Craig Kaplan
@triggerloop.bsky.social
Professor, Department of Biological Sciences, University of Pittsburgh. RNA polymerase II mechanism, classic films, #classiccountdown once in awhile
Graphing and statistically analyzing data is challenging without coding expertise. This Community Page by @avishenoy.bsky.social introduces grafify online, a free, browser app for generating publication-quality graphs and performing statistical tests and comparisons. 🧪 #AcademicSky plos.io/3RpUg6E
Much respect to these plaintiffs. btho these Regents in court
The Associated Press@apnews.com · 16h agoFour professors and a national faculty group asked a federal judge Monday to block the Texas A&M University System's restrictions on teaching about race, gender and sexuality and to reinstate courses canceled under the policy.
New playlist THIS WAS SUMMER 1987, going back to the summer of pumping up the volume and feeling the heat with somebody! 🍉 Spotify open.spotify.com/playlist/5gm... 🍦 Apple music.apple.com/us/playlist/... 🌽 YouTube www.youtube.com/playlist?lis...
I recently read Quay's new book. Now he's reportedly been tapped to lead NIAID. Not only is his book full what are plainly lies, it also reflects a person who can't keep tabs on reality. www.politico.com/news/2026/08...
This just kills me. Hey Cat- you are 54. You probably know a lot of 47-55 year old women!!!
kate bush’s husband@airbagged.bsky.social · yesterdayCat Power is antivax
like I hate to be the “why is this news”person but this is the median outcome for every Rocky production in recorded history 
Holly Anderson 🍇@hollyanderson.bsky.social · 24h agoCurrently experiencing levels of “who among us” I didn’t know were medically possible
This is the tragic yet logical result of a decades-long project—undertaken by rightwing politicians and “business-minded” administrators alike—to distort the meaning of higher education, to deny the intrinsic value of the pursuit of knowledge, to deprive us all of richer, more purposeful lives.
The New Republic@newrepublic.com · 2d agoPresident Trump is banning students majoring in degrees that don’t make enough money from taking out college loans. Degrees for social work, art, religious studies, teaching aides, and music will be hit the hardest. trib.al/aaAEu6v
somebody asked me for more reading on this a while back and here's what I had on hand, if anybody's looking bsky.app/profile/holl...
Holly Anderson 🍇@hollyanderson.bsky.social · 11mo agoWhoever it was asked me for a Blair Mountain reading list, this’ll get you started (ignore the dictionary)
A masterpiece. And it has some of the all-time great John Sayles lines, which is saying a lot. The one that never leaves my mind is David Strathairn as the sheriff saying of a person he dislikes "I wouldn't piss on him if his heart was on fire."
Derf Backderf@derfbackderf.bsky.social · 2d agoMATEWAN is film that all of you should watch. It's a masterpiece that's more relevant now than it was in 1987.
H3K9me2/3 strikes again! This time in B cells. The latest from the Basu lab at Columbia. www.cell.com/cell/fulltex...
Co-option of retrotransposons promotes antibody diversification
A longstanding mystery in antibody diversification is how AID specifically targets immunoglobulin V genes. Ancient LINE-1 retrotransposons embedded within the immunoglobulin locus provide a recruitmen...
cell.com
This is extremely cool and makes scientific sense. Anti-retrotransposon editing as precursor to mechanism for antibody diversification
Cell - a Cell Press journal@cp-cell.bsky.social · 2d agoNow online! Co-option of retrotransposons promotes antibody diversification
Bad people and deluded people sadly believe this stuff - they can’t accept that pathogens are all around and some of them cause long lasting and difficult problems
Bill Grueskin@bgrueskin.bsky.social · 3d agoRFK told Dana Bash that Lyme disease “almost certainly” came from gain of function research. Which is utterly false. www.medpagetoday.com/infectiousdi...
Happy birthday to Jay Bhattacharya claiming Florida was protected right before Delta ripped through
ICYMI: New Online! Regulation of RNA transcript elongation in metazoans and its relevance to disease
Regulation of RNA transcript elongation in metazoans and its relevance to disease
Nature Reviews Molecular Cell Biology, Published online: 30 July 2026; doi:10.1038/s41580-026-01003-wThis Review discusses how transcript elongation by RNA polymerase II is regulated and how obstacles such as nucleosomes are overcome. Also discussed are the roles of transcription surveillance machineries, which ensure mRNA integrity and suppress spurious transcription, and how elongation defects contribute to diseases.
dlvr.it
I wrote about science funding, science reform, and anti-science agendas. scatter.wordpress.com/2026/07/31/s...
science funding and the cherry picking problem
Science publishing–like all of science–requires money. There’s no getting around it, even with the open science movement. What appears free to many authors and readers still requires money and infr…
scatter.wordpress.com
Fantastic - just great @blockintheback.bsky.social
BWJones@bwjones.bsky.social · 5d agoIt is official: The @moraneyecenter.bsky.social has named @blockintheback.bsky.social as the Vice Chair for Vision Research and Research Director. I could not be more happy for my former institution as they are in the best hands with Kristen. healthcare.utah.edu/moran/news/2...
📽 Beautiful shot with Janet Leigh in TOUCH OF EVIL (1958) #FilmNoir #TCMParty #SummerOfDarkness
as the swift monster drags you deeper and deeper into the frantic shoal, you bid adieu to circumspect life
Guidance on new DMS plans. Applications under review will need to submit new ones with JIT, new plans will be expected with RPPRs for active awards. grants.nih.gov/grants/guide...
NOT-OD-26-100: Implementation Update: NIH Data Management and Sharing Plan Requirements
NIH Funding Opportunities and Notices in the NIH Guide for Grants and Contracts: Implementation Update: NIH Data Management and Sharing Plan Requirements NOT-OD-26-100. NIH
grants.nih.gov
📣NAR is recruiting a new Executive Editor!📣Seeking an established researcher with expertise in RNA biology and translation mechanisms to help shape the journal's scientific direction, oversee peer review, and support its growth. Apply by 30 Sept 2026: academic.oup.com/nar/pages/ex...
Just love this stuff
Jay Shendure@jshendure.bsky.social · 6d agoNew preprint from Shendure Lab on Locus-Scale aka Long-@$$ MPRAs led by the amazing Abby McGee & @carinabiar.bsky.social Most MPRAs test ~300 bp fragments next to a promoter. But real enhancers are bigger, act combinatorially and from a distance. 1/n www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...
Oh hello, I wrote a gazillion words about Trump's proposed new golden age of science and how it is anything but.
The new "science golden age" looks suspiciously like a grift
Trump wants to run scientific research like his family business.
open.substack.com
An even darker thought- they might be using responses to train models to minimize the negative response
Joseph Cox@josephcox.bsky.social · 6d agoNew: LinkedIn just introduced a "seems like AI slop" button. That's literally what the button says. The thought leaders are going to have a meltdown www.404media.co/linkedin-int...
Check out this program! There's even a session dedicated to the Mediator complex 😍 [Meeting] Transcriptional regulation by chromatin and RNA polymerase Oct. 29 – Nov. 2, 2026 Alexandria, Virginia @asbmb.bsky.social www.asbmb.org/meetings-eve...
Transcriptional regulation by chromatin and RNA polymerase
Oct. 29 – Nov. 2, 2026 | Alexandria, VA
asbmb.org
If I won the lottery I would hire an interior designer and just say “Columbo murderer” while waving my hand around my home office.
