Remember- they’re humans navigating pressure, expectations, and responsibilities we’re only beginning to glimpse. A little empathy goes a long way.
Academia works best not when one side demands more from the other, but when both sides meet halfway, with respect, communication, and a bit of grace.
One thing I’ve come to believe strongly: give your PI the chance to be your PI. They’re there to guide, to teach, to challenge your thinking. Learn everything you can from them- their way of approaching problems, decision-making, even how they handle setbacks. That’s a huge part of why we’re here.
Supporting them n being organized, proactive n communicative, actually makes the whole system work better. And no, this isn’t about students becoming completely self-sufficient islands or silently struggle alone. It’s about understanding that a good working relationship is shared responsibility.
As students, we absolutely have our own projects, pressures, and the very real need for guidance and attention. That doesn’t disappear. But alongside that, it’s worth recognizing that our PI’s time and energy are constantly split in a dozen directions.
Behind every paper, every grant, every “successful lab,” there’s a person juggling an entire ecosystem- mentoring multiple students, securing funding, managing collabs, troubleshooting experiments they didn’t even design, n carrying the weight of an entire lab’s future on their shoulders.
Academia has many shades; today I’m thinking about one we don’t talk about enough: the life of a PI (coming from the perspective of a PhD student).
It’s easy to assume that PhD/PostDocs do the heavy lifting of an entire project. But the reality is far more layered.
Hypothesis: protein didn’t bind
Counter-hypothesis: column betrayal
Observation: column still blue
You question every step, every buffer, every life choice since undergrad.
Then reality hits- you mixed Buffer A and Buffer B 😁
Just a classic case of "operator-induced experimental evolution"
Days like these...
Protein: expressed
Transformation: done
Cells: alive, thriving, judging
Preculture: done
Culture: done
Pellet: secured like a tiny biological treasure
Next day
Lysis: done
HisTrap: run… but, no protein!!!
Gel: shows protein in the soluble extract
Where's the protein, then?
Imagine the happiness of the student (assuming its by a student)
To cleave or not to - especially for de-novo ones!?
Why do intrinsically disordered proteins appear larger than they are in SDS-PAGE? We investigate how sequence properties affect SDS-PAGE mobility using synthetic IDRs.
Conclusion: We need to consider both SDS binding and the compaction of protein-SDS complexes.
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...
I remember how happy was Yoann presenting this work at EMBO Comp Struc Bio workshop last December. The fact that predictions for tripartite complex were so accurately done was his proud moment. I congratulate everyone for this publication.
The half- baked LLM analogy is bang on 🤣
-by Marianne Williamson, A Return to Love: Reflections on the Principles of "A Course in Miracles"
It's not just in some of us; it's in everyone. And as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others.
You are a child of God. Your playing small does not serve the world. There is nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won't feel insecure around you. We are all meant to shine, as children do. We were born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us.
Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness that most frightens us. We ask ourselves, 'Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, fabulous?' Actually, who are you not to be?
We celebrate the posters, the reports, the publications, the successful gels, the elution peaks,saturated curves, working controls and the tiny wins only we understand.
Different people. Different worlds.
One lab. One team.
-A student (frm team of Castaing/Suskiewicz at @cbm-upr4301.bsky.social)
From sharing brains to sharing the AKTA slot,
from giving last-minute science advice to decoding mysterious results together,
from compulsory coffee breaks to “five-minute” chats,
from stressed experiment days to random laughter in the lab, we show up for each other.
We’re more than experiments and data points. We’re inside jokes whispered over centrifuges, shared snacks during long purifications, emergency buffers passed like treasure, borrowed pens that never quite return...
One is owned by a cat.
Another probably wants five more.
One enjoys a good glass of wine.
Another appreciates a slow cigar.
We are students with different hobbies, different dreams, different cultures, different languages, and different stories.
One of us is absolutely obsessed with capybaras.
Another can’t stop talking about dachshunds.
One lives and breathes anime.
Another is powered entirely by romance novels.
One expresses personality through funky socks.
Another could survive on potatoes alone.
A gentle, fun reminder that science isn’t just about answers, but about the long, curious wandering that gets you there. Prof. Kleanthous shares his lab’s journey with warmth, making bacteriocins feel like companions along the way rather than just subjects of study.
How does molecular valency shape condensate assembly and function? We used the CO2-fixing organelle in algae—the pyrenoid—to find out… 🧵
Preprint here!:
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...
@cellarchlab.com @phaips.vd.st @biologyatyork.bsky.social
#Rubisco #PhaseSeparation #Condensates #Pyrenoid
How are these JCs organized? Like everyome reads the paper and someone presents in a presentation, or some other way?
Oh yeah! When nothings' working in the lab, ShinChan is the go to. Science might give up, ShinChan won't :D
Stop scrolling and post two characters that bring you happiness :)
I updated ipSAE code to handle Boltz2 files properly -- non-standard chainIDs/order, PDB input as well as mmCIF; other pull requests. github.com/DunbrackLab/.... Also updated preprint--fixed Latin grammar error in title - very embarrassing and added new figure. www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
Magic incoming from our team soon....
