Very pleased to share this long term (nearly 20 years) study of yeasts isolated from vineyards and forests, now up on biorxiv: www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

A statue of President Trump and Jeffrey Epstein holding hands has been removed from the National Mall a day after it was placed there. The statue had a permit to remain in front of the Capitol until Sunday night.

Nice! #PolyARNA #RNA #Decay #Export #Nucleus www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

Let's be clear: no one should be taking medical advice from the man who told Americans to inject bleach. To moms worried about the Tylenol they took while pregnant: you deserve better than being RFK Jr's scapegoat. And to the autism community: you are loved exactly as you are.

🚨 Microbiologists! We are recruiting Assistant / Associate Professors in 3 collaborative areas of our U. Pittsburgh School of Medicine. 1) MMG (my dept): fundamental research in med micro 2) Peds ID / I4Kids institute 3) Center for Vaccine Research 🔗 to all 3 w/info: www.linkedin.com/posts/vaughn...

3 cheers for NIH grant staff! Regardless of everything else, they are heros!

Finally out! Thrilled to share our collaboration with @kulathu.bsky.social, @orafurman.bsky.social, and N Davey. We screened auxiliary domains of USP family #deubiquitinases, revealing short linear motifs (SLiMs), contributing to specificity in complex assembly. www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

🍻🍾🎉 Side note: Gotta hand it to the student reporters at @theharvardcrimson.bsky.social. They’ve been all over this stuff for months.

📣New today! 📄Landscapes of missense variant impact for human superoxide dismutase 1 🧑‍🤝‍🧑 @axakova.bsky.social @fritzroth.bsky.social & co

I am deeply saddened and angered by news that more NIH RIFs may happen next week. This is unacceptable, especially after NIH staff have worked nights & weekends to dig out from the backlog created by this admin's incompetence. Tell your Congress people NIH needs its staff to keep delivering cures

Democratic lawmakers in California want the state to restore funding for scientific research that has been slashed by the Trump administration, creating an ambitious plan to use tens of billions of dollars in voter-approved bonds to fill the void.

These a 4-year R01s WITH ALL FOUR YEARS FUNDED OUT OF THIS YEAR'S APPROPRIATION. No need for non-competitive renewal awards.

Assembly of the complete horse genome reveals variants associated with reproduction and temperamental traits https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.09.10.675315v1

Some good news: the NIH has now reinstated my R35 since the termination was found unconstitutional (still waiting on NSF), though the government continues to withhold the contractually obligated funds

ICYMI: New online! Harnessing functional annotation to improve the accuracy and transferability of polygenic scores

A framework to detect positive selection using variant effect predictions reveals widespread adaptive evolution of human neurons https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.09.11.675696v1

When I moved to Pitt 10 years ago, colleagues said “you know, that trail across the river goes all the way to DC?” After dozens of DC trips by 🚙✈️, I finally did it by bike. 3 days, 340 miles, 22:25 ride 🚴‍♂️ time. Unforgettable experience, friendly folks, spectacular scenery.

Can you find therapeutic targets for cardiomyopathies using simple, clean genetics in a human cell line? www.nature.com/articles/s41...

New online! Harnessing functional annotation to improve the accuracy and transferability of polygenic scores

New York Times on COVID vaccine evidence [Gift Link] nyti.ms/46k17Tq

Deep mutational scanning of an S. pneumoniae FMN riboswitch reveals robustness during mouse infection but diverging adaptive landscapes in response to targeting antibiotics 🦠💫 #rnasky #microsky from Michelle Meyer lab www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

📝Check out our review “Creating an atlas of variant effects to resolve variants of uncertain significance and guide cardiovascular medicine”, out in @natrevcardiol.nature.com. We review the use of Multiplexed Assays of Variant Effect and variant effect predictors in cardiovascular disease.

A show of bipartisan support for NIH. Basically flat except for ARPA-H. The President’s budget proposal basically ignored (as it should have been).

Thoughtful thread about the good news about proposed NIH budget, but also the limitations of a reasonable budget in preventing the Administration's destructive shenanigans.

