Donita Brady (@bradylabupenn.bsky.social at @pennmedicine.bsky.social) helps expand access for scholars from underrepresented backgrounds. For her work, ASBMB named Brady the recipient of the 2026 Ruth Kirschstein Maximizing Access in Science Award. ⏯️ Watch her #ASBMB26 talk: youtu.be/WEpIFClqtUQ.

In the W-S lab's first preprint, we describe how genomic language models know something about RNA thermodynamics. Though we think this is cool, things get tricky! A growing practice for interpreting LMs is to perturb input tokens, often called "Categorical Jacobian": 👇

Just got a survey from my university asking how I use AI in research, wanting details on barriers to use as well as burdens that AI has reduced for me. Not one question about barriers or burdens that the use of AI has created. So the unstated position is that it must be good. This is advertorial.

From a typically worth-reading @drugmonkey.bsky.social blog: drugmonkey.wordpress.com/2026/05/26/n...

This could be very VERY BAD. It looks like a way to remove transparency of peer review, which would enable political apparatchiks to have much more power over decisions on where grant money goes.

www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6... New research space for the group: RNA binding proteins! Been chipping away at this for about 3 years now. But, pretty cool to see how a single PTM in an IDR changes overall configurational states of ordered domains.

The US National Science Foundation (NSF) — a major funder of basic research — has restricted the flow of new research grants to a group of elite universities, Nature has learnt. go.nature.com/4ujNnkJ

It's time to rewrite reviews-aKG doesn't just regulate demethylation. Work from my lab and @mzspectrum.bsky.social demonstrates a new role for aKG in promoting histone acetylation and DNA repair through regulating carnitine synthesis. Congrats Apoorva Uboveja! www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Introducing OpenSplice, an atlas of splice-altering variants and the largest systematic analysis of splicing regulatory variants OpenSplice quantifies the impact of 590,000+ variants on the splicing of 608 alternatively spliced exons, and is out now on bioRxiv 🧬🖥️ www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...

To explain this for my non-science followers. Such a proposal would be to create a black box around review of scientific proposals - this reduction in transparency is what you would do if you wanted to make political or partisan decisions about funding and not scientific ones

I heard from several sources yesterday that NIH is planning to release a Request for Information (RFI) that apparently will include this: Scores and percentiles for NIH grant applications will not be shared with applicants although they will be provided to NIH program officers and staff. 1/3

Big weekend for the Nowinski lab! TWO new mtFAS preprints online!

🚨The lab's first research paper is In Press at JBC! Congrats Liza and Magda!! Pontocerebellar Hypoplasia linked mutations of the deadenylase Target of EGR1 (TOE1) impair thermal stability, ribonuclease activity, and oligomerization - Journal of Biological Chemistry www.jbc.org/article/S002...

This is a story related to the overheating chemical tank, but it is also about how to manage an organization. And why ticket systems billed as efficient (by managers) are bad without expertise and relationships behind them. The maintenance ppl need to know the building and the scientists!

so in 2021, I watched a CSR advisory council meeting and one observation made was that overt negative bias during review was rare but that positive bias, or "halo" effects, that tends to favor white, established PIs at elite institutions was more common

NYT: "no one has ever thought of teaching ranching at university" Every ag school: um, would you like to meet our cows NYT: "No, not like that. More romantic. More dilletante. Ugh, we're not /farmers/."

You have until May 26 rfi.grants.nih.gov/?s=6998c3a23...

🚨first Bartman lab preprint! it's an LC-MS method to measure "total Coenzyme A" (sum of all acyl-CoAs). this will let us study coA synthesis flux using heavy-isotope tracing! huge congrats to first author Amelia Taylor and star coauthor @mzspectrum.bsky.social ! www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...

Somehow this escaped by radar! This likely explains some very odd single molecule results we obtained (but never published) from making extracts from yeast grown in nutrient poor conditions... Cells resist starvation through a nutrient stress splice switch academic.oup.com/nar/article/...

A staffing shortage is making it difficult for the US National Institutes of Health to spend its US$47-billion budget by awarding research grants. go.nature.com/4dal2b5

Apply to the Michigan Pioneer Fellows program to turbo-charge your postdoctoral experience. Open to PhD's with one year or less of experience, the Pioneer Fellows program provides fellows with comprehensive support to launch your research-intensive career. The application deadline is August 3rd.

"For too long, the university has ignored the wisdom of the donor class and hired based on academic excellence. Regrettably, this has led to the underrepresentation of discredited viewpoints in elite higher education." www.mcsweeneys.net/articles/wer...

As one of the postdocs in my lab will be leaving to take a faculty position soon I will likely be placing a new ad in the coming week for someone with experience mapping C. elegans mutants from screens or doing bacterial genetics. If anyone knows/has candidates #Celegans #worms #bacteria #genetics

I'm looking for a PhD student to join the lab studying mutations, T cells ageing and cancer. If that tickles your fancy then reach out and I'd love to chat. More details on findAPhD.com www.findaphd.com/phds/project...

