Michael King

It was great! Hmm AI books…. That sounds like a whole ‘nother podcast episode 😂

This was a super fun and insightful conversation!
Thanks for joining the podcast Mike! @profmikeking.bsky.social

I forgot to bring to ask you about your book!

Wake up babe, new BMES podcast just dropped!
Had a great time talking about the value of professional societies with my friend @lizwaynephd.bsky.social … Liz is the best in the biz and I was honored to share my experiences with BMES… give it a listen! 🎧🎙️🗣️

www.bmes.org/podcast/offi...

SBIR and STTR programs lapsed on Oct. 1, 2025, halting new solicitations across federal agencies, including NIH and NSF.

Delays to their restoration will disrupt the commercialization of technologies that are foundational to America's leadership in STEM innovation and economic competitiveness.

🚨 AIMBE calls on the scientific community to take a minute to send our new advocacy letter urging Congress to support the immediate reauthorization of Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) & Small Business Technology Transfer (STTR) programs!

Please share 👇

takeaction.io/aimbe/sbir-s...

As a Guest Editor for JoVE, I am organizing a Topical Collection titled “Techniques for the Control of Immune Cell Function Using Physical Forces.” Interested in contributing? Please submit an abstract here:
app.jove.com/methods-coll...

A photo of a University of Pennsylvania campus building with snow on the ground in front of it.

Opinion | ‘Extraordinary and Unconstitutional’ Indeed

The University of Pennsylvania is right to resist the Trump administration’s demand for lists of Jewish employees. https://bit.ly/3MhKEIl

Combining protein therapy and focused ultrasound therapy can improve cancer treatment Combining an existing small-molecule protein therapy called tumor necrosis factor related apoptosis-inducing ligand (TRAIL) with focused ultrasound (FUS) can significantly reduce tumor size and burden in prostate cancer models, according to a new study published in Advanced Science by researchers at Rice University and Vanderbilt University.

Combining tumor necrosis factor-related apoptosis-inducing ligand (TRAIL) with focused ultrasound significantly reduces tumor size in prostate cancer models, offering a promising noninvasive treatment approach. doi.org/g85s2v

Increased prolactin levels in pregnancy affect colorectal cancer aggressiveness - BMC Biology Background Colorectal cancer (CRC) is diagnosed during approximately 1 in 13,000 pregnancies and is associated with worse outcomes, including a higher incidence of metastatic disease at diagnosis and ...

Check out the #OpenAccess paper at the following link:
link.springer.com/article/10.1...
Thanks for reading!

Some good news: Prolactin sensitizes HT29 cells to TRAIL-mediated apoptosis. We tested the efficacy of our next generation dual affinity liposomes, based on immune cell delivery! #nanomedicine

We built a computational model of the JAK2/STAT3 signaling pathway in response to late-pregnancy PRL levels!
Freely available at:
doi.org/10.5281/zeno...

Cancer stem-associated markers and EMT increase with prolactin treatments.

On the ATCC website, there are a total of 52 human colorectal cell lines available for cancer research applications. Only six are derived from female patients, highlighting that there is a disproportionate focus on male disease even at the level of research material availability.

We found that pregnancy prolactin levels cause biphasic STAT3 phosphorylation and increased JAG1 and NICD expression.

Pregnant colorectal cancer patients have larger tumors yet fewer options exist for anticancer interventions compared to non-pregnant colorectal cancer patients.

Before we get into the science, this was my first opportunity to publish a second, “native language” abstract with the paper… so we were able to include a Spanish language version in lead author @MariaLCavestany ‘s mother tongue, muy bien! 🇪🇸

¿Qué pasa? 🚨new paper alert!🚨
I am excited to share our new paper, an important collaboration with Dr. Cathy Eng and VUMC:
Increased prolactin levels in pregnancy affect colorectal cancer aggressiveness
#OpenAccess 🧵👇
link.springer.com/article/10.1...

Pipette, mix, repeat: A reduced-order fluid model and protocol survey to evaluate 96-well mixing protocols https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2025.12.27.696695v1

A group photo of Drs. Elizabeth Cosgriff-Hernandez, Brendan Harley, Joyce Wong, and Dawn Beraud during AIMBE's advocacy session at the 2025 TERMIS-AM Meeting in Detroit, Michigan.

