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David W. Sanders!

@davidwsanders.bsky.social
650 followers 455 following 144 posts

Assistant Professor of Molecular Biology, Center for Alzheimer's and Neurodegenerative Diseases, UT Southwestern. My lab studies damaged things. Sometimes we fix them. www.davidwsanders.com

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Reposted by David W. Sanders!
David McQuarrie @davidmcquarrie.bsky.social · 01/08/2026
A multivalent RNA affinity tag enables selective purification of tagged RNAs and bound proteins doi.org/10.1093/nar/...
doi.org
A multivalent RNA affinity tag enables selective purification of tagged RNAs and bound proteins
Abstract. Efficient purification of specific RNAs from lysates remains a major challenge. Existing methods, such as MS2 tagging or oligonucleotide hybridiz
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Reposted by David W. Sanders!
boehninglab @boehninglab.com · 03/08/2026
Gift link wapo.st/44YL4t1
wapo.st
Senate Republicans join in rebuking White House over science funding
GOP leaders are supporting a spending bill that would prevent the White House from asserting greater control over hundreds of billions of dollars in federal grants.
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Reposted by David W. Sanders!
Julia Belk @juliabelk.bsky.social · 30/07/2026
Gaining therapeutic access to the human brain is one of the biggest unsolved problems in biomedical science. Today @nature.com, we uncover a massive influx of immune cells into the human brain during aging, revealing that the brain is more accessible than previously thought. 1/
nature.com
Somatic mutations reveal the ontogeny of microglia in human aging - Nature
Nature - Somatic mutations reveal the ontogeny of microglia in human aging
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Anita Donlic @anitadonlic.bsky.social · 05/06/2026
Thrilled to see our Deep-Phase paper now online in @cellcellpress.bsky.social! 🎉 The final version expands Deep-Phase across labeling modalities, adds dual-condensate imaging to dissect pathway specificity, and shows greater robustness to batch effects than classical image-analysis methods.
cell.com
Deep learning of functional perturbations from condensate morphology
A deep learning method quantitatively decodes nucleolar, nuclear speckle, and viral condensate morphology to reveal underlying biochemical states. Applying this framework reveals a previously unrecogn...
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David W. Sanders! @davidwsanders.bsky.social · 24/05/2026
No.
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David W. Sanders! @davidwsanders.bsky.social · 15/05/2026
really great talk: was fantastic to meet you and discuss TDP etc!
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Reposted by David W. Sanders!
Michael Ward @michael-e-ward.bsky.social · 13/05/2026
On July 1st, I'll be joining the faculty at UC Berkeley, with a joint appointment in the Division of Molecular Therapeutics within MCB and the Helen Wills Neuroscience Institute.
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David W. Sanders! @davidwsanders.bsky.social · 23/04/2026
So excited that UTSW was able to retain your talent. Mol Bio SLAYS!
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David W. Sanders! @davidwsanders.bsky.social · 25/02/2026
Beautiful work!
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Reposted by David W. Sanders!
James Olzmann @olzmannlab.bsky.social · 25/02/2026
Sooo happy to share our new paper in @nature.com “CLCC1 promotes hepatic neutral lipid flux and nuclear pore complex assembly.” A terrific collaboration with @arrudalab.bsky.social, led by co–first authors Alyssa Mathiowetz and Emily Maymand. www.nature.com/articles/s41...
nature.com
CLCC1 promotes hepatic neutral lipid flux and nuclear pore complex assembly - Nature
CRISPR–Cas9 screening identifies CLCC1 as a factor that increases neutral lipid flux to prevent hepatic steatosis and promotes nuclear pore complex assembly by promoting membrane bending and fusi...
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Reposted by David W. Sanders!
Michał Małszycki @malszycki.bsky.social · 25/02/2026
I’m thrilled to share that my PhD work has been just published in Cell. After a long and bumpy ride, we uncovered the core function of nuclear speckles -splicing of GC-levelled exons- and traced the evolution of this gene architecture and condensates themselves to amniotes.
