Dark taxa are extremely diverse organisms that remain largely undescribed due to small size, subtle differences, & few experts. Take this quiz to find out what you are - I'm a gall midge! whatdarktaxonareyou.static.domains/insect-quiz.... by @vivianfeng.bsky.social & @flyliceresearch.bsky.social

@trevorsorrells.bsky.social seminar for @tamubiology.bsky.social cues waft on the wind #mosquito neurons light up blood thirst wanes post-bite #sciku #neuroscience #biology

🚨 Only 3 days left to register! 🚨 Yale postdocs, don’t miss the Oct 9th @kavliatyale.bsky.social Chalk Talk event, featuring tips by @schandralab.bsky.social & a mock talk by @trevorsorrells.bsky.social! Register Today!👇 yalesurvey.ca1.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_...

📢New preprint on the impact of dengue virus genetic diversity on inhibition by Wolbachia 🦟🦠🧬 Project led by Afeez Sodeinde, @emiliefinch.bsky.social, and @keli5734.bsky.social! ✨ Key findings in thread below 👇 www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

Starting to accumulate quite a few species in the mosquito gallery:

Our paper Genomic diversity of the African malaria vector Anopheles funestus was published in Science today! It features inversions, selection in action, museum specimens and putative new ecotypes. doi.org/10.1126/scie...

Tired of doom scrolling? Want to help a PhD student out? Check your collection for Promachus (and friends) and I'll be forever indebted! If you need an excuse to get outside and go collecting this weekend, this is it! #Asilidae #Diptera

A bluetorial on NIH funding and out year commitments: A historical perspective

"The unknown is made up of small organisms, such as insects, mites, and crustaceans. These species are the nuts and bolts of ecosystems. And most of them have yet to be identified." www.vox.com/down-to-eart...

I am thrilled to announce that I just opened my lab at New York University in @nyucns.bsky.social and Biology! Our work will explore the richness of animal behavior, dissecting the genetic and circuit mechanisms that shape its evolution.

🚨 🐜 is there a Bluesky starter pack for researchers who don’t study ants but who get lightheaded every time there’s an awesome ant paper? CC @mariusw.bsky.social @jrichardalbert.bsky.social www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Utterly devastating: FlyBase zapped. www.thetransmitter.org/community/ha... #modelOrganism

New paper on the role of H3K4me3 at enhancers! We (led by Haoming Yu) used dCas9 epigenome editing to add H3K4me3 to intergenic enhancers. This was (1) sufficient to turn up transcription at open, active regions and (2) has no effect on target gene transcription. genesdev.cshlp.org/content/earl...

Morinaga, @agloriasoria.bsky.social @jsoghigian.bsky.social develop two de novo chromosome-scale genomes for Aedes aegypti formosus and A. mascarensis, finding extensive chromosomal rearrangements between major lineages of mosquitoes. 🔗 doi.org/10.1093/gbe/evaf142 #genome #evolution

Who do I know that breeds or has access to Mudskippers? I have some questions! Rt appreciated 🧪

Oh hey, we did a thing!!! Fun collab between the Coughlan and @mollyschumer.bsky.social labs!!! www.cell.com/trends/genet... Lead by the absolutely ✨STELLAR✨ @hybridzones.bsky.social, @nemovrobles.bsky.social, and @majorodriguezb.bsky.social.

With @megyounger.bsky.social's lab, et al., we present the first connectomics work in the disease-vector mosquito Aedes aegypti, revealing how its brain is wired to detect host cues. Preprint: doi.org/10.1101/2025... #Neuroscience #Connectomics #vEM #VectorBiology 🧪

How is the nervous system organized to coordinate behavior? To approach this massive question, a team led by @asbates.bsky.social, @jasper-tms.bsky.social, @mindyisminsu.bsky.social, & Helen Yang present the BANC: a Brain and Nerve Cord connectome. Preprint: doi.org/10.1101/2025... 🧪#Neuroskyence

I am delighted to be starting as an assistant professor in the Department of Molecular Genetics & Microbiology at the University of Florida in January 2026. The lab is broadly interested in the functional, developmental, and evolutionary genetics of cell types and organs across flies and beyond 🪰🧬

🚨Very happy that my PhD work is now out in @nature.com! We discovered that evolution, by acting in the midbrain, shifted the threshold to escape in Peromyscus mice, to fine-tune defensive strategies in different environments www.nature.com/articles/s41... This was a truly collaborative effort! 🧵⬇️

A pair of Desert Firetail damselflies making more damselflies. The male is bright red and he's using claspers at the of his abdomen to hold the female behind her head. She bends her abdomen around to pick up a sperm packet from him. The more you know! 💫 (Telebasis salva) Portal, AZ #DamselflyJuly

The thing about entomology is, there are always weirder bugs than anything you could imagine on your own. Here's Cysteodemus wislizeni, a blister beetle from west Texas.

