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Barbara Mellone 🇺🇦

@centromellone.bsky.social
2.3K followers 1.6K following 128 posts

Studying genome transmission, repetitive DNA, centromeres & transposable elements | She/Her | 🇮🇹 expat in the 🇺🇸 | Wannabe 🐎 rider | She/her | Posts and likes=mine

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Reposted by Barbara Mellone 🇺🇦
Mark Peifer (He, him) @peiferlabunc.bsky.social · 28/09/2026
Are you looking for a postdoc exploring the cell biology of development, defining how cells change shape and move? Do you want to develop a research program & teaching skills preparing you for a position at a college or small University? Our new NIH grant will support those goals 1/n Please share
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Reposted by Barbara Mellone 🇺🇦
Princess Vimentin PhD | Cancer Biologist @princess-vimentin.bsky.social · 26/09/2026
I agree with some points, not all. 1. America's world leadership is slipping due to the continued assaults on science. 2. Meanwhile. China ramps up its R&D spending. Now, Beijing accounts for 1/3rd of the world's clinical-stage drugs. 3. The NIH budget should be increased.🧵 🧪 archive.today/DtX6y
washingtonpost.com
Opinion | I’m a Republican senator. America needs more science, not less.
America should invest in NIH medical research, not retreat from it.
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Reposted by Barbara Mellone 🇺🇦
Maya Voichek @mayavoichek.bsky.social · 24/09/2026
Super excited to share my postdoctoral work at @imbavienna.bsky.social @viennabiocenter.bsky.social - We discovered that some retrotransposons, or "jumping genes" 🧬, are able to spread from cell to cell via a new viral infectivity route. A short thread: 🧵👇 (1/7)
AI-generated illustration of the soma-to-germline transmission of retrotransposons described in our work
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Barbara Mellone 🇺🇦 @centromellone.bsky.social · 26/09/2026
I think Pabu is a pretty cute name
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Reposted by Barbara Mellone 🇺🇦
BWJones @bwjones.bsky.social · 25/09/2026
Science peeps: Looks like SciENcv updated the digital certificate used to sign Biosketch and Current & Pending documents without notification. The old certificate expires Saturday, September 26, 2026. SciENcv docs before that date may fail validation in eRA Commons delaying or blocking submission.
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Reposted by Barbara Mellone 🇺🇦
Vaughn Cooper @vscooper.micropopbio.org · 25/09/2026
FYI to everyone submitting this October NIH cycle You need to re-certify your ScienCV AFTER Sept 26 (tomorrow) for your application or it may not be accepted. Great timing!
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Reposted by Barbara Mellone 🇺🇦
NPR @npr.org · 24/09/2026
Stories of science funding being cut, labs shutting down and scientists losing jobs have flooded the media under Trump's administration. These six graphics show how those changes have affected U.S. biomedical research. n.pr/4ycseLJ
n.pr
Under Trump, NIH funding disruptions have evolved. Here's what the numbers show
Stories of science funding being cut, labs shutting down and scientists losing jobs have flooded the media under Trump's administration. These six graphics show how those changes have affected U.S. biomedical research.
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Rich Meisel @richmeisel.bsky.social · 24/09/2026
We're hiring an Assistant or Associate Professor in Evolutionary Biology in my department at the university of Houston @uh-ecoevo.bsky.social Come be my colleague careers.uh.edu/jobs/assista...
careers.uh.edu
Assistant or Associate Professor - Evolutionary Biology - Houston, Texas, United States
Department: Biology and Biochemistry Salary: Commensurate with experience Description: The Department of Biology and Biochemistry at the University of Houston seeks to hire an evolutionary biolog...
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Reposted by Barbara Mellone 🇺🇦
Stand Up for Science! @standupforscience.net · 17/09/2026
Everybody keeps talking about how natural treatments and cures should be utilized, well here's exactly that. A cancer treatment that harnesses the power of your immune system to take down cancer cells. It only took four decades to make, thanks to reliable funding of science and research.
The graphic contains a photo of an IV bag and all graphics contain the white Stand Up for Science logo. The graphic reads: "Harnessing the Immune System to Treat Cancer. A series on how cancer treatments are discovered and developed."
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Reposted by Barbara Mellone 🇺🇦
André Marques @amarques.bsky.social · 16/09/2026
Out today in Nature: sex without crossovers. Rhynchospora tenuis makes pollen, fertilises and sets seed, yet 0 crossovers in 10,997 pollen nuclei. Chromosome drive and ~87% seed abortion rebuild the mother's genotype, so the offspring are clones. doi.org/10.1038/s415...
