iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Reposted by Kyle Cottrell

Purdue RNA Club @purduernaclub.bsky.social · 04/09/2026

It's a new year and the Purdue RNA Club is back! Mark your calendars as we will be meeting September 11, October 2, 2026, November 6 and December 4, all 3:30-4:30 in ABE B061.

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Kyle Cottrell @kylecottrell.bsky.social · 24/05/2026

Switch to natives and you get beautiful blooms and pollinators.

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Kyle Cottrell @kylecottrell.bsky.social · 16/05/2026

This week the lab said goodbye to three undergraduate researchers. Estelle was the first person to join the lab. Renee and Madison joined not long after. Each have made important contributions leading to authorships. They are now off to dental, medical and graduate school! We will miss them greatly.

Renee, Madison and Estelle with their carved pumpkins.

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Reposted by Kyle Cottrell

Purdue RNA Club @purduernaclub.bsky.social · 01/05/2026

Today is the day! Our first Purdue RNA Club Symposium. Thanks to support from @rnasociety.bsky.social and #Lexogen.

The symposium program. Posters, lunch, trainee talks and keynote from Craig Pikaard.

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Reposted by Kyle Cottrell

Jacki Heraud-Farlow @jackiheraudfarlow.bsky.social · 06/02/2026

I’m super excited to be opening a lab at WEHI. We’ll be focussing on how double-stranded RNA is regulated in cells, how failures in these pathways drive disease and new therapies to manipulate inflammatory responses to RNA. #newPI #RNAsky

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Kyle Cottrell @kylecottrell.bsky.social · 03/02/2026

I wonder who gets spots in the Purdue summer camp before us plebs gets our chance to register? Must be nice to have a guaranteed spot and not have to block out your morning and stress over getting a good spot in the registration queue.

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Kyle Cottrell @kylecottrell.bsky.social · 28/01/2026

You found that before I did. Thanks for sharing!

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Kyle Cottrell @kylecottrell.bsky.social · 10/01/2026

Completely fair. I also didn't notice that they were a budget analyst and not a scientist/faculty. My comment, which I deleted, was more directed at AAAS leadership. Thanks.

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Kyle Cottrell @kylecottrell.bsky.social · 02/01/2026

Some us, not very many, started at community college and never took the ACT or SAT...

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Kyle Cottrell @kylecottrell.bsky.social · 25/12/2025

Per tradition, the house has been built. Decorations tomorrow!

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Kyle Cottrell @kylecottrell.bsky.social · 17/12/2025

Interesting... My favorite hypothesis is that religion is the 'great filter' but not like this.

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Kyle Cottrell @kylecottrell.bsky.social · 11/12/2025

Done with the last lecture of the year! Looking forward to the next ~9 months of bench work.

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Kyle Cottrell @kylecottrell.bsky.social · 27/11/2025

New addition this year was homemade cranberry sauce. Don't know why I waited this long to do that on.

Thanksgiving dinner, turkey, sweet potatoes, mashed potatoes, stuffing, cranberry sauce, rolls, gravy

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Kyle Cottrell @kylecottrell.bsky.social · 21/11/2025

Same thought here. After a quick skim, it looks like they tried to detect readthrough by mass-spec but didn't find any readthrough peptides. I think ribosome profiling would be a much more robust measure of readthrough.

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Kyle Cottrell @kylecottrell.bsky.social · 17/10/2025

Well, I'm going to find out, eventually.

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Reposted by Kyle Cottrell

Purdue RNA Club @purduernaclub.bsky.social · 06/10/2025

RNA Club returns on Friday with Iman Mevaa from the @kasinskilab.bsky.social presenting a talk titled Targeted Delivery of Tumor-Suppressive miR-34a for Osteosarcoma Treatment. We will meet in ABE B061 at 3:30 on October 10.

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Kyle Cottrell @kylecottrell.bsky.social · 05/10/2025

My first trip out of the Purdue Airport went... well, it didn't. I ended up on the shuttle to ORD anyway. It could be great to fly out of LAF, but there probably needs to be more volume to make it reliable.

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Kyle Cottrell @kylecottrell.bsky.social · 24/09/2025

How are we supposed to advise undergraduates interested in applying to graduate school soon? They are scared that their options will be limited. They don't know if it is better to rush to get in or wait until things maybe get better. They don't have as many options for post-bacc programs. It's rough

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Kyle Cottrell @kylecottrell.bsky.social · 18/09/2025

Here is the post thread describing the work. bsky.app/profile/kyle...

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Kyle Cottrell @kylecottrell.bsky.social · 08/09/2025

Patience was rewarded. Wonderfully set and no soggy bottom.

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Kyle Cottrell @kylecottrell.bsky.social · 07/09/2025

The mini pie in this case is technically a galette - with strawberry jam.

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Kyle Cottrell @kylecottrell.bsky.social · 07/09/2025

What to do while you wait for the apple pie to cool? Eat the mini pie you made with the extra pastry, of course. This hack brought to you by my grandma.

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Kyle Cottrell @kylecottrell.bsky.social · 29/08/2025

The fall bloomers are starting to make an appearance! Skip the mums, plant asters!

