Shyama Nandakumar
@shyama13.bsky.social
Drosophila biologist studying cell stress in growth and development. Will talk to you about polyploidy at all times. Microscope and camera nerd. Always willing to discuss science + philosophy + sports www.shyamanandakumar.in
If you haven't already, please sign up to be a mentor for the FlyCROSS program! #drosophila #mentorship
Shefali@iamshef.bsky.social · 7d ago📢📢 #Drpsophila community! #FlyCROSS surveys are open for #mentors. The current chairs @shyama13.bsky.social and @jocmcdonald.bsky.social alongside the committee members have put in a lot of effort to begin the third cycle of this mentoring program. You may have already received an invite from GSA.
@flybase.bsky.social @fly-eds.bsky.social @interactivefly.bsky.social @fly-broadcast.bsky.social @fly-jedi.bsky.social @genetics-gsa.bsky.social
Shefali@iamshef.bsky.social · 7d ago📢📢 #Drpsophila community! #FlyCROSS surveys are open for #mentors. The current chairs @shyama13.bsky.social and @jocmcdonald.bsky.social alongside the committee members have put in a lot of effort to begin the third cycle of this mentoring program. You may have already received an invite from GSA.
📢📢 #Drpsophila community! #FlyCROSS surveys are open for #mentors. The current chairs @shyama13.bsky.social and @jocmcdonald.bsky.social alongside the committee members have put in a lot of effort to begin the third cycle of this mentoring program. You may have already received an invite from GSA.
Check out this amazing lineup for the FASEB Cell Cycle conference this July. Abstract deadline is rapidly approaching on June 1st!
I am excited to share my new paper in @plosbiology.org . Here we show the role of chitin, a polysaccharide, in controlling the shape of the fly corneal lens. journals.plos.org/plosbiology/...
Curvature of the Drosophila corneal lens depends on localized chitin secretion
How does the corneal lens in the fly eye acquire its light-focusing shape? This study shows that centrally located cells produce large amounts of chitin to form the thick central corneal lens, while p...
journals.plos.org
Quick plug for our new resource, the Drosophila Species Stock Exchange. This is a database and mailing list that documents species currently in culture and the labs holding them. If you want to know more or sign up then please get in touch. See attached for more info and please share!
Thank you Shefali for all your dedicated and thoughtful service and wonderful contributions to the fly community!
Shefali@iamshef.bsky.social · 5mo agoSigning off as the #grad student rep for the Fly board ! And super excited to pass on the baton to Melissa Mychalczuk from the Wolfner Lab ! Can't wait to see all the amazing things she does for the #Drosophila community and #earlycareer trainees. #Dros26
Proud of Dr @tarnopol.bsky.social who received the Sandler Award for “Outstanding Drosophila Thesis” at the fly meeting #Dros26 in Chicago this evening! @genetics-gsa.bsky.social
#Drosophila #FlyCROSS 2025-26 updates - 84 mentor-mentee matches were made ✅ Out of which 90 % of mentees were matched to one of their preferred mentors. Keep and eye for the future program notifications. See you all at #Dros26 Below are the mentee demographics and response summary. (1/n)
Please dm or email me if you want to help judge posters at fly meeting next week!
Shyama Nandakumar@shyama13.bsky.social · 6mo agoHello fly folks! If you are a postdoc or junior faculty attending the @genetics-gsa.bsky.social #Dros26 #flymeeting in Chicago, and interested in helping judge trainee posters, please comment or DM me! Topic: Stem Cells/Regeneration/Tissue Injury Please RT @flybase.bsky.social @bdsc.bsky.social
Hello fly folks! If you are a postdoc or junior faculty attending the @genetics-gsa.bsky.social #Dros26 #flymeeting in Chicago, and interested in helping judge trainee posters, please comment or DM me! Topic: Stem Cells/Regeneration/Tissue Injury Please RT @flybase.bsky.social @bdsc.bsky.social
Applications for Life Science Editors Foundation JEDI awards are open! Do you have a paper for grant you are working on that could use a little editing help or guidance? Please apply! lifescienceeditors.org/apply/
Apply for a JEDI Award - Life Science Editors Foundation
“Before this backlash worsens, DEI advocates, the scientific community, universities, and federal agencies need to collectively call out the dangers of setting aside DEI and come up with robust ways t...
lifescienceeditors.org
Cells can hunt prey, solve mazes, and learn from past experience. Does this mean they can think, at some level? Find out more at our upcoming session on "Cell Behavior and Cognition" at the ASCB/EMBO #cellbio2025 meeting, Saturday 1-3 pm rm 115.
Are you an early-stage graduate student (2nd or 3rd year) or early-stage postdoc based in the US or Canada, working primarily in Drosophila? Would you like to help improve the experience of all trainees working in Drosophila research? If so, read on. (Please repost to reach a broad audience.)
