Excited for #DynamicCellVI @bscb-official.bsky.social @biochemsoc.bsky.social

ERC changes hurting a lot of good scientists. Wonder what they expected...

Genius point.
If you only have enough funding for 45 grants why not only allow the first 50 people who fill the form to apply? Instant 90% funding rate. Easier decisions, too.

Trouble is we're not only risk averse, but also fashion slaves. ERC grants, like others', favor the most currently modish tech, excluding equal numbers of applicants using other important approaches.

So the 3-year gap sends a strong message - only apply if you just bought a big expensive machine.

Yes; I got about 20% late last year (which seemed harsh, but committees and scientists oft disagree); but as a result I seem to be banned from applying till 2028, so unfundable till late 2029 now, which seems extraordinary.

Applied retrospectively, too.

Applying for an ERC grant in the 2027 competitions: what you need to know The ERC plans to launch the grant competitions under its 2027 Work Programme between July 2026 and June 2027, with the calls for proposals introducing several changes to the eligibility rules for appl...

I don’t know if you saw the MASSIVE news announced by @erc.europa.eu today: from now on, if you get a B at step 1 you are eligible to apply at N+3(!!!) years. Say you got a B in STG2026 step 1, you thought you could apply in STG2028, but no: only in STG2029! erc.europa.eu/news-events/...

Proverbs 14:31

“He that oppresseth the poor reproacheth his Maker: but he that honoureth him hath mercy on the poor.”

I am also sorry to report that Vance also oppresseth both that burger and his clothes.

Your conclusion is very accurate.

But "many are feeling that the investment has simply lined the pockets of the commercial publishing industry"? It obviously has. Many feel it has directly caused publishers' behaviour to become strikingly more wicked.

Perhaps "simply" is doing a lot of work.

mind you, you never know, a violent blow to the head might sort you out a bit. Like Getafix...

(even the white beard fits)

Oooooh sorry to hear it and glad you're mostly OK.

And concur with your message about helmets...

The Biochemical Society 2027 Centenary Award presented to Professor Matthew Freeman from University of Oxford, UK.

A leader in the cell biology of signalling, the 2027 Centenary Award is presented to Matthew Freeman in recognition of his pioneering discoveries into the biological significance and mechanisms of rhomboid intramembrane proteases and pseudoprotease and unwavering commitment to mentorship!

One of the fantastic things about Biorvxiv is it doesn't have artificial scarcity synthetically cooked in (right @richardsever.bsky.social?). But bijou journals emphatically do.

Always surprises me how rarely that point is raised in discussions of scientists' behaviour and collaboration.

In a system where one person succeeding (at anything) takes away the opportunity from many others, of course people will look at others' success as their failure.

yeah, well, we have collectively set up a system with 6% payoffs for funding and hundreds of applicants for every job.

So failure as a dominant mode is cooked irrevocably into the system.

good work

Science is good. We should fund it.

Left: Time-lapse images of cells subjected to (top) 0–10 nM C5a with cell tracks, (bottom) 0–10 nM C5a in the presence of 10 μM PMX-53 (inhibitor), Right: Spider plots for 0–10 nM C5a (top), and 0–10 nM C5a in the presence of 10 μM PMX-53 (bottom).

#Macrophages don't simply follow cues to locate sites of infection. @robinsall.bsky.social &co show that they extract directional information from their environment from a constant concentration of C5a #chemoattractant, self-generate a gradient & enhance guidance @plosbiology.org 🧪 plos.io/4txkZez

there was a big arguuemt about the shape of gradients a while ago. Conclusion was that exponential gradients were easier to read, but G-protein couple receptors (only) are able to read linear ones.
Our conclusion - they refine the gradients into exponential profiles. Then they read them.

Another interesting observation - we often talk about "self-generated gradients" as if it was purely the cells. But if you give macrophages an external C5a gradient - they still break down the C5a, but now they refine the gradient rather than creating it.
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Mouse macrophages don't express CPM. Go figure. It blindsided us for a while...
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More surprising still -
Human and mouse macrophages use different mechanisms to remove C5a and create gradients.
Human ones have an enzyme (carboxypeptidase M, where M sometimes stands for "macrophage") that essentially inactivates C5a.
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What *is* surprising is how good it is - don't think anyone ever saw more accurate, direct macrophage chemotaxis. The movies are remarkable.

The device on the left has no initial gradient, just homogeneous C5a throughout. The macrophages create the gradient themselves, while they go.

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First. Macrophages chemotax amazingly well to C5a. Even (especially?) if the C5a is the same concentration everywhere, as long as the macrophages are coming from a single direction.

Shouldn't surprise anyone who's been following the field.

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Macrophages self-generate and refine chemotactic gradients during migration towards complement C5a Macrophages don’t just follow chemoattractants to locate sites of infection, they can also create and sculpt them as guidance cues but the mechanisms remain unclear. This study shows that macrophages ...

New paper! Self-generated gradients in macrophage chemotaxis. Just published, by the esteemed Abhi Kiran and many collaborators.
A short skytorial follows.

journals.plos.org/plosbiology/...

Not this one for me, I think. Going to two others this year. Looks good though.

mememememe

Yes, well said, and quite right.

The thing I constantly find baffling is that society, universities, governments etc expect scientists to behave in a way that contradicts the incentives, and get all huffy when we don't.

Heck, even scientists expect other scientists not to follow their incentives.

The CiM-IMPRS PhD program in #Münster is offering 16 #PhD positions in Life and Natural Sciences! Perform cutting-edge resesearch in a vibrant international setting and lively city! Apply by May 1st, 2026 - see www.uni-muenster.de/CiM-IMPRS/ap...
@uni-muenster.de
@mpi-muenster.bsky.social