1/ A new preprint from my lab is out now: “The E. coli DEAD box ATPase, CsdA, is a NAD+ capped RNA binding protein” lead by my graduate student Kaustuv Das with the assistance of @childerslab-pitt.bsky.social -pitt.bsky.social and @schraderlab.bsky.social www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...

From an evolutionary perspective, we find that TMDD1 and FAM187 are conserved beyond vertebrates. A recent preprint from Amber Krauchunas’s lab shows that FAM187/spe-40 is also essential for fertilization in C. elegans! www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...

Spring songbird migration is going strong. Milford Neck, DE 8/9/2026 #birds #wildlife

#birds #birdoftheday #parenting More gratuitous baby burrowing owls. Aruba, Jan 2025.

#birds #birdoftheday #bestofthemonth A good month for seeing birds. Not so many good photos taken though.

Not the best shot as they were so far away, but great horned owl nest with chick at Conowingo Dam on the Susquehanna River, Maryland. 4/12/2026 #birds

#birds #birdoftheday #landmeetswater Two late season Snow geese near sunset. Bombay Hook NWR, Delaware. April, 2023.

Some of my favorite neighbors are back in town #birds #wildlife #spring #migration

#birdoftheday #sideprofile #birds #hummingbird Blue-tailed emerald feeding from a cactus flower. Aruba. Jan 2026.

Happy Valentine’s Day #birds #owls #wildlife #photography Aruba. Jan, 2026.

#birds #birdoftheday #birds&bugs Ash-throated Fly Catcher with a nice fat caterpillar. Los Cabos, MX. Dec, 2025. Taken by A. Krauchunas

Great #Blue Heron hunting. Sapsucker woods, Ithaca, NY. June, 2024 #birdoftheday #waterbird #birds #nature #wildlife

It was incredibly windy and only single digits today, but some of the birds did not mind #birds #wildlife

There may not be a more magical hummingbird than the Ruby Topaz. Aruba. January, 2026. #birds #wildlife #hummingbird #photography

Black Phoebe. Los Cabos, MX. December 2025. #birds #wildlife #photography

#Birds doing things they're not supposed to. A Black-crowned night heron pretending to be a duck. Divi Links, Aruba. January 2026. #wildlife

Yellow-crowned night heron Spanish Lagoon, Aruba. January, 2026. #birds #wildlife #photography

#MallardMonday #Ducks #WeirdDucks #Birds #Wildlife White-cheeked Pintails, Bubali Bird Preserve, Aruba January 2026

#BirdOfTheDay #LongBeaks #Birds #Wildlife Hudsonian Whimbrel. Aruba January, 2024

A personal first as a timeline cleanse. Purple gallinule. Bubali bird preserve, Aruba. #birds #wildlife

Costa's hummingbirds for the new year! #birds #wildlife 🪶

Costa's hummingbirds for the new year! #birds #wildlife 🪶

I‘m a fan of the Christmas tree decorations this year 🪶 #birds #wildlife #photography Los Cabos, MX

Merry Christmas Eve from this Grooved-bill Ani. San José del Cabo, Mexico. 🪶 #birds #photography #wildlife

Happy Thanksgiving from a couple of yellow-rumped warblers 🪶 #birds #wildlife #photgraphy

Tis the season for red shouldered hawks 🪶 #birds

Me, when my graduate student asks for a third meeting this week, on a Wednesday.

One week left until the priority deadline. Come join us in Biological Sciences the University of Delaware.

Horror Contig(artifact?) from my students' phage genome sequencing just in time for Halloween 🧪 #microsky

"Why are we in this theater? Let's walk out!" [They did not move.]

My department (Biological Sciences) at the University of Delaware is looking for a new tenure track assistant professor with a research focus on biomolecular sensing broadly. 🧪#molbiol #microsky careers.udel.edu/en-us/job/50...

My Experimental Microbiology students have all successfully cultured their phage! And thanks to the U Delaware Bioimaging Core we have really nice TEM images. Next step, genome sequencing. 🧪#MoBiol

Celebratory birb! 🪶 #birds

New in JB: There are many ways to regulate transcription. Jayasinghe and Babitzke review the role of RNA polymerase pausing in the control of gene expression in several microbes. journals.asm.org/doi/10.1128/... @asm.org #JBacteriology

#birds More hummingbirds just because (just because they'll be migrating away soon enough and we'll miss them).

When at the Genetics of Bacteria and Phage meeting #phages2025 it's important to visit Olbrich botanical gardens for the macrobiology #birds #wildlife #photography

Alireza Ghanbarpour: gorgeous, asymmetrical, monstrous HflK/C-FtsH complex that proteolyses membrane proteins in #Ecoli revealed by cryoEM #phages2025 🦠 www.embopress.org/doi/full/10....

Important to note: 1. The job search that he applied to ultimately hired a different white man and 2. He is mad because a separate department from the one he applied to was directly recruiting a senior faculty member from another university who happened to be a black woman. Absolute nonsense.

More adventures in bird portraiture #birds 🪶 Bombay Hook, DE July 2025

More adventures in bird portraiture #birds 🪶 Bombay Hook, DE July 2025

Two for #TwosDay #birds #wildlife Long Beach Island, NJ July 2025

A surprising daytime friend. Ghost Crab. Long Beach Island, NJ. July, 2025.

Least Terns - exchanging a fish! Early July, Surf Drive Beach, MA

Terns! Terns! Terns! Early July, Long Beach Island, NJ #birds #wildlife

Piping Plover family enjoying the beach life bordering the Great Sippewisett Marsh. Barnstable County, MA. #birds

Another good sighting today. Indigo bunting on an overgrown slope. Chester County, PA. #birds #wildlife

Back home from the Microbial Transcription Gordon Conference and glad to see our hummingbirds are settled in to our yard for the season right on time. Photo credit: Amber Krauchunas. #birds #wildlife

Our paper describing a method for measuring cotranscriptional RNA folding using high-throughput RNA chemical probing is out @natcomms.nature.com!

Pileated woodpecker #birds #wildlife

I made a new friend while taking a break from writing. Woods Hole, MA. May, 2025. #birds