Margarita Parada-Kusz

Margarita Parada-Kusz

@margaritapk.bsky.social

Cellular and molecular biologist at @VAInstitute studying neuroimmune communication in #zebrafish. Not my first rodeo. Former Broad Institute/HMS/MGH. (Views are my own)

886 Followers 522 Following 18 Posts Joined Oct 2023
1 day ago
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Whole-embryo spatial transcriptomics at subcellular resolution from gastrulation to organogenesis Gene expression patterns underlie development, but their systematic detection in whole embryos has remained elusive. We introduce a whole-embryo imaging platform using multiplexed error-robust fluores...

Very happy to see this out. 👏 @yinanwan.bsky.social
Bogdan Bintu and team.
Whole-embryo spatial transcriptomics at subcellular resolution from gastrulation to organogenesis | free link Science www.science.org/eprint/5MHTM...

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3 months ago

Folks, it is finally out! Our paper on T2T assemblies of the zebrafish genome is on BioRxiv:
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

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4 months ago
Redirecting

Our Stem Cell Reports cover story titled, “GABA produced by multiple bone marrow cell types regulates hematopoietic stem and progenitor cells” is out today! doi.org/10.1016/j.st...

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4 months ago
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The Shutdown of U.S.A.I.D. Has Already Killed Hundreds of Thousands The short documentary “Rovina’s Choice” tells the story of what goes when aid goes.

The shutdown of USAID has already killed hundreds of thousands of people.

It was also the most effective soft power organization on planet earth helping American interests across the globe.

This was a powerfully foolish thing to do, inhuman and cruel.

www.newyorker.com/culture/the-...

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4 months ago
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Spatial dynamics of brain development and neuroinflammation - Nature A tri-omic atlas of the mouse brain from postnatal day 0 to P21 reveals that layer-specific projection neurons have a role in coordinating axonogenesis and myelination.

Our latest collaboration with @rongfan8.bsky.social, spatial triomics to investigate myelin and cortical brain development, and demyelination, spearheaded by Leslie Kirby in our lab @ki.se and Di Zhang in Rong's lab! Check it out @nature.com

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

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4 months ago
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Kmo restricts Salmonella in a whole organism infection model by promoting macrophage lysosomal acidification through kainate receptor antagonism Author summary Standard therapy for bacterial infections involves antibiotics to clear pathogens. However, the host immune system can also efficiently eliminate bacteria. We have recently shown that a...

Very happy to share the continuation of our discoveries on how the kynurenine pathway regulates innate immune responses during Salmonella infection. Congratulations to Emily Goering for leading this work and for starting her postdoctoral journey! 🥂👏🏻🍾

journals.plos.org/plospathogen...

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4 months ago
Attention Authors: Updated Practice for Review Articles and Position Papers in arXiv CS Category – arXiv blog

arXiv will no longer accept review articles and position papers unless they have been accepted at a journal or a conference and complete successful peer review.

This is due to being overwhelmed by a hundreds of AI generated papers a month.

Yet another open submission process killed by LLMs.

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4 months ago
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Gut–brain communication: types of sensory nerves and mechanisms of activation Nature Reviews Gastroenterology & Hepatology, Published online: 28 October 2025; doi:10.1038/s41575-025-01132-1This Review explores the different types of sensory nerves involved in gut–brain communication, detailing the locations of these nerve endings in the gut and their mechanisms of activation. Insights and new information regarding spinal and vagal afferents alongside viscerofugal neurons are detailed.

New online! Gut–brain communication: types of sensory nerves and mechanisms of activation

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4 months ago
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4 months ago
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Free Vaccine Clinics in Boston Everyone ages six months and older is encouraged to get the updated flu and COVID-19 vaccines. Pregnant parents, babies, and older adults should consult their health care professional about RSV vaccin...

We’re offering free vaccine clinics in Boston. Vaccines are safe, effective, and protect against serious illness. Getting vaccinated keeps you healthy and helps protect your family, friends, and community.

Find upcoming vaccine clinics at boston.gov/vaccine-clinics.

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5 months ago

“Blame your parents if you can’t pay enough attention." At least when you are a zebrafish! Our new study on attentional switching together with Kumaresh Krishnan, @paulapflitsch.bsky.social , @zwitscherarmin.bsky.social and Florian Engert is out in Science Advances:
doi.org/10.1126/scia...

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7 months ago
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Metainflammation alters neutrophil function and migration in vivo in response to tissue injury Authors provide a platform to study systemic immune response to threats in vivo under metainflammation context using a diet-induced metainflammation zebraf

🧪📣The final version of our latest paper is out!!🤗

"Metainflammation alters neutrophil function and migration in vivo in response to tissue injury"

Go check it out in case you haven't yet😉🔬🐟
#zebrafish
#neutrophils
#injury
#microscopy
#metainflammation
#MetabolicSyndrome

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6 months ago
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Not your everyday view!

