Thrilled to have the latest work from the lab live on BioRxiv! This is @yessicasantana.bsky.social dissertation work, examining the role that the transcription factor Isl1 plays in starburst amacrine cell development. www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6... A brief explainer.... 1/10

ISL1 is required for the terminal differentiation and maintenance of Starburst Amacrine Cells

During mammalian nervous system development, multipotent progenitor cells differentiate into hundreds of distinct neuronal subtypes. Neuronal subtype terminal differentiation is regulated by transcrip...

biorxiv.org

In honor of #FluorescenceFriday here is an image from a MafB-cre retina injected with Cre-dependent AAV, which results in labeling of 6 distinct RGC subtypes.

Kevin Wright@kevinmawright.bsky.social · 2mo ago

Excited to release the newest preprint from the lab into the wild. Super proud of @ninaluong.bsky.social, who did 99% of the experiments in this beast of a paper. Want to know more about some novel RGC subtypes? Buckle up! www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6... 1/9

Excited to release the newest preprint from the lab into the wild. Super proud of @ninaluong.bsky.social, who did 99% of the experiments in this beast of a paper. Want to know more about some novel RGC subtypes? Buckle up! www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6... 1/9

A pooled genetic approach provides multimodal access to uncharacterized retinal ganglion cell subtypes

Retinal ganglion cells (RGCs) are the sole output neurons of the retina, responsible for transmitting visual information to the brain. Recent transcriptomic studies have revealed extensive molecular d...

biorxiv.org

Headed to the Visual Development GRC/GRS tomorrow! Excited for my last science conference of my Ph.D. I will be giving both a poster and a talk (Thursday at 12:15pm) on my dissertation work that I completed with @kevinmawright.bsky.social.

Congratulations to Dr. Chris Cousins and Gilliam fellow @hhmi-science.bsky.social on his successful defense! Learned a lot about PNW salamanders and how local geography shaped their evolution.

Accidental outfit matching too!!

Kevin Wright@kevinmawright.bsky.social · 6mo ago

Congratulations to Dr. Yessica Santana Agreda on a successful dissertation defense! @yessicasantana.bsky.social @volluminstitute.bsky.social

Fell asleep on public transit today

Dissertation is pretty much done (!!) Doing some fun refining the discussion tonight and I'm spiraling cause of how little we know about how neurons keep doing their job over decades :)))))

Plugging in the writing method that saved me from writer's block: jsomers.net/blog/the-mcp...

Yessica Santana Agreda, Ph.D.@yessicasantana.bsky.social · 7mo ago

Dissertation writing is tedious but it’s a weird silver lining amongst…well, everything going on.

Is it weird to say my half marathon training helped me prepare for this?

Yessica Santana Agreda, Ph.D.@yessicasantana.bsky.social · 7mo ago

Dissertation writing is tedious but it’s a weird silver lining amongst…well, everything going on.

Dissertation writing is tedious but it’s a weird silver lining amongst…well, everything going on.

Having Latin culture on FULL display quite literally makes me wanna cry. #SuperBowl

Feeling patriotic today 🇵🇷 🇵🇷 🇵🇷

Portland Art Museum is free this weekend for their re-opening!

Final hours of my 20’s 😳

Maybe it’s the relentless downpour of tragic news but this one hit me very, very hard.

Everytown for Gun Safety@everytown.org · 11mo ago

TRAGIC: María Florinda Ríos Pérez de Velásquez—a 32-year-old mother of four who immigrated to the U.S. from Guatemala—was senselessly shot and killed after showing up for work at the wrong home in Whitestown, Indiana. She should still be here.

This is the facility that I and many others have been protesting. We’ve been hit, thrown, gassed, and shot with pepper bullets but none of that holds a candle to what is being done to people *in* the actual facility. Read this thread. Don’t look away. Keep your eyes and the pressure on Broadview.

Lynda Lopez@lyndab08.bsky.social · 11mo ago

A family friend was telling us about what her husband shared about his experience in Broadview before he was deported back to Mexico. She's been sharing to friends and family because she's just in disbelief & horror what her husband told her. She wasn't able to talk to him until he was in Mexico.

No one tells you that the last year of the PhD is when you accumulate the strangest side quests.

LFG!!!!!

@ohsunews.bsky.social @ohsubrain.bsky.social @volluminstitute.bsky.social Congrats to Tony and his PI, Dr. Murthy!

HHMI@hhmi-science.bsky.social · last yr.

Congratulations 2025 Gilliam Fellows and Advisors! 🎉 The Gilliam Fellows Program launches promising PhD students into impactful scientific research careers while fostering inclusive training environments. Through this program, HHMI supports both graduate students and their faculty thesis advisors.

Brewing our Loopapalooza Pale Ale at Steel String Brewery! @dphansti.bsky.social Loopapalooza will have a science research-inspired label. It showcases the work we do in genome organization! Soon, @sciforgood.bsky.social will be launching this initiative at 11 pilots across the country 🍻 cheers!

Business idea: Reductress (or The Onion) styled satire calendar but for snarky remarks on academia

Are you or were you participating in a medical study that has been affected by federal funding cuts? Our reporters want to hear from you. You can share your experience by: ✉️ Emailing healthfunding@propublica.org ☎️ Calling 301-388-5405 📱 Sending a message on Signal to 917-512-0201

Best friends since our post-bacc days in 2019. Now 5th years in our program and we’re joking about defending around the same time and working at the same company post-PhD 😂

My biggest takeaway from #BIO2025 regarding job applications is that it’s truly who you know, not what you know.

On Friday, June 20, Teva Bracha will present his Dissertation Defense: "Pten regulates the development of stereotyped dendritic architectures" at 1pm in Vollum's M1441. #OHSUResearch cc: @kevinmawright.bsky.social

Greetings from all over the state of Jalisco, Mexico 🇲🇽

Visiting family in 🇲🇽 The food offsets the fact that we’re in a heatwave right now ❤️😭

Check out the lab’s latest preprint!

Kevin Wright@kevinmawright.bsky.social · last yr.

With all the chaos and destruction of academic research going on in the US right now, it feels a little weird to post this. But.... New preprint from the lab is now live: www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1... 1/n