For the night is dark and full of RNAses

Meet our CSTM Member of the Month! @allyangermeier.bsky.social is a microscopy expert who focuses on vitrifying cyanobacteria to optimize cryo-EM workflows and uses hybridization chain reaction to study the spatiotemporal localization of phasiRNAs in plants.

A fun, whimsical image I made from maize anthers ☺️🦋

#HappyFluorescenceFriday! #microscopycommunity- 🎉 Winners of the BINA Image Contest! 1st Place: Frederic Bonnet – Hexagonal Vision: Compound Eye and Sensory Crown 2nd Place: Nat Prunet – Allergy Season 3rd Place: Arlen Ramírez Corona – Blue, Red and Fish People’s Choice: Mahgol Darvishmolla

Early embryonic developmental pathways are activated during regeneration phase in Xenopus 🐸 --by Aniket Kshirsagar, Rachel Ronan, Ana Lúcia Rebelo, Siobhan McMahon, Abhay Pandit, and Gerhard Schlosser www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti... #Xenopus #regeneration #DBfeature

🌱 aspbofficial.bsky.social presented @kcox-bioguy.bsky.social Kevin Cox, PhD, the Eric E. Conn Young Investigator Award in recognition of his contributions to plant pathology and spatial biology research & commitment to meaningful outreach and service. Congrats Kevin! loom.ly/jIIgq2o

This is fantastic! I'm very lucky to work with excellent scientists like Dr. Kevin Cox @kcox-bioguy.bsky.social. Here's our foray into XRM imaging of the duckweed species Wolffia australiana. Thanks KC for this awesome collaboration! @danforthcenter.bsky.social @zeiss-microscopy.bsky.social

The Conover Lab is open! I am so excited to join a group of talented, caring, and creative folks at the @danforthcenter.bsky.social, all in service of improving the human condition through plant science.

#DBfeature The establishment of the anther somatic niche with single-cell sequencing by Blaine Marchant, Virginia Walbot www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

Highlight of my evening, feeding blackberries to a turtle in the yard😍🐢

I'm thrilled to co-chair this session at ASPB on X-ray imaging in Plant Biology, lab-based and synchrotron. #PlantBio2025 @danforthcenter.bsky.social @zeiss-microscopy.bsky.social

Along with “fund science save lives” we also need the slogan “fund science save the economy”. I’m afraid many voters here aren’t interested in saving lives.

🧪 My PhD research is now published in @naturecomms.bsky.social! If you're interested in non-canonical Wnt signaling during convergent extension, check it out! We developed a novel model suggesting that Dvl2 oligomerization modulates a binding switch from Vangl2 to Fz7. www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Meet @kmurphyphd.bsky.social, our Director of Phenotyping, 2025 #NAPPN Early Career Award winner, mentor to the next generation of plant scientists, & proud advocate for the #STL innovation community 🌱 Get to know her in this new video via #STLMade: thestl.com/work/seeding...

Thank you to the Maize Genetics Meeting - yesterday we had an advocacy session, followed by Stand Up for Science walk-out. We are missing our USDA colleagues, who were not allowed to attend the meeting!

Some of my postdoc work has been "exposed" today in @theplantjournal.bsky.social! 😁🎉🔬 We developed ExPOSE - a method to perform expansion microscopy in plant protoplast systems. Here's a quick🧵of the details: @meter76.bsky.social @lily-oconnor.bsky.social onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...

Maize Genetics Meeting stands up for science!

DC is STANDING UP FOR SCIENCE

Travel permits of all US government employees (USDA, NSF) have been revoked shortly before the the maize meeting affecting: - The chair of the meeting - The winner of the most prestigious McClintock award - A plenary speaker - Two short talk presenters - 22 scientists presenting posters. #MGM2025

Every February, @kcox-bioguy.bsky.social puts together a list honoring one Black plant scientist for each day of #BlackHistoryMonth. Read his full article via @plantaeofficial.bsky.social and meet all 28 scientists: loom.ly/AMg1m_4

I'm extremely grateful and excited to work with Tessa and Kirk on improving plant cryo-preparation techniques to achieve even better electron microscopy images and reveal new insights about the inner workings of plant cells. 🌱🔬 This study is generously funded by the NSF PGRP 😊🧪

Equipped with state-of-the-art technology, Tessa Burch-Smith, PhD, and Kirk Czymmek, PhD, are setting out to develop imaging procedures that would allow scientists to view the intricate world of plant cells with more precision than ever before. Read more: loom.ly/V-3XXZQ

🎉 Advanced Bioimaging Laboratory Manager Anastasiya (Nastia) Klebanovych, PhD, received two awards in @bioimagingna.bsky.social’s 2024 Image Contest! Her quinoa pollen grain image won second place & her hellebore pollen grain earned an honorable mention. Congrats, Nastia!

