Santos Franco
@thefrancolab.bsky.social
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
Pinned
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...
Epigenetic Priming of Neural Progenitors by Notch Enhances Sonic Hedgehog Signaling and Establishes Gliogenic Competence
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
Reposted by Santos Franco
Congrats to Hannah @hejcell.bsky.social on the last of FOUR 1st author papers from her thesis work & short postdoc in the @siegenthalerlab.bsky.social - excited for all your future discoveries in the Wills Lab! 🐸 🧠
November 20, 2025 at 1:23 PM
Congrats to Hannah @hejcell.bsky.social on the last of FOUR 1st author papers from her thesis work & short postdoc in the @siegenthalerlab.bsky.social - excited for all your future discoveries in the Wills Lab! 🐸 🧠
Reposted by Santos Franco
Our work out in @devbiol.bsky.social, PDGFra is needed for 🧠 perivascular fibroblast development... ⬇️ perivascular fibroblast = ⬇️ perivascular macrophage...cross-talk? 👀
Led by Hannah Jones @hejcell.bsky.social w/ Kelsey Abrams, Sophia Kim, excited for more projects w/ @fantauzzolab.bsky.social!
Led by Hannah Jones @hejcell.bsky.social w/ Kelsey Abrams, Sophia Kim, excited for more projects w/ @fantauzzolab.bsky.social!
November 20, 2025 at 1:23 PM
Our work out in @devbiol.bsky.social, PDGFra is needed for 🧠 perivascular fibroblast development... ⬇️ perivascular fibroblast = ⬇️ perivascular macrophage...cross-talk? 👀
Led by Hannah Jones @hejcell.bsky.social w/ Kelsey Abrams, Sophia Kim, excited for more projects w/ @fantauzzolab.bsky.social!
Led by Hannah Jones @hejcell.bsky.social w/ Kelsey Abrams, Sophia Kim, excited for more projects w/ @fantauzzolab.bsky.social!
Reposted by Santos Franco
The developing brain? Yeah, we have it covered.
The first brain cell atlas of the developing mammalian brain is now available to curious minds and researchers everywhere.
Check out the findings in @nature.com: www.nature.com/collections/...
🎨 Cover art by Jasiek Krzysztofiak
The first brain cell atlas of the developing mammalian brain is now available to curious minds and researchers everywhere.
Check out the findings in @nature.com: www.nature.com/collections/...
🎨 Cover art by Jasiek Krzysztofiak
November 7, 2025 at 9:41 PM
The developing brain? Yeah, we have it covered.
The first brain cell atlas of the developing mammalian brain is now available to curious minds and researchers everywhere.
Check out the findings in @nature.com: www.nature.com/collections/...
🎨 Cover art by Jasiek Krzysztofiak
The first brain cell atlas of the developing mammalian brain is now available to curious minds and researchers everywhere.
Check out the findings in @nature.com: www.nature.com/collections/...
🎨 Cover art by Jasiek Krzysztofiak
Reposted by Santos Franco
This is my son’s soccer teammate. This is heartbreaking to watch, no kid should go through this. I know his parents, they are good people. No family should endure this. The cruelty and evil actions of the trump administration and ICE are tearing families and communities apart.
Devastating— “I’m afraid for my parents to leave the house. They treat us like dogs because of the color of our skin. I shouldn’t be scared, I should be focusing on school.”
A 16yo American living in fear of the Trump regime’s ICE goons terrorizing brown people pleads for help.
A 16yo American living in fear of the Trump regime’s ICE goons terrorizing brown people pleads for help.
November 6, 2025 at 3:17 PM
This is my son’s soccer teammate. This is heartbreaking to watch, no kid should go through this. I know his parents, they are good people. No family should endure this. The cruelty and evil actions of the trump administration and ICE are tearing families and communities apart.
Reposted by Santos Franco
Our latest collaboration with @rongfan8.bsky.social, spatial triomics to investigate myelin and cortical brain development, and demyelination, spearheaded by Leslie Kirby in our lab @ki.se and Di Zhang in Rong's lab! Check it out @nature.com
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
Spatial dynamics of brain development and neuroinflammation - Nature
A tri-omic atlas of the mouse brain from postnatal day 0 to P21 reveals that layer-specific projection neurons have a role in coordinating axonogenesis and myelination.
www.nature.com
November 5, 2025 at 4:03 PM
Our latest collaboration with @rongfan8.bsky.social, spatial triomics to investigate myelin and cortical brain development, and demyelination, spearheaded by Leslie Kirby in our lab @ki.se and Di Zhang in Rong's lab! Check it out @nature.com
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
Reposted by Santos Franco
Fun project with @distefanolab.bsky.social looking at RNA regulation in cell fate decisions. Check out the great summary below and see the full work in @natbiotech.nature.com: www.nature.com/articles/s41...
