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Joseph Luna

@virologistjoe.bsky.social
1.9K followers 1K following 156 posts

Assistant Professor of Biochemistry | Case Western Reserve University | Viruses, RBPs, innate immunity and RNA tech | Views my own | 🇺🇸🇲🇽 | Lab website: lunalab.org

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Reposted by Joseph Luna
Christopher Thomas @ovarylab.bsky.social · 31/08/2026
Excited to share this fantastic collaboration with the teams of @mhverlhac.bsky.social and @bokelab.bsky.social, where we identify and characterise the Zollo body — a transient RNP compartment that drives oocyte and follicle growth! 🥚🔬 www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...
Microscopy image of a growing oocyte enclosed within an ovarian follicle. Mitochondria are labelled in magenta, revealing the Zollo body as a distinct region next to the oocyte nucleus. Myosin II is shown in cyan, highlighting the surrounding cell structure.
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Matthew Taliaferro @jmtali.bsky.social · 12/08/2026
Excited to share our newest work! We asked whether RNA molecules need to be in a specific place in the cell to do their job. We found that a single RNA must reach the midbody, the structure that pinches two dividing cells apart, for cell division to finish efficiently. 🧵⬇️
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The Rockefeller University @rockefeller.edu · 28/07/2026
This #WorldHepatitisDay, we recognize the power of scientific discovery to change lives. Rockefeller's Charles Rice was awarded the 2020 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for discoveries that led to the identification and control of the hepatitis C virus.
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David McQuarrie @davidmcquarrie.bsky.social · 22/07/2026
Molecular glue degraders of HuR suppress BRAF-mutant colorectal cancer www.nature.com/articles/s41...
nature.com
Molecular glue degraders of HuR suppress BRAF-mutant colorectal cancer - Nature
Molecular glue degraders of the RNA-binding protein HuR have therapeutic potential for BRAF-mutant cancers.
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Sherrod Brown @sherrodbrownoh.bsky.social · 17/07/2026
CEOs get paid 300x more than their average employee, yet Jon Husted blames Ohioans for struggling and says their “work ethic is broken.” I don’t see a broken work ethic, I see a broken system, and I’m in this fight to make it work for you.
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Matthew Taliaferro @jmtali.bsky.social · 11/06/2026
New paper! How do RNAs "know" where to go inside a cell? We dug into the sequence elements that route RNAs to the right place. It turns out that, in mammals, they're surprisingly massive (>200 nt), multipartite, and wonderfully complicated. 🧵
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Christine Mayr @christinemayr.bsky.social · 08/06/2026
Finally out in @Cellcellpress! Proteins with long IDRs are prone to misfolding during protein synthesis. This is prevented by mRNA 3′UTRs that act as mRNA-based IDR chaperones. www.cell.com/cell/fulltex...
cell.com
mRNA 3′ UTRs chaperone intrinsically disordered regions to control protein activity
Highly conserved mRNA 3′ UTRs act as co-translational chaperones for intrinsically disordered regions (IDRs), preventing inter-domain misfolding and enabling biogenesis of fully active proteins.
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TK (Takashi DY) Kozai @bioniclab.bsky.social · 01/06/2026
OMB just published 412 pages in the Federal Register (Docket OMB-2026-0034) giving political appointees authority to terminate any NIH grant, override peer review scores, and block you from publishing with federal funds. Comment period closes ~July 13. Thread 🧵
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Chenxin Li, PhD @chenxinli2.bsky.social · 20/05/2026
Writing a manuscript is like making a documentary. Instead of a film, it’s in writing and figures. Writing a proposal is like writing evidence based science fiction.
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Marvin Tanenbaum @marvintanenbaum.bsky.social · 13/05/2026
For 40 years the 8-nt ‘Kozak Sequence’ was thought to mark sites of translation initiation. In a new study, we revise this model by identifying an ~80-nt sequence—the extended Translation Initiation Sequence (eTIS)— that guides ribosomes to correct start sites. 🧵 www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...
biorxiv.org
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Harmit Singh Malik @harmitmalik.bsky.social · 13/05/2026
Someday, When the madness is done, And there is a true accounting, Of the lives that were saved, And those that were lost, I know we will find the name of Ralph Baric On the right side of the ledger. I, for one, am grateful.
