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Santos Franco

@thefrancolab.bsky.social

350 followers 440 following 52 posts

I used to do science. I still do, but I used to, too. // Associate Professor at CU-Anschutz, Peds Dev Bio // Brain development, cell fate, oligodendrocytes, Sonic hedgehog, Notch // New Mexican // Chicano // he/him

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Santos Franco @thefrancolab.bsky.social · Jan 22

New preprint from the amazingly talented Luuli Tran @luulitran.bsky.social just dropped on bioRxiv!!

Epigenetic Priming of Neural Progenitors by Notch Enhances Sonic Hedgehog Signaling and Establishes Gliogenic Competence

www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

Schematic of a proposed model for Notch signaling in regulating SHH response and glial fate specification.

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Santos Franco @thefrancolab.bsky.social · 5d

Wasn’t expecting that!

Santos Franco @thefrancolab.bsky.social · 5d

a man is holding a microphone in front of a hockey rink and says " as they say in hockey "

ALT: a man is holding a microphone in front of a hockey rink and says " as they say in hockey "

media.tenor.com

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Dan Levy 🤔🏊☕️🚴🎶 👟 @danlevy.bsky.social · 8d

A new preprint out from the Levy lab, adding knowledge to the exciting world of brain border macrophages and neuroimmunology.
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

Meningeal macrophages exhibit diverse calcium signaling at steady-state and in response to aberrant cortical hyperexcitability in awake mice

The meninges, which envelop and protect the brain, host a large number of resident macrophages that play a crucial role in regulating homeostasis and neuroinflammation. Intracellular Ca2+ signaling me...

www.biorxiv.org

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Ya'el Courtney, PhD @scienceyael.bsky.social · 11d

🚨 Psychedelics in pregnancy - can a single dose reach the embryo and matter? Yes. In mice they hit embryonic CSF within minutes, activate choroid plexus→CSF axis, & shift cortical development with adult behavioral signatures. @lehtinenlab.bsky.social Preprint:

www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

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Gestational psychedelic exposure disrupts brain development and offspring behavior in mice

Despite increasing non-medical use and clinical investigation of psychedelics, the consequences of prenatal exposure remain unknown. In mice, maternal lysergic acid diethylamide (LSD; 0.3 mg/kg) cross...

www.biorxiv.org

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Franck Polleux @franckp.bsky.social · 21d

Excited to highlight a new paper from my graduate student Sergio Bernal Garcia who, together withLuke Hammond, developed RESPAN, a new deep-learning pipeline automating the segmentation of neuronal morphology and dendritic spines from fluorescent microscopy images:
www.cell.com/cell-reports...

A deep learning pipeline for accurate and automated restoration, segmentation, and quantification of dendritic spines

Garcia et al. present RESPAN, a pipeline that enables automated dendritic spine analysis through seamless integration of deep learning image restoration and segmentation capabilities with comprehensiv...

www.cell.com

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Paul L. Franco @loadofbunk.bsky.social · 24d

Weird vans with business names I don't know, palm trees next to a classic brownstone, spaceships on the lawn, Elvis blasted at all hours of night. The Roku City I knew and loved doesn't exist anymore.

Roku City. Stitch is dancing on the lawn of a house that doesn't even fit in with the nice brownstone right next to it. A van with agzzz on it.

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Ardem Patapoutian @ardemp.bskyverified.social · 24d

New preprint alert! The uterus expands ~500-fold in pregnancy, yet we know little about how pressures are sensed. Led by @yunxiao-dr.bsky.social, we show PIEZOs are required for contractions and birth in mice, with dual roles of PIEZO1 in muscle and PIEZO2 in neurons
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

PIEZO channels link mechanical forces to uterine contractions in parturition

Mechanical forces are extensively involved in pregnancy and parturition, but their precise roles and mechanisms remain poorly understood. Here, we identify mechanically activated ion channels PIEZO1 a...

www.biorxiv.org

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Kevin Wright @kevinmawright.bsky.social · 26d

Newest paper from the lab, looking at how somatosensory neuron development and function is altered in a Pten haploinsufficient model of ASD. Work was all done by @alefdzphd.bsky.social, who just started an independent position at UTRGV.

onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/...