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Kazuhiro Maeshima @kazu-maeshima.bsky.social · 08/09/2026
Is euchromatin really “open”? 🧬 Using super-resolution imaging🔬 our new study @natgenet.nature.com reveals: Euchromatin forms condensed domains in live cells. Cohesin constrains them and prevents domain mixing for proper transcriptional insulation🚧 🔗 www.nature.com/articles/s41... (1/2)
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Shiori Iida @shiori-iida.bsky.social · 08/09/2026
Happy to share that this paper is now published in Nature Genetics! Grateful to everyone who supported this work throughout this long journey. I’m proud to see it out! www.nature.com/articles/s41...
nature.com
Cohesin prevents local mixing of condensed euchromatic domains in living human cells - Nature Genetics
Single-nucleosome imaging/tracking and super-resolution three-dimensional structured illumination microscopy within euchromatic regions show that cohesin-mediated loops constrain condensed euchromatic...
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Laura Ross @laurarossevo.bsky.social · 10/09/2026
My lab @ Edinburgh university is recruiting a postdoc to work on the weird and wonderful germline-specific chromosomes of flies. elxw.fa.em3.oraclecloud.com/hcmUI/Candid... collaboration with @germline.bsky.social and yukiko yamashita funded by @novonordisk.bsky.social please repost!
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Peiwei Chen @peiwei-chen.bsky.social · 17/07/2026
How do transposons jump when they’re released from host control? I babysat two chromosomes for 2 years, making sure they are ok without most piRNAs. Here’s what we found & excited to share my 1st postdoc paper: “piRNA loss unleashes episodic transposition bursts” www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...
biorxiv.org
piRNA loss unleashes episodic transposition bursts
In Metazoa, transposon expression is suppressed by the piRNA pathway, and disruption of this pathway leads to rampant transposon expression. However, it remains unclear whether increased transposon ex...
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Reposted by Barbara Mellone 🇺🇦
Peter Andersen @germline.bsky.social · 08/09/2026
We are recruiting a PhD student 🥼🙋 Topic: how germ cells bend gene expression dogmas Fly genetics + proteomics + genomics. Fully funded. Aarhus University 🇩🇰 info on the project and how to apply👇 mbg.au.dk/en/peter-and... I'd really appreciate it if you'd help spread the word. Thanks
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Reposted by Barbara Mellone 🇺🇦
Abby Dernburg @adernburg.bsky.social · 07/09/2026
Biomedical scientists - a reminder that NIH proposes to "improve" peer review by hiding impact scores from Program Officers and applicants, and binning applications into broad categories of "Most competitive,""Competitive," or "Not discussed." Please provide feedback before the October 13 deadline!
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FocalPlane @focalplane.bsky.social · 03/09/2026
We are excited to invite you to the second webinar in our cell migration series. In this webinar, we focus on new models for studying cell migration with talks from @ankita13jha.bsky.social, @raphclement.bsky.social & @katrinavelle.bsky.social. More info⤵️: focalplane.biologists.com/2026/09/03/f...
FocalPlane features... emergent models and quantitative analysis of cell migration
Thursday 17 September, 15:00-16:30 BST (UTC+1) 
Organised by Organised by Pablo J. Sáez and Valeria Venturini
FocalPlane logo
Picture of Ankita Jha (National Institutes of Health, USA)
Decoding bleb driven signaling in cancer disease progression
Picture of Raphaël Clément (L’Institut de Biologie du Développement de Marseille (IBDM), France)
Navigating without neurons or muscles: Locomotion in Trichoplax
Picture of Katrina Velle (University of Massachusetts Dartmouth, USA)
Naegleria amoebae seek confinement and crawl persistently through narrow spaces
#FocalPlaneFeatures
focalplane.biologists.com
Image of Naegleria.
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Colin Kremer @quant-ecology.bsky.social · 03/09/2026
“Cool” new NSF postdoc position available in my lab at UConn, studying our unique Arctic phytoplankton collection and the interactive effects of temperature, light, and photoperiod. 3 years of funding, detailed job ad here: s.uconn.edu/q1o0itl62l.
