Michael Ward

Michael Ward

@michael-e-ward.bsky.social

Physician scientist studying the biology of neurodegenerative disorders. ORCID ID: 0000-0002-5296-8051

1.4K followers589 following74 posts

Michael Ward
@michael-e-ward.bsky.social

Amazing paper by Carlton and Issacs - Seems that ANXA11 has a number of tricks up its sleeve!

Jez Carlton@jezcarlton.bsky.social

Great collaboration with @adrianisaacs.bsky.social showing coordinated role for FTD/ALS proteins CHMP2B and ANXA11 in membrane repair! Well done Catherine Heffner, Georgina Starling, Lorian Cobra Straker and Pippa Hawes! @crick.ac.uk, @ukdri.ac.uk, @kingslsm.bsky.social. www.cell.com/developmenta...

cell.comThe ALS- and FTD-associated proteins annexin A11 and CHMP2B act sequentially in plasma membrane repairHeffner et al. show that ANXA11 and CHMP2B, proteins encoded by ALS- and FTD-risk genes, are sequentially recruited to sites of plasma membrane damage. Membrane repair involves ANXA11-positive plug fo...

Michael Ward reposted

Aakriti Jain
@aakritijain.bsky.social

So excited to share our new paper out today in @nature.com - 'LASER couples damage sensing to ESCRT assembly for lysosome repair'. This was an amazing collaborative effort with Claire Goul during our time in @robzonculab.bsky.social : www.nature.com/articles/s41...

nature.comLASER couples damage sensing to ESCRT assembly for lysosome repair - NatureATG8 conjugation on damaged lysosomes triggers rapid assembly of a protein complex containing TFG, which directs lysosomal membrane repair by recruiting ESCRT proteins to sites of damage.

Michael Ward reposted

Manu Leonetti
@manu-leo.bsky.social

📣 new preprint multimodal atlas. Imaging + scRNA, 57M cells. 🧬🔬 Cells are complex dynamical systems — but most ways we measure them destroy them. We asked: how does live imaging compare to scRNA-seq, the field’s gold std? The answer surprised us 🧵 www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...

Michael Ward reposted

Subhojit Roy MD, PhD
@roylab-ucsd.bsky.social

Giving a talk? Don't waste time with "practice talks". Stay in slide sorter view & practice 3 things for each slide: 1. What point/s do I want to convey with this slide (</=3). 2. What's the 1-line summary of this slide? 3. What is the transition to the next slide? Something doesn't fit? FIX IT

Michael Ward reposted

Mark Histed
@markhisted.org

Triple the science budget AND fix agency governance. TLDR: Those are the two essential things we must fix in US science. Get the president out of the science agencies, no presidential influence beyond appointment, stop the attacks on the civil service, restore Congressional power and oversight.

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Michael Ward
@michael-e-ward.bsky.social

Having done my neurology residency at UCSF and postdoc at Gladstone, returning to the Bay is a bit of a homecoming for me. I'm looking forward to joining a community that includes many of my scientific heroes.

Michael Ward
@michael-e-ward.bsky.social

We're actively recruiting postdoctoral fellows with expertise in cell biology, microscopy, and computational biology. If that describes you or someone you know, please reach out directly or send me a CV

Michael Ward
@michael-e-ward.bsky.social

Nearly eleven years ago, I launched my own research lab at the NIH intramural research program. I'm grateful to the colleagues, mentors, and (above all) the trainees who made that period the most scientifically rewarding of my career.

Michael Ward
@michael-e-ward.bsky.social

We built a research program that I’m deeply proud of, and alongside collaborators both inside and outside of the NIH we made important discoveries about the basic biology of neurodegenerative diseases. The NIH is a genuinely special place.

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Michael Ward
@michael-e-ward.bsky.social

This work was led by three outstanding trainees: John Replogle, Jordan Marks, and Martin Fernandez. Their creativity and hard work made this possible, along with efforts from many others across multiple labs.

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Michael Ward
@michael-e-ward.bsky.social

TMEM106B is also a lysosomal protein. Its cleaved intra-luminal fibril core domain forms within the lysosome and serves as the direct precursor to these fibrils, which accumulate inside the very compartment responsible for their clearance.

Michael Ward
@michael-e-ward.bsky.social

In post-mortem FTLD-GRN brain, we find these intra-lysosomal fibrils associated with ruptured lysosomes. Reducing their formation or clearing them may represent a new therapeutic target for dementia.

Michael Ward
@michael-e-ward.bsky.social

Disease-associated variants in these genes drive neurotoxic TMEM106B amyloid fibril accumulation. A coding TMEM106B variant impairs fibril degradation, while GRN variants amplify accumulation through reduced intra-lysosomal progranulin, a lysosomal protein.

