Proud of the newest Starbird Lab (aka Starbirdian) to become an official PhD candidate! Congratulations Camila @biophysgal.bsky.social !!! She will also be presenting her work in a talk at the Biophysical Society annual meeting where she won a travel award, so stay tuned. Lots to celebrate! 🎉

I embrace my silly side in the lab all the time with my lab mates and it’s made my relationship with them stronger and I get excited to come to lab everyday for the science but also for the jokes … We started a quote wall on our inside jokes, dressed up as our PI.. btw I also love axolotls

pre-writing a devastating obituary for your enemy is god-tier hating of a kind you don’t often see anymore. renaissance haterism. beautiful stuff.

Camila Arango ( @biophysgal.bsky.social ), a 3rd year graduate student in our lab, did a great job presenting part of her work to investigate how TAM receptor structures are changed by ligand activation at the annual Carolina Biophysics Symposium! 🤩

Our rotation student, Maria Lopez Vasquez, did an excellent job presenting her research on a new TAM ligand at the BBSP fall poster session! 👏🏾

A couple months ago, the Carolina Latinx Center reached out and asked if I’d be willing to help start a brand new STEM speaker series! I helped put together an all-star team, and we made it happen. I was PUMPED to have @cterminiphd.bsky.social come give a talk! So inspiring!

Zara Weinberg passed away earlier this week. She joined my lab earlier this year when her postdoc lab formally closed. She was a brilliant scientist, supportive mentor, dear friend, avid music fan, rabid believer in public transit, open science champion, and above all just an amazing human.

"I was thrilled to be on an exchange semester overseas, but I saw it as just a detour from my imagined career path. I didn’t realize I was already pedaling toward a different life—one that would make me reassess how to achieve a fulfilling research career." https://scim.ag/46EZ2kj

And of course, I’m excited for the looming debuts of the Atlas of Inspiring Latin American Scientists (Fall 2025) and the Index of Inspiring Black Scientists (early Winter 2026). We also have a very motivated team working on the Atlas of Indigenous Scholars, stay tuned 👀

It bears repeating that nearly the entire US enterprise in science and technology has been irreversibly gutted. This is shocking. All this loss has occurred without any real benefit to the average US citizen. Except we now have the biggest, best funded secret police force perhaps ever. Yay for us!

Saw a science content creator (and fellow PhD student at UNC) say that grad school really teaches you to become desensitized to failure in one of her vids. She framed that as a privilege — and it really is. So many people are afraid to try something new because of fear of failure…

Big congrats to Celeste, so happy and proud of you 💗 happy to see a fellow IMSDer and friend from UNC win 🥳🎉

Status and material things are empty vessels. Two imposters we often feel define us. We live in a society that pushes them as the definition of success. Real success - and true growth - is measured in our ability to be kind, humble, and selfless. May your week ahead be peaceful, my friends. 😊 #life

I don’t think anyone is prepared for what they just did w/ ICE. This is not a simple budget increase. It is an explosion - making ICE bigger than the FBI, US Bureau of Prisons, DEA,& others combined. It is setting up to make what’s happening now look like child’s play. And people are disappearing.

I’m so happy to share a project very close to my ❤️ launching this September: Atlas de Científicxs Latinoamericanxs que Inspiran ✨ We’re currently collecting nominations! This atlas spotlights researchers from LATAM who trained in the North & returned home to lead labs. Here’s why this matters 🧵👇

A bit late to post, but a couple weeks ago I attended my 1st international conference—and had to share my hype! #EACR2025 @helloeacr.bsky.social Poster presented✔️ Great talks✔️ Lisbon explored✔️ Science batt🔋 recharged✔️ Thanks to everyone who stopped by my poster and shared insights and encouragement!

The places science can take you! In Salamanca, Spain for the 1st International Advanced Biophysics and Structural Biology course — in a town full of history, culture, and home to the oldest university in the world #BioPhySAL

Now I'm really angry. They're banning "Hidden Figures: The American Dream and the Untold Story of the Black Women Mathematicians Who Helped Win the Space Race", by Margot Lee Shetterly. 🧪 🔭 🎢 👩‍🔬

We are grateful to all who made our IndigiData #Indigenous #data #science workshop on "Indigenous #Health & #Artificial #Intelligence" a reality! This was our largest workshop yet. Held on the lands of the Ak-Chin Maricopa Tribal Nation in central Arizona. @d4itdr.bsky.social @nativebio.bsky.social

Lyft driver picked me up from UNC, turned out he was a medicinal chemistry post-doc in a building near mine, until his grant got cut last month. Worked on novel antivirals.

There are 2 previous historical cases of countries destroying their science and universities, crippling them for decades: Lysenkoism in the USSR and Nazi Germany. The Trump administration will be the 3rd. It's not just budgets but research, institutions, expertise, and training the next generation.

