Pinned
asamelson
@asamelson.bsky.social
· Nov 25
We are opening in January of 2025 at UCLA: SamelsonLab.org
We combined classic biophysical techniques with systems genetics in iPSC-derived cell types to explore how proteins aggregate and how cells control protein aggregation.
Multiple positions are open: SamelsonLab.org/join/
Join us!!
We combined classic biophysical techniques with systems genetics in iPSC-derived cell types to explore how proteins aggregate and how cells control protein aggregation.
Multiple positions are open: SamelsonLab.org/join/
Join us!!
a young man wearing a blue ucla shirt
ALT: a young man wearing a blue ucla shirt
media.tenor.com
Come join my lab!! Starting in 2025 at UCLA!
Reposted by asamelson
LISTEN UP, DORKS!
@standupforscience.bsky.social is getting (even more!) political. People often say "well what can one person do??"
🥊 If all our followers joined Science Fight Club and gave $5 a month, we could save science!
🥊Join here: www.standupforscience.net/join-science...
SHARE WIDELY!
@standupforscience.bsky.social is getting (even more!) political. People often say "well what can one person do??"
🥊 If all our followers joined Science Fight Club and gave $5 a month, we could save science!
🥊Join here: www.standupforscience.net/join-science...
SHARE WIDELY!
November 12, 2025 at 8:48 PM
LISTEN UP, DORKS!
@standupforscience.bsky.social is getting (even more!) political. People often say "well what can one person do??"
🥊 If all our followers joined Science Fight Club and gave $5 a month, we could save science!
🥊Join here: www.standupforscience.net/join-science...
SHARE WIDELY!
@standupforscience.bsky.social is getting (even more!) political. People often say "well what can one person do??"
🥊 If all our followers joined Science Fight Club and gave $5 a month, we could save science!
🥊Join here: www.standupforscience.net/join-science...
SHARE WIDELY!
Reposted by asamelson
Thank you Alzforum for featuring our new preprint identifying regulators of disease states of #microglia.
Project led by Amanda McQuade, computation by Reet Mishra, collaboration with the Nunez and De Jager labs.
Alzforum
www.alzforum.org/news/researc...
Preprint
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
Project led by Amanda McQuade, computation by Reet Mishra, collaboration with the Nunez and De Jager labs.
Alzforum
www.alzforum.org/news/researc...
Preprint
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
October 22, 2025 at 6:28 PM
Thank you Alzforum for featuring our new preprint identifying regulators of disease states of #microglia.
Project led by Amanda McQuade, computation by Reet Mishra, collaboration with the Nunez and De Jager labs.
Alzforum
www.alzforum.org/news/researc...
Preprint
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
Project led by Amanda McQuade, computation by Reet Mishra, collaboration with the Nunez and De Jager labs.
Alzforum
www.alzforum.org/news/researc...
Preprint
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
Reposted by asamelson
On Sept 17th, 2025, @aaas.org and @researchamerica.bsky.social hosted Jay Bhattacharya—NIH Director—as the keynote for the National Health Research Forum.
Less than two weeks later, he spoke at the MAHA Action hour alongside Oz, Russel Brand, Tony Lyons, and Callie Means.
I have a call to action:
Less than two weeks later, he spoke at the MAHA Action hour alongside Oz, Russel Brand, Tony Lyons, and Callie Means.
I have a call to action:
October 21, 2025 at 11:53 PM
On Sept 17th, 2025, @aaas.org and @researchamerica.bsky.social hosted Jay Bhattacharya—NIH Director—as the keynote for the National Health Research Forum.
Less than two weeks later, he spoke at the MAHA Action hour alongside Oz, Russel Brand, Tony Lyons, and Callie Means.
I have a call to action:
Less than two weeks later, he spoke at the MAHA Action hour alongside Oz, Russel Brand, Tony Lyons, and Callie Means.
I have a call to action:
Reposted by asamelson
🎀 New from the lab 🎀 We used the SPARK design for kinase biosensors to develop a PINK1 biosensor, PINK1-SPARK. We used PINK1-SPARK to measure PINK1 activity in multiple cell types & when using HaloTag, for multiplexing! Plasmids coming soon, check out the preprint: www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
Visualizing PINK1 Activity Dynamics in Single Cells with a Phase Separation-Based Kinase Activity Reporter
Phosphatase and tensin homologue-induced kinase 1 (PINK1) is a serine/threonine kinase that plays roles in mitophagy, cell death, and regulation of cellular bioenergetics. Current approaches for study...
www.biorxiv.org
October 16, 2025 at 11:38 PM
🎀 New from the lab 🎀 We used the SPARK design for kinase biosensors to develop a PINK1 biosensor, PINK1-SPARK. We used PINK1-SPARK to measure PINK1 activity in multiple cell types & when using HaloTag, for multiplexing! Plasmids coming soon, check out the preprint: www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
Reposted by asamelson
L.A. No Kings March: next Sat. (10/18) at 2pm in DLTA!
