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Articles by Derek Chen
An emergent disease-associated motor neuron state precedes cell death in ALS
Keywords ALS neurodegeneration spinal cord motor neuron selective vulnerability snRNA-seq snATAC-seq spatial transcriptomics cell states microglial activation Introduction Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) is a progressive disorder distinguished by degeneration of motor neurons in the brain and spinal cord. Motor neuron loss impairs mobility, dexterity, speech, and swallowing and ultimately causes fatal paralysis. ALS is a cruelly rapid disease.
An emergent disease-associated motor neuron state precedes cell death in ALS
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Introduction Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) is a progressive disorder distinguished by degeneration of motor neurons in the brain and spinal cord. Motor neuron loss impairs mobility, dexterity, speech, and swallowing and ultimately causes fatal paralysis. ALS is a cruelly rapid disease. Most patients survive just 3 to 5 years after diagnosis.1 Effective therapies depend on defining the cellular and molecular drivers of motor neuron degeneration.
By Olivia Gautier, Jacob Blum, Thao Nguyen Verified, Thảo Nguyen, Shaolong Cao, Sandy Klemm, Mai Yamakawa, Dann Huh, Jessica Hurt, Nasa Sinnott-Armstrong, Yi Zeng, Juliane Bombosch, Chang Liu, Lisa Encarnacion, Kevin A. Guttenplan, Derek Chen, Arwa Kathiria, Luke Zhao, Stephen Moore, Alex Meng, Kailee Ong, Don W. Cleveland, John Ravits, Jessica Rexach, William J. Greenleaf, Aaron D. Gitler
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Cell Press
Verified
Utilization Of ProSpeed™ Expression System To Empower Single B Cell Based Antibody Discovery Platform
By Derek Chen, Yu Liang, Lindi Wang, Wenwan Fang, Jie Ma Single B cell platforms have transformed antibody discovery by offering greater diversity and faster timelines, but they face challenges such as limited assay sensitivity, high costs, and delayed functional screening. These limitations often lead to missed opportunities and inefficiencies, particularly when hit rates are low.
Multiomics and deep learning dissect regulatory syntax in human development
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Abstract Transcription factors establish cell identity during development by binding regulatory DNA in a sequence-specific manner, often promoting local chromatin accessibility and regulating gene expression1. Mapping accessible chromatin offers critical insights into transcriptional control, but available datasets for human development are restricted to bulk tissue, single organs or single modalities2.
By Betty Liu, Selin Jessa, Samuel Kim, Yan Ting Ng, Georgi K. Marinov, Derek Chen, Benjamin Parks, Tri C. Nguyen, Trí Nguyễn, Austin Wang, Sean Wang, Serena Tan, Michael Kosicki, Len A. Pennacchio, Eyal Ben-David, Anca M. Pasca, Anshul Kundaje, William J. Greenleaf, Soon Il Higashino, Kyle K. H. Farh
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Nature
Verified
Derek Chen: Eileen Gu's Olympic level hypocrisy
Last month, 232 athletes representing the United States traveled to Milan to compete in the 2026 Winter Olympics. Many of these Americans have spent their entire lives working toward one goal: winning a gold medal for their home country. So, like many other Americans, I was shocked by U.S.-born skier Eileen Gu’s decision to turn her back on her home country and compete under the Chinese Communist Party flag.
Derek Chen op-ed: Eileen Gu’s Olympic-level hypocrisy – an American-born star skiing under China's flag
Last month, 232 athletes representing the United States traveled to Milan to compete in the 2026 Winter Olympics. Many of these Americans have spent their entire lives working toward one goal: winning a gold medal for their home country. So, like many other Americans, I was shocked by U.S.-born skier Eileen Gu’s decision to turn her back on her home country and compete under the Chinese Communist Party flag.
Opinion | Eileen Gu’s olympic level hypocrisy
Last month, 232 athletes representing the United States traveled to Milan to compete in the 2026 Winter Olympics. Many of these Americans have spent their entire lives working toward one goal: winning a gold medal for their home country. So, like many other Americans, I was shocked by U.S.-born skier Eileen Gu’s decision to turn her back on her home country and compete under the Chinese Communist Party flag.
