Simon Cook
banner
drsimoncook.bsky.social
Simon Cook
@drsimoncook.bsky.social
Researching Cell Signalling at the Babraham Institute @babrahaminst.bsky.social Walker; watching woodpeckers; tree hugger; listening to The Jam. European. Views my own. I could go on for hours and I probably will....
Reposted by Simon Cook
This week's (on time) selection of articles and #preprints on #proteostasis thanks to @biomednews.bsky.social -- biomed.news/bims-proteo/...
Highlight - @drsimoncook.bsky.social RAF inhibitors activate the integrated stress response by direct activation of GCN2 www.nature.com/articles/s41...
bims-proteo 2025-11-23 papers
biomed.news
November 23, 2025 at 9:30 AM
Reposted by Simon Cook
In a massive backlash against MAGA fascism, Democrats have now swept school board elections in Pennsylvania, Texas and Ohio and defeating all terrorist Moms For Liberty candidates in the process. Much more of this please, we have a democracy to rescue. 💙👊
November 23, 2025 at 4:38 AM
Reposted by Simon Cook
If I’m understanding this correctly, X is owned by a white nationalist who pays poor people of color in developing countries to pretend to be working class white Americans to scare other white Americans into being afraid poor people of color from developing countries are going to ruin America?
November 23, 2025 at 7:30 PM
Reposted by Simon Cook
"We blew a hole in our roof a decade ago – and it’s long past time we fixed it." Indeed.
November 22, 2025 at 2:18 PM
Reposted by Simon Cook
Aida Overton Walker (1880 -1914), US vaudeville performer, known as 'Queen of the Cake Walk', after a 1900s dance craze. The Cake Walk, originally performed by enslaved people, mocked slave owners & high society #womensart
November 22, 2025 at 6:30 AM
Superb footage including raising his red crown near the end
Pity the poor Woodpecker...
The Green Woodpecker was here from very first light, (it woke me this am with a brief laugh) to last light of day, searching deep down for ants.
Here it is, about 10 ft away, outside the window.
It noticed me so I slowly backed away, so as not to disturb it.
#ukbirds 🦉
November 22, 2025 at 5:44 PM
Very worrying developments for US science
we're going to be funding a whole lot of crappy ivermectin projects now, aren't we?
Lots going on but don’t lose track of the Trump attacks on biomedical research and cancer cures.

@jeremymberg.bsky.social posted a leaked #NIH memo today. I want to highlight a few scary parts.

They’re about taking power from scientists and experts and giving it to the president’s hacks. 1/ 🧪
November 21, 2025 at 9:40 AM
www.embopress.org/doi/full/10....
Congratulations to Suzan Ber and @aesposito1975.bsky.social on their lovely study of KRAS alleles on glutamine and nitrogen metablism and signalling - just out in EMBO Reports. Such a pleasure to collaborate on this fascinating project! 👏
FOXO1 links KRAS G12D and G12V alleles to glutamine and nitrogen metabolism in colorectal cancer | EMBO reports
imageimageKRAS mutations at codon 12 induce profound metabolic changes in colorectal cancer cells. These oncogenic mutations promote FOXO1-dependent glutamine and nitrogen recycling, uncovering a vuln...
www.embopress.org
November 21, 2025 at 9:20 AM
Reposted by Simon Cook
Earlier today, I was notified that someone was at my door.

This is who it was:
November 21, 2025 at 12:59 AM
Reposted by Simon Cook
By characterizing abortion as health care, international orgs have pushed back against abortion exceptionalism. The World Health Organization recognizes that “[a]bortion is a simple health care intervention.” Numerous countries have adopted laws and policies to align with WHO recommendations.
Global Approaches to Abortion as Health Care - O'Neill
The O’Neill Institute believes that the law is a fundamental tool for solving critical health problems.
oneill.law.georgetown.edu
November 20, 2025 at 3:26 AM
Reposted by Simon Cook
🧠 Fully funded 4-year PhD studentship 🧠 Please repost

BBSRC NWD project with @parikki.bsky.social and @iamabyron.bsky.social

Come join us to look at how mechanical and oxidative stress signalling pathways converge on the synaptic scaffold protein talin.

www.findaphd.com/phds/project...
(BBSRC NWD) A novel redox mechanosignalling nexus in the synapse that is misregulated in neurodegeneration at University of Liverpool on FindAPhD.com
PhD Project - (BBSRC NWD) A novel redox mechanosignalling nexus in the synapse that is misregulated in neurodegeneration at University of Liverpool, listed on FindAPhD.com
www.findaphd.com
November 11, 2025 at 10:29 AM
Reposted by Simon Cook
Women are watching abusive dynamics play out on the national stage and for many it feels very, very familiar to what they’ve experienced regularly—