L.A. Sign-making Party For No Kings: the night before! In West Adams! RSVP link below!
@50501-socal.bsky.social
www.mobilize.us/50501socal/e...
L.A. Sign-making Party For No Kings: the night before! In West Adams! RSVP link below!
@50501-socal.bsky.social
www.mobilize.us/50501socal/e...
October 10, 2025 at 2:01 PM
L.A. No Kings March: next Sat. (10/18) at 2pm in DLTA!
L.A. Sign-making Party For No Kings: the night before! In West Adams! RSVP link below!
@50501-socal.bsky.social
www.mobilize.us/50501socal/e...
L.A. Sign-making Party For No Kings: the night before! In West Adams! RSVP link below!
@50501-socal.bsky.social
www.mobilize.us/50501socal/e...
Reposted by asamelson
Researchers at UCLA built mini models of human lungs, hearts and brains to study hantaviruses and identify potential therapies. With no current treatments, these deadly rodent-borne viruses pose a serious threat to public health. #ResearchPowersProgress
stemcell.ucla.edu/news/ucla-sc...
stemcell.ucla.edu/news/ucla-sc...
UCLA scientists use mini organ models to uncover secrets of deadly hantaviruses and point to new treatments
UCLA researchers have created miniature stem cell-based organoid models of human lungs, hearts and brains to study how hantaviruses — rare but often deadly viruses spread by rodents — infect the body....
stemcell.ucla.edu
August 27, 2025 at 12:11 AM
Researchers at UCLA built mini models of human lungs, hearts and brains to study hantaviruses and identify potential therapies. With no current treatments, these deadly rodent-borne viruses pose a serious threat to public health. #ResearchPowersProgress
stemcell.ucla.edu/news/ucla-sc...
stemcell.ucla.edu/news/ucla-sc...
Reposted by asamelson
Los Angeles rents are high, especially compared to the average pay - but it wasn't always that way.
In this video, LA Councilmember Nithya Raman goes over the history of why LA stopped building enough housing relative to the number of new jobs, and how the city can reverse that trend. 🏠🏠🏠
In this video, LA Councilmember Nithya Raman goes over the history of why LA stopped building enough housing relative to the number of new jobs, and how the city can reverse that trend. 🏠🏠🏠
Why is the rent so damn high in LA? Simple economics: the demand for housing is extremely high and our housing supply is extremely low.
August 27, 2025 at 1:20 AM
Los Angeles rents are high, especially compared to the average pay - but it wasn't always that way.
In this video, LA Councilmember Nithya Raman goes over the history of why LA stopped building enough housing relative to the number of new jobs, and how the city can reverse that trend. 🏠🏠🏠
In this video, LA Councilmember Nithya Raman goes over the history of why LA stopped building enough housing relative to the number of new jobs, and how the city can reverse that trend. 🏠🏠🏠
Reposted by asamelson
Excited that the paper presenting our mouse brain in vivo CRISPR screening platform is out today in @natneuro.nature.com!
Great team effort, led by Biswa Ramani and @ivlrose.bsky.social in the Kampmann lab.
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
Great team effort, led by Biswa Ramani and @ivlrose.bsky.social in the Kampmann lab.
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
CRISPR screening by AAV episome-sequencing (CrAAVe-seq): a scalable cell-type-specific in vivo platform uncovers neuronal essential genes - Nature Neuroscience
The authors developed an adeno-associated virus-based high-throughput in vivo CRISPR screening platform for endogenous mouse brain cell types. Using this platform, they define genes and pathways essen...
www.nature.com
August 22, 2025 at 10:15 PM
Excited that the paper presenting our mouse brain in vivo CRISPR screening platform is out today in @natneuro.nature.com!
Great team effort, led by Biswa Ramani and @ivlrose.bsky.social in the Kampmann lab.
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
Great team effort, led by Biswa Ramani and @ivlrose.bsky.social in the Kampmann lab.
