Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

Timesh Pillay @timeshpillay.bsky.social · 15h

Very sad. More and more people are dying while experiencing homelessness in the UK, especially in England museumofhomelessness.org/news/new-res...

Our investigation finds that 1611 people experiencing homelessness died in 2024 - a 9% increase on the previous year. — Museum of Homelessness

We are devastated to share our latest research into the deaths of those who die. It has revealed the continued impact at the sharpest edge of the homelessness crisis, as the Labour Government has fail...

museumofhomelessness.org

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Timesh Pillay @timeshpillay.bsky.social · 16h

Exciting PhD opportunity for clinicians interesting in gram negative and Mycobacterial drug discovery (and ready to get stuck into the lab!) www.crick.ac.uk/careers-stud...

Johnson lab and Hess lab | Curating bioactive chemical space in pathogenic bacteria using accumulation signatures across species

www.crick.ac.uk

Timesh Pillay @timeshpillay.bsky.social · 1d

The global academic boycott of Israel’s complicit institutions is taking effect sciencebusiness.net/news/interna...

Global research collaboration with Israel sharply down this year

Significantly fewer academics, particularly in Europe, are authoring preprints with researchers in Israel this year, a sign that academic boycotts could be starting to scientifically isolate the count...

sciencebusiness.net

Reposted by Timesh Pillay

Nick Dearden @nickdearden.bsky.social · May 6

Amid a genocide, Starmer is sending diplomats to discuss a new trade deal with Israel. Britain is telling this genocidal government ‘one of the reasons to come to Israel is to demonstrate very strong support from the UK’

It’s revolting. We need sanctions not more trade. 1/2

Declassified UK @declassifieduk.org · May 6

👉NEW -- ‘Use trade talks with Israel as leverage’, government urged

by @markcurtis30.bsky.social

UK officials continue to promote trade and investment with Israel while it is massacring Palestinians.
www.declassifieduk.org/use-trade-ta...

‘Use trade talks with Israel as leverage’, government urged

UK officials continue to promote trade and investment with Israel while it is massacring Palestinian.

www.declassifieduk.org

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Reposted by Timesh Pillay

Adam Bienkov @adambienkov.bsky.social · May 1

Nigel Farage still insisting that he has "never ever, ever suggested anything other than the NHS should be free".

Here's what he's said in the past behind closed doors

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Timesh Pillay @timeshpillay.bsky.social · Apr 21

Glad someone is systematically assessing this

Declassified UK @declassifieduk.org · Apr 17

We researched the BBC’s online coverage of 16 aspects of UK policy towards Israel and the pro-Israel lobby.

The BBC is covering up how Britain backs Israel, and its complicity in genocide👇
www.declassifieduk.org/national-sca...

‘National scandal’: The BBC’s Gaza cover-up

Britain’s ‘public service broadcaster’ is keeping the public in the dark about UK support for Israel’s assault on Gaza, new research finds.

www.declassifieduk.org

Reposted by Timesh Pillay

Nick Hopkinson @copddoc.bsky.social · Apr 19

Genocide.
www.theguardian.com/world/2025/a...

Despair in Gaza as Israeli aid blockade creates crisis ‘unmatched in severity’

Palestinians pushed into new misery as supplies of food, fuel and medicine run out in seven-week siege

www.theguardian.com

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Reposted by Timesh Pillay

Jane Dudley @janedudley.bsky.social · Apr 11

After a great review process with @naturecomms.bsky.social, I'm so happy to share our work identifying inactive RING E3 #ubiquitin #pseudoligases in the TRIM protein family!! rdcu.be/ehlGW
🥳 🍾 🙌
@katmcphie.bsky.social @diegoesposito.bsky.social @katrinrittinger.bsky.social @crick.ac.uk

Identification of RING E3 pseudoligases in the TRIM protein family

Nature Communications - Understanding the catalytic and regulatory mechanisms of the ubiquitin system is key to tapping into its therapeutic potential in diseases where its dysfunction is...

rdcu.be

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Reposted by Timesh Pillay

Joanne Flynn @joanneflynn19.bsky.social · Apr 8

Tuberculosis is not going away. If the cutting edge research goes away, #TB will rage on. Harvard is being targeted including the TB Immunology contract and that trickles down to all of us working on these studies. Progress will be halted. And TB will flourish. www.bostonglobe.com/2025/04/08/m...

‘This looks bad.’ A Harvard infectious disease researcher is targeted in Trump’s review. - The Boston Globe

Sarah Fortune’s tuberculosis research was the number one project on a list of threatened funding.

www.bostonglobe.com

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Reposted by Timesh Pillay

ProPublica @propublica.org · Mar 28

NEW: The move — along with the CDC’s explanation — is a sign that the nation’s top public health agency may be falling in line under HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., a longtime critic of vaccines.

