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Posts by Christopher Tabone

Job Summary: The FlyBase project is an international collaboration of ~35 people distributed at several sites. This position is located at Harvard University, Cambridge, MA. All FlyBase staff work as a part of a team, in which curators and software engineers collaborate extensively. Each site has its own set of responsibilities. The Harvard FlyBase curators focus on curation/annotation of literature and high-throughput data pertaining to the Drosophila genome, transcriptome and proteome. FlyBase is constantly evolving, seeking both to improve and to expand its role within the Drosophila and wider scientific communities. The ideal applicant will be enthusiastic about participating in this process, bringing to the FlyBase group expertise and ideas concerning emerging directions in Drosophila biology and genomic/proteomic analysis. FlyBase is increasingly integrating artificial intelligence and machine learning tools into its curation workflows. The ideal candidate will be open-minded and enthusiastic about exploring AI-assisted approaches to biological data curation, including the use of large language models and AI coding assistants to accelerate and enhance curation tasks.

Job Summary: The FlyBase project is an international collaboration of ~35 people distributed at several sites. This position is located at Harvard University, Cambridge, MA. All FlyBase staff work as a part of a team, in which curators and software engineers collaborate extensively. Each site has its own set of responsibilities. The Harvard FlyBase curators focus on curation/annotation of literature and high-throughput data pertaining to the Drosophila genome, transcriptome and proteome. FlyBase is constantly evolving, seeking both to improve and to expand its role within the Drosophila and wider scientific communities. The ideal applicant will be enthusiastic about participating in this process, bringing to the FlyBase group expertise and ideas concerning emerging directions in Drosophila biology and genomic/proteomic analysis. FlyBase is increasingly integrating artificial intelligence and machine learning tools into its curation workflows. The ideal candidate will be open-minded and enthusiastic about exploring AI-assisted approaches to biological data curation, including the use of large language models and AI coding assistants to accelerate and enhance curation tasks.

Job-Specific Responsibilities: • Reading and abstracting of data from the current Drosophila literature, including its relationship to human disease, physical interactions, and gene expression • Evaluating and validating AI generated annotations and curation suggestions, ensuring accuracy and biological relevance before integration into the database • Using AI coding assistants (e.g. Claude Code, Codex, Gemini) to write scripts for data wrangling, format conversion, and routing curation tasks • Providing feedback on AI model outputs and refining prompts to help improve automated curation pipelines and annotation quality over time • Annotation and analysis of the Drosophila melanogaster genome, including gene models, mapped mutations, and regulatory features • Together with curators and developers at other sites, interact with broad research community by answering helpmail and giving presentations and tutorials at research conferences • Handling high-throughput datasets and associated metadata

Job-Specific Responsibilities: • Reading and abstracting of data from the current Drosophila literature, including its relationship to human disease, physical interactions, and gene expression • Evaluating and validating AI generated annotations and curation suggestions, ensuring accuracy and biological relevance before integration into the database • Using AI coding assistants (e.g. Claude Code, Codex, Gemini) to write scripts for data wrangling, format conversion, and routing curation tasks • Providing feedback on AI model outputs and refining prompts to help improve automated curation pipelines and annotation quality over time • Annotation and analysis of the Drosophila melanogaster genome, including gene models, mapped mutations, and regulatory features • Together with curators and developers at other sites, interact with broad research community by answering helpmail and giving presentations and tutorials at research conferences • Handling high-throughput datasets and associated metadata

FlyBase is seeking a new scientific curator at our Harvard University site.
More information here: wiki.flybase.org/wiki/FlyBase...

1 week ago 9 15 1 1
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Scientific Curator

FlyBase is hiring! Come work with us.

careers.harvard.edu/job/scientif...

1 week ago 0 0 0 0
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A short video of a global heat map of real time pings to FlyBase website from one of our talented developers (not sped up) @flybase.bsky.social @iubiology.bsky.social

3 weeks ago 19 10 2 2
The committee for the 2026 Drosophila Community Service Award for outstanding community service included Michelle Arbeitman (Co-chair), Cale Whitworth (Co-chair), Elizabeth Chen, Lydia Grmai, Amy Kiger, and Steven Marygold.

The committee for the 2026 Drosophila Community Service Award for outstanding community service included Michelle Arbeitman (Co-chair), Cale Whitworth (Co-chair), Elizabeth Chen, Lydia Grmai, Amy Kiger, and Steven Marygold.

