Meet our travel awardees! We have a fantastic lineup of early career #scientists who were awarded funds to attend the 2026 ACMAP conference. Great science coming from @yale.edu, Colorado State U, Worcester Polytechnic Institute, @upenn.edu, James Madison University, and Thomas Jefferson University!

Got a chance to finally visit @rbgkew.bsky.social while I was in London for the NPR board meeting. What a fantastic place! I spent over 4 hours marveling at all the diversity represented there and didn't make it through it all! Will have to go back again! #botany #plantscience #gardens #secmet

🎉A wonderful day yesterday at Burlington House for the @natprodreports.rsc.org Editorial Board meeting! It was great to have all the board together in person to talk about the exciting future for the journal and natural products research as a field #natprod #secmet

🚨Early Career Researchers!🚨 Grad students, undergrads, post-docs, technicians! Our summer conference has a lot of great opportunities to present your work, network with other great #secmet #botany #medicinalplant scientists, and even win some 💵! Come join us in Hershey PA this June!

#TIL that some of my students have a nickname for me. Apparently, it's "science dad." I'll take it 😎 #STEM #academicsky #professor #sciencedad

So I did a thing this weekend... was excited to be nominated and even more thrilled to deliver a talk with TEDxPSU on #medicinalplants, #naturalproducts, #synergy, and the next generation of medicines. I'm honored to be among such great speakers for the TED series at @pennstateuniv.bsky.social

🎉We are delighted to welcome @kelloggnpgroup.bsky.social, @kateduncan.bsky.social & Yihua Chen to the @natprodreports.rsc.org Editorial Board! #natprod #secmet Learn more about our new Editorial Board members here🔽 blogs.rsc.org/np/2026/01/3...

Gotta love it when a student's written paper kicks off with, "To begin, we should start at the beginning." #gradingseason #proflife #writing

Bioactive identification using a Metabolome-wide association study (MeWAS) approach using basil (Ocimum) as a test case; now published in #Metabolomics! Congrats to the team (including graduate and undergraduate students and our manager)! link.springer.com/article/10.1... #secmet #massspec #plants

A early career researcher in #secmet, #botany, #medicinalplants? Come join us in Hershey, PA for the 2026 ACMAP annual conference! Travel awards available for students and postdocs, prizes for best poster presentation, and career development panels! For more information, see: acmap.org/conference/

When teaching students about #toxicology and #secmet and #medicinal #plants, I try to find fun ways to keep the material fresh. I was rewarded yesterday when my undergrad tox class gave a hearty chuckle at my 90s era flashback for tubulin disruptors as toxins (and chemotherapy agents). Tubular!!

@savannahanez.bsky.social giving her 4th year seminar on the #ethnobotany and #secmet of monotropa uniflora, the ghost pipe. So proud of all that she's accomplished so far, and all that is to come!

A great conference with diverse sessions on #medicinal #plants, #secmet, #plantbiology, #ethnobotany, and more! Check it out!

An 1889 paper reported ghost pipe (Monotroa uniflora) contains grayanotoxin, but our @savannahanez.bsky.social revisited this claim, using #massspec approaches to try and detect the toxins. Spoiler alert, we were unable to find any! Her work is now available in JNP! pubs.acs.org/doi/full/10....

A fun project with our partners at Penn State College of Medicine, looking at conventional vs cover crop systems for cannabis production, and the variation seen in the cannabinoid and terpenoid composition. The last manuscript for my student Cisco as well :)

We're excited to host the 2026 @acmap.bsky.social conference "Science Meets Sweet Escape" here at @pennstateuniv.bsky.social's College of Medicine in Hershey, PA! Early registration, student travel awards, and more information can be found on the website acmap.org/conference/ Hope to see you there!

8/22 On Samantha Heller's Health & Nutrition Show, @NYUDocs, 12-2 pm ET: @MelissaJoyRD #RD clears up confusion abt #seedsoils, #CGM, #UPF! @kelloggnpgroup.bsky.social on pros/cons of #psychedelic microdosing. Open phones 877-NYU-DOCS. Fashionista #butterfly: her body matches her wings 💕

At the #ASP #pharmacognosy conference, and got to see both my PhD (Mary Ann Lila) and postdoc (@nadjacech.bsky.social) mentors at the same time! I'm forever grateful to have had the chance to be guided by such brilliant strong scientists!

Our grad student @savannahanez.bsky.social was interviewed about her work on ghost pipe and its #ethnobotany and #pain #secmet potential, and was picked up by the @washingtonpost.com! www.washingtonpost.com/home/2025/07...

Kicking off our workshop "Bridging Worlds: Medicinal Plants and Modern Science" with our partner, United Tribes Technical College in Bismarck, ND. Thanks to @pennstateuniv.bsky.social's Huck Institutes for their support. #ethnobotany #medicinal #plants #secmet

NSF Physics was cut by 85%, basically wiping out most of its capacity for supporting research. NSF Astronomy was cut by 53% Undergrad education was cut by 71% and research on learning by 79% Graduate education was cut by 100% to ZERO. #GiftLink ⚛️🔭 www.nytimes.com/interactive/...

I commented. You should too!

Now that we're into spring/summer, this is a fun little map and blog post, for anyone who wants to visit #botanical #gardens throughout #Pennsylvania. Penn State's #arboretum is on the list, along with some other fabulous destinations :) Enjoy! www.travellerselixir.com/pennsylvania...