Picture of centric Arctic diatom
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Reposted by Barbara Mellone 🇺🇦
Michelle Facette @mfacette.bsky.social · 28/08/2026
UMass Amherst Dept of Biology is hiring a TT faculty member in Evolutionary Biology! careers.umass.edu/jobs/assista... We have a diverse and wonderful dept - please consider joining us!
careers.umass.edu
Assistant Professor - Evolutionary Biology - Amherst, Massachusetts, United States
Title: Assistant Professor - Evolutionary Biology Executive Area: Academic Affairs College/School/MBU: College of Natural Sciences Department: Biology Work Location: Amherst Schedule: Full Time Work A...
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Economic Policy Institute @epi.org · 26/08/2026
Competitive pay is necessary to attract and retain qualified teachers. Reversing these trends will require targeted, sustained investment in public education at the local, state, and federal levels.
epi.org
The teacher pay penalty remained high in 2025: Teachers and students nationwide are still paying the price of decades of neglect
Key takeaways: In 2025, the teacher pay penalty stood at an estimated 25.2%—meaning teachers earned about a quarter less than comparable college graduates in other professions. That's a slight improve...
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Reposted by Barbara Mellone 🇺🇦
Reese Richardson @reeserichardson.bsky.social · 25/08/2026
A massive update: At least ~15 companies~ are selling scientists antibodies using faked validation data. We've documented 18,000+ manipulated images on 17,000+ products sold by leading laboratory suppliers including Thermo Fisher, Abcam, Santa Cruz Biotechnology, Millipore Sigma and Bio-Techne. 1/🧵
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Reposted by Barbara Mellone 🇺🇦
Rob Denton @rddenton.bsky.social · 19/08/2026
[JOB!] I'm hiring for a really exciting postdoc position. A combination of breeding experiments, conservation genomics, and student mentorship. Room/board at the @amnh.org Southwestern Research Station each summer, 40 months of support, new science building at BSU. Share broadly! ad: bit.ly/4hKaUIL
A human hand holds a medium sized green frog with distinct gray spots and yellow eyes. This is a Chiricahua Leopard Frog, a threatened species native to the southwest US and Mexico.
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Jeff Lewis @lewislab.bsky.social · 14/08/2026
It's hard to not see age of first R01 as a distraction when the table shows a dropoff of >500 investigators from 2024 to 2025, and of nearly 800 from the oh so distant 2022.
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Reposted by Barbara Mellone 🇺🇦
Richard Sever @richardsever.bsky.social · 13/08/2026
bioRxiv/medRxiv have been dealing with endless bot attacks recently (plus usual DDOS stuff, etc). Tricky to address without impacting genuine users - many of you affected. Apologies. We're working with our hosting service on solutions & think we're getting there [he shouts in his Red Queen costume].
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Damian Dudka @damiandudka.bsky.social · 17/07/2026
My lab just opened at Lehigh University - we study the origins, mechanisms, and impacts of the rapid evolution of the chromosome segregation machinery. I'm looking for 2 team members (postdoc and lab tech) who are passionate about evolution and cell division! See the opportunities at dudkalab.me.
dudkalab.me
Dudka Lab — Home
The Dudka Lab at Lehigh University studies how rapid evolution of chromosome segregation machinery impacts health, fertility, and disease.
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Reposted by Barbara Mellone 🇺🇦
More Perfect Union @moreperfectunion.bsky.social · 11/08/2026
A new study shows that Medicare for All would save over 114,000 lives and over $1 trillion every year. The new research out of Yale shows that reductions in administrative overhead, lower pharmaceutical prices, less fraudulent billing, and fewer emergency care trips would lead to huge savings. /1
commondreams.org
Yale Study: Medicare for All Would Save Over 114,000 Lives and $1 Trillion a Year | Common Dreams
"Do not tell me we cannot afford Medicare for All," the senator said. "What we cannot afford is a broken healthcare system based on greed."
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Steve Benen @stevebenen.com · 07/08/2026
Confronted with an obvious need for renewable energy, Trump admin officials used taxpayer money to scuttle an offshore wind project. Then they did it again. And again. And again. And this week, again. Total price tag in wasted taxpayer money: ~$4 billion and counting www.ms.now/rachel-maddo...
ms.now
Team Trump uses taxpayer money to scuttle yet another renewable energy project
As one key Democratic member of Congress summarized, “It is hard to imagine a more backwards use of taxpayer money.”
