Ruth Franklin
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ruthfranklinlab.bsky.social
Ruth Franklin
@ruthfranklinlab.bsky.social
660 followers 350 following 51 posts
Assistant Professor | Harvard Stem Cell & Regenerative Biology | Immunologist and Tissue biologist | Proud mama
www.ruthfranklinlab.com
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ruthfranklinlab.bsky.social
Ruth Franklin @ruthfranklinlab.bsky.social · Jul 11
🎉 Over the moon to share the first paper from my lab!! We discovered an unexpected role for the cytokine OSM in lung epithelial homeostasis and repair. 🧵 1/n www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...
Macrophage-derived oncostatin M repairs the lung epithelial barrier during inflammatory damage
Tissue repair programs must function alongside antiviral immunity to restore the lung epithelial barrier following infection. We found that macrophage-derived oncostatin M (OSM) counteracted the patho...
www.science.org
ruthfranklinlab.bsky.social
So exciting to see this out!! More cool biology sure to come!! 🤩👀
karalmckinley.bsky.social Kara McKinley @karalmckinley.bsky.social · Oct 10
Lab’s 1st preprint!

Menstruation is understudied due to societal taboos + a biological challenge: mice (a key system for research + drug discovery) don’t menstruate.

@cagricevrim.bsky.social made menstruating mice + used them to discover early events in menstruation.

He is on the job market!
cagricevrim.bsky.social Çağrı Çevrim @cagricevrim.bsky.social · Oct 10
I’m thrilled to share my postdoc work and the first paper from the McKinley Lab! 🎉
@karalmckinley.bsky.social
We built the first transgenic model of menstruation in mice.
We used it to uncover how the endometrium organizes and sheds during menstruation. 🧪
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
🧵
October 10, 2025 at 6:44 PM
ruthfranklinlab.bsky.social
Had a fantastic visit @roswellpark.bsky.social for the Post-Doctoral Symposium!! So many inspiring scientists doing cool work! Grateful for the invitation!
mikefeigin.bsky.social Mike Feigin 🥯 @mikefeigin.bsky.social · Sep 12
Very excited to hear from Dr Ruth Franklin as the keynote speaker at the 6th Annual Post-Doctoral Symposium at Roswell Park! @ruthfranklinlab.bsky.social
September 14, 2025 at 12:39 PM
ruthfranklinlab.bsky.social
Can’t wait to read this!! Sure to be a fantastic resource! #InterferonPower
lozanzi.bsky.social Ivan Zanoni @lozanzi.bsky.social · Aug 21
#InterferonPower! Thrilled for our latest work @cp-cell.bsky.social! With @danielboehmer.bsky.social, we dug into tons of papers & created what we hope will be a go-to resource for immunologists & non-immunologist about type I, II, III (& IV😉) #interferons! Free👉 authors.elsevier.com/a/1leKGL7PXu...
August 21, 2025 at 4:54 PM
ruthfranklinlab.bsky.social
Exciting week! Congrats to @xuzhoulab.bsky.social, Ruslan Medzhitov, & coauthors on discovering a new mechanism to regulate inflammation!! 🎉 www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
Regulation of inflammatory responses by pH-dependent transcriptional condensates
Inflammation is an essential defense response but operates at the cost of normal tissue functions. Whether and how the negative impact of inflammation…
www.sciencedirect.com
July 18, 2025 at 11:14 PM
Reposted by Ruth Franklin
lozanzi.bsky.social
#WeekendRead! #InterferonsFriendsOrFoes?! @ruthfranklinlab.bsky.social, Medzhitov, Hoagland, Rodriguez-Morales &co show @science.org that macrophage-derived oncostatin M overcomes type I IFN detrimental responses during severe influenza lung infection by driving AT-II epithelial cell proliferation!
Macrophage-derived oncostatin M repairs the lung epithelial barrier during inflammatory damage
Tissue repair programs must function alongside antiviral immunity to restore the lung epithelial barrier following infection. We found that macrophage-derived oncostatin M (OSM) counteracted the patho...
www.science.org
July 12, 2025 at 2:10 PM
Reposted by Ruth Franklin
aybv.bsky.social
I’m so proud to have been able to contribute to this story! Check it out for a cool tale about tissue repair under inflammatory conditions! Congrats @daisyah.bsky.social and @ruthfranklinlab.bsky.social on putting out the lab’s first paper 🫁🐁🦠

