Anna Blakney
@annablakney.bsky.social
Assistant Professor @ University of British Columbia - Michael Smith Labs & School of Biomedical Engineering🏔️🌊 Part of the RNAissance 🧬
Reposted by Anna Blakney
This week, we profile a publication by Dr. @annablakney.bsky.social ’s lab that demonstrates the relative expression kinetics of three different types of RNA.
This profile honors the late Dr. Credo Casmil, first author of the study and beloved lab member of the Blakney lab: https://bit.ly/42VJlUD
This profile honors the late Dr. Credo Casmil, first author of the study and beloved lab member of the Blakney lab: https://bit.ly/42VJlUD
October 24, 2025 at 6:19 PM
This week, we profile a publication by Dr. @annablakney.bsky.social ’s lab that demonstrates the relative expression kinetics of three different types of RNA.
This profile honors the late Dr. Credo Casmil, first author of the study and beloved lab member of the Blakney lab: https://bit.ly/42VJlUD
This profile honors the late Dr. Credo Casmil, first author of the study and beloved lab member of the Blakney lab: https://bit.ly/42VJlUD
Reposted by Anna Blakney
🚨THIS WEEK!!! 🔥Only a few tickets left here: bit.ly/sciencestanduptickets
@sbmeubc.bsky.social
@nikashakiba.bsky.social
@canacn.bsky.social
@scienceinvancouver.com
#Vancouver #scicomm
@sbmeubc.bsky.social
@nikashakiba.bsky.social
@canacn.bsky.social
@scienceinvancouver.com
#Vancouver #scicomm
October 14, 2025 at 4:39 AM
🚨THIS WEEK!!! 🔥Only a few tickets left here: bit.ly/sciencestanduptickets
@sbmeubc.bsky.social
@nikashakiba.bsky.social
@canacn.bsky.social
@scienceinvancouver.com
#Vancouver #scicomm
@sbmeubc.bsky.social
@nikashakiba.bsky.social
@canacn.bsky.social
@scienceinvancouver.com
#Vancouver #scicomm
Reposted by Anna Blakney
The vaccine revolution is being powered by RNA tech and Canada is positioned to lead it. 🍁
💉Check out the work on self-amplifying #RNA by the @annablakney.bsky.social Lab and on #LNPs by the Cullis lab to learn how @sbmeubc.bsky.social is at the forefront of vaccine research: https://bit.ly/4m7Iirx
💉Check out the work on self-amplifying #RNA by the @annablakney.bsky.social Lab and on #LNPs by the Cullis lab to learn how @sbmeubc.bsky.social is at the forefront of vaccine research: https://bit.ly/4m7Iirx
September 5, 2025 at 11:28 PM
The vaccine revolution is being powered by RNA tech and Canada is positioned to lead it. 🍁
💉Check out the work on self-amplifying #RNA by the @annablakney.bsky.social Lab and on #LNPs by the Cullis lab to learn how @sbmeubc.bsky.social is at the forefront of vaccine research: https://bit.ly/4m7Iirx
💉Check out the work on self-amplifying #RNA by the @annablakney.bsky.social Lab and on #LNPs by the Cullis lab to learn how @sbmeubc.bsky.social is at the forefront of vaccine research: https://bit.ly/4m7Iirx
Reposted by Anna Blakney
The UBC Michael Smith Labs Postdoc Committee hosted the brilliant @annablakney.bsky.social, where we learned about her inspiring journey to become an Assistant Professor at the MSL & @sbmeubc.bsky.social. Thx for sharing your helpful advice! Thx to the PDFs who attended for the engaging discussion!🙌
June 17, 2025 at 8:12 PM
The UBC Michael Smith Labs Postdoc Committee hosted the brilliant @annablakney.bsky.social, where we learned about her inspiring journey to become an Assistant Professor at the MSL & @sbmeubc.bsky.social. Thx for sharing your helpful advice! Thx to the PDFs who attended for the engaging discussion!🙌
Reposted by Anna Blakney
Our goal is to have 1000 SUFS Teach Ins across the US, by 9/30.
*GASP* 😮
We know, it's a big goal.
If you've received tax dollars for your science, you have a responsibility to inform *your* community what is at stake: public health, the economy, innovation, and America's global leadership.
*GASP* 😮
We know, it's a big goal.
If you've received tax dollars for your science, you have a responsibility to inform *your* community what is at stake: public health, the economy, innovation, and America's global leadership.
May 18, 2025 at 6:21 PM
Our goal is to have 1000 SUFS Teach Ins across the US, by 9/30.
