Super proud of Juliette Uy (julietteuy.bsky.social) for her outstanding work on the Toxoplasma inner membrane complex!!! She is headed off to Johns Hopkins for her MD/PhD and is a rising star! Also cheers to Qing Lou for her terrific EM work for this paper! journals.plos.org/plospathogen...

Every year I neglect this epiphyllum on my front porch and am always shocked at how big and beautiful its flowers are

Excited to be elected to the American Academy of Microbiology, class of 2026. I look forward to working alongside my fellow colleagues to advance microbial science for the benefit of society. asm.org/press-releas... #AcademyFellow #Microbiology

20 yrs ago UCLA mycology prof Dexter Howard gave me his old lab freezer. Crazy that its still used every day, holding ~$50k in enzymes. Sears stopped making the Coldspot in 1976. Dexter’s passed away, but they they simply don’t make them like they used to - freezers or profs….. cheers Dexter!!!

Interesting piece from Nature of people who have shaped science in 2025. www.nature.com/immersive/d4... But the Five "Ones to Watch in 2026" has some important folks as well. Most notably, from my perspective is: 1/2

Huge News Coartem® Baby—1st malaria drug approved for newborns <5 kg It's a cherry-flavored mix of artemether (rapid parasite clearance) & lumefantrine (long-acting, prevents recrudescence)—dissolves in breast milk and optimized PK/PD for infant metabolism Not-for-profit launch planned in Africa

Check out the gorgeous green eyes on this Shortfin Lionfish (Dendrochirus brachypterus)

Nice work from my former graduate student Amara (now postdoc at Stanford) on a new effector protein in Toxoplasma www.molbiolcell.org/doi/epdf/10....

Make open access to tools and data part of your annual giving by making a tax deductible donation to @veupathdb.org. 💙This resource simplifies and supercharges global infectious disease research. Need more reasons to support VEuPathDB? Here's a short list: veupathdb.org/veupathdb/ap...

"In California, solar generation could finally surpass gas this year." Actually, the probability that solar surpasses gas in 2025 is high! Gas fell from 50% of CA's electricity in January 2024 to 40% in January 2025, and solar rose from 20% to 28%. www.canarymedia.com/articles/sol... #energysky

Prediction: Today (4/9/25) registered the greatest ill gotten gains from insider trading in history.

Vaccines. 💪🏻💪🏻

Great turn out for Stand up for Science rally in Westwood yesterday

Nice turnout and great weather at the Stand Up For Science rally in Los Angeles by UCLA

Protest at Space X in Hawthorne CA today. Seemed like 2-3k people showed up to me

Lots of crappy news out there recently - but at least my worms are happy....

Amazing! ‘Twinkling Toxoplasma’ Tree (image by Kseniia Bondarenko) wins 2024 Festive Science Image Competition.

'For scientists the network is starting to look like home. Academic institutions, scientific journals and conferences, and international organizations such as the World Health Organization have established a presence there in recent days.' www.science.org/content/arti...

Research funded by NIH generated $2.46 in economic activity for every $1 of funding in 2023 [a total of $92.9 billion] www.fiercebiotech.com/research/rep...

Congratulations to @petersmback.bsky.social on fantastic work on the Toxoplasma alveolin network and its interactions via UAA photocrosslinking. A really detailed study with great help from the Ward and Zhou labs! journals.plos.org/plosbiology/...

Nice work out from my PhD student Rebecca on daughter cell assembly in Toxoplasma gondii journals.plos.org/plospathogen...

Terrific work from my student Justin Quan (justinquan.bsky.social) on the TBC domain proteins in Toxoplasma gondii. journals.plos.org/plosbiology/...

Excellent work from my PhD student Rebecca was highlighted in The Scientist www.the-scientist.com/news/punctua...

Cat parasite <i>Toxoplasma</i> tricked to grow in a dish

Congrats to my PhD student Rebecca for very nice work on the essential daughter bud assembly protein IMC43 in T. gondii. journals.plos.org/plospathogen...