www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...
Macrophage-derived oncostatin M repairs the lung epithelial barrier during inflammatory damage
Tissue repair programs must function alongside antiviral immunity to restore the lung epithelial barrier following infection. We found that macrophage-derived oncostatin M (OSM) counteracted the patho...
www.science.org
July 10, 2025 at 6:30 PM
ruthfranklinlab.bsky.social
🎉 Over the moon to share the first paper from my lab!! We discovered an unexpected role for the cytokine OSM in lung epithelial homeostasis and repair. 🧵 1/n www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...
Macrophage-derived oncostatin M repairs the lung epithelial barrier during inflammatory damage
Tissue repair programs must function alongside antiviral immunity to restore the lung epithelial barrier following infection. We found that macrophage-derived oncostatin M (OSM) counteracted the patho...
www.science.org
July 11, 2025 at 1:03 AM
ruthfranklinlab.bsky.social
Was so much fun to catch up with some of my IMP family!!
josephsunlab.bsky.social Joseph Sun Lab @josephsunlab.bsky.social · Jun 30
Wonderful to catch up with two former @wcm-imp.bsky.social grad students at this @faseborg.bsky.social meeting! So proud of alum who are now faculty running their own labs- Priya Issuree (U Iowa) and Ruth Franklin @ruthfranklinlab.bsky.social (Harvard). Nothing makes a program director more happy!
June 30, 2025 at 10:28 PM
Reposted by Ruth Franklin
jencwaters.bsky.social
"The money the government sends to Harvard is, in effect, not a subsidy to advance the university’s mission. It’s a payment for the role Harvard plays in advancing the research mission of the United States." www.nytimes.com/interactive/...
Here Is All the Science at Risk in Trump’s Clash With Harvard (Gift Article)
More than 900 research grants worth $2.6 billion are in jeopardy. So is the 80-year-old model of American science.
www.nytimes.com
June 23, 2025 at 6:48 PM
ruthfranklinlab.bsky.social
Today was a happy day!! Very proud of Dr. Rodríguez-Morales and very proud to be a professor at Harvard!!
PhD student and doctoral advisor standing outside of Harvard Medical School on graduation day
May 30, 2025 at 12:56 AM
Reposted by Ruth Franklin
davidimiller.bsky.social
🚨 Action alert: Two days left!!

Help protect NSF/NIH from political interference.

👎 A new rule (Sched. F) would allow for replacing career program officers with political appointees.

➡️ Action: Object here by THIS FRIDAY. Comments can be brief and/or anonymous. Helps future litigation.
Improving Performance, Accountability and Responsiveness in the Civil Service
The Office of Personnel Management (OPM) is proposing a rule to increase career employee accountability. Agency supervisors report great difficulty removing employees for poor performance or misconduc...
www.federalregister.gov
May 21, 2025 at 10:31 PM
Reposted by Ruth Franklin
jonlevybu.bsky.social
On a day when all research grants at Harvard were terminated, and in a context where Congress seems to broadly accept the notion that destroying science and health research in the US is fine, it’s worth noting that this is not what the public wants.
May 15, 2025 at 9:54 PM
ruthfranklinlab.bsky.social
Just said goodbye to my NIH MIRA award. Really hurts to see the word “terminated” in writing. Even worse to see it next to the F31 awarded to a fantastic PhD student in my lab @aybv.bsky.social. I REFUSE to let this stop us!!!
May 15, 2025 at 10:53 PM
ruthfranklinlab.bsky.social
Our paper was accepted!!!!!! 🎉🥳 I can’t wait to share it with you all soon!!!
May 10, 2025 at 4:54 PM
Reposted by Ruth Franklin
drshrutinaik.bsky.social
Misinformation is winning not because it's true, but because it’s loud, emotional, and everywhere.
It’s time for science to fight back. Aaron Mertz and I dissect the issue and offer solutions 👇
📖 www.nature.com/articles/s41...
#SciComm @sinaiimmuno.bsky.social @aspeninstitute.bsky.social
Beyond the lab: trust, storytelling and the fight for America’s attention - Nature Reviews Immunology
Shruti Naik, an immunologist and a strong advocate for diversity in science, has joined forces with Aaron Mertz, who leads programmes that help to explain, connect and maximize the benefits of science...
www.nature.com
May 8, 2025 at 4:36 PM
ruthfranklinlab.bsky.social
The first student from my lab defended her thesis today!!! Huge congratulations to Patricia Rodríguez-Morales, PhD!!!!! 🎉
May 3, 2025 at 2:02 AM
Reposted by Ruth Franklin
dremilygoldberg.bsky.social
Hey #immunosky Looking at the AAI website for advocacy website I found this very easy letter you can send to your congressional reps by filling in your information. It's easily modifiable for non-immunologists 🧪 every small action matters

www.aai.org/Public-Affai...
The American Association of Immunologists - Take Action
www.aai.org
May 2, 2025 at 12:27 AM
Reposted by Ruth Franklin
raflynn5.bsky.social
Excited to share the work of Jonathan Perr where he uncovered a surprisingly common feature of cell surfaces - the presentation and clustering of RNA binding proteins with #glycoRNA.

