Happy New Year! I enter 2026 with the optimistic assumption that nothing could be worse than the Trump-driven 2025 disaster.

Graduation school application season... TIP #2. Consider teaching & coursework requirements. These vary widely by program & aren't always clear from the webpage. OHSU requires no teaching, while some state schools require 1+ years. Similarly, will you have to take a heavy courseload?

Sharing this piece by @katherinejwu.com - A succinct explanation about why i fear for the younger generation of scientists... www.theatlantic.com/science/2025...

Ok here it is - out of 44 FDA approvals this year, 31 are small molecules (70%), 26 of those are oral drugs (84%), 22 of them are chiral (71%). This is the largest number and percentage of chiral FDA approved molecules in a single year. Fitusiran is not a small molecule, bonus.

@compoundchem.com My 3.9 year old wanted me to read this to her last night. She thought the title was hilarious. She made up her own subtitle: "Why does honey make your toots smell?" I admit, I was stumped.

Beautiful blue sky winter day here in Portland, OR

Today I am grateful for Maurice Hilleman. Dr. Hilleman developed >40 vaccines, including safe & effective vaccines for measles, mumps, rubella, hepatitis A and B, and chickenpox. Eight of his vaccines are still used today. His work has saved millions of lives and prevented so much suffering.

I had chickenpox as a little kid. It was MISERABLE. I itched everywhere and felt just awful. I wouldn't wish this on anyone (except maybe RFK, Jr.). Vaccinations save lives.

Graduation school application season... TIP #1. IT IS AN INTERVIEW Candidates: If you are invited to meet with the program and professors, it is an INTERVIEW. You should treat it like one. Prepare, impress, be professional, energetic, curious.

Heartbreaking. The flu is dangerous- not always, but it can be.

Walking around the #NIH hospital and seeing all kinds of patients getting care here: kids in wheelchairs, adults in masks and chemo caps. And all of this is being cut down, undermined, and destroyed by Trump. It should make us all incredibly angry.

New work from my team, identifying drug targets in M. abscessus. Pre-print posted here: www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...

Absolutely wonderful talks at the 2025 Chemical Biology & Physiology meeting in Portland, Oregon. And, wow, blue skies too!

1,475 pertussis (whooping cough) cases have been reported this year in Oregon (according to OHA). Highest numbers since 1950s. This can be a very serious illness for infants. Please-- vaccinate! If you interact with babies, you should make sure you are up to date.

Pacific Northwest winter beauty.

My advice: Look at what was recommended by the CDC and WHO pre-Trump. Up until 2025, facts, data, and scientific research mattered to US leaders. There have been no breakthroughs in 2025 that warrant the changes and utter nonsensical recommendations coming from unqualified Trump cronies.

Mycobacteria Researchers: Please include unique identifiers for your protein of interest (POI) in publications. For example, I think BlaC is interesting. But, to make it clear what "BlaC" is, I should provide the locus ID (Rv2068c) AND/OR the Uniprot ID: P9WKD3. I am on a mission now.

Bhattacharya, Kennedy, and Memoli will need to use some clever math to disguise all of the excess deaths in American children from vaccine-preventable disease. 100% preventable deaths, from measles, whooping cough, hepatitis, and other.⚰️

The decision by the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to downgrade its recommendations to protect infants from hepatitis B is a dangerous move that will harm children. Click here to read AAP's full statement: bit.ly/3Y9ZQJT

Hey, need a flu shot? Free at Doernbecher lobby today! Safe parents, safe kids! #fluseason @ohsudoernbecher.bsky.social

If you or someone you know is looking for a post-doctoral position working on mycobacterial envelope biology, please get in touch. I am recruiting here at the University of Western Ontario in London, Ontario, Canada.

I spent the weekend enjoying the beautiful Oregon coast.

My niece made a model of calcium for 8th grade science. I am confused... but I like the way it looks.

The MAHA Health Summit had goody bags that included mouth tape. LOL. Really? A freebie that tapes your mouth shut?

Job vacancy: Nature Chemical Biology is hiring Nature Chemical Biology is seeking an Associate or Senior Editor. This is a permanent full-time position within the editorial team. The vacancy is for one of the offices based in USA or China. springernature.wd3.myworkdayjobs.com/en-US/Spring...