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Reposted by Kyle Cottrell

Purdue RNA Club @purduernaclub.bsky.social · 26/08/2025

Welcome to the bsky account for the Purdue RNA Club! Our meeting dates for Fall 2025 are September 12, October 10, November 14, and December 5.

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Kyle Cottrell @kylecottrell.bsky.social · 25/08/2025

Anyone in the West Lafayette area have an explanation for why they closed the right lane of River Road here? It's closed for maybe 200 ft. I think that they did this either to intentionally make traffic worse or to further aggravate the businesses that didn't sell their land.

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Kyle Cottrell @kylecottrell.bsky.social · 18/08/2025

I might need to dial back the jalapeños for the next batch. 🔥🔥

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Kyle Cottrell @kylecottrell.bsky.social · 17/08/2025

Our tomatillos finally started producing!

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Kyle Cottrell @kylecottrell.bsky.social · 14/08/2025

This is my first research article as sole corresponding author and the first research article from the Cottrell lab. I'm very happy that it ended up at RNA. This is my first time publishing in RNA and this was by far my best review experience to date. Huge thanks to editor and reviewers!

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Kyle Cottrell @kylecottrell.bsky.social · 13/08/2025

The other authors on this preprint are both undergraduates in the lab. Estelle Gardner performed the in vitro A-to-I editing assay, and is responsible for getting this assay up and running in the lab. Renee Chua helped with the A-to-I editing analyses. 8/8

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Kyle Cottrell @kylecottrell.bsky.social · 13/08/2025

In the end, our data do not support ZYS-1 as an ADAR1 inhibitor. Our findings are also consistent with those reported in another preprint www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1.... This is the first, first author manuscript preprint from graduate student Cassandra Smoak - who joined the lab this spring 7/n

biorxiv.org

Re: Concerns Regarding the Validation of ZYS-1 as a Bona Fide ADAR1 Inhibitor

Wang et al. in Nature Cancer report ZYS-1 as an ADAR1 inhibitor and present biochemical and cellular evidence to support ZYS-1’s direct interaction with and inhibition of ADAR1, including enzymatic as...

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Kyle Cottrell @kylecottrell.bsky.social · 13/08/2025

Finally, we evaluated A-to-I editing both in cells treated with ZYS-1 or in vitro. We assessed three different A-to-I edit sites in four cell lines. With only one exception, ZYS-1 treatment did not reduce A-to-I editing in cells. We observed the same in vitro with purified ADAR1 and 5-HT2C RNA. 6/n

Analysis of A-to-I editing for a site within BPNT1 in cells treated with ZYS-1 or untreated.

Analysis of A-to-I editing in an in vitro editing assay treated with ZYS-1 or untreated.

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Kyle Cottrell @kylecottrell.bsky.social · 13/08/2025

We next asked if ZYS-1 could phenocopy ADAR1 depletion. Depletion of ADAR1 in ADAR1-dependent cell lines by knockout or knockdown causes activation of PKR and induction of interferon stimulated genes. ZYS-1 treatment generally did neither in the cell lines that we evaluated. 5/n

Immunoblots for P-PKR, PKR, ADAR1 and loading controls in two ADAR1-dependent cell lines with or without ZYS-1 treatment.

qPCR analysis of interferon stimulated gene expression.

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Kyle Cottrell @kylecottrell.bsky.social · 13/08/2025

We found that ZYS-1 killed ADAR1-dependent (those that die upon ADAR1 depletion) and ADAR1-independent cells with very similar EC50s. ZYS-1 also killed ADAR1 knockout cells as well as WT cells. 4/n

Dose response curve for the effect of ZYS-1 on cell viability.

Immunoblot confirming ADAR1 knockout. Dose response curve for the effect of ZYS-1 on cell viability in WT and ADAR1-KO cells.

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Kyle Cottrell @kylecottrell.bsky.social · 13/08/2025

Recently, ZYS-1 was reported to inhibit ADAR1 www.nature.com/articles/s43.... Given our past experience evaluating putative ADAR1 inhibitors, we decided to put ZYS-1 through a series of tests. First, we asked if ZYS-1 is more cytotoxic to ADAR1-dependent vs ADAR1-independent cells. 3/n

nature.com

Targeting ADAR1 with a small molecule for the treatment of prostate cancer - Nature Cancer

Yang and colleagues present a small-molecule inhibitor for ADAR1 and show that its use is therapeutically beneficial in the context of prostate cancer.

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Kyle Cottrell @kylecottrell.bsky.social · 13/08/2025

ADAR1 carries out A-to-I editing of RNA. Its substrate is dsRNA. Previous groups have reported adenosine analogues as a ADAR1 inhibitors, but we have found those not to be selective inhibitors of ADAR1 aacrjournals.org/cancerrescom... 2/n

nature.com

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Kyle Cottrell @kylecottrell.bsky.social · 13/08/2025

Here is the post thread I promised: We have been interested in ADAR1 as a therapeutic target for triple-negative breast cancer for a while. That project was supported by the NIH before Trump terminated it, but that is another story. While ADAR1 is a promising target - there aren't any inhibitors 1/n

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Kyle Cottrell @kylecottrell.bsky.social · 09/08/2025