Today my @nytimes.com colleagues and I are launching a new series called Lost Science. We interview US scientists who can no longer discover something new about our world, thanks to this year‘s cuts. Here is my first interview with a scientist who studied bees and fires. Gift link: nyti.ms/3IWXbiE
FlyBase needs your help! We ask that European labs continue to contribute to Cambridge, UK FlyBase, whereas US and other non-European labs can contribute to US FlyBase. For more information and how to donate: wiki.flybase.org/wiki/FlyBase...
If you are a researcher whose lab uses FlyBase, consider a tax-deductible personal contribution. A lot of $100 contributions would help bridge the gap until we can set up a user fee system, and even $10 donations send the folks there the message we're behind them. Please share
gold crispr-cas9 enamel pins
drosophila embroidered patches and enamel pins
IgM antibody enamel pins in purple and cyan
All proceeds from my #sciart Etsy shop will now be donated to
@flybase.bsky.social . Due to fed cuts, this beloved resource that I use daily has lost it's funding, and I'm helping in my small way. Now's a good time stock up on #STEM & #drosophila gifts & swag!
www.etsy.com/shop/Picosti...
Model organism communities are fantastic. Good work, "Drosophilists"! www.nature.com/articles/d41...
This isn't a coincidence, IMO. The fly community is generally super rigorous - because there are so many tools and techniques available, people expect you to really nail things in order to get published (and keep getting funded)
🚨Our latest work on selfish centromeres is published @currentbiology.bsky.social 🐭🧬We found that the spindle checkpoint contributes to non-Mendelian segregation! Huge congrats to our lab manager, Zaak Walton, who led the project🎉
Free link:
authors.elsevier.com/a/1lQzN3QW8S...
Poster of diverse scientists chatting with each other and holding idea balloons representing various fields in the life sciences, such as DNA, cells, gears, and lightbulbs. More information is available through the QR code.
Are you an MIT postdoc in the life sciences? Come join my new initiative, the KendallSqBio Postdoc Symposium on Sept. 10, 2025!
✅ Present your science
✅ Connect with other postdocs
✅ Build your community
Abstract deadline July 11th! forms.gle/iXMTYfqgLKWR...
Congratulations to Whitehead Institute Member Yukiko Yamashita, who has been elected as a member to the National Academy of Sciences! www.nasonline.org/news/2025-na... @nasonline.org
Whitehead Institute Member Yukiko Yamashita, who studies how genetic information is passed from parents to offspring, has been elected to the National Academy of Sciences. Full story on our website: wi.mit.edu/news/yukiko-...
Many well-deserved congratulations to my postdoc mentor Yukiko Yamashita on her election to the National Academy of Sciences!! So grateful to learn from her and be a part of an amazing lab 🪰🥳🍾🥂👏🏼
www.nasonline.org/news/2025-na...
Huge congratulations to my former PI Yukiko Yamashita on her election to the National Academy of Sciences! An amazing scientists and wonderful person who I'm so fortunate to have as a mentor!
🥳🥳🥳
www.nasonline.org/news/2025-na...
If using Bloomigton #Drosophila Stock Center stocks, pls. acknowledge them & their NIH funding (P40 OD018537). Papers listing this no. are being harvested as evidence. We massively depend on the @bdsc.bsky.social & they need our support in these dire times! @flybase.bsky.social @fly-eds.bsky.social
Update: They were removed from our reviewer assignments completely. I'm so sorry to all those graduate students. Anonymous to protect the identity of the NIH employee I spoke to...I am on study section next month to discuss F awards. We were just instructed to put the F31-Diversity applications on the bottom of our priority list for review because there is a chance we may not be able to review them. My heart is breaking for the grad students and their mentors that put so much work into these just for them to be disqualified and thrown out.
Just in case you thought that removing DEI criteria would mean that everyone is competing equally: NIH is removing grad students from underrepresented backgrounds from the applicant pool altogether. Their applications will not be considered. Other students, not from these backgrounds, will be.
@neuronline.sfn.org has made it incredibly easy to contact your reps and urge them to protect federal funding for biomedical research! Please sign today, it takes about 10 seconds:
www.sfn.org/Advocacy/Adv...
The Zwick lab has landed in the Regenerative Medicine Institute @NYU! I’m incredibly excited to build a team to study how epithelial organs are patterned and remodeled throughout life, with a major focus on the remarkable changes that occur in the maternal body during pregnancy..1/5
The Institute mourns the loss of R. Scott Hawley, PhD. A brilliant scientist, cherished colleague, and true mentor. Scott's contributions to our understanding of genetics and passion for training the next generation of scientists will forever be remembered. bit.ly/3WPqqYG
list of banned keywords
🚨BREAKING. From a program officer at the National Science Foundation, a list of keywords that can cause a grant to be pulled. I will be sharing screenshots of these keywords along with a decision tree. Please share widely. This is a crisis for academic freedom & science.
This is a fantastic program! You can apply as a mentor to work with a student who will travel to your lab, or you can apply as a mentor to work with one of your current students. I highly recommend it! I have done both and it’s been so rewarding. ❤️
We're growing and recruiting! Please share this open position in our lab at University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) (www.torninilab.org) for a Staff Research Associate I (SRA I) position - jobs.ucla.edu/jobs/6546
SOME GOOD NEWS ABOUT NIH FUNDING
Closed sessions of institute and center Advisory Counsel meetings are now permitted. This is where grant applications are discussed and approved for potential funding.
Open sessions where there are public presentations and discussions are still not allowed.
We will host the 3rd Full Circle Symposium for Native Biologists at UCSF on April 3-4! We aim to build community and provide opportunities for Native scientists. If you are a Native biologist at any training stage who wants to speak, please fill this out by this Friday (1/31):
tinyurl.com/mm2tswt7
🚨PIs of Training Grants and Programs, ESPECIALLY training grants that support students from historically excluded groups (T32s and T34s, IMSD, MARC, PREP, MOSAIC, etc.)🚨
We need to push back on the loss of information and the disappearance of websites about these resources.
I have a wonderful scientist in my lab who is looking to move to Europe. Is anyone looking for a staff scientist? She has a PhD. She is particularly in her element doing field work. Great skills with rodents and very open to non-rodent positions as well.
Please send leads, please amplify!
Seconded! We have lots of 18 degree room and a dedicated fly food cook for our shared fly space. Please reach out if you need help!
If you have been affected by the fires in LA, or are concerned about your ability to keep precious Drosophila strains going during the latest funding crisis, we will host your strains as a backup. Please email me.
Please amplify. If you are also able to host fly strains, add your name as well.
“What I love most about being a Hanna Gray Fellow is actually the other #HannaGrayFellows.”
#Science is better together. As a Hanna Gray Fellow, you’ll join a vibrant community of trailblazing scientists—walking similar paths, solving challenges, and finding inspiration in one another.
Check out @shylonatasha.bsky.social 's fabulous work! Natasha is on the job market so chameleon could soon be coming to your institution if you snatch her up!
Apply and join our amazing community of strong, supportive, and successful women and non-binary folks in academia. If you're questioning whether or not you fit in or are ready, just do it!
