With most 1st-year PhD students starting graduate programs this month, it seemed like a good time to address the most important dilemma faced by many incoming PhD students—how to choose rotation labs. Although perhaps obvious to those with experience, many of the key factors are often overlooked.

Choosing rotations and a dissertation lab - Help, I'm a Scientist!

By David Fay Choosing a lab in which to carry out your PhD is admittedly one of the more important decisions you’ll make in your early scientific career. But it’s important to have some perspective. F...

helpimascientist.com

From the abstract: “promoting a woman to Associate Professor increases female faculty by 1.5 members after 15 years, leads to six additional female PhD graduates over the following decade, and raises the number who subsequently remain in academia and reach tenured positions”

Physgal ⚛️@physgal.bsky.social · last wk.

Fascinating paper on the progression of women in academia. 👩🏻‍🔬 ⚛️ 🧪 #AcademicSky docs.iza.org/dp18477.pdf?... Here's an excerpt from the conclusion:

As I was trying to figure out how to properly visualize some data, @acollierastro.bsky.social’s voice popped into my brain reminding me of histograms (instead of violin plots because they kind if didn’t show what I wanted to convey). If you aren’t familiar with her work, I highly recommend her work!

I’m so happy and proud to announce that my nonprofit is awarding $100,000 in scholarships this upcoming 7th cycle of The Perry Second Chances Scholarship. The largest amount of money we have EVER awarded in one cycle. $10,000 PER WOMAN. Subscribe to thurmanperryfoundation.org to stay up to date.

Happy Monday! Come learn how jellyfish swim. In a review led by fluid dynamics maestro Alex Hoover, we outline how neuromechanical modeling will help us understand how modulation of neural activity allows jellyfish to jet and pirouette through fluids www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

I used to donate blood and plasma regularly. Now, I'm no longer allowed to due to medical reasons but if you can, this is such an easy thing you can do and it LITERALLY is life-saving. Please consider it and take a couple friends with you to make it a group activity.

Matt Novak@paleofuture.bsky.social · last wk.

"On Monday, the Red Cross declared a national blood crisis for the second time ever in its history."

If you work in academia and are chronically ill/disabled: I am working on a little something as I am hoping to contribute to a more accessible space for us. If you have any particular questions/concerns that you think need highlighting, let me know here or in a dm (as you feel comfortable). 🧪🧬👩‍🔬

New paper from the Rosin lab in collaboration with the Hawley lab 🎉 Spearheaded by postdoc Leif Benner. We use imaging and RNA-seq to better understand apyrene meiosis. Programmed meiotic errors facilitate dichotomous sperm production in the silkworm, Bombyx mori. www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...

What a day it was! There are many past versions of me who did not believe that I could make it this far. Proud of myself for overcoming hurdle after hurdle after hurdle. Thank you to everyone who supported me on my way!

Stowers Grad School@stowersgrad.bsky.social · 6mo ago

👏 Defense: done. Congratulations to Steffi Williams, #PhD student in the @mgstowers.bsky.social and Hawley Labs, on a successful thesis defense today. Well done! #GraduateSchool

This #MicroscopyMonday shows the synaptonemal complex, which is a multi-protein structure that forms in early #meiosis between the maternal and paternal copy of each #chromosome. Here, we see two such structures in the fruit fly. @sillysciencelady.bsky.social (Hawley Lab & Gibson Lab)

My second PhD project is now out as a preprint! Our observations of the synaptonemal complex in wild-type Nematostella suggested an incredible degree of conservation. Then, our mutants told a story of dramatic functional divergence. We were bamboozled on a regular basis with this one! 🧪 #meiosis4eva

I’m so excited (and nervous!!) to be defending my PhD thesis on February 5th! If anyone is interested in virtually attending my thesis seminar, let me know and I’ll send you the zoom link. My seminar will focus on the Nematostella part of my thesis research. #meiosis4eva

Having been a PhD student of Scott’s is one of my greatest honors. I consider myself very lucky to have learned from him and that I found a research topic that I absolutely love, even on the most miserable days. 🧬

the Node@the-node.bsky.social · 9mo ago

A bittersweet acceptance: Between a manuscript and grief Stefanie Williams @sillysciencelady.bsky.social shares the story behind her paper on the synaptonemal complex, including a tribute to her supervisor Scott Hawley, who passed away while Stefanie was completing the research.

A bittersweet acceptance: Between a manuscript and grief Stefanie Williams @sillysciencelady.bsky.social shares the story behind her paper on the synaptonemal complex, including a tribute to her supervisor Scott Hawley, who passed away while Stefanie was completing the research.

