse model and human sperm samples, the authors observed alterations in #methylation and #acetylation profiles of histones H3 and H4.

📣 During #spermiogenesis, #chromatin in germ cells undergoes significant condensation, with most #histones being replaced by a species-specific ratio of Protamin1 and Protamin2.
Altered PRM1/PRM2 ratios are associated with #subfertility and #infertility.

“Ти прпа, а, брат?!!”

🚨 Exciting News! 🚨 The International Federation of Fertility Societies (IFFS) 2025 full program is now LIVE!

📅 Explore the full program here: www.iffs2025-tokyo.jp/program/inde...

✅ Register now to secure your spot!

#IFFS2025 #FertilityScience #ReproductiveHealth #MedicalConference #healthcare

today is a great day to go use your library card. right now. immediately.

Be the headline you want to read.

‘Sense of unease’ for overseas students in Germany amid AfD rise Students describe increased ‘anti-immigrant sentiment’ as far-right party becomes significant force in German parliament

International students in Germany have described a “sense of unease” following last month’s federal elections, which saw AfD become second largest party in the Bundestag

#highered #EduSky

www.dmz-news.eu/2025/03/16/e...

Sehr treffende Zusammenfassung. Wer immer noch denkt, es ginge hier um einen unterhaltsamen „Virologen-Zoff“, hat einiges nicht mitgeschnitten.

www.zeit.de/gesundheit/2...

www.n-tv.de/mediathek/vi...

www.youtube.com/watch?v=av2H...

www.ullstein.de/werke/alles-...

It’s called diplomacy. Few get it.

Book cover titled "Turning Gardens in Japan into Japanese Gardens: Nation, Nature, Heritage, and Modernity since the 1890s". The main title is set in red on the upper right with the author's name next to it, and the subtitle on the lower right in white. The cover shows a b/w photography with Japanese persons in 1920s clothing walking through a garden or park. A pond is to the right and two large trees on left side in the background.

There’s a cover I love and a clear timeline – my next book is becoming real. @amsterdamupress.bsky.social has done a great job. Excited!

It’s about how modern Japanese gardens transformed from “eclectic + stylish-non-Japanese” to 💯% traditional-🇯🇵 “national heritage” in a century.