Aleksandra Deczkowska

I am thrilled to share our latest work led by @zurisullivan.bsky.social in collaboration with @moffittlab.bsky.social ! We find that the brain encodes distinct, pathogen-specific sickness states across behavior, physiology, neural activity, and gene expression 1/6

www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...

Come to be our colleague! Center of Paris, excellent facilities, research spanning the whole range of basic and biomedical life science topics, enthusiastic and collaborative colleagues, crème brûlée every Friday... What else could one want?

Creation of new junior research groups at the Institut Pasteur - Call for applications 2026 - Research The Institut Pasteur is launching an international call to recruit new junior research group leaders leveraging cutting-edge transdisciplinary approaches to exploring infectious diseases, host-microbe...

🔬 Call to create junior research groups at the Institut Pasteur

Focus: Infectious diseases, host-microbe interactions, vaccines
Special interest: AI methodologies

📅 Deadline: Feb 9, 2026
👥 2-12 years post-PhD

Apply now 📝 research.pasteur.fr/en/call/crea...

#JobOpportunity #Research

Oxidized phosphatidylcholines deposition drives chronic neurodegeneration in a mouse model of progressive multiple sclerosis via IL-1β signaling - Nature Neuroscience In this study, Yu et al. found that a positive feedback loop between oxidized phosphatidylcholine and IL-1β promotes chronic neurodegeneration in the central nervous system and could be a contributing...

Evidence continues building that oxidized lipids drive inflammasome activities in health and disease.  A beautiful study shows a link to multiple sclerosis, with a role for inflammasomes and IL-1 in pathology.  Kudos to the authors on this exciting discovery.

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

We would like to thank our amazing collaborators @nicogaudenzio.bsky.social Xinzhong Dong, Martin Hasselblatt and Friederike Jonsson, members of @aleksdelab.bsky.social and amazing platforms @institutpasteur.bsky.social - would not happen without You!

Overall, activation of CP mast cells or CPEC secretion in early life derails brain development; therefore the presence of mast cells at the neonatal CP is a “vulnerability”, this is how pathologies associated with mast cell activation in neonates may exert their long lasting effect on the brain.

Finally, using chemogenetics, we showed that triggering CPEC responses at birth leads to long-term cognitive alterations, highlighting the lasting impact of early-life immune activity at the brain’s borders

When we activated these neonatal mast cells, we saw a serotonin-dependent increase in CPEC secretion — along with CSF pollution by intracellular content.

These mast cells were present only at birth and showed a connective-tissue–type phenotype.

Next, to understand how immune cells shape CP function, we performed ligand–receptor analysis. This revealed that mast cells may directly interact with CP epithelial cells (CPECs) through serotonergic signaling.

Early-life stromal niches orchestrate B lymphopoiesis at the brain’s borders The dura mater serves as a critical immunological niche for the central nervous system, yet the mechanisms governing the emergence of this niche in early life remain understudied. Here, we chart the t...

This is consistent with another (very) recent preprint from @bethstevenslab.bsky.social lab: www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1... but some pro-B and pre-B cells are still present in adult CP!

By dissecting their subtypes, we discovered that these cells resemble developing B cells typically found in the bone marrow of adults.

One striking change was a surge of B cells around P15, prompting us to examine them more closely.

Using CITE-seq, we mapped the CP immune landscape across postnatal development and found that the CP is a highly dynamic niche with major shifts in immune cell composition.

We wanted to understand how immune cells shape brain maturation through the choroid plexus (CP), a brain border which produces the CSF, key for brain development, and is exposed to peripheral immune factors.

Local B cell maturation and mast cell regulation of choroid plexus function in early life. Postnatal development is a critical period for the maturation of the nervous and immune systems. The choroid plexus (CP) within the brain ventricles guides brain development through the production of ...

Excited to share our new preprint: “Local B cell maturation and mast cell regulation of choroid plexus function in early life” www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1... , initiated in the lab by Laetitia Travier and led by the one and only @fakesamir.bsky.social

These are the 10 art classroom rules of Corita Kent (artist, teacher, social justice advocate and nun). They are true for any creative process, especially Rule 8: DON’T TRY TO CREATE AND ANALYZE AT THE SAME TIME. THEY’RE DIFFERENT PROCESSES. (i.e. night science / day science).

Early-life stromal niches orchestrate B lymphopoiesis at the brain's borders https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.11.27.690844v1

iHALT unlocks liver functionality as a surrogate secondary lymphoid organ - Nature Liver-restricted viral infection in mice results in secondary lymphoid organ dormancy and the compensatory induction of specialized lymphoid tissue in the liver, the structural features and functional outputs of which are closely mirrored in humans.

Nature research paper: iHALT unlocks liver functionality as a surrogate secondary lymphoid organ

go.nature.com/3M7ctmb

Microglial CLEC7A restrains amyloid beta plaque pathology in a mouse model of Alzheimer's disease alz-journals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/...
@alzdemjournals.bsky.social

PhD students and Postdocs: The Night Science Podcast (@nightsciencepod.bsky.social) is producing an episode highlighting young scientists talking about their creative process. DM me if you'd like us to consider you for this, & read below what PhD student Davis Garner will contribute! ⬇️

Our work out in @devbiol.bsky.social, PDGFra is needed for 🧠 perivascular fibroblast development... ⬇️ perivascular fibroblast = ⬇️ perivascular macrophage...cross-talk? 👀
Led by Hannah Jones @hejcell.bsky.social w/ Kelsey Abrams, Sophia Kim, excited for more projects w/ @fantauzzolab.bsky.social!

“it’s anxiety, have you tried nose yoga?”

We have come a long way.

#Pinks

Photo of chart demonstrating that the risks to inflammatory conditions, low platelets and blood clots are all higher in kids who had COVID19.

A study with data from ~14 million children shows that COVID19 infection is significantly more harmful to kids’ hearts than the vaccine.

Marty Makary falsely alleged that “children died” because from COVID19 vaccine. Whomever told him that failed to account for SARS-CoV-2 infections.

Link below.

You and the text you need to trim in order to meet the word limit

Evidence continues to accumulate that mRNA can deliver immunostimulatory innate proteins.
www.pnas.org/doi/suppl/10...

STORIES: learning cell fate landscapes from spatial transcriptomics using optimal transport - Nature Methods By learning a differentiation potential using an optimal transport-based approach, STORIES models and infers cell fate trajectories using spatiotemporal omics data.

Happy to share STORIES out now on Nature Methods

STORIES learns cell fate landscapes from spatial tramscripromics data profiled at several time points, thus allowing prediction of future cell states.

Led by Geert-Jan Huizing and Jules Samaran

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

@pasteur.fr

During Alzheimer’s Disease Awareness Month, we honor the millions of individuals & families affected by Alzheimer’s, and the scientists working tirelessly to change its course. Each new finding increases our understanding of Alzheimer’s and brings us closer to a cure.
#AlzheimersAwarenessMonth

Just a regular thing at @pasteur.fr cantine.