02.02.26 -- The Top Drug Development Partners Talk A Good Game
Webinar: Designing Drug Substance Processes for Fill-Finish Compatibility Taking a molecule from drug substance to drug product often falters at the handoff. In this webinar, KBI Biopharma and Argonaut Manufacturing Services share how integrated CDMO-to-fill-finish partnerships eliminate silos, streamline quality, and reduce risk. Join a candid fireside chat on the top 10 quality challenges and proven solutions that cut timelines by 2–3 months from development through late-stage commercialization.
Derek Chen: Banning Chinese drones is common sense and necessary
Have you ever seen a drone flying above you at a sporting event or a concert? How about a drone flying near your house in your neighborhood? Drones are a new and evolving technology that policymakers should not ignore. They are used in mapping/surveying, shooting commercials, delivering packages, and for entertainment. Whether we realize it or not, drones are all around us. But what if I told you the very drones that are all around us every day could be used to spy on us?
Opinion | Banning Chinese drones is common sense and necessary
Have you ever seen a drone flying above you at a sporting event or a concert? How about a drone flying near your house in your neighborhood? Drones are a new and evolving technology that policymakers should not ignore. They are used in mapping/surveying, shooting commercials, delivering packages, and for entertainment. Whether we realize it or not, drones are all around us. But what if I told you the very drones that are all around us every day could be used to spy on us?
Derek Chen op-ed: Banning Chinese drones is common sense and necessary
Have you ever seen a drone flying above you at a sporting event or a concert? How about a drone flying near your house in your neighborhood? Drones are a new and evolving technology that policymakers should not ignore. They are used in mapping/surveying, shooting commercials, delivering packages, and for entertainment. Whether we realize it or not, drones are all around us. But what if I told you the very drones that are all around us every day could be used to spy on us?
Utilization Of ProSpeed™ Expression System To Empower Single B Cell Based Antibody Discovery Platform
By Derek Chen, Yu Liang, Lindi Wang, Wenwan Fang, Jie Ma Single B cell platforms have transformed antibody discovery by offering greater diversity and faster timelines, but they face challenges such as limited assay sensitivity, high costs, and delayed functional screening. These limitations often lead to missed opportunities and inefficiencies, particularly when hit rates are low.
Utilization Of ProSpeed™ Expression System To Empower Single B Cell Based Antibody Discovery Platform
By Derek Chen, Yu Liang, Lindi Wang, Wenwan Fang, Jie Ma Single B cell platforms have transformed antibody discovery by offering greater diversity and faster timelines, but they face challenges such as limited assay sensitivity, high costs, and delayed functional screening. These limitations often lead to missed opportunities and inefficiencies, particularly when hit rates are low.
Announced in Arrowhead Studio’s “Tech Blog 2”, the PC version of the videogame Helldivers 2 has undergone a significant transformation in how it handles storage. What began as a technically driven approach to support older hard drives eventually resulted in a much larger installation footprint than most players expected.
UT Registration Plus: An Overview
Background Around 2023/2024, my friends and I began working on an overhaul of the UT Registration Plus extension, which had already been in the university ecosystem for years prior thanks to Sriram Hariharan, and today it has over 60,000 active users on campus! Check it out here: https://github.com/Longhorn-Developers/UT-Registration-Plus Course Registration... A biannual event students know all to well.
Rediscover: Eega
When RRR was released in 2022, international audiences were introduced to a filmmaker who’s been making tsunami-sized waves in India since he first began his directorial career at the advent of the 21st century. Unequivocally the torchbearer of Telugu cinema, S.S. Rajamouli knows perhaps better than anyone how to play on the big stage, and has been carrying a vision of big-budget filmmaking in an era where most major American studios seem to have lost the sauce.
The Short Game - Spectrum Culture
Golf fans, rejoice? Running counter to the Happy Gilmore vanity sequel released in July, here comes another golf-driven production hoping to scratch your itch. The only thing is, this formulaic underdog story may as well have been centered around just about any other sport; golf merely assumes the backdrop out of convenience, superficially drawing from the filmmaker’s own high school athletic experience.
