Ché Pillay
@chepillay.bsky.social
📤 752
📥 1096
📝 43
Redox systems biology. South Africa. Views own.
https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0885-6490
What a wonderful thread about some excellent science.
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1 day ago
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Ché Pillay
Magnus Kjærgaard
12 days ago
Does targeting enzymes and substrates in a condensate lead to rate enhancement? No. Here, we investigate how the condensate environment can inhibit an enzyme reaction. Spoiler: Mass-transport limitations. We find a strong correlation between diffusion and reaction rates.
doi.org/10.64898/202...
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How surprising:
doi.org/10.1016/j.ce...
It started with an observation that people with cancer rarely get Alzheimer's disease. It turns out that tumors secrete cystatin C, which blocks plaque formation
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Redirecting
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cell.2025.12.020
13 days ago
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Philip Ball
15 days ago
I had intended to post something about this new Google DeepMind paper that appeared yesterday in Nature, but the press coverage has added to what there is to say. So this is a long 🧵
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
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Advancing regulatory variant effect prediction with AlphaGenome - Nature
AlphaGenome, a deep learning model that inputs 1-Mb DNA sequence to predict functional genomic tracks at single-base resolution across diverse modalities, outperforms existing models in variant effect...
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-025-10014-0
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www.nature.com/articles/s41...
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Advancing regulatory variant effect prediction with AlphaGenome - Nature
AlphaGenome, a deep learning model that inputs 1-Mb DNA sequence to predict functional genomic tracks at single-base resolution across diverse modalities, outperforms existing models in variant effect...
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-025-10014-0
17 days ago
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Gabriel Abrahams
24 days ago
‘Remote controlled’ proteins illuminate living cells
www.nature.com/articles/d41...
🧪
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‘Remote controlled’ proteins illuminate living cells
The discovery that some fluorescent proteins are sensitive to magnets could lead to the development of switchable drugs and biosensors.
https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-026-00204-9
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Vivek Mutalik
24 days ago
🤯🤯
#microsky
#Phagesky
#synbiosky
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Derek Lowe
24 days ago
Evidence for how a placebo-effect link might work in humans between immune response and positive expectations:
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Bearing Down on a Placebo Effect
https://www.science.org/content/blog-post/bearing-down-placebo-effect
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Ché Pillay
Alessandro Rigolon
about 2 months ago
Really interesting research showing that while ultra-specialization in a single discipline might lead to better results early in one’s career, multi-discipline training and practice pays off big time in the long run. This applies to a range of professions from scientists to athletes and more
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Recent discoveries on the acquisition of the highest levels of human performance
Scientists have long debated the origins of exceptional human achievements. This literature review summarizes recent evidence from multiple domains on the acquisition of world-class performance. We re...
https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.adt7790
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The Journal of Immaterial Science
2 months ago
A paper on the best strategies to deal with malign spirits in a molecular biology setting. PDF:
www.immaterialscience.org/2025/pcr-dem...
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This is fantastic advice for those struggling with qPCR:
www.immaterialscience.org/2025/pcr-dem...
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Occultic Practices in qPCR — The Journal of Immaterial Science
qPCR is a famously capricious and fiddly technique, bedevilled by poor reproducibility. When every other source of variation and contamination has been controlled, the only explanation is that the imp...
https://www.immaterialscience.org/2025/pcr-demons
2 months ago
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Ché Pillay
Carole Cadwalladr
2 months ago
So today I found out that my TED talk ‘This is What a Digital Coup Looks Like’ was TED’s most watched talk of the year. It’s sort of amazing & terrifying. Because this *is* what a digital coup looks like.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=TZOo...
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This Is What a Digital Coup Looks Like | Carole Cadwalladr | TED
YouTube video by TED
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TZOoT8AbkNE&ab_channel=TED
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Alicia Kowaltowski
2 months ago
sfrbm.org/meetings/202...
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SfRBM: 2026 South American Redox Symposium
in conjunction with the Brazilian Biochemistry Society (SBBq) Conference
https://sfrbm.org/meetings/2026-regional-symposium/
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Ché Pillay
Derek Lowe
2 months ago
The connections between sugar and alcohol in the liver:
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Alcohol And Fructose, Tangled (and Untangled?)
https://www.science.org/content/blog-post/alcohol-and-fructose-tangled-and-untangled
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Sigh.
add a skeleton here at some point
3 months ago
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This is a really interesting approach. Should open many other avenues of research.
add a skeleton here at some point
3 months ago
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HittingerLab
4 months ago
We are honored to share that our work, led by
@katarina-aranguiz.bsky.social
and
@linder-surprise.bsky.social
, has been featured as a Science Highlight on the DOE's Office of Science website. 200 articles are selected annually to be highlighted. Check it out! 🧫
www.energy.gov/science/ber/...
