Today’s guest: Patrick Murphy podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/e...

I always say… “the data’s the data’s the data…” you can only interpret it and can’t change it.

The 3 hardest things to learn as a scientist: 1. Trust the data.. especially when it’s not what you expected, 2. Trust the data.. allowing it to change your direction, 3. Trust the data.. but not too much: test with new data at every turn.

Researchers working on model organisms don’t do it for funzies. It’s because the questions they ask are important and can’t be solved using mouse, or human cell culture systems. Notice: This message is especially intended for journal editors.

This water fountain distributes polycomb

When postdocs and grad students move on, I don’t worry about “losing” projects. If a postdoc wants to extend their work beyond my lab, my answer is yes. They should take their momentum with them. I have plenty of ideas, and there will always be more questions to ask.

I cannot emphasize this enough, if you're cold-emailing me applying to my lab I would so much rather get the bulleted broken list of genuine interests than whatever letter ChatGPT spits out in its stead If you're training with me, I'm working with you not an LLM. I want to see who you are!

Great advice received as a postdoc: Do the easiest thing. I was 3 years into my postdoc and juggling projects w/nothing concrete = career crisis I went to my advisor Paul Sternberg for help. He asked what was going on & what mutant had the strongest phenotype. "Clone the easiest one." It worked.

Fire Ring Danio

So excited to finally share my recent work on sex differences in crossing over using mice from diverse genetic backgrounds! www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...

Absolutely thrilled to share the latest work from my lab focused on the variation and evolution of human centromeres among global populations! We assembled 2,110 human centromeres, identifying 226 new major haplotypes and 1,870 α-satellite HOR variants. www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...

Maybe I should teach this and an alternative “modern” perhaps even “Gen Z” definition of epigenetics next semester.

A tiny trial in New York has shown that personalized mRNA vaccines can provoke massive, lasting immune responses against pancreatic cancer, even as sweeping federal cuts now threaten the fragile labs required to produce them. theintellectualistofficial.substack.com/p/a-breakthr...

I still receive email inquires about postdoc jobs in my lab, with generic cover letters from applicants who don’t seem to be genuinely interested in our research… please save everyone time and read this article before emailing PIs: network.febs.org/posts/consid...

Any recommendations on getting a journal editor to respond to an email? Desk rejection is taking longer than peer review these days, and I don’t seem to get any response emails back from editors.

Excited to announce that our peer-reviewed manuscript is online in the Development journal @dev-journal.bsky.social. The manuscript was much improved through the peer-review process, and I am grateful to the reviewers for their valuable feedback. journals.biologists.com/dev/article/...

After my first semester teaching Genetics to 250+ Cornell undergrads, I’m surprised to find that the classroom has become my happy/safe space…

The December cover of Genome Biology and Evolution features Rojas-Triana et al., who publish a Review on the adaptive potential of extrachromosomal circular DNA across taxa. 🔗 doi.org/10.1093/gbe/evaf223 #genome #evolution

Pls Repost: I am putting together an edition of “Methods in Molecular Biology” focused on early development, encompassing gastrulation. I am making a list of potential authors for chapters. If interested, please contact me - An excellent opportunity for trainees to co-author with their advisors.

Check it out: New tech can unlock mysteries of genome’s hidden half news.cornell.edu/stories/2025...

Imagine thinking you’re the smartest person in a room full of brilliant scientists. This is the confidence/ignorance of anti-vaxxers, empowered by their leader RFKjr.

Soliciting recommendations for 3D printers and lab supply blue prints. Please share and RT.

TE x ZFP = Evolution! Writing this with Olga @orpsf.bsky.social & Didier @trono-lab.bsky.social was a major highlight of my 🇨🇭sabbatical. Such a treat! 🍫Hope you enjoy it as much as we enjoy piecing it together.

New lab photo, featuring chromatin!

Something to add to my reading list. www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

If you want to be truly inspired, take some time and read the beautiful mechanisms described in one of Steve’s discussion sections. He’s a master, a technician, and an artists all wrapped into one. One of my idols.

It’s like nails on a chalkboard everytime I hear a scientist pronounce nuclear as ‘nuc-you-lar’ instead of ‘new-clear’ or when I hear ‘A-tack-seq’ instead of ‘attack-seq’… arrgghhh

New Paper from the Murphy Lab - A Collaboration w Mitch O'Connell's group at URMC. Led by our joint student Brandon Park. Check it out!! CUT&Tag Overcomes Biases of ChIP and Establishes Chromatin Patterns for Repetitive Genomic Loci: iScience www.cell.com/iscience/ful...

The frig in my basement has a magic gene editing drawer.

Big day for the new Cornell version of the Murph lab. Our first gel… woohooo!!!! Science Baby!!!

Very happy to see our preprint on how the mechanosensitive ion channel Piezo1 controls intercellular junction maturation by balancing cortex and membrane tension now published in @jcellsci.bsky.social Congratulations to Ahsan & team! journals.biologists.com/jcs/article/...

The “Ins and Outs and What-Abouts” of H2A.Z: A tribute to C. David Allis - Journal of Biological Chemistry www.jbc.org/article/S002...

Check out the new chalk art outside the lab at Cornell!

Please RT: Published today, a super fun collaboration w/ @fanjumeng.bsky.social and Marnie Halpern's lab to establish methods for transgene mapping in zebrafish - TransTag enables simple and efficient transgene mapping in zebrafish via tagmentation: Cell Reports Methods www.cell.com/cell-reports...

TransTag enables simple and efficient transgene mapping in zebrafish via tagmentation: Cell Reports Methods www.cell.com/cell-reports...

Congrats Shan. It was wonderful to participate in the graduation ceremony with you! @urochester.bsky.social

Great event. Great trainees. Thank you!

Such an awesome day! It was wonderful to host Marisa Bartolomei @marisa-bartolomei.bsky.social as the Keynote speaker our annual Genetics Day symposium.

Congrats!!

Having an awesome time at the Tri-Repro meeting @pennmedicine.bsky.social @pennepigenetics.bsky.social with my good bud @themodzlab.bsky.social

I had a hypothesis that vitamin D prevents cancer. I worked on this for > 10 years, had 3 NIH-funded grants, and published >30 papers on this topic. Based on our work and that of my esteemed colleagues, I concluded that the evidence does not support the hypothesis. RFK Jr., we are not the same.

Had a wonderful time visiting the Genetics Department at the University of Georgia. Great food! Great conversation! Great company! and Excellent weather! Thanks for the invite @gollmg.bsky.social

Congratulations to @flashes.blue for their official launch on the App Store 🎉🎉🎉 It’s an instagram alternative built on the AT protocol 🙌 all the visual scrolling with none of the Meta algorithm

Congrats Brandon! So proud of your accomplishments.

We all know the story of Henrietta Lacks, but there are countless other examples when biomedical research advanced with a little regard for morals or ethics - often at the expense of poor, disadvantaged, or minority individuals. This book has been enlightening. A good read for current scientists.

CONGRATS to all!!

Now that I have read this paper, my lab has new findings based on CUT&Tag data that challenge the traditional view of euchromatic and repressive factors. I have started doubting all previous ChIPseq-based conclusions for many targets we are interested in. Thanks for publishing the preprint

CUT&Tag Identifies Repetitive Genomic Loci that are Excluded from ChIP Assays https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.02.03.636299v1