This milestone reflects the support of incredible mentors, colleagues, trainees, and collaborators. I look forward to driving forward our work in skeletal muscle mechanobiology, bioengineering, and regenerative medicine, and through mentoring and training future scientists.

This recognition is especially meaningful to me. As a PhD student and postdoc, I had the chance to work with former EIC Prof. Michael King as an assistant editor supporting this journal. Now, I am grateful to current EIC Prof. Ed Sander and the selection committee for this honor.

With mRNA LNPs, we show that muscle cells can locally produce native WNT7A, leading to myofiber hypertrophy and reduced fatty infiltration in preclinical models. This establishes mRNA delivery as a promising strategy for scalable and localized protein production in muscle regeneration.

This study, led by our superstar grad student Larion Santiago @thelaar.bsky.social, used a lipid nanoparticle (LNP) mRNA platform to deliver WNT7A as a proof of concept cargo. WNT7A is a powerful regulator of muscle, but recombinant protein therapy faces major hurdles in delivery and scalability.

In this work, we asked if muscle cells and fibers could be transformed into an “in vivo protein factory” capable of producing regenerative signals.

@thesoor.bsky.social @thejooosh.bsky.social @thegaaa.bsky.social @thehaan.bsky.social @thelaar.bsky.social @themiiche.bsky.social

We’ve also had great news on the grant front, with strong scores on @thesoor.bsky.social’s F31 and our R01 grants. In the current climate, nothing’s certain, but we’re proud of the science and energized by the momentum. Grateful every day for this incredible team and all they bring.

Watching them grow reminds us that the future of medicine/biomedical research is in good hands, and that training the next generation is one of the most meaningful things we do.

First, it’s been a joy having Kelley Tu and Kelly Nguyen, two super star undergrads from Brown, join us this summer. Their curiosity, creativity, and steady drive brought so much to the lab.

Thank you for highlighting our work!

I am so sorry Lesley

Finally, @thejooosh.bsky.social and I teamed up to co-moderate a session! /end

@thesoor.bsky.social gives a wonderful talks on FAP mechanobiology! We are really excited about this work - more coming soon.

@thegaaa.bsky.social shares our recent work on 3D confinement effects on muscle stem cell fate! Our full paper here: pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/40040295/

@thesoor.bsky.social shares his academic journey!

@thechaar.bsky.social presents our research on Piezo1-focal adhesion interactions to Andrés García! An academic pedigree action shot.