Mike Fainzilber
@mfainzilber.bsky.social
Molecular neuroscience, cell biology, aikido and haiku, not necessarily in that order.
https://www.weizmann.ac.il/Biomolecular_Sciences/Fainzilber/
https://www.weizmann.ac.il/Biomolecular_Sciences/Fainzilber/
90’th birthday symposium at @weizmanninstitute.bsky.social today
October 16, 2025 at 7:06 AM
90’th birthday symposium at @weizmanninstitute.bsky.social today
Manuscript provisionally accepted! Congratulations to co-first authors Philip Freund @philipfreund.bsky.social and Nicolas Panayotis @npanayotis.bsky.social , and heartfelt thanks to many great and truly essential collaborators from the Michael Kreutz and Al Burlingame labs
September 11, 2025 at 3:56 PM
Manuscript provisionally accepted! Congratulations to co-first authors Philip Freund @philipfreund.bsky.social and Nicolas Panayotis @npanayotis.bsky.social , and heartfelt thanks to many great and truly essential collaborators from the Michael Kreutz and Al Burlingame labs
black moon rising
the light
chasing the light
🙏 to Tony Pupello for including this one in tsuri-dōrō issue 29
tsuridoro.org/issue-29-sep...
the light
chasing the light
🙏 to Tony Pupello for including this one in tsuri-dōrō issue 29
tsuridoro.org/issue-29-sep...
September 1, 2025 at 12:29 PM
black moon rising
the light
chasing the light
🙏 to Tony Pupello for including this one in tsuri-dōrō issue 29
tsuridoro.org/issue-29-sep...
the light
chasing the light
🙏 to Tony Pupello for including this one in tsuri-dōrō issue 29
tsuridoro.org/issue-29-sep...
An Israeli hostage of Hamas in Gaza - Eviatar David - the right hand photo from before and the left from now. Skin and bone. Where is the international outcry? Where is the Red Cross?
August 2, 2025 at 1:05 PM
An Israeli hostage of Hamas in Gaza - Eviatar David - the right hand photo from before and the left from now. Skin and bone. Where is the international outcry? Where is the Red Cross?
judgement day
the last leaf
refusing to fall
🙏🙏🙏 to editor Alysson Whipple @teatimehaiku.bsky.social for including this one in the latest issue of Frogpond.
the last leaf
refusing to fall
🙏🙏🙏 to editor Alysson Whipple @teatimehaiku.bsky.social for including this one in the latest issue of Frogpond.
July 29, 2025 at 4:30 PM
judgement day
the last leaf
refusing to fall
🙏🙏🙏 to editor Alysson Whipple @teatimehaiku.bsky.social for including this one in the latest issue of Frogpond.
the last leaf
refusing to fall
🙏🙏🙏 to editor Alysson Whipple @teatimehaiku.bsky.social for including this one in the latest issue of Frogpond.
peace treaty
silence
in both graveyards
🙏 to editor Paul Miller for giving this one a home in Modern Haiku 56:2
silence
in both graveyards
🙏 to editor Paul Miller for giving this one a home in Modern Haiku 56:2
July 9, 2025 at 1:51 PM
peace treaty
silence
in both graveyards
🙏 to editor Paul Miller for giving this one a home in Modern Haiku 56:2
silence
in both graveyards
🙏 to editor Paul Miller for giving this one a home in Modern Haiku 56:2
Email to @weizmanninstitute.bsky.social users that might have been funny if it was not so miserably pathetic…
June 14, 2025 at 8:58 AM
Email to @weizmanninstitute.bsky.social users that might have been funny if it was not so miserably pathetic…
Lord have mercy…
Here is a picture of my “single room” at a GRC a week ago at the Salve Regina (Newport, RI). The participants voted unanimously to move the next meeting to Europe…
Here is a picture of my “single room” at a GRC a week ago at the Salve Regina (Newport, RI). The participants voted unanimously to move the next meeting to Europe…
June 12, 2025 at 2:47 PM
Lord have mercy…
Here is a picture of my “single room” at a GRC a week ago at the Salve Regina (Newport, RI). The participants voted unanimously to move the next meeting to Europe…
Here is a picture of my “single room” at a GRC a week ago at the Salve Regina (Newport, RI). The participants voted unanimously to move the next meeting to Europe…
The high life of academia…
June 1, 2025 at 8:21 PM
The high life of academia…
Farewell to Philip Freund, just about to submit his PhD thesis and move on to greater things! Note the number of corks required for liquid support during one PhD… . Cheers and best of luck!
May 19, 2025 at 10:19 AM
Farewell to Philip Freund, just about to submit his PhD thesis and move on to greater things! Note the number of corks required for liquid support during one PhD… . Cheers and best of luck!
Thus, the GI-SINEs assist neural repair through RNA localization and translation. More importantly, they integrate a physiological circuit, where the input is AP-1 transcription and the output is mRNA translation. The ubiquity of both these processes supports general roles for this mechanism.
May 16, 2025 at 5:08 PM
Thus, the GI-SINEs assist neural repair through RNA localization and translation. More importantly, they integrate a physiological circuit, where the input is AP-1 transcription and the output is mRNA translation. The ubiquity of both these processes supports general roles for this mechanism.
Two distinct types of antisense oligos targeting GI-SINEs perturbed axon growth and Nucleolin-ribosome interactions, providing functional validation of the proposed physiological role in neural repair.
May 16, 2025 at 5:07 PM
Two distinct types of antisense oligos targeting GI-SINEs perturbed axon growth and Nucleolin-ribosome interactions, providing functional validation of the proposed physiological role in neural repair.