October 29, 2025 at 2:45 AM
Fun project with @distefanolab.bsky.social looking at RNA regulation in cell fate decisions. Check out the great summary below and see the full work in @natbiotech.nature.com: www.nature.com/articles/s41...
Reposted by Santos Franco
Updated map of New Mexico businesses and restaurants helping people during the SNAP uncertainty to also include details on food pantries and food banks throughout the state.
www.kob.com/news/top-new...
#NewMexico
#SNAP_help
www.kob.com/news/top-new...
#NewMexico
#SNAP_help
October 28, 2025 at 9:38 PM
Updated map of New Mexico businesses and restaurants helping people during the SNAP uncertainty to also include details on food pantries and food banks throughout the state.
www.kob.com/news/top-new...
#NewMexico
#SNAP_help
www.kob.com/news/top-new...
#NewMexico
#SNAP_help
Reposted by Santos Franco
📣 We are excited to announce our 2025 Pilot Grant Awardees! For nearly 20 years, the CCTSI has been making grants to early-career researchers with promising ideas. Kudos to these talented researchers!
The Colorado Clinical and Translational Sciences Institute (CCTSI) is…
The Colorado Clinical and Translational Sciences Institute (CCTSI) is pleased to announce the 2025 Pilot Grant Awardees for the Colorado Pilot (CO-Pilot) Grant Program, the Child and Maternal Health…
buff.ly
October 22, 2025 at 7:15 PM
📣 We are excited to announce our 2025 Pilot Grant Awardees! For nearly 20 years, the CCTSI has been making grants to early-career researchers with promising ideas. Kudos to these talented researchers!
Reposted by Santos Franco
15 US states and territories have formed a new Public Health Alliance, which will counter the absence of federal leadership by tracking outbreaks, issuing guidance, buying vaccines and more.
Members of the new alliance include CA, CO, CT, DE, GU, HI, IL, MD, MA, NJ, NY, NC, OR, RI, WA.
Members of the new alliance include CA, CO, CT, DE, GU, HI, IL, MD, MA, NJ, NY, NC, OR, RI, WA.
October 16, 2025 at 4:43 AM
15 US states and territories have formed a new Public Health Alliance, which will counter the absence of federal leadership by tracking outbreaks, issuing guidance, buying vaccines and more.
Members of the new alliance include CA, CO, CT, DE, GU, HI, IL, MD, MA, NJ, NY, NC, OR, RI, WA.
Members of the new alliance include CA, CO, CT, DE, GU, HI, IL, MD, MA, NJ, NY, NC, OR, RI, WA.
Reposted by Santos Franco
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...
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
October 4, 2025 at 9:51 PM
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...
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
Reposted by Santos Franco
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...
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
September 21, 2025 at 1:01 PM
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...
www.cell.com/cell-reports...
Reposted by Santos Franco
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.
September 19, 2025 at 2:51 AM
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.
Reposted by Santos Franco
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...
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
September 18, 2025 at 3:23 PM
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...
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
Reposted by Santos Franco
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/...
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
September 17, 2025 at 12:17 AM
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/...
onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/...
Reposted by Santos Franco
“HSIs enroll over 5.6 million students nationwide, including two-thirds of all Latino undergraduates in the country.”
hacu.net/cutting-350m...
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
September 12, 2025 at 4:39 PM
“HSIs enroll over 5.6 million students nationwide, including two-thirds of all Latino undergraduates in the country.”
hacu.net/cutting-350m...
hacu.net/cutting-350m...
Reposted by Santos Franco
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.
August 31, 2025 at 12:08 AM
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.
Reposted by Santos Franco
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.”
“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.”
August 16, 2025 at 1:32 PM
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.”
“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.”
Reposted by Santos Franco
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
April 24, 2025 at 8:03 AM
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
Reposted by Santos Franco
🎉 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
August 12, 2025 at 5:47 PM
🎉 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
Reposted by Santos Franco
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. 🇲🇽😍
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. 🇲🇽😍
August 13, 2025 at 1:19 AM
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. 🇲🇽😍
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. 🇲🇽😍
Reposted by Santos Franco
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/...
August 10, 2025 at 1:19 PM
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/...
Reposted by Santos Franco
If I had whatever 'PhD level intelligence' means colloquially, I definitely wouldn't have gotten a PhD.
August 7, 2025 at 9:32 PM
If I had whatever 'PhD level intelligence' means colloquially, I definitely wouldn't have gotten a PhD.
Reposted by Santos Franco
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...
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
August 3, 2025 at 12:00 PM
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...
www.nature.com/articles/s41...