The Chen Lab @ EMBL Rome (current population: 1) is hiring! Looking for an experimental Lab Manager w/ a PhD and experience in molecular bio and mouse-based neuro research. Apply if you like: mouse behaviors, high-throughput sequencing, good coffee & ancient history tinyurl.com/48h66vfh

Lab Manager

The European Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL) is one of the world’s leading life science research organizations. With sites across Europe, EMBL fosters an international, collaborative, and inclusiv...

tinyurl.com

MCB Junior Fellow Wins Two Prestigious Evolutionary Science Awards— First Dual Honor in 25 Years 🧪 🧬 #AcademicSky #higherEd www.mcb.harvard.edu/department/n... @wendyssae.bsky.social @nbellono.bsky.social @naoshigeuchida.bsky.social @harvard.edu @sse-evolution.bsky.social @eseb.bsky.social

MCB Junior Fellow Wins Two Prestigious Evolutionary Science Awards— First Dual Honor in 25 Years - Harvard University - Department of Molecular & Cellular Biology

Wendy Valencia-Montoya, a Junior Fellow in the Harvard Society of Fellows affiliated with the lab of MCB Professor Nick Bellono, has been awarded two of the most coveted […]

mcb.harvard.edu

"Computational Approaches to RNA Structure and Function" Thank you all for a great meeting We'll meet again July 2028

Seismograph recordings from Granada, Spain, time synced to events in the World Cup final

Benasque RNA 2026 was easily the best meeting I’ve ever been to. Grateful for the connections I made & the collaborations that were started. Going home was bittersweet. 🧬⛰️

RNA in the Pyrenees www.aragonplay.es/show/agora/e...

New! R-scape version v2.6.11 github.com/EddyRivasLab... with drawings of R-scape annotated RNA consensus structures with many fewer overlaps!! Using RFview github.com/dincarnato/R... Shout out to @incarnatolab.bsky.social for displaying R-scape's covariation outputs + CaCoFold-R3D structures.

So excited to announce that I will be starting the Chen Lab at EMBL Rome in September 2026 🎉 ! The Chen Lab will investigate the genetics + evolution of innate behavior w/ high-throughput sequencing + computational methods across diverse rodent species. Stay tuned for upcoming opportunities...

1st McKinley Lab grad student’s 1st preprint! @claireang.bsky.social studied how the uterus safely excises massive amounts of tissue during menstruation and pregnancy. Come for her GORGEOUS images, stay for her incredible discoveries. www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6... w/ @akelleher1017.bsky.social

Claire Ang@claireang.bsky.social · 5mo ago

Excited to share my new preprint from the McKinley lab, where we explored regenerative mechanisms across menstruation and pregnancy! We thought specialized glands would regenerate everything. We were wrong. But the real mechanism turned out to be way cooler :) 🧪🧵 www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...

Warm congratulations to The Brain Prize winners 2026, Professor David Ginty and Professor Patrik Ernfors, for their pioneering work on how the nervous system detects and processes touch and pain. Karolinska Institutet HHMI #Neuroscience #BrainPrize2026

idk that seems to be the understatement of the week. this is actually happening, postdocs and RAs are being let go, and projects falter. 'could face funding gaps'? this is actually happening at a large scale. 'Worry' doesnt reflect the existential crisis that many of my colleagues are in.

Sciences@sciences.skyfleet.blue · 5mo ago

Delays in grant awards and funding calls worry NIH researchers

Congrats to Wendy Valencia-Montoya on a superstar PhD co-advised by Naomi Pierce. By seamlessly integrating molecular biology with ecology + evolution, Wendy truly transformed how our lab approaches science - can’t think of better compliment than that! @harvardmcb.bsky.social @harvardoeb.bsky.social

Fred Hutch Basic Sciences Division@basicsci.fredhutch.org · 5mo ago

Huge congratulations to the recipients of the 2026 Harold M. Weintraub Graduate Student Award! These twelve exceptional graduate students exemplify the bold, creative, and pioneering spirit embodied by Dr. Hal Weintraub. www.fredhutch.org/en/news/rele...

In our new poll with the Boston Globe of NIH funded scientists in Mass ... - 72% say they have delayed or cancelled projects - 66% reduced research scope - 56% paused experiments or students. www.bostonglobe.com/2026/02/09/m...

Faculty voiced cautious support for a proposal that would cap undergraduate A grades at roughly 20% and introduce an internal ranking system, saying the policy would curb longstanding grade inflation. Abigail S. Gerstein and Amann S. Mahajan report. www.thecrimson.com/article/2026...

‘Inflation Devalues’: Faculty Welcome Cap on A Grades, With Reservations | News | The Harvard Crimson

Faculty voiced cautious support for a proposal that would cap undergraduate A grades at roughly 20 percent and introduce an internal ranking system, saying the policy would curb longstanding grade…

thecrimson.com

A thoughtful and impressive proposal to recalibrate grading at Harvard. (Sometimes committees work!) I'm going to support this. www.thecrimson.com/article/2026...