From the Vaults of Streaming Hell: The 41-Year-Old Virgin Who Knocked Up Sarah Marshall and Felt Superbad About It
The amount of self-confidence required to create something as unabashedly heavy-handed as The 41-Year-Old Virgin Who Knocked Up Sarah Marshall and Felt Superbad About It is so extreme that it borders on the antisocial; one look at the movie’s unwieldy title reveals that this confidence classifies neither as bravery nor delusion. Rather, it’s self-satisfied shamelessness.
Hot Milk - Spectrum Culture
You’d think that a movie with a sapphic enchantress on horseback, arriving to whisk away a beautiful female lead from an abusive mother-daughter relationship, would simply be infallible. It’s a story that has all the ingredients of a Tumblr hall-of-famer, if only directed with an inkling of competence. But in her debut directorial effort, seasoned screenwriter and playwright Rebecca Lenkiewicz adapts Deborah Levy’s novel of the same name into an unwatchable slog.
Arcane Season 2 Opening
Arcane Season 2 Opening but it uses the rest of the song! took the official intro and blended it with the second verse of “Enemy” by Imagine Dragons, since it felt way more fitting for Season 2’s vibe, and added a teensy bit of video editing. Check it out and let me know what you think! Arcane Season 2 opening but it uses the rest of the song
Derek Chen: Stopping Communist China's threat within our own borders
Imagine quietly invading a foreign country without making the first threat, firing a single bullet, or raising any alarm. Instead of taking hostile action, you simply purchase the nation you are invading one acre at a time. That is exactly what China is doing in the United States today. It is increasingly obvious that Chinese Communists will stop at nothing to exert control in the United States.
Derek Chen op-ed: Stopping Communist China's threat within our own borders
Imagine quietly invading a foreign country without making the first threat, firing a single bullet, or raising any alarm. Instead of taking hostile action, you simply purchase the nation you are invading one acre at a time. That is exactly what China is doing in the United States today. It is becoming increasingly obvious that Chinese Communists will stop at nothing to exert control in the United States.
Trail of Vengeance
In the years of the American Civil War, Allan Pinkerton, founder of the now-infamous Pinkerton National Detective Agency, served as the chief of intelligence for Major General George B. McClellan during the Union army’s campaign against Confederate forces in the Eastern Theater. Throughout this time, Pinkerton regularly met with and recruited Southern refugees, deserters and freed runaway slaves to obtain key information regarding Confederate movements.
Desert of Namibia
From the opening sequence of Yôko Yamanaka’s sophomore feature, the viewer immediately assumes the position of the outsider. The camera peers over a railing to frame an establishing shot from an elevated footpath in the nucleus of Tokyo’s shopping district, then methodically zooms and tracks a young woman across the street as she walks in the shade of a department store.
Holy Hell! Election Turns 20
With hopes of a threequel reemerging yet again in a recent interview, there’s no better time to revisit (or discover) the inaugural landmark that is the 2005 Hong Kong crime film Election. A crowning achievement from one of the world’s most prolific filmmakers throughout the past three decades, Johnnie To’s Election and its sequel released the following year, Election 2, remain his two most incisive works.
Criminally Overrated: mid90s
In Jonah Hill’s nostalgia-drenched directorial debut, there’s no shortage of signposts by which audiences can find their way back to the MTV glory days of yore. From the opening sequence, we can instantly glean what brand of sugarcoated aesthetics he intends to capitalize on, from the all-lowercase serif text he employs in the credits to the frontier of hip-hop CDs that our child protagonist discovers through his beloved Discman.
The PaperMC Hard Fork
Pictured: A herobrine statue built on the UT Austin Minecraft server because I thought it looked cool On December 13, 2024, PaperMC officially announced a major restructuring of its project infrastructure, initiating a hard fork from Spigot, the upstream server software it had previously built upon. This brief essay hopes to inform on the recent news. Context (Minecraft server software lore) Visiting the Bukkit repository today nets you this takedown notice.
Holy Cow - Spectrum Culture
In Louise Courvoisier’s coming-of-age feature debut, no time is wasted transporting audiences to her small corner of the world. With the very first shot, we’re abruptly faced with a precious little dairy calf, innocuously scanning its surroundings from the passenger seat of a parked car.