Graphical abstract: Speckle-proximal and speckle-dependent RNA has short introns, and simultaneous emergence of multiple exons requires heightened concentration of spliceosome components.
Speckle-independent RNA has long introns and can be spliced well with or without speckles
Speckle dependent introns evolved in amniotes. The reduction in intron length was accompanied by the increase of the intronic GC content, giving rise to GC-levelled intronic architecture. This exon-intron architecture is not present outside of amniotes (Fish, Invertebrates), and these organisms lack nuclear speckles.
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Reposted by David W. Sanders!
Tugce Aktas @aktast.bsky.social · 25/02/2026
Our most recent work on the “function and evolution” of #nuclear-speckles is now online at Cell @cp-cell.bsky.social doi.org/10.1016/j.ce... Read the thread👇 for the highlights of our findings.
doi.org
Redirecting
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David W. Sanders! @davidwsanders.bsky.social · 25/02/2026
Really impressive stuff. But I think cliff’s former grad student is bummed that you scooped him up on a good portion of his story. Suspected as much, so pulled back my investments from speckles when I started my lab to let yall lead. :)
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David W. Sanders! @davidwsanders.bsky.social · 25/02/2026
The function of nuclear speckles is revealed! This is an incredibly important paper with absolutely beautiful data! Wow! www.cell.com/cell/fulltex...
cell.com
Nuclear speckles enable processing of RNA from GC-rich isochores
Nuclear speckles are key subnuclear structures that regulate gene expression in GC-rich regions. This work shows that the evolution and expansion of core speckle proteins were crucial for the increase...
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David W. Sanders! @davidwsanders.bsky.social · 21/02/2026
goddamnit. even you are going into clinics to monitor that? I was planning on scheduling a looksy into my rectum using your custom scopes. to be clear, if that is a paid service you offer, im still game. dont trust no doctors to go deep up there.
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David W. Sanders! @davidwsanders.bsky.social · 21/02/2026
not tmi, but it read as you having colon cancer. glad to hear this is not the case!
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David W. Sanders! @davidwsanders.bsky.social · 21/02/2026
fuck: you okay? im always around to talk. please feel free to stop by and complain about your colon: we all have and hate them. most are damaged. mine is crinkled beyond all recognition. thinking about your health!
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David W. Sanders! @davidwsanders.bsky.social · 20/02/2026
oops. didn't realize this made nature. nevermind. you are rightful that this is undeserving of nature as nothing deserves to be in nature. carry on with your....horizontal....science. ;)
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David W. Sanders! @davidwsanders.bsky.social · 18/02/2026
Chefs kiss. Thanks for a laugh.
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David W. Sanders! @davidwsanders.bsky.social · 18/02/2026
My dude. I never sign things I’ve read. Only those I haven’t.
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David W. Sanders! @davidwsanders.bsky.social · 18/02/2026
Are nih debt collectors after me or not? I’m poor. A
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David W. Sanders! @davidwsanders.bsky.social · 18/02/2026
@jeremymberg.bsky.social any idea?
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David W. Sanders! @davidwsanders.bsky.social · 18/02/2026
What is this? I didn’t know that I needed to pay my training fellowship loans….
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David W. Sanders! @davidwsanders.bsky.social · 17/02/2026
Full-justify grant apps or death!
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David W. Sanders! @davidwsanders.bsky.social · 15/02/2026
Very nice Alex. You are one of the few people in the phase/idr field who are doing meaningful, rigorous work. Thank you! Thank you.
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Reposted by David W. Sanders!
Alex Holehouse @alexholehouse.bsky.social · 12/02/2026
Pleased to share the final version of this behemoth of a paper, now finally published. I guess I can retire now? www.nature.com/articles/s41... More functional data, many thousands of words removed, and a few other updates from last year's preprint.
nature.com
Sequence and chemical specificity define the functional landscape of intrinsically disordered regions - Nature Cell Biology
Langstein-Skora, Schmid, Huth et al. propose that intrinsically disordered region functionality can be driven by the interplay between linear binding motifs and contextual chemical characteristics suc...
