Join us tomorrow online at the Canadian Collaborative conference on Myalgic Encephalomyelitis (ME)! I will be talking a bit about Cognitive Dysfunction in ME and the lessons we have been learning from Long Covid research. Free registration here: icancme.ca/research/202... #ME #LongCovid

Brain microscopy with annotations for better understanding ☺️! What if we take a deep dive into the cerebral sulcus? The grey matter has the neurons' cell bodies🔵, and while microglia🟣are more evenly distributed, astrocytes🟡 shape changes in the white matter. #Neuroscience #Microscopy 🧠🔬

From the series of philosophical questions I ask myself every day:

More and more Neuroscience shows that building muscle makes your brain more resilient to adversity by improving its ability to handle stress. I decided to experiment on myself. 3 months of strength training 3-4 per week. Daily 2g of protein/kg and 10g of creatine. Never felt better 💪

I love how the laws of nature don’t care about ideology or politics: gravity, cancer biology and virology behave the same no matter who’s in office. Cutting investment in this type of discovery will only slow down scientific progress and relocate it, but will not stop it. #vaccineswork

When science and medicine work together to improve people's lives the results are so impressive 🤩! This is a deep-brain stimulation surgery to implant electrodes in specific areas of the brain that control movement, in this case, allowing a #Parkinson's patient to keep playing 🎼

Testing some new antibodies to identify oligodendrocytes 🟣, for me, the most difficult one to target in brain microscopy! Here I was able to identify its nuclei (oligo2 marker), not the whole cell body like neurons 🟡or microglia 🔵. Still, you can see oligos are everywhere! #Neuroscience #Microscopy

A single millennial with no kids is spending her money. Please take a look at my Kang and Kodos Halloween-approved new pair 👽😁

*The uninvited guest* (sound on this time!) Third week of observing scary things under the microscope: watching #SARSCoV2🟣 positive cells arrive in the brain. Note it's still inside a blood vessel and being checked by astrocytes🟢and microglia🔵. What happens next? 😨 #FluorescenceFriday

" Here we present a large-scale longitudinal analysis of health records from more than 100 million individuals in the U.S that demonstrates a consistent relationship of VZV reactivation with dementia after controlling for nearly 400 measured characteristics." #Neurovirology #Alzheimer

Are you one of the 20.000 people who've registered for #SfN25, one of the world's largest science meetings? To make a statement about the importance of #NeuroCovid, my poster will be presented by the President of SfN😱, as I will be in Rome giving a talk on the same topic!

In a parallel universe, the iron throne belongs to the crazy cat lady. She is clearly tired and needs a break. She was married to Palpatine, but they have since separated and she kept the Praetorian Guard during the divorce. Kylo Ren is their only child. Night King plots revenge.

Viral trigger in Alzheimer’s disease is the real scary spooky #FluorescenceFriday. Amyloid-β🟣 is an antimicrobial peptide that can be produced to trap pathogens in the brain. But it also induces an extensive neuroinflammatory response, as shown here with 🟠astrocytes. #NeuroCovid

"Nothing About Us Without Us". I've been thinking about the title of this meeting and asking myself, why don't we hold more scientific meetings like this? The public brings the questions for the scientists, and we show them what we are doing to address it. #ME #MECFS #AcademicSky

Join us at the Canadian Collaborative Conference on #ME, 100% free and online! Register here: icancme.ca/research/202... #MyalgicEncephalomyelitis #MECFS #LongCovid

'Living his best life' 😎😁 #NobelPrize

More than $500 million in federal grants for UCLA research were frozen in July, and partially restored a few days ago (legal proceedings are ongoing). For research that saves lives and wins prizes. American hegemony in the Nobel Prizes is going to drastically change soon.

👻 "Dark Forest Within" 🧠 What if the brain is a creepy forest? Our neurons are the 🌲, old (as old as we are!), and without mobility. Suddenly, comes the microglia, our brain's immune cells. Everything lights up when they move around. 🟢microglia🟣neurons #FluorescenceFriday 🎃

Be aware of the spooky #FluorescenceFriday season, folks. 👻🧟‍♀️🔬🧠

My reality, and for so many other scientists as well. Guess we can just use this as a template 🙄. #LongCovid #NeuroCovid

Behind the scenes: researching Long COVID and menstruation #LongCovid #Periods #COVID19 #menstruation communities.springernature.com/posts/behind...

Asked Google Gemini a version of me and my cat fighting the apocalypse and this is the glow up we deserve. #Caturday

A diminished or lost sense of smell has been connected to weight loss, reduced quality of life and depression, and those who can't smell also might not be able to detect dangers like spoiled food, gas leaks or smoke. www.upi.com/Health_News/...

A blood vessel in the brain for #FluorescenceFriday! Why am I looking at these in the microscope? (1/3)

Healthy indoor air is a human right! To get clean air infrastructure everywhere, we need organizations, universities, schools, healthcare facilities, communities, etc, to sign the document below. Please spread the word! Global Pledge for #CleanTheAir: aas.eventsair.com/healthy-indo...

