Féaron Cassidy, PhD

I am open to the idea that there are people who don't have and don't want to gain the skills to engage directly with their data but every single day that I do I learn the answer to a question you'd never even think to ask unless you were personally staring into the abyss of an uncleaned dataset.

Structural insights into GTP-coupled conformational changes in Mfn1 revealed by time-resolved transition metal ion FRET. Outer mitochondrial membrane fusion is mediated by the mitofusin paralogs Mfn1 and Mfn2. Nucleotide-driven self-assembly and conformational changes are required for regulated membrane fusion activity,...

Genuinely thrilled to share our new story with the world - an amazing collaboration with @profsharona.bsky.social and Bill Zagotta using their innovative FRET technique to study mitofusin conformational changes. Huge credit to Sophie Hurwitz for tackling this project. urldefense.com/v3/__https:/...

Tertiary lymphoid structures support the development of allergen-specific progenitor CD4+ T cells Tissue-resident memory CD4+ T cells (TRM) are key sentinels of the adaptive immune response that provide a rapid, robust inflammatory response upon reactivation in non-lymphoid tissues. While CD4+ TRM...

Asthma is a chronic disease characterized by acute, intermittent, recurrent episodes of airway inflammation. A decade of work developing the tools, techniques and collaborations needed to figure out how CD4+ T cells in the lungs propagate disease can be found here:
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

Nobel peace prize winner Maria Corina Machado: Venezuelan opposition leader forced into hiding after taking on Maduro The Venezuelan opposition leader was forced to go into hiding in 2024 after being banned form standing in that year’s election.

The Venezuelan opposition leader was forced to go into hiding in 2024 after being banned form standing in that year’s election.

More than 30% of this century’s science Nobel prizewinners immigrated: see their journeys The most common destination for eventual Nobel laureates in physics, chemistry and medicine since 2000 is the United States, Nature has found.

Immigrant scientists make a massive contribution wherever they go

More than 30% of this century’s science Nobel prizewinners immigrated

www.nature.com/articles/d41...

"We're doing the studies to make the proof."

This is not how Gold Standard Science works. Or any science. You do the study to TEST THE HYPOTHESIS, not to prove yourself right.

Implantation is inherently a mechanical process. We find contractility is necessary and sufficient for spreading behaviors. We can artificially age embryos from young females and even rescue aged embryo spreading just by tuning contractility!

THIS IS THE WAY.

Everyone gets their knickers in a twist when I say we can’t sci-comm our way out of this mess…but maybe you’ll listen to the more eloquent and measured @edyong209.bsky.social!

This isn’t happening because people don’t appreciate the brilliance of the double helix structure.

The remarkable number of people, me included, who were inspired by her work, life and example is the biggest tribute. Find a way to honor her memory. The wolrd is a bit smaller and sadder with her gone

The language of non-consent around AI is really telling. "It's too late to be scared." "It's here whether we want it or not." "You'll have to learn to work with it." "You can't fight the inevitable."

All just variations of "you're not allowed to say no." Creepy technology made by creepy people.

What is a reactionary centrist, and does the UK have them? A term favoured by US progressives can help us understand Britain’s drift to the right

"In 2012, 60 trans-related articles were published by Britain’s media. By 2022, it was more than 7,500, according to figures from Trans Media Watch. The media is not responding to public rage against vulnerable minorities; it is helping to create it." www.prospectmagazine.co.uk/politics/709...

NLRP3 is a thermosensor that is negatively regulated by high temperature Inflammation is an essential response to infection and injury, but unregulated inflammation is damaging and must be limited by negative feedback signalling. Inflammasome signalling drives local inflam...

Check out this new thermo-hot paper from the @colllab.bsky.social Lab. Glad to contribute and work with her team.

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

Best practices and tools in R and Python for statistical processing and visualization of lipidomics and metabolomics data www.nature.com/articles/s4...

Almost 200 Cardiff University staff members left in limbo as they face losing jobs | Wales Online Cardiff University confirmed it cannot rule out compulsory redundancies as it also apologised to students for problems with a new timetabling system as the academic year begins

"Almost 200 Cardiff University staff members left in limbo as they face losing jobs | Wales Online"

This journey working on ENGAGED Open Research and Public Engagement Roadmap has been a privilege, but in many ways the work is only just beginning. With the data and insights from our workshops, we can now start shaping the roadmap in a meaningful way. #openresearch #publicengagement

This journey working on ENGAGED Open Research and Public Engagement Roadmap has been a privilege, but in many ways the work is only just beginning. With the data and insights from our workshops, we can now start shaping the roadmap in a meaningful way. #openresearch #publicengagement

Mechano-osmotic signals control chromatin state and fate transitions in pluripotent stem cells - Nature Cell Biology McCreery, Stubb et al. show that mechano-osmotic changes in the nucleus induce general transcriptional repression and prime chromatin for cell fate transitions by relieving repression of specific differentiation genes.

