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Mike Lee

@theleelab.bsky.social

1K followers 1.3K following 28 posts

A laboratory of Systems Pharmacology at UMass Medical School. We study cancer therapies, and aim to understand how they activate cell death and how to make this work better. https://www.umassmed.edu/Lee-Lab

www.umassmed.edu

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Mike Lee @theleelab.bsky.social · Aug 15

I’m excited to highlight our latest paper, just published in Cell 🎉

We report the existence of a previously uncharacterized signaling pathway that is responsible for activating cell death upon loss of gene expression.

1/n 🧪

www.cell.com/cell/fulltex...

RNA Pol II inhibition activates cell death independently from the loss of transcription

When RNA polymerase II (RNA Pol II) is inhibited, the inhibition is sensed and signaled to mitochondria, leading to programmed cell death independently of the loss of RNA Pol II transcription activity...

Reposted by Mike Lee

MeidasTouch @meidastouch.com · 12d

🚨 BREAKING: James Comey posts a video statement following his indictment

"My family and I have known for years that there are costs to standing up to Donald Trump...But I'm not afraid. And I hope you're not either...And I'm innocent. So let's have a trial and keep the faith."

Reposted by Mike Lee

Nature @nature.com · 13d

We used machine-learning tools in an attempt to recreate the method for cutting funding, and then applied it to past US NIH grants to reveal the broad-reaching consequences

go.nature.com/4pBArFH

What research might be lost after the NIH’s cuts? Nature trained a bot to find out

We used machine-learning tools in an attempt to recreate the method for cutting funding, and then applied it to past US National Institutes of Health grants to reveal the broad-reaching consequences of such action.

Reposted by Mike Lee

Max Kozlov @maxkozlov.bsky.social · 13d

NEW: Nature trained AI to predict which NIH grants from 2014 would have been cut if the Trump admin had its way back then — and what science would have been lost to history.

"The results show the damage that cuts in funding can do to research, and the unpredictable nature of the research process."

Nature @nature.com · 13d

We used machine-learning tools in an attempt to recreate the method for cutting funding, and then applied it to past US NIH grants to reveal the broad-reaching consequences

go.nature.com/4pBArFH

What research might be lost after the NIH’s cuts? Nature trained a bot to find out

We used machine-learning tools in an attempt to recreate the method for cutting funding, and then applied it to past US National Institutes of Health grants to reveal the broad-reaching consequences of such action.

Mike Lee @theleelab.bsky.social · Aug 22

A nice Q&A with Nick Harper about the discovery of PDAR, and his road to becoming a scientist @umasschan.bsky.social

www.umassmed.edu/dsb/dsb-comm...

Picture of Nick Harper, a graduate student in the Lee Lab at UMass Chan Medical School

Mike Lee @theleelab.bsky.social · Aug 15

Congrats to Nick Harper and the rest of the team!
7/end 🧪

Mike Lee @theleelab.bsky.social · Aug 15

A 3rd surprise: PDAR accounts for the activity of many cancer drugs, including several that have never been considered transcriptional inhibitors.

Drugs that cause bulky DNA lesions activate many stress pathways… but activating PDAR accounts for their ability to kill cancer cells.
6/n 🧪

Mike Lee @theleelab.bsky.social · Aug 15

The 2nd surprise is related to how PDAR works: cells sense the loss of the hypo-phosphorylated (i.e., not actively transcribing) forms of RNA Pol II.

Yes, this is about loss of gene expression, but it doesn’t really have anything to do with loss of transcriptional activity or loss of RNA 😳
5/n 🧪

Mike Lee @theleelab.bsky.social · Aug 15

With activation of PDAR, cells die proactively. This occurs before cells really experience any stress from the dysregulated gene expression, and the outcome isn’t left to chance.
4/n 🧪

Mike Lee @theleelab.bsky.social · Aug 15

The 1st surprise is simply that PDAR exists.

Intuitively, complete loss of gene expression should be sufficient to kill a cell… and that is true, but it takes a LOOONG time and cells die using an array of different mechanisms (e.g., inflammatory/necrotic, apoptotic, etc.).
3/n 🧪

Mike Lee @theleelab.bsky.social · Aug 15

We call this pathway the Pol II Degradation-dependent Apoptotic Response (PDAR).

Our study highlights 3 major surprises about PDAR:

2/n 🧪

The image shows the pathway called the Pol II Degradation-dependent Apoptotic Response (PDAR), highlighting the 3 mechanistic steps leading to cell death: Pol II degradation, PTBP1 and BCL2L12 translocation, and activation of cell intrinsic apoptosis

Mike Lee @theleelab.bsky.social · Aug 15

I’m excited to highlight our latest paper, just published in Cell 🎉

We report the existence of a previously uncharacterized signaling pathway that is responsible for activating cell death upon loss of gene expression.

1/n 🧪

www.cell.com/cell/fulltex...

RNA Pol II inhibition activates cell death independently from the loss of transcription

When RNA polymerase II (RNA Pol II) is inhibited, the inhibition is sensed and signaled to mitochondria, leading to programmed cell death independently of the loss of RNA Pol II transcription activity...

Reposted by Mike Lee

Abby Dernburg @adernburg.bsky.social · Jul 31

For who still thinks this can’t happen here… it’s already happening.
www.theatlantic.com/science/arch...

Every Scientific Empire Comes to an End

America’s run as the premiere techno-superpower may be over.

www.theatlantic.com

Mike Lee @theleelab.bsky.social · Jul 30

awesome work Steve and team!

Reposted by Mike Lee

Joshua Weitz @joshuasweitz.bsky.social · Jun 25

"[A] sleeper issue is the proposed 40 percent cut to the National Institutes of Health, in the White House’s proposed budget for the next fiscal year."

