Super proud and excited about this work, led masterfully by Peiwei Chen! A fun and fruitful collaboration with department colleagues Andy Clark & Alexei Aravin. After 30 yrs of studying transposons, this is one of the very first times I see them jump in real time in their natural host! Hurrah! 🥳

Peiwei Chen@peiwei-chen.bsky.social · 3w ago

How do transposons jump when they’re released from host control? I babysat two chromosomes for 2 years, making sure they are ok without most piRNAs. Here’s what we found & excited to share my 1st postdoc paper: “piRNA loss unleashes episodic transposition bursts” www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...

So grateful for the new Kathy Matthews Endowment for the Bloomington Drosophila Stock Center. A wonderful tribute by Kathy's husband, Lawrence Washington, that will help preserve Kathy's legacy and support the fly community for years to come. biology.indiana.edu/news-events/...

Major gift to establish endowment for IU Drosophila Stock Center

IU Biology news: The IU Stock Center maintains thousands of documented, living genetic strains of Drosophila melanogaster, a small fruit fly that has served as one of science’s most powerful tools for...

biology.indiana.edu

Excited to share this preprint!! with @brandonscooper.bsky.social and Bill Sullivan We tested whether endosymbiotic Wolbachia can alter host gene expression through chromatin modifications that persist from spermatogenesis to adulthood.

bioRxivpreprint@biorxivpreprint.bsky.social · 2mo ago

Wolbachia-induced cytoplasmic incompatibility produces heritable chromatin modifications that suppress position-effect variegation https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.06.12.731975v1

The @hypothesisfund.bsky.social has awarded a prestigious seed grant to @uofubiology.bsky.social professor Talia Karasov, who researches the microbial weapons bacteria inflict on each other in an evolutionary arms race that might hold the keys to addressing the threat of antibiotic resistance.

U biologist wins seed grant to deepen research into tailocins, the weapons microbes use on each other - @theU

Hypothesis Fund supports early-stage innovative research that aims to improve the health of people and the planet.

attheu.utah.edu

My quote of the day The more that you read, the more things you will know. The more that you learn, the more places you'll go. Dr. Seuss

Our work on chromatin evolution in brown algae is now published in @natecoevo.nature.com! We show that developmentally complex brown algae evolved without epigenetic silencing pathways long thought universal, underscoring why non-model lineages are important to study. www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Our (@jeffsekelsky.bsky.social, Corbin Jones & me) #Meiosis, Recombination & Evolution of Sex class @uncchapelhill.bsky.social geeked out about #BChromosomes w/ Patrick Ferree from @scrippscollege.bsky.social about his @plosbiology.org paper on female meiotic drag in Nasonia: doi.org/10.1371/jour...

“These days, if you’re not a mad scientist, you’re not paying attention.” @standupforscience.bsky.social

Paul Noth@paulnoth.bsky.social · 5mo ago

Mine in this week’s @newyorker.com

🧵 Thread: What happens when transcription isn’t properly shut off during mitosis? Our new preprint explores just that 👇 www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...

If you're afraid to ask someone for a recommendation, please don't be. It's part of the job of being a mentor, editor, teacher, advisor, former boss, etc. to write recommendations or politely decline. (I wish I could go back in time and tell my former self this.)

BIG FIGHT AT POLAND’S WROCLAW ZOO!!!

Excellent title - and I'm a sucker for mapping any de novo mutations in insect pigment and pattern mutants. In this case, the culprit seems to be an ncRNA!?!? resjournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10....

Eye can see clearly now: Identifying the locus associated with a white‐eye mutation in honey bees (Apis mellifera)

We performed a community science investigation with the beekeepers nationwide to find phenotypic mutants. Alongside a beekeeper in Kentucky, we performed a GWAS to identify a region associated with ...

resjournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com

New paper on minimal NNs for phylogenetic inference, with former grad student, Ben Rosenzweig: arxiv.org/abs/2512.02223

On the Approximation of Phylogenetic Distance Functions by Artificial Neural Networks

Inferring the phylogenetic relationships among a sample of organisms is a fundamental problem in modern biology. While distance-based hierarchical clustering algorithms achieved early success on this ...

arxiv.org

How to keep in step when your (protein) partner speeds up… Here we investigated the adaptive remodeling of a protein-protein interaction surface essential for telomere protection. Congrats to whole team! www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

Rapid compensatory evolution within a multiprotein complex preserves telomere integrity

Intragenomic conflict with selfish genetic elements spurs adaptive changes in subunits of essential multiprotein complexes. Whether and how these adaptive changes disrupt interactions within such comp...

science.org

OMG--read this thread. Remarkable clever use of a trick to visualize plasmid competition that reveals key insights into evolution!!!! 🧪

Michael Baym@baym.lol · 9mo ago

Hot off the press! Our latest paper led by @fernpizza.bsky.social, understanding how plasmids evolve inside cells. These small, self-replicating DNA circles live inside bacteria and carry antibiotic resistance genes, but also compete with one another to replicate. 1/ www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

Crain, A. T., Nevil, M., Leatham-Jensen, M. P., ..., B., Matera, A. G., McKay, D. J., Duronio, R. J. (2024). Redesigning the Drosophila histone gene cluster: an improved genetic platform for spatiotemporal manipulation of histone function. Genetics, 228(1) academic.oup.com/genetics/art...