The Effects of Testosterone on Cervicovaginal Cytology in Transgender and Gender-Diverse Individuals
Cancer Screening Cervical Cancer Gender Identity Hormone Replacement Therapy Papanicolaou Test Primary Health Care Retrospective Studies Testosterone Introduction The Cervicovaginal Papanicolaou (Papanicolaou) test is an effective and widely used screening procedure for the detection of cervical cancer.
From the Vaults of Streaming Hall: Attrition
You’d be hard-pressed to find a celebrity more thoroughly devoid of self-awareness than Steven Seagal — even a quick scan of his Wikipedia page will give off the impression that he’s more a parody of himself than a real person. As the first Westerner to operate a martial arts dojo in Japan, he used his aikido expertise to break into the Hollywood film industry, starring in notable action hits through the early ’90s.
From the Vaults of Streaming Hell: Attrition
You’d be hard-pressed to find a celebrity more thoroughly devoid of self-awareness than Steven Seagal — even a quick scan of his Wikipedia page will give off the impression that he’s more a parody of himself than a real person. As the first Westerner to operate a martial arts dojo in Japan, he used his aikido expertise to break into the Hollywood film industry, starring in notable action hits through the early ’90s.
An Unfinished Film
There’s no obvious comparison to a career like Lou Ye’s. Commonly categorized in the “Sixth Generation” of Chinese filmmakers (among contemporaries such as Jia Zhangke), when it comes to censorship in China, his artistic output has walked a thin line. In multiple instances, Lou has been in direct defiance of the censor board, and as a result, his films have largely found their audience in the international art house scene as opposed to attracting domestic mainstream success.
The independent cinema has always been a breeding ground for experimentation. While Hollywood sticks to the tried-and-true, untested voices free of studio influence and therefore full of unadulterated ideas — good and bad — take a swing from the sidelines to bring audiences something different. But much like the pop punk and post-hardcore numbers that ground Rats! in its scene (pun intended), DIY success stories are destined to be subsumed into the mainstream.
Rediscover: A Confucian Confusion
There’s a clear throughline to be perceived in the films made throughout Edward Yang’s career. As the preeminent filmmaker behind the New Taiwanese Cinema movement, his works are marked by their unflinching confrontation of the social realities which dictated life in Taiwan through the back half of the 20th century. But despite their localization within his own characteristic milieu, it’s hard to think of another 20th century filmmaker whose stories remain so shockingly relevant in today’s world.
The Quiet Ones - Spectrum Culture
The scene opens inside an armored truck in Gothenburg, Sweden — a seasoned driver and her colleague, new on the job, are making a routine pickup when their truck suddenly gets boxed in by armed assailants. The driver radios to the police and urges her colleague to stay in the truck and remain calm, but the rookie, folding under pressure, opens the door to surrender before trying to make a break for it.
Oceans Are The Real Continents
In marked contrast to the rest of the film, the culminating sequence of Oceans Are the Real Continents, with its dynamic lighting and time-condensing narrative, sees a marionette show being staged in a local theater. The story being told is that of father and son, both faceless proxies; it opens with the father playing the violin for his infant son, and goes on to portray pivotal stages of their shared lives.
From Ground Zero
With 2024 now behind us, humanity has borne witness to Israel’s relentless campaign against the occupied Palestinian people for more than 15 months, resulting in the deaths of over 45,000 Palestinians, continued blocking of international aid to civilians and the indiscriminate destruction of hospitals, roads and universities.
The Last Showgirl
Since the late 2000s, Pamela Anderson has largely appeared as a relic of the past. Outside of a vague cultural presence due to Baywatch and her infamous sex tape, which were magnified for the next generation by their inclusion in the 2006 film Borat, she had mostly been reduced to sex symbol iconography.
Standing on the Shoulders of Kitties: The Bubbles and the Shitrockers Story
Make some space, Madame Web — here comes a late contender for the worst movie of the year. Standing on the Shoulders of Kitties: The Bubbles and the Shitrockers Story marks the latest installment in the Trailer Park Boys Cinematic Universe, 23 years on from the original television series’ debut. The movie follows Bubbles and his newly formed country-rock band — with Randy (Patrick Roach) serving as their roadie — as they embark on a European tour with Billy Bob Thornton and the Boxmasters.
