And now for something completely different @tianyang22.bsky.social & #YanCao uncover of how SPIN90 dimers activate Arp2/3 to nucleate bidirectional linear actin filaments. Great collaboration with @romet-jegou-lab.bsky.social & @carolynmoores1.bsky.social #Cryo-EM #Arp2/3 rdcu.be/eGoH4

”Please inhibit responsibly: Natural and synthetic actin toxins as useful tools in cell biology” I had a lot of fun going down different actin inhibitor rabbit holes with @onishilab.bsky.social on this perspective! www.molbiolcell.org/doi/10.1091/... www.molbiolcell.org/cms/10.1091/...

@fritzlaylin.bsky.social et al. propose a simple way to highlight both experimental #reproducibility & cell-to-cell variation, while avoiding pitfalls common in analysis of cell biology data rupress.org/jcb/article/... 📕 Reproducibility & Best Practices in Cell Biology: rupress.org/jcb/collecti...

📢📢Hiring 2 Research Assistants & 2 Postdocs at Emory University in Atlanta to study cytoskeletal biophysics/biochemistry. Please RT. RAs: great for recent bachelor's/master's in Physics/Bio/Chem/Biochem. Email CV and interests to [email protected]. More info: www.shekharlab.org

Our latest preprint on the role of the Arp2/3 complex in mitotic entry is now available @biorxiv. This work was done by Dhanya Kalathil, a very talented postdoc in my lab. The story started in 2019 when we were investigating the role of branched actin in cytokinesis. 1/

Feeling mitochondrially challenged lately? Here are two classic reviews on #mitochondria that should help. www.cell.com/current-biol... www.cell.com/current-biol...

For some three billion years, unicellular organisms ruled Earth. Then, around one billion years ago, a new chapter of life began go.nature.com/3JyRV4S

New preprint online! So much fun working on this project, thank you @centriolelab.bsky.social and @dudinlab.bsky.social for embarking me on this one! Hopefully HAK-actin will become your best companion for actin staining U-ExM expanded samples.

#FluorescenceFriday #Mitochondria, powerhouse of the #cell were labeled (cyan) and it's possible to visualize how they reach *every* corner to provide energy. All recorded under the microscope @cellcommlab.bsky.social #scicomm #sciencesky #microscopy #organelles @focalplane.bsky.social 🧪🔬

Who needs BioRender when you have #MSPaint? www.cell.com/cell/abstrac...

Today, @nihfellowsunited.bsky.social staff sent a powerful letter to the NIH Director outlining serious concerns about the agency’s direction. Thousands have already signed in support—add your name. – Mary Munson, ASCB President www.standupforscience.net/bethesda-dec...

Glad to see some scientific society leadership stepping up to endorse the #BethesdaDeclaration

An amoeba movie I made: "hungry" #protistsonsky #amoeba

These courses are a remarkable opportunity for scientists to up their game. They'll learn tools and approaches that are transformative! Check it out! 🧪

I got hit by some rather sudden and extreme financial hardship so if anyone is in need of remote wetlab contract research, strictly BSL1, do let me know. Currently scrambling for gigs. Plant, Bacterial, Archaeal Non-model Bioeng Custom Lab Hardware Turn Key Genetic Design Please repost for reach 💚

This awesome @faseborg.bsky.social website offers detailed information about NIH and NSF funding to each and every state--use this a write! www.faseb.org/science-poli...

“Mr. Musk’s cuts to the bureaucracy will cost taxpayers $135 billion this fiscal year.” That is 3 times the entire NIH budget www.nytimes.com/2025/04/24/u...

13 UConn (& 50+ CT) students have had their visas revoked. "Rep. Greg Haddad, D-Mansfield, ... said...that there had been “no credible evidence” that any of the students who had their visas revoked had “violated the terms of their stay.”" Students are freaking out, w/good reason. This is gross.

Excited to have @katrinavelle.bsky.social as our second keynote speaker. You all should check out the Velle Lab website for some beautiful sci-art posters! Also, join us at the virtual Spring Symposium - It's FREE and open to all! shorturl.at/zse9P

For #MicroscopyMonday, Naegleria cells from our Keynote Speaker for the Spring Symposium!🦠 🔬: Nikon Ti2, Plan Apo λ 100x oil obj, Crest spinning disk, Prime 95B CMOS, Spectra III/Celesta source 🥼: @katrinavelle.bsky.social 🏛️: www.umassd.edu 📩: [email protected] #NESM #SciComm #SciArt

It was a very productive week in lab! We now have Naegleria fowleri (brain-eating amoeba) cultures growing, in addition to the Naegleria gruberi (harmless relative) cultures we have been using as a model. Put side-by-side, it is impossible to tell them apart.

public comment period for the proposed rule to remove trans care from the ACA as an essential health benefit & strip care from DACA recipients ends at 23:59pm EDT tonite if you haven't commented, it won't take long & is worth doing. context & guidance in-thread ⬇️ if you have commented, thank you💜🏳️‍⚧️

"We will never use this agency to censor scientists who disagree. If scientists are censored, we can't have excellent science." -NIH Director Jay Bhattacharya. 9 days ago on Fox and Friends.

