We are deeply saddened to share that our friend and colleague Jim Hudspeth passed away on Saturday. We will remember and continue to be inspired by Jim’s integrity, his humility, and his unwavering commitment to discovery.

I am delighted to be starting as an assistant professor in the Department of Molecular Genetics & Microbiology at the University of Florida in January 2026. The lab is broadly interested in the functional, developmental, and evolutionary genetics of cell types and organs across flies and beyond 🪰🧬

Our latest paper is out: rdcu.be/ev6Ym — one of my favorite projects. It began about 8 years ago when Nobel laureate Torsten Wiesel asked me: what transcription factors regulate new genes? I had no idea then. Now we have some answers.

I'm very excited to share a new method my grad student @linhngk.bsky.social and I have developed. Here's Topsicle a new computational method for analyzing long read sequencing data and estimate telomere length. Please see our preprint or this thread for detail! www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

Rockefeller's @lizhao.bsky.social has spent nearly a decade cataloguing evolutionarily young genes. Now, complementary studies in @pnas.org and @natecoevo.nature.com are the first to demonstrate how these new genes are regulated and expressed.

If you are an SMBE member and received the election email (it may have gone to your junk folder), I would be honored if you would consider voting for me for councilor. You may also choose to vote for other scientists, and I encourage you to participate in the election. Thank you!

I hope to take a PhD student in the coming application cycle. Please reach out if you are interested in joining our lab in EEB at Yale, especially if interested in working on the natural history/ phylogenetics/ morphology/ population biology/ development/ genomics of siphonophores. dunnlab.org

Postdoc job opportunity! We're looking for ECR in evolutionary genomics to study the relation between intra-specific gene expression variability, polymorphism, and macro-evolutionary rates. We have the data in 3 fishes & amphioxus, just waiting for your expertise and enthusiasm! tinyurl.com/3aewk286

Congratulations to Feng Zhang (Vallee Scholar 2013) (Broad Inst, MIT, HHMI Investigator) who received an honorary doctorate from Duke University on Sunday! today.duke.edu/2025/04/duke...

I’m very glad to share our recent publication @pnas.org , led by UnJin Lee from our lab at @rockefelleruniv.bsky.social : pnas.org/doi/10.1073/.... In this work, he 1) developed a method to efficiently compare single-cell RNA-seq data from rapidly evolving tissues across multiple species, and

We are witnessing the destruction of science in America | Paul Darren Bieniasz

I lost my job at the National Science Foundation yesterday, along with 167 of my colleagues, including some dear friends. This was the best job I've ever had, and I thought it would be my last. The PI community has been sympathetic and supportive, without exception. I will miss working for you.

We're excited to announce the 2025 Larry Sandler Award recipient, @peiwei-chen.bsky.social 🎉 This award recognizes students completing a PhD in Drosophila research. Dr. Chen will present the Larry Sandler Memorial Lecture on evolutionary innovation in genome defense at #Dros25 in March. 1/3🧵

Dear All, I believe that this thread will become one of my most important contributions to the fly field (I hope I will make other contributions)! Here, I introduce the Soy Milk Machine Fly Food Method, a.k.a., DeepCook!#Drosophila#NewPI

So sad to hear of the passing of Scott Hawley. In 2008, Michael Ashburner, Scott Hawley, and Casey Bergman held a Drosophila genetics and genomics course in China. This course was instrumental in shaping me as a junior researcher, and I am forever grateful about this eye-opening experience.

My book, An Intuitive Primer on Effective Functional Genomics Study Design, is published! I’d really appreciate it if you could help spread the word, and I’d love to hear your thoughts and feedback. I hope people will find it useful. It’s available on Amazon: tinyurl.com/mx2hewen

Undergrads: apply to NYU's Summer Undergraduate Research Program in Biology! 10 weeks of research in a structured setting, featuring terrific mentors, exciting biology, housing in New York, and a stipend. as.nyu.edu/biology/outr...

Abstract submission for SMBE2025 in Beijing is open. If you study gene duplication or new genes, please consider submitting an abstract for a talk for Symposium 7, The Origin, Evolution, and Phenotypic Contributions of New Genes. smbe2025.scimeeting.cn/en/web/index.... Deadline is Jan 30, 2025.

Dear Drosophila PIs, Please consider nominating your excellent recent graduate students for the Larry Sandler Award. The required materials are straightforward: their CV, thesis abstract, and your letter. genetics-gsa.smapply.io/prog/larry_s...

Nicolas Svetec, David Begun, and I wrote a review article about de novo genes. If you are interested in this topic please take a look at this final open-access version at AnnualReviews www.annualreviews.org/content/jour...

When I feel discouraged by the immigration policy, I often find comfort in watching Yo-Yo Ma and his sister's performance for President Kennedy - and the introduction by Leonard Bernstein. Share this with those who might also like it www.youtube.com/watch?v=wiwk...

I am very glad to share a perspective from our lab, led by the talented postdoc UnJin Lee, w help from Shawn Mozeika academic.oup.com/gbe/article/.... We proposed a regulation-focused cultivator model for de novo gene evolution in this work.

Hello @elife.bsky.social and colleagues who have published papers in eLife under the new model. A bioRxiv reference we cited in our manuscript is "published" in eLife in Dec 2023 but is not indexed in NCBI. Is this the new normal for elife papers or the authors omission of certain steps? Thanks

Do de novo-originated proteins have a stable structure? If so, what do they look like, and how do they evolve? I am thrilled to introduce one of our most proud work: www.nature.com/articles/s41... led by the excellent Junhui Peng!

Nature Reviews Genetics editors asked me to write about an inspiring article, and one immediately came to my mind. Whether you've read the original article or not, I hope you'll take 5-10 minutes to read my professional and personal perspective rdcu.be/dpwTH . Weblink: www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Very proud to share our new study on the evolution of genomic regulatory regions in Drosophila species. Sam Khodursky, Eric Zheng and the lab studied sequence determinants underlying chromatin accessibility using deep neural networks genomebiology.biomedcentral.com/articles/10..... #DeepLearning