Sources: Paul L. Franco just completed his last class of summer. Upon submitting grades, UW will move him to Sabbatical Reserve for '26-'27. This move, long expected by insiders, comes after a promotion to Teaching Professor. It saves UW 33% of his salary, keeping the Huskies under the second apron.

Excited to release the newest preprint from the lab into the wild. Super proud of @ninaluong.bsky.social, who did 99% of the experiments in this beast of a paper. Want to know more about some novel RGC subtypes? Buckle up! www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6... 1/9

A pooled genetic approach provides multimodal access to uncharacterized retinal ganglion cell subtypes

Retinal ganglion cells (RGCs) are the sole output neurons of the retina, responsible for transmitting visual information to the brain. Recent transcriptomic studies have revealed extensive molecular d...

biorxiv.org

Our work on the role of the proteasome in developmental tempo is out!!!! 🐭⌛️👤⏳ Six years after identifying an association between protein stability and developmental tempo, we now demonstrate a causal link between protein turnover and developmental tempo through proteasomal degradation

Developmental Cell@cp-devcell.bsky.social · 2w ago

Online now: Proteasome-dependent protein degradation shapes developmental tempo in mouse and human neural progenitors #biology #science

Human-specific genes in glia promote neoteny- beautiful work by @franckp.bsky.social and colleagues. www.cell.com/neuron/fullt...

Human-specific SRGAP2 paralogs synchronize neotenic microglial maturation and synaptic development

Using a combination of microglia-specific conditional mouse knockout and knockin approaches and xenotransplantation of human iPSC-derived microglia, Diaz-Salazar et al. demonstrate that the human-spec...

cell.com

Over 15 years of our work consistently supports a cohesive model of neurodegeneration providing useful concepts and directions for future research: "the dependency cycle of local axon homeostasis". Enjoy the read of our completely revamped manuscript: doi.org/10.1101/2025... (PDF fixed)

For the past 30 years, “whole-genome sequencing” has been a misnomer. Today the T2T Consortium publishes a dozen papers heralding a future of truly complete genomes for humans and nearly any vertebrate 👨‍🔬🐒🐦🐀🦒🐎🫏🐹🐟 (sorry, no salamanders): www.cell.com/consortium/t... 🧵[1/15]

I’m deeply honored to be part of the amazing cohort of scientists awarded a 2026 @simonsfoundation.org Fellows-to-Faculty grant. I look forward to exploring how oligodendrocytes and myelin may impact developing circuits in autism, and I can’t wait to interact more with the autism community!

Simons Foundation@simonsfoundation.org · 4w ago

We're pleased to announce the 2026 class of our Fellows-to-Faculty program! This fellowship supports talented early-career scientists and their research visions as they transition into tenure-track faculty positions in autism and #neuroscience research. See the new class: https://bit.ly/4yXUjrd

#DBfeature #LatestResearch 🧠 Microtubule binding protein Togaram1 is required for proper development of mammalian forebrain and neural primary cilia, with its knockout leading to a thin and irregular neuron layer By Clarissa Nassar, Savera Shetty, Noelle Dwyer doi.org/10.1016/j.ydbio.2026.05.011

Great to have some of the lab crew together for a @habitatforhumanity.bsky.social work day! Habitat is a terrific organization, building much needed affordable housing, and you get to use power tools! Get involved!

Diversity and policies promoting DEI, including affirmative action ---> $$$. It's good for everyone. rdcu.be/fj2pa

There are transient interactions between cellular elements in the developing brain. Proteomic data generation is now essential for ligand–receptor pair prediction & validation. We examined brain regions, of a single human 20GW brain from @HDBR, Univ Newcastle. onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10....

A posttranslational proteomic survey of a single anatomically preserved human 20‐week postconception brain

A well-preserved 20 post-conception week human brain was obtained and finely dissected into 18 anatomically distinct regions, including the pia mater. Each region underwent in-depth proteomic analysi...

onlinelibrary.wiley.com

"a total of 119 applications of white PIs funded from 34-59th percentile. A score range at which ZERO applications were funded to Black PIs...119 white PI applications funded at worse scores is 46.5% of the total number of applications funded with Black PIs" drugmonkey.wordpress.com/2020/06/10/m...

“Merit” and the NIH disparity of grant award to Black PIs

I was just noticing something that I hadn’t really focused on before in the Hoppe et al 2019 report on the success of grant applications based on topic choices. This is on me because I’…

drugmonkey.wordpress.com

"If you swap [unfunded Black PI apps] out for applications funded to white PIs this would reduce the funding rate ..to. 15.6% Which is still 46% higher than the award rate the applications from Black PIs actually achieved." From the Archive: The Endgame drugmonkey.wordpress.com/2020/06/16/t...

