Lara Labarta-Bajo, PhD

Could Vaccines Help Prevent Dementia? - Immunology Explained Susan Kaech is the Allen Institute Executive Vice President and Director, Professor of Immunology, and Director of NOMIS Center for Immunobiology and Microbial Pathogenesis at Salk Institute for Biolo...

immunologyexplained.aai.org/news/could-v...

Vaccines Are Helping Older People More Than We Knew Many shots seem to have “off-target” benefits, such as lowering the risk of dementia, studies have found.

Routine immunizations are staving off seemingly unrelated illnesses in older people, research shows.

Antiviral type I IFNs and astrocyte Stat1 promote motor decline, but here’s the good news: neutralizing inflammation improves motor function and reverts astrocyte aging.

Surprisingly, astrocytes in the cerebellum have an antiviral state through the lifespan, triggered by antiviral type I IFNs, and exacerbated in aging.

The antiviral Interferon pathway drives astrocyte aging and motor decline Aging encompasses low-level inflammation and motor decline. Astrocytes are neuroregulatory glial cells that change in aging, particularly in the cerebellum, which is essential for movement coordinatio...

Why does the cerebellum age earlier than other brain regions? Why are cerebellar astrocytes so profoundly altered in advanced age? How do these changes affect motor coordination? Check out my postdoc work here: www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

Regionally mapped astrocytic responses to cortical and white matter stroke show differential roles in astrocyte-induced vascular remodeling Stroke is a major cause of disability. Astrocytes respond to stroke in a gradated manner, but details of that response and its consequences for tissue…

Thrilled to share this work from my postdoc with Tom Carmichael, available online @ Neuron! Long story short: we find even more evidence that all reactive astrocytes are not equal, and we can take advantage of those differences to improve repair after stroke.
www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

M.I.T. Rejects a White House Offer for Special Funding Treatment

This is the way

www.nytimes.com/2025/10/10/u...

Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine Is Awarded for Work on Immune Systems

Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine Is Awarded for Work on Immune Systems www.nytimes.com/2025/10/06/h...

The courts aren’t falling for Trump’s chaos

They’ve blocked him 200+ times, including when trying to deploy the Nat’l Guard to Portland w/ no emergency on the ground

At @democracydefendersfund.org we’ve led 150+ legal actions to stop this lawless power grab

I explain on @velshimsnbc.bsky.social👇

🔬 New preprint out!

Thrilled to share our new preprint, where we uncover the molecular diversity and developmental origins of cerebellar astrocytes using multi-omic approaches.

📄 www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

#scRNAseq #astrocytes #neuroscience #glia #cerebellum @biorxiv-neursci.bsky.social

New Member Lara Labarta Bajo, PhD, The Salk Institute for Biological Studies, La Jolla, CA, USA - Biweekly newsletter of the International Cytokine & Interferon Society Lara Labarta Bajo, PhD, is a postdoc in Nicola Allen's lab at the Salk Institute, studying the crosstalk between astrocytes and the immune system and its implications for synapses during healthy aging.

I am thrilled to be attending Cytokines2025. See you in beautiful Seattle @cytokinesociety.bsky.social signals.cytokinesociety.org/2025/06/30/n...

Repost if you're planning to go.

www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/... @trevergreene.bsky.social

Thrilled to announce that my lab is now open at Ohio State! We study astrocytes as gene therapy targets for brain repair after ischemic stroke and in vascular dementia, developing new viral tools along the way. If you're interesting in joining or collaborating, please reach out!
gleichmanlab.com

Mitochondria transplantation transiently rescues cerebellar neurodegeneration improving mitochondrial function and reducing mitophagy in mice - Nature Communications Cerebellar ataxia, a hallmark of cerebellar degeneration (CBND), is driven by mitochondrial dysfunction in Purkinje cells. In this study, transplanting mitochondria into CBND mice improve mitochondria...

Mitochondria transplantation transiently rescues cerebellar neurodegeneration improving mitochondrial function and reducing mitophagy in mice www.nature.com/articles/s41...

I'll be talking about some of this at the rally at UCSD tomorrow, thanks for having me!

Very interesting review by @neuronoeker.bsky.social et al aging-longevity.org.ua/journal-desc...

Important reference for anyone planning to Stand Up for Science this week.

Looks like tomorrow will bring votes on a Republican plan to fund tax cuts for the rich by slashing Medicaid.

So this is a great time to contact your Member of Congress.

Is science in danger? Podcast Episode · Today, Explained · 02/17/2025 · 25m

podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/t...

Thank you @thetransmitter.bsky.social for bringing attention to this.

Yes

JUST IN: A federal judge in Massachusetts has blocked the Trump administration's rate change to NIH grants.

storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.us...

Estimated Single Year Loss of NIH Funding if 15% Indirect Cost Rate is Imposed Based on analysis of 2024 NIH funding data. Sums are totals of losses in funding to programs if indirect costs had been capped at 15%

Helpful table to determine how much your University or health system is set to lose if the NIH indirect cap is suddenly lowered to 15%. For SJSU it is $374k which is on the smaller end but devastating considering our other budget issues. datawrapper.dwcdn.net/l0ZqA/8/

On changes to #NIH indirect rates, there is a law in place that prohibits NIH from making such changes without the approval of Congress. See Division D, Title II Section 224 of The Further Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2024 (Public Law No: 118-47) grants.nih.gov/grants/guide...

USA Capitol Switchboard
(202) 224-3121 #resist

In vivo engineering of murine T cells using the evolved adeno-associated virus variant Ark313 Genetic engineering of T cells in mouse models is essential for investigating immune mechanisms. We aimed to develop an approach to manipulate T cells…

🚨New paper alert! 🚨 Our latest work in
@cp-immunity.bsky.social shows that Ark313, an evolved AAV variant enables in vivo genetic engineering of murine T cells! 🧵👇

sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

New: Amir Ferry, Ananda Goldrath and colleagues @ucsdhealthsci.bsky.social show that differentiation of tissue-resident memory T cells (TRM) is accompanied by the upregulation of the conventional DC1 (cDC1) chemoattractant, Xcl1. https://buff.ly/4hrKCYe

#MucosalImmunology #TumorImmunology

How do T cells find the proper instructions to navigate tissues? In the Goldrath Lab @ucsdhealthsci.bsky.social, Amir Ferry mapped it out play-by-play. Potentiating these interactions strengthens the immunity cycle and enhances tumor control 1/n