@kourtidislab
Where Cell-Cell adhesion meets RNAi - and other intriguing encounters. Molecular and Cellular Biology Lab at the Medical University of South Carolina in Charleston. https://medicine.musc.edu/departments/regenerative-medicine/research/kourtidis-lab
The recent Cancer Biology and Immunology retreat of MUSCβs Hollings Cancer Center was a big success! Huge congratulations to the postdoc in the lab Carlos Gomez for winning 2nd place award for an outstanding presentation!
We had a blast celebrating the season, birthdays, and another year of science in an appropriate fashion by playing βPublish or Perishβ! I also loved my present, I think the lab knows a thing or twoβ¦Happy Holidays from our lab!
The graduate students in the lab Houda Mesnaoui and Jordan Jarvis gathering crowds at the @ascbiology.bsky.social #CellBio2025!
Congratulations to the PhD Students in the lab Houda Mesnaoui and Jordan Jarvis for obtaining not one, but TWO MUSC awards each: a T32 Research Enhancement Initiative Award and an Emerging Scholars Travel Award to participate in the upcoming @ascbiology.bsky.social Cell Bio meeting. Well done both!
Representative images of Caco2+LZRS, PIWIL2 KO+LZRS and PIWIL2 KO+PIWIL2-FLAG cells grown in anchorage independent conditions after 7β days.
@sciencealyssa.bsky.social, @kourtidislab.bsky.social & co investigate the PIWI-piRNA pathway in #coloncancer using a nuanced bioinformatic and cell-based approach, linking the downregulation of PIWIL2 to disease progression, transposable element activation and DNA damage. doi.org/10.1242/bio....
Big day for the lab today! Our DMD/PhD student Christina Kingsley and the PhD student Jordan Jarvis won 1st place poster and 1st place oral presentation Awards, respectively, during the MUSC College of Graduate Studies #ResearchDay! Congratulations to both!
I had a blast riding alongside more than 1500 bike riders for #lowvelo and #Hollings Cancer Center @muschealth.bsky.social to help raise money for life-saving #cancer #research! The fundraising continues, help me reach our goal! To learn more and donate: fundraise.musc.edu/fundraiser/6...
Happy Halloween from our lab!
The big day is here! We ride again on November 1st across #Charlestonsc to support the vital mission of Hollings Cancer Center at MUSC to discover new cures and fight #cancer. 100% of donated funds go directly to life-saving cancer #research. Learn more and donate: fundraise.musc.edu/fundraiser/6...
Excited to share our most recent publication, where we delve into the roles of the #PIWI - #piRNA pathway in #transposon regulation, in #epithelial #homeostasis and #cancer. Fabulous work by the recently graduated student in the lab @sciencealyssa.bsky.social journals.biologists.com/bio/article/...
It has been a little while since I have posted here on BlueSky but a huge thank you to the Kourtidis Lab team for making my defense so special! It is an honor!
Huge congratulations to Alyssa Risner @sciencealyssa.bsky.social for doing a phenomenal job and successfully defending her Thesis! Very proud of her for her hard work and outstanding contributions, but also for her being a true team player. Well done Dr. Risner, best of luck in the new life ahead!
Very insightful by Martin Schwartz, as always: Why would anyone want to be a scientist?
Very happy to share our latest work revealing that localization of the #RNAi machinery at #adherens junctions is a universal feature of #epithelial cells and tissues. Great work and team effort by Joyce Nair-Menon, the lab and collaborators! @sciencealyssa.bsky.social www.nature.com/articles/s41...
The phosphorylated form of Ξ±-catenin localizes to the apical portion of adherens junctions. The image shows 3D surface rendering using Imaris software of a confocal image of a dividing kidney epithelial cell line (MadinβDarby canine kidney or MDCK cells). Phosphorylated Ξ±-catenin is shown in magenta and adherens junctions are in green.
π§ͺPhuong Le, Jeanne Quinn, @jfhorner.bsky.social @carajgottardi.bsky.social & co show that the adhesion protein Ξ±-catenin has a key modification that allows dividing cells to stay better connected to their neighbours, helping the tissue stick together during mechanical stress. doi.org/10.1242/bio....
Well done Rachel, Amy and amazing Team!
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Hope you get it throughβ¦we have delays on getting non-competing 2nd yr etc NOAs too, hopefully itβs only delays due to the current messβ¦
Oh no! Get well soon Diana!
Yes, we got one approved late February - after many days though that not even the NCE βbuttonβ on eRA commons was availableβ¦are you having issues with yours?
The NTDscope is a portable brightfield, darkfield, and fluorescence microscope used for the diagnosis of neglected tropical diseases (NTDs). Check out our latest preprint: www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1...
Fascinating!
graph of NIH basisfor new drugs
A pie graph worth keeping in mind as the NIH budget plummets jamanetwork.com/journals/jam... for 356 new FDA drugs approved
"When a complex system is far from equilibrium, small islands of coherence in a sea of chaos have the capacity to shift the entire system to a higher order." Iya Prigogine, Noble prize-winning chemist
"When a complex system is far from equilibrium, small islands of coherence in a sea of chaos have the capacity to shift the entire system to a higher order."
Iya Prigogine, Noble prize-winning chemist
me, as a senior PI: US science as we know it may be ending? Review these cool manuscripts? Serve on these grant review panels? Yes! All in! Going down in a blaze of glory!
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Fantastic work Ankita and especially amidst all thatβs happening - huge congratulations!
As scientist I am going through difficult times (this is understatement of the year for me!!). Past one and half months have been horrible, however I am trying to pick myself up and super excited to share my postdoc work with the community! #cellmigration
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
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...
I wrote a book The Creative Destruction of Medicine (2013, title adopted after Schumpeter).
This title of the book for what we are now seeing in the U.S. is just The Destruction of Medicine.