Paul Brennan
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pauljb.bsky.social
Paul Brennan
@pauljb.bsky.social
MD/PhD Student at Rutgers NJMS.

Studying stromal influences of rapid inflammation in pulmonary fungal infection in the Wiesner Lab
“The data confirm our hypothesis…”
These boxes are not moving. A mind-bending optical illusion by Japanese artist Jagarikin.
May 7, 2025 at 5:41 PM
Reposted by Paul Brennan
These sea turtles dance for joy when they magnetically sense it’s snack time.

Learn more on #InternationalDanceDay: scim.ag/42VqsSz
April 29, 2025 at 2:02 PM
Reposted by Paul Brennan
Flocking and active solid behavior of epithelial cells in our new study in @pnas.org
Great work of Y. Shen, J. O'Byrne and
@andreasschoenit.bsky.social and collaboration with A. Maitra and R. Voituriez!
| PNAS www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...
April 19, 2025 at 2:11 PM
Reposted by Paul Brennan
Excited to share our preprint on the molecular architecture of heterochromatin in human cells 🧬🔬w/ @jpkreysing.bsky.social, @johannesbetz.bsky.social,
@marinalusic.bsky.social, Turoňová lab, @hummerlab.bsky.social @becklab.bsky.social @mpibp.bsky.social

🔗 Preprint here tinyurl.com/3a74uanv
April 11, 2025 at 8:35 AM
Reposted by Paul Brennan
#SmoothMuscleCell Transcriptomic Atlas🤠

betsholtzlab.org/Publications...

Organotypicity 🫀🫁Colon Aorta

Zonation: A-V, Promixal-Distal Aorta, elastic vs muscular Artery

16 adult🐭 2780 SMC

Notch3➡️vascular SMC
Hhip➡️visceral SMC

#DevCell 2022
www.cell.com/developmenta...
April 8, 2025 at 7:08 PM
Reposted by Paul Brennan
it’s a perfect plan. we will fire everyone doing skilled work in science, technology and medicine and force them into factories making consumer electronics. this will enrich the country somehow.
There are still people that think this man is something other than incredibly stupid.

*LEAVITT: TRUMP THINKS US HAS WORKFORCE TO MAKE IPHONES ONSHORE
April 8, 2025 at 7:53 PM
Reposted by Paul Brennan
April 8, 2025 at 12:03 AM
Reposted by Paul Brennan
Why are NIH, NSF, and science grants important? Because it funds ground-breaking research like this!
Researchers have discovered a new antibiotic molecule that targets a broad range of disease-causing bacteria — even strains resistant to commercial drugs — and is not toxic to human cells

🧪🦠

www.nature.com/articles/d41...
New antibiotic that kills drug-resistant bacteria discovered in technician’s garden
The molecule targets bacteria in a way that other drugs don’t.
www.nature.com
March 30, 2025 at 4:13 PM
Reposted by Paul Brennan
This exciting resolution from Rutgers University Senate is exactly the kind of model I think higher ed needs: a mutual defense pact of, in this case, Big 10 schools. They call for member institutions to create a joint defense fund and make resources available to any member institution under attack.
March 30, 2025 at 2:47 PM
Reposted by Paul Brennan
It's critical for everyone to remember what an Executive Order is. It is the President communicating orders to members of the executive branch. Policies to pursue, actions to take, etc. They are not laws. They are not close to being laws. They are formalized memos to employees. That's all.
March 25, 2025 at 11:53 PM
Reposted by Paul Brennan
This is utterly horrific. The person who will be conducting the wasteful HHS study of the nonexistent link between vaccines and autism is David Geier. This man is a fraud, having been disciplined for practicing medicine without a license a decade ago. You’ve probably never heard of him, but he and…
March 26, 2025 at 3:38 AM
Reposted by Paul Brennan
On #AI and the "threat" to #ScientificPublishing:

Read "Chaos in the Brickyard" (1963). It takes just 2 minutes. It's a 1-page letter in Science.

AI makes bricks. What we really need are edifices. Those come from people who choose only quality bricks to build their edifices.

