The 2026 University of Rochester iGEM Team's crowdfunding page is live! Help us reach our goal by donating through the link below. Your donation will help fund lab supplies and get us to Paris for the iGEM Jamboree! Link: give.rochester.edu. @urochester.bsky.social @urochesteradm.bsky.social

Can we create plastics that don't linger as waste in the ocean for hundreds of years? My lab has developed 3D-printed "biostickers" that contain marine microbes and can accelerate the degradation of bioplastics in ocean environments. @urochester.bsky.social pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/...

Bacteria are amazing! The abundant Dps protein binds and protects DNA in stationary-phase cells with minimal effect on chromosome accessibility, dynamics, and organization. Now in NAR doi.org/10.1093/nar/...; I'm really proud of our multidisciplinary team led by Lauren, Lindsay, and Xiaofeng, et al.

Wow, what an honor to be included among the "175 ways URochester makes the world ever better"! You can check out the incredible list of people and accomplishments here: www.rochester.edu/newscenter/r... @urochester.bsky.social

Our manuscript on Dps:DNA condensates is now live on bioRxiv! With @abbondanzieri.bsky.social @meyerroc.bsky.social Check it out at: www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...

Just wrapped up the 2025 iGEM Jamboree in Paris, and my team won a gold medal and four nominations for their project to create sustainable materials on Mars! @urochester.bsky.social @igemhq.bsky.social

Excited to share a new preprint from a team of researchers I am part of (funded by an NIH grant). The paper helps us understand a question I have been interested in for a while: why are bacteria so resilient? www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1... @meyerroc.bsky.social @juliebiteenlab.bsky.social

Thrilled to share our multidisiplinary work on how genome-wide DNA bridging by H-NS reshapes the stationary phase bacterial nucleoid and affects the transcriptional landscape. With Xindan Wang and @meyerroc.bsky.social www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

Lauren, Lindsay, Xiaofeng et al. coupled live-cell super-resolution microscopy with ChIPseq and Hi-C in starved E. coli to learn that the abundant protein Dps compacts DNA while only minimally affecting other nucleoid properties. XindanWang Lab & @meyerroc.bsky.social www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

Our new Science Advances paper is out! 🎉 The Plesa Lab's first, it builds on DropSynth technology as a proof of concept for large-scale synthetic gene libraries, showcasing a synthetic metagenomics approach to studying antibiotic resistance at scale. 👉 www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

Huge congrats to Dr. Andrew Holston on a successful PhD defense!! Andrew has been working on the large-scale characterization and engineering of chimeric receptor histidine kinases. He’s looking for roles in biotech/academia, let’s connect if you’re hiring! -> @hkalltheway.bsky.social

Busy day on Capitol Hill today meeting with nine of the New York House Representatives to advocate for NSF funding! Thanks to the CNSF for organizing and to @urochester.bsky.social for supporting my trip.

Are you a postdoc/grad student preparing to launch a faculty search? Do you have a track record of excellence in research, leadership, mentorship & community engagement? Apply to the 2025 Next Generation Faculty Symposium: www.berkeleystanfordnextgensymposium.com! Pls repost! (1/3)

A researcher is a problem solver 🧪 A team of 10 undergraduate students has pioneered a new 3D-bioprinting technology that efficiently replicates useful chemicals found in plants, including those endangered by our changing climate. #EverBetter #URochesterResearch | uofr.us/4iZo2Xr

My father-in-law, Jack Strominger, and I wrote a letter to the @wsj.com editor about the current threats to science due to Trump's funding freeze. Please repost! www.wsj.com/opinion/scie...

Science News Explores published this fun article about our engineered bacteria that focus light like tiny lenses! This kind of research can be the starting point to develop new technologies, which is why the current freezes on NIH and NSF funding are so damaging. www.snexplores.org/article/glas...

I am a professor at Columbia University. All of the student NIH training grants have been canceled and now there are reports that ALL funding will be frozen. Why are Universities not banding together and speaking out publicly and forcibly about governmental attacks on biomedical research?