A Sudden Case of Christmas
With the holiday season looming over us, it would appear that it’s time to brace ourselves for the waves of cheesy nostalgic kitsch that come with it. First on the list is A Sudden Case of Christmas, the latest effort — if it can be called that — from Danny DeVito & Co. A remake of the 2022 Italian film Improvvisamente Natale also produced by Notorious Pictures to similarly inconsequential effect, this straight-to-VOD snoozefest may as well be going straight into the dustbin.
Derek Chen: Why I support President Trump
In the summer of 2015, I was between my freshman and sophomore years at Hope College. I was studying political science, and I was active in the College Republicans chapter. I always considered myself a close observer of the political news and events of the day, but as the Presidential election cycle kicked into gear this time, I watched with especially great interest. The 2016 election cycle was special to me as it was the first election that I was old enough to vote in.
“If architecture is like frozen music, in our house, it’s like frozen opera.” This is how Alan St. George describes the DIY castle that he’s built over nearly half a century in rural Illinois, devoted entirely to the aesthetic demands of his late wife Adrianne. Adorned with lavish murals and sculptures throughout its 63 rooms, the Havencrest Castle is a testament to Alan’s unconditional worship of his lover and muse.
Derek Chen: De-dollarization will negatively impact Alabama's economy
On September 7, 2013, during a foreign visit in Kazakhstan, Chinese President Xi Jinping gave a speech at Nazarbayev University in Astana. In his speech, Xi announced that his government would be pursuing a strategy to provide for transportation infrastructure development and deepen trade partnerships with China’s neighbors. Xi proposed building a new economic belt with China’s neighbors which would essentially act as a new, modern Silk Road.
Op-ed: De-dollarization will negatively impact Alabama's economy
On September 7, 2013, during a foreign visit in Kazakhstan, Chinese President Xi Jinping gave a speech at Nazarbayev University in Astana. In his speech, Xi announced that his government would be pursuing a strategy to provide for transportation infrastructure development and deepen trade partnerships with China’s neighbors. Xi proposed building a new economic belt with China’s neighbors which would essentially act as a new, modern Silk Road.
Look Back - Spectrum Culture
When a manga gets greenlit for an anime adaptation, it’s just about as comprehensive a storyboard as you can get — but it’s one that already exists in the public consciousness. Therefore, it’s up to the anime studio to inject a certain dynamism into the adaptation which justifies its existence.
In the Summers - Spectrum Culture
On the surface, the title of Alessandra Lacorazza’s directorial debut appears uninspired — in reality, it’s concise. In the Summers follows two sisters named Eva and Violeta across four stages of their adolescence, taking place during their periodic summer visits to their estranged father’s home in Las Cruces, New Mexico.
Derek Chen: Illegal immigration threatens American national security
On December 16th, 1978, in Taipei, two young families huddled around the television and watched with fear and trepidation as President Jimmy Carter announced to the world from the Oval Office in Washington, D.C., that starting on January 1st, 1979, the United States would establish diplomatic relations with Beijing’s government in China. Widespread angst began to take hold across the otherwise calm island of Taiwan.
Slingshot - Spectrum Culture
Slingshot isn’t your typical sci-fi space thriller — just your typical thriller. The film revolves around three astronauts, John, Nash and Captain Franks — played by Casey Affleck, Tomer Capone and Laurence Fishburne respectively — on a mission to Titan, the largest moon of Saturn.
Derek Chen: CCP-style financial surveillance tools must never be allowed to reach America
Imagine living in a society where the government tracks every single purchase you make. From stopping to fill up at a gas station to buying a ticket at a movie theater, every single purchase you make, no matter how big or small, is run through a central government database in order for the transaction to be completed. A detailed record of every transaction including the location, price, and items purchased is then reported directly to and retained by the government.
Derek Chen: Colorado Supreme Court decision wrong, dangerous
The Supreme Court of Colorado recently held in Anderson v. Griswold that President Donald J. Trump should not appear on Colorado’s 2024 Republican Primary ballot because President Trump is prohibited from serving as President under Section 3 of the 14th Amendment to the United States Constitution because President Trump engaged in an insurrection.
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