Abolfazl Nik-Akhtar

A major work from our lab is out in Science! @ScienceMag, another key step towards a true demonstration of RNA self-replication. science.org/doi/10.1126/sc… (1/6)

CIHR funding rate: 13.6%. Early 2000s: 30%+. Canada’s new $1.7B Impact+ program recruits talent — but without increased Tri-Council base funding, we risk further strain on an already stretched system. We’re calling for $1B over 5 years. Support here: tinyurl.com/33c5av46

Imagine slicing a c57 placenta, sequencing each section, and compute it 3D, a living gene-expression map! Imagine doing it every 18.5 days of gestation: a placenta database website! A full transcriptional atlas of the organ. Who wants to run this together?@IFPA_Official

Read the paper at sciencedirect.com/science/articl…

Our study supported by advanced transcriptomics, demonstrated for the first time it’s specific to the inflammatory subtype—guiding personalized medicine and targeted therapies for each subclass of pre-eclampsia. Grateful to @PlacentaLab & thanks to @IFPA_Official!

Congrats to @ycariacos & team on uncovering ferroptosis as a key driver of placental dysfunction in inflammation-driven preeclampsia.

The road toward AAV-mediated gene therapy of Duchenne muscular dystrophy 👉 10.1016/j.ymthe.2025.03.065 @TasfaoutH #DuchenneMuscularDystrophy #AAVVectors #MicroDystrophin #MiniDystrophin #CRISPR #GeneEditing #MuscleGeneTherapy #SystemicDelivery #DystroBlog #Nikilab.net

In mice cysteine-restriction-induced adipose browning and #weightloss requires sympathetic nervous system-derived noradrenaline signalling via β3-adrenergic-receptors that is independent of FGF21 and UCP1 @NatMetabolism nature.com/articles/s4225…

What's the meaning of the glucose spikes after eating? A new @NatureMedicine study finds people have different food triggers and some connect with insulin resistance, along with ways to mitigate spikes nature.com/articles/s4159…

Beautiful animation of metabolic flux in the mitochondrial Kreb (TCA) cycle The three "CO2" coming off the cycle is how you lose weight: carbon from your material body coming off as gas you end up breathing out By @janetiwasa

Exon skipping for Duchenne muscular dystrophy: a systematic review and metaanalysis 👉 doi.org/10.1186/s13023… #ExonSkipping #DuchenneMuscularDystrophy #DMD #Eteplirsen #Drisapersen #ClinicalTrials #6MinuteWalkTest #MetaAnalysis #AntisenseOligonucleotides

While making Ghorme Sabzi, an Iranian dish, I started thinking about the first person who ever cooked food. Were they a chemist experimenting with ingredients? Isn’t cooking like running a delicious science experiment in a reactor pot!”

What do all maladies have in common? Increased entropy! Isn’t it amazing how the body evolved to restore its low order?

@TahaAzad2 @chembioBryan @Tai_ImmunoLab @QFKC @TommyAlain3 @Rezaeir75 @philippavalenci Congratulations on this remarkable achievement! The innovative use of antibiotics for selecting viruses could accelerate advancements in the field of OV. Excited to see its applications unfold. Outstanding work! @Rezaeir75

Our recent project offering safer and more efficient #oncolytic_viruses. Collaboration with esteemed researchers and Reza Rezaei's creativity strengthens this exceptional work. @chembioBryan @Tai_ImmunoLab @QFKC @TommyAlain3 @Rezaeir75 @philippavalenci nature.com/articles/s4146…

Happy to share our new paper in Nature Biomedical Engineering! Special congratulations to the first author, Dr. Reza Rezaei, and our amazing collaborators. @Rezaeir75 @Tai_ImmunoLab @TommyAlain3 rdcu.be/d1MzQ nature.com/articles/s4155…

Just like in “March of Progress” science moves forward step by step. Remember that future scientists will follow the path we leave behind.

University websites are like distant stars, when you look at them you see the scientists as they used to be many years ago

Today we report in @NatureBiotech a system for the laboratory evolution of engineered virus-like particles (eVLPs) that enables the discovery of eVLP variants with desired properties, including improved production and delivery potency. 1/13 PDF: drive.google.com/file/d/1E6Nr86…

Today, my positive control decided to take a day off, and all I could think of was Neil deGrasse Tyson’s wisdom: ‘The universe is under no obligation to make sense to you.’ Honestly, neither is my experiment apparently.

Organoids are the supermodels of biomedical research—finally giving us lab models that can actually model! Proud to share that I’ll be attending the Organoid Symposium with a scholarship from @StemCellNetwork. Eager to learn more and connect with fellow researchers! @PlacentaLab