Derailed and delayed by weather in Chicago yesterday, but excited to catch up with everyone at C. elegans #MAPSS + #DevCell 2026 today!!

Worm friends, we need your help! For the next C. elegans Mentor Match cycle, we’re gathering testimonials from past mentors and mentees. One of our biggest challenges is recruiting new mentees, and hearing directly from past participants could really help. Please record a short video, and share!

"Currently proposed policies are likely to lead to ~1000 (~10%) fewer new and competing grants being funded in fiscal year 2026 than would have been funded in years with historically normal levels of multiyear funding." goodscience.substack.com/p/understand...

So... I got more information about this plan. The most important points follow on the next posts. 1/3

This is bad. Bad for researchers. Bad for science. Bad for universities. Bad for professional associations. For example: 1. Every award would be vetted by political appointees, who could overrule peer reviewers and deny the award if it doesn't advance the president's priorities. 1/🧵

Opening for a #postdocjob in modeling of #genetics of host- #microbiome interactions in #Celegans at @bcmhouston.bsky.social — take a look here: www.linkedin.com/jobs/view/44... Questions or apply via cover letter, CV, and references to bucks [at] bcm.edu . Hiring ASAP! #microsky #jobs 🦠🪱🧬

So great to see @usbumer1's cool story out at @commsbio.nature.com! Funding thanks DBT and India Alliance. Umer et al have found a role for the neuropeptide FLP-15 in worm foraging. Thanks to all authors and our collaborators @monikakscholz.bsky.social lab. www.nature.com/articles/s42...

WormTagDB: a systematic survey of endogenously tagged proteins in Caenorhabditis elegans and roadmap toward the tagged proteome academic.oup.com/g3journal/ad...

Breaking News: The FDA has blocked publication of research that found widely used Covid-19 and shingles vaccines were safe.

We tracked mice in space! This video shows our estimate of their self-induced centripetal force during circling in 3D 👩‍🚀 Preprint thread below 👇

🚨Publication @micropub7n.bsky.social www.micropublication.org/journals/bio... PoC study by Y. Park: deconvolving the C. elegans proteome to organ- & tissue-level ageing trajectories expands the use of single-worm proteomics data as a powerful tool to study dynamic cellular changes during ageing.

What is the mutation rate in natural vs laboratory populations? What are the typical divergence times among and within species? In #GENETICS, Wei et al. analyzed the evolution of clonal #Celegans genotypes collected and sequenced in Santeuil wood, France.🪱 🔗 buff.ly/1rINY0W

Very cool study by @emilyleptich.bsky.social and @rnareylab.bsky.social showing insulin regulation of learning and memory in #Celegans! journals.plos.org/plosgenetics...

The lab is expanding and hiring both a postdoc and staff scientist! See more on our website: airdlab.com. We study how metabolism and cell cycle states drive tumor progression, therapy response, and immune interactions. Candidates interested in mechanistic cancer biology are encouraged to apply.

Bacterial immune proteins have repeatedly evolved to become parts of eukaryotic immunity. But how? Our new preprint uncovers a recent horizontal transfer event & shows how eukaryotes co-opted a toxic bacterial immune protein 🦠🧪🧵 1/

Must watch - the #NationalScienceFoundation is being torn down, brick by brick. Pls share widely.

OUT NOW: Inducible transposon mutagenesis identifies bacterial fitness determinants during infection in mice #microsky 🧪 www.nature.com/articles/s41...

A behind the scenes look at our tiny astronauts and their microbiomes being prepped for space camp on the International Space Station! www.instagram.com/reel/DXrnBE9... #CBIOMES #SpaceBiology #NASA #microbiome #wormsinspace #Celegans 🧪 🪱 🦠 🚀

🚨Microbial genomics researchers🚨 Terrific FREE web apps from @midauthorbio.bsky.social midauthorbio.com/#freetools No coding or command line required ✅ breseq, A+ microbial variant calling ✅ SprayNPray, taxonomic profiling of metagenomes ✅ Pseudofinder 🔎 pseudogenes ✅ GToTree, phylogenomic trees

My thoughts on Director Bhattacharya's Fireside Chat at the NAM workshop (a long 🧵) Overall (1) He clarified what he said that NIH is doing with regard to improving replication. While these are concrete steps, they seem either naive or dependent of unproven technology. Time will tell. 1/30

Super important thread on what we are losing in the US: our whole education system

Identification of bacterial signals that modulate enteric sensory neurons to influence behavior in C. elegans -in @currentbiology.bsky.social www.cell.com/current-biol...

Intentionally dismantling American leadership in science, degrading agency independence, reducing programmatic capacity, slashing budgets ... all while claiming that they are advancing 'gold standard' science. It is well past time for more to enter the arena & defend scientists & institutions.

Breaking: Trump has fired the membership of the National Science Board, which is oversees NSF. I have confirmed separately with multiple now-former members of NSB.

