Nisha Rafiq

Blown away by the ascb symposia talk on RNA visualization live at the ER by Jennifer Lippincott-Schwartz 😱😱
Watching synthesis at real-time

🧪⚛️ Surface tension—driven by non-equilibrium currents not forces—in pattern formation leads to the same type of interface laws as in liquid foams: Plateau laws, von Neumann evolution; and a new emergent phenomenon: domain splitting akin to cell division. nature.com/articles/s4156…

At ASCB this year in Philly? Will speak about MT lattice spacing in cells and neurons 🙂 See info below..

How do cells recognize matrix topography? In this preprint we show that α5β1-integrin fibrillar adhesions rapidly form in response to topographic cues like electrospun nanofibers- no actomyosin contractility, focal adhesions or fibronectin secretion needed
doi.org/10.1101/2025...

Congratulations! Didn't know fibrillar adhesions and podosomes could be friends 😉🤩

Please join me for the upcoming talk in the neurocolloquium!

Listened to the talk by the first author at SfN and was pleasantly surprised to see so many synaptic proteins, including my all-time favorite: synaptojanin-1!

An enzymatic cascade enables sensitive and specific proximity labeling proteomics in challenging biological systems - Nature Communications Proximity labeling allows proteomic mapping of subcellular structures. Here, Sroka et al. develop in situ APEX activation (iAPEX) to overcome limitations of labeling specificity and H2O2 toxicity, app...

Thrilled to share "in situ APEX activation" (iAPEX), a proximity labeling technology for subcellular #proteomics applied to primary #cilia. iAPEX uses an enzymatic cascade, in which a D-amino acid oxidase locally produces H2O2 to activate ascorbate peroxidase.
www.nature.com/articles/s41...

If you’re at #sfn25 you definitely don’t want to miss this nanosymposium on cilia, tomorrow from 1-4pm! Come learn about neuronal cilia, they do some pretty cool stuff!

'Redefining dopaminergic synapses beyond the classical paradigm'

Kenshiro Fujise, Jaya Mishra, Nasser Karmali & Nisha M. Rafiq @nishamrafiq.bsky.social

www.cell.com/trends/neuro...

what a beauty!!

Looking forward to speak here!

Redefining dopaminergic synapses beyond the classical paradigm Synapses are traditionally defined by the presence of presynaptic vesicle pools and postsynaptic densities. Dopaminergic neurons, however, frequently form bouton-like structures that lack these conven...

See link here: www.cell.com/trends/neuro...

Do you like following rules… but also breaking them?

So does your dopaminergic synapse! 😎🧠

Our new Trends in Neurosciences review dives into the non-classical side of dopamine signaling, notably the tools reshaping how we see it (CLEM, cryo-CLEM, serial EM + more).

what an animation!

New paper alert! I’m very excited to share our paper published in @embojournal.org! @pdc-lab.bsky.social @yaleneuro.bsky.social

@anbangdai.bsky.social et al. @pdc-lab.bsky.social report the localization of BLTP2 in different human cell types & reveal binding partners that mediate its tethering to the PM & to PM-connected structures including certain #endosomes & #macropinosomes undergoing fusion rupress.org/jcb/article/...

Very happy that the first article from my postdoc work in the Tomancak lab is now published @PNAS! www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/.... We studied the self-organization of actin in aggregates made from Hydra cells. Thread below (1/9)

congrats Andrés, nice work!

Cilia in the brain! Depiction on angular and orientation information across different parts of the mouse brain...

Did you know that Bioimage Archive has a specific database for people to share AI-ready imaging datasets? I did not until @yanlanmao.bsky.social told me! Please deposit! If people regularly submitted, it would have a huge collective impact on bioimage analysis. www.ebi.ac.uk/bioimage-arc...

EU augments opportunities for scientists around the world to launch or re-launch their careers in Europe.

Today, FutureHouse is releasing the first dedicated AI Agents for Science, via our Platform. These agents are able to perform a wide variety of scientific tasks better than humans. With the platform, we are bringing these capabilities to the wider community. 1/2

The MICrONS Project An unprecedented dataset of high resolution anatomical images of individual cells in mouse visual cortex, mapped on to their responses. This integrated view of function and structure lays a foundation for discovering the computational bases of cortical circuits.

A package of research papers from the MICrONS (Machine Intelligence from Cortical Networks) consortium in Nature and Nature Methods provides a detailed map of mouse brain cell structure and connections, offering insights into how they relate to activity in the mouse brain. 🧪

We're live! @inikon.bsky.social used modular proximity labeling to identify ciliary EV cargo in #celegans. This EV-TurboID approach can be applied in cell- & tissue-specific manners to define the composition of distinct EV subtypes, a major challenge of the EV field.

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

Eid Mubarak! May this special day bring peace, joy, and blessings to you and your loved ones. 😊

Post doc in Europe? 🇪🇺🔬💡
It’s open to anyone in the 🌍
Call open 9 April 25
marie-sklodowska-curie-actions.ec.europa.eu/actions/post...

Constrained roads to complex brains Neural development and brain circuit evolution converged in birds and mammals

Constrained roads to complex brains
Neural development and brain circuit evolution converged in birds and mammals

www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

Very happy to share our last preprint where we investigated the vesicular organization of dopamine hub synapses with cryo-CLEM. It is a brain structure that emerges as an important regulator of striatal activity. Many thanks to David Perrais, Etienne Herzog and the lab of @fronzeslab.bsky.social !

"DA vesicles are bigger and less round" in synaptosomes, beautiful cryoEM images!
We too showed this in iPSC-derived DA neurons, of course using just regular EM 😃 See link here: www.nature.com/articles/s41...
Exciting times for non-classical synapse!