Carmen Muñoz-Ballester PhD

The U.S. Is Funding Fewer Grants in Every Area of Science and Medicine (Gift Article) A quiet policy change means the government is making fewer bets on long-term science.

@aatishb.bsky.social got me on the record. “My colleagues did an outstanding job to work their butts off to approve things.” I swear it's true. It's still true at #NIH.

First paper from the lab is now online
@natneuro.nature.com !
We mapped injury induced enhancers in the mouse CNS and decoded their sequence architecture. Little 🧵 rdcu.be/eSQi1

A composite recruitment flyer for the University of Kentucky. The left side features a vintage anatomical drawing of a brain and spinal cord on a parchment background, with a podium displaying the SCoBIRC logo. Text reads "University of Kentucky Spinal Cord and Brain Injury Research Center" and "Apply Now." The top right shows a photo of a modern, clean laboratory corridor. The bottom right text reads: "The University of Kentucky’s Spinal Cord and Brain Injury Research Center (SCoBIRC) is hiring for a tenure-track faculty position in neurotrauma research, specifically TBI or SCI. We seek applicants at all ranks, including postdocs and early-stage investigators, focusing on areas like metabolism, inflammation, glia, neural repair, regeneration, chronic recovery, or post-traumatic epilepsy

We’re recruiting!

Tenure-track faculty position in traumatic brain injury (TBI) or spinal cord injury (SCI) research. Expertise in metabolism and mechanistic or translational aspects of neurotrauma are encouraged to apply.

Link to apply: ukjobs.uky.edu/postings/609...

Five lab members at GBSfN

Today the Muñoz-Ballester lab had a great day at the local chapter of the Society for Neuroscience in Baltimore #GBSfN2025.

We have presented our first posters in the lab!

Leveraging high-resolution brain imaging and (epi)genomic approaches to improve women’s mental health - Neuropsychopharmacology Neuropsychopharmacology - Leveraging high-resolution brain imaging and (epi)genomic approaches to improve women’s mental health

#ThisWeekInNPP

This 🔥 Hot Topic 🔥 emphasizes that ovarian hormone fluctuations - across the menstrual cycle, postpartum, & menopause - are key drivers of psychiatric risk in ♀️, yet remain understudied / @kundakoviclab.bsky.social

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

Cover for 1922 first edition of Don Quijote in Mandarin by Liu Bangyi. Translated initially from English rather than Spanish as the "Adventures of a Crazy Hero".

Who’s quitting academia? Data reveal gender gaps in surprising fields Even in scientific areas in which women are well represented, they are up to 40% more likely than men to leave research within 20 years.

“‘It’s very easy to assume that science is going to change organically towards equality — and what this study shows is that that’s not happening…It is an ‘important reminder for us that we need to stay vigilant in working towards equality in science’” @crsugimoto.bsky.social 🧪
#AcademicSky 👩🏽‍🔬

Brain inflammation co-localizes highly with tau in mild cognitive impairment due to early-onset Alzheimer’s disease Using a novel PET tracer for imaging inflammation, Appleton et al. show that people with mild cognitive impairment with onset before the age of 65 years sh

academic.oup.com/brain/articl...

Metformin targets mitochondrial complex I to lower blood glucose levels Acute oral metformin administration lowers blood glucose levels by targeting mitochondrial complex I.

Authors use an elegant transgenic model to demonstrate that acute oral administration of metformin targets mitochondrial complex I to lower blood glucose.

A crucial contribution to the debate about the mechanisms of action of #metformin.

#metabolism #glucose

doi.org/10.1126/scia...

These are so cute 😍

p-hacking is primarily an academic publication phenomenon due to the incentives involved -- researchers find no evidence of p-hacking in e-commerce A/B testing because it's counterproductive to try and fool yourself

alexmiller.phd/research/p-h...

a woman with a ring on her finger is making a funny face Alt: Ellaria Sand from Game of Thrones screams in horror

Me opening my to do list today, featuring all the work I didn't do in December

Diffuse Axonal and Vascular Pathology in the Gyrencephalic Brain after High-Energy Blunt Injury: Clinicopathological Correlations Involving the Brainstem | Journal of Neurotrauma Traumatic brain injury (TBI) after high-energy, behind helmet blunt trauma (BHBT) is an important but poorly understood clinical entity often associated with apnea and death in humans. In this study, ...

Our new paper is out! Even with helmet protection, high-energy blunt trauma can lead to fatal respiratory failure. Our study maps specific brainstem injury patterns, revealing critical implications for #TBI & protection. Patterns of #vascularinjury ≠ #axonalinjury www.liebertpub.com/doi/10.1089/...

