And finally—a bit of personal news: 🔬 I’m on the faculty job market this year! I’m looking for tenure-track opportunities where I can build a lab at the intersection of developmental biology, mechanobiology, reproductive biology & aging.

Kate Cavanaugh@katecavanaugh.bsky.social · 3w ago

🧵 What if one reason fertility declines with age isn’t just genetic-but mechanical? Thrilled to share our new paper in @NatureCellBio : Elevated contractility drives implantation failure in mouse embryos from aged females… here’s what we found 👇 www.nature.com/articles/s41... 1/11

Gearing up to start my 3rd year as an assistant prof. Time really flies! I recently had a lovely 2-week refresh in the Eastern Sierras that helped me prepare for another academic year. #MountainMonday

Thanks for the feature! @jiarui219.bsky.social and Allie Orozco did a great job showcasing our work!

University of Iowa Department of Biology @uiowabiology.bsky.social · last mo.

The @rothenberglab.bsky.social, led by Assistant Professor of Biology @krothphd.bsky.social, studies cell adhesion & collective migration from the molecular to the tissue scale using Drosophila embryos & human cell lines. Learn more about the lab’s work & its members here: rothenberg.lab.uiowa.edu

This was a great honor! Thanks so much to my trainees @rothenberglab.bsky.social for the nomination and the @uiowabiology.bsky.social for the award.

University of Iowa Department of Biology @uiowabiology.bsky.social · 3mo ago

Congratulations to Assistant Professor of Biology Katy Rothenberg (@krothphd.bsky.social) for receiving a 2026 Biology Exceptional Service Award! 👏 Learn more about the award here: biology.uiowa.edu/news/2026/05...

Happy to share that I will be joining the Biology Department and Holden Comprehensive Cancer Center at University of Iowa as an assistant professor in summer 2027! My lab will study how recombination is regulated to prevent non-allelic repair and genome rearrangements, and their relation to cancer.

@jiarui219.bsky.social and I really enjoyed reading this paper and having the opportunity to summarize the key findings! We couldn't possibly cover everything cool about the paper, so I encourage you to give it a deep dive yourself!

Journal of Cell Biology@jcb.org · 4mo ago

Spotlight: New work by Zheng et al. (rupress.org/jcb/article/...) elucidates how #adhesion proteins are rapidly moved along the cell edge to vertices in response to mechanical forces. Jiarui Jiang and @krothphd.bsky.social discuss the findings: rupress.org/jcb/article/... #Mechanobiology

The UI Department of Biology is seeking a bi-weekly parttime employee to work in the Drosophila Culture Media Lab (Fly Kitchen). This position helps support the department’s research and teaching labs. For more information about the position, please visit: jobs.uiowa.edu/content/temp...

Many of us are doing it for the 'kids', working hard to create micro environments on our campuses and in our labs where younger scientists can learn, train and be successful. I am buoyed by my like minded colleagues - I celebrate them, nominate them for awards and thank them every chance I get.

Chrystal Starbird@drstarbird.bsky.social · 6mo ago

Stories like this make me feel that it’s all worth it. Even if stress during the current times is overwhelming, to have even a little of an impact like this pushes me to endure. I hate that the current times means mentors like this aren’t being celebrated and uplifted in the way they deserve.

#Dros26 Day 3 Did you know DSHB houses over 1600 Drosophila antibodies? Browse the collection and more: dshb.biology.uiowa.edu 📸 Drosophila germarium labeled with DSHB anti-Vasa (green) and anti-hts (magenta) 🧫 dshb.biology.uiowa.edu/anti-vasa 🧫 dshb.biology.uiowa.edu/1B1

Fly 🪰 people are the best people! 🔬🥼🧬 having a blast in Chicago #Dros26 (but missing Dan who is serving as super dad at home) @mbustill.bsky.social @rodrigofg.bsky.social @krothphd.bsky.social

A lot of exciting things have been happing in the @rothenberglab.bsky.social so we have been keeping really busy. A few of us are at #Dros26 to share our science. Come by one of our posters to say hi!

The @rothenberglab.bsky.social had a great time at #cellbio25! This meeting always feels like a friends and colleagues reunion for me. Unfortunately there’s never enough time to see everyone! My trainees also enjoyed presenting their posters, making new connections, and seeing new science!

I’m so excited to be at #CellBio2025 with my trainees! Elizabeth (#259) and Olivia (#251) have posters in Sunday’s session. Please stop by to hear about the work we are starting up in the lab looking at Rap1 GTPase signaling in epithelial migration in human carcinoma cells and in Drosophila embryos.

