Maria Avrutsky 🇺🇦

Today marks 30 years since Ukraine signed the Budapest Memorandum. Pressured by a coordinated position from Russia and the United States, Ukraine gave up the world’s third-largest nuclear arsenal in exchange for modest financial compensation and security assurances. This decision, in hindsight, was one of the early steps that emboldened Russian aggression against Ukraine. Recently, I was asked what lesson Ukraine should take from the Budapest Memorandum. I believe it is the U.S. that must learn the lesson: don’t mess up again. Russia is a rogue state, aligned with China, North Korea, and Iran. Don’t make the mistake of misjudging who your true friends are again.

Important ramifications for studies on microglial functions in CNS

Caspase-1 Inhibition Ameliorates Photoreceptor Damage Following Retinal Detachment by Inhibiting Microglial Pyroptosis - The American Journal of Pathology ajp.amjpathol.org/article/S0002-…

A team of researchers from the Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine and the Cole Eye Institute have found that melatonin may also reduce the risks of age-related macular degeneration (AMD). Read More: ow.ly/chcx50SfmuW

A Non‐Apoptotic Pattern of Caspase‐9/Caspase‐3 Activation During Differentiation of Human Embryonic Stem Cells into Cardiomyocytes - onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/ad…

Beyond excited to share my first paper from my PhD @DPhaz Lab @IMS_MRL now out in @embojournal! Special thanks to Sam from @TVPLab and @dougall_norris for co-leading this project with me. We found that many cell culture models, despite living in 18% oxygen, are hypoxic! 🧵below: embopress.org/doi/full/10.10…

New study identifies nonapoptotic mechanisms of caspase-9 regulation of osteogenesis and bone homeostasis. α/β hydrolase ABHD2 identified as a potential novel cleavage target of #casp9.

Eye diseases long thought to be purely genetic might be caused in part by bacteria that escape the gut and travel to the retina go.nature.com/4bLdhFX

Fascinating study linking OCT retinal imaging to multiple systemic diseases based on phenome-wide and genome-wide analysis. @zekavatm @DrZebardast @sdorodgar @asegre @pnatarajanmd @HMSeye @MassEyeAndEar @broadinstitute @UniLeipzig @YaleOph @ScienceTM: science.org/doi/10.1126/sc…

The retina is truly a window into the workings of the mind

The genetic landscape of age-related hearing loss cell.com/trends/genetic…

@NYCuratrix Escape. I try to book a winter getaway to someplace sunny even if only for a few days to reset

There is a human tissue that builds itself up and breaks itself down every ~28 days using non-scarring wound healing and instead of studying that and learning everything we can about it we think it's gross and look for other less relevant models to understand wound healing.

Today the @uk_biobank is releasing ~500K whole genome sequences. A tremendous feat in (1) enormity and (2) data sharing. science.org/content/articl… @ScienceMagazine @ce_offord

@WeAreQvin Link to article here: fertstertreports.org/article/S2666-…

🩸💪 Qvin announces the publication of our study in Fertility and Sterility Reports demonstrating that menstrual blood can test for hormones and HbA1c just like venous blood. Study by Dr. Sara Naseri, Dr. Maria Avrutsky, Carlo Capati, Khevna Desai, Dr. Alvero, Dr. Blumenthal.

This is an exciting new study from @WeAreQvin, who are tackling the gender gap in health research by investigating the clinical potential of menstrual blood as a diagnostic tool for hormone and HbA1c testing. doi.org/10.1016/j.xfre…

The complosome across cells and tissues go.nature.com/3ST9e3l

Large new whole genome GWAS study in #AMD finds familiar hits implicating complement in disease risk, as well as a novel hit on ORMDL2 doi.org/10.1093/hmg/dd…

Jason M. L. Miller @JasonMLMiller et al. @UMKelloggEye show that medium depth influences O2 availability and metabolism in human retinal pigment epithelium cell cultures. doi.org/10.1167/iovs.6…

#caspase 2 is essential for normal brain development. Truncation variants associated with lissencephaly phenotype