Thanks! I emailed @dparichy.bsky.social last week and am waiting to hear back. 🤞

@zebrafishrock.bsky.social I’m looking for a lab-raised pathogen free source for a zebrafish Danio Rerio sibling species like kyathit or aesculapii. Could you please broadcast?

i firmly believe that kennedy wants preventable diseases to rip through american communities since, in his warped mind, those who survive without vaccines will have proven themselves “healthy.”

An mRNA treatment for PANCREATIC CANCER was in trials, among many other uses. Choosing to end this research is choosing to sentence millions to an early, painful death

Very interesting new preprint from Patrick Murphy's group @pjmurphy249.bsky.social, finding that intergenic Pol II binding before zygotic genome activation is connected to repetitive element transcription.

www.researchsquare.com/article/rs-9...

So proud of Dr. Duy Nguyen and his successful thesis defense!! Congrats Duy!

From Placeholder Nucleosomes to Zygotic Genome Activation (Patrick Murphy) Podcast Episode · Epigenetics Podcast · February 26 · 39m

Today’s guest: Patrick Murphy podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/e...

I always say… “the data’s the data’s the data…” you can only interpret it and can’t change it.

The 3 hardest things to learn as a scientist:
1. Trust the data.. especially when it’s not what you expected,
2. Trust the data.. allowing it to change your direction,
3. Trust the data.. but not too much: test with new data at every turn.

Researchers working on model organisms don’t do it for funzies. It’s because the questions they ask are important and can’t be solved using mouse, or human cell culture systems. Notice: This message is especially intended for journal editors.

This water fountain distributes polycomb

When postdocs and grad students move on, I don’t worry about “losing” projects. If a postdoc wants to extend their work beyond my lab, my answer is yes. They should take their momentum with them. I have plenty of ideas, and there will always be more questions to ask.

I cannot emphasize this enough, if you're cold-emailing me applying to my lab I would so much rather get the bulleted broken list of genuine interests than whatever letter ChatGPT spits out in its stead

If you're training with me, I'm working with you not an LLM. I want to see who you are!

Great advice received as a postdoc: Do the easiest thing.

I was 3 years into my postdoc and juggling projects w/nothing concrete = career crisis

I went to my advisor Paul Sternberg for help. He asked what was going on & what mutant had the strongest phenotype.

"Clone the easiest one."

It worked.

Fire Ring Danio

Chromosome length is not the sole determinant of sexually dimorphic crossover rates during mammalian meiosis: Insights from genetically diverse mouse strains Meiotic recombination generates crossovers (COs), reciprocal exchanges between homologous chromosomes critical for accurate chromosome segregation. Inappropriate CO frequency and distribution drive an...

So excited to finally share my recent work on sex differences in crossing over using mice from diverse genetic backgrounds!
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...

Absolutely thrilled to share the latest work from my lab focused on the variation and evolution of human centromeres among global populations! We assembled 2,110 human centromeres, identifying 226 new major haplotypes and 1,870 α-satellite HOR variants. www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...

Maybe I should teach this and an alternative “modern” perhaps even “Gen Z” definition of epigenetics next semester.

A tiny trial in New York has shown that personalized mRNA vaccines can provoke massive, lasting immune responses against pancreatic cancer, even as sweeping federal cuts now threaten the fragile labs required to produce them.
theintellectualistofficial.substack.com/p/a-breakthr...

Cowards

Considering a postdoc? Read this first Looking for your first postdoctoral position can be confusing but being proactive, and focusing on your research interests and career goals can help. This useful post from a recent postdoctoral fellow...

I still receive email inquires about postdoc jobs in my lab, with generic cover letters from applicants who don’t seem to be genuinely interested in our research… please save everyone time and read this article before emailing PIs:

network.febs.org/posts/consid...

Any recommendations on getting a journal editor to respond to an email? Desk rejection is taking longer than peer review these days, and I don’t seem to get any response emails back from editors.

Feed-forward loops by NR5A2 ensure robust gene activation during pre-implantation development Pioneer transcription factors are crucial for regulating zygotic genome activation and cell differentiation during mouse pre-implantation development. However, how pioneer factors function collectivel...

Excited to announce that our peer-reviewed manuscript is online in the Development journal @dev-journal.bsky.social. The manuscript was much improved through the peer-review process, and I am grateful to the reviewers for their valuable feedback.

journals.biologists.com/dev/article/...

I get so much joy and fulfillment from teaching students about something so dear to my heart. Uber rewarding

After my first semester teaching Genetics to 250+ Cornell undergrads, I’m surprised to find that the classroom has become my happy/safe space…

Genome Biology and Evolution | December 2025 cover

The December cover of Genome Biology and Evolution features Rojas-Triana et al., who publish a Review on the adaptive potential of extrachromosomal circular DNA across taxa.

🔗 doi.org/10.1093/gbe/evaf223

#genome #evolution

Methods in Molecular Biology For over 35 years, biological scientists have come to rely on the research protocols and methodologies in the critically acclaimed Methods in Molecular ...

link.springer.com/series/7651

Pls Repost: I am putting together an edition of “Methods in Molecular Biology” focused on early development, encompassing gastrulation. I am making a list of potential authors for chapters. If interested, please contact me - An excellent opportunity for trainees to co-author with their advisors.

New tech can unlock mysteries of genome’s hidden half | Cornell Chronicle Cornell researchers have found that a new DNA sequencing technology can be used to study how transposons move within and bind to the genome.

Check it out: New tech can unlock mysteries of genome’s hidden half news.cornell.edu/stories/2025...