Most flies appear to follow the same aerodynamic blueprint. Mosquitoes are the exception, beating their wings up to 1,000 times a second and flying about three times less efficiently than similar-sized fruit flies. doi.org/hb926b

Physical laws explain why most flies evolved similar flight, with mosquitoes as outliers

A new study in PLOS Biology of 133 species of flies, mosquitoes and their relatives shows that most species fly in surprisingly similar ways.

phys.org

Janelia is built for this moment. Starting today, we're taking on 2 big bets: cracking how a vertebrate brain generates behavior, & building AI-in-the-Loop Discovery — a new way of doing biology. Tiny transparent fish + one of neuroscience’s biggest questions? Let's go: hhmi.news/2BigBets

Google applies for permit to release 32 million mosquitoes in Calif. www.sfgate.com/tech/article... All hail to the power of a bacterium #Wolbachia. Wanna learn the nitty-gritties of behind-the-scenes mechanism? Check out our work 👇 journals.plos.org/plosbiology/... www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

Google applies for permit to release 32 million mosquitoes in Calif.

The Debug Project wants to use sterile mosquitoes to stop the deadly bug from reproducing.

sfgate.com

Want to find #prophage in your #bacteria genomes? We built PhiSpy a long time ago, and now we've created a new web page for it: linsalrob.github.io/PhiSpyWeb/ Best of all, the data never leaves your computer! #phage #phagesky

🚨Faculty job search: University of Illinois Chicago Micro & Immuno department is hiring! Open rank and open area within host-pathogen interactions. Apply by May 31 to join us in UI College of Medicine in the heart of Chicago! uic.csod.com/ux/ats/caree...

Using light-activated CRISPR in zebrafish, we triggered synchronized DNA breaks and track the repair process. ⚡🐟⚡ 

 Well ... DNA repair is very different in embryos compared to tissue culture cells. Embryos repair DNA breaks incredibly fast - within minutes! www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...

Seeing is believing: Salk scientists, together with scientists from the Albert Einstein College of Medicine, developed a new tool to visualize proteins inside living cells—live and undisturbed. A new window into how biology works, and disease unfolds. www.salk.edu/news-release...

She’s in charge! In the new lab of @kaurr.bsky.social at the University of Illinois at Chicago. Proud of all she’s set up in just a few months. Are you ready for the sizzle of Kaur lab science?

Nice write up in the Chicago Tribune about a project involving one of our department faculty members, Dr. Gabby Nunez-Mir. Art meets invasive species awareness... www.chicagotribune.com/2026/04/24/u...

UIC researchers use mural art to raise awareness of invasive plant species

UIC’s MEC Lab studies the traits that make invasive plant species harmful. Its new grant-funded mural project aims to promote mitigation and education.

chicagotribune.com

There's always something new to learn about #Wolbachia and its wonders. Preprint👇 shows Sperm chromatin defects don't just culminate at embryo death, but cause locomotor defects in offspring. More than just “on/off”, CI can be continuum of paternal-effect phenotypes. www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...

Not to miss opportunity to work with a great mentor and develop your research portfolio using diverse model systems! Do check it out!

Peiwei Chen@peiwei-chen.bsky.social · 4mo ago

plz repost 🙏 we are looking for a technician to start this summer/fall for 1-2 years to work with me at Cornell in the labs of @cedricfeschotte.bsky.social and Andy Clark, in collaboration with @corriemoreau.bsky.social on flies & termites 🪰🐜🧬🔬 Ithaca is gorges! jobs.hr.cornell.edu/us/en/job/WD...

@hhmi-science.bsky.social's #FreemanHrabowski Scholars Program offers early career faculty up to $10M over 10 yrs, plus salary & benefits Stable, sustained support can transform your career: Senior Postdoc? This year's competition has a program for you too. Applications open 11/3! bit.ly/4vhC0LA

Early Career Faculty Program | Freeman Hrabowski Scholars | HHMI

The Freeman Hrabowski Scholars Program offers comprehensive support to outstanding early career faculty committed to scientific excellence in their own research, and to fostering labs that expand the ...

bit.ly

Drosophila and anti-parasitoid defense gained through horizontal gene transfer from phages make a cameo at the end of this fun article by @vcallier.bsky.social...

Quanta Magazine@quantamagazine.org · 4mo ago

Over two billion years, a fierce battle has raged between bacteria and the viruses that infect them. The resulting evolution has shaped the way our bodies fight disease today. @vcallier.bsky.social reports: www.quantamagazine.org/the-ancient-...

A special collection: recent advances in biological control of spotted-wing drosophila #Drosophila

A high-affinity split-HaloTag for live-cell protein labeling. And much more. www.nature.com/articles/s41...

A high-affinity split-HaloTag for live-cell protein labeling

Nature Communications - Lin and colleagues present high-affinity split-HaloTag pairs for protein tagging and multiplexed labelling. This versatile system allows protein visualisation with diverse...

nature.com

AlphaFold database has entered the era of complexes. Together with NVIDIA, DeepMind and EBI, we use ColabFold, OpenFold and MMseqs2-GPU to predict ~31 million complexes (homo & hetro-dimers) resulting in 1.8 million high-quality predictions 📄 research.nvidia.com/labs/dbr/ass... 🌐 alphafold.ebi.ac.uk

Grateful to be featured by the @vanderbilt.edu in their 'Beyond the Postdoc' series. If you're a postdoc and looking for some perspective, keep reading until the end - I share a few reflections and pieces of advice that helped me along the way. www.vanderbilt.edu/postdoc/rupi...

