Febri Gunawan Sugiokto

🧪For anyone interested in EBV in autoimmunity, I strongly urge you to read this incredible study by @shady-myounis.bsky.social, Bill Robinson, and @tobiaslanz.bsky.social. It is not only a scientific tour de force, it has a deeply provocative discussion that everyone in the field should consider 1/

Epstein-Barr virus reprograms autoreactive B cells as antigen-presenting cells in systemic lupus erythematosus Epstein-Barr virus reprograms autoreactive B cells as antigen-presenting cells to promote pathogenic antinuclear T and B cell responses in lupus.

Whoah

EBV not only causes multiple sclerosis, it also might be the root of SLE

www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

An EBV vaccine to rid ourselves of these horrible autoimmune conditions (and many cancers)?

#lupus #medsky #RheumSky

@christosargyrop.bsky.social

New OA Article: "RNA m6A regulates the transcription and heterochromatin state of retrotransposons in Arabidopsis" rdcu.be/eM95H

m6A is recognized by nuclear readers CPSF30-L and ECT12, which associate with SUVH4/5/6 and ATXR5/6 to enhance histone methylation...

University of Pittsburgh professors push back against Trump 'compact' for higher education University of Pittsburgh professors have asked their school to reject a Trump "compact" that promises more access to federal resources to schools that sign on to his agenda

Pitt faculty taking a stand against the higher education "compact"

www.wesa.fm/identity-com...

I know of a few other news stories about similar faculty action.

Please share them here.

Welp. Thanks to the Republican gov shutdown I have a bunch of hours back in my week due to a NIH study section not meeting.

These poor applicants. They will be waiting week by week for government to reopen and to find out what will happen to their grant application.

Photo: Cecilia Odlind

The 2025 #NobelPrize in Physiology or Medicine has been awarded to Mary E. Brunkow, Fred Ramsdell and Shimon Sakaguchi for their groundbreaking discoveries concerning peripheral immune tolerance that prevents the immune system from harming the body 🧪 www.nobelprize.org/prizes/medic...

2025 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine #nobelprize

E. Brunkow, Fred Ramsdell and Shimon Sakaguchi “for their discoveries concerning peripheral immune tolerance.”

Strengthening nucleic acid biosecurity screening against generative protein design tools www.science.org/doi/10.1126/... 🧬🖥️🧪

Imagine a scientific journal called Infection and Immunity not focusing on viruses and the immune response?!

Congrats!

Our enthusiastic student talk: Febri Gunawan Sugiokto from PMI
#bgsa #symposium #studenttalks

Check out PMI talks tomorrow at the SOM Grad Student Symposium:
@catmphelps.bsky.social (in @meisellab.bsky.social ), Daria Jelic (Doug Reed lab), Kelsey Ertwine (Abby Overacre lab), @febrigunawan48.bsky.social (in Renfeng Li lab), and @dariavantyne.bsky.social !

ASM 🥳

Faculty Professor Associate - Full-Time | Vaughn Cooper We are recruiting Faculty microbiologists in three (3) different, complementary, and collaborative areas at the University of Pittsburgh associated with the School of Medicine. 1) Fundamental researc...

🚨 Microbiologists! We are recruiting Assistant / Associate Professors in 3 collaborative areas of our U. Pittsburgh School of Medicine.
1) MMG (my dept): fundamental research in med micro
2) Peds ID / I4Kids institute
3) Center for Vaccine Research
🔗 to all 3 w/info: www.linkedin.com/posts/vaughn...

ASM Issues Joint Statement Calling For Secretary Kennedy Resignation The American Society for Microbiology joined national medical, scientific, public health and patient organizations to call for the resignation of HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to ensure the health of the American people. Protecting public health is our responsibility as physicians, scientists and patient advocates. It is also the responsibility of our elected officials, and we call for their support at this critical moment to protect the health of the nation.

Thanks to @asm.org and colleagues for stadning up for public health. Call Congress today and demand Kennedy's resignation
asm.org/press-releas...

DNA methylation influences human centromere positioning and function - Nature Genetics Genome-wide and targeted perturbation of DNA methylation at centromeres affects CENP-A positioning and centromere structure, resulting in aneuploidy and reduced cell viability.

#1 Centromeres are epigenetic loci defined by CENP-A, positioned in unmethylated DNA flanked by highly methylated regions. Our work, published in @natgenet.nature.com in collaboration with @naltemose.bsky.social investigates the role of DNAme at human centromeres www.nature.com/articles/s41...

As RFK testifies in front of the Senate today, ASV wants to emphasize the risks posed by his decisions related to virus outbreaks and the public health of Americans. Together with our partner organizations, we call for RFK's resignation: asm.org/press-releas...

🧬 New preprint! We find PIAS1 regulates EBNA1, the key EBV protein for episome maintenance. PIAS1 binds oriP & SUMOylates EBNA1, stabilizing episomes + restricting lytic replication. 🚨 PIAS1 may also regulate KSHV & HPV → a potential pan-viral therapeutic target?

EBNA1 SUMOylation by PIAS1 Suppresses EBV Lytic Replication and Enhances Episome Maintenance https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.09.01.673444v1

Congrats

Congrats

Win for #openscience!

Mars: simplifying bioinformatics workflows through a containerized approach to tool integration and management academic.oup.com/bioinformati... 🧬🖥️🧪 github.com/GenomicAI/mars

NIH PostBac program is open again! And I will be hiring! #JobPostComing

www.training.nih.gov/research-tra...

US reviewing federal contracts, grants to Harvard over antisemitism allegations The administration of Republican President Donald Trump announced a review on Monday of federal contracts and grants at Harvard University over allegations of antisemitism.

Challenging times.

Harvard at risk of losing $9 billion in federal funds as US launches review

www.reuters.com/world/us/us-...

It even can make western blot result out of nowhere 😢😢😢 @thatsregrettab1.bsky.social

2 years, 100+ citations amazing

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New this evening (3/28): Major update in NIH grant termination numbers.

❌ 695 NIH grants now terminated (up from 429)
❌ 232 on HIV/AIDS
❌ 44 on cancer
❌ 28 on Alzheimer's
❌ 123 on Covid*

*And this doesn't count cancelled non-NIH Covid grants.

HUGE THANKS to @noamross.net for pushing the updates!

Overseas universities see opportunity in U.S. ‘brain drain’ But many U.S.-based scientists seeking to leave may struggle to find positions in countries grappling with funding issues of their own

“If large numbers of academics working in the U.S. do decide to leave, Gold doubts other countries will be able to absorb them all. The end result, he warns, could be an exodus of talent from global science. “My biggest fear,” he says, is that “we’re going to lose a cohort of researchers.”” 🧪

These frustrated scientists want to leave the United States – do you? Take Nature’s poll Nature - In the wake of the Trump administration’s funding freezes and job cuts, some researchers are planning their next move.

Some scientists in the United States have told Nature that they are considering leaving the country in the wake of widespread disruption to research brought in by the Trump administration

Are you thinking about leaving?

https://go.nature.com/4bMGd0J