Sunaina Surana
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suranasunaina.bsky.social
Sunaina Surana
@suranasunaina.bsky.social
290 followers 180 following 2 posts
ECM interactions, signalling, axonal transport, synapses. Often found pottering around the lab. Post-doc @SchiavoMNPlab @UCLIoN
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Reposted by Sunaina Surana
uclbrainscience.bsky.social
Congratulations to Professor Sir John Hardy ( @uclqsion.bsky.social, @ukdri.ac.uk), who has been named on Esquire’s Better Men List 2025 for his groundbreaking research into Alzheimer’s disease! www.ucl.ac.uk/brain-scienc...
November 19, 2025 at 11:08 AM
Reposted by Sunaina Surana
uclqsneuromuscular.bsky.social
Congratulations to Pete Harley on successfully being awarded a Wellcome Trust Early-Career Award - 'Uncovering the interplay of synaptic activity and TDP-43 pathology in neurodegeneration', starting in January 2026.
@peteharley95.bsky.social
Pete_Harley
November 11, 2025 at 4:06 PM
Reposted by Sunaina Surana
ucl.ac.uk
New from #UCL: Faces of UCL, hosted by President & Provost Dr Michael Spence.

Ordinary people, extraordinary stories - from curating Egyptian artefacts to decoding dementia.

Listen now https://www.ucl.ac.uk/about/ucls-bicentenary/faces-ucl-podcast

#UCLPodcasts
October 29, 2025 at 7:18 PM
Reposted by Sunaina Surana
pawelburkhardt.bsky.social
First neurons didn’t appear overnight. We trace their roots to ancient secretory cells - showing how lifestyle & behavior shaped the evolution of first synapses.🧠🌊 #Evolution #Neuroscience

Our latest in @natrevneuro.nature.com
Link: rdcu.be/eMX3E

@jeffcolgren.bsky.social @msarscentre.bsky.social
The evolutionary origins of synaptic proteins and their changing roles in different organisms across evolution
Nature Reviews Neuroscience - Recent studies have shed further light on the evolutionary origins of chemical synapses, In this Review, Colgren and Burkhardt explore how ancient proteins were...
rdcu.be
October 27, 2025 at 6:48 PM
Reposted by Sunaina Surana
uclqsneuromuscular.bsky.social
Congratulations to Filipe Nascimento on successfully being awarded a Wellcome Trust Career Development Award (CDA) - ‘Spinal microcircuit resilience in Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS): mechanisms, translational insights and therapeutic windows’, starting in April 2026.
Photo of Filipe Nascimento
October 24, 2025 at 1:06 PM
Reposted by Sunaina Surana
mfainzilber.bsky.social
Intriguing new insights on axonal TDP-43 in ALS from @labperlson.bsky.social and colleagues

www.nature.com/articles/s41...
Muscle-derived miR-126 regulates TDP-43 axonal local synthesis and NMJ integrity in ALS models - Nature Neuroscience
Ionescu, Ankol et al. show that, in ALS mouse and iPSC models, TDP-43 aggregation at NMJs stems from aberrant axonal translation, normally repressed by muscle EV-derived miR126. Loss of miR126 in ALS increases TDP-43 buildup, impairs local synthesis and triggers degeneration.
www.nature.com
October 4, 2025 at 12:16 PM
suranasunaina.bsky.social
www.bbc.com/news/article...
Huntington's disease successfully treated for first time
One of the most devastating diseases finally has a treatment that can slow its progression and transform lives, tearful doctors tell BBC.
www.bbc.com
September 24, 2025 at 12:27 PM
Reposted by Sunaina Surana
uclbrainscience.bsky.social
Differences in the distribution of certain proteins and markers in the brain may explain why some people first experience vision changes instead of memory loss in Alzheimer’s disease, a study by @uclqsion.bsky.social researchers found.
buff.ly/dBRRQvY #WorldAlzheimersMonth
Key differences between visual- and memory-led Alzheimer’s discovered
Differences in the distribution of certain proteins and markers in the brain may explain why some people first experience vision changes instead of memory loss in Alzheimer’s disease, finds a new…
www.ucl.ac.uk
September 13, 2025 at 10:08 AM
Reposted by Sunaina Surana
subhambiswas.bsky.social
Excited to share that my paper on Tau–Microtubule interactions is now published in Nature Physics!🎉