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Joseph Luna @virologistjoe.bsky.social · 07/05/2026
Hey @nature.com are you cool with this? It would be great if you got your parent company to use their windfall publishing profits to, I don’t know, sue OpenAI perhaps?
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Dimitry Tegunov @dtegunov.bsky.social · 03/05/2026
What if you're not interested in ribosomes? First, HOW DARE YOU. Second, MissAlignment's got you covered. We took a tiny subset of EMPIAR-11830 containing parts of the nucleus and looked for nucleosomes. Here, further reference-based alignment with M made no difference.
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Jason Shepherd @jasonsynaptic.bsky.social · 10/04/2026
It’s brutal in academia right now. A lot is out of our control, but it doesn’t cost anything to remember that there are humans behind papers and grants…reviewers, program officials and funders can be more empathetic in the face of unprecedented chaos in the US scientific enterprise.
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Joseph Luna @virologistjoe.bsky.social · 09/04/2026
Wonderful essay. Also inspiring to read a science primer that isn’t as dry as a typical review.
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Katharine Hayhoe @katharinehayhoe.com · 08/04/2026
"Hope has two beautiful daughters; their names are Anger and Courage. Anger at the way things are, and Courage to see that they do not remain as they are." One of my favourite quotes, attributed to St Augustine and embodied by @drkatemarine.bsky.social today.
grist.org
Why this NASA climate scientist wants you to stay angry
“I don’t think we rebuild science without getting mad.”
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Furqan Fazal @furqanmfazal.bsky.social · 02/04/2026
Excited to share our @natprot.nature.com paper on using RNA proximity labeling to map subcellular RNA transcriptomes. We’ve been working in this area for a while and wanted to create a resource paper to guide the uninitiated reader. rdcu.be/fblvI
rdcu.be
APEX-seq maps transcriptome-wide subcellular RNA localization in living cells
Nature Protocols - This Protocol describes the transcriptome-wide labeling of RNAs in a particular subcellular compartment using proximity biotinylation by localized APEX2 enzyme and subsequent...
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Joseph Luna @virologistjoe.bsky.social · 02/04/2026
Excited this is out. Congrats on the paper Rory!
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Ed Hutchinson @socialinfluenza.bsky.social · 02/04/2026
Are you excited by virology? Would you like to do a PhD? Three fantastic opportunities are available to do joint PhDs between @cvrinfo.bsky.social and @pirbrightinst.bsky.social Details in the thread below - please share! Deadline 8th May 2026, fully funded for UK Home students (1/4)
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Mandy Muller @mandymuller.bsky.social · 25/03/2026
🚨 Postdoc position open - please repost! Join our lab in Lausanne🇨🇭to study KSHV, virus–host interactions & RNA decay + great quality of life right by Lake Leman and the Alps ⛰️ Apply here 👉 sites.google.com/view/muller-...
sites.google.com
Muller Lab
Welcome to the Muller Lab website - here are our latest news:
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Joseph Luna @virologistjoe.bsky.social · 25/03/2026
Today we tried our first "cold read" journal club on this preprint. Cold read in the sense that no one read it beforehand; we read and discussed it together, live, for an hour, on the big screen. What a journey! 1/
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Alice Ting @aliceyting.bsky.social · 18/03/2026
Today we report single-cell APEX-seq (scAPEX-seq)—a method for unbiased mapping of subcellular transcriptomes at single-cell resolution. It reveals cell states invisible to standard scRNA-seq and identifies regulators of CAR T function that improve solid tumor killing. tinyurl.com/32pf6b8p
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Joseph Luna @virologistjoe.bsky.social · 18/03/2026
One of my favorite meetings in one of my favorite cities. #HCV-Flavi2026
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Sherrod Brown @sherrodbrownoh.bsky.social · 15/03/2026
Ohioans are in crisis – gas prices are soaring, utility bills are at an all-time high, health care is becoming a luxury, and our grocery bills continue to climb. But Jon Husted says affordability is a “buzzword.”
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Joseph Luna @virologistjoe.bsky.social · 14/03/2026
RNA really can do it all!
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MwahahahahahadScientist @mads100tist.bsky.social · 11/03/2026
For the night is dark and full of RNAses
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Joseph Luna @virologistjoe.bsky.social · 11/03/2026
This is insanely cool and provokes so many questions. Congrats on an incredible story!
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Joseph Luna @virologistjoe.bsky.social · 24/02/2026
Excellent synthesis. I love how the bake good quadrant, while depicted here as a triangle, occupies a satisfying quarter of possible breakfast space. IIRC this insight settled key questions during the Morning Meal Mapping expeditions of the 20th century. Still much to explore!
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Faraz Mardakheh @mardakheh.bsky.social · 21/02/2026
🎉Proud to present our latest paper, out now in Nature Communications: www.nature.com/articles/s41... RNA Binding Proteins (RBPs) are often full of intrinsically disordered regions (IDRs), but what these regions do during RNA recognition is often unclear. 1/10 #RNA #IDR #RBP
nature.com
An intrinsically disordered region mediates RNA-binding selectivity and cellular activities of LARP6 - Nature Communications
LARP6 is an EMT-associated RNA-binding protein with diverse RNA targets. Here, the authors show that the N-terminal disordered region of LARP6 promotes RNA-binding selectivity by modulating the adjace...
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Joe Grove @grovearmada.bsky.social · 18/02/2026
It is almost five years since I first applied AlphaFold to a handful of viral proteins. Today, hundreds of thousands of predictions and many discoveries later, we are delighted to announce the integration of our Viro3D dataset into the @ebi.embl.org and Google DeepMind AlphaFold Database.
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Joseph Luna @virologistjoe.bsky.social · 13/02/2026
This is such a fun thread on a conceptual head twister of a paper. Bold hypothesis and clever selection scheme. Kudos to the authors!
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Joseph Luna @virologistjoe.bsky.social · 12/02/2026
I am languid and bedeviled and hate writing and hate everybody is a mic drop of a sentence
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Harmit Singh Malik @harmitmalik.bsky.social · 03/02/2026
I started offering career advice to two junior colleagues today in separate meetings, and both times I caught myself thinking that, if I'm honest, I don't have very good advice on navigating the current funding and job climate. I think it's important to say that no one does.
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Kevin Bonham @kevinbonham.com · 17/01/2026
Been hearing some horrifying chatter about dealing with the new #NIH common form and #ScienCV system, so I put together a short video with some tricks for mitigating some of those pain points. Hope it helps? 🧪 open.substack.com/pub/emptymod...
open.substack.com
Dealing with ScienCV formatting
Some tips for composing and making your new NIH biosketch not look like garbage
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Joseph Luna @virologistjoe.bsky.social · 06/11/2025
Finally finished this gorgeously written tome on mostly North American geology. What does one read next if they want to become a hobbyist rock person? Like birding but for rocks? I’m 100% serious
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Joseph Luna @virologistjoe.bsky.social · 30/10/2025
There are great in vivo and in vitro translation reporters, but here we invent the first “in morte” system 🎃
A carved pumpkin with a ribosome in the shape of a skull translating RNA made of pumpkin innards
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Joseph Luna @virologistjoe.bsky.social · 28/10/2025
A milestone worth celebrating: this past weekend I co-organized the 31st Rustbelt RNA Meeting (RRM) with @schafferlab.bsky.social. 324 scientists, 180 posters, and 23 talks spanning undergrads to faculty from across the Midwest and beyond. What an incredible community!
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Mark Histed @markhisted.org · 23/10/2025
The NIH institute director firing last Friday is very bad. I made a video explainer about why. Stay for last post, w link to @science.org story from @jocelynkaiser.bsky.social 1/4 🧪
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Angie Rasmussen @angierasmussen.bsky.social · 11/10/2025
I don’t know who needs to hear this but the CDC is being eviscerated right now. America is not going to have any kind of outbreak response capacity after tonight. Americans’ health data is no longer secure. Say goodbye to federal public health in any capacity. It’s a disaster. We won’t recover.