PSA: NIH study section members Keep a hard copy back-up of your online written reviews. Don't learn the hard way.

Thrilled to announce publication of the crystallography children’s book illustrated by undergraduate Justine Wong! You can buy it here for $15: meitneriumpress.com 50% of profits will support undergrad education at the Cal Poly Pomona Crystallography Co-op. #chemsky #chemchat

Enjoying this article this morning👇 The role of colony morphotype in shaping gene essentiality in Mycobacteroides abscessus | PNAS www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...

I absolutely agree with this view published by @madhupai.bsky.social: www.statnews.com/2025/11/12/c... All children have the right to vaccinations and NO child should die of measles, whooping cough, chicken pox, or any other vaccine preventable disease.

Absolutely 👇 It is a moral failure to allow children to get seriously ill and die of vaccine-preventable diseases.

There is going to be another edition of Mycobacteria Protocols. This time coediting with Ainhoa Lucia (U Zaragoza). It will be a combination of good old protocols and new ones. As we finalize the list, are there chapters that you really, really wish were in the new ed? #tuberculosis #mycobacteria🧪🦠

I am sorry that the US is such a bad neighbor.

RFK Jr's response to someone collapsing nearby him was to haul ass out of the room as quickly as possible

I showed my daughter my latest TLC results (lipid analysis in mycobacteria). I explained how the "fats" are separated. Then we did a little experiment so she could understand. So many skittles eaten before breakfast...

The US awards the Medal of Honor "to recognize American soldiers, sailors, marines, airmen, guardians, and coast guardsmen who have distinguished themselves by acts of valor." Curious fact. Only 1 woman (of 3547) has been awarded it: Mary Edwards Walker. And the US tried to take hers back.

I am up-to-date on all my vaccines. Flu, COVID, measles, pertussis. Thank you scientists for making safe and effective vaccines that save lives!

Happy Halloween! Annual department pumpkin carving contest. The Portland Protest Frog was a clear favorite.

Trump administration's revisions to womenshealth.gov Quick summary: not good www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

HAPPENING NOW: Portland Police Commander Franz Schoening testifies that federal officers on Oct. 18 barraged protesters with crowd control munitions — not because of any violence but because another federal officer accidentally shot tear gas onto the roof of the ICE facility.

Fake eyelashes are a form of self-oppression. It is enough of a burden to use black paint to color in my eyelashes... I am not going to glue fake hair to my eyelids.

Is the AWS outage impacting ERA Commons and Login.gov? Thx.

What "war zone"? Picture taken today (Oct. 17 2025) at the Japanese Garden in Portland, Oregon.

📢 Applications are open for the 4th installment of our ChemTools conference. We'll explore: 🧪 Platforms & tools for analyzing cell/tissue networks ⚡ Methods to perturb biological networks 🔍 Applications that yield new insights 🛏️ Lodging + meals covered ➡️ Apply by Dec 5: https://janelia.news/CHM26

UC Berkeley got five Nobel prizes for absolutely top-notch work. How many did the White House get? 🦗🦗🦗

View of "war ravaged" Portland, with Mount St. Helens in the background. Taken from my department's break room.

Agree 100% @stanfordaaup.bsky.social! “When it inevitably comes time for Stanford to choose, we must remember that we owe our loyalty not to any executive branch official but to our own foundational principles. We must be ready, when it’s our turn, to walk away.” stanforddaily.com/2025/10/12/f...

Spot on advice from humorous columnist Adam Rubin. Welcome to your Ph.D.! Now choose a lab | Science | AAAS www.science.org/content/arti...

Thank you MIT! MIT is a world-renowned center for research and innovation. They value scientific merit and freedom. They will not be coerced to sign "the compact". orgchart.mit.edu/letters/rega...

The following is REAL footage from Portland, 2025. Viewer discretion is advised.

My family had purple cauliflower for dinner. The cooking water turned purple (because of anthocyanine). Then... I amazed my family with how the purple water acts as a pH indicator. Ta-dah! Check out the pretty colors!