I defended my PhD 10 years ago today. That was the least remarkable thing that happened that day. Sharing something I wrote about it last year. Since then "the horrors persist but so do we." And with dignity.
Congrats! Cool story!
1/ Hello Drosophila-philists and braino-maniacs! 👋🪰🧠🧪
The Caron lab has a new preprint, and it is about 🥁🥁🥁 democracy!
Neuro-democracy, to be precise. So: drop EVERYTHING and listen up — a 🧶!
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
But in general, the hsp70 gene was a convenient cloned source for promoters and terminators for making constructs back in the early 90s, and its possible that some the temp sensitive genetic components unwittingly were included in GAL4/UAS constructs.
It's also possible that the GAL4 protein, since it comes from yeast, is optimized in structure for yeast growth temperatures, which are closer to 32-34C. So the protein is 'happier' at higher temperatures. Given how strongly we express GAL4, I dont think we'd be able to see such effects.
GAL4/UAS constructs by Brand and Perrimon 1993
It's a great question! The most likely culprit is the use of the heatshock70 terminator in the design of the GAL4 enhancer trap construct and the hsp70 promoter in the UASt vector. Its possible some temp sensitive elements might still be present.
Figure 1 of Riabinina et al 2015
Gal4 itself is not temperature sensitive. We tested this in our paper (Riabinina, Nature Methods, 2015). Additional refs to this fact also in that paper.
That being said, many GAL4 lines are temp sensitive, which likely reflects the use of temperature sensitive components.
Probably just The Constitution.
Me three months ago:
Congrats!
Johns Hopkins Gets the Most Federal Money, but Now Much of It Is at Risk
"The university’s troubles show how a Republican campaign against higher education could decimate the nation’s research enterprise"
www.nytimes.com/2025/06/26/u...
FlyBase, a crucial resource for drosophila research, has lost its funding because its grant is awarded to Harvard. The team is scrambling to find other sources of funds, including donations from labs. Read more: www.thetransmitter.org/community/fl... @flybase.bsky.social
"Under the terms of the executive order, political appointees loyal to the president can willfully find justification to label any research finding as scientific misconduct"
This should terrify every single scientist in America.
Our experiences over the past 3 years suggest it may be valuable to understand these attacks on science as extensions of the Big Lie (of election fraud), Covid denialism, & Jim Crow 2.0 — part of a collective effort to bend reality, science & values to align with the central fantasies of Trumpism.
Could be huge. Especially for those terminated in the anti-DEI purge.
"...NIH will allow individuals whose mentored career development awards prematurely ended on or after January 1, 2025, to be eligible to apply for a new mentored career development award"
grants.nih.gov/grants/guide...
Congrats Silke!
This is fantastic!
Maps are everywhere in the brain...and finally we've discovered one in the nose! Led by @davidhbrann.bsky.social, we uncovered the logic that specifies the positions of each of the 1,000 sensory neuron subtypes in the nose and aligns their projections to the brain.👇👃see more details below👃👇
Interested in a PhD connecting sensory ecology and evolutionary genetics? Applications are now open for a project on the Speciation Genomics of Eye Size Variation in Heliconius Butterflies in our lab at LMU Munich: www.evol.bio.lmu.de/research/mer... Please repost!
Great job! Your parents must have been so proud!
I really hope you get your R01 grant funding. The research sounds fascinating and important.
Gave a talk at my parents’ retirement community to describe how science is done, and what is at stake. There was a ton of interest, and anyone can do this. Get the word out about how science affects everyone. I’m happy to share slides with anyone who asks- just get in touch! youtu.be/BY_SFgi-Cig
"WE'VE ARRANGED A society based on science and technology, in which nobody understands anything about science technology. And this combustible mixture of ignorance and power, sooner or later, is going to blow up in our faces. Who is running the science and technology in a democracy if the people don't know anything about it?" "Science is more than a body of knowledge, it's a way of thinking. A way of skeptically interrogating the universe with a fine understanding of human fallibility. If we are not able to ask skeptical questions, to interrogate those who tell us that something is true, to be skeptical of those in authority, then we're up for grabs for the next charlatan, political or religious, who comes ambling along."
I think a lot about what Carl Sagan said in one of his final interviews.
🧪 Though a doubling of NSF's budget might seem far-fetched, that's exactly what Congress said what's needed to maintain national competitiveness in science & tech.
From the bipartisan CHIPS and Science Act of 2022:
Proposed new term for members of the Trump administration committing and supporting this behavior
CICADAS
Cowardly Information, Content, And Data Analysis Suppressors
Puppets…
The Human Genome Project cost taxpayers $3 Billion.
Two decades on, it has generated a staggering return on investment of $1 Trillion, with benefits in medicine, agriculture, energy, the environment, & more.
If you want to boost the economy, funding science is one of the best things you could do.
Time to catch up on the past week’s news about science and medicine in the US. Whew. 1/10
