Everyone's least favorite lab mate

Alternatively if you have a red sharpie hmu

I apparently deleted a important “TnpA” label from my poster so now my week is ruined but if you want to help search for more mistakes and you are at the Microbial Populations GRC come see me Wednesday

Last summer I was lucky to attend the Woods Hole Microbial Diversity course and the most important thing I got out of it was meeting Liana. Her genuine curiosity and meticulousness really shine in this super cool story on introns (i.e. the coolest RNAs around). Excited to see what you do next!

It is getting weirder and weirder seeing faceless accounts accuse jewish professors of antisemitism for bemoaning their loss of funding

My advisor @baym.lol pointedly speaking with WBUR.

“I think that reason is a pretense. I think that this is an attack on Harvard as a symbol of academia in the United States.”

A screenshot of the termination notice showing "Outstanding Investigator Grants"

A screenshot of the termination notice with "This award is terminated effective the date of this award, due to unsafe antisemitic actions that suggest the institution lacks concern for the safety and wellbeing of Jewish students." highlighted

Yesterday, the NIH R35 “Outstanding Investigator” grant to fund scientists in my lab studying antibiotic resistance was terminated for reasons not related to the content of the science, or any actions taken by me or members of my lab

During my rotation I got to work on this project and I immediately knew Soumya and Han were destined to be the future leaders of science and I would be a fool to pass up a chance to work with them. Super thankful to have met, and continue to get to hang with, you guys!

Reposting with an eye catching figure because I forgot

And thank you to Rob and Kathleen for taking a chance on me when no one else would, and to all the people I got to work with and learn from in the lab!

All in all a super fun project where I first truly learned independence. More importantly I got to work alongside @kyrellosi.bsky.social and @petermaxallen.bsky.social and watch them go from bleary eyed fresh from undergrad to fully trained scientists in their own right <3

In a humanized mouse model our VLPs effectively generated CAR T cells in vivo that were subsequently able to treat a B cell leukemia even better than traditional ex vivo CAR T cells.

Finally, we incorporated co-stimulatory ligands on the surface of the VLPs to create a T cell targeted VLP capable of selectively generating and activating CAR T cells in vitro.

So we spliced the measles envelope with that of the related Dolphin Morbillivirus to create a chimera that maintained fusogenicity with reduced response to measles vaccinated serum.

However, using the measles envelope for in vivo delivery poses a challenge as most of us are immunized against the virus (for the moment that is), so would be neutralized preventing the delivery of cargo. However other related viral envelopes evade anti measles antibodies.

But we found that scFvs overall impede surface expression and function of the MeV envelope. Nanobodies (i.e. llama antibodies) on the other hand can effectively re-target the MeV envelope without preventing expression.

We started with the measles virus envelope that can be redirected using to a receptor of choice with the addition of a targeting domain - usually an scFv.

In vivo generation of chimeric antigen receptor T cells using optimally retargeted and functionalized lentiviral vectors with reduced immune clearance Despite striking efficacy against hematologic malignancies, the cost and complexity of CAR T manufacturing present significant barriers to broader patient access. Beyond manufacturing challenges, ex v...

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

Llamas, dolphins and measles? Oh my!

So thankful this story is finally breaking containment from my time in the Manguso Lab at the Broad. Using pieces from viruses and llamas we engineered selective cell specific viral like particles with reduced immunogenicity for in vivo gene delivery

Like we needed another reason for sex…

But seriously this is a very cool result, surprisingly intuitive only after you read it. I interpret it is as sex delinking beneficial and deleterious mutations to enable greater adaptability. Shreyas worked super hard to figure this out, good work!

Woolly mice is bioweapon.

My scientific career changed the day I met Fernando and my faith in science restored. In a world dominated by sequencing and LLMs, this project shows how much biology is hidden in plain sight waiting for the right person to make the connection, a must read for any scientist!

Tbh only went as an excuse to wear the new suit

Greatful to have been given the opportunity to present my wacky little project at @crisprmeeting.bsky.social and thanks to @baym.lol and the rest of the lab for the support!

Genomic resistance in historical clinical isolates increased in frequency and mobility after the age of antibiotics https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.01.16.633422v1