Two children playing under a blooming tree with the sun setting over a bay in the background.

Ice cream and a sunset made for a pretty enjoyable end to the week.

QnAs with Yukiko Yamashita | PNAS QnAs with Yukiko Yamashita

This work, published in @pnas.org, also identifies the mechanisms that help determine whether a cell will self-renew, differentiate, or revert to a stem cell state.

Yamashita shares more the findings in a conversation with @pnas.org:
www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...

We are hiring POSTDOC now!🚨please repost! Fully-funded 5-year position 👩🏻‍🔬👨‍🔬🧬Looking forward to your application!✉️

🪰🧬This morning at #Dros26 I'll be talking about my lab's recent findings on a nearly 60 year old question - how does the germline know its genome is running out of rDNA repeats?

9:45 in the Chromatin, Epigenetics, and Genomics session!

The Nelson lab is presenting at #Dros26 today!

Stop by Daisy's poster to learn about rDNA instability in somatic aging (680F), and Caroline's poster about the role of an mRNA binding protein in regulating germline rDNA expansion (777F)!

Woke up to a completely burried Long Island today.

So excited to share this manuscript led by the inimitable Cara Brand, who discovered that Topoisomerase II evolution causes hybrid female lethality in Drosophila.

Congrats to Cara, @nickbr0wn.bsky.social, Anirban, and
@buszczaklab.bsky.social!

www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...

Ancient co-option of LTR retrotransposons as yeast centromeres - Nature Evolutionarily related ‘proto-point’ centromeres providing resolution to the evolutionary origins of point centromeres are identified in yeast, and comparison shows they evolved in an ancestor with re...

Our paper is now out in Nature:

“Ancient co-option of LTR retrotransposons as yeast centromeres”

www.nature.com/articles/s41...

A short thread on how retrotransposons helped give rise to yeast point centromeres.

1/14

Are you a Drosophila researcher & member of @genetics-gsa.bsky.social (at any level of training)?

Please vote in the Flyboard elections (we have an amazing slate of candidates) before Feb 20, 2026. Please check your email or go to this website to vote: genetics-gsa.org/2026-fly-boa...

Pl repost.

It’s announcement day!📣 I am greatly honored to receive the Vilcek Prize for Creative Promise in Biomedical Science🎉 I will be even more strongly committed to supporting the next generation of immigrant scientists.

As long as you have a hotdish recipe your cred is still strong!

Hey @leahgreenberg.bsky.social and I are both Carleton grads and this fucking rocks - love to see a college protect its students from the goons instead of cutting deals with the regime.

Dirty little secret about #Drosophila transgenes: pUAST transgenes are downregulated by nonsense-mediated mRNA decay. Deleting the pUAST 3'-UTR can boost expression ~10x.
Shown by @markmetzstein.bsky.social
doi.org/10.1534/gene...
For #NMD-resistant pUAST derivatives, see
doi.org/10.1371/jour...

A keychain of a clay fruit fly.

My daughter got a modeling clay kit for Christmas and her first creation became my new favorite bag accessory.

Melting had turned our snowman into Neo.

A young girl looking out the window at snowfall.

Kids waking up to falling snow is the best.

The Department of Genetics at the University of Cambridge is seeking a talented Postdoctoral Research Associate to work in the group of Dr Felipe Karam Teixeira (www.gen.cam.ac.uk/research-gro...)

➡️For Further details see the link www.cam.ac.uk/jobs/postdoc...

Hey #CellBio2025, want to learn how rRNAs tell the cell about the quantity of ribosmal DNA in the genome? Come by poster board 054 this afternoon to learn about the lab's recent work!

So excited to see my PhD work finally being published!!!

It was such a pleasure working with a great team!!!

Rapid compensatory evolution within a multiprotein complex preserves telomere integrity Intragenomic conflict with selfish genetic elements spurs adaptive changes in subunits of essential multiprotein complexes. Whether and how these adaptive changes disrupt interactions within such comp...

How to keep in step when your (protein) partner speeds up…

Here we investigated the adaptive remodeling of a protein-protein interaction surface essential for telomere protection.

Congrats to whole team!

www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

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.)

🚨🚨 1 week left to apply to our department's faculty search! We are an interactive and interdisciplinary department for biochemistry, genetics, cell, developmental, and molecular biology. If your work addresses aging or infectious disease, you should especially apply! 🚨🚨

apply.interfolio.com/171941

Jack Curtis, Carleton College's QB, shows that even a cancer diagnosis won't stop him Doctors said it would be practically impossible to play his senior season of football, but he's doing it anyway.

Never bet against our starting quarterback, Jack Curtis ’26! Even a cancer diagnosis can’t disrupt his commitment to Carleton Football. Good luck battling for the Goat today! We're all rooting for you 💛💙

Watch or read his story on CBS News: www.cbsnews.com/minnesota/ne...

What if NIH had been 40% smaller? Replaying history with less NIH funding shows widespread impacts on drug-linked research

This may be the most important paper ever published about NIH funded research.

www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

I ordered some to save for gifts for undergrads at the end of the year. They look incredible! I'll be ordering more soon to stock up for future Nelson Lab students!

Opportunities | Biochemistry & Cell Biology Department of Biochemistry and Cell Biology at Stony Brook University

Our department is hiring TWO tenure-track Assistant Professor positions! Join a fantastic group of biochemists, molecular, cell, and developmental biologists!

www.stonybrook.edu/commcms/bioc...

FlyBase needs our help! There is now a system for non-European direct donations. Hopefully an option to invoice labs comes soon, but in the mean time do what you can to save this precious resource!

The goal of a PhD is not to learn some facts or read a few papers or learn a bunch of techniques. The goal of a PhD is to learn independence, problem solving, how to finish things you start, resilience, & gain the ability to adapt & think creatively. Learning these things is hard.

Somatic cells compartmentalise their metabolism to sustain germ cell survival To ensure success in reproduction, organisms dedicate substantial resources to supporting the germline. In testes, somatic gonadal cells form a barrier that isolates germ cells from circulating nutrie...

🆕🧪‼️
New lab preprint!
We study how germ cells (the cells that give rise to gametes, in this case sperm) are supported by somatic (non-germ) cells of the gonad. This matters for our understanding of reproduction - without germ cell development, animals are sterile.
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

attention 🪰folks. many of you received a survey from @genetics-gsa.bsky.social about potential future sites of the US Fly meeting. We are excited for #Dros26 Chicago, but future sites are in question, for many logistical reasons. GSA is hard at work planning, but we need to hear from you. please RT!