Coakley Lab
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coakleylab.bsky.social
Coakley Lab
@coakleylab.bsky.social
We study the cellular mechanisms of neuroprotection at the School of Biomedical Sciences at The University of Queensland 🇦🇺🧠🔬

www.coakleylab.com
Thanks to The University of Queensland for highlighting our discovery of a nanoscale scaffold, in the tissue that surrounds the axon, that protects sensory axons from degenerating.

news.uq.edu.au/2026-01-plea...

@hilliardlab.bsky.social
Pleasure and pain: tiny worm reveals secret to protecting skin sensations
A tiny roundworm has helped UQ scientists uncover miniscule structures in skin tissue that may protect the body’s ability to feel temperature, touch and pain.
news.uq.edu.au
January 29, 2026 at 11:58 PM
Reposted by Coakley Lab
Latest paper is now out and features on the cover of Science Advances 👉 tinyurl.com/vea5862x

Very grateful Igor Bonacossa Pereira, Dat Le & Massimo Hilliard @hilliardlab.bsky.social for their creativity & passion.

Read more about it 👉
tinyurl.com/56awjda5
& 👉 tinyurl.com/2vp8p8uk
An epidermal membrane-associated periodic skeleton restricts endocytosis to stabilize neuron-epidermal attachment and preserve axons
An epidermal membrane periodic scaffold protects axons from damage.
tinyurl.com
January 8, 2026 at 2:02 AM
Reposted by Coakley Lab
The MPS visits the axon's neighbors! Interesting results from @hilliardlab.bsky.social & @coakleylab.bsky.social in C. elegans where the epidermis forms a submembrane axon-imprinted periodic spectrin skeleton that restrict the endocytosis of cell surface proteins:
doi.org/10.1126/scia...
January 8, 2026 at 11:31 AM
Latest paper is now out and features on the cover of Science Advances 👉 tinyurl.com/vea5862x

Very grateful Igor Bonacossa Pereira, Dat Le & Massimo Hilliard @hilliardlab.bsky.social for their creativity & passion.

Read more about it 👉
tinyurl.com/56awjda5
& 👉 tinyurl.com/2vp8p8uk
An epidermal membrane-associated periodic skeleton restricts endocytosis to stabilize neuron-epidermal attachment and preserve axons
An epidermal membrane periodic scaffold protects axons from damage.
tinyurl.com
January 8, 2026 at 2:02 AM
What a fantastic gift from Red, our undergrad rotation student this semester. A needle felt C. elegans! Thank you Red 🙏#worm #celegans #scienceart #science
May 19, 2025 at 1:41 AM
Reposted by Coakley Lab
A little piece I wrote for the conversation on the role of curiosity in medical breakthroughs 👇
theconversation.com/curiosity-dr...
‘Curiosity-driven research’ led to a recent major medical breakthrough. But it’s under threat
Curiosity-driven research is exactly what it sounds like: research driven by the goal of understanding nature without regard for application.
theconversation.com
April 3, 2025 at 11:15 PM
Reposted by Coakley Lab
I'll be presenting our work from @coakleylab.bsky.social #CellBio2024 where we discovered a periodic spectrin skeleton in the skin of C. elegans that protects neurons from damage. Come say hi 👋 P1427 Sunday 15th 11:15am-12:45pm
@ascbiology.bsky.social
December 15, 2024 at 12:28 AM
It was a good week this week 👇 🥂
www.coakleylab.com/news/arc-discovery-project-success
November 30, 2024 at 1:31 AM