The Community Service Award recipients for 2026 were the REDFly Database Team and the FlyBase Developer team, for their roles in development of online repositories for the dissemination and analysis of Drosophila data.

The Community Service Award recipients for 2026 were the REDFly Database Team and the FlyBase Developer team, for their roles in development of online repositories for the dissemination and analysis of Drosophila data.

The 2026 Drosophila Community Service Award was presented earlier this month at #DROS26.
This year's recipients were the REDFly Database Team and the FlyBase Developer Team, for their roles in the development of online repositories for the dissemination of Drosophila data.

1 month ago 14 8 1 0

The March Alliance webinar, 'Nomenclature in WormBase & FlyBase, presented by Tim Schedl and Steven Marygold, is now up on the Alliance YouTube channel youtu.be/rhjX0c_vC-s

1 month ago 3 2 0 0
FlyBase Funding Update – March 2026 The NHGRI funding for FlyBase has been restored for US-based FlyBase teams but the foreign subaward that supported the essential curation team at the University of Cambridge UK has been terminated. Therefore, the Cambridge UK team now requests annual contributions from fly labs to support curation of new data into FlyBase and the Alliance of Genome Resources. Without these annual contributions, FlyBase will become frozen in its current state and become progressively less useful. Please visit the ‘Contribute to FlyBase’ wiki page for details of how to contribute.

FlyBase Funding Update – March 2026 The NHGRI funding for FlyBase has been restored for US-based FlyBase teams but the foreign subaward that supported the essential curation team at the University of Cambridge UK has been terminated. Therefore, the Cambridge UK team now requests annual contributions from fly labs to support curation of new data into FlyBase and the Alliance of Genome Resources. Without these annual contributions, FlyBase will become frozen in its current state and become progressively less useful. Please visit the ‘Contribute to FlyBase’ wiki page for details of how to contribute.

FlyBase release FB2026_01 is live!

There is news about FlyBase funding. Go to the FlyBase homepage flybase.org for details.

1 month ago 32 21 1 1

With this war on Iran costing $1B per day, we are now at 4$B, an amount that would fund 3,200 five year NIH biomedical research grants.

1 month ago 227 91 7 10

New with FB2025_05: Archive data is back!

FlyBase is now participating in the Amazon Web Services Open Data Sponsorship Program. AWS sponsors the storage & data transfer costs for the FlyBase bulk data repository, allowing us to preserve & provide access to nearly two decades of archive releases.

4 months ago 11 8 2 0
FlyBase:Contribute to FlyBase - FlyBase Wiki

Dear UK #Drosophila @FlyBase Cambridge is now able to accept PO orders for support. So please get in touch with
wiki.flybase.org/wiki/FlyBase:Contribute_...

2 months ago 10 12 1 0

#DROS26 starts tomorrow! Sadly, most of FlyBase will not be there this year. Brian Calvi, our Indiana University PI, will be speaking on "FlyBase: Past, Present, and Future" during the Techniques and Technology workshop (Sat. 3/7 7:70-7:45, Room Sheraton/Chicago 4-7).

@briancalvi.bsky.social

1 month ago 6 3 0 2
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Getting Started with Claude Code - OBO Semantic Engineering Training

As part of the @monarchinitiative.bsky.social /OBO Academy series, we had @christabone.bsky.social give us a two part introduction to "Efficient Biocuration and Bioinformatics with Claude Code". Part 1 (video and hands-on material) is here: oboacademy.github.io/obook/tutori...

2 months ago 2 1 1 0
FlyBase Update – October 2025 The termination of the NIH/NHGRI FlyBase grant has placed the long-term sustainability of FlyBase at risk. However, thanks to the generous support of several key individuals and institutions, we are pleased to announce that FlyBase will remain operational through the coming year. We extend our deepest gratitude to Yukiko Yamashita, Cassandra Extavour, Hugo Bellen, Thom Kaufman, the Genetics Society of America / Drosophila Board, the Bloomington Drosophila Stock Center, an anonymous donor and the Wellcome Trust. We are especially thankful for a generous gift from Seemay Chou, Jed McCaleb, and The Navigation Fund. We also greatly appreciate the continued support from the broader Drosophila community – your donations and service fees have been vital in helping us stay afloat. Special thanks also go to Jessica Manning for her tireless administrative work at Harvard, to Ruth Lehmann, Hugo Bellen, and Paul Sternberg for advice and efforts, and to the Board of the European Drosophila Society for all their efforts. Sadly, we must also share that several long-standing FlyBase team members have recently moved on. We are immensely grateful to Susan Russo-Gelbart, Lynn Crosby, Gil dos Santos, Kris Broll, Victoria Jenkins, and TyAnna Lovato for their many years of dedicated service and contributions to FlyBase. Looking ahead, ensuring FlyBase’s sustainability beyond the next year – and successfully integrating with the Alliance – will require new funding sources. We kindly ask for your continued support: • European labs: Please consider contributing to the Cambridge, U.K. FlyBase group • U.S. and other non-European labs: Please consider contributing to the U.S. FlyBase groups • Both U.K. and U.S. FlyBase are working diligently to establish an invoicing system. We appreciate your continued patience. For more information on how to support us, please visit: Contribute to FlyBase wiki page https://wiki.flybase.org/wiki/FlyBase:Contribute_to_FlyBase

