Tony Ng

The molecule that gives caraway seeds their flavor is the mirror image of the molecule that gives spearmint its flavor.

Vancomycin-resistant enterococci utilise antibiotic-enriched nutrients for intestinal colonisation - Nature Communications Here, the authors show that vancomycin-resistant enterococci grow in the antibiotic-treated gut microbiome by utilising enriched nutrients in the presence of reduced concentrations of inhibitory micro...

Vancomycin-resistant 𝙀𝙣𝙩𝙚𝙧𝙤𝙘𝙤𝙘𝙘𝙪𝙨 𝙛𝙖𝙚𝙘𝙞𝙪𝙢 (VRE) thrives in the antibiotic-perturbed gut

VRE gobbles up enriched sugars and amino acids, and loss of short-chain fatty acids (acetate, propionate, butyrate) eliminates natural growth brakes

Therapeutic angle: Prebiotic SCFA mixtures block VRE growth!

Range extender mediates long-distance enhancer activity - Nature The REX element is associated with long-range enhancer–promoter interactions.

Our paper describing the Range Extender element which is required and sufficient for long-range enhancer activation at the Shh locus is now available at @nature.com. Congrats to @gracebower.bsky.social who led the study. Below is a brief summary of the main findings www.nature.com/articles/s41... 1/

Laboratory mice engrafted with natural gut microbiota possess a wildling-like phenotype - Nature Communications Here, the authors apply a standardized system, called TXsystem, to transplant wild mouse gut microbiota into SPF mice, developing “TXwildlings” mice that stably retain natural microbiota and human-lik...

The #Rosshart Lab goes wild again! Ever wondered whether using #Wildlings in our research would change the outcome of our results? 🤔💡 #immunosky @fau.de
www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Almost all Nobel Prizes are awarded for work that is exploratory, or absolutely basic science with no obvious commercial or medical benefit.

You cannot predict where advancements come from, so you have to invest in science and scientists.

Targeted (corporate) science investment will never do this.

#booksky

The Intensive Care Society is deeply concerned by the Supreme Court’s recent decision regarding the naming of doctors involved in court of protection proceedings.

Read our full statement below👇

bit.ly/supremecourtrulingstatement

Don’t shame people for not immediately reading all the books they buy. Some books aren’t made to be ready right away, okay? Some books need time to mature. Some books need to cure for a while. Some books are prosciutto, and don’t you forget it.

Sarampo pode "estragar" sistema imunológico por meses A infecção pelo sarampo leva à redução na imunidade que torna o paciente mais suscetível a outras doenças virais e bacterianas

🟠Sarampo pode “estragar” sistema imunológico por meses, alertam médicos.

www.metropoles.com/saude/saramp...

Flexible-tip bougie vs stylet for tracheal intubation with a hyperangulated videolaryngoscope in critical care - which would you choose?

#AnSky #ICUSky #AirwaySky #MedSky

doi.org/10.1111/anae...

The Futile Creatine Cycle powers UCP1-independent thermogenesis in classical BAT Nature Communications - Thermogenesis by brown adipose tissue has long been thought to be solely controlled by uncoupling protein 1 (UCP1). Here, the authors show that energy expenditure in brown...

Today in @naturecomms.bsky.social we show the #FutileCreatineCycle plays a key role in #thermogenesis, independent of UCP1. We also challenge the belief that brown adipocytes lack enough ATP synthase for thermogenesis. Congrats to Jakub Bunk! @mcgillgci.bsky.social

Full paper: rdcu.be/egoV7

editors note: the patient got dropped off in the ICU on rocket fuel quadruple pressors with a pH 6.5 and frequent pushes of bicarb, calcium, and methylene blue to keep the MAP >50

Conserve

Quantitative and spatial assessment of TYRP1R153C in Ursus americanus. Inset: hair color reflectance was compared with the SNP genotype (n = 317). The geospatial pattern of R153C across the range (n = 906) where color denotes genotype (black, homozygous ancestral GG; brown, heterozygous GA; gold, homozygous derived AA), with the species range shown in dark gray.