Early Registration is extended until May 19th! Come visit us at Penn State and join in some amazing #plant #secmet #naturalproducts talks, posters, and research! #botanical #academicsky

1. After getting some further insight into changes at NSF (thanks to those who reached out), I deleted a previous post where I tried to make sense of Cheatham's memo as reported in the Science story below.

Every spring I ask my #metabolomics class "Why is metabolomics the best -omics out there? Wrong answers only!" Some spring faves: - "Metabolomics is the baddest -omics across the metaverse. It's actually my favorite DC villain." -"The fact that it can teach you how to make a souffle!" [1/2]

Do any #plantbiology #secmet #botany or other folks know if the USDA's Plant Database is really just down for maintenance, or is it a larger closure/deletion? Thank you! plants.usda.gov

Excited to see @savannahanez.bsky.social's #ethnobotany survey on #ghostpipe (Monotropa uniflora) now published in J Economic Botany! Looking at ghostpipe knowledge in the digital age and who/what/why people are using it as a #medicinal #plant. Congrats!! doi.org/10.1007/s122...

Delighted to share our newest collaborative efforts, the Library Enabling Annotation of Botanical Natural Products (LEAFBot). This is an open-access library of #massSpec fragmentation spectra specifically for #plant #metabolites. J American Society for Mass Spectrometry DOI: 10.1021/jasms.5c00038

All our #secmet and #ethnobotany people should come spread your #botany knowledge this summer!!

Come join us at Penn State for the our Plant Biology Symposium this June 24-26th. The theme is #Plant Secondary Metabolism (from #genetics to #ethnobotany to medicine!) Abstracts and registration are open now! Travel awards available for students/PDs! Click for more information! vqr.vc/oG1KKYNSh

Awesome to see the work that Ben and his team are doing over in San Diego! 🌿⚕️

I'm over the moon to say that my student Savannah had her NCCIH F31 doctoral fellowship approved for funding after being stuck in NIH administrative limbo since January. Her work is on the #secmet of Monotropa uniflora (ghost pipe), it's #ethnobotany, and potential bioactivity. Congrats Savannah!

🔓Check out this #OpenAccess review by Lindsay Caesar & co. at @unm.edu & James Madison University, part of our Emerging Investigators collection, on natural product discovery from microbial communities in caves & underground mines #natprod #microsky Read in full here🔽

The team interacted with collaborators and colleagues at the 2nd annual Center for Cannabis and Natural Product Pharmaceuticals retreat at Hershey, PA. Two of our undergrads and all three grad students presented posters! Congrats to the team for a great showing at the College of Medicine!

25y ago, my parents played an epic #AprilFools prank when I was a HS senior. They handed me a small envelope, which we know means 'reject'. I read 2 lines and tossed it; they told me to finish. They laughed as I realized the joke and gave me the 'large' envelope from @ucberkeleyofficial.bsky.social

Disappointing but not surprising given Zuck's slavish appeasement campaign to 45's regime. The response to our letter of intent for their diversity award, which we were going to use to jumpstart research intensive opportunities for NA/AN students in STEM. The whole initiative is cancelled.

A sad and dangerous precedent for science in this country... www.facebook.com/share/p/18PL...

Characterizing botanicals is hard. Their #secmet are complicated and variable. Our recent work in Analytical Bioanalytical Chemistry suggests that reference materials might not be sufficient to capture that variation to identify commercial/unknown products with varied provenance. rdcu.be/d6YCw

Found this interesting map on spelling countries using only the #periodictable, and thought #chemsky would get a kick out of it. Can your country be spelled with only elements??

Science involves diverse contributors with their unique talents. Today, I want to thank one specific collaborator: my dad (NoBlsky). He is an awesome graphic designer and has helped us create some beautiful lab-related logos. I so appreciate his time and skills; here's a smattering of his work:

“NIH produces an astounding return on investment to the American taxpayer. In Fiscal Year 2022, NIH research funding supported 568,585 jobs and generated $96.84 billion in economic activity — that’s $2.64 of economic activity for every $1 of research funding.” www.researchamerica.org/2023-oped-us...

Here for #Plantsgiving!! Let’s see the counts come in!

Plant Natural Products Starter Pack: covering discovery, biosynthesis, regulation, and more. go.bsky.app/9a7jtxR Please nominate and self-nominate.

Like, I'm nobody, and I'm surprised at all the new science followers. So, so glad to have you here! I have a secondary metabolism science - and chemistry-adjacent - starter pack, so if you belong on it (ie you do natural products research and post about it), please let me know! go.bsky.app/Q9svkYf

For those who are applying to PhD programs, 'tis the season, and you should all know how to utilize the Big Ten Academic Alliance Fee Waiver! #AcademicSky #PhDSky

It's been a rough NIH scoring session this fall. 60, 33, ND, and admin withdrawal. I like to think I'm tough, but getting all those in <2 weeks was a bitter pill. Happy Monday 😟 #academicsky

Hey #chemsky and #secmet folks, question on purchasing compounds. Looking at the list on Pubchem, it’s a litany of companies I’ve never heard of (and the ‘big guys’ like Sigma/Cayman don’t carry it). Can anyone recommend any of them as reliable? I’m open to suggestions! (Figure as example). TIA!

Is anyone else in the #secmet #naturalproducts #medicinal #plant realm wondering when we'll get the quadrennial update to Newman and Cragg's "Natural Products as Sources of New Drugs" series in JNP? We're due for a new edition of this seminal work, and 2024 is almost over! 😲

With cold and flu season right around the corner, this fun #historical #secmet recipe came up on my feed and thought y'all'd get a laugh 🤪 (Note: DON'T try this at home... They call it one-night for a reason)