Third preprint from the lab in as many weeks... this time, the loss of transcriptional control of early pregnancy by E2F5 results in alveolar defects. www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

So it got cold and clear with good seeing conditions for a few hours last night. The light of the full moon meant I had to shoot with a narrowband filter, and just a quick process shows that 4 hours on the horsehead is coming along nicely. The bright star is the bottom one on Orion’s Belt.

Another preprint from the lab, this time using proximity labeling (BioID) to identify targets of the phosphatase PTPRH. www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

New preprint from the lab: www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1... Publication will wait until the Oudin lab @madeleineoudin.bsky.social publishes theirs... invited them to talk at GRC Mammary and realized they'd scooped us! Their preprint is much more complete, already online and referenced in ours.

Yes I’m listening to the ass Dean talking now… but I’m also processing my capture of the Triangulum Galaxy M33. #astrophotography

It was a great pleasure to learn about a recent discovery in ecDNA biology that answers the most critical question on ecDNA maintenance! @nature.com Are you a non-scientist? No worries! My team wrote a lay-audience-friendly summary about this exciting research finding! Check it out! rdcu.be/eQMvM

Multiple tenure-track faculty positions at the UNC Lineberger Comprehensive Cancer Center in Chapel Hill! We seek creative scientists working in fundamental molecular, cellular, and computational areas. Basic and translational cancer research, all ranks. unc.peopleadmin.com/postings/309...

Aurora quick pictures, really bright by eye! #astrophotography #aurora

Aurora Timelapse in lower Michigan! #astrophotography #aurora

Physiology experiments on my bike for fun… white is power, red is heart rate. Wonder if there is a wearable constant blood pressure monitor to integrate as well?

It was my privilege today to host Peter Siegel from McGill to talk about his work on bone metastasis. Unpublished so won’t spoil it, but exciting work!

The best part of useless university admin meetings is sitting at the back and processing telescope data from a few nights ago. Quick processing of 6.5 hours of Heart Nebula data… need to nod sagely to make the ass Dean feel important, but happy to see what my redcat51 did here.

Victoria’s Secret Global Fund for Women’s Cancers Career Development Award 2025: Advancing Research in Breast and Gynecologic Cancers oncodaily.com/insight/vict... #OncoDaily #Oncology #Cancer #Health #Medicine #MedEd #MedOnc #MedNews #GynOnc

At first I thought my camera had a glitch, but after reviewing individual frames, it seems like there was a whole train of satellites that messed up my Comet Lemmon shot! #astrophotography #A6Lemmon

Best part of having a meeting on the other side of campus is the shortcut through the gardens this time of year.

Chances of getting Blue Jay tix for World Series seem rather low!

Knew it would be coming, but the cancellation of study section is rough. Less than 24 hours notice that we're cancelled. Hard as a reviewer when you prepped for the grants and hard knowing we have two submissions of our own that were scheduled for review that are now just waiting.

In this tough grant climate, I'm incredibly proud that we've now got 4 students in the lab supported by various fellowships! Very grateful to @michiganstateu.bsky.social and the Jenison Fund for picking up the students that had fellowships terminated .

A few days in Switzerland before the Basel Breast Cancer meeting. Just love the Alps!

Most scenic bike ride ever… from Interlaken to Stechelberg, locked bikes and took the tram to Murren, then back.

Early yesterday morning I caught Comet Lemmon going past the Little Pinwheel Galaxy. At mag 6.2 it is rapidly getting brighter. 15 x 5 min images on Redcat51 with ASI533. #comet #Lemmon #astrophotography #cometlemmon

A once every 15 years thing… Titan is transiting in front of Saturn. In a few minutes I’m hoping to catch the shadow as well. #astrophotography #saturn

Happy International Observe the Moon Night!

Always get more nervous for my student talks instead of my own… but sitting at the back I can see a lot of heads nodding in agreement for Anthony’s talk about our BioID data.

Live view on the telescope while sitting on the couch… still amazes me how many advances in the past few years for backyard telescopes! M31 with a 5 min exposure.

