Science communicator (writing, drawing, video-ing) with a particular interest in applied biological science. Previously a biofuels researcher. He/Him 🏳️🌈.
San Francisco, CA
Joined September 2013
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Researchers are beginning to use the Nautilus Platform to do great things!
#AlzheimersDisease #Proteomics
Many thanks to @molcoddington for writing this piece in Technology Networks covering our exciting new partnership with the @AllenInstitute probing the connection between tau protein and #Alzheimer's!
technologynetworks.com/prote…
Our fantastic collaborator from the Allen Institute, @KyleTravaglini, states the goals of the agreement best:
"Our pilot with Nautilus is aimed at exploring if we can better measure other kinds of pTau proteoforms that are present in that early phase of the disease and see if any are more strongly associated with that early neuronal loss. If so, we may better understand that early loss and design therapies to stop it. We could also identify proteoforms that could serve as important biomarkers of early AD."
With single-molecule proteoform analysis, we firmly believe scientists will discover many new points of attack on currently intractable diseases like Alzheimer's and many other conditions. Exciting times ahead!
Tyler J Ford retweeted
1/ We discovered something totally unexpected about the neural structure of consciousness that overturns decades of thinking on its biological basis and brings us significantly closer to the recipe for generating conscious awareness.
New preprint: biorxiv.org/content/10.64898… (led by @HesseJanis, with @FrankLanfranchi, @_conor_mcgrory, @Yuelin_Shi, and @EngelTatiana)
Tyler J Ford retweeted
If you’re ready to explore how proteoforms can change our understanding of biology, don't miss your chance to apply to the Iterative Mapping Grant Program - Oncology. Grant awardees will analyze either AKT1 or EGFR proteoforms in 12 of their samples at no charge.
By participating in the program, you'll be one of the first to use the Nautilus Voyager™ Platform to establish functional associations between proteoforms and cancer phenotypes.
Applications accepted through November 6, 2026.
nautilus.bio/iterative-mappi…
Tyler J Ford retweeted
“We operate under the assumption, like everybody else, that proteins don’t exist, but proteoforms do.” – Bernd Wollscheid, ETH Zürich
Key takeaways and the full recording from our #HUPO2026 proteoforms panel:
nautilus.bio/blog/will-prote…
Tyler J Ford retweeted
My new show with @CaseyNewton is called Machine Gods, and we’re partnering with NPR!
It’s a twice-a-week, video-first podcast about AI, and it will be available next month on YouTube and other podcast apps (and on radio soon!)
It’s a really critical time for public engagement with AI, and we’re thrilled to bring our AI coverage (and jokes!) to NPR’s massive audience, while building an independent media company in San Francisco. We’re also thrilled that @RachelCohnnn, our incredible Hard Fork producer, is coming with us to make the new show.
More to say soon!
npr.org/2026/09/16/g-s1-1434…
Tyler J Ford retweeted
Do you have questions about proteoforms and proteoform biology? Submit them through the link below, and we may put them to our panel at #HUPO2026.
The panel will be moderated by our own Sheri Wilcox, PhD and will feature the following expert panelists:
🔵 Birgit Schilling, PhD - Professor at the Buck Institute for Research on Aging
🔵 Jochen Schwenk, PhD - Professor at the KTH Royal Institute of Technology
🔵 Bernd Wollscheid, PhD - Professor at ETH Zürich
Submit your questions here:
nautilus-21430832.hs-sites-n…
Tyler J Ford retweeted
Published today! The last video in our new series covering our Nature Methods paper, "Large-scale single-molecule analysis of tau proteoforms." In this video, James Joly covers the application of Iterative Mapping to measure tau proteoform profiles in patients with and without dementia.
youtu.be/BBn45HwFuyw?si=YUKm…
Some key takeaways:
🔵 Today's phospho-tau biomarkers are measured in ways that miss most of the information.
🔵 Profiling patient brains revealed distinct, disease-associated tau proteoform signatures.
🔵 The data suggests tau phosphorylation follows a preferred order.
Tyler J Ford retweeted
Do you have questions about proteoforms? At #HUPO2026, we're convening a panel of experts to discuss whether proteoforms can change our understanding of biology.