AIMBE has been busy with conferences this month!

Last week, @dawnberaud.bsky.social hosted a session titled "The Importance of Advocacy in BME Research" @termisam.bsky.social which featured talks from AIMBE Fellows @cosgriffhernandez.bsky.social, @profharley.bsky.social, and Dr. Joyce Wong.

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AIMBE staff, Sarah Mandell (left), Dr. Jason Marvin (second from left), Dr. Dawn Beraud (second from right), and AIMBE Fellow Dr. Mete Civelek (right). They are at AIMBE's networking event held at the 2025 American Society for Matrix Biology (ASMB) Meeting in Baltimore, Maryland.

Yesterday, Drs. Beraud and Marvin and Sarah organized a networking event during the @amsocmatbio.bsky.social Meeting in Baltimore.

We were delighted to connect with nearly 20 AIMBE Fellows, Emerging Leaders, and Council Representatives over an evening of food and conversation 🍤

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A flyer for AIMBE's advocacy breakfast roundtable titled "The Importance of Advocacy in Biomedical Engineering and Medical Research" at the 2025 American Society for Matrix Biology (ASMB) Biennial Meeting on Tuesday, November 18th from 7:15-8:30 AM in Baltimore, Maryland.

AIMBE is hosting a breakfast roundtable titled "The Importance of Advocacy in Biomedical Engineering and Medical Research" at the @amsocmatbio.bsky.social Meeting on 11/18!

Join @dawnberaud.bsky.social, @jasoncmarvin.bsky.social, and our AIMBE members for this important conversation on advocacy 👇

Nature Reviews Psychology is encouraging authors to include a citation diversity statement to draw attention to citation imbalances and confirm that they made efforts to cite publications from a diverse group of researchers.

Read more in our editorial: go.nature.com/4mTIpr2

It’s finally BMES week! The King Lab is giving 6 oral and 12 poster presentations, with a delegation that includes high school student, undergrad, PhD students, postdocs, research professor and… moi! Check out our work, and also visit the Rice BIOE booth and reception!

‘Completely shattered.’ Changes to NSF’s graduate student fellowship spur outcry The announcement comes months later than usual, leaving many would-be applicants stranded

The new restriction by the NSF, barring 2nd year PhD students from applying for the GRFP, is deeply unfair and ill-timed. My colleague Cindy Reinhart-King weighs in on the news in an AAAS Science article posted today (free access): 👇

www.science.org/content/arti...

🚨 AIMBE calls on the scientific community to urge Congress to ensure timely passage of the FY2026 budget 👇

Strong, sustained funding for our nation's health and science agencies is essential for economic prosperity, U.S. global competitiveness, and public heath.

takeaction.io/aimbe/protec...

Protect Research: Finalize FY2026 Budget Now Use AIMBE's letter template below to send an email to your Members of Congress on issues that matter. We encourage you to edit and personalize the note, sharing your individual experience. Please note...

Protect Research: Finalize FY2026 Budget Now www.congressweb.com/AIMBE/10?fra...

🚨 NEW PAPER ALERT! 🚨
Our new review on “Cellular mechanoactivation of antigen-presenting cells and T cells for cancer immunotherapy” in Current Opinion in Biomedical Engineering! Free #OpenAccess download for all readers! #immunoengineering #mechanobiology

www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

Amazing! Friend and fellow mechanobiologist Nadeen Chahine was in San Diego and caught a Padres game… and it was Michael King bobblehead night! Thank you so much Nadeen, this is going to look great in my office! 👑⚾️

news.rice.edu/news/2025/st...

Analyzing Diversity: Citation Diversity Reports made easy In this behind-the-paper blog post, I provide background and context on our recent publication in Nature Machine Intelligence, that reports on the ability of large language models to generate publicat...

I made a blog post (“Analyzing Diversity”) on the @springernature.com Communities platform about our new paper in @natmachintell.nature.com !
@natureportfolio.nature.com

go.nature.com/4fUysaY