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Machine Learning Reveals Genes That Help Yeasts Resist Stress
Study provides a framework for connecting genetic mechanisms and trait variation across diverse yeast species.
https://www.energy.gov/science/ber/articles/machine-learning-reveals-genes-help-yeasts-resist-stress
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Linda Horianopoulos
3 months ago
Very cool new paper on a genetically encoded redox sensor in Cryptococcus neoformans:
pubs.acs.org/doi/full/10....
These kind of approaches can enable so many cool experiments with real time monitoring! Great work,
@ubcmicroimmuno.bsky.social
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Genetically Encoded Sensors for Monitoring Intracellular Redox Health of the Pathogenic Fungus Cryptococcus neoformans
Redox sensing and regulation are critical to both the survival and virulence strategies used by the pathogenic fungus Cryptococcus neoformans to evade host immunity and establish infection. However, the precise genetic and biochemical mechanisms driving these redox regulation systems in the context of fungal virulence are unclear. To address this limitation, we designed genetically encoded redox sensors optimized for expression in C. neoformans and linked these sensors to cryptococcal redox proteins for real-time monitoring of intracellular redox status. Using these sensors, we established several fluorescence-based techniques for monitoring dose-responsive changes in the intracellular oxidation status of C. neoformans under stress. Specifically, we demonstrated sensor responsiveness to nontoxic doses of peroxide stress and during different stages of cell growth, and we verified sensor responsiveness in a mutant with known sensitivity to oxidative stress. This approach provides a framework for developing and deploying biosensors in pathogenic fungi and in basidiomycetes─a group of microorganisms with relatively few sophisticated genetic tools for molecular and synthetic biology. Overall, our sensors enable real-time insights into the key redox mechanisms driving growth and survival of a globally important pathogen and pave the way for tool development in other fungi.
https://pubs.acs.org/doi/full/10.1021/acssensors.5c01883
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Derek Lowe
3 months ago
Catching up on blog posts: a biochemical role for the element tungsten, of all things. Don't look for it in your multivitamins any time soon, though:
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Biochemical Tungsten - Really
https://www.science.org/content/blog-post/biochemical-tungsten-really
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3 months ago
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Monica Valentinelli 🦖
3 months ago
If you use GMail, AI (Gemini) was turned on yesterday by default and now scans all of your content for machine learning. To turn off, go to Settings>General and scroll down. Uncheck the box for "Smart features." There's other "Smart" add-ons as well, but that's the one that reads your content.
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Derek Lowe
3 months ago
Catching up on blog posts! Here’s one on the idea that antidepressants have a common mechanism in promoting new neural connections. More and more work on this is showing up:
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TrkB, BDNF, and Depression
https://www.science.org/content/blog-post/trkb-bdnf-and-depression
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Ché Pillay
News24
3 months ago
How a single line of code exposed an Indian disinformation network targeting South Africa, Australia, and the United Kingdom
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The fake news factory | How a single line of code exposed an Indian disinformation network | News24
Since May, hundreds of fake news stories targeting South Africa, Australia, the United Kingdom, and Canada have appeared on hijacked domains, drawing official debunks and comment from various governme...
https://www.news24.com/southafrica/debunking/the-fake-news-factory-how-a-single-line-of-code-exposed-an-indian-disinformation-network-20251106-1162
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What an excellent read.
add a skeleton here at some point
3 months ago
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Dan Kaszeta FRHistS
4 months ago
OK. Who wants another Captain Dan history thread? (Reprised and rescued from the bad place....) I present you with Chemical Warfare and Chemical Weapons in the Second World War.
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News24
4 months ago
Hospital tender boss Hangwani Maumela splashed R52 million on one of the world’s rarest hypercars just months after whistleblower Babita Deokaran was murdered. The Italian hypercar was part of a R208-million spending spree funded by stolen hospital funds, with these vehicles now tracked by the SIU.
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Hangwani Maumela bought R52m Italian hypercar with Tembisa Hospital cash | News24
Hospital tender boss Hangwani Maumela splashed R52 million on one of the world’s rarest hypercars just months after whistleblower Babita Deokaran was murdered. The Italian hypercar was part of a R208-...
https://www.news24.com/investigations/hangwani-maumela-bought-r52m-italian-hypercar-with-tembisa-hospital-cash-20251026-1012
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The primary culprits in BV are anaerobic bacteria. This interesting pilot study showed how oxygen supplementation can be used to treat BV.
doi.org/10.53260/EGO...