#Zebrafish #Research ❤️

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6 months ago
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More beautiful biology! Z-stack maximum projection confocal image of a section of the cow #cerebellum. Magenta: neurofilament heavy chain, green: actin, blue: DAPI

#Axons #microscopy #biology #science

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6 months ago
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Out today in @nature.com: Together with the Honigmann, Shevchenko, Drobot and Hof labs, we present a general workflow for imaging the localization and transport of individual lipids in cells and mapping their metabolism.
www.nature.com/articles/s41...

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6 months ago

Awesome work from the Lempradl lab showcasing the precise regulation of metabolism during embryogenesis in our fruit fly friends!

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7 months ago
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Coenzyme Q headgroup intermediates can ameliorate a mitochondrial encephalopathy - Nature Decreased brain coenzyme Q10 levels cause encephalopathy and are associated with neurodegeneration; supplementation with 4-HMA or 4-HB restores coenzyme Q10 synthesis in mice and humans with HPDL vari...

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

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9 months ago
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NIH staff break ranks in open letter to Director Jay Bhattacharya Bethesda Declaration urges reversal of recent policies, including funding cuts

Article by @cenmag.bsky.social on the #BethesdaDeclaration by NIH scientists and staff released earlier this morning:

cen.acs.org/policy/resea...

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9 months ago
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I love my lab so much 😭❤️🥹 feel so lucky

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9 months ago

Hello Fly Folks. quick note FlyBase is under duress due to termination NIH$ to Harvard and intl collabs. The hardworking folks @flybase.bsky.social are doing their darndest to ensure access to current data. For US, there will soon be a new site to donate. Please spread the word, ideas and support 🪰💪

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9 months ago

Lyft driver picked me up from UNC, turned out he was a medicinal chemistry post-doc in a building near mine, until his grant got cut last month.

Worked on novel antivirals.

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9 months ago
A chart showing cancelled NIH grants

“I would like to cure brain cancer. I think that's not particularly controversial.” Be that as it may, the NIH terminated that scientist's grant. Here's a huge survey of the 2,500 grants that NIH has killed or delayed...so far. Gift link: nyti.ms/43Jz1yJ

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9 months ago
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13-yr-old Camarria Williams made a remarkable discovery when she found a compound with potential cancer-fighting properties in goose poop from Garfield Park, Chicago.

This surprising find happened while participating in the Chicago Antibiotic Discovery Lab, a STEM program in collaboration with the

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9 months ago
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The gutting of US biomedical research with loss of ~2,500 grants affecting research for cancer, Alzheimer’s, infectious disease, global health and much more
www.nytimes.com/interactive/...

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9 months ago

The #Drosophila community can donate to the European side to save FlyBase @flybase.bsky.social at the following link:
www.philanthropy.cam.ac.uk/give-to-camb...

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9 months ago
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MIC-Drop-seq: Scalable single-cell phenotyping of mutant vertebrate embryos Pooled perturbation screens can reveal cellular regulatory networks, yet scaling these techniques for large-scale screens in animals remains challenging. To address this, we developed MIC-Drop-seq, wh...

To dissect the gene regulatory networks used to build organisms, we need Perturb-seq-like tools that work in whole animals.

For this purpose, we developed MIC-Drop-seq, a tool that couples high-throughput CRISPR in zebrafish embryos with single-cell RNAseq.

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

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9 months ago
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Medical Research Funding — Unbreaking How the administration is breaking the government, and what that means for all of us.

I urge everyone to read Unbreaking’s new page on everything the govt is doing to destroy & diminish medical research funding.

It’s the best thing I’ve read on this topic: @lizneeley.bsky.social & co have such done an incredible job.

unbreaking.org/issues/medic...

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9 months ago
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A light-regulated circadian timer optimizes neutrophil bactericidal activity to boost daytime immunity The neutrophil clockwork boosts daytime immunity against bacterial infection.

Out now in #Science #Immunology:

Christopher Hall & colleagues at @aucklanduni.bsky.social report in #zebrafish that the #circadian clock gene per2 boosts daytime #antibacterial activity in #neutrophils by promoting infection-responsive hmgb1a expression!

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9 months ago
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Trump’s NIH And NSF Cuts Estimated To Cost The U.S. Economy $10 Billion Annually Economists find public R&D drives a quarter of U.S. productivity growth — and pays for itself

Trump’s proposed $23 billion in cuts to NIH & NSF could cost the U.S. economy at least $10 billion a year, according to new research. Public science funding drives innovation, productivity, and long-term growth. Slashing it isn’t saving money; it’s losing our future. www.forbes.com/sites/johndr...

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9 months ago

My ongoing request:

If your NSF or NIH grant was terminated--whether at Harvard or elsewhere--please report it here.

NSF: grant-watch.us/submit-nsf.h...

NIH: grant-watch.us/submit-nih.h...

Our trackers are actively used in lawsuits and are often the only record that terminations ever occurred.

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