CBIOMES team - Buck Samuel, Monica Driscoll, Shilpa Akella, Atiyya Soroyia, Siva Vanapalli, Ciara Hosea and Bushra Rhaman. Not pictured: Dana Blackburn. Collaboration between Baylor College of Medicine, Texas Tech and Rutgers University.

#Artemis is circling the Moon right now. And later this week, our team's experiment launches to the #ISS. Tiny worms. Defined gut microbiomes. Here's why the two are connected. 🧵
#WormsinSpace #CBIOMES #Celegans 🧪 🪱 🧬 🚀

1/n

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/...

An image of a petri plate with white fuzzy mold growing on it and googly eyes.

NGM plate contamination says "boo!" Happy Halloween from our C. elegans lab to yours 😱

bsky.app/profile/patr...

For those searching for info (like me), the reconciliation process used for the BBB cannot be used to address discretionary funding, like NIH & NSF. So those continue to operate under the continuing resolution until the next appropriations process, which will begin in July and end in September.

What is the level of funding for NIH and NSF in the current version of the budget bill?

Excited to share that I've been awarded a research grant from @pkdfoundation.bsky.social to advance our work on polycystin signaling via extracellular vesicles in C. elegans, with the goal of uncovering new mechanisms relevant to polycystic kidney disease. #cilia #extracellularvesicles

Group of PCTI high school juniors and researchers after a day in the lab. In the center is the HS teacher Dr. Deanna DeVore and her thesis advisor Maureen Barr. Students are holding two research posters of Dr. De Vore's thesis work.

Smiling Dr. De Vore in a microscope room, where she spent much time as a grad student. In the background is a scientist showing HS student an image on a computer screen

Five HS students focused on looking in dissecting microscopes at C. Elegans. Some are taking notes. The scientist teaching the unit is standing in the back.

Four HS students seeing and learning about neurons that are labeled by GFP in living C. elegans. The instructor is animated and using her hands to express excitement

The Barr Lab welcomed back PhD alum Dr. Deanna De Vore and her 40 juniors from Passaic County Technical-Vocational Schools.

IRACDA postdoc @katiejacobs.bsky.social led this all-hands-on-deck lab field day, which also included a Rutgers campus tour. These bright, young scholars are our future!

Great day with the BEST colleagues! I feel a need to clarify that the phone in one of the pics is to record a video of worm mating behavior through the oculars of the microscope!

Recently, we found out that our R01 funded through PAR-22-241 was withdrawn by NIAID as the NIH no longer prioritizes research programs related to DEI. This has been devastating news for our young research group, and we are now trying to scram together for a path forward 🧵1/12

Looking for EGFR shrna plasmid urgently if someone has it🙏 if you could please check your connections it would be great as well!

Thank you

🎼 Friday never hesitates!

Letter: Science matters in Maine! Trump's cuts will hurt Maine, and our health.

Writing a letter to the editor of your hometown newspaper about NIH/NSF funding is easier than you might think! As @barrlab.bsky.social said, JUST DO IT! Thanks for inspiration @sciencehomecoming.bsky.social !
www.centralmaine.com/2025/03/04/s...

Well-deserved!! Congratulations!

New preprint from Kade Power of the Barr Lab uncovering inter-organelle communication between cilia and mitochondria!
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...