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Patryk Poliński

@ppolinski.bsky.social

76 followers 80 following 19 posts

Postdoc at @EMBLBarcelona. Working on unusual forms of splicing.

Posts Replies Media

Patryk Poliński @ppolinski.bsky.social · 09/12/2025

Community drives great science! Proud to help launch our postdoc meetings in Barcelona (w/ Dorota Zawada) & co-organize the International Postdoc Retreat 2026 (w/ @mariiabeliaeva.bsky.social & Federico Agustín Vignale). Here’s to more connections in 2026! #EMBL #ScienceTogether #EMBLBarcelona

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Patryk Poliński @ppolinski.bsky.social · 20/11/2025

Great session by Sara Monaco introducing ReviewCommons at the EMBL international postdoc retreat! Insightful discussion on how transparent peer review can accelerate and improve publishing #OpenScience @embl.org @saramonaco-rc.bsky.social @embo.org

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Patryk Poliński @ppolinski.bsky.social · 21/10/2025

Good morning at @embl.org Barcelona

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Patryk Poliński @ppolinski.bsky.social · 10/06/2025

Expansion of: nature.com/articles/s41...

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Patryk Poliński @ppolinski.bsky.social · 09/05/2025

The last step was to perform rescue experiments. Excitingly, treatment with a ROCK inhibitor partially rescued observed phenotypes, including learning deficits!

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Patryk Poliński @ppolinski.bsky.social · 09/05/2025

Next, we investigated in detail the molecular mechanism of the observed phenotypes. One of the leads guided us to increased RHOA/ROCK signaling in KO neurons! RhoA is a direct interactor of Daam1, whose activity is commonly associated with the number of “learning spines”.

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Patryk Poliński @ppolinski.bsky.social · 09/05/2025

With help from @maradierssen.bsky.social, we found that DAAM1-MIC KO reduced long-term potentiation (LTP) in hippocampal neurons. Moreover, dendritic spine analysis by @eloisaherrera.bsky.social revealed defects mainly in postsynaptic regions and a significant decrease in thin "learning spines."

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Patryk Poliński @ppolinski.bsky.social · 09/05/2025

Yet, the most exciting part began when we generated genetically engineered DAAM1-MIC KO mice! We performed multiple assays to evaluate animal behavior. Strikingly, they showed clear learning impairments after microexon removal. What are the cellular and molecular bases for this?

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Patryk Poliński @ppolinski.bsky.social · 09/05/2025

But, does it affect neuronal function? We KO the microexon in mESCs using CRISPR/Cas9, differentiated them into neurons in vitro, and examined changes in synaptic functioning. Microexon removal increased Ca2+ flux, suggesting enhanced neuronal firing. @gercrcat.bsky.social @vhir.bsky.social

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Patryk Poliński @ppolinski.bsky.social · 09/05/2025

Microscopy-based 🔬 biochemical assays showed that microexon inclusion significantly affects actin polymerization, both quantitatively and qualitatively, likely due to differential actin binding.

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Patryk Poliński @ppolinski.bsky.social · 09/05/2025

I focused on formin proteins, the most versatile actin regulators. Bioinformatic analysis identified a neural-specific and evolutionarily conserved microexon in DAAM1 (DAAM1-MIC) that modifies its core enzymatic unit without major structural changes.

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