Frankie D Heyward
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frankiedheyward.bsky.social
Frankie D Heyward
@frankiedheyward.bsky.social
Assistant Professor @ UT Southwestern
PI of Heyward Nutritional & Behavioral Epigenetics Lab (https://www.frankieheywardlab.com/)
Broadly Studying: The Epigenetic Control of Appetite 🧠🧬🍔🤤
Pinned
I’m excited to share our new preprint! We built a single-nucleus multiomic (snRNA-seq+snATAC-seq) atlas of leptin receptor-expressing hypothalamic neurons (LepRᴴʸᵖᵒ) and identified conserved cis-regulatory elements overlapping human obesity-linked variants and eQTLs🧠🧬
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
Single-nucleus transcriptional and chromatin accessibility profiling of mouse hypothalamic LepRb neurons reveals cell type-specific cis-regulatory elements linked to human obesity
Leptin receptor-expressing hypothalamic neurons (LepRHypo) are key regulators of energy balance, yet a comprehensive, cell type-resolved, chromatin accessibility map of these neurons is lacking. We pr...
www.biorxiv.org
Reposted by Frankie D Heyward
I’m extremely honored to be a recipient of the NIH Director’s Pioneer Award!
Congratulations to @ishmailsaboor.bsky.social on receiving the NIH Director’s Pioneer Award, celebrating “scientists with outstanding records of creativity.” His lab will explore how the sense of touch can help build relationships. 🫶🧠💡

See zuckermaninstitute.columbia.edu/zuckerman-in...
October 8, 2025 at 8:45 PM
Reposted by Frankie D Heyward
new review alert❗️

thought your neighborhood stress response pathway (ISR) only dealt in stress adaptation? well, maybe so. but many cells are apparently quite “stressed out” - even healthy ones.

see quoted thread by my phenom co-author @shyama13.bsky.social for a summary! ⬇️
July 15, 2025 at 2:51 AM
Reposted by Frankie D Heyward
Excited to share the latest preprint from my lab!

We present RESTRICT-seq, a novel method for precision CRISPR screen!

www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
RESTRICT-seq enables time-gated CRISPR screens and uncovers novel epigenetic dependencies of SCC resistance
Cancer cell evasion of therapy is a highly adaptive process that undermines the efficacy of many treatment strategies. A significant milestone in the study of these mechanisms has been the advent of p...
www.biorxiv.org
September 22, 2025 at 11:04 PM
Reposted by Frankie D Heyward
Dear academic internet friends, I’m working on an R01 on our novel early life model of food insecurity, which the federal govt no longer recognizes (as of ~1 week ago cancelling the annual report). Should I re-write my 3 line public health narrative (bonkers) to de-center that topic?
October 5, 2025 at 5:03 PM
I’m excited to share our new preprint! We built a single-nucleus multiomic (snRNA-seq+snATAC-seq) atlas of leptin receptor-expressing hypothalamic neurons (LepRᴴʸᵖᵒ) and identified conserved cis-regulatory elements overlapping human obesity-linked variants and eQTLs🧠🧬
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
Single-nucleus transcriptional and chromatin accessibility profiling of mouse hypothalamic LepRb neurons reveals cell type-specific cis-regulatory elements linked to human obesity
Leptin receptor-expressing hypothalamic neurons (LepRHypo) are key regulators of energy balance, yet a comprehensive, cell type-resolved, chromatin accessibility map of these neurons is lacking. We pr...
www.biorxiv.org
October 8, 2025 at 5:02 PM