How do #stemcells integrate information to coordinate fate decisions? Delighted to finally see our work showing how growth factors regulate the mechano-osmotic state of the #nucleus and #chromatin to control #pluripotency exit out! www.nature.com/articles/s41... see 🧵 👇

Targeting Tylenol Is Just Another Excuse to Blame Women for Everything It's a longstanding tradition to blame all manner of social ills on women, without any basis in fact.

Women aren’t just blamed for everything, they’re conditioned to accept it. Poverty, crime (single moms), rape (short skirts, drinking), incels (women not dating unappealing men), divorce (women file the majority of cases) & anything w/ pregnancy & children. www.thenation.com/article/soci...

Cancer subclone detection based on DNA copy number in single-cell and spatial omic sequencing data Nature Methods - Clonalscope is a method for cancer subclone detection leveraging copy number profiles estimated using spatial and single-cell sequencing data.

Nature methods: Cancer subclone detection based on DNA copy number in single-cell and spatial omic sequencing data www.nature.com/articles/s4...

Cartoon of a speculative heterogenous cell population performing mesenchymal collective cell migration.

1/12 A very special moment for me! 🎉

My first paper as corresponding author—a @jcb.org Perspective on how contact-based decision-making in collective cell migration can itself encode blueprints for complex patterns and shapes.

rupress.org/jcb/article/...

#cellbio #devbio #science

🧵for details

✨New issue!✨

Check out the latest in #metabolism research from across all disciplines.

Read about #Ferroptosis, #MASLD, #DietaryBiomarkers, #CoA metabolism, #Immune signaling, #Tumor biology and many more topics! 🧪

www.nature.com/natmetab/vol...

Oncogenic driver mutations underlie the spatial tumour immune landscape of non-small cell lung cancer www.nature.com/articles/s4...

Galaxy single-cell & spatial omics community update: Navigating new frontiers in 2025 The Galaxy single-cell and spatial omics community (SPOC) brings together over 175 tools, 120+ training resources, and a global user community in a unified FAIR platform. By integrating leading suites...

From @cellpress.bsky.social #Genomics | Galaxy #single-cell & spatial omics community update: Navigating new frontiers in 2025 | #Bioinformatics #Genomics #OpenScience #OpenSource #Perspective #UseGalaxy 🧬 🖥️ 🧪 🔓
⬇️
www.cell.com/cell-genomic...

Spatial architecture of development and disease Nature Reviews Genetics, Published online: 30 September 2025; doi:10.1038/s41576-025-00892-5Spatial omics has empowered the discovery of developmental and disease-associated molecular signatures, cell states and multicellular niches, as well as the evaluation of disease heterogeneity within and across organs. The authors review spatially resolved molecular changes across diseases and discuss the potential of spatial multi-omics for clinical applications, including the recent impact of artificial intelligence.

New online! Spatial architecture of development and disease

Skymind: I'm learning about 'spatially aware clustering' in spatial omics and wondering how it is different from 'segmentation'? (in essence, not by way of marketing)

I can't believe I still have to say this: not everything is on the internet and not all of the internet is accessible and there are billions upon billions of things that haven't been digitized. Some things just cannot be farmed out.

Data manipulation within the US Federal Government A US Department of Veterans Affairs dataset compiling veteran health-care use in 2021 was quietly amended on March 5, 2025. A column titled gender was renamed sex, and the words were also switched in ...

"Data manipulation by the US Gov...makes crucial datasets untrustworthy and unusable. If the US Government secretly changes datasets for political reasons, researchers relying on the data might erroneously recommend ineffective or counterproductive interventions."
www.thelancet.com/journals/lan...

Mitochondria expel tainted DNA — spurring age-related inflammation Organelles spit out DNA contaminated with damaging components, leading to the activation of inflammatory enzymes, mouse experiments show.

Mitochondria spit out DNA contaminated with damaging components, leading to the activation of inflammatory enzymes, mouse experiments show

go.nature.com/4nJJgLE

The evidence is clear: chemicals from plastic pollution are leaking into our environment and yes, our bodies.

We need to understand these impacts in greater detail and secure a #PlasticsTreaty that addresses this challenge.

My address to the #NYULHplasticshealth Symposium: youtu.be/y1PZI_8dFyQ?...

Health of adipose tissue: oestrogen matters Nature Reviews Endocrinology, Published online: 26 September 2025; doi:10.1038/s41574-025-01180-2Oestrogen is a key regulator in many metabolic processes, particularly in adipose tissue. This Review discusses the role of oestrogen in adipose tissue metabolism and its wider implications for systemic metabolic health.

New content online: Health of adipose tissue: oestrogen matters

Rachel Carson’s Silent Spring was published OTD in 1962.

“[W]e have now acquired a fateful power to alter and destroy nature. But man is a part of nature, and his war against nature is inevitably a war against himself.”

🌱🐋 # HistSTM 🧪🌎 #philsci #philsky #WomeninSTEM