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Cell Press @cellpress.bsky.social · 07/08/2026
A new collection from the T2T Consortium is out in @cp-cell.bsky.social and Cell Genomics — a milestone towards routine “T2T” assembly of any complete, diploid genome. Explore this exciting work: dlvr.it/TTvnWZ
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Nichole Broderick, PhD @nabroderick.bsky.social · 06/08/2026
Final call for abstracts! 8th Conference on Model Hosts, Oct 3-8th Sissi Crete. Thanks to support from @microbiologysociety.org and @femsmicro.org we have funding for a number of trainee travel awards - submit your abstract and apply today! aegeanconferences.org/conferences/...
Image of an Aegean coastal town advertising a scientific conference on model hosts.
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Katrina Miller @katrinamillerphd.bsky.social · 07/08/2026
Are you a student scientist facing unique challenges trying to navigate the next stage of your career amid Trump's policy changes? I'm working on a story for @nytimes.com & want to hear from you -- contact info in my bio.
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Senator Patty Murray @murray.senate.gov · 05/08/2026
Trump & Russ Vought proposed a rule to take every federal grant in America hostage. They don't care about making our tax dollars work better—they just want them to work for Trump. Well, Democrats BLOCKED their corrupt rule, and I'll be fighting to kill it permanently.
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Stand Up for Science! @standupforscience.net · 04/08/2026
BREAKING NEWS! The Senate has paused the OMB rule that would put Trump appointees in charge of federal spending. Next step - Contact your MoC and tell them to permanently REVOKE THE RULE: zurl.co/1SXEN Article: zurl.co/23mF8
zurl.co
Senate finalizes funding patch that would block Trump’s grant overhaul
Language is included to delay the president’s move to put political appointees in charge of grant approval.
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Sam Lewis, Ph.D. @samlewis.bsky.social · 04/08/2026
I'm honored to receive the @ascbiology.bsky.social WICB Junior Award for Excellence in Research! Thank you to my lab team, my @berkeleymcb.bsky.social mentors and nominators, and my family for their support.
ASCB WICB Junior Award for Excellence in Research, presented to: Samantha Lewis, UC Berkeley.
Presented to a woman or non-binary person in an early stage of their career (within seven years of appointment to an independent position at the nomination deadline) who is making exceptional scientific contributions to cell biology, is developing a strong independent research program, and exhibits the potential for continuing at a high level of scientific endeavor and leadership.
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Barbara Mellone 🇺🇦 @centromellone.bsky.social · 03/08/2026
“Republicans rejected killing the proposed rule outright,” Washington Sen. Patty Murray The fight is not over.
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Genetics Society of America @genetics-gsa.bsky.social · 01/08/2026
On August 1, 1931, Harriet Creighton and Barbara McClintock published the first experimental proof that genes are physically located on chromosomes—a discovery that transformed genetics. 1/3🧵
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Barbara Mellone 🇺🇦 @centromellone.bsky.social · 28/07/2026
I just contacted my Uni's Provost office about this and they are now working on a clear policy, all they have is recommended language for Syllabi but it needs to be something more official to have legal weight!
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Aaron Sojourner @aaronsojourner.org · 25/07/2026
Admirable clarity @science.org
The Trump administration hates academic science funding, full stop. They hate where that money goes, and they hate who it goes to. They want to keep all that money for themselves, to hand out to favored cronies who can help them get elected and to steer yet more money and more power back into their hands.

That’s it. That’s the story
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Barbara Mellone 🇺🇦 @centromellone.bsky.social · 24/07/2026
Well, this explains A LOT www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...
biorxiv.org
Triplex DNA and inverted repeats cause long-read sequencing bias against simple satellite DNA
We recently showed that Oxford Nanopore Technologies (ONT) and Pacific Biosciences (PacBio) have very strong sequencing bias against simple satellites, probably caused by single-stranded DNA folding i...
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Prasad Jallepalli, MD, PhD @prasad.bsky.social · 23/07/2026
why on Earth would we do this??? "de-prioritize 'life sciences,' which encompass molecular biology, genetics and other fields in biomedicine, as well as clinical trials aimed at testing new therapies" www.nytimes.com/2026/07/22/u...
Mr. Kratsios’ proposal to reduce the role of universities would upend that system, which has been in place since the end of World War II. His call for the administration to de-prioritize “life sciences,” which encompass molecular biology, genetics and other fields in biomedicine, as well as clinical trials aimed at testing new therapies, raised alarms among biomedical researchers and academic medical centers. They fear it will mean less funding for the National Institutes of Health.
