Rafael Almeida

MSCA awards €404.3 million to postdoctoral researchers 1610 outstanding postdoctoral researchers were selected for funding among 17,066 applicants.

Super proud of our postdoc @sophiesiems.bsky.social for securing a MSCA award to fund her ambitious project on the axon-myelin interface across vertebrates 🐟🐁🧠. Very competitive call this year– feeling humbled and grateful to @ec.europa.eu

marie-sklodowska-curie-actions.ec.europa.eu/news/msca-aw...

Injury-induced electrochemical coupling triggers organ growth Organ repair and growth rely on coupling tissue-wide membrane depolarization with intracellular proliferative signaling.

New paper alert!🤩Super proud that our story led by superstar postdocs @liujinghui.bsky.social and @nerlielisa.bsky.social is finally out! We found how electrical signals are key for promoting organ regenerative growth!!! A thread 🧵https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/sciadv.aec0687

Beautiful work, congrats Rita! 🙂

CDC42‐Effector Proteins Regulate Higher Order Structure of Septins Required for CNS Myelin Integrity CDC42-effector proteins 1/2 are present in CNS myelin. They facilitate the higher order structure of myelin septin filaments. Their loss impairs septin-dependent scaffolding of myelin. Myelin o...

If you're interested in the factors that enable the regular structure of CNS #myelin sheaths by #oligodendrocytes, check this out. Featuring a #CDC42 - effector proteins - #septin axis. Congrats to 1st author Sophie, and a big thank you to all who contributed

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

And a huge thank you to the funders!

🎉 Congrats also to Katy, who received an RS Macdonal Seedcorn Fund to generate zebrafish CRISPR-Cas9 models of human STXBP1-related neurodevelopmental disorder, to study the causes underlying its epileptic symptoms, including non-synaptic and glial-based mechanisms. 🐟

🥳 Congrats to Sophie, who secured an @mssocietyuk.bsky.social Catalyst Award to develop a new proximity-labelling approach to profile myelin membrane proteins in healthy and myelin-damaged. Bonus: we all get to learn from Sophie’s considerable proteomics expertise 🧪

Happy holiday wishes from the Almeida Lab 🎄✨️
Very grateful to an excellent team for all the thinking, tinkering, and troubleshooting in 2025. Extra proud of our two postdocs @sophiesiems.bsky.social and @katymarshallphelps.bsky.social landing their own pilot grants just in time for Christmas 🎁

Very grateful to the RSMacDonald Trust for funding my pilot project to establish zebrafish models of STXBP1-related NDDs - a brilliant pre-Christmas 🎁 Thanks so much to the @almeidalab.bsky.social for their continued support!

Pleased to share that I’ve been awarded a Catalyst Award from the @mssocietyuk.bsky.social 🥳
Many thanks to the MS Society UK for supporting our research in the @almeidalab.bsky.social and helping to advance understanding of MS!

Shout-out to our PhD student Wei Huang for stepping up to present her work on zebrafish motor neuron synaptic protein heterogeneity at the Darwin Trust symposium — great to see the project (and presentation skills) evolving nicely! 🐟 🔬🧠

Enhorabuena Dr Carla Peiró for smashing your PhD defence cum laude! And teaching us about myelin internalization when she visited from the Achucarro! 🐟🐁

OPPORTUNITIES
⏰Dec 15➡️Assistant Researcher➡️Project FORTIFISH at #i3S.
Profile: PhD in biomed sci, veterinary sci or related; Relevant publication record demonstrating research expertise in zebrafish behaviour & welfare; Extensive hands-on expertise in ...👇
👉https://tinyurl.com/3mk3bbfa
#i3Sjobs

Fluorescent protein and peptide tags alter condensate formation and dynamics in vivo and in vitro | EMBO reports imageimageProtein and peptide tags can profoundly alter condensation in a tag- and protein-specific manner, both in cells and in vitro, highlighting the need for careful validation in condensate studi...

This is important for 🧪🔬
www.embopress.org/doi/full/10....

Happy to share that I passed my tenure review. Excited to be doing research until someone kicks me out!

Excitement is brewing amongst the team to welcome Neuroscience MSc students to the lab next week. Can't wait to show them Fin Diesel 🐟🔬

👁Happy Halloween from our resident Cyclops fish 👁

Congrats to our PhD Wei Huang for getting a wee grant for upskilling her 🐟🔬 analysis - thank you Darwin Trust!

Updated Almeida lab photo :)

Adaptor protein complex 2 (AP2) participates in biogenesis and homeostasis of myelin sheaths in the central nervous system Myelination of CNS axons requires oligodendrocytes to undergo extensive morphological changes by producing large amounts of myelin membrane with defined protein composition and structure. The formatio...

If you're interested in trafficking of #myelin constituents in #oligodendrocytes, and of course you are, you may want to check out our new preprint. It's very nice PhD work by @sophiesiems.bsky.social, and we're grateful to all who contributed!

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

Thrilled that myelin purifier extraordinaire @sophiesiems.bsky.social bagged a DFG fellowship from the Walter Benjamin Program to study axon-myelin adhesion dynamics in zebrafish! Congrats Sophie, and thanks DFG ☺️

Couple of opportunities up to join the group!
One at postdoc level, but open to senior support path.
One research assistant role.
Please share, or drop a line if you want to learn more!
Or just apply!
Thanks!

elxw.fa.em3.oraclecloud.com/hcmUI/Candid...

elxw.fa.em3.oraclecloud.com/hcmUI/Candid...

Celebrating a very Scottish Christmas season in the Almeida lab with deep fried mars bars 🤤🎅🎄