Are you an early-stage graduate student (2nd or 3rd year) or early-stage postdoc based in the US or Canada, working primarily in Drosophila? Would you like to help improve the experience of all trainees working in Drosophila research? If so, read on. (Please repost to reach a broad audience.)

🚨🚨 1 week left to apply to our department's faculty search! We are an interactive and interdisciplinary department for biochemistry, genetics, cell, developmental, and molecular biology. If your work addresses aging or infectious disease, you should especially apply! 🚨🚨 apply.interfolio.com/171941

Never bet against our starting quarterback, Jack Curtis ’26! Even a cancer diagnosis can’t disrupt his commitment to Carleton Football. Good luck battling for the Goat today! We're all rooting for you 💛💙 Watch or read his story on CBS News: www.cbsnews.com/minnesota/ne...

This may be the most important paper ever published about NIH funded research. www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

I ordered some to save for gifts for undergrads at the end of the year. They look incredible! I'll be ordering more soon to stock up for future Nelson Lab students!

Our department is hiring TWO tenure-track Assistant Professor positions! Join a fantastic group of biochemists, molecular, cell, and developmental biologists! www.stonybrook.edu/commcms/bioc...

FlyBase needs our help! There is now a system for non-European direct donations. Hopefully an option to invoice labs comes soon, but in the mean time do what you can to save this precious resource!

The goal of a PhD is not to learn some facts or read a few papers or learn a bunch of techniques. The goal of a PhD is to learn independence, problem solving, how to finish things you start, resilience, & gain the ability to adapt & think creatively. Learning these things is hard.

🆕🧪‼️ New lab preprint! We study how germ cells (the cells that give rise to gametes, in this case sperm) are supported by somatic (non-germ) cells of the gonad. This matters for our understanding of reproduction - without germ cell development, animals are sterile. www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

attention 🪰folks. many of you received a survey from @genetics-gsa.bsky.social about potential future sites of the US Fly meeting. We are excited for #Dros26 Chicago, but future sites are in question, for many logistical reasons. GSA is hard at work planning, but we need to hear from you. please RT!

Are you bravely deciding to do a postdoc in the US? And also interested in some combination of genomics, immunology, and transposons? If so, consider applying to my lab at the BioFrontiers Institute in Boulder, Colorado! jobs.colorado.edu/jobs/JobDeta... 🧪🧬 #TESky #interferosky

Pls. share widely Calling all transposon fans & lovers of genetic innovation MOBILE GENOME welcomes you in Heidelberg, Nov. 4–7 2025 → Vibrant & friendly community → Cutting-edge talks from mechanisms to physiology → Plenty of surprises (TEs never stop innovating) submit abstract by July 29

All proceeds from my #sciart Etsy shop will now be donated to @flybase.bsky.social . Due to fed cuts, this beloved resource that I use daily has lost it's funding, and I'm helping in my small way. Now's a good time stock up on #STEM & #drosophila gifts & swag! www.etsy.com/shop/Picosti...

Are you an MIT postdoc in the life sciences? Come join my new initiative, the KendallSqBio Postdoc Symposium on Sept. 10, 2025! ✅ Present your science ✅ Connect with other postdocs ✅ Build your community Abstract deadline July 11th! forms.gle/iXMTYfqgLKWR...

The winner of the SMBE Mid-Career Excellence Award is Amanda Larracuente (University of Rochester). ⭐ 2025 Winners: members.smbe.org/news/Details... 📄 Information on the Faculty Awards: www.smbe.org/faculty-awards

This #microscopymonday image is of a #Drosophila male reproductive system: paired coiled testes, seminal vesicles & accessory glands, and a single ejaculatory duct. Each coiled testis is about 1.5mm. Image captured by MDI Bio Lab Sr. Scientist Travis Carney. #standwithscience #researchmatters 🧪 🤝

it's actually very incomplete: my grant has been delayed for 5 weeks now and it doesn't come up when I search for my Institution. In fact, at my Institution it looks like only two grants are delayed, but I know that in reality it's dozens of them.

We currently have a call for support that has gone out to European labs, to support FlyBase-UK. We are asking our colleagues from labs in the US and other countries to wait for a similar call to them that will go out in the near future, to support the US sites. We thank you for your patience.

#drosophila @flybase.bsky.social request emergency funding: "As it stands, by the end of July, 2025, there will be no future updates to FlyBase, and in the worst case scenario access to the website will also be lost" => please donate! www.philanthropy.cam.ac.uk/give-to-camb...

Congratulations to postdocs Melissa Pamula and Amelie Raz, who have both been named 2025 Leading Edge Fellows! www.leadingedgesymposium.org/fellows @remlehmann.bsky.social @leadingedgeprogram.bsky.social

Cuts have consequences, illustrated. As seen on TV 📺

A friend in my old lab mailed our fantasy football loser trophy to my lab instead of my home. I then had to explain to the confused student who opened the package why I'm bad at fantasy football (its because I'm too much of a Bears homer).

