Aoife O'Farrell (@aofarrell) — Bluesky Profile

2 months ago

A new paper out in @natmethods.nature.com introduces NimbusImage, a cloud-computing platform for image analysis ft. William Niu (SAS), Jingxin Li (@cambupenn.bsky.social), @aofarrell.bsky.social (Bioengineering) & @arjunraj.bsky.social (@penngenetics.bsky.social) www.nature.com/articles/s41...

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3 months ago

Exploring the concept of bacterial memory - Nature Microbiology This Perspective discusses the concept, mechanisms and evidence for memory in bacteria at individual and community levels.

#Review

Bacteria can “remember” past environments through genetic & biochemical imprints helping them adapt and thrive! 🦠🧠

#MicroSky

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

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5 months ago

It's the scientific community's duty to fight misinformation, bioessentialism, and eugenics

That's why we're launching Beyond X&Y, an educational campaign combating the rise of unscientific political propaganda used to attack trans and intersex people

Subscribe to our newsletter at beyondxandy.org

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6 months ago

My great pleasure to introduce DR. Aoife O’Farrell!! An incredible scientist and human being. @aofarrell.bsky.social not only produced an amazing thesis by her own sheer brilliance and will, but also provided tireless service to Penn Bioengineering. Will be sorely missed!

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7 months ago

Gastruloid patterning reflects division of labor among biased stem cell clones Embryonic development typically requires precise coordination among cells to achieve reproducible outcomes, leading to the assumption that cellular heterogeneity must be minimized or buffered against....

[0/8] Stoked to share our work with @arjunraj.bsky.social on tissue organization in the gastruloid. We use lineage tracing and spatial transcriptomics to show that diversity among stem cell clones promotes, rather than hinders, gastruloid development: www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

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9 months ago

A word cloud made from flagged terms in terminated NIH grant proposals. The most prominent words in large font include “trans,” “diverse,” “diversity,” “minority,” “sex,” “expression,” “mental health,” “gender,” and “women.” Other visible terms include “LGBTQ,” “racial,” “underrepresented,” “disability,” “barriers,” “black,” “equity,” “health equity,” “vaccine,” “bias,” and “intersectionality.” The word cloud highlights terms related to identity, inclusion, and marginalized communities.

HAPPY PRIDE 🏳️‍🌈

Under Trump, research using terms like “Trans,” “LGBTQ,” & “Gender identity” is being defunded. These terms reflect real people who deserve science that includes them.

Stand with us to protect LGBTQ+ science from political erasure.
grant-watch.us/nih-data.html
@rcmedphys.bsky.social

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9 months ago

How KJ made medical history: baby healed with world’s first personalised gene-editing treatment KJ’s treatment offers a new path for companies to develop personalised treatments without going through years of expensive development and testing

How KJ made medical history: baby healed with world’s first personalised gene-editing treatment

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1 year ago

Hello Philadelphia!

I’m Dr. Eartha Mae Guthman. I’m a Philadelphian, a trans woman, a neuroscientist, and a proud card carrying union member with UAW. I first worked in a lab 15 years ago. I fell in love then and there with the scientific method, and I've worked as a scientist ever since.

Today, I want to talk to you about how this administration’s attacks on trans people and trans health research harm us all.

When I began transitioning seven years ago, I was terrified! For my safety. For my scientific career. Would my colleagues find me credible? Would they see a scientist who happened to be trans, or would they only see me through the lens of my transness? I decided then, regardless of the outcome, I would dedicate my life to improving healthcare for trans people.

For the past seven years I’ve worked towards this goal. I’ve spent holidays inventing new tools to study the brain and behavior. I’ve spent weeks going to work after dark, sitting with my mice to run overnight experiments, and then coming home, crossing the Delaware with the sunrise.

I’ve been fortunate to have achieved success in my work: I’ve published over a dozen papers, including guides on how to develop animal models for hormone therapy; I’ve been awarded highly competitive NSF and NIH grants; I’ve been appointed a fellow at the Center for Applied Transgender Studies and at other academic organizations.

And, about a year ago, I received the best news of my career:

I had been awarded a prestigious NIH grant to not only fund my research at Princeton, but to provide me funding to start my own lab.

In my lab, I want to ask questions about how hormones impact the brain to influence mood, the body, and behavior. I want to apply this research to design better hormone therapies– yes, for gender affirming care, but also for birth control, menopause, endometriosis, PCOS, the list goes on! My goal, set so many years ago, was within my grasp. I had put in the work and sacrifice, taken the risks, and it had all seemed worth it.

But my dream grows less likely by the day because of Republican efforts to reverse decades of acceptance for various minorities. Through anti-DEI and anti-trans executive orders and laws, the administration seeks to restore hierarchies centered around race and gender, resegregating America. A textbook example of fascism and fascist takeover of institutions.