Apply to this program and share with students in your networks! We will work 1:1 with you on your applications, CVs, interviews, etc bsky.app/profile/stan...

These are called “Ensign Wasps” for how they move their little butts like flags.

Paracantha fruit fly, just cranking the style slider to 100 and seeing what happens. I love it, is what happens. 💛

Gave a talk at my parents’ retirement community to describe how science is done, and what is at stake. There was a ton of interest, and anyone can do this. Get the word out about how science affects everyone. I’m happy to share slides with anyone who asks- just get in touch! youtu.be/BY_SFgi-Cig

How do animal #brains evolve to support ecological specialization? Yaoyu Jiao & @trevorsorrells.bsky.social explore a @plosbiology.org study revealing that #glia show the most dramatic changes in brains of #FruitFlies adapted to a toxic niche 🧪 Paper: plos.io/4js7Rms Primer: plos.io/42VHcHw

Trump has cut the NIH budget by more than half in defiance of Congressionally mandated appropriations for the agency. No comparison historically, not even the Great Recession. This is clearly not legal and Congress needs to address it.

Some beautiful maize diversity at the CIMMYT germplasm bank plus some really weird looking maize mutants.

Reminder: apply for our research assistant position!

The Sorrells Lab is hiring a recent college graduate interested in neurobiology of mosquitoes! The position is ideal for someone interested in gaining skills for graduate school. Apply here: apply.interfolio.com/164849

The Sorrells Lab is hiring a recent college graduate interested in neurobiology of mosquitoes! The position is ideal for someone interested in gaining skills for graduate school. Apply here: apply.interfolio.com/164849

BIG NEWS! The Mosquito Cell Atlas preprint is live! 🦟🧬 My first senior author paper! Massive and accessible snRNA-seq dataset and a lot of cool mosquito biology. A true collaborative achievement! #MCA biorxiv.org/content/10.1... See @oliviagoldman.net thread here

Another great addition to our program @standupforscience.bsky.social !!!

Mosquitoes spread viruses to >400 million people/year. Importantly, our work led to a complete parts list of gene expression. This will help develop hypotheses & spur discoveries into the unique biology of the mosquito. mosquito.cells.ucsc.edu Thank you UCSC Cell Browser team! 2/n

Bloodfeeding triggers dramatic physiological & behavioral changes in female mosquitoes. We looked in the brain after feeding to understand which cellular substrates might underlie this shift. Unexpectedly, our data highlight the glia as possible mediators of this change! 6/n

I am thrilled to present the Mosquito Cell Atlas! We analyzed 367K nuclei from 19 tissues in male & female mosquitoes, creating a comprehensive resource for vector biology & infectious disease research. Plus we made some surprising discoveries! 🦟🧵 biorxiv.org/content/10.1... 1/n

#scicomm resources from @500womensci.bsky.social

Check out the scientific journey behind the newest FDA-approved pain medication! 💊 Learn how NIH-funded research played a crucial role—both directly and indirectly—in bringing this breakthrough to life. 🧪

In light of policies to defund biomedical research, and with judicial hearings happening today, we hope to highlight the many ways biomedical research improves people's lives, and to convey how damaging the proposed cuts would be... not just for us researchers, but for everyone.

🥳Just published @nature.com. Over 25 years after the discovery of SPO11 as the enzyme responsible for initiating meiotic recombination, we finally succeeded in reconstituting its DNA cleavage activity.🧵 www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Some potentially uplifting news… NIH F&A cost cuts are unlawful per House Dems…. democrats-appropriations.house.gov/news/press-r...

I have not seen a crisis of this magnitude since yesterday

A Primer on Indirect Cost Rates

Ancient origin of an urban underground mosquito www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

Excited to see this amazing group of Hanna Gray Fellows! I’m looking forward to meeting them and learning about their science!

I’m still intimidated by faculty 🫣

You guys...have I got a personal health, science, AND gardening SAGA for you! This one is amazing, buckle up. A couple years ago I looked in the mirror and saw this. I had to suppress my panic because I'm first aid trained and having unevenly dilated pupils is like...pretty bad. 1/n 🌱🧪

Current and former HHMI-supported trainees and early career researchers (EXROP, Gilliam, Hanna H. Gray, International Research Scholars, Freeman Hrabowski): I created a space for us to informally network across programs! Here is our list - pls comment to be added/removed! bsky.app/profile/did:...