@oolen.bsky.social session live now, come join us!

It was absolutely incredible to have the honor of giving the “Mendel Lecture” at the Augustinian Abbey in Brno, where Mendel lived and worked. While Mendel is the greatest hero of genetics, the lessons from his story were never learned 👇

4+ years into this project and I'm still spending my weekends wrestling with data and interpretation. It's not coming easy but I promise it's coming

Thrilled to share that I have been awarded a Future Leaders Fellowship! 🤩 I am really grateful to my colleagues at Cambridge Biochemistry for their support and to the UKRI for believing in me and funding this project! Stay tuned for Research Assistant and Associate positions available!

I wrote some thoughts on NASA's most recent announcement about 'potential biosignatures' on Mars in the Irish Independent today: www.independent.ie/irish-news/d... @protosignslab.bsky.social @erc.europa.eu @researchireland.ie @dcu-lsi.bsky.social @dcuresearch.bsky.social

The relief when you finally understand the trends in the data.

🧪 Curious how chemistry becomes biology? Join OoLEN’s open seminar Thu Sep 12, 06:30 UTC (15:30 JST / 08:30 CEST) ! 📣 We’ll share a short yearly update, then Tony Z Jia dives into Primitive Polyester Microdroplets on Early Earth. 🫧🌍 ▶️ Live stream: youtube.com/@OoLEN_org

Honored to act as guest editor for a special issue in MDPI Life, together with my good friend and mentor Doron Lancet. It's a great platform for progressing concepts in the field beyond current paradigms, especially for early career scientists. Drop a message if you are interested! brnw.ch/21wUITi

My postdoc position is open again! If you’re interested and did not get your application in last time, please send one by end of this week! Start date asap, latest by end of Fall. ‼️

Interested in moving/establishing your research group in Ireland? www.researchireland.ie/funding/glob... I'd love to see more #originoflife #astrobiology researchers join us here! Feel free to contact me directly to discuss! @abgradcon.bsky.social @oolen.bsky.social @dcuresearch.bsky.social

Had a great time presenting my work on Assembly Theory and molecular phylogenetics at the GRS and GRC on Molecular Mechanisms of Evolution in Boston, and the FALCON origin of life and astrobiology conference at Reykjavik. Feeling inspired!

I'm so excited to be on my way to #FALCON2025, our first jointly organized early-carrer conference of AbGradE and @oolen.bsky.social in Reykjavik 🇮🇸🌋! Can't wait to meet everyone and talk exciting science! 🤩 More info oolen.org/news-and-events/in-person-meetings/falcon2025 and abgrade.eu/falcon2025

Science is not a sum-zero game - be generous with your ideas. Give them away, and everyone wins.

Accidentally spilled my experiment. I'll have to repeat it tomorrow.

Saying it now - my crazy project works and it's important. So happy about it.

Officially Doctor Amit.

What I expect from a peer review process is good constructive cooments that aim to improve my science. Some reviewers clearly use this opportunity for personal attacks and to vent frustrations without properly addressing the work. I don't mind rejection, but give me a good fair reason for it.

Assembly Theory is a generalized constructive neutral theory of evolution

Rereading my thesis for spelling errors and it's actually really good I'm pleased with it

Save the date! The annual #Conference on #ArtificialLife - #ALIFE2025 will take place in the heart of Kyoto, Japan, from 6-10 October 2025. The conference logo, official website launch, and more details coming soon!

The current paper I'm writing is difficult and fights back. I think it's good and I bet it will look great in the end, but it's a struggle. No pain no gain though

Christmas gives me the quiet I need to thoroughly examine my data for interesting trends. What didn't make sense before or was dismissed can now take shape.

Come and join our team here at the ProtoSigns Lab in DCU as part of our ERC funded project! We're making some really exciting discoveries around protocell membrane formation with implications for the origin of life and the search for life elsewhere in our solar system! #originoflife #modeling

PhD alert! I have two ERC-funded PhD positions to uncover the chemical origins of life (Oct 2025). *UK fees only*. Projects described here: www.lclu.cam.ac.uk/studentship-... Email me if interested - deadline (PhD in Biochemistry, Uni of Cambridge): Jan 7th! Please share within your networks!

Mind blown. What even is life

Why are so many proteins hyper-phosphorylated during mitosis? Well, extensive phosphorylation renders individual proteins more soluble & disrupts protein-protein interactions. So global hyper-phosphorylation may 𝐟𝐥𝐮𝐢𝐝𝐢𝐳𝐞 the cytoplasm - to mechanically aide the process of cell division.

On vacation. Will post about science when I come back.