Fillip Port @crisprflydesign.bsky.social · 29/09/2026Agreed. I think a lottery among the edge cases would help somewhat, as these consume most time/attention, but certainly not nearly enough to compensate for the increase in AI proposals. 000
Reposted by Fillip PortTessa Montague @tessamontague.bsky.social · 29/09/2026I'm excited to share our new preprint: Generation of a transgenic cephalopod tinyurl.com/pc86jxz8 Cephalopods (cuttlefish, octopus & squid) are crazy critters that dynamically camouflage to their surroundings by changing the color, pattern, & texture of their skin, which they control w their brain. 13335118
Fillip Port @crisprflydesign.bsky.social · 28/09/2026I'm all for lottery among fundable proposal. The notion that the quality of grants can be brought into an exact order is absurd - like reporting Nanodrop measurements to the 5th decimal place. Review to make bins, then draw the winners in the boundary bin. Your point incentives also v compelling. 120
Reposted by Fillip PortSimon Bullock @simonbullock11.bsky.social · 28/09/2026How are mRNAs linked to molecular motors in mammalian cells? In our new preprint, we show that FXR1/2 are RNA adaptors for the microtubule motor dynein. Our findings have also prompted us to rethink how activating adaptors contribute to motor-based transport (1/n) 16330
Reposted by Fillip Port@bilderlab @bilderlab.bsky.social · 24/09/2026This incident @nikonsmallworld brings to mind rules we set for the Drosophila Image Award in 2004. We didn't want to reward pretty pictures generated for their own sake, but celebrate the amazing images that emerge from everyday science, where beauty and discovery are inseparable. 1/2 041
Reposted by Fillip PortMaya Voichek @mayavoichek.bsky.social · 24/09/2026Super 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) 20257148
Reposted by Fillip PortMartin Pacesa @martinpacesa.bsky.social · 21/09/2026ʙɪɴᴅᴄʀᴀꜰᴛ2 is out, and we're not waiting for the paper. The full code drops today, free for academic and industry use. We're releasing it early so you can start designing right now, and bring its full power to the current Adaptyv competition. github.com/PacesaLab/Bi... 4293142
Fillip Port @crisprflydesign.bsky.social · 20/09/2026You can repurpose a safe password generator for this. Just add sc and/or seq and you are ready to go. "scH1vrf4d%GD&e-seq" 060
Reposted by Fillip Portpaveltomancak.bsky.social @paveltomancak.bsky.social · 20/09/202621627 applications. Nothing to celebrate here. Impossible to evaluate fairly & safely. Neither the science (too diverse & possibly LLM generated) nor the soft criteria (likely LLM generated). Without an interview stage - a security risk! marie-sklodowska-curie-actions.ec.europa.eu/whats-new/ne...marie-sklodowska-curie-actions.ec.europa.euMSCA Postdoctoral Fellowships 2026 receives record number of applicationsThe 2026 call has attracted considerable interest from the research community with 21,627 applications submitted. 29844
Reposted by Fillip PortArjuna Rajakumar PhD @arjunarajakumar.bsky.social · 19/09/2026So proud of my lab mate @sagrill.bsky.social (whose on the job market 👀) for this magnum opus from @remlehmann.bsky.social lab @whiteheadinstitute.bsky.social ScRNA-seq of 🪰 germ cells reveals new biology, answers age old questions, and proposes new paradigms! 1/8 www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6... 35928
Reposted by Fillip PortDeutsches Krebsforschungszentrum (DKFZ) @dkfz.bsky.social · 17/09/2026Dreaming of a career in cancer research? Join the International PhD Program at @DKFZ — Germany’s largest biomedical research center. Explore #cancerresearch including #cancerbiology, #bioinformatics, #epidemiology & #medicalphysics. The Winter Selection is open now 👉 apply t1p.de/hl56b 055
Fillip Port @crisprflydesign.bsky.social · 16/09/2026"In Drosophila, genetics feels like solving a mathematical problem: the rules are well established that you can often predict the outcome. And then I started working with zebrafish, and I remember thinking ‘wow, this organism is a mess!’." 😂 🐝 would love to have you back @bellecmaelle.bsky.social 050
Fillip Port @crisprflydesign.bsky.social · 16/09/2026Several FlyBase services are down. Probably just a glimpse of what it's like to work with most other genomes, but can't say I'm enjoying the experience. Please send decorated FASTA... 😭😭😭 183