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
Reposted by asamelson
2 bits of data from new Economist/YouGov poll.....
13% support for cutting research funding to universities. 24% among Republicans. Polling on this continues to be catastrophic for the Rs, suggests Dems should be learning far harder into standing up for science and our universities. 1/
13% support for cutting research funding to universities. 24% among Republicans. Polling on this continues to be catastrophic for the Rs, suggests Dems should be learning far harder into standing up for science and our universities. 1/
August 19, 2025 at 3:04 PM
2 bits of data from new Economist/YouGov poll.....
13% support for cutting research funding to universities. 24% among Republicans. Polling on this continues to be catastrophic for the Rs, suggests Dems should be learning far harder into standing up for science and our universities. 1/
13% support for cutting research funding to universities. 24% among Republicans. Polling on this continues to be catastrophic for the Rs, suggests Dems should be learning far harder into standing up for science and our universities. 1/
Reposted by asamelson
“Los Angeles leaders are once again demonstrating their cowardice and failing their own constituents who desperately need more housing—and they’re doing it at the behest of LA’s wealthiest, most entitled voters, who have consistently blocked progress on housing affordability.” - @hanlon.bsky.social
California YIMBY Statement on LA City Council Vote on SB 79
Los Angeles, CA — Today the Los Angeles City Council voted to oppose SB 79, a state bill designed to expand affordable housing near major transit stops. In doing so, councilmembers repeated discredite...
cayimby.org
August 19, 2025 at 8:34 PM
“Los Angeles leaders are once again demonstrating their cowardice and failing their own constituents who desperately need more housing—and they’re doing it at the behest of LA’s wealthiest, most entitled voters, who have consistently blocked progress on housing affordability.” - @hanlon.bsky.social
Reposted by asamelson
In a first-of-its-kind clinical trial, UCLA scientists have shown it’s possible to reprogram a patient’s own stem cells to create a continuous supply of functional T cells, the immune system’s most powerful cancer-killing agents. bit.ly/4fhvMnv
#CancerResearch #StemCellResearch
#CancerResearch #StemCellResearch
UCLA scientists reprogram stem cells to create renewable cancer-fighting T cells
In a first-of-its-kind clinical trial, UCLA scientists have shown it’s possible to reprogram a patient’s blood-forming stem cells to generate a continuous supply of functional T cells, the immune syst...
bit.ly
July 31, 2025 at 9:35 PM
In a first-of-its-kind clinical trial, UCLA scientists have shown it’s possible to reprogram a patient’s own stem cells to create a continuous supply of functional T cells, the immune system’s most powerful cancer-killing agents. bit.ly/4fhvMnv
#CancerResearch #StemCellResearch
#CancerResearch #StemCellResearch
Reposted by asamelson
I'm thrilled to announce my next career step-- I’m joining Genentech as a Principal Scientist & Lab Head in Discovery Oncology!
I’ll be hunting new ways to target cancers using my background in disordered nuclear proteins.
I’ll be hunting new ways to target cancers using my background in disordered nuclear proteins.
July 7, 2025 at 9:25 PM
I'm thrilled to announce my next career step-- I’m joining Genentech as a Principal Scientist & Lab Head in Discovery Oncology!
I’ll be hunting new ways to target cancers using my background in disordered nuclear proteins.
I’ll be hunting new ways to target cancers using my background in disordered nuclear proteins.
Reposted by asamelson
the republican party is a modern day Slave Power and the only way forward for this country is to sweep it into the ash heap of history
July 3, 2025 at 7:16 PM
the republican party is a modern day Slave Power and the only way forward for this country is to sweep it into the ash heap of history
Reposted by asamelson
UCLA-led team has received a $3.5 million grant from the NIH to study and develop treatments for the infectious disease #mpox. Their discoveries could help prevent the next global outbreak. ➡️ bit.ly/3TW38hI
UCLA-led team receives $3.5 million NIH grant to develop treatment for mpox: What to know about the viral illness
Researchers from the Eli and Edythe Broad Center of Regenerative Medicine and Stem Cell Research at UCLA have received a $3.5 million grant from the National Institutes of Health to study and develop ...
bit.ly
July 3, 2025 at 7:57 PM
UCLA-led team has received a $3.5 million grant from the NIH to study and develop treatments for the infectious disease #mpox. Their discoveries could help prevent the next global outbreak. ➡️ bit.ly/3TW38hI
Reposted by asamelson
Logging off for the weekend, but shouting it one more time before I do: they don't believe in America.
actioncookbook.substack.com/p/america-be...
actioncookbook.substack.com/p/america-be...