Oh hey I made some #sciart

I know you all know this, but apparently it needs to be said that basic science is a NECESSARY PRECURSOR to translational science

EU augments opportunities for scientists around the world to launch or re-launch their careers in Europe.

Federal research cuts impact local economies, and stall progress. Publish an opinion piece in your hometown paper on June 16th to SPREAD THE WORD about how scientific research contributes to the everyday health and wealth of the general public. #McClintockLetters blogs.cornell.edu/asap/events-...

The moral injury facing academics (especially of minoritized groups) right now is not ok 💔

'(...) German research institute BioMed X is stepping in to offer a lifeline. The institute has opened a matchmaking program to align threatened NIH grants with potential new funders from the pharmaceutical industry.' www.fiercebiotech.com/research/ger...

Leica has a 20% tariff fee now, including on servicing microscopes 🙃

Alt text: UNC Gullings is cutting health equity The #1 public school of public health is eliminating it's Health Equity & Social Justice MPH concentration - undermining its own mission. This is an attack on health equity, racial justice, and the future of public health.

The NIH plans to resume posting notices of new solicitations for grant proposals. But there’s a catch: The HHS and DOGE will review each draft notice to ensure the research that will be funded aligns with the priorities of President Trump’s administration, Science has learned. scim.ag/3DJsafL

Our lab is excited to hire a postdoctoral researcher to study the mechanisms that viruses use to ‘hijack’ TAM receptors in viral spread. We are looking for someone who is excited to learn new techniques and work in a highly collaborative team! Please share! unc.peopleadmin.com/postings/298...

Scientists have just cured pancreatic cancer in some patients with personalized mRNA vaccines. Pancreatic cancer. And this Trump administration wants to throw it all away. They’re throwing away a cure for cancer.

Here’s a cheat sheet with all the phone numbers for the US Senate. I have a feeling we’ll be calling them a lot in the near future.

New @science.org On the US-Canada deep collaborations and partnership in science that absolutely need to be preserved despite "contemptuous musings on annexation to a tariff war" science.org/doi/10.1126/...

If your sources are willing to share specific details of cancelled grants publicly, please encourage them to share using the Google Sheet below👇 The current lack of transparency on cancelled grants is really limiting organizing efforts and advocacy. bsky.app/profile/scot...

The Ed. Department's Office for Civil Rights sent letters to 60 additional institutions "warning them of potential enforcement actions" for "violations relating to antisemitic harassment and discrimination" including Harvard, Brown, Stanford, Princeton, UNC, and several UC's

A conservative advocacy group is suing the American Chemical Society alleging 'deceptive practices'. My latest for @cenmag.bsky.social: cen.acs.org/education/AC... #ChemSky

As federal funding for research is uncertain, we need to diversify funding sources for our PhD students. Here is a comprehensive list of >160 PhD fellowships and funding opportunities, mostly from private foundations and scientific societies. Download it here: research.jhu.edu/rdt/funding-...

I’m not defined by a rally. I’m defined by the mentees I mentored, the advocacy work I’ve done and continue to do, and my career mission to empower others. the rally was just a byproduct of the goals, I’ve been thinking “what’s next?” the entire time. Whenever there’s noise, I’ll find the signal.

❤️ on my sleeve: As a PhD student, I'm researching intimate partner violence (IPV)-caused brain injuries in women survivors. I'm also a survivor of IPV. In my 20s, I was in an abusive relationship that destroyed my self-worth & agency, and silenced my voice. 1/3 @standupforscience.bsky.social

Another fave

At @standupforscience.bsky.social and the signs are statistically significantly excellent

Although science is currently facing significant challenges—such as funding cuts, censorship, and political interference—I feel incredibly fortunate and privileged to still be able to pursue research that has the potential to impact the lives of others, especially cancer patients.

A friend included this anti-acknowledgement section on her PhD thesis. She also added the proposition: “Systematic bullying and undermining of girls and women in STEM starts early on and is the reason why they do not stay in science and related fields.” Absurd we still need to go through this 🧪👩‍🔬

Quick shoutout to the labs, departments, and scientists cancelling / rescheduling lab meetings, seminars and more to give students and others the chance to defend science for @standupforscience.bsky.social

Kind of a bad look go tout the successes of American doctors and researchers while actively attacking scientific research and cutting access to healthcare! Join us on March 7th to Stand Up for Science & continue driving progress for people with colorectal cancer☀️ www.whitehouse.gov/briefings-st...

BREAKING: We're sending an open letter to universities across the country, offering support and urging them to reject pressure to punish international students and faculty for exercising their First Amendment rights. Schools must hold firm against the Trump administration's censorship attempts.

*squints* Wait is th- Is that an ATP synthase???