Upshot: the pangenome is the inevitable solution to prokaryotic life under uncertainty. "Accessory" implies dispensable. The framework says they are essential, just not to every cell in every generation. A gene rarely needed is not a gene unneeded. It is insurance.

New preprint. I've been chewing on why bacteria have pangenomes for years. Most species carry a distributed gene pool far larger than any one genome holds. E. coli has ~163,000 rare genes across the species. Each individual cell carries about 5,000. Why? A 🧵👇

The argument in one line: pangenomes are bet-hedging devices. They buffer environmental uncertainty at the population level. Different cells carry different gene subsets. The population as a whole is the insurance policy.

Please re-circulate. New postdoc position available to study organ positioning in the flower at the University of Sydney. Cell polarity, auxin etc etc! Join our multidisciplinary RESYDE (www2.hu-berlin.de/resyde/) team! Apply here: usyd.wd105.myworkdayjobs.com/en-US/USYD_E...

Engineer & 🚀Astronaut Dr. Ellen Ochoa was born #OTD in 1958. + 4 space shuttle missions,~1,000 hours in space + 1st Hispanic woman in space, 1993 + 1st Hispanic/2nd female director, NASA Johnson Space Center, 2013 + Chair, Nat'l Science Board, 2020–2022 + Presidential Medal of Freedom #WomenInSTEM

My latest @nytimes.com oped shows that the White House is dramatically understating the cost of the war in Iran. By my calculations—and I show my work—this war will cost the typical American family thousands, and it could cost them tens of thousands. Gift link: www.nytimes.com/2026/05/08/o...

*** GRC Developmental Biology 2027 - Jan 17-22 @ Renaissance Tuscany Il Ciocco Resort *** Join us for a fabulous 2027 Gordon Conference on all things #devbio & the trainee-led GRS! More info on registration, abstract submission, et al., here: www.grc.org/developmenta... #GRCDevBio2027 🧬🐭🐟🪰🌱❤️

Breaking news: Indiana University plant microbiologist Roger Innes has been locked out of his laboratory by the school in response to a request by one of his federal funders. The move comes after Innes complained about the government’s prosecution of Chinese postdocs. https://scim.ag/4tsDqRr

What’s the status of the Lyme vax and will it have any effect on chronic Lyme disease symptoms?

For the next 24h, drop any infectious disease and/or vaccine-related questions in response to this post, and I will do my best to answer them. Answers are for information only, NOT medical advice. #AskAnIDDoc May 2026 edition.

Glenn-Fontan procedure is essential to treat Single-ventricle congenital heart disease However, Glenn surgery▶️loss of pulmonary arterial flow pulsatility +🫁vascular malformation How?🤔 Here the new insights by Dr. Ondine Cleaver lab @ondinecleaver.bsky.social 😎 🧵1/4 insight.jci.org/articles/vie...

Come be our colleague! 🫁 @cuanschutz.bsky.social is a great place to start a lab and be successful...please apply! 👇

Incredibly proud and happy for @sandehaan.bsky.social , my former PhD student, who has won the Award for Best PhD thesis in Swedish Developmental Biology 2023-2025, from @swedbo.bsky.social (the Swedish Developmental Biology Organization)! Congratulations!! www.swedbo.se/2026/05/08/w...

Self-organized hemanoids derived from human iPSCs create a niche that produces definitive extraembryonic hematopoiesis. https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.05.05.722134v1

Today is a good day to pitch your local outlet something about the canvas hack. Put TIMELY in the subject line. Describe yourself as an educator in a few lines (two sentence!). Then make an argument.

25+ years in academic research, will be a full professor in July and still getting taken down on occasion by stupid reference manager programs...good grief. **bangs forehead on table **shakes fist...damn you Endnote.

🚨Faculty job search: University of Illinois Chicago Micro & Immuno department is hiring! Open rank and open area within host-pathogen interactions. Apply by May 31 to join us in UI College of Medicine in the heart of Chicago! uic.csod.com/ux/ats/caree...

Prof. Adriana Romero-Olivares, UC Riverside, was doing incredible work on how fungi and ecosystems respond to global change. A rising voice, a dynamic scientist and educator, a young mother, wife and daughter gone far too soon. A huge loss. Her family, students and community are in my thoughts.

This has been a heavy week all around. I want to take a moment to remember two dynamic colleagues we suddently lost from our academic community in the last few days. They were both doing important work and meant a lot to their respective communities. May their souls rest in eternal peace.

This is a big decision! Mass termination of National Endowment for the Humanities grants (remember DOGE doing this?) "unlawful, unconstitutional... and without legal effect." Terminations violate 1st Amendment & equal protection component of 5th Amendment, "and without statutory authority."

ACLS / MLA / AHA / Authors Guild won the NEH case against the mass termination of grants.