Altered Primary Somatosensory Neuron Development in a Pten Heterozygous Model for Autism Spectrum Disorder

Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is a complex neurodevelopmental disorder characterized by deficits in social interactions, repetitive behaviors, and hyper- or hyposensitivity to sensory stimuli. The c....

onlinelibrary.wiley.com

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Aide Macias-Muñoz @aidemm.bsky.social · Sep 12

“HSIs enroll over 5.6 million students nationwide, including two-thirds of all Latino undergraduates in the country.”
hacu.net/cutting-350m...

Cutting $350M in Federal Grants to Hispanic-Serving Institutions Erases Decades of Progress and Hurts Millions of Students - HACU

Press Contact:[email protected] New York, NY – US Secretary of Education Linda McMahon announced today that the Department of Education will eliminate $350M in grants to Hispanic-Serving Institu...

hacu.net

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Santos Franco @thefrancolab.bsky.social · Sep 12

I’ve been listening to Paul’s Boutique for 35 years and I still discover new things every time I hear it. Tiny bits of Alice Cooper, Zep, Eagles. It’s wild.

Santos Franco @thefrancolab.bsky.social · Sep 12

Definitely. You can hear it right before the “ultraviolence be runnin through my head” line.

Santos Franco @thefrancolab.bsky.social · Sep 6

Reposted by Santos Franco

Paul L. Franco @loadofbunk.bsky.social · Aug 31

Back when I was trying to be a Kant guy and at all the talks scholars threw around first Critique passages they memorized in German and English that I hadn't, I always wished Saturday morning teen shows would come up so I could rap the City Guys theme from memory so they knew I knew stuff too.

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⚡️GREG_CORDER⚡️ @flybottleescape.bsky.social · Aug 16

Just heard the same from NIDA PO:

“Your application will get council clearance on Sept 3, however it's unlikely the funding plan will go through in the fall, most likely funding decisions will get pushed to later in 2026, once NIH has a budget.”

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PLOS Biology @plosbiology.org · Apr 24

Why do #StemCells have lower levels of facultative #heterochromatin, defined by H3K27me3, compared to differentiated cells? By artificially lengthening G1 phase, @4everbiochemist.bsky.social &co show that G1 length is an essential determinant of H3K27me3 landscape @plosbiology.org 🧪 plos.io/4lKfztO

H3K27me3 domains in HEK293 cells change with accelerated cell cycle timing. Top left: Flow cytometry analysis of DNA content using propidium iodide fluorescence for HEK293 cells that were treated with DMSO for 48 h. Bottom left: As above, but HEK293 cells treated with Chiron-124 for 48 h. Top middle: Immunoblot for H3K27me3 and H3 on acid-extracted histones after 48-h treatment with Chiron-124. Bottom middle: Quantification of the modification levels normalized to DMSO-treatment. p-value calculated using two-tailed, homoscedastic student t test. Right: Heatmap of H3K27me3 enrichment at domains defined in DMSO treated cells for DMSO treatment (left) and Chiron-124 treatment (middle), and the log2 ratio of H3K27me3 within domains for Chiron-124 over DMSO (right).

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CU Anschutz Department of Pediatrics @cupediatrics.bsky.social · Aug 12

🎉 Big news! 10 postdoc fellows from 5 Latin American countries have joined the 2025 class of #PewLatinAmericanFellows, and we’re proud to share that one is our own @mary-flores.bsky.social! Learn more: bit.ly/45rgN5L @cumedicalschool.bsky.social @cuanschutz.bsky.social @chrmosimann.bsky.social

Flores-Flores in 2025 Class of Pew Latin American Fellows Pursuing Scientific Advances

Pediatrics Postdoctoral Fellow Marycruz Flores-Flores, PhD, is one of 10 in the 2025 class of the Pew Latin American Fellows Program in the Biomedical Sciences announced today by The Pew Charitable Trusts.

bit.ly

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mary-flores.bsky.social @mary-flores.bsky.social · Aug 13

I’m honored to be selected as a Pew Latin American Fellow 2025! 🐟🧬🔬
With this opportunity, I will continue my postdoctoral training in the @chrmosimann.bsky.social lab at @cupediatrics.bsky.social/ @cudevbio.bsky.social , and it opens the door for me to return and established a lab in LATAM. 🇲🇽😍

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Debby Silver @debbysilver.bsky.social · Aug 10

Sharing our newest study led by the incredibly talented @federicamosti.bsky.social investigating new molecular mechanisms of human brain development. We discover a human-specific enhancer HAR1984 that influences chromatin looping to promote cortical size and folding! www.biorxiv.org/cgi/content/...