Very clever!
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Vaginal supplementation of high concentration Oxygen for the treatment of vaginal infections: A pilot, controlled trial
Background: Vaginal discomfort (VD) due to infections remains a challenge in clinical practice. Since many microbial agents grow in anaerobic…
https://doi.org/10.53260/EGO.257016
4 months ago
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Ché Pillay
Jack Iwashyna
4 months ago
Reviewing this classic article
@bmj.com
Parachute use to prevent death and major trauma when jumping from aircraft: randomized controlled trial
doi.org/10.1136/bmj....
I still teach it all the time
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Parachute use to prevent death and major trauma when jumping from aircraft: randomized controlled trial
In this article by Robert Yeh and colleagues ( BMJ 2018;363:k5094, doi:10.1136/bmj.k5094), the final sentence of the Methods section should …
https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj.k5343
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What a charming paper. It will be interesting to find out how this work and others (e.g.
www.nature.com/articles/nco...
), leads to a better understanding of light and metabolism.
add a skeleton here at some point
4 months ago
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Ché Pillay
Derek Lowe
4 months ago
Never assume that you know all about what any drug molecule is doing in the body - where it's going, what it's binding to. A new example:
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Rapamycin's Secrets
https://www.science.org/content/blog-post/rapamycin-s-secrets
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The personal stories of the 3 Nobel Prize winners in Chemistry are so inspiring. Well worth a read:
www.nobelprize.org/prizes/chemi...
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Nobel Prize in Chemistry 2025
The Nobel Prize in Chemistry 2025 was awarded to Susumu Kitagawa, Richard Robson and Omar M. Yaghi “for the development of metal-organic frameworks.”
https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/chemistry/2025/popular-information/
4 months ago
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Derek Lowe
5 months ago
Some kinds of biological stress can make cells live longer - such as nutrient starvation. One such mechanism:
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Cellular Longevity Through Stress
https://www.science.org/content/blog-post/cellular-longevity-through-stress
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How awesome that our world produces such brilliant people:
www.quantamagazine.org/at-17-hannah...
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At 17, Hannah Cairo Solved a Major Math Mystery | Quanta Magazine
After finding the homeschooling life confining, the teen petitioned her way into a graduate class at Berkeley, where she ended up disproving a 40-year-old conjecture.
https://www.quantamagazine.org/at-17-hannah-cairo-solved-a-major-math-mystery-20250801/
5 months ago
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I have been invited to give a seminar on our recent work by the South African Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology. Details below: Title: “A role for dynamics in the oxidative stress response” 18 September 2025 at 15:00 (SAST) Zoom link:
zoom.us/j/4620290536
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Join our Cloud HD Video Meeting
Zoom is the leader in modern enterprise cloud communications.
https://zoom.us/j/4620290536
5 months ago
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Ché Pillay
Nature
5 months ago
How is this possible? This ant can lay eggs of two different species, birthed by the same mother
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Derek Lowe
5 months ago
A condensate-dissolving compound shows some connections to neurodegenerative disease:
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A Condensate Dissolver
https://www.science.org/content/blog-post/condensate-dissolver
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youtu.be/CxVXvFOPIyQ?...
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Exposing the Monsanto Conspiracy
YouTube video by Veritasium
https://youtu.be/CxVXvFOPIyQ?si=hyY-pIzgqJBs_exN
6 months ago
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Ché Pillay
eLife
6 months ago
How do cells clean up misfolded proteins when they divide? This study finds that the cleanup crew includes the ER chaperone BiP and the proteasome, and kicks in right as cells finish dividing. Surprisingly, one major cell cycle regulator isn’t involved.
buff.ly/KkxgQCy
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This was so surprising to me:
doi.org/10.1242/dmm....
. I didn't know about the actin/MICAL/MsrB redox cycle in deafness. Wow.