*GASP* 😮
We know, it's a big goal.
If you've received tax dollars for your science, you have a responsibility to inform *your* community what is at stake: public health, the economy, innovation, and America's global leadership.
*GASP* 😮
We know, it's a big goal.
If you've received tax dollars for your science, you have a responsibility to inform *your* community what is at stake: public health, the economy, innovation, and America's global leadership.
Reposted by Anna Blakney
Dr. Katalin Karikó spent decades experimenting with mRNA. She was scoffed at, demoted, and eventually forced to retire. Then, she won the Nobel Prize.
Listen to her story in the first episode of “The Leap,” produced with the @hypothesisfund.bsky.social.
pod.link/73329284/epi...
Listen to her story in the first episode of “The Leap,” produced with the @hypothesisfund.bsky.social.
pod.link/73329284/epi...
May 12, 2025 at 5:37 PM
Dr. Katalin Karikó spent decades experimenting with mRNA. She was scoffed at, demoted, and eventually forced to retire. Then, she won the Nobel Prize.
Listen to her story in the first episode of “The Leap,” produced with the @hypothesisfund.bsky.social.
pod.link/73329284/epi...
Listen to her story in the first episode of “The Leap,” produced with the @hypothesisfund.bsky.social.
pod.link/73329284/epi...
Reposted by Anna Blakney
Canada helped pioneer RNA vaccines and now could lead the next wave, from pandemics to cancer care.
Drs. @annablakney.bsky.social and Pieter Cullis of @sbmeubc.bsky.social @ubcmedicine.bsky.social explain on @theconversationca.bsky.social why the moment is now: bit.ly/42X2cxN
Drs. @annablakney.bsky.social and Pieter Cullis of @sbmeubc.bsky.social @ubcmedicine.bsky.social explain on @theconversationca.bsky.social why the moment is now: bit.ly/42X2cxN
From COVID to cancer: Why Canada’s RNA vaccine leadership matters more than ever
Research teams across Canada are now building on homegrown innovation to expand the potential of RNA vaccines beyond infectious diseases.
bit.ly
May 1, 2025 at 7:51 PM
Canada helped pioneer RNA vaccines and now could lead the next wave, from pandemics to cancer care.
Drs. @annablakney.bsky.social and Pieter Cullis of @sbmeubc.bsky.social @ubcmedicine.bsky.social explain on @theconversationca.bsky.social why the moment is now: bit.ly/42X2cxN
Drs. @annablakney.bsky.social and Pieter Cullis of @sbmeubc.bsky.social @ubcmedicine.bsky.social explain on @theconversationca.bsky.social why the moment is now: bit.ly/42X2cxN
Our new review is out in Molecular Therapy! Lots of exciting accomplishments, and many more challenges, in the field fo self-amplifying RNA: www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
The advent of clinical self-amplifying RNA vaccines
Self-amplifying RNA (saRNA) technology is an emerging platform for vaccine development, offering significant advantages over conventional mRNA vaccine…
www.sciencedirect.com
April 8, 2025 at 2:51 PM
Our new review is out in Molecular Therapy! Lots of exciting accomplishments, and many more challenges, in the field fo self-amplifying RNA: www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
Reposted by Anna Blakney
📅 April 24 | Next-Generation #RNA Vaccines & Therapies
This event is organized by McGill's Pharmacology and Therapeutics and will feature lecture speaker Dr. @annablakney.bsky.social from UBC (also a D2R-funded researcher!).
More info: mcgill.ca/pharma/semin...
This event is organized by McGill's Pharmacology and Therapeutics and will feature lecture speaker Dr. @annablakney.bsky.social from UBC (also a D2R-funded researcher!).
More info: mcgill.ca/pharma/semin...
March 31, 2025 at 1:44 PM
📅 April 24 | Next-Generation #RNA Vaccines & Therapies
This event is organized by McGill's Pharmacology and Therapeutics and will feature lecture speaker Dr. @annablakney.bsky.social from UBC (also a D2R-funded researcher!).
More info: mcgill.ca/pharma/semin...
This event is organized by McGill's Pharmacology and Therapeutics and will feature lecture speaker Dr. @annablakney.bsky.social from UBC (also a D2R-funded researcher!).
More info: mcgill.ca/pharma/semin...
Caught the light on a nice day in MSL with some of our lab members- grateful for this group that makes coming to work every day a joy 🥰
March 20, 2025 at 4:06 PM
Caught the light on a nice day in MSL with some of our lab members- grateful for this group that makes coming to work every day a joy 🥰
Reposted by Anna Blakney
Share with US students who had their offers of admission withdrawn for PhD programs:
Apply to Canada. Check out Canadian professors, and contact us. Our system works differently here, and we are all still, technically, able to accept students for Fall 2025.
