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christine liu / two photon art

@christineliu.art
5.3K followers 1.5K following 725 posts

🧠 ucsf neuroscience postdoc 🍄 psychedelic researcher 🎨 www.twophotonart.com 🪡 weekend tattoo artist

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Reposted by christine liu / two photon art
Artologica aka Michele Banks @artologica.net · 23/09/2026
News for SfN peeps: I'll have a small show in a gallery very close to the meeting from 11-18 November #sciart
map of downtown dc showing convention center and touchstone gallery
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Alexandra Gallant-Lee @alexandragallant.com · 24/08/2026
I just opened up pre-orders for my next comic, SCAM, it's all about how white women use aesthetic, image, identity and style to further their scams. A5, 60 pages, $20, ships to 🇺🇸🇬🇧🇨🇦 in mid-September. Here's the front and back cover of it - more to preview, too: frogby.bigcartel.com/product/scam
The cover of my comic "SCAM (The careless whispers of white women scammers)"

Everything is a performance.

The cover art features a face with wide eyes behind the word 'SCAM', it wasn't necessarily intentional, but it does evoke the iconic cover art by Francis Cugat for The Great Gatsby, the mouth is whispering the words "the careless whispers of white women scammers"

Beneath this, there are six marble statues of white women all on pedestals, one of them, with hair in the style of Marie Antoinette, has no pedestal and lies horizontally