If you are enthusiastic, this is an ideal position for you to hone your leadership skills. Many initiatives, like FlyCROSS mentor-match, were the brainchild of our trainee reps. If you want to know more or be considered, reach out to me, @iamshef.bsky.social, or @shyama13.bsky.social by Nov 17! 3/
You are embarrassing yourself by lauding this monster. Do you defend these views, which he held lifelong. Where is the "nuance in these words?" Shame! liorpachter.wordpress.com/2018/05/18/j...
James Watson in his own words
“Some anti-Semitism is justified” “Whenever you interview fat people, you feel bad, because you know you’re not going to hire them” “Japan should be bombed for d…
liorpachter.wordpress.com
Nathaniel Comfort@nccomfort.bsky.social · 9mo agoJames D. Watson is dead. Stay tuned for some thoughts, based on my research on his biography, to be published soon. While I write that up, y'all can throw tomatoes at this if you like. But I will offer a more nuanced take. www.nytimes.com/2025/11/07/s...
Hey folks, as news of Watson's demise spreads, please don't set aside his weighty legacy of misogyny and racism. He was truly among the worst of us. www.vox.com/2019/1/15/18...
DNA scientist James Watson has a remarkably long history of sexist, racist public comments
“People say it would be terrible if we made all girls pretty,” he said in 2003. “I think it would be great.”
vox.com
Mariana Wolfner Mariana Wolfner has spent her life studying a creature so small it could rest on the tip of her finger. In her hands, the fruit fly Drosophila melanogaster becomes something extraordinary, a key to understanding how life is shaped, sustained, and passed on. On a windy fall…
Mariana Wolfner
Mariana Wolfner has spent her life studying a creature so small it could rest on the tip of her finger. In her hands, the fruit fly Drosophila melanogaster becomes something extraordinary, a key to understanding how life is shaped, sustained, and passed on. On a windy fall afternoon at Cornell, she sat surrounded by papers, notes, and journals. The light came through the window in soft bands as she lifted a golden model of a fly and smiled.
explorers.com
The 2025-2026 season of the Ethel Browne Harvey Postdoc Seminar kicks off Friday, September 12 at 3 pm Eastern Time with @sarahcolijn.bsky.social of Washington Univ in St. Louis and @shyama13.bsky.social of the Univ of Pittsburgh. Register today and join us. bit.ly/4649fWS #SDBPostdocSeminar
Today we celebrate 1945 GSA President & Nobel laureate Barbara McClintock. Continue her legacy—nominate for the 2026 GSA Awards by Oct 1, 2025. 🔗 buff.ly/bIdKqcw
My lab’s newest preprint is now available. www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
Adipocyte-Derived Amino Acid Storage Proteins are Required for Germline Stem Cell Maintenance in Adult Drosophila Females
Tissue homeostasis is dependent on precise coordination between endocrine organs in response to changes in organism physiology. Secreted circulating factors from adipocytes (called adipokines) regulat...
biorxiv.org
The #Flyboard and #FlyCROSS committee including me, Laurel @shyama13.bsky.social @jocmcdonald.bsky.social @frankmac.bsky.social @armstrongflylab.bsky.social & Jonathan look forward to having you on board.
new review alert❗️ thought your neighborhood stress response pathway (ISR) only dealt in stress adaptation? well, maybe so. but many cells are apparently quite “stressed out” - even healthy ones. see quoted thread by my phenom co-author @shyama13.bsky.social for a summary! ⬇️
Shyama Nandakumar@shyama13.bsky.social · last yr.Hello fellow scientists, I'm thrilled to share with you a state of the art review that @lydiagrmai.bsky.social , the bsky-less Deepika Vasudevan and I have been working on for >1 year! Keep reading...! febs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10....
Hello fellow scientists, I'm thrilled to share with you a state of the art review that @lydiagrmai.bsky.social , the bsky-less Deepika Vasudevan and I have been working on for >1 year! Keep reading...! febs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10....
FEBS Press
Integrated stress response (ISR), an evolutionarily conserved eukaryotic stress-adaptive program in eukaryotes, has also been implicated in homeostatic functions. This review covers a broad body of l....
febs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com
FlyBase needs your help! Because of recent changes to government funding, the NIH grant that supported FlyBase has been "terminated." flybase.org
New paper alert. The fat body in Drosophila larvae is comprised of pairs of adipocytes that are connected to one another throughout larval development! Ring canals here are v.v.small, allow selective organellar cargo transport, mediate stress tolerance and more....! Full thread coming soon!
bioRxiv Cell Biology@biorxiv-cellbio.bsky.social · last yr.Ring canals in the larval adipose of Drosophila buffer stress response https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.06.11.658881v1
Ring canals in the larval adipose of Drosophila buffer stress response https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.06.11.658881v1
Thank you for the highlight of our work! #drosophila #cancer model.
Biomedical Picture of the Day BPoD@bpodaily.bsky.social · last yr.Probing Prostate Cancer: Adult male fruit fly accessory gland-cancer as a model for studying human prostate cancer Image made with @leicamicrosystems.bsky.social microscopy 📷 S. Jaimian Church, @buttittalab.bsky.social et al @umich.edu in @dmmjournal.bsky.social ➡️ bpod.org.uk/archive/2025...
