Not the emails! 😱

I'm on an email chain where everyone is discussing how to respond to reviewer comments, so every time a new e-mail comes in, the subject line makes me think I have another new set of reviewer comments 😱

Wow, this article is an incredible look at the pressures facing everyone in US academic science research. With fewer grant awards being made and cancelled funding opportunities, it feels like we are starving research progress, and the next generation of junior scientists is simply disappearing.

Looking into funding my lab with "granty" funding

Bacteria are amazing! The abundant Dps protein binds and protects DNA in stationary-phase cells with minimal effect on chromosome accessibility, dynamics, and organization. Now in NAR doi.org/10.1093/nar/...; I'm really proud of our multidisciplinary team led by Lauren, Lindsay, and Xiaofeng, et al.

175 ways URochester makes the world ever better What good is the research university? At the University of Rochester, the answers get ever better.

Wow, what an honor to be included among the "175 ways URochester makes the world ever better"! You can check out the incredible list of people and accomplishments here:
www.rochester.edu/newscenter/r...
@urochester.bsky.social

Emergent Morphologies, Slow Dynamics, and Phase Behavior in Dps:DNA assemblies The DNA-binding protein from starved cells (Dps) compacts bacterial DNA into stress-protective condensates, yet the physical mechanisms underlying this process and the material properties of the resul...

Our manuscript on Dps:DNA condensates is now live on bioRxiv! With @abbondanzieri.bsky.social @meyerroc.bsky.social

Check it out at: www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...

Congrats to you all for your awards yesterday!

Just wrapped up the 2025 iGEM Jamboree in Paris, and my team won a gold medal and four nominations for their project to create sustainable materials on Mars! @urochester.bsky.social @igemhq.bsky.social

Ugh sorry to hear that - science is not an easy road!

Tough round of rejections recently? 😭

Excited to share a new preprint from a team of researchers I am part of (funded by an NIH grant). The paper helps us understand a question I have been interested in for a while: why are bacteria so resilient?
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
@meyerroc.bsky.social
@juliebiteenlab.bsky.social

Thrilled to share our multidisiplinary work on how genome-wide DNA bridging by H-NS reshapes the stationary phase bacterial nucleoid and affects the transcriptional landscape. With Xindan Wang and @meyerroc.bsky.social
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

Dps binds and protects DNA in starved Escherichia coli with minimal effect on chromosome accessibility, dynamics and organisation Dps is the most abundant nucleoid-associated protein in starved Escherichia coli with ∼180, 000 copies per cell. Dps binds DNA and oxidises iron, facilitating survival in harsh environments. Dps-DNA c...

Lauren, Lindsay, Xiaofeng et al. coupled live-cell super-resolution microscopy with ChIPseq and Hi-C in starved E. coli to learn that the abundant protein Dps compacts DNA while only minimally affecting other nucleoid properties. XindanWang Lab & @meyerroc.bsky.social
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

High genetic complexity!

Exploring antibiotic resistance in diverse homologs of the dihydrofolate reductase protein family through broad mutational scanning DropSynth technology enables scalable and cost-effective exploration of antibiotic resistance across the DHFR protein family.

Our new Science Advances paper is out! 🎉 The Plesa Lab's first, it builds on DropSynth technology as a proof of concept for large-scale synthetic gene libraries, showcasing a synthetic metagenomics approach to studying antibiotic resistance at scale. 👉 www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

Insulin recombinantly synthesized by Yersinia pestis?

Huge congrats to Dr. Andrew Holston on a successful PhD defense!! Andrew has been working on the large-scale characterization and engineering of chimeric receptor histidine kinases. He’s looking for roles in biotech/academia, let’s connect if you’re hiring! -> @hkalltheway.bsky.social

Bring factory jobs back to the US (United Slugs)!

Busy day on Capitol Hill today meeting with nine of the New York House Representatives to advocate for NSF funding! Thanks to the CNSF for organizing and to @urochester.bsky.social for supporting my trip.

Stanford.Berkeley.UCSF Next Generation Faculty Symposium

Are you a postdoc/grad student preparing to launch a faculty search? Do you have a track record of excellence in research, leadership, mentorship & community engagement? Apply to the 2025 Next Generation Faculty Symposium: www.berkeleystanfordnextgensymposium.com! Pls repost! (1/3)

student in a white lab coat and blue latex gloves holds a pipette near a flame.

A researcher is a problem solver 🧪

A team of 10 undergraduate students has pioneered a new 3D-bioprinting technology that efficiently replicates useful chemicals found in plants, including those endangered by our changing climate.

#EverBetter #URochesterResearch | uofr.us/4iZo2Xr

Done! Thanks for the advice

Opinion | Science Suffers With Trump’s Funding Freeze America’s scientific enterprise demands reliable stewardship, not destabilizing political intervention.

My father-in-law, Jack Strominger, and I wrote a letter to the @wsj.com editor about the current threats to science due to Trump's funding freeze. Please repost! www.wsj.com/opinion/scie...

@urochester.bsky.social

Living lenses? Glass-coated microbes might take better photos Bacteria with a gene from sea sponges can coat themselves in glass. Working as tiny, bendable lenses, they could lead to thinner cameras or sensors.

Science News Explores published this fun article about our engineered bacteria that focus light like tiny lenses! This kind of research can be the starting point to develop new technologies, which is why the current freezes on NIH and NSF funding are so damaging.
www.snexplores.org/article/glas...

Wow, amazing news!