Genome editing of phylogenetically distinct bacteria using cross-species retron-mediated recombineering @natbiotech.nature.com @gladstoneinst.bsky.social www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Final timepoint for #CBIOMES completed on the #ISS this week! On the video is the live view of Earth below the ISS while our #Celegans move through microfluidic chambers. On orbit operations are done, now our worms wait in stasis for their return ticket. #WormsinSpace #SpaceBiology #Microbiome 🧪 🚀

How to measure microbiome health? Commentary proposes adaptive coherence: capacity of host-microbiome systems to sustain integrated function via reorganization. Reframes health as emergent & relational, w/measurements of adaptability/functional integrity www.cell.com/cell-host-mi...

We've known the gut-brain axis is a key underpinning of Parkinson's disease. Today, for the 1st time, a gut microbiome signature denoting risk found in healthy individuals with genetic predisposition nature.com/articles/s41...

Nutrient availability shapes the diversity and structure of microbial communities www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6... #jcampubs

So cool.... A landmark finding Protein-templated synthesis of dinucleotide repeat DNA by an antiphage reverse transcriptase | Science www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

Some #bacteria polymerize excess carbon into polyhydroxybutyrate (PHB), a biodegradable storage polymer. This study shows that #PHB -producing bacteria kill #Celegans nematodes by disrupting pharyngeal & intestinal function @plosbiology.org 🧪 plos.io/4cFAwDz

Great to see this out. Practical guidance on how to use protein depletion systems in C. elegans

#WormsinSpace update: since launch day, our tiny #Celegans astronauts and their microbes have been living in microgravity. #ISS astronauts have unpacked #CBIOMES (below), and will take their first looks at these host-microbiome studies tomorrow! #microbiome #NASA #ISS #SpaceBiology 🚀 🪱 🧪 🦠

Our tiny #Celegans astronauts are 30m out from docking with the #ISS! Tune in live here plus.nasa.gov/scheduled-vi... #CBIOMES #spacebiology #microbiome #wormsinspace 🚀🧪🪱🦠

Next launch attempt of thousands of tiny astronauts on 4/11/26 at 7:40am EST! www.nasa.gov/missions/sta... #wormsinspace #microbiome #spacebiology #Celegans #CBIOMES

A #NASA-funded study on the #ISS brings together B. Samuel @microbeminded.bsky.social, S. Vanapalli and M. Driscoll to address #microgravity effects on the #gutMicrobiome and what that means on long missions. bit.ly/4clyhnP @bcmhouston.bsky.social @texastech.bsky.social @rutgersu.bsky.social

We're searching for the next Director of the Duchossois Family Institute at UChicago The most exciting leadership role in microbiome science right now: lead faculty, cutting-edge cores, and an FDA-approved facility for microbiome therapeutics Email/DM me if interested apply.interfolio.com/182203

#Artemis is circling the Moon right now. And later this week, our team's experiment launches to the #ISS. Tiny worms. Defined gut microbiomes. Here's why the two are connected. 🧵 #WormsinSpace #CBIOMES #Celegans 🧪 🪱 🧬 🚀 1/n

#Artemis did not disappoint! Got an amazing view of the launch yesterday from NASA Kennedy Space Center. Hard to describe, but the feeling in my bones was something else and unexpected! 🚀🧪

Super excited to be at Kennedy Space Center for a #NASA project ( #wormsInSpace launching next week, but more on that later ) AND to be able to see the launch of #Artemis II! To the moon and stars!! 🚀🌖 🧪

Big news from #arXiv. They are "spinning out of Cornell University and into a new independent non-profit later this year." "We are launching the search for a Chief Executive Officer to lead the new organization and ask for your help in spreading the word." #scholarlypublishing #preprints #academia

Attention Science Communicators! We are conducting a survey on the landscape of science communication & need your help gathering experiences. Please send this to #SciComm ppl you know. We want to get as thorough a sense of the state of the field as we can. umiami.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_...

We in the C. elegans community are lucky to have the #wormfeed. Big shout out to @microbeminded.bsky.social for creating such a wonderful gathering place. And you can pin the wormfeed to your homescreen: bsky.app/profile/did:...

Friends! I am so happy to share our new preprint! Hydrogen peroxide has been the most common reactive chemical threat to life forms since the Great Oxygenation Event 2.5 billion years ago. How do animals like C. elegans sense it fast and escape? www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6... Thread 1/

Excited to see this out in the world. The CGC is launching a curated strains collection, the first being protein degradation systems and this is a pilot primer to pair with it authored by myself, Dave Reiner, Ann Rougvie, and Aric Daul. We review the state of the field and provide use guidance (1)

I signed. I was supported by a GRFP during my thesis research and its award reinforced that I was a scientist during my training.

I signed and was supported by this program as a graduate student myself.

More foundations should do this: "Funding is exclusively available to applicants who have already received federal funding (e.g., from the NIH, CDC, NSF) for their health equity research, but have since had their funding rescinded due to federal administrative actions" www.rwjf.org/en/grants/ac...

CDC is no longer surveilling outbreaks caused by campylobacter, cyclospora, listeria, shigella, vibrio and Yersinia. What could go wrong?

This EO, combined with the retirement of Noni Byrnes at CSR/NIH, makes me very concerned about peer review at the NIH