Dr Samantha Nixon

Proud to have been a part of a huge collaborative team with Sandra Zakrzewska, Zhou Chen, @electrosomeucsf.bsky.social, Du Bois lab, Tod Leighfield, Filizola lab and many others! Shout out to Sophion for patch clamp instruments critical for the study! Go team Saxiphilin! 🐸

Structural basis for saxitoxin congener binding and neutralization by anuran saxiphilins - Nature Communications Dinoflagellates and cyanobacteria produce saxitoxin (STX) congeners that block voltage-gated sodium channels. Here authors show how amphibians may sequester STX congeners using a ‘lock and key’ mode, ...

Excited to share our latest paper! We show that frog proteins bind and functionally neurotoxins involved in paralytic shellfish poisoning, with exciting potential applications in diagnostics and therapies!

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

Structural basis for saxitoxin congener binding and neutralization by anuran saxiphilins Nature Communications - Dinoflagellates and cyanobacteria produce saxitoxin (STX) congeners that block voltage-gated sodium channels. Here authors show how amphibians may sequester STX congeners...

New insights from our group into how frogs resist toxic environments published today! 🎉🐸
Congratulations to Sandra, Samantha @samnscience.bsky.social, Zhou, and our collaborators Tod Leighfield, Filizola lab @martafilizola.bsky.social, and Du Bois lab at Stanford.
www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Actually we have tarantulas all over Australia! Check out this map of tarantula distribution from Atlas of Living Australia. 🕷️

Definitely not a funnel-web by the web or legs! Those big velvety legs look like a lovely tarantula to me!

I am working on a list of practical things that folks can do to help protect California amphibians, as part of a book project. Can you help me add to this list?

📷: Northwestern Salamander by Spencer Riffle