Reposted by Fillip PortMarco MILAN LAB @milanlab.bsky.social · 16/09/2026Milan Lab is recruiting a new PhD student. Deadline: October 30th. Please, spread the news. www.irbbarcelona.org/en/careers/y...irbbarcelona.orgIRB Barcelona International PhD Fellowships - Extraordinary call 2026The following will be offered in this call:Up to 8 FPI positions associated with the “Proyectos de Generación de Conocimiento 2025” Call (funded by the Agencia Estatal de Investigación AEI- MICINN).Ch... 0915
Reposted by Fillip PortDavid Ho @davidho.bsky.social · 12/09/2026I wrote this quickly at a bus stop and didn't realize it would go viral, or else I would have worded it better. But the point is that the media is too credulous about AI killing everyone in 10 years (how?) when climate change is killing people now and will only get worse (we know exactly how). 4156791561
Reposted by Fillip PortMattias Malaguti @matt-mala.bsky.social · 24/03/2026Delighted to introduce KELPE: mESCs with two insulated genomic landing pads, which we use to generate new synNotch and PUFFFIN neighbour-labelling lines. They were named after kelpies, creatures from Scottish folklore, and they look pretty on a kelpie micropattern! #DevBio #SynBio 1157
Fillip Port @crisprflydesign.bsky.social · 10/09/2026Sorry, as much as I believe the overall message, this graph is very weird. What is the difference between "almost never" and "once or twice per year"??? A big drop in performance when using AI once or twice per year or month seems very unlikely. 010
Reposted by Fillip PortStefan Schoenfelder @stefanschoenfelder.bsky.social · 09/09/2026💯! But it worries me how widespread the notion is that AI can essentially replace experiments & just work with the data we have now. AI approaches have enormous potential for genomics but only if they go hand in hand with much more high quality data we will need to generate to feed the models. 351
Reposted by Fillip PortPeter Andersen @germline.bsky.social · 08/09/2026We 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 03346
Reposted by Fillip PortNick Stroustrup @nstroustrup.bsky.social · 05/09/2026Did you know that the cells of old animals contain much less mRNA than the cells of young ones? Let me share with you some results from an ongoing project in the lab, where we are finding that a progressive depletion of total mRNA abundance is a crucial part of aging 1/22 621185
Fillip Port @crisprflydesign.bsky.social · 04/09/2026Cool holiday moment on the way to the beach. Main BBC News on the radio: "In a scientific breakthrough scientist have mapped all connections in a fly brain." 🐝💪🏼 @jefferis.bsky.social @ribeirocarlitos.bsky.social @mmcosta.bsky.social @mrclmb.ac.uk Finally some pos news. Beach was also great. 2110
Reposted by Fillip Port@bilderlab @bilderlab.bsky.social · 17/08/2026Now out in Annu Rev Cancer Biol: "Beyond Mice and Men." We think of cancer as a disease of humans, as well as pets 🐈⬛ 🐕 & lab mice. But cancer is found across the animal tree of life, including clams and fruit flies. Comparative oncology has a lot to teach us. 🧵 www.annualreviews.org/content/jour...annualreviews.orgBeyond Mice and Men: Alternative Vertebrate and Invertebrate Models in Cancer BiologyWhile cancer looms large in the public and scientific minds, this can result in a quite narrow view of its range and manifestations. The centering of human clinical investigations and the popularity o... 2218
Reposted by Fillip PortAlliance of Genome Resources @alliancegenome.bsky.social · 12/08/2026Looking for model organism resources to follow on Bluesky? Here's a starter pack for you! go.bsky.app/Npxsd7h 01517
Reposted by Fillip PortStefan Luschnig @luschnig.bsky.social · 04/08/2026Interested in using #Drosophila genetics & advanced imaging combined with modeling to study inter-organ transport and epithelial dynamics? We’re hiring a #PhD student @uni-muenster.de, based at the Multiscale Imaging Center and @sfb1348.bsky.social Graduate School. Apply here tinyurl.com/ypx74a5d 12725
Fillip Port @crisprflydesign.bsky.social · 07/08/2026Why do you need an additional room for your lab? Well, the two cells we expanded last week completely fill our existing lab and we need a third replicate... 062