Our work shows that tau goes beyond stabilizing microtubules—it also promotes the removal of defects in the microtubule lattice.

www.nature.com/articles/s41...
Tau accelerates tubulin exchange in the microtubule lattice - Nature Physics
Beyond its known role in stabilizing microtubules, it is now shown that tau protein actively promotes lattice defect repair by enhancing tubulin turnover at topological defects.
www.nature.com
September 9, 2025 at 11:57 AM
Reposted by Sunaina Surana
jordanray.bsky.social
I am excited to share my graduate work in the Sabatini and @bartellab.bsky.social labs. Since their discovery, we have known lysosomes possess RNase activity; however, their substrates were not known. Surprisingly we find specific RNAs are targeted for degradation! www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
Lysosomal RNA profiling reveals targeting of specific types of RNAs for degradation
Autophagy targets a wide variety of substrates for degradation within lysosomes. While lysosomes are known to possess RNase activity, the role of lysosomal RNA degradation in post-transcriptional gene...
www.biorxiv.org
September 9, 2025 at 9:53 PM
Reposted by Sunaina Surana
jamessleigh.bsky.social
Beautiful data from @dvillarroelc.bsky.social showing a key role for TBK1 in #AxonalTransport of signalling endosomes:

www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

@uclqsion.bsky.social @mndassoc.bsky.social #ALS #MND
September 9, 2025 at 10:01 AM
Reposted by Sunaina Surana
thevilchezlab.bsky.social
🚨 New from our lab: Here we explored how aging contributes to harmful protein aggregation in diseases like Huntington’s & ALS.
The culprit? An overlooked aging factor — EPS8 and RAC signaling. #Aging #Longevity #Proteostasis #ALSResearch
🧵
www.nature.com/articles/s43...
The aging factor EPS8 induces disease-related protein aggregation through RAC signaling hyperactivation - Nature Aging
Aging is a risk factor for neurodegenerative diseases associated with protein aggregation. Here the authors identify age-related hyperactivation of EPS8/RAC signaling in C. elegans as a driver of path...
www.nature.com
September 3, 2025 at 9:19 AM
Reposted by Sunaina Surana
labliston.bsky.social
🧵How to write and manage your first research budgets

The point of funding is to convert it into quality research. A well-spent research budget should fund the idea it was raised on, plus revision experiments, plus preliminary data for the next grant. So you need to spend, while avoiding waste.
September 3, 2025 at 4:03 PM
Reposted by Sunaina Surana
ukmndri.bsky.social
We are pleased to announce that the @ucl Queen Square Motor Neuron Disease Centre Sixth Hybrid #ALS/#MND International Symposium in Partnership will be held on Friday 5/9/25.

The theme is Translating Targets to Therapies.

To register, click below⬇️

www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/ucl-queen-...
UCL Queen Square MND Centre Sixth ALS/MND International Symposium
International Conference, in partnership with the UK MND Research Institute, on ALS / MND - TRANSLATING TARGETS TO THERAPIES
www.eventbrite.co.uk
May 29, 2025 at 9:05 AM
Reposted by Sunaina Surana
nadlerlab.bsky.social
Out today in @nature.com: Together with the Honigmann, Shevchenko, Drobot and Hof labs, we present a general workflow for imaging the localization and transport of individual lipids in cells and mapping their metabolism.
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
August 21, 2025 at 5:19 AM
Reposted by Sunaina Surana
aliceyting.bsky.social
LOV-BirA, light regulated biotin ligase, engineered by Song-Yi Lee

www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
August 27, 2025 at 3:26 PM
Reposted by Sunaina Surana
natchembio.nature.com
A new paper from @aliceyting.bsky.social reports on LaccID, an engineered laccase, that enables hydrogen peroxide-free proximity labeling and electron microscopy of cell surfaces