Rupinder Kaur, Ph.D.

Dr. Rupinder Kaur is currently an Assistant Professor at University of Illinois Chicago. Her research is focused on exploring the dynamic interplay between hosts and their microbial symbionts, with a ...

vanderbilt.edu

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!

"A world-first gene therapy which turns white blood cells into a disease-busting “living drug” has reversed previously untreatable blood cancers." www.positive.news/society/revo...

Revolutionary therapy treats ‘untreatable’ blood cancer

Gene therapy which turns white blood cells into a disease-busting “living drug” has reversed previously untreatable blood cancers

positive.news

What do you wish someone had told you before you went on the job market? What actually counts and what doesn’t? Looking forward to our panel discussion on navigating today’s job search landscape. Come with questions and hear the unfiltered version of our experiences. #SciCareers #Academia #ECRs

Epigenome Technologies offers an end-to-end single-cell Paired-Tag service, the first multiomic assay that simultaneously captures RNA expression and epigenetic marks from preparation to data analysis #Epigenetics #SingleCell #PairedTag #Multiomics bit.ly/3HWFoaw

Great read! Congratulations @katarinazimmer.bsky.social on your insightful @knowablemag.bsky.social piece exploring the remarkable biology of the Aedes aegypti #mosquito knowablemagazine.org/content/arti...

Beating back the Aedes aegypti mosquito

Scientists are taking a multipronged approach to tackle this dangerous carrier of dengue, yellow fever and other noxious viruses

knowablemagazine.org

Goodbyes are never easy when you’ve built a strong community and lifelong friendships. But as they say “We don’t leave foundations behind, we build upon them.” Onward to the next chapter of my career at UIC, with immense gratitude to @symbionticism.bsky.social for extraordinary mentorship & support!

Seth Bordenstein@symbionticism.bsky.social · 8mo ago

How do you say goodbye to yesterday? Put a big brick plaque on the future. Bon Voyage Professor @kaurr.bsky.social. Twas the best 6 years as friends, collaborators, travelers...with chain link resilience. Carpe diem at your new home at the Univ. of Illinois Chicago. They are lucky to have this doc!

AI learns from chromatin data to uncover gene interactions www.nature.com/articles/d41...

AI learns from chromatin data to uncover gene interactions

Machine-learning tool for predicting gene expression.

nature.com

In the #gonad, #sex is not an irrevocable commitment, and requires active maintenance. Artyom Kopp explores a new @plosbiology.org study elucidating the molecular mechanisms that preserve sexual identity in the adult #Drosophila #testis 🧪 Paper: plos.io/4pMT6hq Primer: plos.io/3MRBBxG

👀 Save the date!

brackneylab@brackneylab.bsky.social · 8mo ago

Have you been waiting for a conference dedicated to Vector-Pathogen Interactions? Well you're in luck. Myself, Sarah Merkling, Flaminia Catteruccia, and Utpal Pal have organized the conference for you with an amazing lineup. Mark your calendars and share! www.keystonesymposia.org/conferences/...

Such an impactful work showing that the "chromatin fatigue" is real to pose consistent stress for the survival of the cell! Kudos to the team! 👏👏

Susi Bantele@sbantele.bsky.social · 9mo ago

𝗖𝗮𝗻 𝗰𝗲𝗹𝗹𝘀 𝗲𝘃𝗲𝗿 𝘁𝗿𝘂𝗹𝘆 𝗿𝗲𝗰𝗼𝘃𝗲𝗿 𝗳𝗿𝗼𝗺 𝗗𝗡𝗔 𝗱𝗮𝗺𝗮𝗴𝗲?Excited to share our new study “Repair of DNA double-strand breaks leaves heritable impairment to genome function”, revealing DNA repair’s hidden cost, out now @science.org tinyurl.com/5n6zw3ye. Led by @sbantele.bsky.social and Jiri Lukas.🧵👇1/n

Beyond Wolbachia—Can a small molecule control insect reproduction?

This book has never been more timely. Thanks to @sonali-m-19.bsky.social for writing it and for sending me a copy.

🚨 New pub alert! Check out our latest one that showcases how chemical and genetic innovations can recreate complex host–symbiotic interactions in the absence of the symbiont. www.cell.com/cell-reports...

Histone acetylation modulation by a small molecule inhibitor recapitulates symbiont-induced cytoplasmic incompatibility

Kaur et al. identify histone acetylation as a host-encoded mechanism underlying Wolbachia-induced cytoplasmic incompatibility (CI). Chemical and genetic inhibition of histone acetyltransferase activit...

cell.com

Rupinder Kaur, PhD@kaurr.bsky.social · 10mo ago

#Wolbachia has puzzled scientists with its power to rewire insect reproduction. What if I tell you that we found one of the keys Wolbachia use to rewire its host AND a small molecule inhibitor uses this key to mimic what this microbe has mastered for millions of years. www.cell.com/cell-reports...