Annual reminder: if you’ve been accepted to multiple graduate programs and are still deciding, please let the ones you’re definitely not going to know as soon as possible!

-Someone who got into his PhD off the waitlist the day after the deadline

We're searching for the next Director of the Duchossois Family Institute at UChicago

The most exciting leadership role in microbiome science right now: lead faculty, cutting-edge cores, and an FDA-approved facility for microbiome therapeutics

Email/DM me if interested

apply.interfolio.com/182203

MALDI-FISH for Colocalization of Brominated Metabolites and Pseudovibrio spp. in Aplysina Tissue Bromotyrosine-containing natural products have been isolated from marine sponges. While studying the uptake of engineered bacterial strains by sponges, we observed the production of fistularin-3 in the sponge. To explore these results, we employed multimodal imaging to colocalize metabolites with fluorescent in situ hybridization (FISH) probes. Using mass spectrometry imaging (MSI), we measured fistularin-3 and mapped this against the FISH probes to locate the bacteria. A recent study reported that P. brasiliensis produced fistularin-3 in pure culture, but these data have not yet been reproduced. We employed MSI and FISH to colocalize the fistularin-3 spatial distribution with P. brasiliensis in sponge tissue.

MALDI-FISH for Colocalization of Brominated Metabolites and Pseudovibrio spp. in Aplysina Tissue #JNatProd #MassSpec pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/...

Postdoctoral Research Fellowships in Biology (PRFB)

Holy shit: it's an RFP for the NSF Postdoctoral Research Fellowship in Biology (PRFB). Hello old friend www.nsf.gov/funding/oppo...

#chemsky

Biochemists establish new method for identifying pharmaceutical candidates faster UC Santa Cruz team achieves synthesis of beneficial neurochemical in just two steps, promising to break a bottleneck in drug development

@ucscscience.bsky.social did an awesome write up!
news.ucsc.edu/2026/02/bioc... @robbieshepherd.bsky.social

A high-throughput biocatalytic platform for screening isomeric kainoid natural products Shepherd and Ramachandra et al. present a fast, chromatography-free method for resolving isomeric products from engineered enzymes. This platform enables large-scale screening and identifies improved ...

Hey all, excited to share this collab w/
@shaunmckinnie.bsky.social
TL;DR we combined our expertise to develop and validate a MALDI-tims platform for screening the production of isomeric small molecules (~212 Da) directly from E coli colonies in high throughput
www.cell.com/cell-reports...

Your @asms.org Board @jyates.bsky.social @lingjun2025.bsky.social @bhclowers.bsky.social @iondoctor.bsky.social @lablaskin.bsky.social @drlaurasanchez.bsky.social hard at work in Santa Fe, establishing new initiatives and planning for #ASMS2026. Get your abstracts submitted for San Diego by Feb. 6!

Lipopeptides and antibiotics from a marine Bacillus pumilus mediate a potential “catch and kill” effect on pathogenetic Vibrio parahaemolyticus | mSystems Microbes communicate and compete using small molecules, yet linking specific metabolites to visible behaviors is difficult. We combine imaging mass spectrometry, genomics, analytical chemistry, and bi...

Happy to have contributed a small part to this really fun story: journals.asm.org/doi/10.1128/... ‘catch and kill’ interplay between marine organisms congrats Qihao and Dave!

Lipopeptides and antibiotics from a marine Bacillus pumilus mediate a potential “catch and kill” effect on pathogenetic Vibrio parahaemolyticus | mSystems Microbes communicate and compete using small molecules, yet linking specific metabolites to visible behaviors is difficult. We combine imaging mass spectrometry, genomics, analytical chemistry, and bi...

Happy to have contributed a small part to this really fun story: journals.asm.org/doi/10.1128/... ‘catch and kill’ interplay between marine organisms congrats Qihao and Dave!

Why is Trump going after America's air traffic controllers, today of all days?

It's one more way to distract from his decision to increase your health insurance premiums."

MPC2SC Support community college student research experiences in STEM

Today is Giving Day and we’re celebrating 10 years of collective impact at UC Santa Cruz. Please support our Bridge to the Baccalaureate program. While NIH funding is gone, we are raising funds to support students in the lab! #give2ucsc give.ucsc.edu/schools/Univ...

MPC2SC Support community college student research experiences in STEM

Today is Giving Day and we’re celebrating 10 years of collective impact at UC Santa Cruz. Please support our Bridge to the Baccalaureate program. While NIH funding is gone, we are raising funds to support students in the lab! #give2ucsc give.ucsc.edu/schools/Univ...

IDBac: an open-access web platform and compendium for the identification of bacteria by MALDI-TOF mass spectrometry. www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.10....

Cells on gels!

How can a silly-putty-like substance help us understand cancer cells?

Allen Distinguished Investigators @drlaurasanchez.bsky.social and @lydia-kisley.bsky.social are stretching the limits of #FrontierScience by developing a new way to look inside of cells.

@ucscscience.bsky.social

Naming Challenge: Help Redefine the Glycopeptide Family! We are excited to launch a naming competition inspired by the recent preprint "Phylogenetic distance and structural diversity directing a reclassification of glycopeptide antibiotics" (https://www.bio...