Critically support by #NIH @cp-cell.bsky.social www.cell.com/cell/abstrac...
RNA-binding proteins and glycoRNAs form domains on the cell surface for cell-penetrating peptide entry
Mammalian cells present RNA-binding proteins on the cell surface that form clustered domains containing glycoRNAs.
www.cell.com
February 27, 2025 at 3:48 PM
ruthfranklinlab.bsky.social
What a fantastic idea!!
cantlonlab.bsky.social CantlonLab @cantlonlab.bsky.social · Feb 18
Join us! Science Homecoming helps scientists reconnect with communities by writing about the importance of science funding in their hometown newspapers. We’ve mapped every small newspaper in the U.S. and provide resources to get you started. Help science get back home 🧪🔬🧬 🏠

sciencehomecoming.com
Science Homecoming
sciencehomecoming.com
February 19, 2025 at 12:57 AM
ruthfranklinlab.bsky.social
Today I did the same! First post on Facebook in years to share what we will lose and why everyone should care!
dremilygoldberg.bsky.social Emily Goldberg @dremilygoldberg.bsky.social · Feb 8
I am starting this morning by reaching outside of my science echo chamber (posting on facebook) to explain why the NIH matters and why the new indirect rate policy will be catastrophic to everyone
𝐖𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐚𝐫𝐞 "𝐢𝐧𝐝𝐢𝐫𝐞𝐜𝐭𝐬"? When I write a grant, I provide a budget of the estimated "direct" costs that it will take to complete the project. These direct costs include things like salaries (mine + my lab members), student tuition, lab supplies, computing, and specialized equipment. The "indirect" costs on NIH grants are added on top of this and they pay for things like building infrastructure, utilities (water, electricity, internet), and salaries of administrative support staff like people who help us submit the grants, safety personnel, and janitors. The description that NIH is subsidizing universities with indirects is false. These are costs that are essential to perform the research that the government has agreed to fund. Indirects are negotiated with the government ahead of time so these are mutually agreed upon numbers and can't be changed by universities (or the government) on a whim. 𝐖𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐢𝐬 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐢𝐦𝐩𝐚𝐜𝐭 𝐨𝐟 𝐬𝐮𝐝𝐝𝐞𝐧𝐥𝐲 𝐥𝐨𝐰𝐞𝐫𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐍𝐈𝐇 𝐢𝐧𝐝𝐢𝐫𝐞𝐜𝐭𝐬? For this, I think some numbers are helpful. If I write a $100,000 grant, my institution's indirect rate is 62.5% so the university submits a total budget of $162,500 to the NIH for the project (100k for me, 62.5k for indirect costs). The new 15% rate is supposed to be effective immediately and applied to current grants (where we already agreed on the costs) such that suddenly instead of $62,500, the NIH will only pay the university $15,000. This will simply not cover the costs of actually performing the proposed research. Remember, the government set these indirect cost numbers - they were negotiated with universities that had to prove how this money is spent and follow very strict rules about what it can be used for. Let me be clear: these changes will destroy biomedical research in the US. 𝐖𝐡𝐲 𝐬𝐡𝐨𝐮𝐥𝐝 𝐲𝐨𝐮 𝐜𝐚𝐫𝐞? Most people are not scientists, so why should they care about research? Universities are often among the top employers in their cities. Even …
February 15, 2025 at 4:48 AM
Reposted by Ruth Franklin
jeremymberg.bsky.social
From Harold Varmus (Former NIH and NCI Director and Nobel laureate)

Why Would We Undermine the Marvel of American Science?

www.nytimes.com/2025/02/14/o...
Opinion | American Science is Under Attack (Gift Article)
The Trump administration hobbles research and endangers the public health.
www.nytimes.com
February 14, 2025 at 3:48 PM
ruthfranklinlab.bsky.social
In honor of International Day of Women & Girls in Science, call your reps & remind them the importance of scientific research, innovation, and education (cuts & freezes affect everyone, not just scientists and universities!) Research=lifesaving treatments, medical care, clinical trials, jobs & more!
FASEB Home
www.votervoice.net
February 11, 2025 at 5:19 PM