Tom Cheng

Research Associate;
Neuroscientist; amateur poet / martial artist / photographer

[Seth Howes @SethSHowes]

I’ve wanted to do this for a decade.

But I never did - I refuse to give any company my DNA.

It is me.

So this week I sequenced my genome entirely at home. Literally on my kitchen table.

I never exposed my DNA sequence to the internet. Not at any point.

I used a MinION to do the sequencing (it’s smaller + weighs less than an iPhone).

I used open-source DNA models for the analysis (Evo2 and AlphaGenome) running locally on a DGX Spark and Mac Studio.

I traced mechanisms behind my family’s multigenerational autoimmune conditions that no clinician has been able to understand.

When I set out to do this I didn’t know if it would actually work. It does.

Your genome is the most private data you will ever have. You probably shouldn’t let it leave your house.

[Tom Cheng @TomChengWH]

A Placebo-Controlled Trial of the Oral PCSK9 Inhibitor Enlicitide | New England Journal of Medicine https://t.co/llmLCILFqP

[Tom Cheng @TomChengWH]

Synthetic Biology is a mind-blowing cutting edge field.

[Alzforum @alzforum]

In brains of people immunized against Aβ, postmortem omics reveal microglial plaque clearing pathways. @NorthwesternU https://t.co/aKkrYJUioJ

[Tom Cheng @TomChengWH]

https://t.co/JpsKaiAknK

[Tom Cheng @TomChengWH]

Happy Holidays!!
#labholidayparty @WellingtonUBC https://t.co/pgqICzrigk

[Mike Tyson @MikeTyson]

This is one of those situations when you lost but still won. I’m grateful for last night. No regrets to get in ring one last time.

I almost died in June. Had 8 blood transfusions. Lost half my blood and 25lbs in hospital and had to fight to get healthy to fight so I won.

To have my children see me stand toe to toe and finish 8 rounds with a talented fighter half my age in front of a packed Dallas Cowboy stadium is an experience that no man has the right to ask for. Thank you 🙏

#PaulTyson

[Tom Cheng @TomChengWH]

Sorry I am 2 days late (but not absent) 🤣🤣
@WellingtonUBC

[Wellington Lab @WellingtonUBC]

Spooky season festivities 🎃🐈‍⬛💀🦇👻

Cookie decorating and pumpkin painting coutesy of our 2nd place winnings from the @ubcpathology photo contest 📸 and baking skills of @JenCooper49

[Tom Cheng @TomChengWH]

Thanks IJMS for featuring our TBI paper in 2023. We showed that high-energy CHIMERA head impact activated GSK-3b in mouse brains, even 2-mo after TBI, in addition to white matter injury.

#TBI #Tau

[IJMS MDPI @IJMS_MDPI]

📚Using mice, Cheng et al. showed that a single moderate-severe traumatic brain injury (TBI) activates GSK-3b, a kinase that forms the toxic protein p-tau. This may explain why p-tau is found in clinical cases of TBI and neurodegeneration.

🔗https://t.co/tVn4wB66PD

[Tom Cheng @TomChengWH]

@mehwishanwer203 Yeah thanks @mehwishanwer203! It's team work - particularly on the review design and summary!

[Tom Cheng @TomChengWH]

Traumatic brain injury is common in older population. Yet, most preclinical studies are only done in young animals. Our recent review summarizes how age at injury modifies TBI outcomes (behaviour, neuroinflammation, signaling pathways, etc)
https://t.co/izliRFKcTH
#TBI #Ageing

[Tom Cheng @TomChengWH]

@RealAlbanianPat cool thanks!

[Annie Vogel Ciernia @AVogelCiernia]

Our new microglia morphology pipeline tool is officially published in eneuro! https://t.co/BRFk9Hdxcx

[Mu Yang, Ph.D. @mumumouse2]

OMG I can't thank you enough! I can't believe you actually did all this work!🙏

[Tom Cheng @TomChengWH]

@RyanLeoHoiland @ubcokanagan @UBCcps @UBC_CCDPM Congratulations Ryan!

[Tom Cheng @TomChengWH]

And the good thing about joining conferences is that it reminds me of how little that I know, and that there are so much more to learn.
And it was great fun to meet friends in person!

[Tom Cheng @TomChengWH]

I was at CAN-ACN 2024 last week.
I am very impressed by the talk on brain circuits involved in singing by Dr Peretz. Singing is such a common activity that we do so often, but still it is far from understood at the neural circuit level. I'd love to see more science on this.

[Tom Cheng @TomChengWH]

@CAN_ACN Extraordinarily inspiring lecture on neural network of singing! (In short, it's distinct from speech or music network) We should have more of these!

[CAN ACN @CAN_ACN]

Keynote lecture:
Singing in the brain
Isabelle Peretz – Université de Montréal