I’m so sad to have missed the Midwest Drosophila Conference due a nasty cold. But some of my students made the journey and had a great time! @jiarui219.bsky.social gave a talk to open up the conference, @briod613.bsky.social gave a very successful poster, and Aiza joined for her first conference!

This is really unfortunate and I hope it’s reconsidered. My second year PhD students were busy doing rotations at this time last year and didn’t know what lab they were going to join. They have been working so hard on their applications for this cycle only to find out it could be for nothing.

Drug Monkey@drugmonkey.bsky.social · 12mo ago

The NSF GRFP is now limited to undergrads and first-year grads drugmonkey.wordpress.com/2025/09/26/t...

I’ve been really enjoying the #MWSDB25 meeting so far! Great people and science. I can’t wait to give my talk this afternoon and hopefully come away with new ideas and collaborators. I’m so grateful to the organizers for the invitation!

While full solicitation isn’t up, looks like we have 2025 proposal deadlines for the GRFP: www.nsf.gov/funding/oppo...

NSF Graduate Research Fellowship Program (GRFP)

nsf.gov

It seems like it would be easy to make an unquestionably cute fly plush! But maybe I just have picky taste.

Rothenberg Lab @ UIowa@rothenberglab.bsky.social · last yr.

Adding more flies to our creepy fruit fly stuffed animal collection!

We have a fantastic seminar lineup this semester! Join us in Kollros Auditorium (BBE 101) almost every Friday at 3:30pm to learn from prominent researchers from across the country. All of these seminars are open to the public to attend, so we hope to see you there!

To celebrate the summer, our ReSCU-Net paper is out @jcb.org !! Work led by our dungeon master @ray-hawkins.bsky.social, developing a novel neural network architecture and applying it to explore the role of gap junctions in embryonic wound healing in #Drosophila 🧪. shorturl.at/xNRKn

Our lab mascot, Samwise, is always encouraging us to keep reaching higher!

@briod613.bsky.social from our lab is at #bobiac2025 learning from the best all about Python-based image analysis!

Simon F. Nørrelykke@simonfn.bsky.social · last yr.

First day of #bobiac2025. Six days of intensive Python based #BioImageAnalysis. Intro by @fedegasparoli.bsky.social - "This will be a long week, but it will change your life". iac.hms.harvard.edu/bobiac/2025/

The Martin Lab in the Department of Biology is seeking a full-time Associate Research Scientist to conduct research in neurobiology, with a focus on electrical and chemical synapse formation. For more information and to apply, please visit: uiowa.referrals.selectminds.com/jobs/researc...

We are very proud to be featured throughout this newsletter among all of the excellent departmental achievements. Congrats to all of our lab members for doing great things!

University of Iowa Department of Biology @uiowabiology.bsky.social · last yr.

The UI Department of Biology’s Points of Interest Newsletter (2025, Issue 1) is now available! Discover the latest awards, promotions, publications, and more from our staff, faculty, and students here: anyflip.com/vimso/lffm/

Lab is for getting research done and having a little bit of fun!

Come be my colleague!! It’s a great department, university, and town! Feel free to ask me about my experience.

University of Iowa Department of Biology @uiowabiology.bsky.social · last yr.

The UI Department of Biology invites applications for a tenure-track assistant professor position in genetics, beginning in the academic year 2026. Review of applicants will begin on November 1, 2025. For more information about the position and to apply, please visit: jobs.uiowa.edu/faculty/view...

A great group of people! No bias whatsoever. 😄

Maik Bischoff@maikbischoff.bsky.social · last yr.

What happened to #BioStarterPacks? People still join here, but we’ve stopped sharing them! Let’s repost them from time to time to help newcomers find their way 😊 Here’s my starter pack collective: #cellmigration Comment if you’d like to be added—I haven’t updated it in months 😉 #cellbio #devbio

Last week much of the lab went to the Holden Comprehensive Cancer center retreat. We had a great time sharing our science, learning about the efforts to fight cancer at all levels, and meeting fellow scientists.

We took the day off from the lab in recognition of #Juneteenth. A few of us took the opportunity to show our visiting student Annadelle some of the nature Iowa has to offer! We visited Lake MacBride State Park and the Iowa Raptor Project.

Delighted to share our latest work on the mechanisms of epithelial curvature and 3D morphogenesis ! Amazing work from newly graduated Dr @courtneyl7a7.bsky.social 🎉 @lmcb-ucl.bsky.social @uclnews.bsky.social @ucllifesciences.bsky.social www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

Integrins coordinate basal surface contraction and oriented cell growth to enable thickening of a curved epithelium

During development, tissues undergo morphogenesis to achieve their final form. This process relies on coordinated cell shape changes, which have predo…

sciencedirect.com