Jamie Walters
@bioboatr.bsky.social
Professor, University of Kansas, Ecology & Evolutionary Biology Dept. Researching evolutionary genomics in Lepidoptera.
Delighted and very proud to see our study (and Anna-Maria's first first-author paper) recently out in PNAS: www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/... @cambiochem.bsky.social @cruk-ci.bsky.social 1/5
Lifestyles of Gypsy-family transposons shape their regulatory mechanisms | PNAS
Transposable elements (TEs) are a highly diverse group of selfish genomic elements, prevalent across the tree of life, whose uncontrolled propagati...
pnas.org
Excited to share a study led by my postdoc Naseem Samo. If you evolve an "unusual" telomere DNA does your telomerase also coevolve to maintain interaction with that strange telomere? Answer we find is YES! www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...
Rapid evolution and functional divergence of the monkeyflower Mimulus lewisii telomerase
Telomeres are nucleoprotein structures that protect chromosome ends and are maintained by the Telomerase Reverse Transcriptase (TERT) protein that uses a noncoding Telomerase RNA (TR) as a template. I...
biorxiv.org
Come join the @socialfluids.bsky.social lab in Cambridge to study the evolution of Socially Transferred Materials! Fun new HFSP project btwn UK, NL and Costa Rica! Deadline September 7th #Postdoc #JobAlert #Evolution #Bioinformatics #STM #socialfluids www.cam.ac.uk/jobs/researc... leboeuflab.com
Research Associate (Fixed Term)
A Research Associate position is available in the Social Fluids Lab, led by Dr. Adria LeBoeuf, in the Department of Zoology. The post is funded by a new 3-year international Human Frontier Science Pro...
cam.ac.uk
Y and W sex chroms are enigmatic. Compared to the rest of the genome, they show distinct structure and diversity, and are notoriously difficult to assemble. Work led by @mdalikova.bsky.social investigates these patterns for the W chromosome of silkworm, Bombyx mori www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...
Wrong but useful: Bombyx silkworm W chromosome assemblies are flawed but still capture strongly reduced diversity of repetitive DNA
Degenerate sex chromosomes ( e.g., the Y or W) remain among the most difficult regions of eukaryotic genomes to assemble because they are highly repetitive and structurally complex. While many recent ...
biorxiv.org
Just a reminder that there's only about a week left to leave comments on the OMB proposal that will cripple federally funded research. Here's my attempt to convince you that you should, along with info on how to do so effectively.
Ars Technica@arstechnica.com · 2mo ago
NEW: A lot of bad has happened to American science over the last year but nothing comes even close to what’s about to happen if we don’t speak out in opposition to the OMB rule changes and I hope @aaas-socsci.bsky.social @apsphysics.bsky.social and others will launch public campaigns about this. 🧪🔭⚛️
It's the End of American Science As We Know It
We have 45 days to express our opposition to catastrophic changes.
news.chanda.science
🧵 Public science in the US has taken some heavy hits over the last year, but the White House OMB is proposing a series of changes that will result in a TKO for science as we know it unless we fight back. Here's what's happening, and why it matters. 1/n
Emergency meeting called by Stand Up For Science: events.standupforscience.net/stand-up-for...
Emergency Science Meeting by Stand Up for Science
OMB’s latest proposed rule, “Regulation for Federal Financial Assistance,” would place political ideologues over scientific experts in federal research funding decisions. Say goodbye to cancer treatme...
events.standupforscience.net
🚨The OMB rule will be the end of science as we know it. MARK YOU CALENDAR for the @standupforscience.net EMERGENCY SCIENCE MEETING June 2nd, 4pm et. We will be giving an overview & assigning EVERY SCIENTIST IN AMERICA their marching orders. REGISTER: events.standupforscience.net/stand-up-for...
Emergency Science Meeting by Stand Up for Science
[discussing OMB-2026-0034?]
events.standupforscience.net
1/ This is awful for so, so many reasons. Just to pick one: even if you thought it was lawful and appropriate to vet funded research for consistency with the government's priorities, *the president is not the government*.
Jess Calarco@jessicacalarco.com · 3mo agoThis is bad. Bad for researchers. Bad for science. Bad for universities. Bad for professional associations. For example: 1. Every award would be vetted by political appointees, who could overrule peer reviewers and deny the award if it doesn't advance the president's priorities. 1/🧵
Summary of Key Changes in OMB’s Proposed Federal Financial Assistance Rule. Russell Vought is going destroy American Science. elizabethginexi.substack.com/p/summary-of...
Summary of Key Changes in OMB’s Proposed Federal Financial Assistance Rule
Russell Vought is going destroy American Science
elizabethginexi.substack.com
EEB Scholars - run by our wonderful Princeton EEB graduate students, now open for applications: eeb.princeton.edu/graduate/eeb...
