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Barbara Mellone 🇺🇦

@centromellone.bsky.social
2.3K followers 1.6K following 140 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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Barbara Mellone 🇺🇦 @centromellone.bsky.social · 15/10/2026
Amazing! Happy birthday BDSC 🎉
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Bloomington Drosophila Stock Center @bdsc.bsky.social · 15/10/2026
40 years ago today, the BDSC made its 1st shipment. To celebrate, Trudy Kaufman, who packed the 1st shipment, boxed up the same kinds of flies for John Roote at Cambridge, who placed the 1st order. Watch for pics of the arrival next week. We’ve shipped 4,882,378 vials total. That’s a lot of flies!
Trudy Kaufman packing flies to send to John Roote.
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Valentin Flury @flurylab.bsky.social · 15/10/2026
Great study! 🤩 Congrats to everyone involved! 🙌🥳
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Katie Spoon @kspoon.bsky.social · 14/10/2026
We found that the most gendered experience wasn’t work-life balance, the focus of most retention efforts. It was feeling devalued, in formal evaluations, but particularly in everyday interactions. Unlike every other topic, the gender gap in devaluation was larger among more senior faculty.
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Barbara Mellone 🇺🇦 @centromellone.bsky.social · 14/10/2026
E le mani che tengono la pentola bollente senza presine 😂
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Barbara Mellone 🇺🇦 @centromellone.bsky.social · 13/10/2026
Congrats, Ching-Ho!
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Barbara Mellone 🇺🇦 @centromellone.bsky.social · 13/10/2026
Branhattan over on instagram is going to have a field day with this footage
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Joshua Weitz @joshuasweitz.bsky.social · 11/10/2026
The NIH proposal to conceal reviewer scores from program officers, investigators, and advisory councils is ill-conceived, introduces disproportionate weight to small percentile differences, diminishes the role of scientific peer review, and should be withdrawn in its entirety. a 🧵
joshuasweitz.substack.com
What is NIH Leadership Trying to Hide from Researchers & the Public?
A NIH proposal to conceal reviewer rankings of investigator-initiated research grants is ripe for misuse & demands a collective response (by October 13).
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Dr. Kat Napaaqtuk❄️ @napaaqtuk.bsky.social · 12/10/2026
Happy Indigenous People's Day! We are still here :)
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Barbara Mellone 🇺🇦 @centromellone.bsky.social · 11/10/2026
Thank you, Needhi!
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Coalition for Life Sciences @c4lifesciences.bsky.social · 09/10/2026
The deadline is approaching! NIH is proposing changes to how peer review is used in funding decisions and how outcomes are reported and they want to hear from you. Comments are due by October 13! Comment here: grants.nih.gov/grants/guide...
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Barbara Mellone 🇺🇦 @centromellone.bsky.social · 11/10/2026
Congrats to newly minted PhD Prachi Patel for seeing this long and super challenging project through, and to Domiziana Trasmondi for her invaluable help! 🎉.
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Barbara Mellone 🇺🇦 @centromellone.bsky.social · 11/10/2026
In Drosophila melanogaster, CENP-A prefers retroelement-rich islands over flanking satellite DNA. Our work shows that the Giglio island keeps CENP-A chromatin contained, suggesting that centromeric DNA constrains the position and size of the CENP-A domain.
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Barbara Mellone 🇺🇦 @centromellone.bsky.social · 11/10/2026
We find that the centromere re-establishes at the site of deletion, but CENP-A organization is disrupted, resulting in highly variable domains—some reaching 10× the normal length!
Model for the reorganization of the CENP-A domain upon deletion of the centromeric island via CRISPR. Upon loss of the island and its associated CENP-A chromatin, new CENP-A is deposited to the flanking satellite, with a preference for dodeca. The size of the CENP-A domain changes from being consistent across cells to being misregulated, resulting in CENP-A domains of highly variable size, including significantly expanded ones.
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Barbara Mellone 🇺🇦 @centromellone.bsky.social · 11/10/2026
🚨🚨Preprint alert!🚨🚨 We removed the main centromere 3 domain of Drosophila‼️ We designed an inducible dCas9-Fok1 system to cut 🧬 at unique sequences flanking the ~50-kb island where most of CENP-A sits. To our knowledge, this has never been attempted in a living animal!
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Barbara Mellone 🇺🇦 @centromellone.bsky.social · 11/10/2026
Thank you, Peiwei!!
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Harmit Singh Malik @harmitmalik.bsky.social · 10/10/2026
Most animal species pack sperm DNA with protamines instead of histones. Protamines are essential for male fertility. They are among the fastest-evolving genes in animals. That makes little sense. We think we know why, in a new paper led by @ching-hochang.bsky.social. www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...
science.org
Rapid protamine evolution suppresses meiotic drive in Drosophila
Many animal species replace histones with protamines during spermatogenesis. Although essential for sperm function, protamines evolve rapidly for reasons that remain unknown. Using in vivo gene replac...
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Itai Yanai @itaiyanai.bsky.social · 10/10/2026
1. CRISPR came from basic research on bacteria. 2. Optogenetics started with a discovery in algae. 3. The GFP protein comes from jellyfish. The biggest breakthroughs all trace to scientists following their curiosity, and this is one huge reason why we must keep funding basic research!
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Alejandro Montenegro @aemonten.bsky.social · 09/10/2026
Be a good scientist; be a good person. www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
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Pravrutha Raman @pravrutharaman.bsky.social · 08/10/2026
Now that we have moved coasts, I am thrilled to share that the ChromEvo (Raman) lab is officially open at UMass Boston 🎉 We ask how CHROMatin EVOlution leads to functional innovation and we are hiring at multiple levels. Read on and share with folks who maybe interested chromevoramanlab.github.io
The logo with a phylogenetic tree, a budding yeast, a fly and a nucleosome that has Raman lab Chrom Evo written in the middle
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Barbara Mellone 🇺🇦 @centromellone.bsky.social · 07/10/2026
Good. But I wish people FOLLOWED science, not “believed” in science…
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Barbara Mellone 🇺🇦 @centromellone.bsky.social · 05/10/2026
An other example of the value and beauty of fundamental biology research: we don’t always know what kind of future applications will be made possible by a basic discovery. This work in a single-celled alga open the doors to optigenetics 💡🧬
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Jacqueline Antonovich @jackiantonovich.bsky.social · 03/10/2026
In 1974, Cornell lecturer Lin Farley began recognizing a pattern in the experiences women shared in her Women and Work course: women were being pushed out of jobs by men’s sexual behavior. Farley coined the term, “sexual harassment.”
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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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Barbara Mellone 🇺🇦 @centromellone.bsky.social · 27/09/2026
Yes!!
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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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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
Super cool work. Congrats!!
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Barbara Mellone 🇺🇦 @centromellone.bsky.social · 26/09/2026
I think Pabu is a pretty cute name
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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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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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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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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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Barbara Mellone 🇺🇦 @centromellone.bsky.social · 17/09/2026
Brilliant methodology. Could it work for species that feed only as larvae?
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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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Barbara Mellone 🇺🇦 @centromellone.bsky.social · 15/09/2026
Legend
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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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Barbara Mellone 🇺🇦 @centromellone.bsky.social · 10/09/2026
this is a great article blekhman.substack.com/p/you-need-t... planning to do a lab JC on it and create our own policy
blekhman.substack.com
You need to make AI guidelines for your lab
Here's why you should, and how to start
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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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Barbara Mellone 🇺🇦 @centromellone.bsky.social · 10/09/2026
This looks super cool! Are you going to present it at CSHL? Hope to see you there
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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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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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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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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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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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