I think about this constantly, considering that neither my baby nor I have been healthy for more than two days at a time since mid November. It takes a toll, for sure, and we can only hope there is some payoff later.
Insect Infection, Immunity & Microbionts @royentsoc.bsky.social meeting at Milner Centre in Bath 16-17th April www.royensoc.co.uk/event/infect... with @annttate.bsky.social as keynote speaker. Should be fun!
Poor authors, do they really think big insights come from big words?
Pleiotropy increases with gene age in six model multicellular eukaryotes
doi.org/10.1093/evle...
Now in @evolletters.bsky.social by Reese Martin and Ann T Tate
Now published as version of record at @elife.bsky.social !
Layers of Immunity: Deconstructing the Drosophila effector response. The tools are now deposited in the VDRC (link ⬇️)
elifesciences.org/articles/107...
shop.vbc.ac.at/vdrc_store/d...
#Drosophila #IDsky #SymbioSky #Infection #Immunology
An advertisement for the project Cryptc consequences of a selfish X chromosome. It shows chromosome mapping indicating many inversions, flies with eye colour phenotypes (wild-type brighter than selfish X), and sections of testes that show ordered (wild-type) or deformed structure (selfish X).
We have a funded NERC PhD studentship!
Selfish X chromosomes are these bizarre things where males carrying the selfish X suffer from imploding testes. Lots to do in this space, especially in evolutionary, stress, and infection biology.
Please share!
#PhDchat #AcademicSky @uniexecec.bsky.social
Congratulations Arun!!
Looks great - can't wait to read it!
Scale highlighting trade-offs between larval and adult beetles in response to infection
A teaser of panels illustrating potential approaches to studying stage-structured immune systems, including transcriptomics, experimental evolution, and experiments in wild-derived populations
Pls RT: We are recruiting a postdoc (and potentially an RA or staff scientist) to work on the evolution of stage-structured immune systems! Experimental evolution, natural variation in immunity, and/or evo genomics in flour beetles (Tribolium). See ad here: my.vanderbilt.edu/tatelab/join...
Not sure how many scientists here have tried Claude Code or similar command line coding assistants. I had a complicated family property tax problem that was best solved by a brute force Monte Carlo simulation approach, so I spent a few days coding up and analyzing a model with Claude Code.
Ever wonder whether older genes contribute to more processes than younger ones, or whether gene duplication might break up pleiotropy over evolutionary time? Does it matter if we're talking about dev. vs. immune genes? Check out our new paper, headed by postdoc Reese Martin: doi.org/10.1093/evle...
A very cool technology that allows students to interact with John Maynard Keynes’ ideas as he develops them is called a book
Sometimes authors summarize their responses to 3-6 major points raised by the reviewers in their resub cover letters or at the top of their rebuttal letters. This is so super helpful to editors, because it brings us right up to speed after not having read the paper/reviews for months. THANKS!!
Get the word out far and wide. New opportunity from the Simons Foundation in the Eco-Evo space.
2026 Simons Graduate Fellowship in Ecology and Evolution Awards, due July 31, 2025, only for incoming PhD students who plan to start their PhDs in Fall 2026.
www.simonsfoundation.org/grant/simons...
If you use AI to write/assist your manuscript reviews, please know that whatever time it saves on your end may well be spent manifold by the authors trying to sort legitimate human criticism from AI nonsense, emailing the journal office about their AI policy and asking for guidance, etc.
Asgari & @annttate.bsky.social uncover the evolutionary forces shaping the multilayered regulation of signaling pathways by negative feedback loops.
🔗 doi.org/10.1093/molbev/msaf104
#evobio #molbio #regulation
THIS IS HUGE! TWO Phase I HIV vaccine clinical trials have demonstrated that a stepwise mRNA-based vaccination strategy can SUCCESSFULLY activate AND advance immune responses toward producing broadly neutralizing antibodies (bnAbs), a CRITICAL milestone in HIV prevention. Let’s talk about that! 🧪🧵⬇️
"For me, the answer now lies in refusal, the withdrawal of participation from systems that require dishonesty as the price of belonging."
Today I am resigning from the National Science Board and the Library of Congress Scholars Council.
I wrote about my decision in TIME.
time.com/7285045/resi...
Ever wondered why your favorite immune signaling pathway is regulated by a simple (or complex) set of feedback loops, and how they might have gotten there? Check out our new paper on the evolution of signaling network topology in MBE, headed by postdoc Danial Asgari: doi.org/10.1093/molb...
Flyer: Text reads: Using Evidence and Practical Applications to Overcome Misconceptions About Evolution, Nashville, July 11, 2025 at Vanderbilt. A Scopes Anniversary Workshop on Evolution for teachers. Includes $50 stipend. Imagery is old chalkboard with photo cut-out of John Scopes. The text is drawn in chalk.
Teachers, we've partnered with Evolutionary Studies at Vanderbilt (@evolutionvu.bsky.social) to offer a workshop on evolution in celebration of the Scopes Trial 100th Anniversary. Please join us in Nashville on July 11! forms.gle/wECR4X2q5KCQ... #ScopesSymposium #iteachbio #EduSky #edchat
It's even more ominous if you already have an account at that journal (e.g. different email address). Because then, no matter what, you are on the hook to do something, if only to ask to merge accounts
Just figured out where these fake tariff rates come from. They didn't actually calculate tariff rates + non-tariff barriers, as they say they did. Instead, for every country, they just took our trade deficit with that country and divided it by the country's exports to us. So we have a $17.9 billion trade deficit with Indonesia. Its exports to us are $28 billion. $17.9/$28 = 64%, which Trump claims is the tariff rate Indonesia charges us. What extraordinary nonsense this is.
james surowiecki has discovered where the completely fabricated trump tariff rate has come from for each country
"...for every country, they just took our trade deficit with that country and divided it by the country's exports to us."
This is excellent; a very clear explanation of what’s at stake at Columbia.
I asked my PO about an NCE yesterday and he responded quickly, so I don't think there is a gag order or anything. Not sure how much info they are allowed to volunteer though.
Sorry, Will. My R35 renewal is in the same boat. I've got some unrestricted funds to hold out a bit longer, but worried the university will freeze them or claw them back. Do you know if POs can issue bridge funding in this kind of situation? I haven't seen discussion about that.
Attention scientists! Wondering what else can you can do to advocate for research funding?
Let's all submit Programmatic Requests to Members of Congress next month, and flood the zone in a show of public support for #NIH and #NSF! !
#SciComm #Science #Medicine #MedSky 🧬🔬🧪
Details below⤵️ 🧵
1/n
This is a venn diagram showing how 69 Trump actions map onto domains covering: undermining democratic institutions; suppressing dissent and media; dismantling social protections; attacking science and education; destabilising the global order. A table version is available here https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1LZN7QnbSyFfUZJG8Sn1MWpK0VnfBtb0OSyZ1jxP3xBk/edit?usp=sharing
🧵"So this is how liberty dies..."
Trump’s first 3 weeks have been a relentless flood of actions. It's incredibly hard to keep up.
I’ve gone through 69 actions & mapped out the pattern - showing how they fall within 5 broad domains consistent with authoritarian states 1/9
This is the end of science as we know it if it stands—15% IDCs for all NIH Grants.
grants.nih.gov/grants/guide...
I usually reserve this account for my personal views; but today I want to represent my position as President of @asn-amnat.bsky.social to post a message that will shortly go out to the membership of the American Society of Naturalists from the ASN Executive Council
