Sasha Fanari

1/🧵 🚨 New paper alert--just published in RNA! Scientists often say anecdotally that RNA modifications are disrupted in immortalized cells — but no one’s really tested it. So we did: ψ-mapping in primary T cells vs. Jurkat cells using direct RNA-seq. 📄 tinyurl.com/TCellPsiRNA #nanopore #RNA #pseudouridine #Tcells

1/6 🧬New paper at @CellSytemsCP led by @SashaFanari! What if the “fifth nucleotide,” pseudouridine (Ψ), in mRNA dynamically responds to cell state? We used nanopore direct RNA sequencing + Mod‑pID to map Ψ in a neuron‑like SH‑SY5Y line under “normal” and “perturbed” conditions (healthy, RA‑differentiation and unhealthy, neurotoxicant Pb2+poisoning).

Future work will explore whether immortalization-driven ψ changes impact immune function and oncogenic pathways. Huge thanks to everyone for their hard work!

New preprint exploring the plasticity of RNA modifications in neurons using DRS. Our approach was to perturb the cells in very different ways (i.e., “normal” vs. differentiated vs. lead poisoning) to identify which psi sites are the most sensitive biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/… 🧵...