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Justin Baragona @justinbaragona.bsky.social · 22/07/2026
LOL, "historically accurate." This is a story set 3,000 years ago that features Greek gods, a cyclops, a multi-headed sea monster, and a witch who turns a crew of men into pigs.
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Don Moynihan @donmoyn.bsky.social · 23/07/2026
Once you understand that this is a model of science written by non-scientists who hate universities but love venture capital and redirecting money to political allies, everything makes a lot more sense. www.nytimes.com/2026/07/22/u...
nytimes.com
Trump’s Plan for Science: More Money for A.I., Less for Universities
Michael Kratsios, President Trump’s science adviser, proposed overhauling how the government funds research. Democrats said Mr. Trump’s actions had weakened science.
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Barbara Mellone 🇺🇦 @centromellone.bsky.social · 21/07/2026
America's R1 universities educate ~8–9 million students (undergraduate + graduate) -> more than 1/3 of U.S. college students (vs. the ~0.6% of Ivies). Undermining this system threatens the institutions that train our workforce and drive scientific innovation. www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...
science.org
An American research crisis with real human consequences
Ivy League universities have dominated recent news headlines, having become popular targets for critics of higher education. But the threats they face—cuts to federal research funding, assaults on aca...
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Lenint.bsky.social @lenint.bsky.social · 21/07/2026
🧪https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.adz6477
science.org
An American research crisis with real human consequences
Ivy League universities have dominated recent news headlines, having become popular targets for critics of higher education. But the threats they face—cuts to federal research funding, assaults on aca...
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Journal of Cell Science @jcellsci.bsky.social · 20/07/2026
In their Review, Alexandra Edwards and Elizabeth Finn discuss how genome organisation underlies evolution and development. journals.biologists.com/jcs/article/...
Schematic showing evolutionary diversity in genome organisation
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Barbara Mellone 🇺🇦 @centromellone.bsky.social · 18/07/2026
Congratulations to Mellone Lab graduate student Tyler McDermott on successfully defending his PhD thesis! 🔬🧬 His work reveals how a conserved retroelement targets centromeres in Drosophila, shedding light on a phenomenon that occurs across taxa. Preprint coming soon! #PhDdone #proudPI
PhD candidate presenting slides on his research about a retroelementScreenshot of dissertation defense announcement for Tyler McDermott in the UConn MCB department. Title of dissertation "Preferential centromeric targeting of a metazoan non-LTR retroelement"
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Iris van Rooij 💭 @irisvanrooij.bsky.social · 18/07/2026
This was me in 2023, quoted in Nature. Now see how things are going. When will the academic community wake up collectively & notice what is done to our scientific eco system. Resits. Organize. Refuse to play along. Fight slop. Take principled stands. 🖋️ openletter.earth/open-letter-...
openletter.earth
Open Letter: Stop the Uncritical Adoption of AI Technologies in Academia
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Tatiana Moiseeva @tat1anamoiseeva.bsky.social · 15/07/2026
Our lab at Pitt is looking to hire a technician. Ideal candidate would be a recent graduate with some cell biology skills, looking to expand their experience before applying to a PhD program in a couple of years. If you are this person, interested in DNA replication, please email me. moiseevalab.com
moiseevalab.com
Tatiana Moiseeva Lab
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Barbara Mellone 🇺🇦 @centromellone.bsky.social · 16/07/2026
Manuscripts with women as corresponding authors are less frequently sent out for review at Science. The ones reviewed receive less favorable reviews by both male and female reviewers.
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Javi Ibarrondo @jibarrondo.bsky.social · 15/07/2026
Editorial and peer review dynamics at elite general science journals | Science Advances www.science.org/doi/10.1126/... 🧪
science.org
Editorial and peer review dynamics at elite general science journals
Analyses of deidentified data reveal complex interactions that quantify success at elite general science journals.
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Cedric Feschotte @cedricfeschotte.bsky.social · 13/07/2026
📣 Abstract submission deadline for CSHL TEs extended to July 24! Two more weeks to submit your abstract for a short talk or poster — do it! It’s gonna be a fantastic meeting!! meetings.cshl.edu/meetings.asp...
meetings.cshl.edu
Transposable Elements
Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Meetings & Courses -- a private, non-profit institution with research programs in cancer, neuroscience, plant biology, genomics, bioinformatics.
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