Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

Alper Akay @alperakay.bsky.social · 3d

www.theguardian.com/world/2025/o...

ICC convicts former Sudan militia leader for war crimes in Darfur

Janjaweed commander Ali Muhammad Ali Abd-al-Rahman, known as Ali Kushayb, found guilty over atrocities

www.theguardian.com

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Alper Akay @alperakay.bsky.social · 5d

“The reading, which was done in order of the ages of the deceased from youngest to oldest, began at 7am and, by the time the march reached it at around 13:45, still had notfinished the names of toddlers.” www.theguardian.com/world/2025/o...

Police make arrests at Palestine Action protest as demo goes ahead despite PM’s pleas

Officers arrest activists at silent vigil in support of banned organisation

www.theguardian.com

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Reposted by Alper Akay

Yiliang Ding @yiliangding.bsky.social · 7d

Super successful workshop! Thank you very much to all the speakers including all the talent postdocs and students! @norwichrnaclub.bsky.social @johninnescentre.bsky.social @earlhaminst.bsky.social @alperakay.bsky.social @uniofeastanglia.bsky.social

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Alper Akay @alperakay.bsky.social · 6d

The @molbiosystems.bsky.social was an absolutely fantastic meeting. So many amazing people doing so much amazing research. I learned many new things, made new friends and hopefully will have new collaborations and more excuses to return in two years. Big thanks to organisers and everyone else!

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Alper Akay @alperakay.bsky.social · 11d

😜 it’s the German kuchen! Apparently this part of Chile was settled by Germans around 1850s.

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Reposted by Alper Akay

Jason Moore @moorejh.bsky.social · 11d

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Alper Akay @alperakay.bsky.social · 11d

Can’t tell I am in Chile looking at the food I am eating.

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Alper Akay @alperakay.bsky.social · 11d

This Thursday AI in RNA biology event organised by @yiliangding.bsky.social @norwichrnaclub.bsky.social! Don’t miss!

Yiliang Ding @yiliangding.bsky.social · 11d

Our annual event at Norwich RNA Club: AI in RNA Biology. Great speakers! Please join us this Thursday at 2pm @norwichrnaclub.bsky.social @johninnescentre.bsky.social @earlhaminst.bsky.social @uniofeastanglia.bsky.social @alperakay.bsky.social

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Alper Akay @alperakay.bsky.social · 12d

Ready for the @molbiosystems.bsky.social conference at amazing Puerto Varas, Chile. What a wonderful location.

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Alper Akay @alperakay.bsky.social · 12d

Super frustrating story on how NHS missed lyme disease and how ME/CFS has become an umbrella diagnosis for doctors. www.theguardian.com/world/2025/s...

As my daughter got sicker and sicker, our quest for answers dragged on. How did we all miss the bacteria taking over her body?

I write about nature, but when Milly got sick with a mystery illness, it never occurred to me that a long-forgotten tick bite could be the cause

www.theguardian.com

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Reposted by Alper Akay

Matt Rockman @wormsrock.bsky.social · 15d

C. elegans is a real animal and we set out to understand how it comes to have its distinctive biogeography. Its ancestral center of diversity is in the higher elevation forests of Hawaii. Its closest relatives are spread across east Asia. Did they travel from Asia? [Preprint 🧵]

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Reposted by Alper Akay

Javier Apfeld @javierapfeld.bsky.social · 15d

New cures feel sudden, but the seeds were planted decades ago by basic scientists.

Which seeds will turn into cures? Unpredictable looking forward, a straight line looking back. 🧪🧬 🧵

Huntington's disease successfully treated for first time

One of the most devastating diseases finally has a treatment that can slow its progression and transform lives, tearful doctors tell BBC.

www.bbc.com

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Alper Akay @alperakay.bsky.social · 17d

Removing portability of outputs has been very damaging to early career researchers as there is less incentive for universities to make new hires. Equally universities ca do mass lay offs beyond census window and still benefit from outputs. This is very damaging to research culture. @ukri.org

Chris Havergal @chrishavergal.bsky.social · 17d

Use REF pause to review non-portability of outputs, urge scholars including @jennyrichards.bsky.social www.timeshighereducation.com/news/use-ref... via @jgro-the.bsky.social

Use REF pause to review non-portability of outputs, urge scholars

Breaking the link between researchers and their outputs harms academic mobility and disciplinary excellence, argue professors

www.timeshighereducation.com

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Alper Akay @alperakay.bsky.social · 17d

Our crab apple tree fruits every 2 years and we make yummy jelly! I’m not sure if anyone found C. elegans on rotting crab apples though.

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Alper Akay @alperakay.bsky.social · 19d

It was great catching up with past and present @miskalab.bsky.social members to celebrate 20 years of Miska Lab. Thank you, Eric!

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Reposted by Alper Akay

Melvin Noe Gonzalez @melv-noe-gonzalez.bsky.social · 21d

It is my pleasure to share with you the latest from @jsvejstrup.bsky.social lab, where we look at how the reduction of RNAPII levels has a severe, yet organized transcriptional response in the cell.

