DMartin

Check Alt Text for the description of the cover art

Screenshot from the JNeursci Webpage showing the cover art. This artwork portrays a fictional person with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS). Framing their face is a network of neurons that highlights two motor neurons. One neuron extending from the mouth down to the hands symbolizes two of the major motor functions affected by ALS: bulbar and spinal. The second neuron forms from a single tear that represents the fear those with the disease endure. As this neuron extends to the hands, the connection is severed, symbolizing both the disconnect between the brain and muscles caused by neuron death and the determination of those affected not to be defined by their disease. The bound hands emphasize the physical constraints imposed by ALS while the distance between the hands conveys perseverance. Among the wildflowers shown is the blue cornflower, an emblematic symbol of ALS representing hope and resilience. See the review article by Cailyn Perry and Dale Martin for information on mechanistic links between ALS and Huntington's disease. Cover image: Cailyn Perry.

Thrilled to share our recent review in @sfnjournals.bsky.social ALS and Huntington Disease: Unraveling the Connections between TDP-43 and Huntingtin. Here we discuss links between HD & ALS. Review & cover art come from the multitalented MSc student @cailyncreative.bsky.social
tinyurl.com/57y6hjrd

For me, accepting that I am more than my position or career helped a lot.

I feel this so much. But I seemed to have found a happy place. I've stopped being angry. I accept what I can do. I try to change what I can. And I don't stress about what I can't change. Still get incredibly frustrated, but much happier once I stopped caring as much.

Professor Marina Meila in front of a blackboard while holding a tablet

CS Prof Marina Meila has been named a Canada CIFAR AI Chair, recognizing her expertise in advancing the theoretical foundations of interpretable & explainable machine learning.

In this Q&A, she talks about her research journey, current projects and future directions: cs.uwaterloo.ca/news/marina-...

I sometimes worry that too many people think being a good critic means being a self-righteous dick about every little thing and I think far too many miss the point that you can't critique anything if you don't know how to love something.

I generally do that too. Moreso for larger text changes, so the response isn't too overwhelming.

Oh. Fair. We include line numbers whenever we can't include a tracked version. Gotta make it as easy as possible.

I always thought this was journal dependent? I'm with you though. I always prefer to see a clean version plus one with track changes or text changes highlighted in some way. Also prefer to submit revisions that way.

Feel like this is the reason I save almost nothing unless it's teaching related. Then I go back to those folders before classes and see if they're still worth adding.

And emails....I save all the emails until I die.

Saw a teaser that they're making a new season/movie.

Make the CEO of Adobe try to cancel their Creative Cloud subscription on Instagram Live.

This is so beautiful

Ugh. That's terrible. Sorry

A part me understands the Impact Chairs & supports it to some degree. But only if the government was ready to invest in total research. Otherwise it's just going to be the thing that breaks all of us.

Yeah. What I've paid is pittance compared to what others have paid. But I guess that's the thing, you just keep spending more thinking it's just for a bit....

I'll take some blame. I'm obviously not getting things across the right way. But we have more models than anyone working on this disease. We have clinicians, patients, & knowledge users. At some point, this has to count for something.

I know I'm not the only one who has to use personal funds to make their research go a little bit further. But that's the reality of Research in Canada.

I want to reiterate, this is all from startup funds & little internal grants & CIHR fellowships. We've done so much with so little. I even pay my own way to most conferences so that my trainees can attend. I buy a lot of lab reagents myself. I 3D print supplies. Again, this is research in Canada!

I don't see how we can do anything else with no funding. The people in my lab have done amazing work with no new funds. So, although this work will likely die after this submission I know we did good work. I'll share it with ppl who can move it forward, likely in the US. This is research in Canada.

Sadly, reviewers don't like our over expression model & don't think it negates our efforts to move into better models including knockin cells, patient stem cells, a mouse model, & primary neurons from the mouse.

Ultimately, we found a totally new pathway for pathogenicity in our disease models. We also found a new drug that is already showing potential!

With our knowledge users, patient network, & multiple clinicians we think we can move this into patients if we can map the pathway!

Based on another new pathway we identified we designed & completed a drug screen of FDA approved drugs. Amazingly, our top drug is already being repurposed in a similar disease & is in clinical trials. So, if funded, we can test this in our mouse models & potentially get it into patients faster!

We want to map this effect/pathway in the mouse model & patient derived stem cells provided by the knowledge user & our knockin cell model provided by a clinician & collaborator. We've already made the motor neurons from stem cells & regularly make primary neurons from mice.

We think we found a marker of disease. We first found the effect in cells over expressing our protein of interest (POI).

But we've shown it is conserved in
1) fly model
2) Patient lymphocytes
3) Trending in the mouse model

But reviewers argue that over expression isn't relevant

First, for 7 years we've worked with a knowledge user that connects us with patients & researchers. They're excited about our work & they support us.

So my CIHR is submitted & I highly doubt that it will be funded...I think we'll be lucky if it's discussed. But let me tell you why I'm still excited about it & proud of it.

Everyone should start their day this way, so I thought you could all live a bit vicariously through me.

Coffee, cuddles, & thesis reading.

The rest of the day will probably be downhill from here....

Loss of interruption in the HTT CAG repeat is associated with increased somatic expansion and loss of medium spiny neurons in HD https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.03.02.709181v1