Grateful with @genewiz.bsky.social, I received the first grant ever of my lab!

Pro tip: always delete the ChatGPT prompt before sending your motivation letter for a position in my group.

Regular ask to send me successful job applications, grants, and fellowships to share with others! Thanks to @isabelott.bsky.social for sharing her GRFP (and congrats!). github.com/RILAB/statem...

So excited that the first visiting scholar arrived safely to ISU @collazoonias.bsky.social. Hoping this is the first of many more in the future …

1/ Transposable elements are often called "jumping genes" because they mobilize within genomes. 🧬 But did you know they can also jump 𝘣𝘦𝘵𝘸𝘦𝘦𝘯 cells? 🤯 Our new study reveals how retrotransposons invade the germline directly from somatic cells. www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1... A short thread 🧵👇

Fund SCIENCE not billionaires!

Standing up for science in Philly!

Full page in today’s Anchorage Daily News:

If you haven’t this week, reach out to your pre-tenured faculty. Especially the ones pre-3 year review. It’s a …. It’s been a lot 🥲

The broader effects of the anti-science measures of these times, for the whole society, are coming sooner rather than later unfortunately

The FDA just cancelled a meeting to select flu strains for next season's flu shots. "It's unclear what the canceled meeting will mean for Americans who want to get a flu vaccine next season." www.nbcnews.com/health/healt...

After trade dispute, Mexico officially bans the planting of GM corn www.reuters.com/markets/comm...

Anyone in the UK have my chromoprotein plasmid set that are willing to share with Charlotte? Vendor registration is a nightmare. TYIA

🌿 Registration is now OPEN for the 1st Great Lakes Plant Science Conference! Join us Sept 12-14, 2025, in Lansing, MI for cutting-edge #plantscience research, networking, and professional development opportunities. #GLPSC2025 Learn more and register: research.msu.edu/glpsc2025

Measles is more serious than a rash and fever: it also causes immune amnesia, leaving patients vulnerable to secondary infection. Vaccination prevents the spread of measles & reduces immune amnesia's impact. Read the article: asm.org/Articles/201...

This morning at Dept of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) HQ in DC as mandatory return to office began, this video played on loop for ~5 mins on screens throughout the building, per agency source. Building staff couldn’t figure out how to turn it off so sent people to every floor to unplug TVs.

Demand your GOP congressman cut their budget and lay off some staff. Congress spends 6.4billion/year on their own operations.

Dr. Justine Beaulieu is an excellent Agricultural Scientist who was serving our country evaluating risk for importing plant material into the US. She was illegally fired in Musk's purge just days before giving birth. abcnews.go.com/Politics/vid...

“What part of diversity, equity, and inclusion do you have a problem with?” www.science.org/content/arti...

For every $1 the IRS spends auditing the top 1%, it can collect $13. For every $1 the IRS spends auditing the top 0.1%, it can collect $26. Laying off 7,000 IRS employees (during tax season) isn't about efficiency. It's about making it easier for the rich to evade taxes.

Interesting data in light of current events. More about welfare queen Elon Musk: www.profgalloway.com/elon-musk-we...

I have now about a dozen friends with the Park Service, Forest Service, and Fish & Wildlife who have lost their job. Rangers, scientists, researchers, passionately dedicated to the mission. As one of them wrote: "What they are doing is wrong. And it should make you angry."

We got a Costco membership for the first time in our lives today. They asked why & I said because treat your workers well, you value diversity, & you didn’t cave in to authoritarian demands. He said: “We’ve been getting lots of folks saying that, thanks for joining.” Who needs a gallon of ketchup?

As an undergraduate, when I learnt about virophages made me realize I wanted to become a virologist and keep learning about 🦠

Maybe you're already familiar with the bacteriophage- a virus that infects bacteria. Did you know there is a very similar entity among the viruses, a virophage? These viruses infect other viruses! 🤯

Carl Sagan expressed similar thoughts in "The demon haunted world" 30 years ago. bsky.app/profile/gshe...

Brilliant choice of name for a restaurant.

Found this sign I made in my office 8 years ago. Wish it didn't feel so relevant right now

Today I had the chance to visit NCRPIS in Ames that maintains an incredible collection of maize germplasm from the US and other places! Looking forward to exciting collaborations and research

I just learned that there has been a new detection of H5N1 in dairy cows in Arizona. It may be a new spillover independent of the original one in Texas or last week's in Nevada. So...great time to eliminate expertise in our national epidemic response capacity.

Dear Virology Community, please see ASV’s statement to our members and the scientific community. asv.org/asv-statemen...

Welcome to the Bluesky account for Stand Up for Science 2025! Keep an eye on this space for updates, event information, and ways to get involved. We can't wait to see everyone #standupforscience2025 on March 7th, both in DC and locations nationwide! #scienceforall #sciencenotsilence

Free speech baby

Join us on Friday, February 14th, from 12:00 PM to 1:00 PM EST for a webinar, featuring key messages from the report Advancing Vineyard Health: Insights and Innovations for Combating Grapevine Red Blotch and Leafroll Diseases. www.nationalacademies.org/event/44450_...

Just heads up there is still time to apply for this tenure track position Assistant profesor in Diagnostics and Bioinformatics

So cool FP production by E.coli sourced from @atinygreencell.bsky.social

I honestly believe our most powerful position in a toxic time that feeds on cynicism, apathy,& despair is to genuinely care and act for a better world. Cynicism is our enemy. We should check it, incl. on the left. It’s not intellectually superior. It’s the virus they’re trying to infect us with. NO

Our study on pasteurising influenza viruses in milk is now out! It's a nice simple story: influenza viruses (including H5N1) are killed really effectively by pasteurisation, but in raw milk they stay infectious - obvious public health implications of both points... (1/2) rdcu.be/d73te

It is timely, in this age of H5N1 Cattle Plague, to remind everyone about the origin of H1N1pdm 2009. A long time (since 1918) circulating in pigs, with multiple reassortments from avian and possibly human introductions. We were lucky: it was mild. A H5 reassortant may well not be.

Why we do basic research. In my lab, grad student Liz Carino showed that MCMV RNA binds eIF4E for cap-independent translation. Who cares? Here's what followed: onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...

From a bunch of unstudied viral sequences gathering digital dust in GeneBank, here's a bizarre new genus of twelve (so far) tombusviruses, from organisms ranging from maize to tuatara. Raise your hand if you know what a tuatara is! www.frontiersin.org/journals/vir...

Would anyone be interested in starting a microbial evolution feed on here? EvoSky is rather organismal, which is great, but would love to see experimental evo folks' feeds too. Thoughts?

What makes a Plant Health field trip great? It’s all about hands-on learning, exploring the local unique agricultural and ecological systems, and fostering collaboration among plant health professionals. Share Your Idea here: bit.ly/3DWXuXT #PlantHealth2025 #PlantScience

I think some people hear “grants” and think that without them, scientists and government workers just have less stuff to play with at work. But grants fund salaries for students, academics, researchers, and people who work in all areas of public service. “Pausing” grants means people don’t eat.

Americans voted for cheaper groceries. Less than a week on the job and Trump's already managed to get us into a trade war that will drive up the cost of coffee and be a gut-punch to American farmers and manufacturers, all because Colombia hurt his feelings.