🧵 Ever wondered what Toxoplasma is doing in your brain years after that undercooked steak 🥩 or a sip of contaminated water? Turns out, it's been hiding in your brain 🧠and we finally have a way to spot it. New study EMBO Molecular Medicine 👇.

On the cover of @EmboMolMed 🥳.We reveal new biomarkers to track chronic toxoplasmosis—next stop: better diagnosis and care. 👉. Biotech, time to make it real.

Huge congrats @BelenPachano on your PhD! Honored to have shared the journey. Your brilliance shines through your articles — past and future. You’ll be missed, but my lab will always be your home. Come back anytime. You’ve earned every success!

Ready to Rumble in the Jungle @Medinrecords ✊🏽

RT @djsnake: This one’s deeper and more personal than usual — stepping into new territory and telling a story that matters. I think it is i….

RT @BelenPachano: Glad to have contributed to this amazing work out now in @EmboMolMed! 🎉 Big shoutout to Marie G. Robert & Christopher Swa….

Massive shoutout to my dream team! 💥 Marie G. Robert & Christopher Swale (co–first authors) et al. A squad of brilliant scientists but also clinicians & fantastic collaborators. Thanks to our funders, @Inserm Transfert and MSD_Avenir.

Under the hood (mechanistically), it’s not just one switch running the show:🧬MORC and HDAC3 team up to control BFD1—the dormancy boss. But surprise: BSM plays by its own rules, skipping BFD1 entirely. 👉There’s more than one road to parasite sleep mode.

In this study we identify two biomarkers for chronic infection:. ✅ BSM (Bradyzoite Serological Marker). ✅ BCLA (Cyst-associated antigen). 🧪 These markers nail cyst detection in mice and humans. High sensitivity. High specificity. Zero ambiguity. 🧪💥

Current clinical tests can spot Toxoplasma infection but struggle to identify the dormant 😴 parasites. That’s bad news if your immune system takes a break—because this parasite loves to reactivate and “rumble in the jungle”. Think:🧠 Neurological disorders

Meet Toxoplasma —the microscopic zombie-maker. 🧟‍♂️ This neurotropic parasite infects ~1/3 of us, then goes quiet. While acute infections are usually mild, the chronic stage, marked by dormant bradyzoites in tissue cysts 🧠, is much harder to detect—and potentially dangerous.

ISWI Chromatin Remodeller Controls Toxoplasma Gene Expression

RT @HAKIMIMohamedA1: In the silence of chromatin, Toxoplasma whispers change. TgSNF2h sculpts the genome - MORC in the backseat. Some genes….

RT @NatureMicrobiol: Out Now! An ISWI-related chromatin remodeller regulates stage-specific gene expression in Toxoplasma gondii https://t.….

RT @BelenPachano: Open Sesame: The Protein Behind Parasite Stage Switching . "To make sense of this genomic jungle, the parasite relies on….

A humorous reflection on the first article from my stellar PhD student, @BelenPachano .

RT @BelenPachano: Thrilled to share my first paper, now out in @NatureMicrobiol! Huge thanks to my amazing supervisor @HAKIMIMohamedA1 and….

🙏Massive shoutout to our funders MSDAVENIR @MSDFrance @FRM_officiel @AgenceRecherche for fueling our research 🙏 to @IAB_Officiel @ParaFrap and our institutional pillars: @Inserm @InsermAuRA @CNRSbiologie @UGrenobleAlpes .🙏 @veupathdb for paving the way for our community!

Big thanks to Matthew @moncourvoisier and Yohann Couté for their constant support! Huge shoutout to @BelenPachano – a rockstar PhD student. Cheers to Christopher Swale for co-directing this project, and to all the authors who made this great project happen!.

We think the ISWI–MORC duo might replace classical insulators like CTCF, which are missing in Apicomplexa—hinting at a novel looping mechanism. Opens new doors into chromatin architecture in early-diverging eukaryotes!.