Submit your questions for the panel here:
nautilus-21430832.hs-sites-n…
We'll share the takeaways from the panel after the conference and discuss additional questions on a future episode of Translating Proteomics.
Tyler J Ford retweeted
In today's new video in our series covering our Nature Methods paper, Vivekananda Budamagunta begins our dive into biological applications of the Tau Proteoforms Assay. He walks you through figure 4 where the assay is used to characterize the tau proteoform landscapes found in model systems of neurodegenerative disease.
The takeaways:
1. The models are all very different from one another at the proteoform level.
2. The generation of tau proteoforms does not appear to be random.
Learn more:
youtu.be/wCH5Yl3nd-g?si=R14M…
Check back in on Monday for the final video in the series. In it, James Joly shares how the assay was used to quantify tau proteoforms in samples from people with and without Alzheimer's disease.
Tyler J Ford retweeted
In the third video in our series exploring the figures from our recent Nature Methods paper, "Large-scale single-molecule analysis of tau proteoforms," Brittany Nortman covers figure 2: Application of Iterative Mapping to measure proteoforms of tau.
youtu.be/mcB1-SuZLNs
Tyler J Ford retweeted
ICYMI - We've launched a new video series wherein the first authors from our Nature Methods paper, "Large-scale single-molecule analysis of tau proteoforms," walk you through each of the figures from the paper and their key takeaways.
In this second video (released today), Zhengjian Zhang, Ph.D. walks you through the process for extracting and analyzing tau proteoforms on the Nautilus Voyager™ Platform.
nautilus.bio/blog/large-scal…
Want to see the full series now? Access it here:
nautilus-21430832.hs-sites-n…
Tyler J Ford retweeted
Today we are announcing Prism, a Radial project to make protein motion measurable, predictable, and actionable. See more: prismscience.org
Prism will be part of our life sciences division, Radial (led by @beckypferdehirt). The team (led by @stephanie_mul) will build a new foundation of data and AI models openly with the community. We @AsteraInstitute are excited to announce a $20M commitment to Prism’s effort: rebuilding the scientific pipeline around how proteins actually move and function
Tyler J Ford retweeted
We’re finally able to see tau at the single-molecule level and more deeply explore neurodegenerative drivers.
Thanks for the collaboration, @NautilusBio! There is real patient impact potential in this work.
Read the paper here: nature.com/articles/s41592-0…
We are incredibly proud to announce that our paper demonstrating the large-scale single-molecule analysis of tau proteoforms by Iterative Mapping has been published in Nature Methods!
📰 Press release: globenewswire.com/news-relea…
📘 Paper: nature.com/articles/s41592-0…
This paper shows that single-molecule proteomic analysis reveals entirely new facets of biology. Specifically:
🔵 Iterative Mapping enables accessible and scalable proteoform analysis that is not possible on other platforms — Proteoforms are the many distinct molecular forms of proteins that exist in cells. Many can be derived from a single protein and may have vastly different functions depending on their combinations of isoforms, sequence variations, and post-translational modifications.
🔵 Iterative Mapping precisely, sensitively, and accurately quantifies tau proteoforms over a wide dynamic range with high reproducibility (≤5.5% median CV).
🔵 Model systems commonly used in neurodegenerative disease research have distinct tau proteoform profiles.
🔵 In a small cohort, tau proteoform analysis differentiates samples donated by cognitively normal individuals from those donated by people with Alzheimer’s disease and related dementias.
🔵 Preliminary evidence suggests there are ordered pathways underlying the creation of tau proteoforms (they are not created randomly). This implies researchers may be able to prevent the generation of pathological tau proteoforms by disrupting these pathways!
Congratulations to everyone at Nautilus and beyond who made this groundbreaking work possible. We’d particularly like to recognize our amazing collaborators including:
Researchers from the Regenerative Research Foundation/Neural Stem Cell Institute: Sally Temple, Taylor Bertucci, David Butler, and Steven Lotz
Researchers from The Ronald Loeb Center for Alzheimer’s Disease Research Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai: Joel W. Blanchard, Ana Forton-Juarez, Emily Sartori, and Jessica Schwarz Researchers from
Genentech: David Arnott, Joanna Lipka, Nikhil Pandya, Lionel Rougé, TJ Wendroff, Don Kirkpatrick, and Alexis Rohou
Your expertise, deep understanding of tau and neurodegenerative disease, and innovative spirits made this work a powerful demonstration of the power of Iterative Mapping.
Tyler J Ford retweeted
We are incredibly proud to announce that our paper demonstrating the large-scale single-molecule analysis of tau proteoforms by Iterative Mapping has been published in Nature Methods!
📰 Press release: globenewswire.com/news-relea…
📘 Paper: nature.com/articles/s41592-0…
This paper shows that single-molecule proteomic analysis reveals entirely new facets of biology. Specifically:
🔵 Iterative Mapping enables accessible and scalable proteoform analysis that is not possible on other platforms — Proteoforms are the many distinct molecular forms of proteins that exist in cells. Many can be derived from a single protein and may have vastly different functions depending on their combinations of isoforms, sequence variations, and post-translational modifications.
🔵 Iterative Mapping precisely, sensitively, and accurately quantifies tau proteoforms over a wide dynamic range with high reproducibility (≤5.5% median CV).
🔵 Model systems commonly used in neurodegenerative disease research have distinct tau proteoform profiles.
🔵 In a small cohort, tau proteoform analysis differentiates samples donated by cognitively normal individuals from those donated by people with Alzheimer’s disease and related dementias.
🔵 Preliminary evidence suggests there are ordered pathways underlying the creation of tau proteoforms (they are not created randomly). This implies researchers may be able to prevent the generation of pathological tau proteoforms by disrupting these pathways!
Congratulations to everyone at Nautilus and beyond who made this groundbreaking work possible. We’d particularly like to recognize our amazing collaborators including:
Researchers from the Regenerative Research Foundation/Neural Stem Cell Institute: Sally Temple, Taylor Bertucci, David Butler, and Steven Lotz
Researchers from The Ronald Loeb Center for Alzheimer’s Disease Research Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai: Joel W. Blanchard, Ana Forton-Juarez, Emily Sartori, and Jessica Schwarz Researchers from
Genentech: David Arnott, Joanna Lipka, Nikhil Pandya, Lionel Rougé, TJ Wendroff, Don Kirkpatrick, and Alexis Rohou
Your expertise, deep understanding of tau and neurodegenerative disease, and innovative spirits made this work a powerful demonstration of the power of Iterative Mapping.
Tyler J Ford retweeted
We are proud to announce the July 2026 Iterative Mapping Grant awardees!
Congratulations to:
🔵 Jessica Lagerwall from the Mertens Lab at @UCSanDiego
Jessica will use the Nautilus Tau Proteoforms Assay to assess whether antisense oligonucleotide (ASO) treatment of induced neurons (iNs) from frontotemporal dementia patients corrects disease-associated proteoform signatures.
🔵 Adrian Oblak, PhD from the Indiana University School of Medicine
Adrian will use the Nautilus Tau Proteoforms Assay to quantify tau proteoforms associated with frontotemporal dementia-causative alleles in the MAPT-GR mouse model, which expresses the full human tau locus.
🔵 Ethan Smith, PhD from the Tsai Lab at @MIT
Ethan will use the Nautilus Tau Proteoforms Assay to characterize the tau proteoform signature of the aggregation-primed state in iPSC-derived brain organoids.
Learn more about the winning projects in our latest blog post:
nautilus.bio/blog/meet-the-j…
Congratulations again to Jessica, Adrian, and Ethan and thank you to everyone who submitted a proposal!
If you didn’t get a chance to participate in the Iterative Mapping Grant Program this time around, be sure to keep an eye on the Nautilus website. We’ll announce new programs periodically and look forward to engaging with you as we roll out capabilities for the Nautilus Voyager™ Platform and its underlying Iterative Mapping methodology.
Tyler J Ford retweeted
This week the Blanchard Lab turns 5! 🎉
Together, we've built increasingly sophisticated human brain models, uncovered new disease biology & even began the process of taking our #miBrains to space.