July 3, 2025 at 8:06 PM
Logging off for the weekend, but shouting it one more time before I do: they don't believe in America.
actioncookbook.substack.com/p/america-be...
actioncookbook.substack.com/p/america-be...
Reposted by asamelson
Once again, this is a massive public jobs program for fascists.
This bill was never just about tax cuts and gutting social services. It's about investing our collective resources in violence and using state power to spread fear and destroy solidarity. We need to resist this with all we've got.
This bill was never just about tax cuts and gutting social services. It's about investing our collective resources in violence and using state power to spread fear and destroy solidarity. We need to resist this with all we've got.
I don’t think anyone is prepared for what they just did w/ ICE.
This is not a simple budget increase. It is an explosion - making ICE bigger than the FBI, US Bureau of Prisons, DEA,& others combined.
It is setting up to make what’s happening now look like child’s play. And people are disappearing.
This is not a simple budget increase. It is an explosion - making ICE bigger than the FBI, US Bureau of Prisons, DEA,& others combined.
It is setting up to make what’s happening now look like child’s play. And people are disappearing.
July 3, 2025 at 7:54 PM
Once again, this is a massive public jobs program for fascists.
This bill was never just about tax cuts and gutting social services. It's about investing our collective resources in violence and using state power to spread fear and destroy solidarity. We need to resist this with all we've got.
This bill was never just about tax cuts and gutting social services. It's about investing our collective resources in violence and using state power to spread fear and destroy solidarity. We need to resist this with all we've got.
Reposted by asamelson
I am grieving the barbarism that is going to unfurl from all this. People are going to die. Livelihoods gone. All to feed a corrupt kleptocracy.
I see every day up close how different it is from the first time around. There are no guardrails. A disaster. I’m sorry we have to live through this.
I see every day up close how different it is from the first time around. There are no guardrails. A disaster. I’m sorry we have to live through this.
July 3, 2025 at 8:00 PM
I am grieving the barbarism that is going to unfurl from all this. People are going to die. Livelihoods gone. All to feed a corrupt kleptocracy.
I see every day up close how different it is from the first time around. There are no guardrails. A disaster. I’m sorry we have to live through this.
I see every day up close how different it is from the first time around. There are no guardrails. A disaster. I’m sorry we have to live through this.
Reposted by asamelson
Legitimately feel sick. We are hours away from the largest cuts to low-income people in history. People’s lives will be ruined. It is so unfair. It’s unfair to be born into a system that allows this level of poverty in the first place and it’s evil to rip away aid from the needy. Hard to watch this.
July 3, 2025 at 1:05 PM
Legitimately feel sick. We are hours away from the largest cuts to low-income people in history. People’s lives will be ruined. It is so unfair. It’s unfair to be born into a system that allows this level of poverty in the first place and it’s evil to rip away aid from the needy. Hard to watch this.
Reposted by asamelson
genuinely, kicking 17 MILLION people off of their health insurance and stripping TWO MILLON people off of food assistance is so grotesque and depressing it’s hard to think of anything else
July 2, 2025 at 1:40 AM
genuinely, kicking 17 MILLION people off of their health insurance and stripping TWO MILLON people off of food assistance is so grotesque and depressing it’s hard to think of anything else
Reposted by asamelson
GOP reconciliation bill's effects:
—Poorest 1/5 of earners: *declining* after-tax incomes
—Those making >$3 m/year gain $118,000
—12 m people become uninsured
—3.2 m people lose food stamps
—US stops its efforts to combat climate change
—$122 billion spent on deportation & concentration camps
—Poorest 1/5 of earners: *declining* after-tax incomes
—Those making >$3 m/year gain $118,000
—12 m people become uninsured
—3.2 m people lose food stamps
—US stops its efforts to combat climate change
—$122 billion spent on deportation & concentration camps
NEW: The just-passed Senate Republican package is much better for the rich than the poor. Any gains from lower taxes may be wiped out from the loss of Medicaid, food stamps and more. Some Republicans looked to exempt their own states from the cuts.
www.nytimes.com/2025/07/01/b...
www.nytimes.com/2025/07/01/b...
