Tom Trainer
@TomTrainerSci
@LabManka PhD researcher, Structural Neurobiology of Prions at @ImperialInfect
BIOLOGISTS!!! WE MIGHT FINALLY BE GETTING A MAINSTREAM SHOW ABOUT US!!! EVERYBODY STAY ALERT
Happiness is contagious.
before id ever entered the biology field, i found longevity people to be absurd. “you’re obviously focusing on the wrong thing”, i once said to a researcher in a groupchat, “just find a way to stop us from sleeping, thats a free 30 ish years”. he said its more complicated than…
Sonia with our end-of-year update on developing a therapy for prion disease. Two new efforts from our lab: CHARM and divalent siRNA, and an update on the Ionis clinical trial. Support our work with a 1:1 matched donation through end of 2024. prionalliance.org/2024/12/02/whe…
Our paper is out in time for #EM_Monday! It is about a specialized neuron-specific ER, the spine apparatus, that is close to synapses and has a peculiar shape. If you think neurons are special, the spine apparatus is their🦄horn! But how does it form?!(1/9)doi.org/10.1016/j.cub.…
In our latest preprint on bioRxiv, we present the in situ structure of the human gap junction at 14 Å resolution using cryo-ET. The structure provides a blueprint for investigating how connexin regulation shapes intercellular communication in health and disease.
Hi Cryo-EM fellas! What are the pros and cons of the latest cryoFIB milling tools? Any usage experience with Arctis already? Any huge advantages of plasma?
1 year is around ~24x of typical lifespan. Largest lifespan effect in C.elegans before was 10x (PI3K mutant)
A year later, many of these worms are alive, crawling and happy :) Truly outstanding work, proud to have supported Apfeld lab through @impetusgrants
If you want some great mentorship in structural biology, to work on exciting novel labelling systems as well as one of the most unqiue pathogens out there - come work with us!
Apply by 18 May 2025! mankalab.org/blog/fully-fun…
New op-ed argues that prions, infectious proteins that causes devastating conditions like Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease and kuru, may also be our best model for understanding protein dynamics.... ...and, thus, improve our ability to design better proteins in the laboratory.
Proteins are more liquid than solid; they bend and twist incessantly. But AI tools to design new proteins are often unable to replicate this dynamism, in part because methods to study proteins capture static snapshots. Deadly proteins, called prions, may help solve the problem.
‘Don’t call it zombie deer disease’: scientists warn as infections spread. Good accessible write up here. I would additionally make the point that “spillovers” to new species / genotypes risks new strains with altered zoonotic (human spread) potential. theguardian.com/environment/20…
This is how it should be announced in Cockney according to Grok3: Oi, chuck your hat in the ring for a brainy gig at our lab! imperial.ac.uk/jobs/search-jo…
Congratulations to Dr Ian Harrison, the David Hague Early Career Investigator of the Year! 🎉 The award recognises the most outstanding early career researcher in biomedical dementia research. #ARUKConf25
Excited to share the pre-print on my PhD work demonstrating a role for syntaxin-6 in prion and tau pathogenesis. After 3 yrs of hard work, I am glad it is finally out and would like to thank my mentors and colleagues at the MRC Prion Unit for all their support @smead2 @MRC_Prion
biorxiv.org/content/10.110… I'm really pleased to share this preprint comprising the bulk of Lizzie Hill's work for PhD on the role of STX6 in prion and tau neurodegenerative diseases @MRC_Prion @lizziehill35 Short thread 1/n
The first clinical results in patients with a genetic form of frontotemporal dementia show that enhancing progranulin in the brain may halt disease progression nature.com/articles/s4158…
The first clinical results in patients with a genetic form of frontotemporal dementia show that enhancing progranulin in the brain may halt disease progression nature.com/articles/s4158…
Incredibly honoured to be awarded a generous grant from the @CJDFoundation. Huge thanks to the dedicated families and campaigners - your support and efforts are truly inspiring! The pioneering work of @TomTrainerSci has made it possible. cjdfoundation.org/dr-szymon-w-ma…
Today we report in @NatureMedicine the development of a base editing strategy for prion disease, currently a fatal and rapidly progressing neurogenerative condition with no effective treatment. @PrionAlliance @DevermanLab (1/13) drive.google.com/file/d/1DVpKrz…
In 2024, for the first time, we worked on a collaborative group project on phage therapy where @MIT, @Harvard, and global students designed their own lysis proteins. @TwistBioscience synthesized their DNA designs and we expressed the proteins via @nuclera digital microfluidics: