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.
It’s done!! Molecular architecture of the ciliary base in mammalian multiciliated cells! A study 13 years in the making 👴, thanks to collab with @stearnslab.bsky.social + @centriolelab.bsky.social & visionary work by @computingcaitie.bsky.social, who integrated native #cryoET with #XLMS & #UExM 🧪🧶🧬🔬
Beautiful work from @computingcaitie.bsky.social and colleagues, showing the power of combining multiple approaches to studying complex in situ cell biology!
Very sad to hear of the passing today of our UCSF colleague Mike Bishop at the age of 90. A legendary and inspiring figure. He also led UCSF as Chancellor. Have a listen to his Nobel lecture. youtube.com/watch?v=CDv7...
David Botstein was one of the giants of genetics and genomics, and my mentor, colleague and friend for more than 40 years. I’m sad that he is gone, but his larger-than-life persona comes through here. www.nytimes.com/2026/03/20/s...
You asked, we listened. Millions of AI-predicted protein complex structures are now available in the #AlphaFold Database.
This spans homodimers from 20 of the most studied species, including humans, as well as the World Health Organization’s priority pathogens list.
www.ebi.ac.uk/about/news/t...
NYC Postdocs! Interesting in using comedy in the creative scientific process? NYC Postdoc Night Science will have its first 2026 meeting on Feb. 11 at @nyumedpostdocs.bsky.social. I'll lead this with the amazing stand-up comedian Sarah Adelman!
Free registration: docs.google.com/forms/d/11Sz...
Can we design mutations that bias proteins towards desired conformational states?
Today in @science.org, we introduce Conformational Biasing (CB), a simple and scalable computational method that uses contrastive scoring by inverse folding models to identify conformation-biasing mutations.
Our attempt to give multinucleate cells the spotlight they deserve (seriously, they’re everywhere), led by the fearless @mrosjac.bsky.social and with @Markus Ganter
doi.org/10.32942/X2M...
We’d love your feedback while this goes through the peer review process!
#MicroEvoSky
#ProtistsonSky 🧪🌏
It was a beautiful talk, bringing together an important problem, a great system, and technical prowess. @computingcaitie.bsky.social is a star!
Great talk (and work 🧪 ) by @computingcaitie.bsky.social from @biozentrum.unibas.ch about exploring multiciliated cells with a complementary trio of structural techniques! Looking forward to sharing the preprint. Thanks for the fab collab @centriolelab.bsky.social @stearnslab.bsky.social #TeamTomo
Are you a postdoc in NYC? Come hang out with us at Postdoc Night Science! We are hosting the event at Columbia on Dec 3 at 5PM. Meet other NYC postdocs as well as @itaiyanai.bsky.social & @stearnslab.bsky.social to talk science & creativity! 🧬🧪
Make sure to use the QR code on the poster to sign up!
Hot off the press! Our latest paper led by @fernpizza.bsky.social, understanding how plasmids evolve inside cells. These small, self-replicating DNA circles live inside bacteria and carry antibiotic resistance genes, but also compete with one another to replicate. 1/
www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...
My dept. is hiring a microbiologist (broadly defined)! We are a deeply curious and friendly dept. with lots of enthusiasm for unusual systems and strengths in regeneration & dev bio, ecology & evolution, and circadian rhythms. I highly encourage anyone to apply: ukjobs.uky.edu/postings/600....
He was at Harvard Med and then Boston University, and published work on other cell types from the lung, but the cilia work was the highlight. There are 64 figures in that JCS paper! It's not clear who made the amazing illustration that we all use - nobody is credited in the paper, so perhaps him.
Beautiful drawing of ciliogenesis in airway cells from Sorokin, 1968: journals.biologists.com/jcs/article/.... Just shown on stage by @mahjoublab.bsky.social at #GEF25
Interested in learning how to be a good speaker and give effective talks? Season 2 of the NYC Postdoc Night Science Club begins October 15th. Join us NYC Postdocs for a 2hr workshop and maybe also a drink at a bar! Free registration (usually ~100 come): docs.google.com/forms/d/1dII...
A new study in ants from @danielkronauer.bsky.social reveals a previously unknown mechanism that ensures that each olfactory neuron expresses only one odorant receptor, with broad implications for the study of gene regulation. #RockefellerScience
https://bit.ly/4pwPFLY
Looks like a suctorian. Which have very interesting microtubule structures, by the way. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Suctoria
The genomic DNA was sheared by their prep, before the density gradient. The pieces were small enough that they were either fully replicated or unreplicated. If it was the whole genome, the experiment gives the wrong answer because the genomes are replicating asynchronously and relatively slowly..
I was young, and Stahl already seemed to me an old man who had done something famous long ago. Really, he was only in his mid-50’s and Meselson-Stahl was 30 years before. I regret not asking him more about it then, and the famous necessary artifact that allowed them to get the right answer.
Frank Stahl was a visiting scientist in the lab next to where I was a grad student at MIT in the 1980's. He loved nothing more than doing experiments with phage lambda, staring at the plaques through a pair of magnifying goggles, thinking about recombination. www.nytimes.com/2025/07/07/s...
Frank Stahl, screen capture from: https://youtu.be/7-tnuAqEp9g
RIP Franklin W. Stahl (1929–2025)
here is Frank explaining semiconservative replication of DNA in the marvelous interview from 2020 together with Matt Meselson (youtu.be/7-tnuAqEp9g)
UCSF Asilomar retreat t-shirt, 1990
Good to see acknowledgment from industry about the importance of fundamental research funding. We need more industry leaders to step up to make this point to Congress. www.statnews.com/2025/06/27/b...
Thank you, Tim! The Last Class film about Robert Reich is playing in NYC throughout this week at the wonderful Quad Cinema Greenwich Village through Thursday, July 3. Tickets available now here: quadcinema.com/film/the-las...
Saw the new film by @elliotkirschner.bsky.social about Robert Reich’s last class taught at UC Berkeley. It’s a film about @rbreich.bsky.social’s remarkable life, but also about the power of teaching and the classroom. Check it out!
About the art of writing, but applies to doing science, too.
It was, but I don't think the Senate version of that part of the bill is out yet.