I'm so grateful for this team & everyone who's been part of the journey so far.
Tyler J Ford retweeted
On the latest episode of the Translating Proteomics podcast, Nautilus VP of Scientific Engagement and proteomics industry expert Sheri Wilcox joins hosts Parag Mallick and Andreas Huhmer for a thought-provoking discussion of their “proteomics hot takes.”
Each “hot take” is a provocative opinion on a topic in proteomics. Specifically, they cover:
🔥 Insufficient biological validation is one of the biggest problems in proteomics (Sheri Wilcox).
🔥 Antibody validation remains a distributed, inconsistent, lab-by-lab responsibility, and this model for validation may not be sustainable going forward (Andreas Huhmer).
🔥 AI cell models are overhyped (Parag Mallick).
Check out the episode for deep explorations of each of these hot takes and their potential remedies.
nautilus.bio/blog/proteomics…
After listening, be sure to let us know whether you agree, disagree, or have your own hot take to share!
Tyler J Ford retweeted
New on the Nautilus Blog: An introduction to the Iterative Mapping Grant Program.
nautilus.bio/blog/introducin…
Submit your project proposals by July 31st, 2026 for a chance to have 12 samples analyzed with the Nautilus Tau Proteoforms Assay at no charge.
Brief details of the program:
🔵 3 researchers will be selected
🔵 Each will analyze 12 samples with the Nautilus Tau Proteoforms Assay at no charge
🔵 Each will receive experimental design support from Nautilus scientists
🔵 Each will receive help presenting results at a mutually agreed-upon conference
🔵 Each will receive assistance preparing a peer-reviewed publicaton.
More details as well as full terms and conditions can be found on the grant program webpage.
nautilus.bio/blog/introducin…
Tyler J Ford retweeted
The latest edition of the Nautilus Newsletter is live! Dive in to discover how you can achieve novel insights into functional biology with the Nautilus Voyager™ Platform.
nautilus-21430832.hs-sites-n…
Topics covered include:
🔵 The Iterative Mapping Grant Program - Run 12 samples on the Nautilus Voyager Platform at no charge.
nautilus.bio/iterative-mappi…
🔵 Our latest webinar - Sheri Wilcox walks you through case studies employing the Nautilus Tau Proteoforms Assay, and Amber Faust shares how you can use the assay in your own work.
selectscience.net/webinar/ho…
🔵 The updated Proteomics and neuroscience eBook - Learn more about the tau protein and how researchers are using Iterative Mapping to achieve functional insights into tau's roles in Alzheimer's disease and related dementias.
nautilus-21430832.hs-sites-n…
🔵 HUPO 2026 - Set up a meeting with us at HUPO 2026 in Singapore to discuss using the Nautilus Voyager™ Platform in your lab.
nautilus-21430832.hs-sites-n…
Tyler J Ford retweeted
Tomorrow at 8am PT, join our webinar to learn how you can achieve mechanistic clarity through accessible single-molecule proteomic analysis on the Nautilus Voyager Platform.
Presenters Sheri Wilcox and Amber Faust will cover novel biological insights researchers are already reaching using the Voyager Platform and will further invite you to be one of the first to incorporate the platform into your research.
Register here:
selectscience.net/webinar/ho…
This eBook covers how researchers are using the Nautilus Voyager™ Platform to explore how different forms of a single protein (tau) impact Alzheimer's. This kind of analysis is very difficult to do on other platforms, but opens vast new opportunities for therapeutic development.
📘 The latest edition of the "Proteomics and neuroscience" eBook has arrived!
This edition showcases how researchers are using the Nautilus Voyager™ Platform to develop novel insights into the roles of tau proteoforms in Alzheimer’s disease and related dementias.
In it, you’ll discover:
🔵 Brief background on the tau protein and its role in Alzheimer’s disease.
🔵 Examples of how researchers are using the Nautilus Voyager Platform to study tau proteoforms at the single-molecule level and develop novel insights into their functional roles in Alzheimer’s disease and related dementias.
🔵 How you can be one of the first to incorporate the Nautilus Voyager Platform into your workflows.
Download the eBook here:
nautilus-21430832.hs-sites-n…