Apply to Canada. Check out Canadian professors, and contact us. Our system works differently here, and we are all still, technically, able to accept students for Fall 2025.
March 13, 2025 at 12:44 AM
Share with US students who had their offers of admission withdrawn for PhD programs:
Apply to Canada. Check out Canadian professors, and contact us. Our system works differently here, and we are all still, technically, able to accept students for Fall 2025.
Apply to Canada. Check out Canadian professors, and contact us. Our system works differently here, and we are all still, technically, able to accept students for Fall 2025.
Honored to be included with these people making a big impact in Canada, who also happen to be women, on this International Women's Day 😀 www.theglobeandmail.com/life/adv/art...
Amplifying innovation with diversity and inclusion
Sponsor Content
www.theglobeandmail.com
March 8, 2025 at 9:54 PM
Honored to be included with these people making a big impact in Canada, who also happen to be women, on this International Women's Day 😀 www.theglobeandmail.com/life/adv/art...
Exciting to see this work from Replicate Bioscience out! A single dose rabies vaccine with no serious adverse events in humans is quite remarkable. Fun collaboration for Credo and I, and exciting to see saRNA technology realizing its promise in humans: www.nature.com/articles/s41...
Safety and immunogenicity of an optimized self-replicating RNA platform for low dose or single dose vaccine applications: a randomized, open label Phase I study in healthy volunteers - Nature Communic...
Here the authors report an optimized self-replicating RNA (srRNA) vaccine approach that generates protective immunity at much lower doses than mRNA vaccines in mice. In a Phase 1 study using rabies gl...
www.nature.com
February 7, 2025 at 3:59 PM
Exciting to see this work from Replicate Bioscience out! A single dose rabies vaccine with no serious adverse events in humans is quite remarkable. Fun collaboration for Credo and I, and exciting to see saRNA technology realizing its promise in humans: www.nature.com/articles/s41...
Nitobe Garden on a snow day! Extra peaceful with the dusting of snow and quiet campus.
February 4, 2025 at 9:28 PM
Nitobe Garden on a snow day! Extra peaceful with the dusting of snow and quiet campus.
New clinical trial led by colleagues in the Michael Smith Labs is now recruiting, check it out here: reachbc.ca/project/628
Reach BC
REACH BC brings together researchers and volunteers to make it easy to participate in research, improving the overall quality of life for British Columbians and people across the world.
reachbc.ca
February 3, 2025 at 6:13 PM
New clinical trial led by colleagues in the Michael Smith Labs is now recruiting, check it out here: reachbc.ca/project/628
Itchy? Scratch a little, but not too much! Neat read on the mechanism behind this, and a reminder for the next time you get a mosquito bite: www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...
Scratching promotes allergic inflammation and host defense via neurogenic mast cell activation
Itch is a dominant symptom in dermatitis, and scratching promotes cutaneous inflammation, thereby worsening disease. However, the mechanisms through which scratching exacerbates inflammation and wheth...
www.science.org
January 30, 2025 at 10:20 PM
Itchy? Scratch a little, but not too much! Neat read on the mechanism behind this, and a reminder for the next time you get a mosquito bite: www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...
Our most recent publication in Molecular Therapy led by Credo Casmil shows that the saRNA backbone impacts both protein expression and vaccine immunogenicity- can’t wait to see where we go with these new vectors! doi.org/10.1016/j.ym...
Redirecting
doi.org
January 22, 2025 at 9:21 PM
Our most recent publication in Molecular Therapy led by Credo Casmil shows that the saRNA backbone impacts both protein expression and vaccine immunogenicity- can’t wait to see where we go with these new vectors! doi.org/10.1016/j.ym...
The Michael Smith Labs postdoc communication group recently interviewed Brett Finlay and I about the hats we wear as faculty: www.msl.ubc.ca/research-hat...
Research Hats: Conversations with Faculty
www.msl.ubc.ca
January 7, 2025 at 2:29 PM
The Michael Smith Labs postdoc communication group recently interviewed Brett Finlay and I about the hats we wear as faculty: www.msl.ubc.ca/research-hat...
Celebrating the end of 2024 with our new publication led by Suiyang Liao: we investigate the role of empty LNPs on transfection efficiency of mRNA- turns out they’re not just silent bystanders, and there’s a balance in how loaded you want your particles: pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/...