Faculty Committee Proposes Cap on A Grades, New Internal Ranking System | News | The Harvard Crimson

A faculty committee proposed a sweeping overhaul of Harvard College grading that would sharply limit A grades and introduce a new internal ranking system — changes that could nearly halve the percenta...

thecrimson.com

Apropos of nothing: after West Point and the Naval Academy, the civilian university with the most US Medal of Honor recipients is Harvard University.

Welcome to the Institute, Stern Lab! @hhmi-science.bsky.social Investigator David Stern studies how insects hijack plant development. His lab’s discoveries could reshape how we think about pest control and food security. He & his team arrived from HHMI’s Janelia Research Campus. bit.ly/4np96Fb

Stowers Institute recruits renowned developmental and evolutionary…

David Stern, Ph.D., brings groundbreaking research on insect–plant interactions for next-generation pest control to the Institute.

bit.ly

We need more of this. Glad there's still people like this in Congress.

Ron Filipkowski@ronfilipkowski.bsky.social · 6mo ago

If you want to FINALLY watch Scott Bessent get pinned down on specifics about the illegal money laundering operation being conducted by the Trump admin from someone who knows WTF he’s talking about, this clip is your chance. Bessent gets destroyed.

This guy is an American hero. All of us need to listen and act.

Arizona Right Watch@azrww.bsky.social · 6mo ago

Highlighting the speaker who stood in front of the Surprise mayor and told him to consider what the Mayor of Ohrdruf must’ve thought before he died by suicide: “He might have thought ‘how is this my fault I had no jurisdiction over this’ maybe he said ‘this site was not subject to local zoning.’”

Neil H. Shubin has been elected as the next NAS President! A leading evolutionary biologist and science communicator, Shubin will succeed Marcia McNutt on July 1. The Academy also named Cherry Murray as International Secretary and elected new councilors. Read more: www.nasonline.org/news/2026_pr...

Less than a day after the extortion demand was reportedly at $0, now it swings back up to $1B. Never imagined the US government could act like this. www.thecrimson.com/article/2026...

Trump Calls for $1 Billion Settlement From Harvard | News | The Harvard Crimson

U.S. President Donald Trump demanded Harvard pay $1 billion in a settlement in a Truth Social post Monday night, pushing back against reports that the White House would no longer demand a cash payment...

thecrimson.com

Even the NYT can't keep up with this chaos. In NYT's own reporting, the original demand wasn't $200M, it was $500M. Then it was $500M for a trade school or AI school or something. Then it had to have some cash so it was $300M+$200M. Then it was $200M. www.nytimes.com/2026/02/02/u...

Trump Drops Demand for Cash From Harvard After Stiff Resistance

nytimes.com

I have been watching this Livestream. Lots of interesting topics with loads of misinformation, poor policy development, and evidence of selection bias. Here is a minor, insignificant point that still drove me nuts. 1/14

Jeremy Berg@jeremymberg.bsky.social · 6mo ago

It looks like there may be a livestream on YouTube. www.youtube.com/watch?v=y7AI...

on Holocaust Remembrance Day

We are thrilled to announce Francis S. Collins, former director of the NIH, as the 2026 NAS Public Welfare Medalist for his pioneering research in human genetics and critical contributions to public welfare as the leader of the Human Genome Project! www.nasonline.org/news/francis... #NASaward

Biochemist/molecular biologist Joan Steitz was born #OTD in 1941. She (& team) figured out how our cells read/use genetic instructions to make proteins. A key person who helped crack the code on RNA—the molecule that acts like a messenger between DNA & and the proteins our bodies need. #WomenInSTEM

Jane Richardson was born #OTD in 1941 + Developed the Richardson (ribbon) diagram to represent proteins' 3D structure (becoming a standard representation for protein structures) + MacArthur Fellow, 1985 + Elected, Nat'l Academy of Sciences, 1991 + President, Biophysical Society, 2012 #WomenInSTEM

Congratulations to Cynthia Dwork, Harvard CS Professor and Harvard Stats Affiliate for being award the 2026 Japan Prize. In statistics her most celebrated work is on founding differential privacy. www.japanprize.jp/en/prize_pas...

🚨 New from me: Grant review at more than half of NIH's institutes could be frozen by the end of the year. That's because crucial NIH grant-review panels are slated to be empty at those institutes by Jan 2027. A wonky bureaucratic problem with big implications. A short 🧵

Exclusive: key NIH review panels due to lose all members by the end of 2026

Thirteen of the agency’s advisory councils, which must review grant applications before funding is awarded, are on track to have no voting members.

nature.com

Join us in congratulating Philip J. Kranzusch (@kranzuschlab.bsky.social) of @danafarber.bsky.social and @harvardmed.bsky.social, winner of the 2026 NAS Award in Molecular Biology for his groundbreaking work advancing understanding of innate immunity! www.nasonline.org/award/nas-aw... #NASaward