Perhaps injecting some economic impact data may help awaken what should not be a sleeper issue... @prospect.org

scienceimpacts.org/fy26

Economic loss due to NIH budget cuts by Congressional district, scienceimpacts.org/fy26

Mike Lee @theleelab.bsky.social · Jun 23

Things have been challenging over these last few months, but we also had a lot to celebrate...

Tiana and Mika joining the lab 🎉,
Kelly passing her QE 🎉,
Gavin publishing a paper and submitting another 🎉,
Megan publishing a paper 🎉,
Nick getting excellent reviews 🎉

...so we did a paint nite.

The Lee Lab at Paint Nite at Nu Kitchen in Worcester, MA

Reposted by Mike Lee

Michael E. Mann @michaelemann.bsky.social · May 29

Trump’s new ‘gold standard’ rule will destroy American science as we know it" by Colette Delawalla (@cdelawalla.bsky.social), Victor Ambros, Carl Bergstrom, Carol Greider, Michael Mann and Brian Nosek for @theguardian.com: www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

Trump’s new ‘gold standard’ rule will destroy American science as we know it | Colette Delawalla

The new executive order allows political appointees to undermine research they oppose, paving the way to state-controlled science

www.theguardian.com

Reposted by Mike Lee

Vijay G. Sankaran @bloodgenes.bsky.social · May 20

www.forbes.com/sites/johndr...

Trump’s NIH And NSF Cuts Estimated To Cost The U.S. Economy $10 Billion Annually

Economists find public R&D drives U.S. productivity growth — and pays for itself

Reposted by Mike Lee

Neil deGrasse Tyson @neildegrassetyson.com · May 20

Not that anyone asked, but during my tenure on the Pentagon’s Defense Innovation Board, under part of Obama-2 and all of Trump-1, we visited Military Bases domestically & abroad.

At no time did any member of the Armed Forces I met say to me: “America needs less science funding.”

Reposted by Mike Lee

Ben Allen @evodynamics.bsky.social · May 15

Grants on antibiotic resistance (and many other things) cancelled "due to unsafe antisemitic actions that suggest the institution lacks concern for the safety and wellbeing of Jewish students."

Every single Jewish org needs to stand up and speak clearly against this weaponization of antisemitism

Michael Baym @baym.lol · May 13

Yesterday, the NIH R35 “Outstanding Investigator” grant to fund scientists in my lab studying antibiotic resistance was terminated for reasons not related to the content of the science, or any actions taken by me or members of my lab

A screenshot of the termination notice showing "Outstanding Investigator Grants"

A screenshot of the termination notice with "This award is terminated effective the date of this award, due to unsafe antisemitic actions that suggest the institution lacks concern for the safety and wellbeing of Jewish students." highlighted

Reposted by Mike Lee

Health Nerd @gidmk.bsky.social · May 14

"People should not take medical advice from me" ~ the man directly in charge of medical advice for the United States

Carl T. Bergstrom @carlbergstrom.com · May 14

If you use your position as the head of HHS to ratfuck a country's vaccination programs and future vaccine development efforts, your opinions on vaccines are very definitely NOT irrelevant.

Kennedy if he would vaccinate his own child for measles.

“For measles? Probably for measles I —” Mr. Kennedy began to answer before stopping himself. “You know, what I would say is, my opinions about vaccines are irrelevant.

“I don’t want to seem like I’m being evasive, but I don’t think people should be taking medical advice from me,” he said.

Reposted by Mike Lee

boehninglab @boehninglab.com · May 9

www.thenation.com/article/poli...

Inside the Bloodbath at the NIH

Sources say that a climate of fear has spread throughout the agency as the Trump administration takes a hatchet to its core functions.

www.thenation.com

Reposted by Mike Lee

Don Moynihan @donmoyn.bsky.social · Apr 19

Set aside the headline, this is a good primer on the how the federal govt wanted higher Ed to take on a bigger research role, and funded the infrastructure to make that possible via merit-based peer reviewed processes. The research funding is not entitlements and cutting it comes w real costs

Chris Bail @chrisbail.bsky.social · Apr 19

www.nytimes.com/2025/04/18/u...

How Universities Became So Dependent on the Federal Government

For decades, universities got billions in federal dollars for research. The relationship was mutually beneficial, until President Trump decided it wasn’t.

www.nytimes.com

Reposted by Mike Lee

Talia Hatkevich @taliahatkevichphd.bsky.social · Apr 19

Yyyyyyeeeeessssssa!!!! We are finally standing up!!!!!!!!!!!!

Anna Gifty @itsafronomics.bsky.social · Apr 19

Northwestern just announced that the university will meet the funding needs of any research that is being impacted by stop orders. LET'S GOOOOOOOOOOOOO! #edusky #academicsky

wgntv.com/evanston/nor...

Northwestern University to self-fund research despite Trump administration freeze

While university officials said they’ve still not received official word of such action, they acknowledged receiving about 100 stop-work orders from the federal government on roughly 100 fede…

Reposted by Mike Lee

Carolyn Bertozzi @carolynbertozzi.bskyverified.social · Apr 14

Harvard steps up

www.harvard.edu/research-fun...

www.harvard.edu

Reposted by Mike Lee

Adam Serwer @adamserwer.bsky.social · Apr 14

What we saw today was two jumped up thugs and their bootlicking sychophants laughing at the US Constitution, the supreme court, and the idea that anyone can stop them from doing anything they want www.theatlantic.com/politics/arc...

The Constitutional Crisis Is Here

The Supreme Court told the Trump administration to “facilitate” the return of Kilmar Abrego Garcia from El Salvador’s infamous CECOT prison. So far, the administration is pretending to comply while re...

www.theatlantic.com