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Joseph Luna @virologistjoe.bsky.social · 05/10/2025
“I found my footing surrounded by people who took for granted that of course I would succeed.” My advisors had similar faith in me, and though I felt it a tad misplaced, I see such talent and dedication in my students, that now I get it. They’ll succeed, and I’m stoked I get to help them get there!
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Joseph Luna @virologistjoe.bsky.social · 30/09/2025
I made a sign for the lab with our informal lab motto, inspired by this convo between @itaiyanai.bsky.social and Martin Lercher: nightscience.buzzsprout.com/1744020/epis.... A good reminder that talking is among the best forms of thinking!
A plastic sign with a logogram of two people in conversation alongisde text that reads "There are no lone geniuses" Our new "There are no lone geniuses" sign mounted on the door to the lab.
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William Garland @willgarland.bsky.social · 17/09/2025
How do cells sort which RNAs to keep or destroy? New preprint from THJ, Brenneke and Plaschka labs shows that export and decay machineries (TREX2/PAXT) both recognise UAP56-bound RNAs. Whether they’re exported or degraded depends on where in the nucleus this happens. www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
biorxiv.org
Molecular basis of polyadenylated RNA fate determination in the nucleus
Eukaryotic genomes generate a plethora of polyadenylated (pA+) RNAs, that are packaged into ribonucleoprotein particles (RNPs). To ensure faithful gene expression, functional pA+ RNPs, including prote...
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Philip Ball @philipcball.bsky.social · 05/09/2025
Regulation by RNAs might be even more extensive than we thought. Many enzymes and other proteins not previously considered as RNA-binding proteins do seem to fall into this class & might have their activity regulated by RNA. www.cell.com/cell/fulltex...
cell.com
Rethinking RNA-binding proteins: Riboregulation challenges prevailing views
The advent of system-wide proteomic approaches has largely expanded the number of RNA-binding proteins (RBPs). This review discusses how recent discoveries are transforming our understanding of biolog...
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Joseph Luna @virologistjoe.bsky.social · 20/08/2025
What a towering loss! Jim was as kind as he was brilliant and he was very, very brilliant.
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Harmit Singh Malik @harmitmalik.bsky.social · 06/08/2025
To have this paper appear the same day that RFK Jr is canceling all mRNA vaccine funding is further indication that irony is not dead, even though we might all be soon.
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Kristian G. Andersen @kgandersen.bsky.social · 06/08/2025
"We reviewed the science, listened to the experts, and acted..." Words really don't mean anything anymore, do they? The incompetence is staggering, the political motives, clear as day. www.hhs.gov/press-room/h...
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Joseph Luna @virologistjoe.bsky.social · 01/08/2025
I’m lucky to celebrate this RNA day by completing the West Highland Way. 96 miles in 8 days, and a ton of memories. Time for a pint!
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skelly @iid.bsky.social · 20/07/2025
do you ever stare at the ceiling and think about how the worldwide scientific establishment did the impossible and created a COVID vaccine in under a year and the response of the general public has been to go on an unstoppable rampage to destroy science and scientists
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Tiffany Lowe-Power stands with Minnesota @tlowepower.bsky.social · 26/06/2025
Advice distilled from an NSF PO: Apply for NSF funding this year. Because NSF's current policy is to forward-fund active projects (e.g. pay down their mortgage on the future years of funding), there are plausible budget scenarios where NSF has a LARGE budge to spend next fiscal year (on your grant)
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Joseph Luna @virologistjoe.bsky.social · 26/06/2025
Just finished reading Eco's "How to Write a Thesis" before adding it to the lab library. "First, writing a thesis should be fun. Second, writing a thesis is like cooking a pig: nothing goes to waste." So many gems of advice, clever sourcing ideas, and encouragement, even for modern scientists.
A picture of a book by Umberto Eco entitled "How to Write a Thesis"
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