On August 1, 1931, Harriet Creighton and Barbara McClintock published the first experimental proof that genes are physically located on chromosomes—a discovery that transformed genetics. 1/3🧵

I think this is why many of us with well-scoring NIGMS grants are not getting funded. Word on the street is they ran out of funds and had to stop making awards to those they had intended to fund. So frustrating for those of us who did everything right and put all our eggs in the R35 basket.

Jeremy Berg@jeremymberg.bsky.social · 3w ago

So here is the curve... The curve for the current fiscal year is well above any previous fiscal years and is heading toward the level at the end of fiscal year 2025. This will likely result in a 20% reduction in the number of new and competitive renewal grants that could have been funded. 4/4

Don't do any of this.

multi celled morganism@meltedmistress.bsky.social · last mo.

basically it was like this

Absolutely thrilled to hood two newly minted PhDs and fantastic scientists last weekend. @felicityhsu.bsky.social @anishbose.bsky.social

New preprint! What happens to the debris when imaginal disc tissue is ablated? Read to find out! First paper from @snigdhamathure.bsky.social www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...

PI at the bench! Watch out!

Lab spring potluck last night - my students are as talented in the kitchen as they are at the bench. Cheesy breadsticks by @felicityhsu.bsky.social

I'm very sorry to tell you that Dr. Ellen LeMosy passed away after a short illness this past Thursday. This is her sister. Ellen will be sorely missed.

I am delighted to announce that Felicity Ting-Yu Hsu defended her brilliant thesis on Myc, Tor, and cell competition in tissue regeneration yesterday! Felicity gives very clear, well illustrated talks! @felicityhsu.bsky.social

Connor Powers @cpowers141.bsky.social explaining his super cool project on lipids in regeneration at Fly Meeting #DROS26

Snigdha Mathure @snigdhamathure.bsky.social did a fantastic job presenting her work on debris clearance and epithelial architecture after imaginal disc damage at Fly Meeting this morning! #DROS26

To the next generation friendships 🥂 @snigdhamathure.bsky.social From #midwestDros meeting to #ADRC26 @rachelsmithbolton.bsky.social @tennessenlab.bsky.social #Dros26

This year marked the 43rd installment of the Insect Fear Film Festival, solidifying itself as a unique community event that provides a fun experience for all ages.

Let’s hear it for the bugs - Culture

Wait, wait! Don’t go. I know they can seem creepy. They’re crawly. They’re ooky. But, really, aren’t they just…misunderstood? Insects are extremely important. They’re vital to this world we live in,…

smilepolitely.com

So excited to be at Fly Meeting in Chicago! Feels like coming home. #DROS26

Coming in at the wire, I now present you the set bracket for the 2026 #RomComBracket. As usual you can obtain a PDF version of the bracket at bit.ly/RCBrackPDF The Letterboxd list will be updated with the appropriate categories and regions.

Does anyone else wait until the weekend to check grant scores? I’m ok with schrodinger’s impact score: simultaneously amazing and awful until you look.

I have seen the cartoon posted by the Illini Republicans. I am not reposting it because once you have seen it you cannot scrub it out of your brain. It is abhorrent, and has been reported to the appropriate university offices. Please know that it is being widely condemned across campus.

Me after two full days of study section.

a little girl is hanging upside down on a swing in a park

ALT: a little girl is hanging upside down on a swing in a park

media.tenor.com

I’d like to highlight @felicityhsu.bsky.social ‘s recently publish work in @dev-journal.bsky.social ! She showed that the regeneration blastema consists of concentric zones of differential growth and translation driven by Myc and Tor. journals.biologists.com/dev/article/...

I’m on day #2 of this nonsense and it’s refusing to download the PDF … 🤦🏼‍♀️

Abraham Palmer@abepalmer.bsky.social · 7mo ago

If you are submitting an NIH grant in February, you will be required to use SciENcv to prepare you biosketch. IT IS MUCH WORSE THAN YOU CAN POSSIBLY IMAGINE. Set aside *at least* 4 hours just to transfer an existing an biosketch into SciENcv.

Final grades submitted!

A huge congratulations to the newly minted Dr. Anish Bose @anishbose.bsky.social on a fantastic thesis defense!! What a great day! A toast to Zelda, Forkhead, the exit from regeneration, and all the mysteries we haven’t yet solved.

Happy to report that the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign academic senate overwhelmingly passed a resolution against the federal “compact” all of us in higher ed have been offered, encouraging our administrators to keep opposing it. #MADC www.senate.illinois.edu/2025-2026/20...

Great departmental retreat! Awards for Connor and Snigdha, plus tug-of-war to wake up between talks. Tagging @snigdhamathure.bsky.social and @cpowers141.bsky.social

A threshold level of JNK activates damage-responsive enhancers via JAK/STAT to promote tissue regeneration Read this #LifelongDevSI #OA Research Article by John W. Quinn, Robin E. Harris and colleagues in our Stem Cells and Regeneration section doi.org/10.1242/dev....

Paper accepted!

Chatbots — LLMs — do not know facts and are not designed to be able to accurately answer factual questions. They are designed to find and mimic patterns of words, probabilistically. When they’re “right” it’s because correct things are often written down, so those patterns are frequent. That’s all.

I’ll be on both sides of this next week - not reviewing and not being reviewed at the same time. It is absurd.

Crystal Rogers, PhD@rogerslabucd.bsky.social · 10mo ago

I should be in study section right now talking about cool science but it’s cancelled due to the government shutdown. It sucks as a reviewer, but it sucks more for all the applicants who worked so hard on their grants- spending long hours crafting ideas. Relying on this to keep their labs going. 1/