China increases science funding again (by at least 7-% over the next 5 years) as it pledges billion-dollar spending boost for science 🧪 www.nature.com/articles/d41...

🧵 1/5 A new BioRxiv preprint reveals that membrane tension acts as a mechanical gate for lung cell fate during development! 🫁 Our Flipper-TR probe was key to assess live Cell Membrane Tension (CMT) Here’s how Flipper-TR unlocked a hidden layer of lung development & fibrosis. 👇 #Mechanobiology

5/5 The Takeaway: Flipper-TR didn't just report CMT; it identified CMT as a master switch linking physics to genetics. From development to disease, this probe proved that how "tight" a cell is matters just as much as its DNA. Read the full study: www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...

Yay! 🎉 Another new lab coming online in 2026! HIGHLY RECOMMEND training with @jfhorner.bsky.social as he advances #proteoform level understanding of #mechanosensitive #adhesion proteins. Be sure to follow him and his upcoming work!

I conclude that NIH should make use of the large amounts of data that they have available to examine hypotheses before proposing developing new policies. 6/6

This article was handled through our Fast & Fair peer review workflow. This initiative aims to provide authors with a first decision post review within 7 working days. Read more articles handled through our Fast & fair peer review in our collection. bit.ly/4fiAxNE

As a someone with a 33 year NIH-funded lab whose grant is supposed to be reviewed this week, shut NIH down if that is what's needed to end ICE terrorism. Innocent lives are more important 🧪

Two new 🔥pre-prints 🔥 TODAY by us & @pwoakes.bsky.social @myosincity.bsky.social change the way we think about the septin cytoskeleton Septins buffer mechanical stress on actin and membranes! Septins are like intermediate filaments www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6... www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...

Giving the gift of negative data 🥰 Since I joined @lsajournal.org I have handled several stellar manuscripts that report null results. These papers do very well and reviewers almost always appreciate them! Thanks @rockefeller.edu news team for the article! www.rockefeller.edu/news/38829-t...

Xiaofei Li, Adam Kwiatkowski @kwiatkowskilab.bsky.social, Glenn Radice and colleagues discover that vinculin Y822 phosphorylation regulates adhesion remodelling during cardiomyocyte maturation. journals.biologists.com/jcs/article/...

A key role for Canoe's intrinsically disordered region in linking cell junctions to the #cytoskeleton. New study from Corbin Jensen, Mark Peifer (@peiferlabunc.bsky.social) and colleagues @unclineberger.bsky.social: rupress.org/jcb/article/... #Development #Adhesion #Drosophila

🎥 New video summary of a recent paper by @xsciteng.bsky.social et al. of the @jeffbush.bsky.social lab @ctbatucsf.bsky.social (rupress.org/jcb/article/...), revealing cellular mechanisms of tissue fusion in the developing face.

Calling all postdocs! Applications are open for Dept. of Molecular Biosciences 3rd Trailblazers Postdoctoral Symposium @utaustin.bsky.social. Come to Austin, meet your peers, showcase your work. Application is easy and all expenses are paid! Spread the word! tinyurl.com/yw7ffjn9

From MBoC... Ronald Wek and colleagues show PERK helps skin cells migrate during healing—not by its kinase activity, but by acting as a structural supporter for key adhesion proteins. A fresh look at how keratinocytes stay connected and move together. 🔗 www.molbiolcell.org/doi/10.1091/...

To my fellow old farts: amplify junior PIs debuts. All of ‘em 🙌🏻👏🏻 all the best Maik, go get it.

Congrats to one of the most talented folks with whom I have ever worked. Follow Maik as he pursues new insights into morphogenesis using highly innovative multi-disciplinary tools! 🧪

So, let me share the NIGMS processes from my time. 1/8

New septin paper by our next door lab neighbors @ebrahim-lab.bsky.social, and on the cover of JCI Insight no less. Septin 9 reinforces intestinal epithelial junctions, preventing leaky gut and inflammation. Check it out!

Confirmation of the new triage line at 65-70% of proposals. Introduction of a new “competitive but ND” class to permit exception pay pickups.

It was a great pleasure attending my first #HUPO world congress in Toronto last week and sharing our catenin phospho-code story! It was inspiring meeting with peers and pioneers in the field, which reminded me how special the proteomics community is!

A new enzyme-free technique uses alternating electrochemical currents to gently detach cells from culture surfaces, maintaining high cell viability and reducing waste in biomanufacturing processes. doi.org/hbbs27

Thank you UVa for being the first places asking for grad school recomendations that did not include ANY of the silly ratings questions

Bluesky folks, @jfhorner.bsky.social is also ON THE JOB MARKET! Check out his work 🧐... he's SUPER TALENTED and a pleasure to work with!