We are thrilled to announce the 2025 Leading Edge Fellows! 40 outstanding postdoctoral fellows doing pioneering research in a wide range of biological and biomedical disciplines. Learn more about these exceptional scientists: www.leadingedgesymposium.org/fellows

Hey Ypsi-Arbor science folks. If you do want to host one of these, I can likely help with a hosting space and definitely can help with promotion. Lmk!

This is a great point, especially when you consider the huge role graduate students have in research. Federal grants that fund research at universities are a tremendous value for US taxpayers.

The pact of the federal govt with universities was not a handout. It was a strategic decision to boost US leadership in technology, defense, and health. And it paid dividends. In tech, internet, in cancer drugs (for example), No other sector has invested in high risk high reward ideas like US govt.

Our May issue is live! Yukihide Tomari et al outline repression mechanisms for transposons (which “jump” through the genome like monkeys [see cover]). Meanwhile, Sarah Signor et al dive into the evolution of one of these mechanisms: the piRNA system. More here! www.cell.com/trends/genet...

Our study adds to a small but growing list of active TEs in apparent symbiotic relationship with their host. Telomeric retroelements and R2 elements in Drosophila are other possible examples of TE addiction. How widespread is TE addiction? We shall see...

I'm so happy to see this out! Congratulations to all the authors on this beautiful work! If you don't already think TEs are important to your bioligical system of interest, hopefully the accumulation of TEs found to be essential to host biology is reshaping how you view them!

Huge congratulations to my former PI Yukiko Yamashita on her election to the National Academy of Sciences! An amazing scientists and wonderful person who I'm so fortunate to have as a mentor! 🥳🥳🥳 www.nasonline.org/news/2025-na...

Movies you've watched more than 6 times using GIFs. (Hard mode: No Star Wars, Star Trek, or LotR.) Matt had my top pick, but this was an easy #2.

If you too are experiencing mental health issues due to the ongoing shitshow, please DM me or Signal me at ziadadina.19, I am trying to build a community to help each other. Y'all, please repost and help me out, this is serious stuff

It was a perfect day for visiting the baby turtles on campus!

In terminating hundreds of NIH grants, the Trump administration dumped years of investment down the drain. In my latest @opinion.bloomberg.com column, we analyzed the cancelled projects & talked to scientists to understand just how much the public loses out. It's a lot: tinyurl.com/bdey86su

Do you work on AGING? (Like, research-wise, not in the sense that you are trying to fight your own aging anyway you possibly can...). The Center for Healthy Aging at Stony Brook University is hiring a new Director! apply.interfolio.com/164803

The "brain drain" is not going to come from scientists moving abroad, but from scientists being forced into work that does not require their expertise so that they can pay their bills.

Looking to conduct research in molecular biology and genetics? Come join the Kardon lab! Looking for lab tech to help research the role of stem cells in muscle development and regeneration and determine the effects of viral infection on muscle. Funding independent of federal resources. Please share!

This is one of those "OMG science is so cool" papers. It completely blows the doors open to the possibilities for how TEs may be interacting with host cells. Congrats on the wonderful work!

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 🧵👇

Chuck Schumer's DC Office doesn't let folks leave messages, what a fucking coward. #VoteNO

NIH is the best investment there is. www.forbes.com/sites/michae...

A role for translational control in stem & differentiating cells. @amoyellab.bsky.social &co show that signals from the #StemCell niche induce changes in translational rates (via eIF3d1 phosphorylation) to control stem cell fate in #Drosophila testis 🧪 @plosbiology.org plos.io/3Dw1W07

Dubnau at #standupforscience2025 NYC: “IDCs support plumbers, electricians, HVAC operators…20,000 jobs in NY…Grants are the engines of technical innovation.”

#Transposons are parasitic genetic elements that act as raw material for evolution of new functions. @briankelch.bsky.social &co show that the capsid of the #virus-derived retrotransposon Copia mediates synaptic plasticity at the #Drosophila neuromuscular junction 🧪 @plosbiology.org plos.io/3X71IDa

In the midst of all the madness its important to still celebrate the good in science. Happy International Women & Girls in Science Day! Especially to Angel and Zarah, wonderful undergraduates in my lab!

The s'mores cookies make fantastic coffee dunkers and may be my current main stress reliever to deal with all the madness.

New York: 6 schools won $2.4 billion and the rest ~$500 million from NIH in 2024. For those 6 schools, $1.46 billion for research and $953 million for facilities and administration. With the new rates, they will only receive $220 million for facilities and administration, a loss of $723 million.

Good morning #MyoBlue 🧪 In the midst of all this chaos, we want to stay positive and continue to do what we love the most! We are hiring a technician to help with ongoing satellite cell and muscle projects. Please repost large and wide Interested folks can apply here, enquiries to me are welcome

Sadly, our colleague and friend Scott Hawley passed away this morning. He was an irreplaceable presence and force for good in the meiosis an Drosophila communities and will be sorely missed.