FlyBase Update – October 2025 The termination of the NIH/NHGRI FlyBase grant has placed the long-term sustainability of FlyBase at risk. However, thanks to the generous support of several key individuals and institutions, we are pleased to announce that FlyBase will remain operational through the coming year. We extend our deepest gratitude to Yukiko Yamashita, Cassandra Extavour, Hugo Bellen, Thom Kaufman, the Genetics Society of America / Drosophila Board, the Bloomington Drosophila Stock Center, an anonymous donor and the Wellcome Trust. We are especially thankful for a generous gift from Seemay Chou, Jed McCaleb, and The Navigation Fund. We also greatly appreciate the continued support from the broader Drosophila community – your donations and service fees have been vital in helping us stay afloat. Special thanks also go to Jessica Manning for her tireless administrative work at Harvard, to Ruth Lehmann, Hugo Bellen, and Paul Sternberg for advice and efforts, and to the Board of the European Drosophila Society for all their efforts. Sadly, we must also share that several long-standing FlyBase team members have recently moved on. We are immensely grateful to Susan Russo-Gelbart, Lynn Crosby, Gil dos Santos, Kris Broll, Victoria Jenkins, and TyAnna Lovato for their many years of dedicated service and contributions to FlyBase. Looking ahead, ensuring FlyBase’s sustainability beyond the next year – and successfully integrating with the Alliance – will require new funding sources. We kindly ask for your continued support: • European labs: Please consider contributing to the Cambridge, U.K. FlyBase group • U.S. and other non-European labs: Please consider contributing to the U.S. FlyBase groups • Both U.K. and U.S. FlyBase are working diligently to establish an invoicing system. We appreciate your continued patience. For more information on how to support us, please visit: Contribute to FlyBase wiki page https://wiki.flybase.org/wiki/FlyBase:Contribute_to_FlyBase

There's an update on the state of FlyBase on the FlyBase.org front page. You can contribute to FlyBase at this link wiki.flybase.org/wiki/FlyBase...
We express enormous gratitude to the people, labs, groups, and foundations who have already helped us.
#FlyBase #Drosophila

6 months ago 46 41 1 1
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Trump's Harvard cuts threaten a giant in biomedical research: A database about the tiny fruit fly This spring, the Trump administration rescinded a grant that maintained FlyBase, a pillar of global basic research, as part of its broader $2.2 billion funding cuts at Harvard.
7 months ago 0 0 0 0
Harvard Funding Cuts Endanger the Massive Fruit Fly Database That Powers Genetic Research | News | The Harvard Crimson FlyBase lost a multimillion dollar grant when the Trump administration cut off Harvard’s federal funding in May. Now the repository is laying off staff — and researchers worldwide are worried.

www.thecrimson.com/article/2025...
Harvard Funding Cuts Endanger the Massive Fruit Fly Database That Powers Genetic Research

7 months ago 19 25 0 0
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7 months ago 3 0 0 0
Judge Hands Victory to Harvard in Funding Lawsuit, Ruling Trump Administration’s Freeze Unconstitutional | News | The Harvard Crimson A federal judge ruled that the Trump administration violated the Constitution when it froze more than $2.7 billion in research funding to Harvard, striking down the freeze in its entirety and deliveri...

Possibly great news for FlyBase. Awaiting information from Harvard regarding the grant...