Poorest Americans Dealt Biggest Blow Under Senate Republican Tax Package
www.nytimes.com
July 1, 2025 at 10:35 PM
GOP reconciliation bill's effects:
—Poorest 1/5 of earners: *declining* after-tax incomes
—Those making >$3 m/year gain $118,000
—12 m people become uninsured
—3.2 m people lose food stamps
—US stops its efforts to combat climate change
—$122 billion spent on deportation & concentration camps
—Poorest 1/5 of earners: *declining* after-tax incomes
—Those making >$3 m/year gain $118,000
—12 m people become uninsured
—3.2 m people lose food stamps
—US stops its efforts to combat climate change
—$122 billion spent on deportation & concentration camps
Reposted by asamelson
Our paper demonstrating that within-species warfare interactions are ecologically important on human skin is now published in Nature Micro! www.nature.com/articles/s41...
June 30, 2025 at 12:26 PM
Our paper demonstrating that within-species warfare interactions are ecologically important on human skin is now published in Nature Micro! www.nature.com/articles/s41...
Reposted by asamelson
Basically the @elife.bsky.social model?
Thomas Südhof, who has had some of his papers criticised on pub peer and a couple of retractions, has suggestions for reforming the science publishing business to improve integrity... #lino25
June 30, 2025 at 1:05 PM
Basically the @elife.bsky.social model?
Reposted by asamelson
Final Senate votes in next 36 hours.
www.mobilize.us/mobilize/eve... Save Medicaid NOW - Final Push Phonebanks to Republican Congressmembers · Mobilize
www.mobilize.us/mobilize/eve... Save Medicaid NOW - Final Push Phonebanks to Republican Congressmembers · Mobilize
Save Medicaid NOW - Final Push Phonebanks to Republican Congressmembers · Mobilize
The Republican controlled Congress and Senate are voting on budgets that will decimate Medicaid and millions of Californians will lose their healthcare - just so they can give more tax breaks to their...
www.mobilize.us
June 29, 2025 at 4:34 AM
Final Senate votes in next 36 hours.
www.mobilize.us/mobilize/eve... Save Medicaid NOW - Final Push Phonebanks to Republican Congressmembers · Mobilize
www.mobilize.us/mobilize/eve... Save Medicaid NOW - Final Push Phonebanks to Republican Congressmembers · Mobilize
Reposted by asamelson
New preprint with Benjamin Lang, Richard Kriwacki, John Christodoulou, and M. Madan Babu!
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
Protein Dynamics at Different Timescales Unlock Access to Hidden Post-Translational Modification Sites
#bioinformatics #compchem #folding #proteindynamics
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
Protein Dynamics at Different Timescales Unlock Access to Hidden Post-Translational Modification Sites
#bioinformatics #compchem #folding #proteindynamics
Protein Dynamics at Different Timescales Unlock Access to Hidden Post-Translational Modification Sites
Post-translational modifications (PTMs) alter the proteome in response to intra- and extracellular signals, providing fundamental information processing in development, homeostasis and disease. Here, ...
biorxiv.org
June 28, 2025 at 11:36 AM
New preprint with Benjamin Lang, Richard Kriwacki, John Christodoulou, and M. Madan Babu!
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
Protein Dynamics at Different Timescales Unlock Access to Hidden Post-Translational Modification Sites
#bioinformatics #compchem #folding #proteindynamics
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
Protein Dynamics at Different Timescales Unlock Access to Hidden Post-Translational Modification Sites
#bioinformatics #compchem #folding #proteindynamics
Reposted by asamelson
Elites aren't even using their existing mechanisms set up to allow deniable messaging. Go look at PhRMA, the big bad lobbying group; they've got nothing to say about their NIH R&D pipeline being destroyed, nor about the worst regression in public health and vaccine acceptance in U.S. history.
“You know what would help a lot? Some elite disapproval—publicly and boldly expressed. While a successful democracy depends on some degree of reasonableness from voters, a successful liberal democracy also depends on responsibility and even courage from elites.”
www.thebulwark.com/p/the-public...
www.thebulwark.com/p/the-public...
The Public Is Resisting Trump. The Elites Aren’t.
The president is encountering little resistance as he remakes our society. And yet polling is clear that voters aren’t with him.
www.thebulwark.com
June 27, 2025 at 9:41 PM
Elites aren't even using their existing mechanisms set up to allow deniable messaging. Go look at PhRMA, the big bad lobbying group; they've got nothing to say about their NIH R&D pipeline being destroyed, nor about the worst regression in public health and vaccine acceptance in U.S. history.