James Hurcomb
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jdhurco.bsky.social
James Hurcomb
@jdhurco.bsky.social
38 followers 59 following 1 posts
PhD student at MRC Toxicology Unit (Uni of Cambridge), interested mitochondria, flies, interorgan communication and metabolism
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Reposted by James Hurcomb
dmmjournal.bsky.social
Ting Deng & co from @cam.ac.uk show that in #Drosophila and in human cells, loss of ribosomal S6 kinases causes mitochondrial dysfunction and cell death, providing insights into the mechanisms underlying neurodegeneration. doi.org/10.1242/dmm....
Drosophila S6kII knockout (KO) flies show mitochondrial fragmentation and decreased mitochondrial function in neuronal tissues. (A) Expression levels of S6kII in different tissues of adult Drosophila male flies. Enrichment is defined as a measure of the abundance of S6kII in a particular tissue relative to the whole fly. Results from a query to FlyAtlas 2 (Krause et al., 2022). (B) Schematic diagram of the Drosophila larval central nervous system (CB, central brain; VNC, ventral nerve cord). (C,D) The loss of S6kII results in mitochondrial fragmentation. (C) Confocal analysis of mitoGFP fluorescence in larval VNC axons. (D) Quantification of mitochondrial length is shown as a combined violin and box plot (medians with interquartile ranges; ****P≤0.0001, two-tailed unpaired t-test). (E) A schematic of the adult Drosophila brain in the sagittal orientation. (F,G) The loss of mitochondrial membrane potential (Δψm) in the brain mitochondria of S6kII KO flies. (F) Representative confocal images of whole-mounted brains showing neurons loaded with tetramethylrhodamine methyl ester (TMRM). The intensity levels of TMRM are mapped using the Fire Lookup Table in Fiji. (G) Quantification of the loss of Δψm (means±s.e.m.; ****P≤0.0001, two-tailed unpaired t-test). (H) Decreased lifespan in S6kII KO flies. Fly viability was scored over a period of 80 days. Genotypes: w; elavGal4/+; UASmitoGFP/+ (control), S6kIIKO; elavGal4/+; UASmitoGFP/+ (S6kII KO) (C,D); w1118; +; + (control), S6kIIKO; +; + (S6kII KO) (F–H).
October 12, 2025 at 1:27 PM
Reposted by James Hurcomb
thetransmitter.bsky.social
FlyBase, a Drosophila database, will lose a third of its team in early October because the Harvard grant that covered the employees’ salaries was canceled. Scientists warn that losing FlyBase could devastate fly research.

By @claudia-lopez.bsky.social

www.thetransmitter.org/community/ha...
Harvard University lays off fly database team
The layoffs jeopardize this resource, which has served more than 4,000 labs for about three decades.
www.thetransmitter.org
August 13, 2025 at 7:32 PM
Reposted by James Hurcomb
cahirokane.bsky.social
Shit.
May 23, 2025 at 4:59 PM
Reposted by James Hurcomb
mrc-tu.bsky.social
Amrita Mukherjee, James Hurcomb @jdhurco.bsky.social and colleagues at the MRC Toxicology Unit have used a fruit fly model to reveal how aripiprazole, an antipsychotic medication, has off-target effects on the intestine.

Read more here: buff.ly/Hw00arc

Full publication here: buff.ly/fK0i31D
A fluorescent image of the fruit fly intestine. The cell membrane is labelled in purple and the cell nuclei are in turquoise.
April 17, 2025 at 1:31 PM
jdhurco.bsky.social
Pleased that our paper using #Drosophila to model the gut side-effects of aripiprazole is now out in @dmmjournal.bsky.social ! Thanks to all at @mrc-tu.bsky.social who helped out with this 🙂

journals.biologists.com/dmm/article/...
Oral administration of aripiprazole to Drosophila causes intestinal toxicity
Summary: Aripiprazole-induced gut toxicity in Drosophila melanogaster is mediated by mitochondrial complex I inhibition and JNK-dependent apoptosis.
journals.biologists.com
March 26, 2025 at 10:47 PM