Pleased to share our recent work in collaboration with the @perrimonlab.bsky.social in which we perform the first genome-wide CRISPR knockout screen in Anopheles to examine essential fitness genes and genes associated with clodronate liposome function www.nature.com/articles/s41...

A genome-wide CRISPR knockout in a major malaria vector identifies genes important for fitness & immune-related processes @natcomms.nature.com @perrimonlab.bsky.social @iowastateu.bsky.social @harvardmed.bsky.social @georgesaman.bsky.social @vectorimmunity.bsky.social www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Excited to contribute to this beautiful study led by @yukihaba.bsky.social and @lindymcbr.bsky.social!

I'm happy that I could contribute even a small part to this fantastic and monumental study! Huge shoutout to @oliviagoldman.net @nadavshai.bsky.social and @leslievosshall.bsky.social for their incredible leadership in organizing this massive project!

Since my study section meeting was postponed, I am able to submit my own grant a few days earlier than expected. I just wish that my outlook for the entire system was better than at present.

David Hall & @vectorimmunity.bsky.social highlight @merklinglab.bsky.social & colleagues’ Cell Genomics article on #mosquito cellular responses in #midgut & #fatbody after #bloodfeeding. #Aedes #aegypti #scRNAseq #Metabolomics @iastateresearch.bsky.social‬ ‬ authors.elsevier.com/a/1lbEr5Eb1x...

Celebrating the holiday weekend with another bang! Our work describing roles of TNF signaling on mosquito immune cell function and in limiting malaria parasite infection is now published. Big shout out to @georgesaman.bsky.social and others for their contributions! journals.plos.org/plospathogen...

Despite all the shit going on, we have to celebrate our victories. New publication with @entomososwin.bsky.social and @vectorimmunity.bsky.social showing that hemocytes play a central role in disseminating flaviviruses to secondary tissues potentially functioning as a Trojan Horse(TBD) rdcu.be/euj4g

Excited to share our latest collaborative work with @entomososwin.bsky.social @brackneylab.bsky.social looking at the role of mosquito immune cells in virus infection. It turns out that these cells help disseminate virus infection, increasing the potential for virus transmission rdcu.be/euiZt

Heading out for a night of weirdness with the family

It's nice to start off your day with "We are delighted to accept your manuscript..."

It's the time of the year when a student can be genuinely excited about getting a D-. D's get degrees. Only the best and brightest are ready to hit the workforce!

This is a great explainer of just how much trouble NIH-funded scientists are about to be in. 😨

Harvard redid its whole homepage to push back against the administration’s demands. I mean, this is just a website but I think it’s kind of a great PR move: www.harvard.edu

Does anyone have recommendations for a preferably free or low-cost software platform for cloning, plasmid design, and curation for the lab. I "grew up" scientifically with VectorNTI. Is SnapGene the best current option? Any other alternatives that you might recommend?

The cost-saving claims don’t hold up. Every dollar in NIH research grants generates $2.46 in economic activity, research shows—a total of $93 billion in 2023 alone. “It’s incredible to me that we would give up this thing that has such obvious societal benefits,” says biologist Mark Peifer.

The biggest hit to extramural program staff appears to be grants management specialists (GMSs). It appears that 15-20% of GMSs were terminated. This is quite concerning since these folks have already missed essentially a month of getting-grants-out time and have lots to do. They already work hard.

🚨 We are recruiting for two post-doc positions!🚨 1) Development of genetic tools to study mosquito immune cells isu.wd1.myworkdayjobs.com/IowaStateJob... 2) Role of mosquito immune cells in immune recognition and priming isu.wd1.myworkdayjobs.com/IowaStateJob...

Excited to share that I officially received my first R01 today! It's been a long road, one marked by persistence and several grants that narrowly missed the payline. Now to do all of the exciting work that we proposed! I will be hiring, so be on the lookout for job postings!

Nice to see the influx of people moving onto this platform. Fingers crossed that we can develop something comparable to SciTwitter before Elon

New preprint from our collaboration with @perrimonlab.bsky.social in which we perform a genome-wide CRISPR screen in Anopheles to identify essential mosquito genes and examine clodronate liposome function. www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

🚨Mosquito/fly tweeps🚨 Does anyone know of an alternative to E-RNAi? I/we have used that platform to design dsRNAs for more than 15 years and it appears as though the URL is no longer available. Any help would be much appreciated! TIA!

Excited to be apart of this exciting work examining the role of hemocytes during arbovirus infection. Check it out now on bioRxiv. @vectorimmunity.bsky.social www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

Excited to share our latest work! Together with @brackneylab.bsky.social and @entomososwin.bsky.social we demonstrate that mosquito immune cells act as "trojan horses" to help spread DENV and ZIKV infection from the midgut to other mosquito tissues! www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

Slowly emerging back into society after submitting two R01s

CAES is hiring an assistant scientist II (equivalent to assistant professor, but 100% research) in the area of modeling and data analysis for vector-borne diseases. Come join my department! @entsocamerica.bsky.social portal.ct.gov/-/media/CAES...

I unexpectedly have a position available in my laboratory. If you know anyone interested in relocating to the Twin Cities, tell them to get in touch. Could involve genomic surveillance, mosquito-virus interactions, and/or molecular virology.

Early Xmas gift from one of my colleagues. Love it!

Just another reminder that the margins between funded/accepted/awarded are always razor thin, act accordingly

For anyone attending #TropMed23, myself and others from the lab will be presenting some of our exciting unpublished work regarding mosquito immune cells and parasite/virus infection. Come and join us!

After enough experience, grant writing really becomes formulaic. Once you develop a "style", you can drop in any project in a relatively short period of time. Yet there is still no guarantee that reviewers will like a project...

Introduce yourself with some jobs you have done apart from what you do now: -movie theater cashier/usher/manager -Starbucks barista -small mammal biologist

As scientists, I think that we too often look for "what's wrong?" in a grant or paper instead of "what's right?" Research doesn't have to be perfect to make a significant advance in the field. Stop the gatekeeper mentality.

For the INSECT MICROBIOME crowd: The Department of Entomology at the University of Illinois will be hiring an Assistant Professor in Insect Microbiomes. Please share this ad with any one working in this area. (Application deadline = October 6th) illinois.csod.com/ux/ats/caree...

I guess I should re-post from the Bird Site "The Rules For Academic Success here": I always get asked for advice about starting/surviving the tenure track. Here are the rules I've found useful. Thought I'd put it out there for the masses... This list gets longer all the time

Has anyone found an alternative to the Drummond Nanoject III? We now have three in the lab that don't work and face (expensive) repair. They only seem to have a shelf life of a few years. Any suggestions are much appreciated. Thanks in advance.

Hoping for bluer skies... New here 👋 after watching the former bird app die and trying out a few other less-than-ideal alternatives