7 months ago 2 0 0 0
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Dear president@harvard.edu, dear gaudet@mcb.harvard.edu,
to learn more about the importance of #Drosophila and crucial role of @flybase.bsky.social, and how it gave rise to at least 9 Nobel laureates in Physiology and Medicine, please see this link:
droso4schools.wordpress.com/why-fly/

7 months ago 29 21 3 1

If you are a researcher whose lab uses FlyBase, consider a tax-deductible personal contribution. A lot of $100 contributions would help bridge the gap until we can set up a user fee system, and even $10 donations send the folks there the message we're behind them. Please share

7 months ago 59 47 2 1
Dear Fly Community, In May 2025, the NIH terminated all grant funding to Harvard University, including the NHGRI grant that supported FlyBase. This grant also funded FlyBase teams at Indiana University (IU) and the University of Cambridge (UK), and as a result, their subawards were also canceled. The Cambridge team has secured support for one to two years through generous donations from the European fly community, emergency funding from the Wellcome Trust, and support from the University of Cambridge. At IU, funding has been secured for one year thanks to reserve funds from Thom Kaufman and a supplement from ORIP/NIH to the Bloomington Drosophila Stock Center (BDSC). Unfortunately, the situation at Harvard is far more critical. Harvard University had supported FlyBase staff since May but recently denied a request for extended bridge funding. As a result, all eight employees (four full-time and four part-time) were abruptly laid off, with termination dates ranging from August to mid-October depending on their positions. In addition, our curator at the University of New Mexico will leave her position at the end of August. This decision came as a shock, and we are urgently pursuing all possible funding options. To put the need into perspective: although FlyBase is free to use, it is not free to make. It takes large teams of people and millions of dollars a year to create FlyBase to support fly research (the last NHGRI grant supported us with more than 2 million USD per annum). To help sustain FlyBase operations, we have been reaching out to you to ask for your support. We have set up a donation site in Cambridge, UK, to which European labs have and can continue to contribute, and a new donation site at IU to which labs in the US and the rest of the world can contribute. We urge researchers to work with their grant administrators to contribute to FlyBase via these sites if at all possible, as more of the money will go to FlyBase. However, we appreciate that some fu…

Dear Fly Community, In May 2025, the NIH terminated all grant funding to Harvard University, including the NHGRI grant that supported FlyBase. This grant also funded FlyBase teams at Indiana University (IU) and the University of Cambridge (UK), and as a result, their subawards were also canceled. The Cambridge team has secured support for one to two years through generous donations from the European fly community, emergency funding from the Wellcome Trust, and support from the University of Cambridge. At IU, funding has been secured for one year thanks to reserve funds from Thom Kaufman and a supplement from ORIP/NIH to the Bloomington Drosophila Stock Center (BDSC). Unfortunately, the situation at Harvard is far more critical. Harvard University had supported FlyBase staff since May but recently denied a request for extended bridge funding. As a result, all eight employees (four full-time and four part-time) were abruptly laid off, with termination dates ranging from August to mid-October depending on their positions. In addition, our curator at the University of New Mexico will leave her position at the end of August. This decision came as a shock, and we are urgently pursuing all possible funding options. To put the need into perspective: although FlyBase is free to use, it is not free to make. It takes large teams of people and millions of dollars a year to create FlyBase to support fly research (the last NHGRI grant supported us with more than 2 million USD per annum). To help sustain FlyBase operations, we have been reaching out to you to ask for your support. We have set up a donation site in Cambridge, UK, to which European labs have and can continue to contribute, and a new donation site at IU to which labs in the US and the rest of the world can contribute. We urge researchers to work with their grant administrators to contribute to FlyBase via these sites if at all possible, as more of the money will go to FlyBase. However, we appreciate that some fu…

https://wiki.flybase.org/wiki/FlyBase:Contribute_to_FlyBase Our immediate goals are: 1. To maintain core curation activities and keep the FlyBase website online 2. To complete integration with the Alliance of Genome Resources (The Alliance). Integration with the Alliance is essential for FlyBase’s long-term sustainability. For nearly a decade, NHGRI/NIH has supported the unification of Model Organism Databases (MODs) into the Alliance, which we aim to achieve by 2028. Therefore, securing bridge funding to sustain FlyBase over the next three years is crucial for successful integration and the long-term access to FlyBase data. At present, our remaining funds will allow us to keep the FlyBase website online for approximately one more year. Beyond that, its future is uncertain unless new funding is secured. We will, of course, continue pursuing additional grant opportunities as they arise. Given the uncertainty of future NIH or alternative funding sources, we are relying on the Fly community for support. Your contributions will directly help us retain the staff needed to complete this transition and to secure ongoing fly data curation into the Alliance beyond 2028. We at FlyBase are incredibly grateful for the outpouring of support from the community during this challenging time. Your encouragement has strengthened our resolve and underscores how vital this resource remains to Drosophila research worldwide. Sincerely, The FlyBase Team