How did sun bear get that sunny chest patch? Still a mystery. But scientists recently discovered that a 1 base change in the gene TYRP1 can turn black bears brown. #2025MMM www.cell.com/current-biol...

(A) Allelic variation at Tabby controls color patterning—mackerel (Taᴹ) is dominant over blotched (Taᵇ). Diagrams show how the distribution of eumelanin (dark) and pheomelanin (light) within hairs contributes to coat patterns. (B) Taqpep encodes a type II membrane aminopeptidase. The T139N variant, found in feral cats, is associated with swirled patterns (P = 0.0017) but shows incomplete penetrance.

How did Coati get their stripes? Not yet known ... but we know how another Carnivore loses them! 3 mutations in gene TAQPEP changes a cat from tabby striped to blotchy #RIP #2025MMM www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

GM-CSF–mediated epithelial-immune cell cross-talk orchestrates pulmonary immunity to Aspergillus fumigatus During mold infection, epithelial-derived GM-CSF licenses neutrophil killing of fungal cells, leading to improved survival.

So happy to see this story come together. Check it out! Kathleen Mills and many collaborators - GM-CSF–mediated epithelial-immune cell cross-talk orchestrates pulmonary immunity to Aspergillus fumigatus | Science Immunology www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

Repellent to this proud Canadian. It is not what we want.

Water Balloons xkcd.com/3061

I enjoyed this very very much.

100s of accounts - click follow all!

#Ansky #Anaesthesia #Anaesthetist #ICU #Intensivist #PHEM #HEMS

Anaesthesia & ICM Packs
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PHEM 1. go.bsky.app/NWQRhE1
2. go.bsky.app/KhwJfCs

From EARTHSEED: THE BOOKS OF THE LIVING Choose your leaders with wisdom and forethought. To be led by a coward is to be controlled by all that the coward fears. To be led by a fool is to be led by the opportunists who control the fool. To be led by a thief is to offer up your most precious treasures to be stolen. To be led by a liar is to ask to be told lies. To be led by a tyrant is to sell yourself and those you love into slavery.

from “Parable of the Talents” by Octavia Butler

flyer advertising the Stand Up for Science event on March 7. standupforscience2025.org

Just got added to the @standupforscience.bsky.social organizing discord (let's go RI!). Wow the organizing team is incredible. These rallies are going to be amazing.

March 7 - mark your calendars for the national/state rallies!

Good morning!

So much cool biology - collow me for more musing on molecular biology, immunology, and Critical Care!

#Immunology #MolecularBiology

Why are stop codons unequal?

www.nature.com/scitable/blo....

Dual stop codon suppression in mammalian cells with genomically integrated genetic code expansion machinery Stop codon suppression using dedicated tRNA/aminoacyl-tRNA synthetase (aaRS) pairs allows for genetically encoded, site-specific incorporation of non-…

Can we tag these efficiently in mammalian cells?

www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

Identification of permissive amber suppression sites for efficient non-canonical amino acid incorporation in mammalian cells Abstract. The genetic code of mammalian cells can be expanded to allow the incorporation of non-canonical amino acids (ncAAs) by suppressing in-frame amber

It turns out there is a whole swathe of research trying to elucidate and optimise this system:

How do we identify optimal sites for these codons? What are the determinants of stopping translation?
academic.oup.com/nar/article/...

Some problems with this:

1. Won't this also result in tagging of the other UAG's in the genome?
2. We have to express the tRNA-tRNAsynthase pair for this 21st amino acid.
3. What if the proteins don't use it as a tag - how do we trick the cells into using this 21st codon?

/4

that allow small molecules to bind them using "Click" chemistry (wond a recent Nobel!). This means we can incorporate tag sites into our own genetic code that allow labelling of proteins with the addition of a small molecule. Cool, right? /3

UAG codons in methane producing bacteria code for selenomethionine, and so these bacteria only have two stops - UAA and UGA. This can be hijacked as a 21st amino acid in mammalian cells, where unnatural amino acids (UAA's) can be incorporated.

UAA's based on lysine can be modified to accept tags/2