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MSRB3 antioxidant activity is necessary for inner ear cuticular plate structure and hair bundle integrity
Summary: Our study suggests a protective role for MSRB3 in the maintenance and maturation of mouse stereocilia and hair cells, a conserved mechanism aimed at maintaining actin redox dynamics in these ...
https://doi.org/10.1242/dmm.052194
6 months ago
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Ché Pillay
Derek Lowe
6 months ago
A very interesting (and very thorough) case for Alzheimer’s as (of all things) a disease of lithium deficiency. This one’s worth taking seriously, I believe:
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Lithium Deficiency and Alzheimer's Disease
https://www.science.org/content/blog-post/lithium-deficiency-and-alzheimer-s-disease
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Ché Pillay
Nature
7 months ago
This surprisingly relaxing footage is from SIX MILES under the ocean – and it’s the deepest ecosystem yet discovered
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Derek Lowe
7 months ago
Here’s a small-molecule drug idea that you probably never saw coming:
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SSRIs As Cancer Therapy
https://www.science.org/content/blog-post/ssris-cancer-therapy
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Ché Pillay
Paul Macklin
7 months ago
Really excited to share our new
@cellpress.bsky.social
Cell paper with
@fertiglab.bsky.social
and colleagues. 1/n
www.cell.com/cell/fulltex...
@jktgfoundation.bsky.social
@itcrtraining.bsky.social
@smbmathbiology.bsky.social
#mathbio
#mathonco
@mathonco.bsky.social
@deniswirtz.bsky.social
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Human interpretable grammar encodes multicellular systems biology models to democratize virtual cell laboratories
We developed a plain text modeling language—a cell behavior hypothesis grammar—to easily build virtual cell models and connect them to data, helping scientists to unlock the hidden dynamics of tissues...
https://www.cell.com/cell/fulltext/S0092-8674(25)00750-0
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Ché Pillay
Derek Lowe
7 months ago
We might have been looking at atherosclerosis the wrong way all these years. Is the cause a bacterial metabolite?
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A New Cause of Atherosclerosis
https://www.science.org/content/blog-post/new-cause-of-atherosclerosis
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Ché Pillay
Michalis Nikolaidis
about 1 year ago
Free radicals and antioxidants: appealing to magic Our short paper argues that molecules cannot be classified as good or evil. Limited evidence supporting the consumption of antioxidants or superfoods and such interventions risk disrupting fundamental redox processes.
www.cell.com/trends/endoc...
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Free radicals and antioxidants: appealing to magic
In biology, there are no good or evil molecules. There is limited or no evidence to support the consumption of antioxidants or (super)foods rich in antioxidants, for the intended purpose of an antioxi...
https://www.cell.com/trends/endocrinology-metabolism/abstract/S1043-2760(23)00112-1
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Ché Pillay
Michalis Nikolaidis
7 months ago
A fresh perspective on hydrogen peroxide metabolism during exercise. In vivo (normoxic), muscle contractions typically cause only minimal increases in H₂O₂ (<10%), whereas in vitro (hyperoxic) assays often show far greater increases (~150–340%).
sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
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State of the art in vivo reactive oxygen species measurements in skeletal muscle using fluorescent proteins
Evaluation of the effects of muscle contractions on reactive oxygen species (ROS) concentrations and their intracellular and intraorganelle dynamics i…
https://sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2773176625000100?ref=cra_js_challenge&fr=RR-1
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Yikes
add a skeleton here at some point
7 months ago
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Ché Pillay
Helena Cocheme
8 months ago
🎉Excited to share our latest paper, published in Nature Communications!🎉 "Enhancing autophagy by redox regulation extends lifespan in Drosophila"
#redox
#metabolism
#ageing
#Drosophila
@natcomms.nature.com
@mrc-lms.bsky.social
doi.org/10.1038/s414...
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Enhancing autophagy by redox regulation extends lifespan in Drosophila - Nature Communications
Redox signalling is emerging as an important regulator of metabolism and physiology, which is dysregulated in ageing and disease. Here, the authors show that redox regulation of a key redox sensitive ...
https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-025-60603-w
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Happy to share our review paper, "Emerging Trends for the Regulation of Thiol-Based RedoxTranscription Factor Pathways"
doi.org/10.1021/acs....
It was fun learning about the really cool science being undertaken by some excellent labs. Thanks, ACS Biochemistry, for the invite.
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Emerging Trends for the Regulation of Thiol-Based Redox Transcription Factor Pathways
Thiol-based redox transcription factor pathways play central roles in the cellular response to peroxide stress. We review the bacterial OxyR, yeast AP-1 and mammalian NRF2/Keap1 systems and the princi...
https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.biochem.5c00268
8 months ago
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Ché Pillay
Richard Sever
9 months ago
"a fascinating case study on the limits of AI in biology and the harms of current publishing incentives"
rachel.fast.ai/posts/2025-0...
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Rachel Thomas, PhD - Deep learning gets the glory, deep fact checking gets ignored
an AI researcher going back to school for immunology
https://rachel.fast.ai/posts/2025-06-04-enzyme-ml-fails/
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