Michael Ward

Neuron programming! Pro-neural TFs + 480 morphogen conditions + scRNA-seq --> Diverse iN subtypes of forebrain, midbrain, hindbrain, spinal cord, and PNS. @hsiuchuanlin.bsky.social‬ @jasperjanssens.bsky.social‬ and Treutlein Lab! @science.org www.science.org/doi/10.1126/... #NGN2 #ASCL1

Perturb-Multimodal: A platform for pooled genetic screens with imaging and sequencing in intact mammalian tissue Pairing imaging and sequencing to simultaneously measure gene expression and morphological phenotypes in diverse genetically perturbed cells in mosaic animals, Perturb-Multimodal enables systematic ex...

www.cell.com/cell/abstrac...

EndoMAP.v1 charts the structural landscape of human early endosome complexes - Nature A study presents EndoMAP.v1, a resource that combines information on protein interactions and crosslink-supported structural predictions to map the interaction landscape of early endosomes.

Nature research paper: EndoMAP.v1 charts the structural landscape of human early endosome complexes

https://go.nature.com/3Z6mJ1X

Thanks for hosting me - so much fun to meet with everybody at Berkeley!

Despite some ups and downs at NIH, we do have an open position for a postbac and are considering candidates.
Our work is at the intersection of neuroscience and AI, and we aim to understand how the brain's densely connected recurrent networks operate. 🧪

Multimodal cell maps as a foundation for structural and functional genomics - Nature A global map of human subcellular architecture yields protein complex structures, reveals protein functions, identifies assemblies with multiple localizations or cell-type specificity and decodes paed...

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

Why do lower-resolution images sometimes yield better results in deep learning for bioimaging analyses? 🤔📉

Mariana Ferreira's new preprint on #ReScale4DL explores this paradox and introduces optimal resolution design! @gomez-mariscal.bsky.social brainchild🧑‍🔬✨

Check: www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

The White House’s Next Orchestrated Budget Crisis This is something I’m still trying to get my head around –...

talkingpointsmemo.com/edblog/the-w...

Not nearly enough coverage of this possibility by traditional media.

Explore #Neurodegeneration and Neural-Immune Interactions, June 8-11! Gain insights from experts like @dulaclab.bsky.social and @weissmanlab.bsky.social. Register now to save $200. Postdocs, enjoy an extra $275 off: hubs.la/Q035NHGV0

#KSNeuroImmune25 #KSNeuroDegen25 @michael-e-ward.bsky.social

LRP10 promotes trafficking of progranulin and prosaposin to lysosomes https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.05.02.651888v1

The NIH budget is on a fast track to disaster An NIH insider explains what Republicans are likely to do next, and what we can do

It is potentially even (much, much) worse than that…

donmoynihan.substack.com/p/the-nih-bu...

Important!! 🚨

“Using the rescission process, which requires only a simple majority in the Senate, the Republican majorities can vote to return the unspent funds. That will lop billions off the NIH budget.” 1/2

The NIH budget is on a fast track to disaster An NIH insider explains what Republicans are likely to do next, and what we can do

New at Can We Still Govern: An anonymous NIH employee maps out the GOP budget gameplan to permanently gut our most important science agency.
Impoundment, delay and red tape will create artificial "savings" that become the new benchmark for NIH budgets.
donmoynihan.substack.com/p/the-nih-bu...

#neuroai #neuroskyence 🧪 #ai

Genome-wide mapping of mesoscale neuronal RNA organization and condensation Subcellular RNA organization can affect critical cellular functions. However, our understanding of RNA microenvironments, particularly biomolecular condensates, remains limited, largely due to a lack ...

www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

Multimodal cell maps as a foundation for structural and functional genomics - Nature A global map of human subcellular architecture yields protein complex structures, reveals protein functions, identifies assemblies with multiple localizations or cell-type specificity and decodes paed...

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

Prevention of Transgene Silencing During Human Pluripotent Stem Cell Differentiation While high and stable transgene expression can be achieved in undifferentiated pluripotent stem cells, conventional transgene expression systems are often silenced upon differentiation. Silencing occu...