Huge congrats to @arzaf.bsky.social on winning not one, but two awards for his 3 Minute Thesis presentation! He needed help from the lab to hold up his prizes! #ProudPI

I’m excited and honored to be giving a talk at The New England Society for Microscopy Spring Symposium! Thanks for the invitation, @andystoneimaging.bsky.social

Fission yeast doing the splits— Microtubule push nucleus from inside, while cell membrane finishes the party. Shout-out @pasteur.fr and #PFAM course for the science vibes! #FluorescenceFriday #Microscopy #CellBiology @pasteuredu.bsky.social

Tariffs are more of a political policy than an economic one. Let me share my perspectives growing up in an authoritarian country. Tariff is a way to collect revenue & fund the regime despite poor domestic productivity & living conditions. 🧵

Today is the 5 year anniversary to when I slowly started losing my mind during the pandemic and began dressing up as works of art. As my Twitter account has long been abandoned, why not make a thread of my madness on BlueSky? This was “The Maid” by Wilhelm August Lebrecht Amberg, from 1862

NORTH CAROLINA!!!!! After five months The North Carolina Court of Appeals has decided to decide with Griffin and will be throwing out votes. HOWEVER MOST PEOPLE WILL HAVE 14 DAYS TO CURE THEIR BALLOT thegriffinlist.com 1/2

🧠🦠🚨 New preprint alert! We’ve built the first trait database for Amoebozoa, and showcase ecological insights and evolutionary patterns. If you're into protists, soil ecology, or functional biodiversity - this is for you! #ProtistsOnSky #MicroSky 🧵👇

Teo (@t-tapiacarracso.bsky.social) made such a beautiful figure for his undergraduate summer research funding proposal, but the submission portal only allows text—what a bummer! At least you all can see it now!

New lawsuit filed today in Massachusetts aginst NIH from many state Attorneys General First, plaintiffs seek relief for the unreasonable and intentional delays currently plaguing the grant-application process 1/n

An important point getting overlooked: When NIH cancels "diversity" grants (e.g., diversity supplements, Fs, Ks, etc), they aren't canceling the grants based on *what* the grant studies. They're cancelling them based on *who* is doing the research. And that disallowed "who" is anyone not white.

The “who” is impacted by cancellation of NIH “diversity” awards is much broader than “not white.” Eligibility criteria included individuals who are disabled, economically disadvantaged, grew up in rural communities, first generation college students, homeless… grants.nih.gov/grants/guide...

I have tariffed the penguins that are on Heard Island and which you were probably assuming did not export goods forgive me they were taking advantage of us so cunning and so cold

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.

I knew there would be an effect! This has been one of the questions that I had for the longest time. Changing the mechanics of the substrate affects phagocytosis. Very interesting paper! www.cell.com/iscience/ful...

'The results come amid recent news that officials at the National Institutes of Health are telling scientists to avoid mentioning mRNA vaccine technology in grant applications. It’s a move that could significantly hamper the advancement of mRNA vaccines in cancer research & patient care'

They are just disappearing people off the street. Having a hard time thinking about literally anything else.

An Iranian student in Alabama thecrimsonwhite.com/120415/news/...

Long-COVID affects millions of US adults. Pretending Long-COVID does not exist and ending all NIH funding into this critical area of research because "the pandemic has ended" is one 'strategy.' If you don't think a problem exists, you don't have to spend money solving it. What's next? Diabetes?

Welp. It happened. Our NIH training grant was terminated on Friday. Just highlighting this incredibly derisive language used in our termination notice. To focus on the positives, see some of the great things our undergraduates have done over the last couple of years: web.uri.edu/esteemed/

The US Department of Health and Human Services has hired David Geier to waste taxpayer money on debunked links between immunizations and autism. Geier has been peddling false claims on such "links" for years and was disciplined by the state of Maryland for practicing medicine without a license.

For journal club this week, my lab talked about a paper by Michael Mihlan et al. showing neutrophils *inside* mast cells! I expected cool science from the Lammermann lab, but I did not expect this journal club to result in 2 excellent slackmojis (thanks @arzaf.bsky.social)! doi.org/10.1016/j.ce...

“The result is going to be the systematic removal of women and people of color from the act of research. At the end of this, we’re going to end up with an academy that is more white, more wealthy, more male, more cisgender, and it’s going to reinforce the same problem.”

What this administration is teaching Universities is that even if you comply - punish students for protests, ban masks, remove DEI from websites and classes - they will still defund you and try to break you apart. Basically, there is no point in complying.

🧵Yesterday, I received notice that my #NIH grant, on the social environment, lifecourse, epigenetics & #birthoutcomes in Black families, was terminated. This grant represented a critical effort to address the ⬆️ rates of maternal & infant mortality in the US, particularly among Black mothers & babies

Today I lost an NIH grant training clinicians to do research about intimate partner violence with perinatal women. More women are murdered in the perinatal period than die of obstetric complications. I didn't just lose a grant. We lost an entire cohort of people building careers to prevent that.

"In order to implement Executive Order 14222, PMS is introducing a new mandatory field in the payment request screen at the subaccount level on March 17, 2025. This field, limited to 1,000 characters, will capture a justification from the Grant Recipient explaining the purpose of the payment"