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Alessandro Bertero @berterolab.bsky.social · 18d

💸 Stem cell culture that’s ~95% cheaper and weekend-free: a win-win for PIs and trainees!
Our revised manuscript is online at ORE: open-research-europe.ec.europa.eu/articles/4-1...

Benchmarked across cell lines & differentiation protocols, including scRNA-seq — with lessons for #cultivatedmeat too!

open-research-europe.ec.europa.eu

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Alessandro Bertero @berterolab.bsky.social · Jul 8

A tour de force that elevates the #CALIPERS technology to a whole new level! A must read for all iPSCs, cell cycle, and developmental biology aficionados.

fspasqualini.bsky.social @fspasqualini.bsky.social · Jul 8

#CALIPERSv2 🚀 preprint is locked—journal submission next. Final polish, more hiPSC reference lines, and fresh light-sheet data. Still, a great collaboration led by @moisesdisante with the team @LabPhysiology and the amazing @berterolab.bsky.social and @florianjug.bsky.social group members! 1/N

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Reposted by Alessandro Bertero

fspasqualini.bsky.social @fspasqualini.bsky.social · Jul 8

#CALIPERSv2 🚀 preprint is locked—journal submission next. Final polish, more hiPSC reference lines, and fresh light-sheet data. Still, a great collaboration led by @moisesdisante with the team @LabPhysiology and the amazing @berterolab.bsky.social and @florianjug.bsky.social group members! 1/N

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Alessandro Bertero @berterolab.bsky.social · Apr 17

This is the way forward: here’s hope the “Fondo Italiano per la Scienza” will embrace this model instead of performing long, expensive, and less rigorous new evaluations (plus asking scientists to rewrite in ~half the space an already dense project)

European Research Council (ERC) @erc.europa.eu · Apr 16

We lack the budget to fund all the project proposals that are assessed as excellent by our peer review panels.

So it's encouraging to see that some of these projects eventually receive funding.

A big thank you to the Latvian government for supporting excellent science; a worthwhile investment!

Andris Šutka @andrissutka.bsky.social · Apr 15

My @ERC.europa.eu journey has ended with a positive outcome. After receiving an “A” score after the interview, full funding was granted from the European Regional Development Fund Latvia @CFLA_gov_lv. Thanks to everyone involved, especially my colleagues at Alma Mater @RTU_LV.

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Reposted by Alessandro Bertero

George Monbiot @georgemonbiot.bsky.social · Apr 2

This is such an important article, about the simplistic visions now pushing aside scientific research and complex social issues. A must read. newrepublic.com/article/1933...

The Flawed Ideology That Unites Grass-Fed Beef Fans and Anti-Vaxxers

From RFK Jr. to Hollywood A-listers and Democratic senators, people across the political spectrum are jumping onto the slippery slope of nature-based solutionism.

newrepublic.com

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Alessandro Bertero @berterolab.bsky.social · Mar 30

Yup. What an effective way to speed up the sixth mass extinction

Dr. Jonathan Foley @globalecoguy.bsky.social · Mar 26

The beef industry has done an incredible job of greenwashing -- far better than the fossil fuel industry.

And the playbook is pretty damn clear. And, sadly, it's working incredibly well -- to the point of misleading the whole world, including many environmentalists...

www.vox.com/future-perfe...

A newly surfaced document reveals the beef industry’s secret climate plan

What the beef industry knew about its environmental impact — and how it spent decades blocking climate action.

www.vox.com

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Reposted by Alessandro Bertero

Liz Borkowski @lizborkowski.bsky.social · Mar 29

NIH has rescinded its scientific integrity policy. Hard to see this as anything other than clearing the way for shoddy research on things like vaccines. Regardless of the rationale, it's bad news for public health.

grants.nih.gov/grants/guide...

NOT-OD-25-080: Rescission of the Final Scientific Integrity Policy of the National Institutes of Health

NIH Funding Opportunities and Notices in the NIH Guide for Grants and Contracts: Rescission of the Final Scientific Integrity Policy of the National Institutes of Health NOT-OD-25-080. OD

grants.nih.gov

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Alessandro Bertero @berterolab.bsky.social · Mar 29

Blood chilling list. The nightmare continues

Carl T. Bergstrom @carlbergstrom.com · Mar 28

Take the time to follow the link and read for yourself the list of cancelled grants.

The combination of cruelty, shortsightedness, and absolute ignorance is astounding.

Max Kozlov @maxkozlov.bsky.social · Mar 28

It's getting late on Friday, so you know what that means: HHS has just updated its list of cancelled grants and programs.

The document went from 14 pages long to 42 pages.

Just an incalculable list of cancelled COVID-19 funding.
taggs.hhs.gov/Content/Data...

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Alessandro Bertero @berterolab.bsky.social · Mar 22

Honored to be recognized as a 2025 @isscr.org Public Service Award Honoree for my commitment to the Early Career Advisory Committee! Supporting early-career scientists has been a rewarding journey I am very proud of. Read more about the award and my fellow honorees: invt.io/1lxbo0wcokz

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Reposted by Alessandro Bertero

ISSCR @isscr.org · Feb 26

#ISSCR joined hundreds of biomedical research organizations to urge House and Senate appropriators to support robust funding for NIH & avoid drastic measures that will slow scientific progress and weaken the U.S. research ecosystem. www.isscr.org/isscr-news/t...