We're looking at a 9% budget cut at the university... so they cut the training program for bioinformatics. This is going to directly hurt our F31 and R01 scores. Why don't we fire an ass_dean instead? Maybe the one that came up with this idea? That wouldn't hurt anything at the grant level!

Second time biking East Lansing to Mackinac on DALMAC this past few days, we rode that long blue line all the way up the state. Fully supported, camping at high schools with meals along the way. Lots of fun with 400 new friends!

Strong aurora forecast so we sat outside and saw a lot of satellites and only a tiny bit of aurora.

Daughter's bike lasted all of 12 hours at MSU before being stolen, despite being locked and in a lit area with security cameras. Welcome back to school... grrrrrrrr.

MSU has a 9% budget cut and I've been in a useless admin meeting for the last 2+ hours. We're talking about a meeting with 40+ people and it would really just take one person with a backstop of a committee of 3. Suggested streamlining to a dean and their response: "That isn't in my lane". SMH.

Weekend paddle down the Au Sable River, 35 miles of a beautiful river. So many birds from eagles to kingfishers and warblers. Recharged and ready to review the last few R01s in my pile now!

10 faculty positions! Henry Ford + MSU is seeking up to 10 CANCER researchers to join our Detroit campus, who will collaborate closely with scientists and clinicians across MSU and Henry Ford Health. henryfordmsu.infoready4.com#freeformComp...

The feeling of relief when you see who the chair of the upcoming special emphasis study section is, knowing they're smart and more than capable. Plus she's awesome... just bummed that it is over Teams. WHY TEAMS?!? In person 1000X better.

2 R01s and 2 foundation grants submitted and 2 conferences all in the last month. Time to catch up with the lab!

At a metastasis meeting and during the first talk this happened. Missed opportunity for the presenter to say the data was earthshaking!

We have only 11 weeks until the 2025 Gordon Research Conference & Seminar on Cellular & Molecular Mechanisms of Toxicity! Come join us at Proctor Academy August 10-15 for some fun and great mechanistic toxicology. Full program and application links: www.grc.org/cellular-and...

Asking the oracle how to get a cancer research grant in 2025 (AD).

One of those things you’ll never forget is when your dad launches into a lap of the 1894 Olympic track!

Benefit of having a migratory bird sanctuary on campus is birding before work. Lots of birds coming through right now, plus we spotted this barred owl today.

Biking through the swamp on the way to lab is fun this time of year. All the warblers are coming through and the wood ducks arrived as well.

Come be my colleague! Open-rank tenure-line position(s) in cancer cell bio/pharmacology/biochemistry at Georgetown University apply.interfolio.com/167091 🧪🧬 👩‍🔬

Fantastic trio to McGill to talk about our breast cancer liver metastasis model. Ate far too much and it was great to see so many old friends again.

A break in the clouds last night, but sadly comet C/2025 F2 didn't clear the trees before dawn. NGC5985 with 3 galaxies was a new target, only an hour and need to collect more photons to clean it up. Whirlpool galaxy and Ring Nebula first try with the AM5 mount. #astrophotography

MSU just put up a news piece about a few of the ACS grants here...

Went to the local ACS Relay for Life kickoff event last night and talked about some of our ACS funded work. The hard work the folks are doing for this can't be understated and came away with such positive feelings. secure.acsevents.org/site/STR?pg=...

Rather than fixing daylight savings time, could we fix it so that liquid nitrogen and -80 freezers don't just break down right before the weekend? Our LN2 freezer control panel just died, so now it is a super expensive dewar that features a shrieking alarm that we cannot silence.

While waiting for T CrB to clear the house (STILL waiting for it to go supernova) I got this of M3. Finally didn’t blow out the core in the exposure! #astrophotography

Seminar today for our Genetics and Genome Science program is from Arjun Krishnan on ML / AI in biomedical research. Too bad we let him leave for Colorado! @compbiologist.bsky.social

Non-science related fun… the water pipe above our shower developed a pinhole leak in the middle of the line. Drying everything now, but didn’t have that in my todo list for this week!