Faculty positions in animal morphogenesis that may be filled at the Assistant or Associate Professor level in one of my favorite Departments" Cell and Systems Biology at the University of Toronto. 1/n jobs.utoronto.ca/job/Toronto-... jobs.utoronto.ca/job/Toronto-...

that time of the year... writing letters for 8 UG's applying to grad school, each of them to ~15 programs. And while I passionately support every one of them, thats A LOT of letters, a lot of web sites to keep track of, a lot of my time. Why dont Grad programs use interfolio? One and done???

After a "suspension" of just a few days, UNC Professor Dwayne Dixon is re-instated, revealing the weakness of the fabricated issues used for the suspension. Here is his response. Stand up to the fascists--when we work together we can triumph.

My entry for today’s #FluorescenceFriday: a pupal #Drosophila testis with muscles expressing 🔵 lifeact & 🔴 RFP-nls Honored & grateful to receive an honorable mention at @healthcare.nikon.com Nikon Small World 🌍🔬✨ 🔗 www.nikonsmallworld.com/galleries/20... #NikonSmallWorld #Microscopy #ScienceArt

Kate's work is remarkable--saw it at the Cell Contact and Adhesion GRC. Hiring faculty--she's a scientist to watch

A new email to Director Bhattacharya this morning. 1/n

"Head down focus on the science" folks: here is one super easy thing you can do today.

An email to Director Bhattacharya to start the day 1/6

Super cool work from our institute!

Geometry first: how positional cues dictate fate in bilayered epithelia thenode.biologists.com/geometry-fir...

Top-Down Individual Ion Mass Spectrometry Reveals 85-110 kDa Catenin Phospho-Proteoforms Regulated by Actomyosin Contractility https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.09.06.674621v1

I'm more than a little excited about this interstellar visitor 🧪 The images keep getting better and the insights deeper PS this is just some of the science funded by the NSF that is threatened by devastating budget cuts--speak up and call Congress. www.sci.news/astronomy/in...

We had #four interdisciplinary teams, integrating dev-bio, evolution, tissue mechanics, and biophysical modeling, all going full throttle to understand the #CF. Still, it took more than 7 years to publish two papers back-to-back (10/12) www.nature.com/articles/s41... www.nature.com/articles/s41...

α-catenin phosphorylation is actomyosin-sensitive and required for epithelial barrier functions through Afadin https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.08.21.671625v1

NIH progress on new R01s in FY 2025 drugmonkey.wordpress.com/2025/08/18/n...

Indirect cost fun facts (from FY2024) 3 of the top 5 institutions in terms of negotiated indirect rates are pediatric hospitals. The University of Kansas Medical Center had a higher negotiated indirect rate that Stanford.

This thread below is criminally under-liked and under-shared! Young #Drosophila researchers (PhDs, postdocs, and early-career Drosophilists): fill out the survey by Sept 1st to get matched with a mentor who can support you with your career. Established Drosophilists, like/share Shefali's Thread ;)

bioRxiv bat signal going up. We have a big backlog of submissions. If any affiliates have time to do some screening, we (and all the authors) would be immensely grateful! 🙏

Post Sunday morning shows Bhattacharya email...

To better treat cancer, we need to understand its underlying biology. Despite decades of research, some fundamental questions remain unanswered. One is why certain key tumor suppressor or oncogenes lead to cancer predominantly in single tissue: e.g. Rb in the retina, or APC in the colon 1/n 🧪

Getting closer to the “if proteins could talk…” moment of biochemistry

New preprint. ATF4 activation is thought to lead to longer lifespans. However, our study shows that suppression rather than activation extends lifespan in the fly. New Qs: how we can target ATF4 or its downstream targets to gain targeted longevity benefits. www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

Congratulations to @stefanosala89.bsky.social , with help from @shreya-c.bsky.social al‬ on the optogenetic experiments, for the awesome story! Read the full preprint here: www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1... and thanks for listening!

Excited to be starting my research group as a tenure track Presidential Young Professor at the Mechanobiology Institute @mbisg.bsky.social, and the Dept of Physiology at @nusingapore.bsky.social in the fall! More about our work on vascular mechanobiology in health & disease mechano-medicine-lab.com

SARCOMERES divide! Mechanism how muscles grow while contracting - daughter sarcomeres appear everywhere. Seen live, registered on our cover. Pioneered by @clementrodier.bsky.social @friedrich-group.bsky.social Ian Estabrook @ibdm.bsky.social $ by @hfspo.bsky.social www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

Excited to share our paper on deciphering the design & control principles of tissue scaling w/ Luisa Arispe! Amazing work by co-first authors Danielle Pi and Jonas Braun. We show *differentiated* endothelial cell proliferate in waves with ultrafast cell cycle time of ~5h www.cell.com/cell-systems...