The eyes in the face cry to the point that the pedestals are slowly being overwhelmed by the flood.A sailing ship called 'The Scam' attempting to get a hook into a big sperm whale, but the whale is about to chomp on that boat, there are birds in the sky in the distance
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Vikaas Sohal @vikaassohal.bsky.social · 14/08/2026
New preprint up! How do brain networks generate flexible behavior? Insula-prefrontal communication helps mice shift behavioral strategies, specifically when the new strategies use odor cues. Gamma synchrony between insula & PFC PV neurons enables this coordination! www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...
biorxiv.org
Smells like γ-synchrony: Insula-prefrontal communication depends on γ-synchrony and supports modality-specific changes in behavioral strategies
The prefrontal cortex is critical for many aspects of flexible behavior, but how it interacts with other brain regions to perform this function remains largely unknown. The insula is bidirectionally c...
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Zen Faulkes @doctorzen.net · 27/08/2026
The real American 🇺🇸 “brain drain” isn’t that a few established scholars might get new jobs outside the US, it’s the enormous number of grad students - particularly international grad students - who can’t or won’t study in the US now or in years to come. That’s the body blow.
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christine liu / two photon art @christineliu.art · 27/08/2026
Are you a neuroscientist that also makes art? I wanna get to know you and spotlight your art at this session at #SfN26! Show me your art, whether it’s related to your science or not! 🧠🧪
The Artist in the Neuroscience Lab
Chair: Michele Banks
Artologica
Panelists: Michele Banks; Geinene Carson;
Kimberly Fiock, PhD; Christine Liu, PhD
Date & Time: Sunday, November 15, 1:30-3 p.m.
Location: WCC Room 152
Theme: Theme K - History, Education, and Society
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Artologica aka Michele Banks @artologica.net · 25/08/2026
A mini blue mitosis watercolor #sciart artologica.etsy.com/listing/4562...
grid watercolor with 4 panels showing phases of mitosis
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Schmitt Lab @ UCLA @schmittlab-ucla.bsky.social · 06/08/2026
The final version of our paper describing the development of iGlo, a glutamine biosensor, is now available. All plasmids are on Addgene! pubs.rsc.org/cb/article/d...
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Danielle L. Schmitt 🔬 @schmittwitt.bsky.social · 27/08/2026
We’ve done one project I proposed. Most of the lab is working on things I never thought about when preparing my application.
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Hannah R Snyder @hannahrsnyder.bsky.social · 27/08/2026
In a chalk talk we basically want to see that you can engage in rigorous scientific thinking live, not just produce a polished job talk - you need to be prepared to engage with questions about your proposed work thoughtfully and not defensively. These are often extremely revealing.
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Kevin Wright @kevinmawright.bsky.social · 27/08/2026
To some extent I was trying to thread the needle on “here are some very fundable things that are virtually guaranteed to work” with the short term and “here are big picture ideas that may not work, but we’ll figure it out one way or another” for the long term.
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Kevin Wright @kevinmawright.bsky.social · 27/08/2026
for my short term plan I had a full R01 already mapped out with detailed experiments. Mid term stuff used new tools I had in hand but only a bit of “proof of concept” data. The “long term” was just a vision of the types of questions I wanted to answer and broad outlines of how I would do it
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Kurt Fraser @kurtfraser.bsky.social · 27/08/2026
kinda loosely doing things I talked about (I think?) didn't propose super precise experiments but themes of ideas all related. can share my stuff if you want and happy to look! already 2 years in we are doing stuff i never imagined doing so thats the more fun part
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CG Partridge @partridgecg.bsky.social · 27/08/2026
Hahahahaha. I work at 'water resources' institute and my research program is currently focused on invasive forest pests.
static.klipy.com
That Is Not The Same Farid
ALT: That Is Not The Same Farid
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Mark Peifer (He, him) @peiferlabunc.bsky.social · 27/08/2026
MIRA or R01? I'd definitely go the renewal route
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Teresa Lee @snickclunk.bsky.social · 27/08/2026
This is reassuring to hear!! I've been wondering how NIGMS considers accountability when weighing whether to renew or just submit a new grant (and trying not feeling shame that I completed like 1.25 of the aims during the time of the grant 😅)
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Mike Feigin 🥯 @mikefeigin.bsky.social · 26/08/2026
Haha I intended to do the work I proposed, but people who joined the lab had great ideas and I went with them! And I’m very happy we went this way!
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adelaide tovar @adel-aide.bsky.social · 26/08/2026
I’ve not even started yet, but I can provide recent corollary info. Both of my advisors and at least one person at each of my interviews made a point to say the research statement is not your contract. It’s just a way for them to see how you think and what part of the sandbox you plan to play in.
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Rachel W. Martin @rwmartin.bsky.social · 26/08/2026
By the way, the "safe" project was the dud, and the "ambitious" one worked.
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Jeff Lewis @lewislab.bsky.social · 26/08/2026
Maybe 1/3. I’m just now coming back to something I first proposed 15 years ago because it’s more feasible now. Figuring out when to triage or table a project is a really important part of the job.
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Kevin Wright @kevinmawright.bsky.social · 26/08/2026
The short term projects (years 1-3) all got completed; the mid-term (years 3-7) ones were about 50/50; the long term (years 7+) ideas went nowhere because we pivoted to new, more interesting questions based on new directions/tech that were unknowable at the time I started.
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Christophe 🔬 Leterrier @christlet.bsky.social · 26/08/2026
Don't be too conservative - part of the appeal at the start is in the potential and the capacity to try new things. If you manage to do well, nobody in the end will check if that is exactly what you planned initially.
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Mark Peifer (He, him) @peiferlabunc.bsky.social · 26/08/2026
However, I once had an Army Breast Cancer Grant and they literally wanted you to do exactly what you proposed. I had to write a long explanation about why the switch in direction that led to a paper in Nature was a good idea :)
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Mark Peifer (He, him) @peiferlabunc.bsky.social · 26/08/2026
Things change every day, and we follow the science. At least in the olden days (2 years ago), NIGMS was happy if you did something cool, and your Aims from the last grant were irrelevant. 1/n
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Hannah R Snyder @hannahrsnyder.bsky.social · 26/08/2026
Tenure at an R1 comes down mostly to grants and papers. If you are productive with those no one generally cares about topics. I guess if you completely changed fields they might.
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Hannah R Snyder @hannahrsnyder.bsky.social · 26/08/2026
I think for job market statements, the research statement should propose things it is clear you *can* do (high feasibility as demonstrated by your description of your prior research), and that are interesting and plausibly fundable. After you're hired, success speaks for itself.
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Hannah R Snyder @hannahrsnyder.bsky.social · 26/08/2026
You should be aware though that some TT interviews will include a chalk talk where you have to basically present and defend what your 1st R01 would be. Doesn't mean you have to stick w/ it - more a test of your scientific thinking. But you do need to be prepared for that.