Congress rejected massive cuts to US science budgets for 2026, but much of the money still isn’t flowing to researchers. The culprit? The White House Office of Management and Budget (OMB) is quietly slow-walking the release of funds. 🧵👇
White House stalls release of approved US science budgets
The US Congress rejected sweeping cuts to science agencies. But the NIH, the NSF and NASA have had their spending slowed.
nature.com
Just out—a piece I wrote a piece for the APS Observer (@psychscience.bsky.social) in which I share recommendations and resources for running a research lab at a small, liberal arts college. I hope it helps others in the same boat! www.psychologicalscience.org/publications...
How to Set Up and Run an Undergraduate Research Lab
APS Fellow Julia Strand offers resources and recommendations to run a productive research lab.
psychologicalscience.org
Amid these dark moments, something important is beginning to shift. It's clearly the result of healthy political pressure - which we must sustain, and build.
www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...
The genetics, evolution, and maintenance of a biological rock-paper-scissors game
Side-blotched lizards (Uta stansburiana) play a biological rock-paper-scissors game in which three differently colored male morphs utilize alternative mating strategies. We identified the genetic basi...
science.org
Canada is announcing program details for science talent recruitment from abroad. The first one across my desk this morning is support for 600 doctoral students and 400 post-docs. Research investment is greatly appreciated, especially trainees and early career. www.nserc-crsng.gc.ca/research_tra...
NSERC - Canada Impact+ Research Training Awards: Q&A
NSERC - Canada Impact+ Research Training Awards: Q&A
nserc-crsng.gc.ca
My department at California State University Northridge is hiring! We're looking for a new colleague studying microbiology or molecular/cellular biology. I'm not on the search committee, but happy to answer questions about the department and campus, and life in LA buff.ly/Pc1KOaC
Career Opportunities
Applicant Log-In
careers.pageuppeople.com
To “my students and to anyone who might listen, I say: Don’t surrender to AI your ability to read, write and think when others once risked their lives and died for the freedom to do so.” www.huffpost.com/entry/histor...
I Set A Trap To Catch My Students Cheating With AI. The Results Were Shocking.
"Students are not just undermining their ability to learn, but to someday lead."
huffpost.com
I'm recruiting PhD students for the Barker Lab @uofa-eeb.bsky.social We study plant evolutionary genomics - polyploidy, hybridization & machine learning for genome evolution. Work with Selaginella, Xanthisma, Brassica & more. Funding available via CAMBIUM Fellowships. Reach out if interested! 🧬🌵🤖
Kansas University Student started a open letter to the Chancellor calling for a rejection of the White House compact on higher education. actionnetwork.org/letters/tell...
Tell KU Chancellor Doug Girod to Reject the Compact
On Monday October 20th, KU Chancellor Doug Girod "was invited to provide feedback to federal officials on the Compact for Academic Excellence in Higher Education and related matters impacting universi...
actionnetwork.org
BIG ANNOUNCEMENT📣: I haven’t been this excited to be part of something new in 15 years… Thrilled to reveal the passion project I’ve been working on for the past year and a half!🙀🥳 (thread 👇)
PIWI clade Argonautes are essential for transposon silencing. Without them, animals are sterile due to massive transposon activity. But how does piRNA-guided target interaction translate into silencing? PhD student Júlia Portell Montserrat has an intriguing answer www.cell.com/molecular-ce...
The Art of Data Visualization with ggplot2: A free online book by @nrennie.bsky.social that guides us through the entire process of creating plots, including why certain decisions were made, using real datasets that have been part of #TidyTuesday. Very excited to get stuck into this one. #rstats
The Art of Data Visualization with ggplot2
The TidyTuesday Cookbook
nrennie.rbind.io
An & Nam investigated chromosome size and TE organization in ten butterfly species, showing lepidopterans have denser TEs in smaller chromosomes, with nonallelic homologous recombination as a potential driving force. 🔗 doi.org/10.1093/gbe/evaf137 #genome #evolution #TEsky
Lepidopteran Genomes Have Denser Transposable Elements in Smaller Chromosomes, Likely Driven by Non-allelic Homologous Recombination
Abstract. Transposable elements (TEs) drive major genome size and structural variations, yet evolutionary forces affecting their accumulation and removal r
doi.org
The struggle is real. The struggle is ongoing. Here's to hoping that unionizing can, hopefully someday soon, bring about some needed changes here... weeklyroseku.blogspot.com/2025/08/kuni...
KUnion Busting: 427 Days Without a Contract
Over a year after winning their union, there is still no contract in sight for faculty and academic staff as KU management stalls negotiations.
weeklyroseku.blogspot.com
1) Are you an Assistant Professor studying evolutionary biology? 2) Are you in the US? 3) Would you like to give a research seminar in Iowa? 4) Are you available to travel September 4-6? If you can answer YES x4, please DM me ASAP, or comment below.