#ResearchIntegrity
March 22, 2025 at 6:57 AM
Great work by my colleagues in the Weinstein Lab!
March 22, 2025 at 4:48 AM
Reposted by Paul Brennan
Scientists have just cured pancreatic cancer in some patients with personalized mRNA vaccines. Pancreatic cancer. And this Trump administration wants to throw it all away.

They’re throwing away a cure for cancer.
March 17, 2025 at 1:16 AM
Reposted by Paul Brennan
As President Trump escalates a trade war, countries are targeting red states with tariffs. See where jobs will be affected.
Maps: Where Trump Voter Jobs Will Be Hit by Tariffs
Nearly 8 million Americans work in industries targeted by the levies and the majority are Trump voters, a New York Times analysis shows
www.nytimes.com
March 16, 2025 at 6:27 PM
Reposted by Paul Brennan
We were told mid-30s when kid#2 was born. What would be the next trikafta that won’t happen because research has been shut down?
I remember the cystic fibrosis patients I took care of 20 years ago.

I also remember the dedicated HIV wards in the hospitals, and that Princess Diana made headlines for shaking hands with AIDS patients.

Progress has been incredible.

Miracles are where you choose to see them.
March 15, 2025 at 3:33 AM
Reposted by Paul Brennan
Nothing will kill more children than the ongoing decimation of CDC, NIH, and USAID work to lift vaccine uptake in the US and world.

Child survival rose 75% in the last 50 years. Vaccines account for 40% of that. Measles vax alone was 60% of the benefit. www.thelancet.com/journals/lan...
Contribution of vaccination to improved survival and health: modelling 50 years of the Expanded Programme on Immunization
Since 1974 substantial gains in childhood survival have occurred in every global region. We estimate that EPI has provided the single greatest contribution to improved infant survival over the past 50...
www.thelancet.com
March 13, 2025 at 12:05 PM
Reposted by Paul Brennan
In reality, the risks of side effects from a measles-mumps-rubella vaccination are vanishingly small, especially compared to the devastating effects of measles. 2 dosages provide 99% protection to disease.
March 13, 2025 at 8:41 AM
Reposted by Paul Brennan
Francis Collins, the NIH Director for 12 years, led the Human Genome Project and other NIH efforts for 32 years, resigned today. Key words from his resignation letter
www.nytimes.com/2025/03/01/u...
March 1, 2025 at 6:07 PM
Reposted by Paul Brennan
Per Dr Atul Gawande, ex USAID: “All malaria supplies protecting 53 million people, mostly children, including bed nets, diagnostics, preventive drugs, and treatments – terminated.”

There are no words that sufficiently describe this level of cruelty and sadism.
February 28, 2025 at 5:16 AM
Reposted by Paul Brennan
Excited to see this finally out!! We found IL-2 made by CD301b+ DCs critical for the Th2 fate decision of CD4T cells and skewing them away from the Tfh fate. They also seem to use their own CD25 to direct IL-2 to the cognate clone.
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
CD301b+ dendritic cell-derived IL-2 dictates CD4+ T helper cell differentiation - Nature Communications
A subset of migratory type 2 conventional dendritic cells marked by CD301b expression (CD301b+DC), are required specifically for the development of Th2 cells. Here authors show that at the mechanistic...
www.nature.com
February 26, 2025 at 10:06 PM
Reposted by Paul Brennan
I started out our lab meeting today with a ~15 min summary of what the NIH does, indirects, current attacks on the NIH, and what we can do to fight.

Some of my lab members follow the news, some don't, but I think they were all highly interested in learning. Happy to send these slides to anyone
February 21, 2025 at 8:33 PM
Reposted by Paul Brennan
NEW: The Trump administration is exploiting a loophole to keep funding frozen at the NIH - a move that some legal scholars say is illegal.

Federal Register notices are blocked, so no grant-review sessions can be scheduled.

All the gritty details here, and a short 🧵:
www.nature.com/articles/d41...
Revealed: NIH research grants still frozen despite lawsuits challenging Trump order
The Trump administration is exploiting a loophole to keep a funding freeze in place, leaving researchers in limbo.
www.nature.com
February 20, 2025 at 8:27 PM