“We are told by leaders that we are the future. But when it comes to the ongoing pandemic, our present is being stolen right in front of our eyes.” Incredible speech by Violet Affleck who warned about the ongoing dangers of COVID & Long Covid, & advocated for masks and clean air at the UN today!

Huntington’s disease treated successfully for first time in gene therapy trial

May I suggest a book to you? #ScienceUnderSiege ⁦is a must-read for anyone interested in fighting back politically & ideologically motivated opposition to science. To my fellow science friends, take the message:"The public needs to see scientists as people, rather than simply sources of information"

Isaac Asimov in 1970

“I'm an adult, this is how I spend my money” moment.

Makes you wonder, why BBC is speaking with a TV psychiatrist and motivational speaker (this is how 'Dr. T' defines himself), and not with the scientists actually investigating what Brain fog is? #NeuroCovid #LongCovid

How did assaults on science become the norm — and what can we do? Great review for @peterhotezmdphd.bsky.social and @michaelemann.bsky.social's new book. I already ordered mine. #ScienceUnderSiege

AI investment is booming, but what about understanding human intelligence? 15% of the NIH grants cancelled this year are in #Neuroscience. Over $323 million lost. The image below is from a 94 Y.O donor, part of a project to understand the 'superager brain' that lost its funding. 💔 #MicroscopyMonday

just like we learned in school

Biology Department xkcd.com/3140/

Brazil’s supreme court finds Bolsonaro guilty of plotting military coup

For students: how can we quantify neurodegeneration using #microscopy? One way is to use a marker like 🟡 below (SMI32). It identifies a population of pyramidal neurons that is lost early in neurodegenerative diseases like Alzheimer and Parkinson. And after some viral infections 👀👀 #Neuroscience

Microglia Megazord activated! Check these brain immune cells🔵 responding to #SARSCoV2 infection. Compare to the image on the right from a control. Neurons: 🟠NeuN, Microglia: 🔵Iba Do you know what caused this? COVID-19 Do you know what did not cause this? Vaccines. #FluorescenceFriday #NeuroCovid

The Future of AI Lies in Monkeys, Not Microchips. Neuroscience research on primates will help us learn how to build an efficient thinking machine. www.wsj.com/opinion/the-...

That's my mentor, the person responsible for my love for microscopy. I spent my PhD in Brazil avoiding microscopes, afraid of breaking them (too expensive)! When I moved to the U.S for my Postdoc, I was fortunate to be encouraged to overcome my fear and discover my true passion ❤️🔬. @sfn.org

Are you planning to attend @sfn.org meeting this year? If yes, you will see this and other images of mine displayed at the San Diego Convention Center 🤓! I love seeing a blood vessel connected to the brain tissue! Markers used: astrocytes🟡, microglia🟣, neurons🟢, nuclei🔵 Happy #FluorescenceFriday!

What can you do to improve your microscopy images? I often receive questions regarding how to take better images, so let’s start with the basics: improve your sample preparation! No microscope can make a miracle if your samples don’t look great! Things I don’t do anymore: (1/5)

This is a direct immunostaining using the frontal lobe of a patient with Alzheimer. Why is there so little high-resolution microscopy being performed in human tissue? Question for pathologists. We can extract a lot of data, and in 3D! (Dream Theater sounds appropriate this time) #FluorescenceFriday

Not all heroes wear capes. Incredible work from @putrinolab.bsky.social. They have created a *FREE* manual for clinicians treating chronic illnesses associated with infections. #LongCovid #MECFS #LymeDisease and many others.

Exactly 10 years ago, I gave my first interview, and for @iflscience.com 😁! At that time, I was doing my master's thesis in Biophysics, and we discovered that the lack of prion protein disrupts dopamine and serotonin signalling in the brain and can cause depressive-like behavior. Time flies!

I have the best labmates; they come to work wearing my microscopy image! 😁 We are pro-mask, anti-brain damage, and airborne educated! If you like it, you can get the same t-shirt here: www.bonfire.com/pandemic-isnt-over/ Proceeds go to longcovidfamilies.org #LongCovid #covidisnotover

Looking at some human brains with neurodegeneration and investigating Tau accumulation (🟡) inside neurons (🟣) using super-resolution microscopy (also 🟢nuclei). All the flying 🟡pieces are from dead neurons, and the 2 below are also condemned to die. We still don't know how to avoid this😞

Yesterday marked 11 years since we lost #RobinWilliams to suicide. A reminder that the brightest smiles can sometimes hide the deepest struggles. He was misdiagnosed with Parkinson's when he had Lewy body dementia (confirmed on autopsy). Check your friends 🖤 #MentalHealthMatters

SC senator resigns after starting treatment for #LongCovid and then receiving an Alzheimer's diagnosis. "Doctors INSTEAD determined that Nutt had neurodegenerative disorder". Instead? Early-onset Alzheimer's (before 65 Years old) used to be rare, but it will not be anymore.

Post-acute viral infections are not new (note that I use 'post-acute,' not 'postviral' as viral persistence can occur long-term). Yet, society and the medical community continue to dismiss millions worldwide suffering from #LongCovid and other similar conditions.This is an excellent historical text: