Karen Anthony
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profkarena.bsky.social
Karen Anthony
@profkarena.bsky.social
Professor of Molecular Medicine. RNA biology and RNA therapeutics for neurodegenerative & neuromuscular disorders.

ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3638-2405
Congratulations to Dr Jude Krampah for passing his PhD viva today, it was great to be a part of this supervisory team. Jude's thesis explored the prognosic value of balance measurements and salivary biomarkers for declining cognition in older adults 👏 🙌 .
October 1, 2025 at 6:49 PM
I'm tuning into the International Research Culture Conference #IRCC25 online today. As a PCE pilot panel member, I'm looking forward to hearing the reflections by Steven Hill from Research England.
September 17, 2025 at 8:55 AM
Great to see our work on RNA trans-splicing highlighted in the 2025 Ataxia UK Research Impact Report. Can't wait to update the field at ICAR2026 with the latest in-vivo data! You can access it here: www.ataxia.org.uk/research-new...
Celebrating the impact of Ataxia UK-funded research - Ataxia UK
Ataxia UK funds research that aims to find treatments and cures for the ataxias. This would not be possible without your continued generosity in donating to support this mission. Thank you to each and...
www.ataxia.org.uk
September 15, 2025 at 12:35 PM
Yay! Yes, we know there are 79 exons and not 97 (oopsie!)
🚨 New in FEBS Open Bio!
During COVID, with labs disrupted, I undertook an MRes apprenticeship in bioinformatics. As a professor, I was suddenly a student again, learning coding to support my group.

Together with @Weekademia, we propose a unified model of DMD in cancer. 🧵👇
August 21, 2025 at 12:58 PM
Reposted by Karen Anthony
I do not understand these comments and the fact they come from UKRI is unsettling; the most impactful findings can come from the most unexpected places and that impact is often not realised until many years later. And these are the ppl who should be advocating for us!
Two senior @ukri.org figures this week have suggested unis could reduce how much research they do

“Concentrating on unique and high contributions & concentrating on less research, has the potential to bring the amount of activity into balance with research funding,” Steven Hill told #ARMA25

(1/2)
Research England official: universities could do ‘less’ R&D - Research Professional News
Arma 2025: Director of research asks whether system should provide “disincentives for lower-quality research”
www.researchprofessionalnews.com
June 20, 2025 at 10:22 AM
Just me banging on about trans-splicing (again)
June 20, 2025 at 4:26 PM
After a spot of sunny sightseeing in Rotterdam, I've arrived in Tiel ready for the Dutch Neuroscience Meeting. Looking forward to connecting and learning from this great brain nation. I'll be kicking off the Thursday genetic therapies session with a talk on RNA trans-splicing 🧠
June 18, 2025 at 3:55 PM
Yesterday our research centre for Physical Activity and Life Sciences (PALS) held its annual research symposium. Great range of talks/posters from diverse research on athlete safeguarding, green spaces, humans at 50°C: 50% humidity through to pharmaceuticals, gene therapy and biomarkers for disease
June 14, 2025 at 8:52 AM
Enjoyed being a judge at our PGR poster competition today, congratulations to our very own Jude Krampah who was runner up with work on standing balance as a measure of cognitive function 🎊
May 15, 2025 at 6:55 PM
Graduation day today for our newest PhD, congratulations Dr Michael Naidoo! His thesis explored the association of Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD) gene expression with survival outcomes in cancer.
May 7, 2025 at 1:34 PM
Reposted by Karen Anthony
🚀 New publication alert! Read it fast! 🚀