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Reposted by Alper Akay

Vicky Cowling @vichaicow.bsky.social · 24d

portlandpress.com/biochemj/art...
PhD student Jacquie Mills has been getting to grips with RNAcapology. She has written this review on everything you wanted to know about m7G cap methylation and more....

RNMT-dependent RNA cap methylation in health and disease

RNA cap formation on RNA polymerase II transcripts is regulated by cellular signalling pathways during development and differentiation, adaptive and innate immune responses, during the cell cycle and ...

portlandpress.com

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Alper Akay @alperakay.bsky.social · 22d

Because there is good track record of politicians and civil servants predicting the next scientific breakthrough like GFP or RNA modifications or CRISPR or …. 🙄🙄🙄🙄

Robin Bisson @robinbisson.bsky.social · 23d

Ian Chapman, the new CEO of UKRI, telegraphs his intention to make the national funder more strategic (as Patrick Vallance has long pushed for)

“We need to assess...where the UK can really lead globally, and then fund these areas with critical mass so that we give them the best chance for success”

UK research ‘trying to do too many things’, warns new UKRI leader - Research Professional News

Ian Chapman wants funding emphasis on world-leading areas, but experts warn of system “inertia”

www.researchprofessionalnews.com

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Reposted by Alper Akay

UNICEF Press Office @unicefmedia.bsky.social · 29d

The percentage of children identified as acutely malnourished in screenings across Gaza increased to 13.5 per cent in August, from 8.3 per cent in July.

www.unicef.org/press-releas...

Devastating rate of child malnutrition in the Gaza Strip in August surpasses July record

After July IPC famine finding in Gaza City, screenings show 1 in 5 children acutely malnourished as the military offensive there escalates

www.unicef.org

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Alper Akay @alperakay.bsky.social · 29d

Well if UKRI wants to fund humanities research shouldn’t they do so directly through one of the dedicated research councils for this purpose?

Alper Akay @alperakay.bsky.social · 29d

It’s great to see this story out. Congratulations!

Guifeng Wei @guifengwei.bsky.social · Sep 9

Thrilled to share our new Brockdorff lab paper at NSMB: we show that the primary role of m6A RNA modification on Xist is to promote RNA degradation. Xist turnover is mediated by the NEXT complex, not PAXT, and is independent of the m6A reader YTHDC1. www.nature.com/articles/s41...

m6A and the NEXT complex direct Xist RNA turnover and X-inactivation dynamics - Nature Structural & Molecular Biology

Wei et al. show that the primary function of m6A on the nuclear long noncoding RNA Xist, a master regulator of X inactivation, is to promote RNA degradation. Xist turnover is mediated by the nuclear e...

www.nature.com

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Reposted by Alper Akay

Helena Cocheme @cochemelab.bsky.social · 29d

🚨New paper published today on cancer bugs and drugs!🚨

“Chemotherapy modulation by a cancer-associated microbiota metabolite”

Congrats to the Cabreiro lab on this exciting study!
#Cancer #Microbiome #Metabolism #Chemotherapy
#MRC_LMS #ImperialCollege #CECAD_Cologne

www.cell.com/cell-systems...

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Alper Akay @alperakay.bsky.social · 29d

Some transparency will be good but in the end what we will see is that majority of QR funding goes to covering budget holes left by insufficient research grants. Wouldn’t it be better to fund the grants at 100% rather than QR funding? Or increase 📈 direct costs at the same time?

Times Higher Education (THE) @timeshighered.bsky.social · Sep 9

Universities will be asked to explain how they spend millions of pounds received in quality-related funding from the Research Excellence Framework as part of a pilot study designed to provide greater transparency on institutional spending, reports
@jgro-the.bsky.social
#REF #academicsky

Explain how REF money is spent, universities told

Research England hopes transparency pilot could lead to more accountability but critics fear bureaucracy and government control

www.timeshighereducation.com

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Reposted by Alper Akay

Jörg Vogel @jorg-vogel-lab.bsky.social · 29d

Looking for a new approach to studying or eliminating phages? Check out our study introducing anti-phage ASOs (antisense oligos) out in @Nature today. nature.com/articles/s4158…

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Reposted by Alper Akay

Kusterlab @kusterlab.bsky.social · Sep 9

New preprint: We isolate peptide–RNA photo-crosslinks with tunable RNA chains from living cells for mass spec. This maps over 4,700 crosslinking sites across 744 proteins and offers the first glimpse into the RNA sequences in crosslinks by MS. Read here: doi.org/10.1101/2025...

Peptide-RNA photo-crosslinks with tunable RNA chain map protein-RNA interfaces

Photo-crosslinking mass spectrometry enables the identification of protein-RNA interactions in living cells, pinpointing interaction interfaces at single-amino acid resolution. However, current isolat...

doi.org

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