About to “hood” my first Emory/ GA Tech Biomedical Engineering PhD graduate at the GA Tech c/o 2026 PhD ceremony! @gatechengineers.bsky.social #gatechgraduation2026 #blackinSTEM

The American Society for Cell Biology members elected Rebecca Heald, Professor of Cell and Developmental Biology at the University of California, Berkeley, to serve as the Society’s President in 2028. www.xenbase.org/xenbase/doNe... #science #devbio #cellbio #xenopus #frogs

Roche scientists developed a human adrenal cortex #organoid that’s long-lived, self-renewing, and capable of producing mature steroids, including cortisol and aldosterone. @graycamplab.bsky.social #DevBio #Preclinical #Endocrinology 🧪

✨ We are looking forward to hosting Isabel Espinosa Medina of HHMI Janelia Research Campus at #2026SDB in Las Vegas! Her work explores how the autonomic nervous system affects the development and homeostasis of different organs like the pancreas. 🔬 ✨#devbio

The Cimini lab is hiring for both postdocs and interns! The postdoc role will cover bioimage analysis projects and educational material creation; the intern will be working on our Bilayers project for helping distribute and access deep learning tools for bioimage analysis. Click below to learn more!

#RIP Pierre Chambon (1931-2026) 1963 PARP 1970 RNA Pol II 1975 Nucleosome 1977 Split genes 1980 Promoter 1983 enhancer 1986 Nuclear receptor

#RIP Pierre Chambon (1931-2026) via @alainberetz.bsky.social one of the last giants in biology: PARP, nuclear receptors, RNA Pol II, nucleosome, promoters, split genes

Lots of people have reached out asking how they can support us after the devastating fire in the MSL building, the heart of @cmarinescience.bsky.social Here’s one way, a GoFundMe organized by our graduate students - gofund.me/4373c6ff3. Please share widely, and thanks for helping our community!

As one of the postdocs in my lab will be leaving to take a faculty position soon I will likely be placing a new ad in the coming week for someone with experience mapping C. elegans mutants from screens or doing bacterial genetics. If anyone knows/has candidates #Celegans #worms #bacteria #genetics

Developmental biology bringing together regenerative biology, neurobiology, mathematical modelling, evo-devo and much more to Edinburgh! 19-22 April 2027 Save the date!

In light of everything this reads a lot more like a threat than a job ad.

Here is a measure of multi-year funding. The amounts of funds estimated to be committed for years beyond the first year for multi-year funded awards are shown. The curve for 2026 is at or above those for earlier fiscal years and it expected to increase to the level from fiscal year 2025. 4/4

Here are non-competitive renewal awards. The gap that began with the government shutdown has not closed substantially. This may be due to awards that are delayed because of the "need" for renegotiation. 2/4

Update on NIH funding including multi-year funding. Here is the overall progress in terms of the number of projects (as opposed to the fraction of appropriated funds). The fiscal year 2026 curve lies below those for earlier fiscal years. 1/4

Am I wrong though?

Former National Science Board (NSB) Chairs and National Science Foundation (NSF) Directors write to support the future of #NSF. #NSB www.linkedin.com/posts/ugcPos...

Okay, so a few things 🧵 1. There is in vitro evidence that ivermectin can inhibit importins (proteins that import things into the nucleus). However, hantaviruses, like Andes virus, do not have a phase of their replication cycle that requires them to go to the nucleus. ictv.global/report/chapt...

VInay Prasad tried to prevent the FDA from even reviewing this vaccine.

it took me too long to realize that this was "horseshit" censored and not new slang i didn't know about yet where "horses" meant bad

National Institutes of Health Grant terminations disproportionately impact minority scientists ▶️ bit.ly/42gT0o7 NIH Jay Bhattacharya

Octavius Catto was a scholar, a National Guard officer, & a champion of education, baseball, & voting rights. He was slain by white rioters targeting Black voters in Philadelphia on Election Day 1871. His body was laid in state & his funeral was the city's largest since Lincoln's.

I've been scooped (in a good way). I was working on a piece along these lines. This is better. substack.com/home/post/p-...

This a very important, and extremely well-executed study from Ralph Grand’s group @uniheidelberg.bsky.social. Congrats to all the authors! www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...

California Bill Would Create A $23 Billion Fund For University Research

The UAB Comprehensive Neuroscience Center and Civitan International Research Center are excited to host keynote speaker Dr. Hongkui Zeng, Executive Vice President and Director at the Allen Institute for Brain Science, for our annual 2026 retreat. Save the date for August 26-27, 2026!

New paper from the lab! "Plasticity and language in the anaesthetized human hippocampus" www.nature.com/articles/s41...

It's happening, Roberto Cucalón @rvcucalont.bsky.social, my first PhD student is doing their exit seminar today!

Important question but as someone who has dealt with multiple renewals over the last 2 years, the expectation appears to be >>3. Impact factor also plays a role (to my chagrin)

an important question, given the conversation #onhere about being more intentional about academic work post-tenure