Trump’s anti-DEI and anti-trans executive orders censor me and those like me. At the State of the Union on Tuesday, Trump complained that NIH wasted money on “transgender mice”, directly attacking the work my colleagues and I do. Wednesday, a White House press release called trans health research “fraud” and “waste”. Yesterday, Nature reported that the administration has bypassed congressional control of the budget to terminate ongoing grants related to trans healthcare. They report that the NIH will terminate hundreds of already awarded, active research grants if they support DEI or trans people in any way.

I don't know how or if I’ll get paid next month, and I don't know if I’ll actually get the funds that congress has already awarded me to start my lab.

I don't know what's going to happen to my career, and I'm really fucking furious. I've dedicated my entire adult life to this work. But to Trump and his supporters, I am not a scientist who should be judged for the work I do, who happens to be trans. To them, I am trans, and therefore cannot contribute to science because I’m inherently biased and unfit.

But I'm here speaking to you now because this moment is about more than just me. Under the guise of this anti-trans and anti-DEI moral panic, Republicans are weaponizing the state to attack all science. Their actions prevent us from making life-saving discoveries across all fields.

They see science as a tool to control people and carve their desired reality into our bodies and minds, not as a way to understand our beautifully complex world.

But we can stop them. Because we are many, and they are so, very, very few.

Right now we need to give our legislators hell until they start standing up for us. Push universities to establish contingency funds for researchers whose active funding is terminated.

And keep showing up, keep protesting. Keep standing up to cruel bullies and fascists. Don’t comply with unjust orders or demands, fight back! Fight for a world where the next scientist like me is seen for her contributions to science and human health, not seen only as trans. And lastly, fight for a world that loves and values trans people.

My speech for the Philly #StandUpForScience Protest.

Everything I do is for my community 💜✨

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1 year ago

Protest posters at the Stand Up for Science rally in Philadelphia. Slogans include "science not for sale" and "science is for everyone"

#standupforscience2025

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1 year ago

Casey Brown Lecture Series - YouTube

Our mentor Casey Brown, apart from being an extraordinary scientist, was a brilliant teacher who loved everything genetics. In his honor, some of the world's leading experts came together to create the 'Casey Brown Lecture Series' on human genetics 1/ shorturl.at/eCm7S

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1 year ago

Graphical summary of our paper. In mice, prior lower airway exposure to diverse inflammatory stimuli, including chronic bacterial infections such as M. tuberculosis, acute bacterial infections such as pulmonary S. aureus, viral infections such as Influenza A, type-II allergic responses such as the OVA-Alum model, activation of pulmonary TLR9 by CpG or pulmonary TLR1/2 by Pam3CSK4
leads to reduced viral burden upon subsequent infection with SARS-CoV-2 (SCV2). (2) This SCV2 restriction occurs prior to induction of SCV2-specific adaptive immune responses
and is mediated through innate immune responses, including the induction of IFN-I, TNFα and IL-1 and sustained changes to the TRM (Tissue resident macrophage) cellular
compartment and the pulmonary epithelium. (3) Innate cytokine and TLR signaling to both recruited immune cells and the pulmonary epithelium creates a microenvironment in the
lung that limits early replication of SCV2. IFN-I signaling to pulmonary ECs (epithelial cells) increases expression of interferon-stimulated genes, that likely cell-intrinsically limit viral
replication. TNF- or IL-1 suppress SCV2 independently of IFN-I signaling. TNF acts exclusively through radio-resistant cell types such as the lung epithelium, whereas IL-1 affords
control both direct and indirectly, through either stromal and hematopoietic cell types, to restrict overall early SCV2 burden.

Best #Nikolaus 🎅! Our paper on how the 🫁 microenvironment can shape #innate immunity against #viruses is out @sciimmunology.bsky.social This was a herculean effort brilliantly led by @pauljbaker.bsky.social who singlehandedly established the model in the lab during the pandemic. 🧪 #Immunosky 1/9

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1 year ago

Science is big enough (especially biomedical) that you have the opportunity to shape your project to match as many of your innate talents, passions, and proclivities as possible. Highly encourage leaning into those strengths when you choose a project: rajlaboratory.blogspot.com/2024/06/proj...

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1 year ago

How do cells remember transient signals? New work reveals that a transient pulse of histone deacetylase inhibition leaves a lasting mark on 3D genome architecture in mESCs, linking chromatin dynamics to cellular memory and gene expression robustness.
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

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1 year ago

.......oops 🙃

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1 year ago

This drug repurposing project for the clearance of intracellular pathogens - led by @ronni.bsky.social - is now published in ASC Infectious Diseases. 🤩 pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/...

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