Amazing team science effort, led by Marius Wernig’s group, to develop a silencing-resistant transgene cassette that maintains expression following iPSC differentiation. This was major barrier for iPSC-based experiments. Thanks to CZI for funding the research!

www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

Prevention of Transgene Silencing During Human Pluripotent Stem Cell Differentiation While high and stable transgene expression can be achieved in undifferentiated pluripotent stem cells, conventional transgene expression systems are often silenced upon differentiation. Silencing occu...

Losing sleep over #iPSC transgene silencing after differentiation?
Same here — too many times😭

So we built a PiggyBac construct that resists silencing.
Expression stays ON, even after differentiation.

Our #preprint is out👇
🔗 www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

Supported by @cziscience.bsky.social

Our lab at the NIH (Bethesda, MD) is looking for postdoctoral fellows to join our team studying the molecular mechanisms of protein trafficking and their links to neurodevelopmental disorders starting on or after 10-1-2025. Send your application to juan.bonifacino@nih.gov. Please share and repost!

Transcription factor networks disproportionately enrich for heritability of blood cell phenotypes Most phenotype-associated genetic variants map to noncoding regulatory regions of the human genome, but their mechanisms remain elusive in most cases. We developed a highly efficient strategy, Perturb...

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

I’ve always liked Tom Pollard’s framing of biological research: genetics gives you the parts list, biochemistry the functions/reactions and rates, cell biology the localisations and dynamics, and structural biology the fine detail. Put it all together and you get a mechanistic picture. 🤩

Nailed it!

Seeded aggregation of TDP-43 induces its loss of function and reveals early pathological signatures TDP-43 pathology characterizes neurodegenerative diseases. Scialò et al. use in vitro-generated and patient-derived TDP-43 aggregates as seeds to show that seed-induced TDP-43 cytoplasmic aggregation ...

Happy to share our new study that was just published in Neuron! www.cell.com/neuron/fullt...

ANXA11 biomolecular condensates facilitate protein-lipid phase coupling on lysosomal membranes - Nature Communications Nixon-Abell et al. show that ANXA11 condensation on lysosomal membranes causes a coupled phase transition of the underlying lipids and mechanical stiffening of the overall ensemble involved in RNP gra...

ANXA11 biomolecular condensates facilitate protein-lipid phase coupling on lysosomal membranes!

Annexin A11 tethers RNP granules to membranes in a Ca2+ dependent manner.

@abelljonny.bsky.social, @michael-e-ward.bsky.social, et al.

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

25Z4-Event Promo-V1 This is "25Z4-Event Promo-V1" by Keystone Symposia on Vimeo, the home for high quality videos and the people who love them.

One day left to submit an abstract for short talk consideration at the upcoming Keystone Neurodegeneration meeting (Whistler, BC, June 8-11). We have an amazing set of speakers lined up already - please join us! For more info, see: vimeo.com/1068280559/9...

Mitochondrial respiratory complex IV deficiency recapitulates amyotrophic lateral sclerosis - Nature Neuroscience Cheng et al. identify a mitochondrial complex IV (CIV) deficiency in the brains of patients with sporadic amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS). They demonstrate that defects in mitochondrial CIV induce...

Whoa - are a significant proportion of sporadic ALS/motor neuron disease cases a mitochondrial DNA disease?! #mitochondria
www.nature.com/articles/s41...

FerriTag is a new genetically-encoded inducible tag for correlative light-electron microscopy - Nature Communications Correlative light-electron microscopy (CLEM) pairs versatile fluorescence imaging with high resolution electron microscopy. Here, the authors develop a genetically-encoded, chemically-inducible tag th...

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

Join us this summer in Whistler, BC, Canada, from June 8-11, 2025, for an inspiring meeting on Neurodegeneration, featuring the esteemed @michael-e-ward.bsky.social, & a stellar lineup of speakers. Secure your spot today! hubs.la/Q0323kyP0 #KSNeuroDegen25 #neurodegeneration #neurodegenerativedisease

Fourth that. Have cloned and will be testing snap2 soon, since it is always nice to have another fluorophore that is “invisible” until one adds a dye for much of our work.

There are new stable red fluorescent proteins coming, but organic fluorophores are fighting back! Impressive photostability of Phoenix Fluor 555 for live-cell imaging with HaloTag, just out in @naturemethods.bsky.social:
doi.org/10.1038/s415...