How do mitochondrial ribosomes keep pace with membrane insertion? Now out in NSMB: We show that mitoribosomes slow down at defined positions linked to membrane insertion and protein topology: rdcu.be/fhqIT #Mitochondria #Ribosome #CryoEM

NPR story about multi-year funding, few NOFOs, and delays with me, Elizabeth Ginexi, and @docsirianni.bsky.social www.npr.org/2026/05/05/n...

Our sweet & scruffy dog Pete thanks you for featuring him in The Independent!

1/ Preprint alert 🚨🚨🚨 How do cells decide where an mRNA should end? And how is that decision coordinated with splicing and transcription while the RNA is still being made? Here's what first author @hopem105.bsky.social found 👇

UW-Madison generated a $13.2 billion economic impact on the state over the last fiscal year. Another $12.4 billion was generated by spinoff companies rooted in UW-Madison research. Vice Chancellor Craig Thompson: "The economic impact...is substantial no matter where you live in the state."

The worst thing to happen to academia was the emergence of a nomadic administrative class like the one in corporations who just move from institution to institution setting fires and walking away. Say what you will about the flaws of faculty governance, but at least they believe in the mission.

Congratulations to Dr. Brenda Bass our 2026 Rosenblatt Prize for Excellence recipient. Dr. Bass has transformed our understanding of the relationship between RNA biochemistry and human disease, and has also consistently excelled in training and service. attheu.utah.edu/facultystaff...

Big news for the research community! Insights in Biochemistry & Molecular Biology, the newest addition to the ASBMB family of gold open access journals, is open for submissions! Share your next breakthrough w/a global audience. APCs are waived for the first year. 🔬 www.bmbinsights.org #BMBinsights

This resonates with me as an author, reviewer, mentor, and editor: Science is always unfinished: rethinking the demand for complete stories @cp-trendsbiochem.bsky.social www.cell.com/trends/bioch...

Fantastic threat on AI and clinical trials and of course capitalism

RNA is more than genetic information: it can be a tool for cellular architects. In our new paper, we engineer RNA motifs to physically reorganize intracellular space in living mammalian cells. www.nature.com/articles/s41...

New Data Management and Sharing Plan format required for NIH grants submitted after May 25, 2026 (so for EI MIRAs due May 27, 2026) 🧪 grants.nih.gov/grants-proce... grants.nih.gov/policy-and-c...

On criticizing the NIH drugmonkey.wordpress.com/2026/04/28/o...

Excited that our paper on enzymatic bromination of peptides is now online at ACS Chemical Biology! Led by Haley Bridge, we showed that the flavin-dependent halogenase RebH and its variants can be used for late-stage chemoenzymatic diversification of bioactive peptides: pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/...

Today’s the day. Join us at noon PT to watch @alicekane.bsky.social discuss new insights into frailty and women’s health across the menopause transition, shedding light on the biological drivers of aging. This event is free and virtual. Register now! isbscience.zoom.us/webinar/regi...

"what could explain the University’s eagerness to embrace one, and only one, special form of diversity? Fundamentally, this hiring push is part of a broader effort to diminish the authority and autonomy of the faculty."

Join us Thursday, April 23rd, from 11:00-12:00pm for Marc Hellerstein's seminar titled "Advances in Metabolic and Protein Fluxes and Fluxomics: Translation to Human Disease" #seminarseries

As some of you may know... we're down $5m and may or may not ever claw any of it back. So, we're writing new grants. If anyone would be willing to share a funded application for - NSF CAREER or NIH DP2 that is 100% dry lab-based - NSF BIO Capacity: Infrastructure I will owe you a coffee forever!

Join us for Jess Davidson's Ph.D. thesis defense on April 16! Davidson's research in the @judisimcox.bsky.social Lab explored how lipids are regulated under conditions of metabolic stress, such as cold exposure and disease. Learn more: ipib.wisc.edu/2026/03/30/i...

I love this essay by @jasonmfletcher.bsky.social I try to be very honest with students about some of the many (MANY) “lottery-winning” moments in my career trajectory. Here’s just one: 1/

Dear Conference Organizers, Please for the love of all things, provide an easily printable agenda. These weird web interfaces to build your own and apps are just not it. I'm sure you could find better ways to spend our conference fees. Maybe on more coffee? #AcademicSky

“We’ve lost out on the ability to continue to improve this work to make it more effective, and to explore how to apply it to other areas…There are a lot of different ways that genetics has been used to justify prejudice and…that human-made social categories interface with biological categories“🧪

In case anyone doesn’t know why, there are varied positions held within CSR. SROs disagree with each other and with management. Policy is argued. Ppl need support for their positions. So we need to be loud and constant for the ones who think as we do.

NIH watchers, you will be mostly unsurprised to see that the triage line will continue at ~one third past the first two rounds that were promised. I seen credible intel on that recently. In context that suggests this will be permanent. Ie CSR loves the results and the honoraria cost savings.

🎉 Congrats to 2026 Thomas Hunt Morgan Medal recipient Judith Kimble of @uwbiochem.bsky.social! Her work has built an entire field and inspired generations of scientists through her mentorship and leadership. 🔗Read more: buff.ly/0yzHXvk