Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

Heiko Lickert @heikolickert.bsky.social · Aug 26

Congratulations Nike, Nicole, Kathy and the whole team to get this important study into the pipeline. If you womder if stem cell-derived islet compositions matters for safety and efficacy for the graft, our tissue engineering approach gives an answer. Check it out….

Christos Karampelias @ckarampelias.bsky.social · Aug 24

Check out the latest manuscript from the @heikolickert.bsky.social lab on generating a defined stem-cell derived islet product for transplantation.
A thorough characterization of the system particularly by our star PhD students Nike and Nicole! #PancSky
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

Endocrine-enriched stem cell-derived islets improve long-term safety in vivo

Fully differentiated stem cell-derived islets (SC-islets) are proven to normalise blood glucose in type 1 diabetic patients. However, the presence of off-target cell types and the immature SC-islet fu...

www.biorxiv.org

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Reposted by Heiko Lickert

Jim Pickard @pickardje.bsky.social · May 8

Billionaire philanthropist Bill Gates ratcheted up his feud with Elon Musk, accusing the world’s richest man of “killing the world’s poorest children” through what he said were misguided cuts to US development assistance

www.ft.com/content/bdd9...

Bill Gates accuses Elon Musk of ‘killing’ children with USAID cuts

Billionaire reopens feud with Tesla chief as he unveils plan to spend $200bn on philanthropy and close foundation in 2045

www.ft.com

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Heiko Lickert @heikolickert.bsky.social · May 1

Looking forward…

German Stem Cell Network GSCN @gscnoffice.bsky.social · Apr 28

@heikolickert.bsky.social and Julian Heuberger speak at the hybrid Stem Cell Club on 15 May.
👉 bit.ly/3BT9pVE
#diabetes #organoids #stemcells #stammzellen
@mdc-bimsb.bsky.social @mdc-berlin.bsky.social @bihatcharite.bsky.social @tuberlin.bsky.social @www.helmholtz-munich.de @dkfz.bsky.social

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Renatus Deckert @renatusdeckert.bsky.social · Mar 23

Zum Frühlingsanfang eine kleine Frühlingsgeschichte: Über frostige Nächte und aufplatzende Knospen, über Abschiede und Schmetterlinge im Bauch, Ostseemuscheln und Eselsohren und warum Tauben Tauben heißen

Requiem auf ein Fahrrad

Über frostige Nächte und aufplatzende Knospen, über Abschiede und Schmetterlinge im Bauch, Ostseemuscheln und Eselsohren und warum Tauben Tauben heißen

steadyhq.com

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Benoit Bruneau @benoitbruneau.bsky.social · Mar 29

taking a dive into Andy Kaufman's career, and nothing prepared me for this: www.youtube.com/watch?v=TSYV...

Andy Kaufman: "I Trusted You"

YouTube video by Pete Peterson

www.youtube.com

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Reposted by Heiko Lickert

Mark Lewandoski PhD @marklewandoski.bsky.social · Mar 29

My prior home towns, like Manhattan and San Francisco, never had the burst of flowering trees every Spring, like the DC area.

It’s dazzling each time.

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Heiko Lickert @heikolickert.bsky.social · Mar 15

This clearly will get worse with our dependency on computers, mobile phones, social media, AI, and even worse, we will be manipulated without having a chance - so for me it is clear, this trend will continue and we will lose our natural Intelligence…

John Burn-Murdoch @jburnmurdoch.ft.com · Mar 14

NEW 🧵 Is human intelligence starting to decline?

Recent results from major international tests show that the average person’s capacity to process information, use reasoning and solve novel problems has been falling since around the mid 2010s

What should we make of this?

www.ft.com/content/a801...

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Heiko Lickert @heikolickert.bsky.social · Mar 14

Great complementary pig organoid model pioneered and established from the one and only @ckarampelias.bsky.social. Excellent work, check it out…

Christos Karampelias @ckarampelias.bsky.social · Mar 14

Happy to share our work on pancreatic ductal organoids from the human-relevant pig model across developmental stages ranging from embryonic to adult animals and using them for drug screening applications from the @heikolickert.bsky.social lab. #PancSky #devbio 🧪🧬 www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1... /1

Benchmarking porcine pancreatic ductal organoids for drug screening applications

Primary human pancreatic ductal organoids (HPDO) have emerged as a model to study pancreas biology and disease. Yet, donor material availability, and a lack of extensive benchmarking limits the range ...