By @sheinvestigates.bsky.social

The CDC Buried a Measles Forecast That Stressed the Need for Vaccinations

The move — along with the CDC’s explanation — is a sign that the nation’s top public health agency may be falling in line under HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., a longtime critic of vaccines.

propub.li

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Reposted by Timesh Pillay

Joanne Flynn @joanneflynn19.bsky.social · Mar 26

I too have been dismissed from NIAID Board of Scientific Counselors along with 3 other women and a non-white man

Needhi Bhalla 💅🏽 @needhibhalla.bsky.social · Mar 25

Just received the email that my recent appointment to a BSC, which was supposed to be until June 2029, was terminated effective immediately.

Scott Delaney @scott-delaney.bsky.social · Mar 20

More political meddling at NIH:

I'm told that multiple (2-4ish) members of the Boards of Scientific Counselors, which oversee intramural research, have been kicked off the boards before their term expires.

No explanation given, but the thought is that these were folks who cared about DEI.

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Reposted by Timesh Pillay

Teresa Thurston @thurstonlab.bsky.social · Mar 7

New preprint on how a minimal Salmonella kinase needs a host kinase to activate it. Work led by @timeshpillay.bsky.social and another great collaboration with @katrinrittinger.bsky.social @crick.ac.uk biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

Salmonella effector kinase SteC is activated by host-mediated phosphorylation

The pathogen Salmonella , which causes significant human morbidity and mortality, encodes an effector kinase, SteC, which mediates actin polymerisation and cell migration. Given the minimal nature of ...

biorxiv.org

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Timesh Pillay @timeshpillay.bsky.social · Mar 4

@katrinrittinger.bsky.social @thurstonlab.bsky.social

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Timesh Pillay @timeshpillay.bsky.social · Mar 4

It was a team effort! I’m lucky to have worked with and learnt from knowledgeable, experienced and inspiring supervisors & co-authors, and many more in the Crick and Imperial infection communities. I look forward to the discussions and further study that come from this work 🦠

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Timesh Pillay @timeshpillay.bsky.social · Mar 4

For this and much much more read the full paper, now available on biorxiv biorxiv.org/content/10.1... 9/11

biorxiv.org

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Timesh Pillay @timeshpillay.bsky.social · Mar 4

In infection, SteC without its C-tail was translocated into the host cell just like wild-type, but failed to localise to the tip of the Salmonella and was unable to polymerise actin. This suggests the C-tail localises SteC for efficient kinase activity in the host cell. 8/11

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Timesh Pillay @timeshpillay.bsky.social · Mar 4

Meanwhile the C-tail of SteC, which is predicted to be poorly structured, is dispensable for SteC activity in vitro and is not required for actin polymerisation in transfected human cells. So what is the role of the C-tail? 7/11

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Timesh Pillay @timeshpillay.bsky.social · Mar 4

Furthermore, Salmonella infected into human cells requires phosphorylation of SteC at S379 for its functions to be seen. 6/11

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Timesh Pillay @timeshpillay.bsky.social · Mar 4

To our surprise, we found that SteC is activated through phosphorylation by a host kinase at serine 379. Without this, SteC is less able to phosphorylate its known substrates in vitro, and is unable to polymerise actin in human cells transfected with the steC gene. 5/11

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Timesh Pillay @timeshpillay.bsky.social · Mar 4

AlphaFold2 predicts the structure of SteC to contain a minimal kinase domain, lacking key expected features compared to known kinases, and containing a poorly structured C-tail. Despite this, SteC still functions as a kinase. How? 4/11

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Timesh Pillay @timeshpillay.bsky.social · Mar 4

So what better enzyme to study than SteC, a kinase found in pathogenic strains of Salmonella? Once Salmonella enters the host cell, it translocates SteC into the host cytoplasm via its type 3 secretion system, where it phosphorylates host proteins leading to actin polymerisation. 3/11

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Timesh Pillay @timeshpillay.bsky.social · Mar 4

Kinases, arguably the best studied enzyme class, add phosphate onto target proteins, usually at serine, threonine or tyrosine residues. This process is called phosphorylation. 2/11

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Timesh Pillay @timeshpillay.bsky.social · Mar 4

During my PhD at @crick.ac.uk and @imperialcollegeldn.bsky.social, I explored the molecular interaction between host and pathogen. My question: How have pathogenic bacteria evolved to manipulate their host environment during infection? 🦠https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.03.01.640964v1 1/11

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