The horrifying actions of ICE, kidnapping immigrants & international students & holding them without charges or trial, have now come home to UNC. aculty Chair Beth Moracco told us yesterday at least 6 UNC students had visas revoked. It's time to act for all of us, or know we remained silent 1/2

This hasn't gotten much attention—but new National Science Foundation grants have dropped by almost half since Trump took office, an analysis by @davidimiller.bsky.social shows. www.science.org/content/arti... (Story by @policyhound.bsky.social)

New review out in @NatureRevMicro on the complex rltnshp btween metabolism & AMR! A true labor of love from previous postbac Mehrose, grad students Varun & Zirui, and collaborator @drrobsmith.bsky.social (plus figures I'll likely use for many talks to come 😊) rdcu.be/eaES2

In @molecularmicro.bsky.social: two special issues on Prokaryotic Chromosome Organization. Many excellent contributions, including a vision article: 'Future directions of the Prokaryotic Chromosome Field', outcome of BioPhyChrom 2023 @biophychrom.bsky.social onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...

I think some people hear “grants” and think that without them, scientists and government workers just have less stuff to play with at work. But grants fund salaries for students, academics, researchers, and people who work in all areas of public service. “Pausing” grants means people don’t eat.

🚨Registration is now open for The Biology & Physics of Chromosomes VII, 16-19 September in beautiful York. www.biochemistry.org/events-and-t... Great lineup of speakers! Join us! @graingerlab.bsky.social @damelab.bsky.social @vslioy.bsky.social @biochemsoc.bsky.social @biophychrom.bsky.social

Check out a preprint from our lab! We've uncovered all possible speed imager sequences for DNA-PAINT. You can now do 10-plex imaging in just a few hours with simple Exchange-PAINT. 🚀📸 #DNApaint #SuperResolution www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

Visiting a classroom with Skype a Scientist is always a fun experience. How else would I be able to ponder questions like - are frogs solids or liquids? Or - what kind of potions do you use in your lab?

Researchers engineered Escherichia coli bacteria to express an enzyme derived from sea sponges, which polymerizes bioglass from silica, allowing the bacteria to self-assemble lenses that focus light into narrow, intense beams. In PNAS: www.pnas.org/doi/full/10....

Thank you to @urochester.bsky.social for writing this nice piece about our new PNAS article, which explains how we engineered bacteria to encapsulate themselves in glass, allowing them to focus light like microlenses! @pnas.org www.rochester.edu/newscenter/w...

Excited to share this new paper I helped with where we turned E. coli into tiny microlenses! Thread below. @meyerroc.bsky.social @urochester.bsky.social www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...

Our new paper is out in PNAS! We engineered bacteria to display enzymes that sea sponges use to mineralize their glass skeletons. These bacteria can self-assemble a bioglass coating around themselves, and focus light into bright, photonic nanojets. www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...

Our iGEM team designed their own screen-printed biophotovoltaic cells that can produce electricity while removing CO2, powered only by photosynthetic bacteria! Check out our pretty green cells here: www.rochester.edu/newscenter/u... @igemhq.bsky.social @urochester.bsky.social

Hello hello made this starter-pack for iGEMers on Bluesky so that we can connect with one another on this app. If you're an iGEMer then like this post and I'll add you in it or just comment under it and nominate your iGEM friends and colleagues too 💚 go.bsky.app/Di3hf3F

Questions? We have answers! Thursday December 5, 9 AM rochester.zoom.us/j/93642062540. (Second session at 6 PM, rochester.zoom.us/j/98594901321)

Congrats to Knight Campus assistant professor @calin.bsky.social on his grant from the MJ Murdock Charitable Trust through its Commercialization Initiation Program! The award includes matching funds from the #KnightCampus and @universityoforegon.bsky.social Research: bit.ly/49hs1LI

How do you cell living cells into rigid materials? Tomorrow im speaking on Engineered Living Materials at #F24MRS in a session w @meyerroc.bsky.social @saramol.bsky.social and others stop by or we can chat after @materials-mrs.bsky.social

I thought it would be a good idea to create a starter pack for Engineered Living Materials so the community can grow and post in this platform. Please share and feel free to contact me or comment if you want to be added (or removed)! go.bsky.app/EKRq4zp

Started creating a synthetic biology starter pack. Still missing many so reply here if I forgot you or someone else. go.bsky.app/SjfpxTK #synbio

Here goes my first attempt at posting about a new paper on Bluesky! You can read the paper here: academic.oup.com/nar/article/... This is a fun story about how bacteria decide when to protect their DNA. It all starts with Dps, represented by the red balls in the image below.

Skype a Scientist offers free matches with scientists for Q&As about science. We're a small nonprofit and rely on word of mouth for people to learn about us! Since the fracturing of social media, I don't know where the teachers went 🤔 Are YOU a teacher? Help us find you! #SciEd #Teachers

At the 2023 iGEM Jamboree with the Rochester team and their incredible 3D bioprinter!