1/27 We have a new paper out! Turns out that snowflake yeast have been hiding a secret from us - they've evolved a (very!) crude circulatory system. Not with blood vessels or a heart, but through spontaneous fluid flows powered by their metabolism. 🧪🔬 www.science.org/doi/full/10....

Join us! This will be a great meeting.

📣 New review! Dynamical systems and low-dimensional geometric structures in phase space help rationalize how embryos develop form and function, from large datasets. We focus on morphogenesis, cell differentiation, and their interconnection. @alex-plum.bsky.social sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

Senate hearing on the FY26 NIH budget with Jay Bhattacharya June 10, 10am ET www.appropriations.senate.gov/hearings/a-r...

Undergraduate educators, introduce your students to the wealth of information inside the Allen Brain Cell Atlas with our new student-friendly guide! 🧠📈 alleninstitute.org/resource/dat... #EduSky #iTeachBio

The 2025 Saltiel Life Sciences Symposium is this Thursday (5/29)! @brangwynnelab.bsky.social will start us off with the Mary Sue and Kenneth Coleman Lecture at 9:00 AM, followed by talks from @jamesknunez.bsky.social at 9:55 and @leonardomorsut.bsky.social at 10:25. myumi.ch/lsi-symposiu...

"I have a message for America's scientists: I want to tell you how much I appreciate your work, how much I value and treasure your work, how much support you have within the Congress...we are aware of the deep damage that is being done to your profession and we are determined to make it stop" 🧪

The Education Lab is officially open! ✂️🎀 This custom-built 1327 ft² learning space allows students, educators, and scientists to take part in hands-on STEM activities offered by our Education and Engagement Program and powered by our open science and cutting-edge research. #EduSky #iTeachBio

Congratulations to Jason Toliao and Catcher Salazar! USC Dornsife students have consistently won the prestigious Goldwater scholarship throughout the years--including every year since 2019.

"We need the whole country to appreciate that by investing in university research and educating the next generation of explorers and innovators, the country has reaped, and will continue to reap, tremendous rewards in new cures, treatments, and inventions, and in new industries, companies, and jobs"

Reading this article (must read) and finding the same words and sentiments I read here www.einaudi.it/catalogo-lib... in a book (Italian only sorry) that describes Italy in the 20s leading up to fascism.

Step up--great action plan here!!

I'd like to share a little bit of happy lab news in these chaotic times: a new preprint, driven by the brilliant Qinhao Cao! www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1... We address a big challenge in synbio: If you give me a protein "X", how can I give you a version of X whose activity is controlled by a kinase?

Join me May 1st at Engineering Biology Club! This month: "Principles for introducing new genes and species for conservation" by @wskamau.bsky.social of the MIT Media Lab. Register here to attend👇 www.ginkgo.bio/events/engin...

This could be one of the coolest meetings of the year!!

2025 Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Course in Synthetic Biology - apply! Deadline: April 14, 2025 Financial Aid: Stipend awards are available. Notifications: Applicants will be notified by May 15, 2025. meetings.cshl.edu/courses.aspx...

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Dear scientists, The public distrust in US means that the policy makers do not have as incentives to maintain the scientific enterprise as we know it in the US. We need to organize and use our voices in the public. Keeping our heads in the sand will not save us! What should we do? 1/

Yes. The situation at NIH is worse than the public realizes. The #NIH is on track to be effectively ended as a funder of evidence-based research within a year. That is not an exaggeration. The firings and consolidation announced today will create a new, MUCH worse NIH. 1/

As part of an Engineering Design capstone course, UChicago undergrads majoring in molecular engineering design and present real-world products they developed under the guidance of industry mentors, helping bring their skills from the classroom to the real world. 🧪 pme.uchicago.edu/news/capston...

My OpEd in @elife.bsky.social “It feels as if we are trying to fight a series of attacks on science with one arm tied behind our back and our lips half sewn shut.” “Yet we are not beaten, and some of us are downright energized.” elifesciences.org/articles/106...

I'm looking at a National Park Service grant where, in applying, the applicant agrees to all White House executive orders. Obviously, institutions are going to balk at allowing researchers to even apply for this🏺🧪

“Who runs casual errands with their passport?”