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David W. Sanders! @davidwsanders.bsky.social · 25/12/2025
No shit, Sherlock. Its speed! Did Nico get free drugs again at least?
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Reposted by David W. Sanders!
Jenna Norton @jenna-m-norton.bsky.social · 23/12/2025
The Senate version of the NIH appropriations bill has language that limits the use of multiyear/upfront funding. Please call your Senators and Representatives to make sure it is in the final bill. We must stop the brain drain in our research workforce before it's too late.
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David W. Sanders! @davidwsanders.bsky.social · 02/12/2025
Thanks for the clarification and keep posting your critiques. Disagreement and debate make science stronger! It’s why I love academic science!
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David W. Sanders! @davidwsanders.bsky.social · 28/11/2025
I do not personally enjoy arguments about jargon. Clusters, phases, networks, percolated fluids, granules, bodies. Whatever. I’m not a physicist. I just want to understand what these cool multicomponent droplet thingies do in living systems. Deciding who “owns” the “discovery” is a distraction.
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David W. Sanders! @davidwsanders.bsky.social · 28/11/2025
Fine. True “Llps” is not a thing in biology. Pure physics don’t apply. You can quote me on this. Biology is complex. But biological liquids are real. The polyphasic linkage of these co-existing phases requires decades of study to understand fully. Whether awards are deserved is above my pay grade.
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David W. Sanders! @davidwsanders.bsky.social · 28/11/2025
I dunno why this is a bridge to die on. I like you a lot. I like Cliff a lot. I am amenable to your criticisms of “the field”. I certainly think an opportunity for productive debate about terms/complexities was missed circa 2020. But your tone reads as personal. Cliff eg is not a snakeoil salesman.
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David W. Sanders! @davidwsanders.bsky.social · 28/11/2025
Your thoughtful opinions have provided a useful counterpoint to “rah-rah dogma” in the phase separation field. My opinion: such discourse has inspired greater rigor and skepticism, which was urgently needed when you started your righteous debate. This post is beneath that. It reads as personal.
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David W. Sanders! @davidwsanders.bsky.social · 05/11/2025
DPRIT passes! $3-billion Texas investment in dementia research: www.alz.org/news/2025/te...
alz.org
Texans Make History with Passage of Proposition 14, Launching Nation’s Largest State-Funded Dementia Research Initiative
Texas voters approved funding the Dementia Prevention and Research Institute of Texas (DPRIT), the nation's largest state-funded dementia research initiative. OG image: press release
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Reposted by David W. Sanders!
Josh Riback @superscijew.bsky.social · 04/11/2025
(1/10) How do diverse leukemia mutations converge on the same molecular program? In #RibackLab first manuscript @cp-cell.bsky.social, collaboration with @goodell-lab.bsky.social shows that disparate mutations rewire shared protein networks to form nuclear condensates called C-bodies.
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Falk Schneider @faldalf.bsky.social · 22/10/2025
mStayRose is published in JBC 🥳🎉 Congratulations @wsctt.bsky.social @sporemohan.bsky.social and team for the monumental effort to make a non-natural amino acid incorporating fluorescent protein accessible. It's based on mStayGold, bright, and photostable: www.jbc.org/article/S002...
jbc.org
StayRose: a photostable StayGold derivative red-shifted by genetic code expansion
Photobleaching of fluorescent proteins often limits the acquisition of high-quality images in microscopy. StayGold, a novel dimeric green fluorescent protein recently monomerised through sequence engi...
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David W. Sanders! @davidwsanders.bsky.social · 17/10/2025
Ut southwestern is recruiting! 3-milly start-up for tenure-track or tenured PI positions in O’Donnell Brain institute. Basic and translational neuroscientists both. If I can call myself a neuroscientist, so can you! Please consider reposting :) #DPRITisComing apply.interfolio.com/174927
apply.interfolio.com
Apply - Interfolio {{$ctrl.$state.data.pageTitle}} - Apply - Interfolio
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Reposted by David W. Sanders!
