Well, the DOJ has done it: they have filed a lawsuit against the University of California over antisemitism. The complaint contains some falsehoods. But as someone who teaches and writes about Title VII, I'm equally struck by what the complaint doesn't say. A few thoughts— 🧵

Obligatory Los Angeles earthquake post. I shared my (very brief, light) shaking experience with scientists at Berkeley using the MyShake app.

BREAKING: The Department of Education has ended its directive that attempted to restrict diversity, equity, and inclusion efforts in schools nationwide. This is a victory for academic freedom and education equity.

The Health and Human Services secretary seems as committed to swimming in jeans as he is to destroying the nation’s immune system. 👖 www.rollingstone.com/politics/pol...

We’ve been using SAVEMONEY for a while and it works great!!

As a Culver City resident, I would argue the crime is there aren’t enough protected bike lanes. And I can’t decide which bakery to go to tomorrow morning.

My quote of the day Over and over, nature shows that it's a really tough adversary. That's why it's important that we invest in laboratories, disease detectives, research, mosquito control, the public health system around the world to find, stop, track, prevent health threats. Tom Frieden

This is a genuinely huge, sweeping victory today for the University of California—or rather, for us, its faculty, acting through our faculty associations, while the UC itself maintained a strict policy of deer-in-headlights silence. The Trump admin has given up its appeal of a powerful injunction:

📣 First preprint from the TeSlaa lab 📣 We investigated how methyl-rich nutrient, choline, is used in the body and how systemic one-carbon metabolism responds to dietary methyl-donor deficiency. www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...

Rep. Delia Ramirez to DHS officials: "I have as much respect for you as I do for the last white men who put on masks to terrorize communities of color. I have no respect for the inheritors of the Klanhood and the slave patrol. Those activities were criminal and so are yours."

I’m a white lady who grew up in the midwestern United States, lived in urban areas my entire adult life, has never been to Puerto Rico, and I knew that was sugar cane.

I turned on my tv, watched the fantastic concert Benito put on, and turned my TV back off.

Today our paper reporting on our new PINK1 biosensor is out! We are very excited about the future use of this tool to study PINK1 biology. Plasmids are available on Addgene & we are preparing a protocol paper. pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/...

I have a student in my lab from the UK who has never heard of Groundhog Day. So, we spent the first 10 minutes of group meeting first explaining and then having her watch Punxsutawnwy Phil prognosticate. This student was deeply confused by everything we told her about the groundhog lore.

I called my senators today. Their DC voicemails were not full. It took less than 5 minutes to tell them my thoughts. I encourage everyone else to do so as well.

Read the Save HHS open letter! www.savehhs.org/letter-we-wi...

My family and friends in the Midwest and east coast have been sending me pictures of their dogs and kids playing in the snow and their significant others shoveling snow. I sent them this photo instead, of the view from LAX.

As a someone with a 33 year NIH-funded lab whose grant is supposed to be reviewed this week, shut NIH down if that is what's needed to end ICE terrorism. Innocent lives are more important 🧪

I’m not voting for one more dime for ICE or CBP. These agents are provoking chaos and conflict in American cities and killing people in cold blood.

I called my senators. I told them to vote No on the bill funding DHS. I told them that I don’t want the NIH to shut down, but I understand that the two funding bills are lumped together in a minibus appropriations. I told them it’s a sacrifice we can make because they’re murdering our neighbors.

New from the lab: we report the development of our glutamine biosensor, iGlo, and use iGlo to study spatial and temporal dynamics of glutamine metabolism. Plasmids are being deposited with Addgene!

🌟New from the Schmitt Lab!🌟 We have developed a new cpEGFP-based biosensor for glutamine, iGlo. We use iGlo to measure gln uptake and the dynamics of gln production & use in cytoplasm & mito matrix. We also show the temporal crosstalk between gln & glucose metabolism. www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...

One day Los Angeles will have the public transit we deserve.

Have you ever heard that women have more chances than men of getting grants or positions in academia? Of course you have, and here are my personal views on this. With the shocking revelation that no, it is NOT TRUE ! (1/n)

My Alma mater, Ball State, just cut my minor (religious studies). Because of my minor I learned how to critically analyze text, and write well-researched papers, making me a better writer and scientist.

I found a copycat Din Tai Fung cucumber salad recipe, and this might be the best thing I have ever made.

Happy First Day of Winter Quarter to all who celebrate, iClicker crashed multiple times!

Why the humanities and social sciences matter: I bought a book on the Monroe Doctrine written by a history professor to help me better understand and contextualize this moment. My home library is littered with books on history and cultural moments to help me better understand this current moment.

Earlier this year, at an intersection, a man driving the car next to me rolled down his window and asked if he could cut in front of me at the traffic light because he was running late to an appointment. He then chatted with me for the rest of the red light. I hope that guy is doing well.

I have listened to all of Rosalía’s new album and Jade’s debut album today and it was a good day.

As a woman with a PhD & living on my own, I am every day thankful for the women who came before me. Women who fought for my ability to have a credit card, go to school, vote, make my own medical decisions, have my job, and importantly, have the choice to decide what I want my life to be.

Here are the people and institutions that gave me hope in 2025. 1/ www.thenation.com/article/soci...

I don’t really have a lot of elegant words to talk about what is happening at this press conference

I spend a lot of time thinking, talking, and writing about how cells spatially regulate signaling and metabolism, particularly at the single cell and organelle level. This is really exciting work about proton gradients inside organelles!

Come to my talk on generative AI for biosensor design on Friday!

Made it to Pacifichem and checked out posters with @jasonzxzhang.bsky.social! My talk on the Schmitt Lab’s recent biosensor work is on Wednesday!

NEW: 9 ex-DOJ lawyers who resigned from antisemitism investigations into UCLA and other UC campuses say they were pressured to find UC guilty of violations in a rushed and politically motivated process. One called it a "fraudulent and sham investigation." www.latimes.com/california/s...

Headed to Pacifichem! I’m looking forward to a couple days of genetically encodable tools and of course enjoying Oahu!

Happy Holidays from the Schmitt Lab

I cooked dinner for the lab…and immediately remembered why I usually get dinner catered.

Plasmids for PINK1-SPARK are now available on Addgene! Find them here: www.addgene.org/browse/artic...

I am once again asking graduate schools to use a common application.

After spending 1.5 hr driving my sister < 5 miles to LAX I am convinced of two things: 1. I will continue to not travel for Thanksgiving; 2. We need to demand better public transit to LAX. If I dropped my sister off at the transit station, the bus would have been stuck in traffic. People Mover Now!

WE JUST KEEP WINNING. (UC President's Postdoctoral Fellowship Program RESTORED!!!!)

ICE never left L.A. The military did but they aren't the ones terrorizing the city. Please don't ignore L.A.

🔬New Preprint Alert 🔬 How is AMPK regulated by oxidative stress? We use functional imaging to uncover spatial regulation of AMPK activity during oxidative stress by LKB1 & CaMKK2. Combining imaging with proteomics & metabolomics, we find AMPK works to promote the cellular redox response.

To be clear, Senator Schiff, this is a victory of the faculty associations and unions at the UC, including the UCLA faculty association. The administration of the UC had nothing to do with this or the restoration of funds. This is a fight the faculty have won.