www.nature.com/articles/s41...
Directed evolution of LaccID for cell surface proximity labeling and electron microscopy - Nature Chemical Biology
LaccID, an engineered laccase, enables hydrogen-peroxide-free proximity labeling and electron microscopy (EM) in mammalian cells. Notably, LaccID is selectively active at the cell surface, enabling th...
www.nature.com
August 1, 2025 at 7:51 PM
Reposted by Sunaina Surana
carter-lab.bsky.social
Excited to share our latest work with @simonbullock11.bsky.social! We looked at how diverse mRNAs get selected for subcellular localization and it turns out that a single protein can recognize different RNA elements using shared features that weren’t apparent before.
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
August 5, 2025 at 10:43 AM
Reposted by Sunaina Surana
korolchuklab.bsky.social
“Sleep, like ageing, may be a inescapable consequence of an aerobic metabolism” 🤔

www.nature.com/articles/s41...
Mitochondrial origins of the pressure to sleep - Nature
Research on Drosophila neurons shows links between the need to sleep and aerobic metabolism, indicating that the pressure to sleep may have a mitochondrial origin.
www.nature.com
July 17, 2025 at 10:57 AM
Reposted by Sunaina Surana
cashwood.proteaglyco.com
A motivating quote from @carolynbertozzi.bskyverified.social:
“…You are discovering knowledge and gifting that to humanity for all of posterity. Once you learn something no one can take that away. It is not an object. It is an intellectual currency that will be shared throughout the generations…”
A personal message from 2022 chemistry laureate Carolyn Bertozzi to all young researchers on why to aspire to a career in science: ”I would want to share with them how a life in science is incredibly rewarding. It is rewarding because it is creative. You are discovering knowledge and gifting that to humanity for all of posterity. Once you learn something no one can take that away. It is not an object. It is an intellectual currency that will be shared throughout the generations. And you created that. It has a permanence that ironically a physical object doesn’t have. You can paint a painting, but eventually it will fade. But knowledge doesn’t fade. Knowledge stays with us forever and it becomes the foundation for the next generations.”
July 15, 2025 at 11:59 PM
Reposted by Sunaina Surana
nicolbirsa.bsky.social
Very excited to share our latest preprint! We looked at loss and gain of function, innervation, reinnervation, and in vivo axonal transport in a FUS-ALS mouse model!

www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

@uclqsion.bsky.social @beccasimkin.bsky.social @andrewtosolini.bsky.social @frattalab.bsky.social
June 18, 2025 at 10:48 AM
Reposted by Sunaina Surana
dozenoaks.bsky.social
Registration is now open for NeuroBioUK 2025!
This year we're looking forward to hearing from our plenary speaker @cathyabbott.bsky.social. As ever, all other talks chosen from submitted abstracts so get submitting - we can't wait to see you there!

neurobiouk.sites.sheffield.ac.uk/registration
An image montage advertising NeuroBioUK - 12th of September 2025 in York. The image is York cathedral superimposed over a fluorescent cortex mouse section coloured to look a bit like a dawn sky.
June 6, 2025 at 3:17 PM
Reposted by Sunaina Surana
lucaswaltzer.bsky.social
#drosophila @flybase.bsky.social request emergency funding:
"As it stands, by the end of July, 2025, there will be no future updates to FlyBase, and in the worst case scenario access to the website will also be lost" => please donate!

www.philanthropy.cam.ac.uk/give-to-camb...
Drosophila Genetic Database
The Drosophila Genetic Database, FlyBase, is on the brink of collapse due to the sudden termination of the FlyBase NIH grant, which includes salaries for 5 literature curators based at the University ...
www.philanthropy.cam.ac.uk
June 3, 2025 at 4:15 PM
Reposted by Sunaina Surana
jamessleigh.bsky.social
If you're struggling to visualise mouse NMJs, we've got a protocol just for you!

bio-protocol.org/en/bpdetail?...

Dissection and whole-mount immunofluorescent staining of mouse hind paw muscles for #NMJ analysis

Lovely work from Rebecca Simkin @uclqsion.bsky.social @nicolbirsa.bsky.social‬
May 21, 2025 at 8:41 AM
Reposted by Sunaina Surana
mfainzilber.bsky.social
A 🧵 to walk those interested through this paper...
May 16, 2025 at 4:50 PM