Josh Mendell @mendell-lab.bsky.social · 14/10/2025
Colliding ribosomes are potent signals of cellular stress. But do cells use ‘programmed’ ribosome collisions to regulate gene expression? I’m excited to present a new story from my lab led by Frederick Rehfeld(@fred-rehfeld.bsky.social) which revealed that the answer is YES! Read on to find out how👇
biorxiv.org
Oxidative stress sensing by the translation elongation machinery promotes production of detoxifying selenoproteins
Selenocysteine, incorporated into polypeptides at recoded termination codons, plays an essential role in redox biology. Using GPX1 and GPX4, selenoenzymes that mitigate oxidative stress, as reporters,...
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Reposted by David W. Sanders!
Eric Topol @erictopol.bsky.social · 09/10/2025
Why does the naked mole rat have the longest lifespan of any rodent, nearly 40 years? A 30-year long mystery unraveled @ScienceMagazine today! Its cGAS enzyme in cells has 4 missense mutations that upends its function, promoting DNA repair and suppressing inflammation www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...
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David W. Sanders! @davidwsanders.bsky.social · 09/10/2025
Aaron is coming in a couple months. Hope to hear—not in talk form—about your work. Let’s catch up soon! Hope you are enjoying the non-Texas weather.
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David W. Sanders! @davidwsanders.bsky.social · 09/10/2025
It is very familiar. I have dealt with this nonsense for 15 years. Please don’t sully the reputation of my Alma mater with bullshit. Thanks.
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David W. Sanders! @davidwsanders.bsky.social · 09/10/2025
I’m glad I didn’t follow your faculty market proposal/chalk talk advice. I would have received more offers. And I might not be at UTSW. And this would suck. Oh. And my dp2 ordered my projects as you recommended for job pitch. Wash-out of good/bad advice I think. So. Don’t owe you anything.
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David W. Sanders! @davidwsanders.bsky.social · 09/10/2025
This is great. Glad you joined us yeehaws in the beautiful state of Texas! And glad we can enjoy this lucky moment in the sun together. —apologies for the informality. I know we haven’t met. But @boeynaemssteven.bsky.social vouches for you. That is all I need to know to call you a friend.
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Reposted by David W. Sanders!
Graham Erwin @grahamerwin.bsky.social · 08/10/2025
Proud to announce that we received the NIH Director's New Innovator Award to develop a new class of genome editing tools!
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David W. Sanders! @davidwsanders.bsky.social · 09/10/2025
My proposal, like most DP2s, was pie in the sky stuff that I thought we would disprove quickly. Yet, we have not. This is thanks to our incredible postdoc, Shefali Banerjee, who is moving toward mic drop/textbook territory. We are in replication and red team/blue team territory now. Stay tuned.
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Reposted by David W. Sanders!
Ishmail Abdus-Saboor @ishmailsaboor.bsky.social · 08/10/2025
I’m extremely honored to be a recipient of the NIH Director’s Pioneer Award!
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David W. Sanders! @davidwsanders.bsky.social · 09/10/2025
Don’t trigger me with your gen z jiffys on my big embargoed press release day. Cmon man.
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David W. Sanders! @davidwsanders.bsky.social · 09/10/2025
Fantastic. I will take this as inspiration for my lab to prove you wrong in the court of scientific opinion. Enjoy.
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David W. Sanders! @davidwsanders.bsky.social · 09/10/2025
As an expert on tau aggregation and stress granules…someone who has tried but failed to reproduce key findings with rigor and lack of bias…I am providing constructive discussion. Happy to eat crow if you provide a strong argument. It would certainly help me with funding.
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David W. Sanders! @davidwsanders.bsky.social · 09/10/2025
Sure. Not all science is reproducible. This is hype science. Buzzwords combined. No mechanism. Sound and fury, no meaning.
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