Tissue engineered skeletal muscle typically generates force in 1 direction. We’ve developed STAMP: a method for patterning multi-oriented muscles with single fiber precision, and used it to build a tissue engineered “iris” robot capable of light-controlled pupil constriction: doi.org/10.1039/D4BM...

@delauro.house.gov talking to researchers in CT about how cuts to NIH are going to impact cures and economy. She wants us to: 1. Tell the story about how NIH impacts peoples lives 2. Medical centers in every state need to go to their representatives offices and tell them the impact of these cuts

My speech at #StandUpForScience rally on March 7 @ucsantacruz.bsky.social: “But I also want to highlight a larger role that these cuts are playing: these cuts are part of a larger strategy to this dismantle the importance of expertise and evidence-based policy making at all levels in our country…

How do the different posterior tissues affect the physical elongation of the body axis? Very happy to share the work led by Georgina Stooke-Vaughan, together with Shuo-Ting Yen and Sangwoo Kim, that we recently published in @naturecomms.bsky.social 🥳 ▶️ www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Excited to share a new preprint! Wireless devices use FM modulation to transmit multiplexed noise-resistant data. Led by @born2raisecell.bsky.social, we create a biochemical analogue of this paradigm using genetically encoded oscillators (GEOs) for single-cell FM streaming tinyurl.com/nbs8rw42 🧵

“By presenting both messages effectively—the value of scientific curiosity and the impact of practical applications—we will strengthen public support for the long and winding road that is scientific discovery.”

I'll be describing a strategy that responds directly to the behavior of the current American administration. It is informed by this mathematician's view of politics as emergent phenomena, explained in this essay👇. *The emergence model contains within it an approach to intervention.* 1/3

In 2021 I was tweeting about economic inequity. Here is one graphic from that work. The effect of maldistribution is much more obvious when you look at assets rather than income. Also see: The Connectivity-Inequity Effect bsky.app/profile/conw...

Quote post with a picture you took in a National Park. Kings Canyon National Park (solo backpacking)

Today's evolutionary #robotics lecture: Minimal cognition. Continued. youtu.be/uWh07Cp5Ynk?...

“Wesleyan is a small school — maybe they would never notice us. But that’s how tyranny gets instituted in a country. … I’m a professor, a teacher. I don’t look for trouble. But I would feel ashamed if I didn’t speak up for the values that have guided my institution and many others.”

We are looking for a post-doc or experienced tech to join us for a late spring or summer start. We build molecular technologies for biological discovery, with avenues for developing therapeutic RNAs, proteins, & cells. Please email a resume and cover letter with contact information for 3 references.

The authors of a Comment article in Nature Human Behaviour propose six actionable steps of allyship that researchers, faculty members and educators can engage in to foster a diverse, equitable and inclusive academia. #Academicsky 🧪

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1/8. This week I had a few different conversations with scholars who, in the face of the attacks on science and institutions of learning in the U.S., are wondering what to do. One suggestion I have is: keep doing your work. It matters in and of itself. Why do I say that? A few reasons.

“Now is the time for science, not silence”

I just contacted my representatives about the nomination of RFK, Jr and the recent executive orders. Here is what I wrote in my email or said to the staffer on the phone: Hello- I am writing/calling on several topics:

Delighted to share our last preprint!!! 🎉🎉🎉 biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2024.12.11.627621v1 We share the first synthetic gene circuit guiding the self-organization of mammalian tissues in elongating structures by dynamically tuning growth, viscosity and adhesion.

Excited to share our new review on #organoid #bioprinting in Nature Reviews Bioengineering! 🎉 @natureportfolio.bsky.social We highlight recent advances and envision a future that integrates organoid biology and biofabrication approaches to engineer complex tissues. Hope you enjoy! 🔓: rdcu.be/d3H6u

Symmetry: A Call for Artists, Scientists and Arts Organizations One to ponder #sciart? Applications invited from trios of an artist 🎨, scientist and US-based arts organisation. Deadline January 22 or February 20, 2025 @simonsfoundation.org www.simonsfoundation.org/2024/12/10/s...

Ever being frustrated to see organoids develop without the proper signals? Isn’t there anything from dev bio toolkit that is not growth factors or small molecules in the media??

Could one envision a synthetic receptor technology that is fully programmable, able to detect diverse extracellular antigens – both soluble and cell-attached – and convert that recognition into a wide range of intracellular responses, from gene expression and real-time fluorescence to modulation..