The Endgame

Hoppe et al 2019 reported that R01 applications submitted by Black PIs for possible funding in Fiscal Years 2011-2015 were awarded at a rate of 10.7%. At the same time, R01 applications submitted b…

drugmonkey.wordpress.com

Open-rank search: 2 (!) PI positions in Pulmonary Biology at @cuanschutz.bsky.social 🌄 We are looking for new colleagues @cupediatrics.bsky.social, working in lung fibrosis, focusing on #devbio, stem cell, & regen.biology of the lung 🫁🫀. Please help spread the word! cu.taleo.net/careersectio...

Shout-out to my university for telling my 180 students to personally email me about the Canvas outage.

What if we just let Canvas die?

Couldn’t be May

This game is drunk. #GoAvsGo

They just dropped a music video/documentary: www.youtube.com/watch?v=L-57...

Massive Attack, Tom Waits - Boots on the Ground

YouTube video by Massive Attack

youtube.com

My sister’s new article in Science!!! Congrats 🎉 @coevolvinglab.bsky.social Sex effects on gene expression across the human cerebral cortex at cell type resolution | Science www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

Sex effects on gene expression across the human cerebral cortex at cell type resolution

Sex differences in neurodevelopmental, psychiatric, and neurodegenerative disease susceptibility may arise from sex chromosome and hormonal influences on cell type–specific gene expression. We present...

science.org

New preprint! "A stereotyped glial attachment determines the morphology and function of neuronal cilia" doi.org/10.64898/202... We find that C. elegans neuronal cilia attach to glia, we identify a protein required for cilia-glia attachment, and we show that glial attachments alter cilia signaling.

Congrats to the newest PhD from the @siegenthalerlab.bsky.social, Dr. Sophia Kim! Beautiful thesis document & presentation! 🧠🦠🔬🎉 Sophia's thesis work on arachnoid barrier breakdown in meningitis is on bioRxiv - check it out! www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...

Two very cool papers out in Nature from the labs of Stephen Fancy and David Rowitch. In one study they show that the developmental expansion of CUX2+ neocortical neuron progenitors requires enhanced DNA repair mechanisms to deal with replicative stress. 1/4 www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Expansion of outer cortical CUX2 neurons requires adaptations for DNA repair - Nature

The transcription factor ATF4 is shown to regulate double-stranded DNA repair within vulnerable CUX2+ upper-layer 2/3 cortical neurons, enabling their survival during development.

nature.com

Two very cool papers out in Nature from the labs of Stephen Fancy and David Rowitch. In one study they show that the developmental expansion of CUX2+ neocortical neuron progenitors requires enhanced DNA repair mechanisms to deal with replicative stress. 1/4 www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Expansion of outer cortical CUX2 neurons requires adaptations for DNA repair - Nature

The transcription factor ATF4 is shown to regulate double-stranded DNA repair within vulnerable CUX2+ upper-layer 2/3 cortical neurons, enabling their survival during development.

nature.com

Latest offering. How myelin ensheathes axons! Born from chat with Dwight Bergles on "weird things" we saw oligodendrocytes do, like making "bridges" between sheaths. Driven forward by Cody Call, Kelly Monk, and myelin folks @edinburgh-uni.bsky.social Enjoy! www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Flexible ensheathment of axons enables myelination of complex CNS networks - Nature

The rate of axon ensheathment varies within individual myelinating processes, resulting in chains of myelin sheaths connected by bridges consisting of thin cytoplasmic processes that provide&nbsp...

nature.com

Neurogenesis meeting in Toronto 🇨🇦 on July 13-16. Great line up of speakers.

Neurogenesis and Repair 2026

Join Neurogenesis and Repair 2026, July 13-16, 2026. Learn more on Fourwaves.

event.fourwaves.com

If I knew what I know now in graduate school I wouldn't have audited Kant's first Critique like three times and would've replaced at least one of those with a class about making Canvas modules because my job has way less first Critique and way more making Canvas modules than I could've ever guessed.

The biggest thing I have to explain to normal friends is that I basically have 2 chances for raises over the lifetime of my career (promotion to Associate and promotion to Full). Beyond that, you generally have to have an offer from another university to change your compensation (not a guarantee).

Robert Kelchen@robertkelchen.com · 5mo ago

Staff and administrators saw one final year of pay raises exceeding inflation this year, but that won't happen again for a while. Tenure-line faculty have had raises below inflation every year for the past decade. Tenure and promotion boosts are often modest (3-10%), and only happen twice.

Roswell saw its earliest 100° day on record today, breaking the old record by almost a month. This is the first time they have seen a 100° day during the month of March. #NMwx