Sent a DM the other day like "Yeah, I'll help!" and now I'm co-authoring press releases for an honest-to-god nationwide science protest, like WHAT #standupforscience2025 #sciencenotsilence #scienceforall

How Ironic that on the International Day of Women and Girls in Science, Woman's portraits have been taken down at NIH and Women is a forbidden word that if found in your NSF grant could get it revoked. #womeninstem

The Danforth Center celebrates #InternationalDayOfWomenAndGirlsInScience, which honors women’s brilliant contributions to science and recognizes the ongoing need to address the gender gap in STEM fields.

I'm trying to stay positive and push imaging boundaries. The latest fascinating project is XRM imaging of Marchantia colonized by a mycorrhizal fungus. I'm sure there are false positives in this quick manual segmentation, but certainly some cool AMF structures as well. A satisfying first scan.

A layoff of 25-50% NSF staff members AND a possible 66% budget cut? This is terrifying. arstechnica.com/science/2025...

Using the top-tier imaging capabilities of the Danforth Center’s Advanced Bioimaging Laboratory, researchers have identified a new tool that could help soybean farmers protect their crops from a common costly pest.   🔬Learn more: loom.ly/E1Pxnk0

Honored and excited to be giving a plenary talk at @aspbofficial.bsky.social in Milwaukee later this summer! 🙌🏾🙏🏾

I have no words www.science.org/content/arti...

Alright so to brighten the mood... Who's ready for another iteration of 28 Days, 28 Black Plant Scientists/Botanists? 💪🏾🌱 For those that want more background here's a link from last yr. While I search through names myself, I'm happy to hear any nominations via DM/email! plantae.org/2024-black-h...

This is upsetting... www.science.org/content/arti...

The last part of my PhD work was published yesterday in Nature Communications!! We found a TAL effector that targets three genes to confer bacterial blight of cotton disease. Congrats to all the other co-authors on this paper! 🎉🙌🏾 www.nature.com/articles/s41...

A pity post for my poor cat, Maverick, who was adopted in Birmingham, AL and is absolutely suffering in the cold of St. Louis. No vent is safe if the furnace is on 😬🐱

The 2025 Maize Genetics Meeting is being held at Union Station in St. Louis, MO from March 6th-9th! Travel award application deadlines are quickly approaching - most are due on Dec. 2nd, 2024. Check out this link for more conference info! documents.maizegdb.org/maizemeeting...

Exploring new territory, using X-ray microscopy to study the lichen Xanthoria, thrilled to be collaborating with Nick Talbot. Still want to improve the contrast but making good progress. @talbotlabtsl.bsky.social

Thanks to MOBOT's Members' Board, @mobotmuseum.bsky.social's holiday tree is completely corn-filled! Check out the maize tree and trimmings on your next visit 🌽🎄

I figure I'll introduce myself on here! My name is Ally and I study the localization of phasiRNAs and associated protein machinery in developing maize anthers! I use an imaging technique called hybridization chain reaction (HCR) to target mRNAs and small RNAs for high-res imaging 🔬🌽

Here are other resources of *free* science illustrations: bioicons.com, scidraw.io, inkscape.org, biogdp.com They still look like BioRender style thou.

Found a small RNAs group if you want to follow or be added @pbaldrich.bsky.social 😊 go.bsky.app/HgPCPen

#TheSacredCrop #KernelsOfCulture #MaizeAroundTheWorld Artist Waleska Font's THE SACRED CROP is an exploration of the cultural & spiritual significance of corn in Pre-Columbian Latin America. SISTERHOOD portrays the sacred trinity of 🌽 in Aztec culture: Huixtocíhuatl, Chalchiuhtlicue & Chicomecóatl.

Are you in the #STL #agtech, #agrifood, #plantscience and/or #sustainability scene? Follow others using this starter pack! If you'd like to be added, DM us. go.bsky.app/MxfEHdo #StLouis #plant #science #agriculture #innovation

Ready for a fun, new scientific space with significantly less toxicity 😊🔬