🧪 This House bill would also cap NIH indirect rates at 43% for elite private unis & colleges. Not the extreme 15% cap. But also inflexible / 👎 BUT THIS IS MALLEABLE. There's time for pushback (including for other things like multi-year funding). Details in next post (h/t joshuasweitz.bsky.social)

Professor Alexander Deiters wins 2026 ACS Cope Scholar Award. Read more about the award and Alexander Deiters here: zurl.co/gKR2p

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Agreed, but... I wish this sort of coverage had been more timely. We need preventative care or early treatment, not documentation of an autopsy.

Monumental effort from @maxbillmann.bsky.social and colleagues, quantifying genetic interactions among 4 million human gene pairs. Lots of features associated with genetic interaction & GI degree conserved from yeast. www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

Why yes! You can watch previous Variant Effects Seminar Series talks on our YouTube channel! ℹ️ www.varianteffect.org/previous-sem... 📺 www.youtube.com/playlist?lis... #Genomics #Seminar #EarlyCareerResearchers #ScientificSeminar #PrecisionMedicine

A clear message about the value of science for Pennsylvania 🧪🏠

Our latest research is out today on ‪@medrxivpreprint.bsky.social: www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1... Saturation genome editing of BRCA1 across cell types accurately resolves cancer risk. Led by the amazing Phoebe Dace. This one’s packed full of data, so check out the paper. Quick highlights… 🧵 1/n

1. "'Trusting the experts is not a feature of either a science or democracy," Kennedy said." It's literally a vital feature of both science and of representative democracy. I've written a fair bit about trust in expertise as a vital mechanism in the collective epistemology of science.

I'm excited to announce our new biorxiv preprint, wherein we investigate the evolution of the weirdest genetic locus I've ever seen! Behold the tgr genes of the social amoeba, which mediate self/non-self discrimination during facultative multicellularity 🐅 🧵 1/ www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

Finally official 🥳 www.cs.cmu.edu/news/2025/ca...

Metformin, the first line drug for Type 2 diabetes, has been used for 60 years without a clearcut mechanism of action. It turns out it's not just reducing glucose output from the liver. Metformin also works via the brain www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

Here is the bill (I haven't had time to read it) www.appropriations.senate.gov/imo/media/do... 1/2

Per a question to the chair from Senator Durbin: $400 M increase in the bill.

🧪 Senate appropriators say: NIH's budget gets a... boost! Rather than 40% cut, NIH gets a $400M *increase* in the Senate committee bill for FY26 (about +1%). "Congress has your back," said @murray.senate.gov. ADVOCACY MATTERS! There's still a long road (esp in the House), so keep up pressure.

New Publication: Whole Genome Sequencing of "Mutation-Negative" Individuals With Cornelia de Lange Syndrome @uoe-igc.bsky.social doi.org/10.1155/humu...

Another Bhattacharya email today 1/4

The Illusion of Polygenicity in Poolseq studies: Insufficient Power Can Mask Simple Genetic Architectures https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.07.23.666414v1

The #CIHR Microbiology and Infectious Disease panel had a 13% success rate in Project Grant decisions released last week. Overall success was just over 15% across all panels. Worst success rate in recent memory. This is not what seizing the moment or investing in the future looks like.🇨🇦📉 #canpoli.

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Interested in using functional data to understand clinical variants? Been hunting for a good review of the topic? We just wrote one! rdcu.be/exaEU

Litigation update The appeal for a stay in the APLU and AG NIH grant termination cases is DENIED. Next stop...likely SCOTUS.

When a microscope facility user asks about how to make a red/green overlay

🧪🖥️🧬 It's here!! Our second MPRA, which is totally different from the first. For starters, there's no human sequences anywhere! Instead there's marsupials, wolves, pandas and a lot of hard work from lab members past & present, chief amongst them @navya-shukla.bsky.social (looking for a postdoc btw)

Professors: be sure to wait until AFTER tenure is granted to start tagging the local underpasses with motivational graffiti.