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Paul L. Franco @loadofbunk.bsky.social · Aug 7

If I had whatever 'PhD level intelligence' means colloquially, I definitely wouldn't have gotten a PhD.

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BK. Titanji @boghuma.bsky.social · Aug 3

Very interesting study published in nature this week. Using a murine model the authors show that respiratory viral infections like flu & COVID-19 do more than inflame airways, they may awaken dormant breast cancer cells in the lung.
www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Respiratory viral infections awaken metastatic breast cancer cells in lungs - Nature

Mouse models show that respiratory infections from viruses such as influenza and SARS-CoV-2 can trigger metastasis of dormant breast cancer cells in the lungs, a finding supported by epidemiological d...

www.nature.com

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Danny Caballero 🇲🇽💚🤍 @danny.hellmo.space · Aug 3

It’s this shit. This right here.

I’ve given my entire professional life to serving this country’s educational needs.

But being brown in this country means I’m less than. And will always be.

The Washington Post @washingtonpost.com · Aug 2

The Supreme Court has signaled that it may rule on the constitutionality of a key section of the Voting Rights Act that allows states to draw voting districts to protect the power of Black and Hispanic voters.

Supreme Court signals it may rule on law protecting power of minority voters

The justices asked opposing parties in a battle over a Louisiana voting map to submit briefs addressing the matter.

www.washingtonpost.com

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CU Anschutz Developmental Biology @cudevbio.bsky.social · Jul 30

Congratulations to Dr. Katie Ranard, postdoctoral fellow in the @bruceappel.bsky.social lab, on receiving a NINDS K99/R00 award for her proposal entitled, “Impact of nutritional status on mechanisms guiding brain development”! @cupediatrics.bsky.social #zebrafish #devbio

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Ya'el Courtney, PhD @scienceyael.bsky.social · Jul 16

🔬 Calling #CellBiology and #EpithelialCell enthusiasts! My new review article w @lehtinenlab.bsky.social dives into a fascinating, somewhat niche, but critical secretory mechanism by the Choroid Plexus (ChP) that's been historically confusing: apocrine secretion!

link.springer.com/article/10.1...

Apocrine secretion by the choroid plexus - Fluids and Barriers of the CNS

The choroid plexus (ChP) epithelium secretes cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) and signaling factors that influence brain development. In addition to classical secretory pathways, the ChP also employs apocrin...

link.springer.com

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Ya'el Courtney, PhD @scienceyael.bsky.social · Jul 7

My first journal cover :) @natneuro.nature.com @lehtinenlab.bsky.social

www.nature.com/neuro/volume...
Volume 28 Issue 7, July 2025

Cover of the July 2025 issue of Nature Neuroscience (Vol. 28 No. 7), featuring a high-resolution confocal microscopy image of the embryonic mouse fourth ventricle choroid plexus, highlighted in cyan and magenta on a black background. The title reads: “Choroid plexus secretion reshapes brain development.”

Screenshot of a webpage from nature.com describing the cover story of the July 2025 issue of Nature Neuroscience. The text explains that the cover image shows the choroid plexus of an E16.5 mouse stained for AQP1, revealing how apocrine secretion influences CSF composition and brain development. Technical details include the use of a Zeiss LSM 710 microscope with AI-based denoising and image processing. The image is credited to Ya’el Courtney, Boston Children’s Hospital, and the cover design to Marina Spence.

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JStark lab @jstarklab.bsky.social · Jul 27

4% payline demoralizing for reviewers - review 9 grants each taking 3-4hrs (total reviewed by all is 90) flying to DC, a hotel conference room to discuss the top half of grants (45) 15 min each, 3x a year for 4 yrs. Paid $300. 4% = maybe 3/90, 0-1 that you reviewed funded. I couldn’t.

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