www.biorxiv.org

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Reposted by Heiko Lickert

Daniel Drucker @danieljdrucker.bsky.social · Mar 13

Some thoughts on the new dynamic uncertain status and need for US-Canada Science diplomacy www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

Uphold US-Canada science

A partnership can be demanding, and as with any couple, can have good days and bad. The United States–Canada relationship is most definitely having a bad one. It’s difficult to fully comprehend all th...

www.science.org

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Reposted by Heiko Lickert

Eunhee Choi @eunheechoilab.bsky.social · Feb 10

Excited to share our recent review on the insulin-IGF receptor signaling!

Nature Reviews Molecular Cell Biology @natrevmcb.nature.com · Feb 10

New Online! Regulation and function of insulin and insulin-like growth factor receptor signalling

Regulation and function of insulin and insulin-like growth factor receptor signalling

Nature Reviews Molecular Cell Biology, Published online: 10 February 2025; doi:10.1038/s41580-025-00826-3Insulin and insulin-like growth factor (IGF) signalling regulates metabolism, cell growth and proliferation and diverse cell-specific processes. This…

bit.ly

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Heiko Lickert @heikolickert.bsky.social · Feb 22

Fantastic work - congratulations Scott and team!

Christos Karampelias @ckarampelias.bsky.social · Feb 22

I mean what an encyclopaedia of a paper was that by @soleimanpourlab.bsky.social and colleagues www.science.org/doi/10.1126/... amazing work and a compendium for mitochondrial biology in metabolic tissues. Have you seen this @heikolickert.bsky.social ? #PancSky

Retrograde mitochondrial signaling governs the identity and maturity of metabolic tissues

Mitochondrial damage is a hallmark of metabolic diseases, including diabetes, yet the consequences of compromised mitochondria in metabolic tissues are often unclear. Here, we report that dysfunctiona...

www.science.org

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Heiko Lickert @heikolickert.bsky.social · Feb 21

Final count down, just a few more days until registration closes…

Heiko Lickert @heikolickert.bsky.social · Jan 21

Application deadline is get closer - make sure you do not miss this exciting EMBO workshop on liver and pancreatic biology and disease 😉

meetings.embo.org/event/25-liv...

Liver and pancreas in metabolic disease: from pathways to therapies

The liver and pancreas arise from a common developmental origin and are controlled by shared gene regulatory programs.These organs are central to two of the most common and devastating metabolic dise…

meetings.embo.org

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Heiko Lickert @heikolickert.bsky.social · Jan 23

Exciting new tool to make the most out of multimodal single-cell data from our friends and long-term collaborators of the @fabian_theis lab - check it out, it works beautifully and really makes sense out of your complex data! 👇👍😉

Fabian Theis @fabiantheis.bsky.social · Jan 22

Excited to see Moscot (moscot-tools.org) published in @Nature! We scaled Optimal Transport (OT) in single-cell genomics & added multimodality together with spatiotemporal trajectory inference, finding exciting new biology in the pancreas! 🚀 Read at www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Mapping cells through time and space with moscot - Nature

Moscot is an optimal transport approach that overcomes current limitations of similar methods to enable multimodal, scalable and consistent single-cell analyses of datasets across spatial and temporal...

www.nature.com

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Heiko Lickert @heikolickert.bsky.social · Jan 21

Application deadline is get closer - make sure you do not miss this exciting EMBO workshop on liver and pancreatic biology and disease 😉

meetings.embo.org/event/25-liv...

Liver and pancreas in metabolic disease: from pathways to therapies

The liver and pancreas arise from a common developmental origin and are controlled by shared gene regulatory programs.These organs are central to two of the most common and devastating metabolic dise…

meetings.embo.org

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Reposted by Heiko Lickert

Emma R Andersson @anderssonlab.bsky.social · Jan 20

Want to delve deep into liver and pancreas biology in a beautiful setting? Join us April 1–4 at the EMBO Workshop in the beautiful coastal town of Sant Feliu de Guíxols (Girona), Spain! Organized w/ Ines Cebola, @jorge-ferrer.bsky.social @heikolickert.bsky.social & Ludovic Vallier.

bit.ly/4g8zajj

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Reposted by Heiko Lickert

Benoit Bruneau @benoitbruneau.bsky.social · Jan 13

our newest preprint! Led by Zoe Grant in my lab and Shuzen Kuang in Katie Pollard's lab here at Gladstone. "Dose-dependent sensitivity of human 3D chromatin to a heart disease-linked transcription factor" 1/n www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

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studerl.bsky.social @studerl.bsky.social · Jan 13

Exciting news from BlueRock Therapeutics & Bayer on upcoming phase III trial for our DA neuron cell therapy in Parkinson’s disease. www.bluerocktx.com/bluerock-the...

