useful new publication: "The HGL curriculum is one such way for scientists in academic positions to improve understandings of human genetics research for a student audience." 🧪
link.springer.com/article/10.1...
We should all do our part to join Brian in ending genetics essentialism. I give a lecture at Pitt to the new PhD students entitled "There is no such thing as wild-type."
I blogged about this years ago and it's part of my teaching statement.
Long road, team effort✊🏻
micropopbio.org/blog/2018-07...
A star scientist showed that better genetics lessons could reduce racism. It was the death knell for his career
The loss of Brian Donovan’s grants and job speak volumes about federal funding priorities — and academia
www.statnews.com/2026/04/07/b...
Great to see this out. Practical guidance on how to use protein depletion systems in C. elegans
🪱🧬Calling all worm-friends to join us in Madison this summer!! 🧬🪱
Even better, it's a special two-fer meeting, with MAPSS and DevCell sessions featured. Abstracts for talk consideration are due next Fri Apr 3.
Have you ever applied to an NSF grant? Then do this.
But my uni hasn't said anything re: a funding statement for the impacts on research funding (let alone the prohibition on new grad students and all the other stuff), so I'm
considering whether I should turn my covid statement into a joint everything-is-bad-in-2020-and-also-now statement
I started collecting data points back in 2020 for my covid statement (which my uni will let me submit along with my narrative), so when everything started happening last year re: funding at the NSF/NIH, I also started collecting graphs & snippets.
Current NIH leadership want you to think they are using rigorous, consistent & scientific processes to screen studies to align them with agency priorities.
But the process that they have put down on paper is a sham.
It’s important to know NIH is not following its own guidance. Here’s why:
🧵1/
Congrats to our 2026 GSA Award recipients! They have made significant contributions to science, including scientific discoveries, mentoring, creation of community resources, and education. Learn more about them: buff.ly/6zAwQQ1
Join us in celebrating their accomplishments.👏
1/3🧵⬇️
🪱Worm-friends! Join us this summer in Madison for the C. elegans topic meeting(s) - MAPSS *and* DevCell 🪱
Early birds get the you-know-what, and the early registration deadline is THIS FRI: conferences.union.wisc.edu/ceaging/
It's buy-one-get-one, and who out there doesn't love a deal?? 🙌
North Carolina lawmakers have voted to remove all college campus voting sites. Specifically at the largest HBCU in the US NC A&T. They now have to walk 30 minutes to their nearest polling place. Students are protesting this - pls share and support.
www.tiktok.com/t/ZThx29BJ9/
we all OBVIOUSLY started grad school as toddlers since none of us look a day over 25 💁♀️
We knew we made a great team after TA-ing dev bio together, which is why we're working (along with fellow Berkeley-alum Mansi Srivastava) to plan a great meeting for y'all at #NESDB2026!
*** May 1-3 at the MBL - registration opens soon! ***
Last week, I hosted John Young for our departmental seminar & we heard about his evo-devo approach to understanding bird and amphibian limb development!🦤🐥🐸
We were in the same PhD cohort at Berkeley (we realized that it was nigh on 20 yrs ago😶) & I love catching up with his lab each year at NESDB.
🥳 Congrats on a beautiful story!
Just another shoutout for Deepshi's paper, hot off the presses at #GENETICS!
Just *look* at that beautiful epistasis data... 😍 May all of our future results be so clear to interpret 🤗
It's also a dream come true to publish alongside my science heroes with @genetics-gsa.bsky.social - the process was truly as fast, humane, and constructive as advertised. Send them your genetics & genomics work!
This story is extra special, due to the collab with the Checchi lab at Marist College. I first met Paula at a Meiosis GRC, where we commiserated about counting meiotic RAD-51. Little did I know where that would lead 14 yrs later (& that we'd still be doing the same expt in Fig 3 😅). NETWORK, y'all!
This story highlights the complex interplay of how chromatin structure protects fertility and genome integrity. Even better, it features the work of seniors Kelin & Thiago (applying to PhD programs as we speak) and tech-extraordinaire Scott (currently in his PhD at Minnesota).
🎉 LEE LAB PAPER ANNOUNCEMENT for this month's issue of #GENETICS! We're celebrating from both coasts, bc after defending her MS in 2024, Deepshi's now a biotech researcher in the Bay Area.
tl;dr: nucleosome remodeling is necessary to repair germline DNA damage 🧬
academic.oup.com/genetics/art...
Been hearing some horrifying chatter about dealing with the new #NIH common form and #ScienCV system, so I put together a short video with some tricks for mitigating some of those pain points.
Hope it helps? 🧪
open.substack.com/pub/emptymod...
Title: An argument for not ignoring eugenics in our genetics curriculum
Dr. Mark Peifer (@peiferlabunc.bsky.social)argues that understanding the history of eugenics is critical for up-and-coming geneticists and should be included in college curriculums. www.cell.com/news-do/pr-e...
@cp-trendsgenetics.bsky.social
a highlight of my time in berkeley was seeing him around town, but the best sighting was when he crossed in front of the movie theatre playing 'inequality for all' 🤩
Late job posting: My department is hiring a tenure-track faculty member in microbiology! Please share with anyone interested in working at a PUI. We have a preference for someone who can teach Medical Microbiology, but other than that the focus is open-ended. Happy to answer qs.
Y'all, I just got out of the NSF-BIO webinar where they explained changes to peer review. It's not good. 🧪 scienceforeveryone.science/changes-to-n...
Live thread of the NSF biology virtual office hour:
🧵
📽️Please allow us to present our latest Lee lab production: Holding lab equipment like men hold their fish 🪝🐟
Is it just us, or do y'all also get unreasonably attached to your favorite tools of the trade??
(all credit to @kcs-umasslowell.bsky.social for giving us this idea for a REEL good time🎣)
A good time for a reminder that the BIO Directorate will hold a Virtual Office Hour on Thursday www.nsf.gov/events/nsf-b...
And that's a wrap on another fun semester of Advanced Genetic Analysis! 🧬 This year, one of the big hits was our mini-debates about topics like genetic testing or human embryonic gene editing (where students wore the hats of various pro/con stakeholders for a congressional subcommittee mtg) 🤓
