Speaking for a *cough* friend *cough* it's been an excellent window of time to graduate with a PhD and do a postdoc and then go on the faculty job market

Curvature of the Drosophila corneal lens depends on localized chitin secretion How does the corneal lens in the fly eye acquire its light-focusing shape? This study shows that centrally located cells produce large amounts of chitin to form the thick central corneal lens, while p...

I am excited to share my new paper in @plosbiology.org . Here we show the role of chitin, a polysaccharide, in controlling the shape of the fly corneal lens.

journals.plos.org/plosbiology/...

Quick plug for our new resource, the Drosophila Species Stock Exchange. This is a database and mailing list that documents species currently in culture and the labs holding them. If you want to know more or sign up then please get in touch. See attached for more info and please share!

🤣🤣🤣🤣

Thank you Shefali for all your dedicated and thoughtful service and wonderful contributions to the fly community!

Proud of Dr @tarnopol.bsky.social who received the Sandler Award for “Outstanding Drosophila Thesis” at the fly meeting #Dros26 in Chicago this evening! @genetics-gsa.bsky.social

#Drosophila #FlyCROSS 2025-26 updates -
84 mentor-mentee matches were made ✅
Out of which 90 % of mentees were matched to one of their preferred mentors.
Keep and eye for the future program notifications. See you all at #Dros26
Below are the mentee demographics and response summary.
(1/n)

When you study stress, persistence takes the wheel even if patience has long evaporated 😅

Please dm or email me if you want to help judge posters at fly meeting next week!

Sounds wonderful! Happy birthday to your mom, hope they have a lovely time 🫶🏾

Maa better not see this on socials!!! What are you planning?

Hello fly folks! If you are a postdoc or junior faculty attending the @genetics-gsa.bsky.social #Dros26 #flymeeting in Chicago, and interested in helping judge trainee posters, please comment or DM me!

Topic: Stem Cells/Regeneration/Tissue Injury

Please RT
@flybase.bsky.social @bdsc.bsky.social

Apply for a JEDI Award - Life Science Editors Foundation “Before this backlash worsens, DEI advocates, the scientific community, universities, and federal agencies need to collectively call out the dangers of setting aside DEI and come up with robust ways t...

Applications for Life Science Editors Foundation JEDI awards are open! Do you have a paper for grant you are working on that could use a little editing help or guidance? Please apply! lifescienceeditors.org/apply/

Cells can hunt prey, solve mazes, and learn from past experience. Does this mean they can think, at some level? Find out more at our upcoming session on "Cell Behavior and Cognition" at the ASCB/EMBO #cellbio2025 meeting, Saturday 1-3 pm rm 115.

Hi there, great! please dm me with your email address?

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.)

If you are enthusiastic, this is an ideal position for you to hone your leadership skills. Many initiatives, like FlyCROSS mentor-match, were the brainchild of our trainee reps. If you want to know more or be considered, reach out to me, @iamshef.bsky.social, or @shyama13.bsky.social by Nov 17! 3/

You are embarrassing yourself by lauding this monster. Do you defend these views, which he held lifelong. Where is the "nuance in these words?" Shame!
liorpachter.wordpress.com/2018/05/18/j...

DNA scientist James Watson has a remarkably long history of sexist, racist public comments “People say it would be terrible if we made all girls pretty,” he said in 2003. “I think it would be great.”

Hey folks, as news of Watson's demise spreads, please don't set aside his weighty legacy of misogyny and racism. He was truly among the worst of us. www.vox.com/2019/1/15/18...

Society for Developmental Biology Ethel Browne Harvey Postdoctoral Seminar Series Friday, September 12, 2025, 3:00pm - 4:00 pm Eastern Time Sarah Colijn (Washington University in St. Louis) Novel roles for centriolar protein WDR90 in endothelial cells and cardiac tissue Shyama Nandakumar (University of Pittsburgh) Ring canals in the larval adipose of Drosophila buffer stress response

The 2025-2026 season of the Ethel Browne Harvey Postdoc Seminar kicks off Friday, September 12 at 3 pm Eastern Time with @sarahcolijn.bsky.social‬ of Washington Univ in St. Louis and @shyama13.bsky.social‬ of the Univ of Pittsburgh. Register today and join us. bit.ly/4649fWS #SDBPostdocSeminar

Today we celebrate 1945 GSA President & Nobel laureate Barbara McClintock. Continue her legacy—nominate for the 2026 GSA Awards by Oct 1, 2025.

🔗 buff.ly/bIdKqcw

Adipocyte-Derived Amino Acid Storage Proteins are Required for Germline Stem Cell Maintenance in Adult Drosophila Females Tissue homeostasis is dependent on precise coordination between endocrine organs in response to changes in organism physiology. Secreted circulating factors from adipocytes (called adipokines) regulat...

My lab’s newest preprint is now available.

www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

The #Flyboard and #FlyCROSS committee including me, Laurel @shyama13.bsky.social @jocmcdonald.bsky.social @frankmac.bsky.social @armstrongflylab.bsky.social & Jonathan look forward to having you on board.

new review alert❗️

thought your neighborhood stress response pathway (ISR) only dealt in stress adaptation? well, maybe so. but many cells are apparently quite “stressed out” - even healthy ones.

see quoted thread by my phenom co-author @shyama13.bsky.social for a summary! ⬇️

7/
What are the consequences of persistent ISR activation in tissues that use ISR for homeostatic functions?

How does ISR regulate cellular biomechanical changes?

Is "turning off" ISR also a necessary for homeostasis?

Read more here and please RT! febs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...

6/
Several open questions remain, and we discuss each of the following to close out this review:

Is ISR a master regulator of metabolism?

Does it regulate "cellular memory"?

How do homeostatic and adaptive ISR functions differ in the same tissue?

a white fan is sitting on a red table . ALT: a white fan is sitting on a red table .

5/ We found some interesting clues that suggest ISR could play an important role in influencing the robustness of various biological oscillators, across different time scales! (something yours truly is excited to investigate further!)

an elderly woman is driving a car next to a dog ALT: an elderly woman is driving a car next to a dog

4/ Is ISR a driver of physiological aging? - we highlight emerging literature that suggests this is the case in the nervous system and skeletal system