Nice evening to visit friends with a view!

My first funding curve post for Fiscal Year 2026 FY2026 is off to a slow start. Some of this is due to the government shut down, but some of it is likely due to the new process for "remediating" applications that are deemed not to align with "agency priorities".

Doing a PhD is - at heart - one long discussion with your mentor. The discussion changes over time - with unexpected turns and ups & downs - but through it all is a pair of people discussing a topic endlessly to make sense of it. PhD students: choose someone you like to talk to!

⚡️Mitochondria make ATP, the energy that powers life. But in neurons, with axons up to a meter long, how do these tiny power plants stay functional in the right places? We went looking. 1/n www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...

This could have been an email.

Nice day for a ride!

Remember: RFK Jr. fired his last CDC director because she refused to ram through his anti-vax agenda. Yesterday, RFK Jr.’s handpicked vaccine skeptics threw out DECADES of settled science — and Donald Trump gave a thumbs-up. This will hurt American kids and families.

Grantflation. If only the budget was coupled to the science CPI. grants.nih.gov/grants/guide...

Re-upping my Bluetorial about VAERS which is the likely source of these cases. bsky.app/profile/jere... 2/2

How to keep in step when your (protein) partner speeds up… Here we investigated the adaptive remodeling of a protein-protein interaction surface essential for telomere protection. Congrats to whole team! www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

Appreciate @nationalacademies.org speaking up about the RFK jr directed changes to CDC website and pointing out that the science cited did not include the greater context or full body of research. Where is the “radical transparency”?

Unfortunately I am…

Establishment of a Congenic Strain for the Oyster mushroom reveals the Structure and Evolution of Mating-Type Loci https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.11.21.689727v1

Fantastic seminar on 'chromatin regulation and evolution' by @hitenmadhani.bsky.social at @ucriverside.bsky.social Loved how he started with the classic Linaria vulgaris epigenetics example 🌱

Cloudy (but nice) day for a ride!

Great to see continued leadership from @murray.senate.gov www.murray.senate.gov/senator-murr... 1/2

MISO: microfluidic protein isolation enables single-particle cryo-EM structure determination from a single cell colony. Or from a single dish of HEK cell culture in the case of two membrane proteins. Out in Nature Methods now! lnkd.in/gpyBSceg Wonderful collaboration with the Efremov lab.

Michael is my neighbor and a wonderful, courageous person. When Nazis left anti-Semitic leaflets on people’s cars, he organized a neighborhood sign-making session and led people in posting the signs communicating our solidarity against hate.

I realize that these timelines are absurd and wanting to take on one of these important positions under the present circumstances is problematic, but NIH needs qualified applicants to apply. Please consider applying, even if you are not sure you would accept the position if offered. 3/3

Alert for scientists: NIH institute director vacancies are posted! Please apply so we get actual scientists in these positions instead of just political appointees!!!!

Nice day for a ride!

Nice day for a stroll! 70 and clear. Not bad for November.

Nucleosome socks from the 5th biannual @epicypher.bsky.social meeting! I have had the (perhaps dubious) honor of giving the final talk at last four. Great meeting as usual. Thanks to Michael and the gang for putting it together.

Raise a glass for Rosalind Franklin tonight and honor her memory and scientific contributions

8 high level positions at NIH posted including 6 institute director positions (NIMH, NIGMS, NICHD, NIDCR, NHGRI, NLM). Only open for 2 weeks (applications due November 21). Application materials include a) CV b) vision statement c) a photocopy of doctoral degree. hr.nih.gov/careers/open...

In case anyone is wondering if Watson was really THAT bad, @lpachter.bsky.social compiled a list of quotes that are absolutely not for the faint of heart. liorpachter.wordpress.com/2018/05/18/j...

Vivid reminder that HHS sec is not an MD.

Absolutely, this. I did not intend to bury the lede in my data nerdiness.

Sad news indeed. I only knew Zara at ‘smile, wave and say hi’ level, but she always smiled, waved and said hi and always I did the same.

Pitt faculty taking a stand against the higher education "compact" www.wesa.fm/identity-com... I know of a few other news stories about similar faculty action. Please share them here.

From Senate hearing on Wednesday www.medpagetoday.com/washington-w...

Government has published one of those quiet but important documents that might get overlooked as it is not 'newsy'. The headline finding is that £1 of public R&D investment generates £8 in net economic benefits for the UK over the long term www.gov.uk/government/p...

Good to see Nature recognize fundamental research. Honestly, it’s the only kind that has ever floated my boat. Everything else just seems boring to me and I would rather live an interesting life. And, of course, as argued in the piece, it has an outsized impact.

Interesting to see new papers connecting Pol II stalling to heterochromatin formation. www.cell.com/molecular-ce... Reminiscent of our work in S. pombe: pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC...

Trouble in paradise...

Nice day for a stroll—saw some local coyotes.

R.I.P Hamilton Smith, 1978 Nobel Laureate for the discovery of type II restriction-modification systems (HindII).

Another former UCSF Tetrad program student does good!

After a long break from social media, I’m finally on Bluesky and have a preprint alert from my lab! doi.org/10.1101/2025...

For a second, I thought this was about the complement system.

In my dealings with administrative types I am sometimes reminded that some do not understand how hard it is to be a scientist, especially the level of uncertainty we cope with and responsibility we shoulder in the service of discovery. (Yes, today was one of those day).

Check out our new publication, a collaboration with Giovanni Luchetti and Vishva Dixit @ Genentech. We show that the E.coli effector NleL inhibits intestinal epithelial cell extrusion after #inflammasome activation via degrading the kinases ROCK1 and 2!! www.nature.com/articles/s41... Explainer 1/8

Amazing!! Congrats to the team for uncovering this link We are all phages … Regular reminder to the “The frustrated gene” article from @hitenmadhani.bsky.social

white house has joined bluesky click here to block all official us government accounts instantly bsky.app/profile/did:...

A university that signs the “compact” is one that acknowledges its own inability to compete and succeed based talent and merit. It would signal insecurity and mediocrity to current and future students and faculty. Say no. Recruit the best people, protect their freedom and support their hard work.

VERY TROUBLING NEWS REGARDING NIH INSTITUTE DIRECTORS A new appointment for NIEHS 1/3

‘Economics Nobel prize won by researchers who showed how science boosts growth’ by @philipcball.bsky.social in @nature.com www.nature.com/articles/d41...

"Faculty time is free." -Every administrator everywhere.

Perfect day for a ride!

For those who don’t know: Herb isolated EcoRI, invented recombinant DNA and founded Genentech. Mike discovered cancer genes with Harold Varmus, a Nobel prize winning discovery. Rutter cloned insulin, developed the Hep B vaccine, and isolated Hep C, the latter two at Chiron, his biotech.