Zahra Abbas

For our #flowcytometry peeps, would you like to have a single fix/perm protocol that is optimised for everything? One that preserves fluorophores while allowing simultaneous TF and cytokine staining? How about 100-fold cheaper?

You got it:
currentprotocols.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/...

Pediatric Brain Cancer Group to Lose Federal Funding

Pediatric Brain Cancer Group to Lose Federal Funding.
A respected network of hospitals and cancer centers is halting enrollment in clinical trials for children with brain cancer after the federal government said it would no longer provide funding to the group.

www.nytimes.com/2025/08/28/w...

The day Trump won I said I wasn't going to visit the US under a Trump presidency. If you don't have to visit, don't. Don't support Trump, don't take the risk.

Welcome Josh!

Josh is completing his Honours with us, testing how certain therapies can help the immune system fight medulloblastoma, the most common brain cancer in kids.

Josh is excited to see the impact of the Cancer Centre's work through our strong researcher-clinician collaborations.

💪Neuro-Oncology Pediatrics – a new open access journal by EANO & @neuroonc.bsky.social for the global #pediatric & AYA #NeuroOncology community. Now open for submissions!
🔗 academic.oup.com/neuro-onc-peds
Editor-in-Chief: S. Mueller
Executive Editors: M. A. Roldán (EANO), @bandolab.bsky.social (SNO)

So cool, congrats!

Glioblastoma-instructed astrocytes suppress tumour-specific T cell immunity - Nature A population of TRAIL-positive astrocytes in glioblastoma contributes to an immunosuppressive tumour microenvironment and this mechanism can be targeted with an engineered oncolytic virus to improve o...

new out in Nature www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Scientists design gene delivery systems for cells in the brain and spinal cord NIH-funded breakthrough could enable targeted therapies for many neurological disorders.

We've launched the Armamentarium, a new toolkit for targeted gene delivery to the brain and spinal cord.

This #OpenScience resource was made possible thanks to support from the NIH BRAIN Initiative and teamwork with our collaborators.

🧠📈 www.nih.gov/news-events/...

For anyone in Perth, Jacob's organising a fundraising trivia night on Friday the 25th of July. Check out the following link to support Jacob and secure a table! 👉 bit.ly/4kfuwSW

My lab mate Jacob Byrne is both an incredibly dedicated brain cancer researcher and also, apparently, super human. He's running a marathon every day for 30 days in September to raise money for children's brain cancer research. You can support Jacob as he runs 30 marathons here 👉 bit.ly/4j5I3M7

The Coming Out of a Transgender Scientist "I know that I am making the right decision because whenever I think about changing my gender role, I am flooded with feelings of relief."

We're disappointed to see Ben Barres's powerful book "The Autobiography of a Transgender Scientist" among the ~400 titles removed from the Naval Academy Library. Needless to say, we're proud to have published his book and will keep it — and his memory — alive.

This is unreal, I can’t even begin to fathom how devastating this would be. My heart goes out to our colleagues in the US.

job::job({ rarefied_curve <- rarecurve(t(otu_table(rarefied_v7_12S_in_wilder_otu_table))@.Data, step = 100, tidy = TRUE) }) job::job({ non_rarefied_curve <- rarecurve(t(otu_table(v7_12S_in_wilder_ps))@.Data, step = 100, tidy = TRUE) })

Loving job::job!
Chuck long-running code into job::job blocks, Rstudio will execute that code in the background so your console is free to do other stuff. Great if you, like me, always have 5 quarto documents open

🤯 what! sounds game changing for my scattered brain

Congratulations to winners of The Brain Prize 2025!
Professors @michellemonje.bsky.social, @stanfordmedicine.bsky.social and @hhmi.org Investigator, and Frank Winkler, Heidelberg University Hospital, have pioneered the field of Cancer Neuroscience.

Learn more: brainprize.org/winners/canc...

White House pauses all federal grants, sparking confusion The Trump administration has put a hold on all federal financial grants and loans, affecting tens of billions of dollars in payments.

I think some people hear “grants” and think that without them, scientists and government workers just have less stuff to play with at work. But grants fund salaries for students, academics, researchers, and people who work in all areas of public service.

“Pausing” grants means people don’t eat.

this is an awesome resource for paediatric cancer research, highly recommend!

Opinion | The Science of Blue Zones and Extreme Longevity Is Deeply Flawed (Gift Article) Some of the claims behind the longest-lived people are simply improbable.

"The science of extreme longevity continues as an immense joke."
—The first man to “survive” past 110 actually died at 65.
—Blue zones are a myth
—Pervasive false claims about longevity and supercentenarians
Gift link www.nytimes.com/2025/01/20/o...

Looks great! Any chance this will be recorded? Time zone difference is a little rough for Aussies 😅

Opinion | If My Dying Daughter Could Face Her Mortality, Why Couldn’t the Rest of Us? A bereaved mother’s case against our grief-phobic culture.

A moving parent’s perspective www.nytimes.com/2024/11/25/o...