https://wiki.flybase.org/wiki/FlyBase:Contribute_to_FlyBase Our immediate goals are: 1. To maintain core curation activities and keep the FlyBase website online 2. To complete integration with the Alliance of Genome Resources (The Alliance). Integration with the Alliance is essential for FlyBase’s long-term sustainability. For nearly a decade, NHGRI/NIH has supported the unification of Model Organism Databases (MODs) into the Alliance, which we aim to achieve by 2028. Therefore, securing bridge funding to sustain FlyBase over the next three years is crucial for successful integration and the long-term access to FlyBase data. At present, our remaining funds will allow us to keep the FlyBase website online for approximately one more year. Beyond that, its future is uncertain unless new funding is secured. We will, of course, continue pursuing additional grant opportunities as they arise. Given the uncertainty of future NIH or alternative funding sources, we are relying on the Fly community for support. Your contributions will directly help us retain the staff needed to complete this transition and to secure ongoing fly data curation into the Alliance beyond 2028. We at FlyBase are incredibly grateful for the outpouring of support from the community during this challenging time. Your encouragement has strengthened our resolve and underscores how vital this resource remains to Drosophila research worldwide. Sincerely, The FlyBase Team

The community of Drosophila researchers is amazing, mutually supportive and collaborative. Right now a key resource for our community, @flybase.bsky.social , is threatened by the cancellation of its NIH grant and is seeking community help in raising short term funds 1/n 🧪 please share

8 months ago 150 127 1 6

We have finally navigated the endless red tape and gotten the donation site to support the US FlyBase groups up and running.

bsky.app/profile/flyb...

8 months ago 19 25 1 0
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FlyBase:Contribute to FlyBase - FlyBase Wiki

FlyBase needs your help! We ask that European labs continue to contribute to Cambridge, UK FlyBase, whereas US and other non-European labs can contribute to US FlyBase. For more information and how to donate: wiki.flybase.org/wiki/FlyBase...

8 months ago 130 159 3 26

That's correct. We've been exhausting every possible avenue to get the funding site online but the red tape has been extensive, to say the least. We're still working on it daily, as much as possible.

8 months ago 8 0 2 0
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Harvard University lays off fly database team The layoffs jeopardize this resource, which has served more than 4,000 labs for about three decades.

News via The Transmitter www.thetransmitter.org/community/ha...

8 months ago 25 25 3 9

I just got the notice that all the FlyBase people at Harvard, including me, will be laid off on October 12. I'm devastated.

8 months ago 378 223 64 50
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Why a database of bug genes could be one of Trump’s most devastating cuts at Harvard FlyBase, the world's only fruit fly database, is in the crosshairs of Trump's attack on Harvard. Here's why it could matter for your health.

MassLive.com recently interviewed several Harvard FlyBase people and wrote this news article about the importance of FlyBase: tinyurl.com/4chpts9f

9 months ago 38 38 0 0

calling all fly folks, keep an eye out for new system coming soon, through which you can help support FlyBase in this time of dire need.

10 months ago 29 14 0 1
Orthology and Paralogy at the Alliance
Orthology and Paralogy at the Alliance YouTube video by Alliance Of Genome Resources

My recent webinar regarding orthology and paralogy at the Alliance of Genome Resources.

10 months ago 1 0 0 0
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FlyBase funding squashed amid Harvard grant terminations The team behind the Drosophila genetics database is now requesting donations from labs to keep the resource afloat.

After losing its federal funding, the FlyBase team is requesting donations from labs so it can migrate the resource to another site.

By @callimcflurry.bsky.social

www.thetransmitter.org/community/fl...

10 months ago 10 2 0 1

The Alliance webinar on Orthology and Paralogy at the Alliance is TOMORROW (June 12), noon EDT. Preregister by TONIGHT (June 11) by midnight EDT for the Zoom link forms.gle/GzMnmwK23SzP....

10 months ago 0 3 0 0
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FlyBase needs your help!

Because of recent changes to government funding, the NIH grant that supported FlyBase has been "terminated." flybase.org

10 months ago 19 23 0 0