How do GI-SINEs actually exert their effects on neuron growth? Pull-down/mass spec’ experiments with Al Burlingame’s group (UCSF) showed that GI-SINEs interact with both Nucleolin and ribosomes, bringing them together, potentially modulating translation of Nucleolin cargo mRNAs.
May 16, 2025 at 5:07 PM
How do GI-SINEs actually exert their effects on neuron growth? Pull-down/mass spec’ experiments with Al Burlingame’s group (UCSF) showed that GI-SINEs interact with both Nucleolin and ribosomes, bringing them together, potentially modulating translation of Nucleolin cargo mRNAs.
Long-read re-sequencing showed that increased expression of B2 SINEs in injured sensory neurons is restricted to only 453 independent loci, so less than 0.5 % of the total B2 SINE loci. We designated this specific subset as the GI-SINEs (Growth Inducing SINEs).
May 16, 2025 at 5:04 PM
Long-read re-sequencing showed that increased expression of B2 SINEs in injured sensory neurons is restricted to only 453 independent loci, so less than 0.5 % of the total B2 SINE loci. We designated this specific subset as the GI-SINEs (Growth Inducing SINEs).
However, transduction of a virus expressing a consensus B2 SINE sequence enhanced growth after injury in all neuron types tested – peripheral sensory, central retinal, and cortical motor neurons!
May 16, 2025 at 5:00 PM
However, transduction of a virus expressing a consensus B2 SINE sequence enhanced growth after injury in all neuron types tested – peripheral sensory, central retinal, and cortical motor neurons!
I freely admit that I had no idea what a B2 SINE is before Indrek’s discovery. Turns out that these are a transposon (“jumping gene”) family of small noncoding RNAs with polyA tails. Their closest relatives in humans are Alu elements.
May 16, 2025 at 4:57 PM
I freely admit that I had no idea what a B2 SINE is before Indrek’s discovery. Turns out that these are a transposon (“jumping gene”) family of small noncoding RNAs with polyA tails. Their closest relatives in humans are Alu elements.
Indrek Koppel joined the lab and took over the project. Working in close collaboration with Riki Kawaguchi at UCLA, he established a pipeline for polyA-directed 3’end sequencing, and generated tons of data from injured and non-injured sensory neurons at different stages of growth.
May 16, 2025 at 4:56 PM
Indrek Koppel joined the lab and took over the project. Working in close collaboration with Riki Kawaguchi at UCLA, he established a pipeline for polyA-directed 3’end sequencing, and generated tons of data from injured and non-injured sensory neurons at different stages of growth.
12 years ago, Christin Albus, then a postdoc, postulated that the negative feedback might be due to alterative polyadenylation of axonal RNAs. mRNAs have polyA tails, and changes in the location of these tails can change their 3’UTR (untranslated) lengths, potentially changing RNA localization.
May 16, 2025 at 4:54 PM
12 years ago, Christin Albus, then a postdoc, postulated that the negative feedback might be due to alterative polyadenylation of axonal RNAs. mRNAs have polyA tails, and changes in the location of these tails can change their 3’UTR (untranslated) lengths, potentially changing RNA localization.
Previously we found that neuron growth is controlled by “ping pong” like communication between cell body and axon, whereby the cell body ships RNAs out to the axon on a protein called Nucleolin (Nucl), and the resulting locally translated proteins are shipped back to the cell body.
May 16, 2025 at 4:52 PM
Previously we found that neuron growth is controlled by “ping pong” like communication between cell body and axon, whereby the cell body ships RNAs out to the axon on a protein called Nucleolin (Nucl), and the resulting locally translated proteins are shipped back to the cell body.
How does a neuron grow? Or more specifically, how does a neuron regulate its own growth. This is the ‘big question’ for us, with implications for nerve injury and regeneration, and neural repair in general.
(Image by Christin Albus)
(Image by Christin Albus)
May 16, 2025 at 4:51 PM
How does a neuron grow? Or more specifically, how does a neuron regulate its own growth. This is the ‘big question’ for us, with implications for nerve injury and regeneration, and neural repair in general.
(Image by Christin Albus)
(Image by Christin Albus)
sunday school
sealing the cracks
where the light gets in
🙏 to David Kelly, senryu editor at cattails, for placing this one in the April 2025 issue.
www.cattailsjournal.com/issues/catta...
sealing the cracks
where the light gets in
🙏 to David Kelly, senryu editor at cattails, for placing this one in the April 2025 issue.
www.cattailsjournal.com/issues/catta...
May 8, 2025 at 11:30 PM
sunday school
sealing the cracks
where the light gets in
🙏 to David Kelly, senryu editor at cattails, for placing this one in the April 2025 issue.
www.cattailsjournal.com/issues/catta...
sealing the cracks
where the light gets in
🙏 to David Kelly, senryu editor at cattails, for placing this one in the April 2025 issue.
www.cattailsjournal.com/issues/catta...
Manuscript accepted !
A 12 years effort, 3 postdocs passing the baton, 6 collaborating labs, 32 authors on the final version…
More on the science when actually published.
Cheers!
A 12 years effort, 3 postdocs passing the baton, 6 collaborating labs, 32 authors on the final version…
More on the science when actually published.
Cheers!
April 28, 2025 at 1:19 PM
Manuscript accepted !
A 12 years effort, 3 postdocs passing the baton, 6 collaborating labs, 32 authors on the final version…
More on the science when actually published.
Cheers!
A 12 years effort, 3 postdocs passing the baton, 6 collaborating labs, 32 authors on the final version…
More on the science when actually published.
Cheers!