This study shows that neuroinflammatory interactions between microglia and astrocytes in an iPSC model enhance HIV replication through TNF and NF-kB pathways.

Scientific Reports · Mar 11, 2026Peer-reviewedImmunology

Transcriptional and Cellular Response of hiPSC-derived Microglia-Neural Progenitor Co-Cultures Exposed to IL-6

Amalie C. M. Couch, Amelia M. Brown, Catarina Raimundo, Shiden Solomon, Morgan Taylor, Laura Sichlinger, Rugilė Matulevičiūtė, Deepak P. Srivastava, Anthony Christopher Vernon

The paper investigates how IL-6 exposure affects hiPSC-derived microglia-neural progenitor co-cultures, finding minimal transcriptional response in NPCs despite MGLs secreting IL-6R.

Brain Behavior and Immunity · Aug 2, 2024Peer-reviewedNeuroscience

Acute IL-6 exposure triggers canonical IL-6R signalling in hiPSC microglia, but not neural progenitor cells.

Amalie C. M. Couch, Shiden Solomon, Alessia Marrocu, Rodrigo R. R. Duarte, Yiqing Sun, Laura Sichlinger, Rugilė Matulevičiūtė, Lucia Dutan Polit, Bjørn Hanger, Shahram Y. Kordasti, Deepak P. Srivastava, Anthony Christopher Vernon

The paper shows that acute IL-6 exposure activates canonical IL-6R signaling in hiPSC-derived microglia but not neural progenitor cells, with implications for neurodevelopmental disorders.

bioRxiv · Aug 5, 2022 · PreprintNeuroscience

RNA-Seq is not required to determine stable reference genes for qPCR normalization

Nirmal Kumar Sampathkumar, Venkat Krishnan Sundaram, Prakroothi S. Danthi, Rasha Barakat, Shiden Solomon, Mrityunjoy Mondal, Ivo Carre, Tatiana El Jalkh, Aïda Padilla-Ferrer, Julien Grenier, Charbel Massaad, Jacqueline C. Mitchell

This study shows that using a robust statistical method to select reference genes from randomly chosen candidates is as effective as selecting stable genes from RNA-Seq data for qPCR normalization.

PLoS Computational Biology · Feb 28, 2022Peer-reviewedMolecular Biology