The ISSCR Signs on to Coalition Letter in Support of NIH — International Society for Stem Cell Research

The ISSCR joined with Research!America, hundreds of biomedical research organizations, and thousands of private citizens from the U.S. scientific community to urge House and Senate appropriators to av...

www.isscr.org

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Reposted by Alessandro Bertero

Human Technopole @humantechnopole.bsky.social · Feb 17

🚀 The first 2025 Call for Access for our National Facilities is now open! Researchers can apply for cutting-edge services in the fields of omics, imaging and data analysis. Submit your proposal by 31 May!

Apply here 👉 humantechnopole.it/en/national-...

National Facilities - Human Technopole

humantechnopole.it

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Alessandro Bertero @berterolab.bsky.social · Feb 15

It’s a startup, so only time will tell if it will catch on and scale, but the technology seems solid

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Alessandro Bertero @berterolab.bsky.social · Feb 15

Indeed; we need innovations also in these sectors, such as the zero-emission brakes from #pointzero: www.point-zero.it

Point Zero – Break through the future

www.point-zero.it

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Alessandro Bertero @berterolab.bsky.social · Feb 10

Thanks to @erc.europa.eu for funding and publishing support, as well as @ec.europa.eu #NRRP & Giovanni Armenise-Harvard Foundation #CDA. If you made it this far, you may also be interested in our recent @febspress.bsky.social review on this topic: febs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.... 10/10

FEBS Press

The toolbox to manipulate gene function in human pluripotent stem cell models is large and growing: we review the state-of-the-art methods to perform robust loss-, gain-, and change-of-function studi...

febs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com

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Alessandro Bertero @berterolab.bsky.social · Feb 10

This is our second study on Open Research Europe, the @erc.europa.eu platform with transparent post-publication peer review, full open access, and no outrageous fees. I couldn’t be happier with this choice for both me and my student: a real breath of fresh air in today’s publishing landscape. 9/10

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Alessandro Bertero @berterolab.bsky.social · Feb 10

Here’s where we stand: I hope this helps others facing the same issue! Our manuscript formally passed peer review, but we're still tackling the reviewers’ remaining concerns (more on this below). Always open to suggestions: this is how science should work, IMHO. 8/10

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Alessandro Bertero @berterolab.bsky.social · Feb 10

Running low on options, we learned of Antonella Fidanza's @elife.bsky.social study using sodium butyrate to enhance a similar dox-inducible system. This strategy finally gave us >90% response in hiPSC-CMs—an effective fix, though relying on an epigenetic modulator isn't always ideal. 7/10

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Alessandro Bertero @berterolab.bsky.social · Feb 10

With AAVS1 silencing now widely reported, we turned to the CLYBL locus—touted as a better alternative in @plosone.org a few years back (journals.plos.org/plosone/arti...). Even when using insulators as in the original study, we saw mixed results: a glass half full, half empty, once again. 6/10

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Alessandro Bertero @berterolab.bsky.social · Feb 10

As we searched for answers, @johanneszuber.bsky.social kindly pointed us to an elegant @cp-cellrepmethods.bsky.social paper using a UCOE to stabilize TRE3VG (doi.org/10.1016/j.cr...). It improved inducibility in hPSC-derived cardiomyocytes, but was still far from perfect in this hard setting 5/10

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Alessandro Bertero @berterolab.bsky.social · Feb 10

For years, I suspected that the alternative dox-inducible promoter T11 might help. But between postdoc on other topics and a pandemic, testing had to wait—until Michelle, a master’s student in my lab, took on the challenge. Turns out I was dead wrong: it was worse than standard TRE3VG in hPSCs! 4/10

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Alessandro Bertero @berterolab.bsky.social · Feb 10

Turns out, this wasn’t just bad luck: it was a widespread issue, well-known yet rarely reported (as negative results often are). Why does it matter? Robust inducible gain-of-function experiments are crucial for both discovery and translational studies, and hPSCs are the most versatile cell type 310

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Alessandro Bertero @berterolab.bsky.social · Feb 10

This issue has frustrated me for a decade! During my PhD, we found that an otherwise excellent dox-inducible system failed to activate in many hPSC-derived cell types—including my favorite: cardiomyocytes. Fig. S7 from our @dev-journal.bsky.social paper 2/10

journals.biologists.com/dev/article/...

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Alessandro Bertero @berterolab.bsky.social · Feb 10

Struggling with #silencing of doxycycline-inducible transgenes in human pluripotent #stemcell derived lineages? You're not alone! In my very first #skeetorial I break down our latest paper on potential solutions to this common problem. Read on! 1/10

open-research-europe.ec.europa.eu/articles/4-2...

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Alessandro Bertero @berterolab.bsky.social · Feb 10

Amazing finding that could have broad implications also for cultivated meat production

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Alessandro Bertero @berterolab.bsky.social · Feb 9

Superb review from my friends and colleagues in @porpolab.bsky.social that helped me finally grasp the complexity of this often-overlooked disease in cancer patients. Bookmark it and give the authors a follow!

Paolo E Porporato @porpolab.bsky.social · Jan 7

Let's Start this 2025 (and this new Social) with a Post :)

Our review on inter-organ crosstalk driving Cancer Cachexia is now available @cp-trendsendomet.bsky.social

Systemic metabolic crosstalk as a driver of cancer cachexia by Wyart et al.

#Research #CancerCachexia #Metabolism #Muscle

authors.elsevier.com