⏰ Just 7 days left for our Glycopeptide Renaming Challenge!
💡 Share your best name idea and win 500€

👉 More info and submission here: docs.google.com/forms/d/1ym9...

#secmet #NaturalProducts #Antibiotics #NamingChallenge #Glycopeptides @gdwantibiotics.bsky.social @marghesosio.bsky.social

Spatial Metabolomics Reveals the Role of Penicillic Acid in Cheese Rind Microbiome Disruption by a Spoilage Fungus www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.09....

Why strong mentorship was essential for my career success in science JoAnn Trejo has turned mentoring into an evidence-based science, driven by her own exposure to inspiring mentors.

Our very own, @joann-trejo.bsky.social, on the Nature Careers Podcast! Dr. Trejo is featured in this eight-part Changemakers series and she speaks to the importance of mentorship in science careers! 🧪 🎉 👏

www.nature.com/articles/d41...

These are the most challenging times for early-career scientists and engineers.

My team is doing its bit to help by maintaining and even expanding our database of funding opportunities for early-career researchers.

We found 437 of them.

Download it freely here: research.jhu.edu/rdt/funding-...

The federal government’s demand of $1 billion from @UCLA would devastate the nation’s best public university, cut off life-saving care, halt tech and economic growth and reduce educational access.

Stand with UC to protect our vital mission: www.universityofcalifornia.edu/get-involved...

Having a blast #ASP2025 refreshed after catching up with friends and celebrating science

We’re pleased to share a significant development in the lawsuit challenging the rescission of MOSAIC and other NIH grants. MOSAIC grants support scientists from a wide range of backgrounds in transitioning to research careers. The First Circuit has denied the government’s motion for a stay pending appeal and formally granted ASM’s motion to file an amicus brief in support of the plaintiffs. In a 34-page opinion, the court found that the government is unlikely to prevail on its argument that the case belongs in the Court of Federal Claims rather than federal district court. The court also affirmed that the grant cancellations are subject to judicial review under the Administrative Procedure Act and cast doubt on the government’s ability to justify the terminations under the arbitrary-and-capricious standard. The court acknowledged the serious consequences of abruptly canceling scientific research grants and emphasized that the public’s interest is aligned with the plaintiffs. The government may now seek an emergency stay from the Supreme Court, and ASM is prepared to continue its legal actions at that level. We will keep our community informed about the next steps in the legal process. This is a promising moment: our strategy is gaining traction and sending a clear signal about the importance of fairness, transparency and due process in federal research funding decisions.

Some good news from @asm.org about their efforts to fight unlawful grant terminations, such as MOSAIC

asm.org/press-releas...

Seeing between the lines: matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionization mass spectrometry imaging advances for microbial interactions This review delves into the technical advancements of matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionization mass spectrometry imaging (MALDI-MSI) applications f…

Seeing between the lines: matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionization mass spectrometry imaging advances for microbial interactions

-in Curr Opin Microbiol from @drlaurasanchez.bsky.social
#Microbiota_thematic_issue

www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

ZiemertLab The Ziemert lab is interested in the evolution and distribution of bacterial secondary metabolites. These bioactive compounds are especially important in human medicine as the chemical scaffolds are t...

Check out the Ziemert Lab’s new YouTube channel
m.youtube.com/@ZiemertLab
We’ve uploaded short tutorial videos on how to use our tools for genome mining and natural product discovery.
Thanks Semih, @martinaadamek.bsky.social @turgutmesut.bsky.social ! #GenomeMining #SecMet #naturalproducts

‘Need for speed: high throughput’ – mass spectrometry approaches for high-throughput directed evolution screening of natural product enzymes Covering: 2015 to 2024 Mass spectrometry (MS)-based methods have been implemented extensively for enzyme engineering due to their label-free nature, making them suitable for screening a wide range of…

🔓Read a #OpenAccess review by @drlaurasanchez.bsky.social‬ et al. from @ucsantacruz.bsky.social‬ in our MS Metabolomics themed collection covering mass spectrometry approaches for high-throughput directed evolution screening of natural product enzymes #secmet #natprod

Scientific Glassblower Position Title: Scientific Glassblower Job Group: Professional & Scientific Required Minimum Qualifications: High school diploma or equivalent and 5 years of related experience Preferred Qualifica...

#chemsky 🧪 ISU Department of Chemistry is hiring a scientific glassblower. Thrilled we are hiring for this position given the impending retirement of our current glassblower. isu.wd1.myworkdayjobs.com/IowaStateJob...

Tenured!

It’s been a remarkable six years at UC Santa Cruz full of many unexpected obstacles but even more triumphs! I’m incredibly proud of the phenomenal team that we’ve assembled and am excited to have the continued opportunity to grow and share our collective successes!

What? Some good news on a Friday?

Parent Fellowship Notices of Funding Opportunities are up!

F30, F31, F32, F33

grants.nih.gov/grants/guide...

The Extraordinary Benefit of Nature’s Chemistry to Health, Society, and the Economy The connection between humans and Nature’s chemistry is astonishing and built into the very fabric of our genetic code. In this Perspective, we focus on bioactive molecules from microbes, plants, and ...

pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/...