Michael Ward reposted

Ariel Levine
@ariellevine.bsky.social

Check out the newest work from our, from Fabricio Nicola @fabricionicola.bsky.social on mouse jumping and spinal cell types. Excellent collab with @vulcnethologist.bsky.social www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...

biorxiv.orgA spinal substrate for modular control of natural behaviorNatural behavior unfolds as coordinated sequences of body movements. This organization suggests that behavior may be built from discrete motor patterns, yet how such arrangements are implemented by neural circuits remains unknown. Here, we combined kinematic analysis, muscle recordings, genetically identified cell types, and closed-loop optogenetic perturbations to examine the organizational logic of natural gap-crossing jumps in mice. Jumping was characterized by a series of precisely defined phases and their associated modular motor patterns. The core phases, propulsion and flight, exhibited distinct signatures of neural control, including unique bursts of coordinated hindlimb muscle activity, differential tuning strategies for jump distance, and active requirements for spinal neural drive. Mapping activity across lumbar interneuron populations and functionally screening candidate cell types for their ability to drive coordinated movement revealed that a population of dorsal excitatory dILB6 neurons can autonomously evoke coordinated multi-joint hindlimb flexion characteristic of the jumping flight phase, across behavioral contexts. These findings provide a specific cellular substrate for the long-standing concept of spinal modular motor control: a flexible, preconfigured motor template that the mammalian CNS can recruit and modulate to meet the demands of natural behavior. ### Competing Interest Statement The authors have declared no competing interest. Intramural Research Program of the National Institutes of Health (NIH)
Fabricio Nicola@fabricionicola.bsky.social

Mammals have hundreds of joints and muscles. Controlling them individually would be nearly impossible. How does the nervous system organize such complexity into coherent actions? Our new study explores this question through a natural behavior: jumping.

Michael Ward reposted

Mark Histed
@markhisted.org

The most impt change at #NIH and to US science this year is bigger than grant cancellations— it’s how the agency is governed. For 75 years NIH has been largely independent of presidential control. That’s changed this year. New piece from me and @nataliebaviles.bsky.social in @nature.com 🧪

nature.comHow Congress can restore the independence of US scienceMembers must go beyond reinstating US government research spending and re-establish decentralized governance at the National Institutes of Health and other agencies.

Michael Ward reposted

Science Magazine
@science.org

A new #ScienceSignaling study offers insights into the KOLF2.IJ cell line, which is derived from induced pluripotent stem cells and has been proposed as a neuronal model for Alzheimer’s disease and related #dementia research. https://scim.ag/4aFNY9O

scim.agTemporal proteomic and phosphoproteomic dynamics during neuronal differentiation in the reference iPSC line KOLF2.1JTrace protein and phosphoprotein dynamics during neuronal differentiation in the iPSC-derived cell line model are described.

Michael Ward reposted

James Olzmann
@olzmannlab.bsky.social

Sooo happy to share our new paper in @nature.com “CLCC1 promotes hepatic neutral lipid flux and nuclear pore complex assembly.” A terrific collaboration with @arrudalab.bsky.social, led by co–first authors Alyssa Mathiowetz and Emily Maymand. www.nature.com/articles/s41...

nature.comCLCC1 promotes hepatic neutral lipid flux and nuclear pore complex assembly - NatureCRISPR–Cas9 screening identifies CLCC1 as a factor that increases neutral lipid flux to prevent hepatic steatosis and promotes nuclear pore complex assembly&nbsp;by promoting membrane bending and fusi...

Michael Ward reposted

Takeshi Uenaka
@tuenaka.bsky.social

Losing sleep over #iPSC transgene silencing after differentiation? Same here. Bright in iPSCs. Gone after differentiation. Our paper in @cp-cellstemcell.bsky.social maps what actually keeps expression on👇 www.cell.com/cell-stem-ce... 🔗 Free access (50 days): www.sciencedirect.com/science/auth...

sciencedirect.comPlease wait whilst we redirect youAll content on this site: Copyright © 2026 Elsevier B.V., its licensors, and contributors. All rights are reserved, including those for text and data mining, AI training, and similar technologies. For all open access content, the relevant licensing terms apply.

Michael Ward reposted

Takeshi Uenaka
@tuenaka.bsky.social

Thrilled to see our paper out in @cp-cellstemcell.bsky.social!

Cell Stem Cell@cp-cellstemcell.bsky.social

Online Now! Prevention of transgene silencing during human pluripotent stem cell differentiation #stemcells

dlvr.itPrevention of transgene silencing during human pluripotent stem cell differentiationStable transgene expression remains challenging during human pluripotent stem cell differentiation. Wernig and colleagues show that combining CAG/Ubc promoters with WPRE prevents transgene silencing following both random and targeted integration. This work provides a broadly applicable genetic tool for studies requiring sustained transgene expression during differentiation of pluripotent stem cells.

Michael Ward reposted

Molly Gale (Gale-Hammell Lab)
@mollygale.bsky.social

📣Excited to announce a new pre-print from the lab 📣 Led by my student @storiesofisobel.bsky.social in collab with Hemali Phatnani @nygenome.org We discovered a novel class of TDP-43 dependent cryptic gene-TE spliced transcripts: crypTEs #TEsky #RNAsky #ALS doi.org/10.64898/2026.01.09.698641

doi.orgTDP-43 dysfunction leads to the accumulation of cryptic transposable element-derived exons, crypTEs, in iPSC derived neurons and ALS/FTD patient tissuesTDP-43 is an RNA and DNA binding protein that plays major roles in regulating RNA processing. In particular, TDP-43 dysfunction leads to the accumulation of cryptic splice isoforms that result from im...

Michael Ward reposted

Dr. Becca
@docbecca.bsky.social

Begging PhD programs to agree on a common app with only letters of rec that writers upload once. These inane likert scales when students are applying to 15-20 programs is destroying my soul