#RNA #therapeutics for muscular dystrophies are advancing quickly, and keeping up is getting harder (in the best way possible!). Our latest review, co-authored with Andrea López & @oligogirl.bsky.social, covers the latest clinical-stage approaches.
March 28, 2025 at 3:07 PM
Pleased to share this work out now in @SciReports linking Duchenne muscular dystrophy gene expression to survival outcomes in head and neck cancer. www.nature.com/articles/s41... @drleemachado.bsky.social @drlewisac.bsky.social
Duchenne muscular dystrophy gene product expression is associated with survival in head and neck squamous cell carcinoma - Scientific Reports
Scientific Reports - Duchenne muscular dystrophy gene product expression is associated with survival in head and neck squamous cell carcinoma
www.nature.com
March 28, 2025 at 1:04 PM
Great stuff from our lab on tour in Switzerland this week 👏
Delighted our team won best poster at #ESMORareCancers25 with work spearheaded by former PhD @LSJones4. Work coming out shortly in @SciReports #dmd #hnscc
March 21, 2025 at 11:05 PM
Delighted to see one of our ProfDoc students have their first study published and a great experience for me being a part of a supervisory team outside my main areas of expertise. www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
Synovial sarcoma: The influence of clinicopathological variables on overall survival in a UK population
Synovial sarcoma accounts for 5%–10 % of malignant soft-tissue tumours. Curative treatment includes surgery, with radiotherapy and/or chemotherapy. Wi…
www.sciencedirect.com
March 20, 2025 at 6:47 PM
I'm really excited to be a main session speaker at the Dutch Neuroscience Meeting in June, I'll be talking all about RNA trans-splicing in the genetic therapies for brain disorders session: dnm25.azuleon.org/programme
DNM 25 :: Programme
The website of the Dutch Neuroscience Meeting 2025 :: DNM 25
dnm25.azuleon.org
March 13, 2025 at 11:15 AM
Reposted by Karen Anthony
Interesting #NPJGenomMed paper: Understanding rare variant contributions to autism: lessons from dystrophin-deficient model. #DMD tinyurl.com/khus56wk
Understanding rare variant contributions to autism: lessons from dystrophin-deficient model - npj Genomic Medicine
npj Genomic Medicine - Understanding rare variant contributions to autism: lessons from dystrophin-deficient model
tinyurl.com
March 7, 2025 at 4:57 PM
#Researchfish done! so I'm treating myself to a brisk walk.
March 7, 2025 at 2:02 PM
A great keynote by Prof. David Coates today at our annual undergraduate student research conference. Congratulations to our fab students, and prize winners! 🥳 I utterly failed to get poster pics, was marking them non-stop!
March 4, 2025 at 9:38 PM
Neat use of a compartmentalised culture system
Excited to share our latest work! We asked if and how TDP-43 regulates RNA transport in neurons and if this is misregulated in ALS. We found that it works to keep RNAs *out* of neurites, and that loss of TDP-43 activity results in specific RNAs aberrantly accumulating there.
March 3, 2025 at 10:20 PM
Great work by our Visiting Professor of Child Health and Medical History Andrew Williams, great to have him with us.
bbc.co.uk/news/article.... The paper is published here: adc.bmj.com/content/earl...
18th century amputations: two case reports
Hospitalised children predate 19th-century specialist children’s hospitals. Before Lister and anaesthesia, surgery was generally of short duration. In the 18th century, paediatric surgery was extremel...
adc.bmj.com
February 28, 2025 at 11:32 AM
Reposted by Karen Anthony
Tang et al. present a new deep learning tool, Spliformer, that can predict RNA splicing. Genome-wide analyses using this tool identified intronic variants driving RNA mis-splicing in ALS, while additional functional analyses pinpointed PCP4 as an ALS-associated gene. https://buff.ly/42rayiH
January 24, 2025 at 3:51 PM
Reposted by Karen Anthony
Had the pleasure of presenting @LeicResearch head and neck m&m with @LSJones4 on our head and neck cancer work with @profkarena.bsky.social and Leanne's post-doc working @unibirmingham.bsky.social on the biology of #HPV
January 25, 2025 at 11:21 AM
I thought that dog was a picture of the structure! This is a really cool paper...holiday reading!
#apaperaday Last one of the year as we will go on a break until January 6. The pick is from Liu et al from Nature on the native structure of the dystrophin-glycoprotein-complex (DGC) using cryo-electron microscopy. DOI: 10.1038/s41586-024-08324-w
December 20, 2024 at 10:50 AM
Huge congratulations to Dr Michael Naidoo for defending his PhD thesis today on DMD gene involvement in low grade glioma. We are so proud. Many thanks to examiners Dr Jodie Score and Dr Maria Braoudaki 🎉👏
December 19, 2024 at 6:59 PM
Eugh. I'm reminded why I vowed not to use Scientific Reports again, several weeks just to find a handling editor!
December 10, 2024 at 8:11 PM