Donald Iain MacDonald
@dimacd.bsky.social
Neuroscience researcher @NIH. Branco Weiss Fellow. Formerly @UZH @UCL @StJohnsOx. Neuropeptides, pain and inflammation. Tha Gàidhlig agam
Congrats Ewan, very interesting and not necessarily what I would have expected. It would be interesting to sequence these DRGs!
October 16, 2025 at 12:40 PM
Congrats Ewan, very interesting and not necessarily what I would have expected. It would be interesting to sequence these DRGs!
Thank you, that makes sense!
June 27, 2025 at 11:29 AM
Thank you, that makes sense!
This is a great and interesting paper, congrats! I had one question re the heat map in Fig 2C. How should we interpret the channels that are not found in the peripheral terminal, but are present in the other compartments e.g. Scn9a. Is it really absent or just not detected or hidden by the scaling?
June 27, 2025 at 11:07 AM
This is a great and interesting paper, congrats! I had one question re the heat map in Fig 2C. How should we interpret the channels that are not found in the peripheral terminal, but are present in the other compartments e.g. Scn9a. Is it really absent or just not detected or hidden by the scaling?
Congratulations, this is a phenomenal paper and one to which I referred many times starting out in the field as a phd student!
June 14, 2025 at 1:19 PM
Congratulations, this is a phenomenal paper and one to which I referred many times starting out in the field as a phd student!
Congratulations to nih scientists Nima and Lars!
April 23, 2025 at 9:54 PM
Congratulations to nih scientists Nima and Lars!
Its very exciting. I think we still lack fundamental understanding of how these local efferent effects work. What drives release of the peptide? Is it always spike dependent? Can this happen without APs propagating up to DRG and dorsal root to cause sensation/pain? Can the signals go in reverse?
March 18, 2025 at 1:54 PM
Its very exciting. I think we still lack fundamental understanding of how these local efferent effects work. What drives release of the peptide? Is it always spike dependent? Can this happen without APs propagating up to DRG and dorsal root to cause sensation/pain? Can the signals go in reverse?
I think the amazing thing about patch clamp is it hasn't really ever been superseded as the gold standard to study ion channel function. I think people will still patch 50 years from now !
February 25, 2025 at 12:23 PM
I think the amazing thing about patch clamp is it hasn't really ever been superseded as the gold standard to study ion channel function. I think people will still patch 50 years from now !
That's one way to tarnish the Ramon y Cajal name!
January 27, 2025 at 2:20 PM
That's one way to tarnish the Ramon y Cajal name!
This is very interesting. These neurons seem highly similar to the SST/NPPB/OSMR neurons whose activation can drive itch pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/34757808/
Oncostatin M can sensitize sensory neurons in inflammatory pruritus - PubMed
Chronic itch is a major symptom of many inflammatory skin diseases. This type of pruritus is thought to be facilitated by cytokines that activate cutaneous nerve fibers; however, the molecular compone...
pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov
December 21, 2024 at 10:04 AM
This is very interesting. These neurons seem highly similar to the SST/NPPB/OSMR neurons whose activation can drive itch pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/34757808/
Thank you for sharing our updated preprint, the results surprised me as much as everyone else!
December 12, 2024 at 2:36 PM
Thank you for sharing our updated preprint, the results surprised me as much as everyone else!
What I really admire about LeDoux's books is that he changed his mind about whether his pioneering rat fear conditioning studies were actually studying fear at all! And then criticized the field he basically started to highlight the differences between animal instinctual behaviours and human emotion
December 4, 2024 at 2:31 PM
What I really admire about LeDoux's books is that he changed his mind about whether his pioneering rat fear conditioning studies were actually studying fear at all! And then criticized the field he basically started to highlight the differences between animal instinctual behaviours and human emotion
The book is great. I was amazed at the crazy hours and single minded dedication at the rig it took to make some of his early discoveries...And I just clocked the forward is by the also remarkable Nancy hopkins, really recommend The Exceptions about her campaign at MIT!
December 1, 2024 at 3:43 AM
The book is great. I was amazed at the crazy hours and single minded dedication at the rig it took to make some of his early discoveries...And I just clocked the forward is by the also remarkable Nancy hopkins, really recommend The Exceptions about her campaign at MIT!
Very excited to read this once it comes out!
November 25, 2024 at 11:17 PM
Very excited to read this once it comes out!
Quite a find! Need to order this one!
November 24, 2024 at 4:21 PM
Quite a find! Need to order this one!