A bittersweet acceptance: Between a manuscript and grief - the Node

I was so excited when I received notification that my first first-author research paper was accepted. My excitement quickly turned into sadness with the realization that my co-PI was not seeing our vi...

thenode.biologists.com

Are you an early-stage graduate student (2nd or 3rd year) or early-stage postdoc based in the US or Canada, working primarily in Drosophila? Would you like to help improve the experience of all trainees working in Drosophila research? If so, read on. (Please repost to reach a broad audience.)

Very exciting news: My first first-author paper is now out (open access!) in Chromosoma! link.springer.com/article/10.1...

The synaptonemal complex component corolla regulates meiotic crossover formation in Drosophila melanogaster - Chromosoma

In Drosophila melanogaster females, as in most organisms, the segregation of homologous chromosomes in meiosis depends on the formation of crossovers between them. In most cases, crossovers require th...

link.springer.com

We are hiring! We are looking for a motivated and enthusiastic postdoc to study mammalian DSB repair using innovative genomic approaches. Our lab is at the Curie Institute in Paris and offers vibrant scientific environnement and cutting edge platforms. Please repost or apply here: lnkd.in/eJ9q3QrR

With many postdoc grants like the NSF PRFB, Ford Fellowship, and Hanna H. Gray fellowships disappearing, I am currently looking for grants that could fund incoming postdoctoral scholars. Here is a thread of some of them 🧵

Tenure-track faculty search of the UCSF Biochemistry & Biophysics Department is open for applications! We are looking for creative, innovative scientists asking fundamental questions in any area of biology. Join our vibrant, collaborative, and supportive community! aprecruit.ucsf.edu/JPF05702

Very pleased to say we have an Assistant Professor job opening (tenure track) in the Department of Genetics at Trinity College Dublin! 😀 www.jobs.ac.uk/job/DOA399/a... - deadline is August 19th! Please repost!

PSA for flood response: remember to NEVER mix cleaning solutions across classes, especially bleach x any ammonia or ammonium salts derivative (e.g. Lysol & many medical-grade spray cleaners)!! Biological hazard-graded respirators won’t protect against hazardous chemical fumes.

TIL (on mastodon) that the US National Park Service has crochet patterns! www.nps.gov/articles/000...

Halibut Crochet Pattern (U.S. National Park Service)

nps.gov

We ran a randomized controlled trial to see how much AI coding tools speed up experienced open-source developers. The results surprised us: Developers thought they were 20% faster with AI tools, but they were actually 19% slower when they had access to AI than when they didn't.

🧪 After the workshop on 7/7, the FDA and NIH are asking for public comments on implementing novel methodologies and other strategies to reduce the use of animal testing by 7/14: www.fda.gov/news-events/...

FDA-NIH Workshop: Reducing Animal Testing

The FDA is hosting a workshop on reducing animal testing. The workshop is open to current FDA and NIH employees.

fda.gov

Reposting this as the same issue continues at #IZFC2025: lots of red/green LUTs in talks. Especially the #zebrafish crowd, with imaging as a key technique in our field, should be able to do better. And know how to. #WeTheColorBlind #2025IZFC @izfs.bsky.social

Christian Mosimann@chrmosimann.bsky.social · last yr.

PSA: around 5-8% of the population has a color vision impairment for red/green. Many talks at #2025ICDB still use red-green LUTs on slides that are not accessible to everyone. Changing to more accessible colors is doable and easy. We can do better. #devbio #ICDB2025 #WeTheColorBlind

The preprint for my first first-author paper is up! www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

Using evolution as a tool: Replacing corolla in Drosophila melanogaster with its Drosophila mauritiana ortholog creates a novel hypomorphic allele

In Drosophila melanogaster females, as in most organisms, the segregation of meiotic chromosomes depends on the proper distribution of crossovers along paired maternal and paternal chromosomes. In mos...

biorxiv.org

In this review, I write about why it is important to study synaptonemal complex protein evolution and highlight this with a few key examples of conserved features and unique adaptations.

From conservation to adaptation: understanding the synaptonemal complex’s evolutionary dynamics

The synaptonemal complex (SC) is structurally conserved across eukaryotes and is essential for a proper progression of meiosis. Despite this conservat…

sciencedirect.com

It was an honor to be the last PhD student he took in. He was always excited about even the smallest progress I made. But he was truly more than just a scientific advisor and I will miss him deeply. Rest In Peace, Scott. And thank you for everything.

HunterLab.bsky.social@hunterlab.bsky.social · 2y ago

Sadly, our colleague and friend Scott Hawley passed away this morning. He was an irreplaceable presence and force for good in the meiosis an Drosophila communities and will be sorely missed.

If you have been affected by the fires in LA, or are concerned about your ability to keep precious Drosophila strains going during the latest funding crisis, we will host your strains as a backup. Please email me. Please amplify. If you are also able to host fly strains, add your name as well.

Today I passed my qualifying exam and am officially a PhD candidate 🎉