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Summer Undergraduate Research Experience | HHMI

The Cech Fellows Program is a paid, nine-week summer research experience empowering the next generation of scientific leaders.

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My best friend from childhood visited my lab with her kids today. One of her sons asked if lava is ever involved in my experiments… I disappointedly had to say no… not yet 😂🫠

Woke up to a note I had apparently written on my phone in the middle of the night that just said “think about solubility”. I do know what I was trying to troubleshoot, but I love that my subconscious self thought that was an important, helpful note. Maybe I’ll just “think about solubility” today.

www.kpbs.org/podcasts/kpb...

Nobel laureate on how Trump's cuts are hurting science

Neuroscientist, biologist and 2021 Nobel Prize winner Ardem Patapoutian joined Midday Edition to talk about how the Trump administration's effort to cut back on science spending is impacting researche...

kpbs.org

CHEMISTS We experiment, muse, observe interactions (...and constantly work to achieve a reaction!). POETS We experiment, muse, observe interactions (...and constantly work to achieve a reaction!).

I urge others to similarly support our patriots at NIH who use their training and talents to improve human health and position the US as the world’s leader in biomedical discovery, innovation and technology development 🙏

Stanford AAUP@stanfordaaup.bsky.social · last yr.

Stanford's professor and Bethesda Declaration signatory @carolynbertozzi.bskyverified.social notes that the declaration “represents the voices of the highly trained Americans at NIH who want to serve their country and steward the biomedical enterprise.” 🧪 www.science.org/content/arti...

As a structural biologist starting her independent lab, this is an exciting rite of passage 🤩

SBGrid Consortium@sbgrid.bsky.social · last yr.

New Member Alert: @lbackman.bsky.social from @whiteheadinstitute.bsky.social joined SBGrid in April. Welcome!!

A colleague said something today that really conveyed how I was feeling… they expressed how, not only does everything feel so overwhelming right now, but even the moments that would typically be celebrated and give us motivation and purpose, feel too heavy at this moment. These are bizarre times.

This is scary. Especially that someone who does not know the meaning of habeus corpus or due process is allowed to wield so much power. These are not ‘the best people’.

Tyler Kingkade@tktk.bsky.social · last yr.

NEW: DHS Secretary Kristi Noem tells Harvard if they want to enroll international students this fall, then they have 72 hours to turn over **all audio and video footage of any protest activity involving international students** from the past 5 years www.nbcnews.com/politics/tru...

Do people in the same household share strains when they have the same species? How many cells transmit when a strain is shared? Can strain composition be dynamic when species composition is stable? We answer these and related questions for the facial skin microbiome in our latest paper. 🧵[1/10]

Congratulations Yukiko. So well deserved.

Whitehead Institute@whiteheadinstitute.bsky.social · last yr.

Congratulations to Whitehead Institute Member Yukiko Yamashita, who has been elected as a member to the National Academy of Sciences! www.nasonline.org/news/2025-na... @nasonline.org

At least 28 Florida State University students experienced their *second* mass shooting last week - they were at Parkland. They've written an open letter to Ron DeSantis against campus carry and attempts to lower the gun purchase age and for a stronger safe storage law and mental health services.

PUBLIC: Governor DeSantis from Parkland/FSU Students

Governor DeSantis, We are students from Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School and Florida State University. Two campuses terrorized by deadly shootings. Two communities forever shaped by a crisis your...

docs.google.com

Spending the weekend in Cape Cod with my parents, but we found a way to be part of today’s #HandsOff protests! Provicetown’s official rally isn’t until Monday, but we joined a small but passionate group today at their town hall.

I defended my PhD thesis 3 years ago… it’s surreal to now be leading my own academic team. Times in science are bizarre and hard… the bacterial chemistry we’re studying is also bizarre, yet fun. I’m grateful to sometimes escape the stress of the world by focusing on how cool nature and microbes are.

Fred Greene was very kind to me when I started my faculty position at MIT Chemistry in 1999. He made me feel welcome and I will always appreciate that.

MIT Department of Chemistry@mitchemistry.bsky.social · last yr.

We are saddened by the recent loss of Fred Greene, professor emeritus and physical organic chemist. A member of our community for over 40 years, he was a beloved professor and mentor, celebrated for his lasting impact on generations of chemists. chemistry.mit.edu/chemistry-ne...

Before and after… Time for a spring haircut for our unique chihuahua/poodle/yorkie mutt, Lumo ❤️🌸🌼🌱

Job opportunity in SF to work at a small startup with the first PhD graduate of the Lieberman Lab!

Jacob Baker@microjacob.bsky.social · last yr.

Taxa is hiring! We're looking for a Computational Biologist to spearhead the analysis of massive genomic datasets for our flagship probiotics. Exciting science, great team, and transparent compensation. Apply here 👇

I am right there with you Krystle - the cancellation of MOSAIC started me crying in my office. Programs that support young scientists in the US are all being cancelled. It is heartbreaking.

Krystle J McLaughlin@biophyskrys.bsky.social · last yr.

Yesterday's announcement canceling MARC, PREP, IMSD & IRACDA finally broke me. Spent most of the morning in my office crying. I think I'd been clinging to a glimmer of hope, but as an IRACDA alum,watching the the scale of loss for young scientists was heartbreaking. 🧪 www.nytimes.com/2025/04/03/o...

Today marks 2 years since I got my lab space. Being a new PI isn't easy, especially during these times... but my lab has grown, I've written many grants, and we've had some of the most exciting discoveries of my life that we are only on the cusp of exploring. Times are hard, but we are persisting.

You look at science (or at least talk of it) as some sort of demoralizing invention of man, something apart from real life, and which must be cautiously guarded and kept separate from everyday existence. But science and everyday life cannot and should not be separated. Rosalind Franklin (to father)

1. Another Friday afternoon massacre of sorts: NIH just rescinded its Scientific Integrity Policy. h/t @lizborkowski.bsky.social

Our 28-yr U-RISE/MARC NIH grant that has served over 500 students and made us one of the top institutions producing African American students who go on to receive MD/PhDs in the United States was just cancelled yesterday. What a unnecessary and tragic end to such an impactful program...

This is finally out!!! Nitric oxide (NO) irreversibly inhibits glycyl radical and radical SAM enzymes associated with anaerobic central metabolism relevant to numerous human pathogens. pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/... 1/n

Nitric Oxide Inhibition of Glycyl Radical Enzymes and Their Activases

Innate immune response cells produce high concentrations of the free radical nitric oxide (NO) in response to pathogen infection. The antimicrobial properties of NO include nonspecific damage to essen...

pubs.acs.org

As unbelievably brazen and bizarre #Signalgate revealing US classified information is, I wonder how many academics feel a grudging kinship with some folks in the group based on their multiple academic experiences in 'reply-all' disasters... "Please take me off this email thread." indeed.

Big day for the Backman lab! First student to submit a thesis from my lab. Annie Class, an undergrad student in the Harvard MCB program, submitted a beautiful senior thesis today. I’m so proud of all her hard work studying metalloprotrins associated with metabolic bacterial microcompartments. 👩🏻‍🔬🔬🦠

Current mood

Was wonderful to have Leslie Vosshall (@leslievosshall.bsky.social) visit @whiteheadinstitute.bsky.social today. Here's just a few scientists who have benefitted from @hhmi.org programs. I'm not sure if I would have earned a PhD, much less be starting my own lab now, without HHMI Gilliam and EXROP.

@drennanlab.bsky.social and I, refusing to sit down and to shut up.

Cathy Drennan@drennanlab.bsky.social · last yr.

We Stood Up For Science 2025