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Harmit Singh Malik @harmitmalik.bsky.social · 21/08/2026
@hhmi-science.bsky.social has several upcoming competitions for scientists at various career stages. Here is a list (pl share whatever you feel will be useful): 1) Rising college juniors & seniors in summer 2027 can apply to the Cech Fellows program (www.hhmi.org/programs/cec...) Deadline: Nov 10
hhmi.org
Summer Undergraduate Research Experience (REU) | Cech Fellows | HHMI
The Cech Fellows Program is a paid, nine-week summer research experience empowering the next generation of scientific leaders.
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Suzanne Hoppins @shoppins.bsky.social · 26/08/2026
Early on a program officer told me that my grant was not a contract and the best thing to do was “follow the science”.
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Hannah R Snyder @hannahrsnyder.bsky.social · 26/08/2026
Definitely no one is going to go back and look at your application documents for tenure! It isn't a contract, it is more to show that you are thinking programmatically about future lines of research. You will write new statements for your tenure dossier.
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Mike Feigin 🥯 @mikefeigin.bsky.social · 26/08/2026
0%. At my promotion talk I literally said, “I hope none of you remember my job talk, because I didn’t do any of that!”
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Roby Bhattacharyya @roby-b.bsky.social · 26/08/2026
Most of the time, it's in everyone's best interest (funders, you, your lab, society) for you to do what you think is the most interesting / best next thing NOW, now what you thought it would be 5+ years ago when you were writing about it. At least, that's how I have come to see it.
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Roby Bhattacharyya @roby-b.bsky.social · 26/08/2026
Great question! I usually start by trying to follow the proposed plan, bc it seemed like the best direction at the time when I was thinking hard about it. But for a 5-yr grant, it's rare that the best thing to do in y5 was clear in y0 or y(-1) - if so, what have you really learned about the system?
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Teresa Lee @snickclunk.bsky.social · 26/08/2026
I didn't fully appreciate how, sometimes, the story that comes to a point first is actually your side hustle. Or how, when you're limited in terms of your lab's experience/abilities, you're doing the experiments that are *possible* (which might not always be the most immediately interesting)
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Teresa Lee @snickclunk.bsky.social · 26/08/2026
for grants? 2/3. I used what I wrote in my research statement as the foundation for my NIH/NSF proposals (kudos to my postdoc PI for telling me to stress test these ideas with the lab!) but for science? 0.5/3 😅. The first two papers from my lab were not at all what I thought we'd be doing...
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Hannah R Snyder @hannahrsnyder.bsky.social · 26/08/2026
I haven't looked at it since I was hired (which probably tells you something). Some of the major outlines yes, but certainly not the details, and we now have whole funded lines of research I couldn't have anticipated at all. Science is meant to evolve.
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Artologica aka Michele Banks @artologica.net · 26/08/2026
🧪
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Christa Buecker @chribue.bsky.social · 26/08/2026
About 80%, I saw my proposal as my blueprint for my lab: things I really wanted to do and questions that excited me. WE rejected some of the hypotheses, so while we worked on it, it was a dead end. But then other things came up, and we did correct course. You know, we scienced.
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Daniel Babcock @babcockflylab.bsky.social · 26/08/2026
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Rachel W. Martin @rwmartin.bsky.social · 26/08/2026
I am being generous in my interpretation of "doing the thing that I proposed." Both the final instrument design and the outcome of the good protein project are different from what I planned, but they were recognizably the same projects. The good news is, no one cares as long as something works.
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Rachel W. Martin @rwmartin.bsky.social · 26/08/2026
2/3 I proposed one instrument building project and two protein systems. My lab did build the thing. One of the proteins and its friends were even more interesting than I expected, and we are still working on it 20 years later. The second protein project was a complete fail.
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Jenn Kong @jennkong.bsky.social · 26/08/2026
I barely know what I’m doing tomorrow, much less in 5 years. Ha… but also, what’s the future of science and how will you incorporate it into your research program?
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Ben de Bivort @debivort.bsky.social · 26/08/2026
it was a combination of 1) independent students and postdocs who wanted to pursue projects of their own devising, 2) new research areas opening up with the advent of the fly connectome(s), and 3) collaborations (to a lesser extent). Funding for non-proposed work followed on the above.
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Ben de Bivort @debivort.bsky.social · 26/08/2026
reasonably closely — we did maybe 80% of what I proposed. And maybe 40% of what we've done is something I proposed?
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Needhi Bhalla 💅🏽 @needhibhalla.bsky.social · 26/08/2026
I would say maybe 1/3? Things end up going in very different directions and responding to those shifts happens faster than you think
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Kate Cavanaugh @katecavanaugh.bsky.social · 25/08/2026
🧵 What if one reason fertility declines with age isn’t just genetic-but mechanical? Thrilled to share our new paper in @NatureCellBio : Elevated contractility drives implantation failure in mouse embryos from aged females… here’s what we found 👇 www.nature.com/articles/s41... 1/11
nature.com
Elevated contractility drives implantation failure in mouse embryos from aged females - Nature Cell Biology
Cavanaugh et al. show that embryos from aged mice have increased contractility and tissue viscosity on embryonic day 4.5, which leads to poor spreading and attachment. Similar age-associated mechanica...
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Kate Cavanaugh @katecavanaugh.bsky.social · 25/08/2026
And finally—a bit of personal news: 🔬 I’m on the faculty job market this year! I’m looking for tenure-track opportunities where I can build a lab at the intersection of developmental biology, mechanobiology, reproductive biology & aging.
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Jenn Kong @jennkong.bsky.social · 26/08/2026
Ha… I don’t fully recall what I wrote in my research statement… but maybe like 20-25%? Despite your best efforts, some things just don’t work out the way you thought they would. Pivoting is fun tho!
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Ross Johnson @rosserford.bsky.social · 26/08/2026
We’re going to hear about how everyone loved Dolly, and that feels true. But it’s good to remember, and to her credit, that she was attacked for her AIDS activism, her vaccine advocacy, her LGBTQ+ support and even, more recently, for her reading initiatives. She ALWAYS stood firm when it mattered.
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christine liu / two photon art @christineliu.art · 26/08/2026
Question for all the PIs out there… How much did you end up following the research plan / statement that you wrote about in your applications? Just curious for funsies
static.klipy.com
Huh Dog with Question Mark
Alt: Huh Dog with Question Mark
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christine liu / two photon art @christineliu.art · 25/08/2026
We are doing a super mega pin clearance sale to make room (and funds) to create new stuff for SfN! Help us out by snagging some pin blind boxes, basically 70% off full price! Twophotonart.com
twophotonart.com
Two Photon Art
From fun science enamel pins and patches to colorful zines explaining scientific concepts, we like to explore a multitude of science communication avenues and make them worth coveting!
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