BlueRock Therapeutics advances investigational cell therapy bemdaneprocel for treating Parkinson’s disease to registrational Phase III clinical trial - BlueRock Therapeutics LP

BlueRock will initiate a Phase III clinical trial for bemdaneprocel, its investigational cell therapy for Parkinson’s disease. It is expected to begin in the first half of 2025 and will represent a si...

www.bluerocktx.com

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Reposted by Heiko Lickert

Christos Karampelias @ckarampelias.bsky.social · Dec 30

Nice findings on Beta cell dysfunction studied in human pancreatic slices during type 1 diabetes progression, interesting findings on calcium dynamics #BetaSky @eaphelps.bsky.social www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

Beta cell dysfunction occurs independently of insulitis in type 1 diabetes pathogenesis

During type 1 diabetes (T1D) progression, beta cells become dysfunctional and exhibit reduced first-phase insulin release. While this period of beta cell dysfunction is well established, its cause and...

www.biorxiv.org

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Reposted by Heiko Lickert

John Scalzi @scalzi.com · Dec 29

I'm at a point where I'm honestly vaguely surprised that anyone who isn't an admitted fascist (or at least fascist-comfortable) and/or a corporate account is still actively on the former Twitter. The best time to have left is long gone, but the second-best time is now.

www.pcmag.com/opinions/my-...

My #1 New Year's Resolution: Dump Twitter, Embrace Bluesky

I'm quitting Twitter in 2025, and you should, too. Join me in jumping over to the platform that brings fun back to social media.

www.pcmag.com

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Eric Topol @erictopol.bsky.social · Dec 28

My favorite books, 2024

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Heiko Lickert @heikolickert.bsky.social · Dec 23

Looks like a fun group, can you add me, too 😀

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Reposted by Heiko Lickert

Jorge Ferrer @jorge-ferrer.bsky.social · Dec 21

Join us in a beautiful location for this multidisciplinary experience. Top speakers linking topics such as organoid modeling, synthetic biology, gene regulation or genetics with disease mechanisms & new therapies for T1D, T2D, and MASLD

meetings.embo.org/event/25-liver-pancreas

Liver and pancreas in metabolic disease: from pathways to therapies

The liver and pancreas arise from a common developmental origin and are controlled by shared gene regulatory programs.These organs are central to two of the most common and devastating metabolic dise…

meetings.embo.org

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Heiko Lickert @heikolickert.bsky.social · Dec 19

My top highlight for 2025 - EMBO workshop in Saint Feliu - three exciting days of science crossing boundaries of liver & pancreas research! Co-organised by @CebolaLab @1jorgeferrer @VallierLab @LickertHeiko & Emma Anderson #livertwitter #islets #masld #diabetes

meetings.embo.org/event/25-liv...

Liver and pancreas in metabolic disease: from pathways to therapies

The liver and pancreas arise from a common developmental origin and are controlled by shared gene regulatory programs.These organs are central to two of the most common and devastating metabolic dise…

meetings.embo.org

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Heiko Lickert @heikolickert.bsky.social · Dec 17

Hi Esther, Can you add me, too? Thanks!

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Ondine Cleaver @ondinecleaver.bsky.social · Dec 2

Essential reading for all that serve as reviewers. Please help your authors as if they were in your lab. Make your reviews constructive.

Overly onerous reviews amount to blocking each others’ work. It slows progress and demoralizes junior investigators.

Let’s elevate, not crush, #DevBio

James Briscoe @jamesbriscoe.bsky.social · Dec 2

New @dev-journal.bsky.social editorial

We know we have high standards - but we're committed to making publishing with us constructive

From clear revision guidance to limitations sections & transparent peer review, we're here to help you share your science

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

Constructive Critics: Development's approach to peer review

We're all familiar with complaints about peer review. Some think it's biased – editors (especially from ‘those’ journals) seem to have too much power to decide what gets published. It can be opaque – ...

journals.biologists.com

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