Astroglial Hmgb1 in postnatal #Astrocyte morphogenesis & #NeuroGlioVascularUnit maturation
#SciArt

Aldh1l1-CreERT2:Hmgb1 f/f🐭➡️
⏬Astroglial endfeet coverage over vessels
⏬Single-cell #BranchingMorphogenesis

@blacoste.bsky.social @naturecomms.bsky.social 2023
www.nature.com/articles/s41...

A single-cell mass cytometry-based atlas of the developing mouse brain - Nature Neuroscience In recent years, valuable mRNA-based developmental atlases of the mouse brain have been made available. Here, the authors use single-cell mass cytometry to build a protein-based single-cell profiling ...

I am usually not fan of atlases… but this one is actually useful, as it demonstrates the value of protein-level measurements to identify functional cell states. #Brain #Development www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Report: NIH Needs a Women’s Health Institute This Medical News article discusses a new report from the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine on persistent gaps in women’s health research and key recommendations that would req...

The National Academy of Sciences issues recommendation that NIH devote an institute focused on women’s health.

Much needed but hard to imagine it will happen in this political environment.
jamanetwork.com/journals/jam...

Aging disrupts blood–brain and blood-spinal cord barrier homeostasis, but does not increase paracellular permeability - GeroScience Blood-CNS barriers protect the CNS from circulating immune cells and damaging molecules. It is thought barrier integrity becomes disrupted with aging, contributing to impaired CNS function. Using geno...

Aging may not increase permeability of the #BloodBrainBarrier, but rather its vulnerability to insults, interesting concept! link.springer.com/article/10.1...

Early-life stress induces persistent astrocyte dysfunction associated with fear generalisation Early-life stress can have lifelong consequences, enhancing stress susceptibility and resulting in behavioural and cognitive deficits. While the effects of early-life stress on neuronal function have ...

Delighted to share an update to our preprint, reviewed at @elife.bsky.social, and now sent back for re-review.
Colossal work by the team and driven home by @mathiasgua.bsky.social
Quick 🧵 of what's new -
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

The liver and muscle secreted HFE2-protein maintains central nervous system blood vessel integrity - Nature Communications Blood vessel integrity is critical to maintain brain health. Here, the authors show that both the liver and the muscles secrete HFE2, a protein that promotes blood vessel integrity in healthy animals ...

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

Who knew #microglia could be like starfish (extruding stomached to digest stuff outside their bodies)? Check out Microglial lysosomal synapses in murine #Alzheimers disease model. #neuroinflammation #neurodegeneration #neurosky

a young boy is crying while holding a cell phone . Alt: a young boy frustrated numbers are not adding up in calculator

Working on our colonies breeding numbers and study numbers for this IACUC renewal.

Astrocytic inhibition of lateral septal neurons promotes diverse stress responses - Nature Communications The lateral septum contains neurons that mediate stress responses, but the role of astrocytes remained unclear. Here, the authors show that lateral septum astrocytes modulate nearby neurons and enhanc...

Really nice paper looking at differential roles of astrocytes in stress physiology and behaviour !

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

High content of nuclei-free low-quality cells in reference single-cell atlases: a call for more stringent quality control using nuclear fraction - BMC Genomics The advent of droplet-based single-cell RNA-sequencing (scRNA-seq) has dramatically increased data throughput, enabling the release of a diverse array of tissue cell atlases to the public. However, we...

Not checking nuclear markers like MALAT1 or intronic reads in your scRNA-seq data?🚨
We show their power to flag low-quality cells—even in top public datasets. It’s time to prioritize better QC for cleaner, more reliable genomics research!
Read more: bmcgenomics.biomedcentral.com/articles/10....
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😳😳😳

a poster with a woman and the words this is gonna be shamazing on it Alt: a poster with a woman and the words this is gonna be shamazing on it

Me ready to show how the NIH reporter works to a scientist friend

#NewPI #GoodTools #GrantWritingTime

Spatial organization of astrocyte clones: The role of developmental progenitor timing Astroglial clones vary in distribution, within or across cortical layers. Distribution of clones depends on their origin. Layer-specific clones have fewer, less dispersed cells. Juxtavascular clones...

onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/...

The “tradition” of kicking students out of student housing during summer and winter breaks at universities is incredibly broken.

In this age of insane housing costs, many universities have become actively hostile to students, especially non-traditional students from a housing perspective.

American Campus Communities (NYSE: ACC) is a real complicating factor. University Housing used to be a subsidized accommodation to foster community amongst the students. Now it's a profit center designed to subsidize the non-revenue generating parts of the university.