Recent studies in living animals reveal that the cytoplasm is a thick, jam-like fluid. And yet, miraculously, hoards of molecules find their way to each other in every crowded cell. www.quantamagazine.org/the-biophysi...

Forget the textbook view of a cell as a calm, orderly place. Glowing trackers reveal that it is jam-packed as a crowded nightclub — raising questions about how molecules can encounter their partners for the reactions that enable life. www.quantamagazine.org/the-biophysi...

An estimated 1 billion biochemical reactions occur every second in every cell of our bodies. New research is revealing how cells harness physics by packing molecules into tiny spaces to make these reactions happen.

New in @quantamagazine.bsky.social: the science of cytoplasmic crowding. From Liam Holt & Simone Reber's work to our discovery that in vivo cytoplasm is 50x more crowded than cultured cells. Thanks @danstarrucdavis.bsky.social & @gabepopkin.bsky.social! www.quantamagazine.org/the-biophysi...

I wrote this song on Saturday, recorded it yesterday and released it to you today in response to the state terror being visited on the city of Minneapolis. It’s dedicated to the people of Minneapolis, our innocent immigrant neighbors and in memory of Alex Pretti and Renee Good. Stay free

My sister-in-law's dad died last week, in hospice in the VA hospital in Minneapolis. I just learned Alex Pretti was part of his care team. They shot Alex less than 1/2 mile from my niece's house while doing the same observation work that my niece is doing. These are real people. Step up folks!

The conference (agreement between House and Senate) appropriations bill that includes HHS and NIH was released this morning. www.appropriations.senate.gov/news/majorit... 1/5

NIGMS R35 Maximizing Investigator's Research Award (MIRA) for Outstanding Investigators new NOFO is available!! Submission dates starting in January 2026 through May 2028. See link below: simpler.grants.gov/opportunity/...

We persist.

Grateful to be featured in Nature Methods discussing how @danstarrucdavis.bsky.social and I run the joint Starr-Luxton Lab @ucdavis.bsky.social together. Thanks to Vivien Marx for the thoughtful interview - she really captured what makes this model work. www.nature.com/articles/s41...

New York Times article on science funding with some depressing but familiar curves with interactive graphics. www.nytimes.com/interactive/...

This is our community!

@padilla.senate.gov @schiff.senate.gov do not vote to open the govern without obtaining an extension of the ACA subsidies. Protect working class. Protect access to healthcare. DO NOT CAVE.

Warning. ⚠️ If you are writing an NSF GRFP, new this year, you need official transcripts to apply. Beware. They will not review applications without official transcripts. ‼️

@joann-trejo.bsky.social, @marymunson4.bsky.social and I have a commentary in @natcellbio.nature.com on recent attacks on DEI in biomedical research: "If scientific research, especially biomedical research, is meant to serve everyone, then it requires that everyone has an opportunity to participate"

Submitting an R01 to NIH today. We're super proud of the work, and feel its important, but where is it going now?

Just a reminder if you're getting a manuscript together (like we are) to thank your core facilities!

🎉Check out our new preprint!! 🧬We found that lamin mutations in muscular dystrophy don’t just affect the nucleus — they disrupt a nucleolar–ribosomal axis that reorganizes the entire cytoplasm. Very grateful to @danstarrucdavis.bsky.social, @gwgl.bsky.social and our lab for collaboration & support!

🧬 NEW Starr-Luxton Lab PREPRINT: Our 🌠grad student @XiangyiDing figured out why muscular dystrophy mutations cause such widespread cellular chaos. The answer wasn't what we expected - and it changes how we think about the disease. Thread🧵 (1/6). www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

🧬Want the full story of our paper without the science jargon? Our @ucdavis.bsky.social department broke down our "cells are crowded AND constrained" findings in plain English! Perfect explanation of why worm cells are nothing like cultured cells 🪱🌠

🧬BREAKING!🪱Plot twist: Cells aren't meditation pools, they're overcrowded concerts with VIP ropes everywhere! Our study reveals worm cells are insanely crowded AND compartmentalized. Ribosomes = packing peanuts, ANC-1 = the bouncer! www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

Thrilled to share that a big piece of my thesis here in the Starr–Luxton is now out in Science Advances! We discovered that the cytoplasm of living animal tissues is extremely crowded and constrained, maintained by ribosomes and the giant KASH protein ANC-1. www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

🚨Our fabulous graduate student Selin's paper on how the KASH protein UNC-83 regulates the activity of kinesin-1 to control developmental stage-specific nuclear migration is out! Another great collaboration between the Starr-Luxton and MOM labs. www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

One of the best arguments I have read about DEI: Gift article from The New York Times. You can read it for free without a subscription. www.nytimes.com/2025/09/05/o...

Would recommend constitutional law professor Steve Vladeck’s take which is more optimistic! www.tiktok.com/@steve_vlade...