Transfection Potency of Lipid Nanoparticles Containing mRNA Depends on Relative Loading Levels
When formulating mRNA into lipid nanoparticles (LNP), various copy numbers of mRNA are encapsulated, leading to a distribution of mRNA loading levels within the LNPs. It is unclear whether the mRNA loading level affects the functional delivery of the message. Here we show that depending on the mRNA loading level, LNPs exhibit distinct mass densities and can be fractionated via ultracentrifugation. Upon fractionation, we investigated if mRNA loading levels influence LNP sizing, lipid composition, and morphology. We further conducted in vitro and in vivo functional delivery of mRNA and found that the LNP fraction with the highest mRNA loading levels was the least transfection competent.
pubs.acs.org
December 31, 2024 at 5:37 PM
Celebrating the end of 2024 with our new publication led by Suiyang Liao: we investigate the role of empty LNPs on transfection efficiency of mRNA- turns out they’re not just silent bystanders, and there’s a balance in how loaded you want your particles: pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/...
Happy holidays from the Blakney Lab! Mixed messages about whether we escaped 🤐
December 12, 2024 at 2:30 AM
Happy holidays from the Blakney Lab! Mixed messages about whether we escaped 🤐
Reposted by Anna Blakney
🚀 Excited to announce that our Lab @UBC is recruiting!
🌟 We're looking for passionate intern, graduate, and postdoc with strong coding/ML backgrounds to join us in advancing AI for single-cell biology & brain-computer interfaces.
🏔️ Vancouver awaits!
👉 tanglab.msl.ubc.ca
📧 xin.tang@msl.ubc.ca
🌟 We're looking for passionate intern, graduate, and postdoc with strong coding/ML backgrounds to join us in advancing AI for single-cell biology & brain-computer interfaces.
🏔️ Vancouver awaits!
👉 tanglab.msl.ubc.ca
📧 xin.tang@msl.ubc.ca
November 28, 2024 at 7:49 PM
🚀 Excited to announce that our Lab @UBC is recruiting!
🌟 We're looking for passionate intern, graduate, and postdoc with strong coding/ML backgrounds to join us in advancing AI for single-cell biology & brain-computer interfaces.
🏔️ Vancouver awaits!
👉 tanglab.msl.ubc.ca
📧 xin.tang@msl.ubc.ca
🌟 We're looking for passionate intern, graduate, and postdoc with strong coding/ML backgrounds to join us in advancing AI for single-cell biology & brain-computer interfaces.
🏔️ Vancouver awaits!
👉 tanglab.msl.ubc.ca
📧 xin.tang@msl.ubc.ca
Hot off the press- new paper from my lab exploring the use of bioactive phospholipids in LNPs! Many are known to have functions in specific cell types, leading to a change in cytokine secretion profiles in human PBMCs: pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/...
Exploring the Effects of Incorporating Different Bioactive Phospholipids into Messenger Ribonucleic Acid Lipid Nanoparticle (mRNA LNP) Formulations
The current rapid advancement in ribonucleic acid (RNA) therapeutics research depends on innovations in drug delivery, especially the development of a lipid-nanoparticle (LNP)-based system. The conven...
pubs.acs.org
November 28, 2024 at 4:50 PM
Hot off the press- new paper from my lab exploring the use of bioactive phospholipids in LNPs! Many are known to have functions in specific cell types, leading to a change in cytokine secretion profiles in human PBMCs: pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/...
How has social media influenced attitudes toward mRNA vaccines? Outstanding paper from Heidi Larson and Leesa Lin- the graph of top adverse events from VAERS versus Twitter is particularly intriguing: www.nature.com/articles/s41...
Mapping global public perspectives on mRNA vaccines and therapeutics - npj Vaccines
npj Vaccines - Mapping global public perspectives on mRNA vaccines and therapeutics
www.nature.com
November 21, 2024 at 5:45 PM
How has social media influenced attitudes toward mRNA vaccines? Outstanding paper from Heidi Larson and Leesa Lin- the graph of top adverse events from VAERS versus Twitter is particularly intriguing: www.nature.com/articles/s41...
Hi 🦋! I’m an Assistant Professor at University of British Columbia in the Michael Smith Labs and School of Biomedical Engineering. Our lab is interested in engineering next-generation RNA vaccines and therapies 🧬
November 19, 2024 at 2:18 PM
Hi 🦋! I’m an Assistant Professor at University of British Columbia in the Michael Smith Labs and School of Biomedical Engineering. Our lab is interested in engineering next-generation RNA vaccines and therapies 🧬