Redesigning the Drosophila histone gene cluster: an improved genetic platform for spatiotemporal manipulation of histone function

Abstract. Mutating replication-dependent (RD) histone genes is an important tool for understanding chromatin-based epigenetic regulation. Deploying this to

academic.oup.com

Introducing the 1,000 Flower Collection 🧬🌹 I’m creating 1,000 genetically designed flowers each crafted with new colors, patterns, and shapes. Here’s how I’m making it happen… and how you can join me on this journey 🧵(1/7)

To promote the collection, I’ve launched a designer clothing line where synthetic biology meets aesthetics. I will give out 100 free limited edition shirts to the first who retweet and order with their handle in the name! Available here → nickdesnoyer.com 🧵(6/7)

NEW: In an unprecedented move, the NIH will soon disinvite dozens of scientists about to take positions on advisory councils that make final decisions on grant funding. NIH staff were told to select others aligned with the Trump administration and told to expect placements by political appointees.

Exclusive: NIH to dismiss dozens of grant reviewers to align with Trump priorities

The move would undo years of work, leaving advisory councils understaffed, and without the full expertise needed for reviews.

nature.com

I don’t think anyone is prepared for what they just did w/ ICE. This is not a simple budget increase. It is an explosion - making ICE bigger than the FBI, US Bureau of Prisons, DEA,& others combined. It is setting up to make what’s happening now look like child’s play. And people are disappearing.

#drosophila @flybase.bsky.social request emergency funding: "As it stands, by the end of July, 2025, there will be no future updates to FlyBase, and in the worst case scenario access to the website will also be lost" => please donate! www.philanthropy.cam.ac.uk/give-to-camb...

Drosophila Genetic Database

The Drosophila Genetic Database, FlyBase, is on the brink of collapse due to the sudden termination of the FlyBase NIH grant, which includes salaries for 5 literature curators based at the University ...

philanthropy.cam.ac.uk

i encourage all to comment on the federal move to switch scientific staff to political appointees. this would be yet another disaster to the scientific process, unbiased pursuit of knowledge and medicine. deadline june 7. www.federalregister.gov/documents/20... www.regulations.gov/commenton/OP...

Treating a new Covid strain like a crime and not a public health issue is deranged.

Do not give them an INCH! It's not: Well, maybe there are some areas where DEI has become too much a focus. It's: FREE COUNTRIES DON'T SEND OUT BANNED WORDS LISTS TO THEIR SCIENTISTS It's not: Well, science isn't perfect... It's: FREE COUNTRIES DO NOT HAVE SCIENCE COMMISSARS

🧬NEW review article from Henikoff and Ahmad about emerging epigenomic mapping technologies to study chromatin regulation. Very comprehensive - great for beginners and experts alike! www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

For all the scientists who voted for Trump (and I know many of you), I hope the war on DEI was worth it.

Sam Stein@samsteindc.bsky.social · last yr.

Bernie Sanders' office has put out a report this morning on Trump's NIH cuts: "Trump officials effectively cut $2.7 billion in [NIH] funding in the first three months of 2025 – including a 31 percent cut to cancer research through March, compared to the same timeframe last year."

If you're wondering why there's been so much insistence lately that COVID-19 was a lab leak, here's why: it is going to be an example for why all biomedical research & public health work should be defunded. No evidence supports a lab leak, but it's used to justify cutting NIH's budget by 40%.

Max Kozlov@maxkozlov.bsky.social · last yr.

BREAKING: Reports that Trump would try to cut NIH's budget by 40% have come true. The request released moments ago would: - Cut $18 BILLION to NIH's $47b budget - Eliminate NIMHD, NCCIH, FIC - Collapse ICs into five 'focus areas' There's also a long screed about NIH's deficiencies.

💥🥳 At long last, our latest paper is out! Gag proteins of endogenous retroviruses are required for zebrafish development www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/... Led heroically by Sylvia Chang & @jonowells.bsky.social A study which has changed the way I think of #transposons! No less! 🧵 1/n

Gag proteins encoded by endogenous retroviruses are required for zebrafish development | PNAS

Transposable elements (TEs) make up the bulk of eukaryotic genomes and examples abound of TE-derived sequences repurposed for organismal function. ...

pnas.org

You may be fearing your 401k is no longer enough for you to retire. But with all the cuts to NIH and Medicare you also won't live as long. So the policies are integrated.

If only America would protect school children the way it protects Teslas.