I hope midterms are a referendum
November 18, 2025 at 4:39 PM
The person standing in for Nigel Farage who said this was Martin Daubney. Farage. Daubney. Not very British-sounding names are they? What are we to conclude from this? www.theguardian.com/media/2025/n...
Ofcom receives complaints over GB News item on defendants’ ‘foreign-sounding names’
Lib Dem MP says way figures were compiled on ‘non-British-sounding’ surnames in court was ‘frankly racist’
www.theguardian.com
November 18, 2025 at 12:28 PM
Reposted by Simon Cook
🚨UK Ageing Research League Table update

@babrahaminst.bsky.social claims 1st 🥇
@unibirmingham.bsky.social in 2nd 🥈
@ox.ac.uk in 3rd 🥉

@ucl.ac.uk & (bluesky shy?) Univeristy of Westmisnter narroly miss the podium & are tied for 4th.

How did your institution rank?

bsra.org.uk/uk-ageing-re...
UK Ageing Research League Table update Sept 2025 - BSRA
bsra.org.uk
November 17, 2025 at 10:40 AM
Reposted by Simon Cook
Post 1

As noted yesterday: the in-vitro assay in the 2016 @cp-cell.bsky.social Cell paper from @brangwynnelab.bsky.social (dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.cell.2016.04.047) led to wrong conclusions about NPM1 LLPS in nucleolar assembly.
(see image)
November 18, 2025 at 7:22 AM
Reposted by Simon Cook
New independent report reveals locations of poisoned raptors in northern England, 2015-2023 - information that has been suppressed by government raptorpersecutionuk.org/2025/11/17/n...
New independent report reveals locations of poisoned raptors in northern England, 2015-2023 – information that has been suppressed by government
Press release from independent group, Wildlife Poisoning Research UK, 15th November 2025. WHERE THE POISONED BODIES WERE FOUND! Many people probably imagine that the use of poisons to kill protecte…
raptorpersecutionuk.org
November 17, 2025 at 6:10 PM
Reposted by Simon Cook
Bloody left wing bias etc etc etc
November 17, 2025 at 11:26 AM
I’m really pleased to share the link to a new Cook Lab paper published today in Nature Communications.
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
RAF inhibitors activate the integrated stress response by direct activation of GCN2 - Nature Communications
Three BRAF inhibitors are used to treat melanoma and colorectal cancer. Here, the authors demonstrate that these drugs bind and activate the protein kinase GCN2, a previously unappreciated off-target ...
www.nature.com
November 17, 2025 at 12:12 PM
Sacrists Gate and detail. Ely Cathedral. Gate built 1325. Probably by immigrants from Normandy!
November 16, 2025 at 11:35 AM
Reposted by Simon Cook
November 15, 2025 at 6:37 PM
Reposted by Simon Cook
☕The authors identify a chemical cocktail to generate #totipotent - like cells, which they then use to build an #embryo model. This model captures a developmental spectrum from early #embryogenesis to post-implantation events.
bit.ly/4oHxUZp
A continuous totipotent-like cell-based embryo model recapitulates mouse embryogenesis from zygotic genome activation to gastrulation - Nature Cell Biology
The authors identify a chemical cocktail to generate totipotent-like cells, which they then use to build an embryo model. This model captures a developmental spectrum from early embryogenesis to post-...
bit.ly
November 15, 2025 at 8:17 PM
Reposted by Simon Cook
Hen Harrier 'Susie', whose chicks were stamped to death in 2022, has been found dead on a North Pennines grouse moor with gunshot injuries raptorpersecutionuk.org/2025/11/14/h...
Hen Harrier ‘Susie’, whose chicks were stamped to death in 2022, has been found dead on a North Pennines grouse moor with gunshot injuries
If ever there was an example demonstrating the high level of persecution faced by Hen Harriers on UK grouse moors, the lack of consequences for the offenders, and the lack of justice for the victim…
raptorpersecutionuk.org
November 14, 2025 at 7:51 AM
Beautiful new paper from @annebertolotti.bsky.social lab at LMB
How is the integrated stress response terminated?

@annebertolotti.bsky.social’s group have revealed the mechanism of termination of the ISR, answering a decades-old question surrounding the ISR pathway, which is crucial to cellular homeostasis.
www2.mrc-lmb.cam.ac.uk/how-is-the-i...

#LMBReserch
November 14, 2025 at 11:18 AM
Reposted by Simon Cook
Dartmoor is dying - it's time to bring it back to life.

Today the Dartmoor Nature Alliance publish a new call to action to restore Dartmoor's habitats: rewet peat bogs, revive heaths by reducing grazing, double temperate rainforest area

Read it & join here:
www.dartmoornature.org.uk/call-to-action
November 13, 2025 at 11:09 AM