Trump is withholding $300M in science funding from UCLA based on antisemitism & inviting UCLA to “resolve this matter,” presumably by giving Trump control of the university. Having worked hard to stop antisemitism at UCLA & other UCs, I’ll say the following about this pretextual, fascist move:🧵

Happy to share the latest work from the lab, led by @mudgal17.bsky.social‬, in collaboration with the Weis lab @ethzurich.bsky.social. How do nuclear membranes fuse during NPC assembly? We answer this question in our latest work, where we identify a new mechanism for membrane fusion… (1/13)

Thanks to @isakoditomassi.bsky.social and the McClintock Letters Initiative who motivated me to submit this.

While our whole field has been experiencing undeserved turmoil, a few of us have been fortunate enough to receive positive news on funding. This link describes positions that are now open in the Fay Lab. Perhaps some who’ve been displaced can find a home with us. 1/2 drive.google.com/file/d/1XuDO...

Fascinating piece from Paul Krugman with Jonathan Gruber with a powerful argument for public funding of science. paulkrugman.substack.com/p/health-car... 1/n

I’m thinking about him today. I hope he’d be proud of me. I hope my sense of citizenship has lived up to his. Happy Fourth. /thread Full essay here for easier sharing: charlotteclymer.substack.com/p/what-mr-ra...

Incredible plenary presentation by Starr-Luxton Lab student @xiangyiding.bsky.social at the International Worm Meeting! Who knew C. elegans cytoplasm has the viscosity of strawberry jam? 🍓 So proud! #Worm2025 #frontierscience @danstarrucdavis.bsky.social

Ellen Gregory, @gwgl.bsky.social‬, & @danstarrucdavis.bsky.social‬ show how heterochromatin helps cell nuclei migrate through tight spaces in #Celegans! Learn more in #GENETICS about the process of heterochromatin anchoring to the nuclear periphery that supports nuclei squeezing: buff.ly/kZttVdX

Thank you so much! It was such a joy to see Xiangyi's transformation through the MBL program. Looking forward to the blog post - and thanks for highlighting how these summer courses shape the next generation of scientists!

Today I had the honor of speaking in front of nearly 3000 people today at the Woodland #NoKings rally. WE FEAR NO KING BECAUSE WE DONT HAVE ONE ✊🏾✊🏾✊🏾✊🏾 let’s gooooooo

@doctheagrif.bsky.social on fire 🔥 in Woodland today

The university of California is a powerhouse of innovation, healthcare, and social mobility for California and the US.

We hosted the 2024-2025 PREP@UC Davis research symposium today and added on a celebration of our alumni. Eight cohorts and "The most important thing I've done in my career. " -- @danstarrucdavis.bsky.social They are the future of our science. prep.ucdavis.edu/news/celebra...

There is a lot of chatter about how the proposed budget hurts research at our Universities. But there are other horrors. The maximum Pell Grant is proposed to be cut by $1,685 per student (23%) and Federal Work Study by 80%. This will hurt the working class, not the Ivy elites. 1/n

“I was starting to think that these worms have a way of bringing out the best in humans—generosity, cooperation, and an unbridled curiosity about life. But these days, the worm people are worried.”

Just another example of why we need to protect government funding. Private philanthropy and industry will never make up for what the government does.

🧵 1/8: Excited to share our new paper on how heterochromatin (tightly packed DNA) helps cell nuclei migrate through tight spaces in #Celegans! Published in @genetics_asa #CellBiology #NuclearMigration pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/40335054/ Congrats @danstarrucdavis.bsky.social and 1st author Ellen!

Congrats to my fabulous colleague @accorsi-alice.bsky.social !! biology.ucdavis.edu/news/snail-r...

The administration can terminate PREP but the alumni are resilient. I just watched a beautiful PhD thesis defense from a PREP alumnus! Congratulations Dr. Amezquita!!! prep.ucdavis.edu/news/congrat...

I had a wonderful visit to Ohio State Biophysics yesterday. I heard so much amazing science and the students are awesome. In these times, a day devoted to science can restore a bit of faith and recharge me. This is a great place to study if you get a chance. Thank you everyone at OSU biophysics!

OK, it’s not a dire wolf. OK, we have more important things to do. But, it’s still freaking cool.

Revoking Congressionally appropriated funds based on political ideology is not just undemocratic, it's illegal. It's a gross misuse of American tax dollars, and it recklessly endangers everyone. Grateful to my colleagues for standing against this. Enough is enough.

Our PREP program too. 😢 We had ~50 scholars. 47 were accepted to PhD programs. 14 received NSF GRFP awards. I am so proud of them all. This is the most important thing I've done in my career. PREP was an amazing investment that paid huge dividends. This is shortsighted. Such a loss for our country.

My red sports car has been totaled by an asshole driving a Cybertruck through a red light. www.google.com/url?sa=t&sou...