Reposted by Fillip Portelizabethcooney.bsky.social @elizabethcooney.bsky.social · 05/08/2026Exclusive from Jason Mast and Brian Yang at @statnews.com who write "the disclosure raises concerns about the quality and transparency of China’s more lightly regulated pathway for drug trials." www.statnews.com/2026/08/05/c...statnews.comOnce again, child dies in gene editing trial in China, rekindling debate on transparency and safetyWith a second delayed report of a child's death in China, criticism is rising of a looser form of clinical trial. One expert: what "bothers me is the lack of transparency.' 013
Fillip Port @crisprflydesign.bsky.social · 03/08/2026🤯 Wow, this looks great. The combination of a sophisticated genetic toolbox and available connectome is so powerful for figuring out how animals do what they do. 🧪🪰 081
Fillip Port @crisprflydesign.bsky.social · 30/07/2026Why do you post a perfectly normal LinkedIn post on Bluesky? 020
Reposted by Fillip PortJames Briscoe @jamesbriscoe.bsky.social · 27/07/2026It's not often single author primary research papers are published in our field & it's even rarer when the author is a Nobel Prize winner Check out the new work by Eric Wieschaus in @dev-journal.bsky.social Flattening maternal gradients in Drosophila embryo journals.biologists.com/dev/article/...journals.biologists.comMaternal patterning in early Drosophila embryos: how much information can single maternal gradients supply?Highlighted Article: Comparison of the patterning capacity of Drosophila embryos that have only one of the three maternal gradients known to control anterior posterior patterning. 17227
Reposted by Fillip PortProf Sam Illingworth @samillingworth.com · 25/07/2026🚩 My 2010 PhD thesis is ‘70% AI’ I ran my 2010 PhD thesis through an AI detector. It flagged 70% as AI, then tried to sell me a ‘humanise’ fix. Either I am a time traveller, or these tools do not work. Link to my thesis in the comments to try yourself. #AIDetection #HigherEd 🧪 #AI 38450193
Reposted by Fillip PortGaia Vince @wanderinggaia.bsky.social · 24/07/2026A message is being communicated, can you get it? 24417
Reposted by Fillip PortKai Kupferschmidt @kakape.bsky.social · 23/07/2026“Seven days after the girl’s medical team infused trillions of viruses carrying the recipe for the base editor into her spinal fluid, she died of a severe immune reaction linked to the therapy…” This, in @science.org, is an important and tragic story. (It’s also an incredibly well reported one.) 🧪science.orgExclusive: Death of girl in Chinese gene-editing trial was never made publicParents want accountability after study went disastrously wrong, Science and Retraction Watch investigation reveals 614661
Fillip Port @crisprflydesign.bsky.social · 18/07/2026Interessant. Danke für die ausführliche Antwort. Und gute Rückreise! 010
Reposted by Fillip Portbogdanlab.bsky.social @bogdanlab.bsky.social · 18/07/2026Join our team! The @bogdan_lab in Marburg is hiring a postdoctoral fellow and a doctoral student for studying innate cellular immune response to tumor cells and epidermal wounds in Drosophila. Apply: stellenangebote.uni-marburg.de/jobposting/4... stellenangebote.uni-marburg.de/jobposting/3... 013
Reposted by Fillip PortNeha Agrawal @nehaagrawal.bsky.social · 15/07/2026(1/4) How is the timing of cell death regulated? We have developed a #liveimaging system to follow the dynamic cell death of #Drosophila hepatocyte-like cells (oenocytes) in intact pupae throughout metamorphosis. Watch some beautiful videos from our #preprint in this thread! #DevBio #CellDeath 194
Fillip Port @crisprflydesign.bsky.social · 15/07/2026Nice paper by the @hietakangaslab.bsky.social using multiplexed Cas12a mutagenesis to show that Salr acts as a negative regulator of growth and lipid storage. link.springer.com/article/10.1... 020
Reposted by Fillip PortEuropean Drosophila Society @fly-eds.bsky.social · 13/07/2026📣 📣 📣 📣 To all Drosophilists: the call for Workshop proposals at the 2027 European Drosophila Research Conference in Bonn (20-23 September 2027) is OPEN! Go to link below for instructions. Closing date: 30 September 2026. 👇🏻👇🏻👇🏻 tinyurl.com/45y8trzd 02525
Reposted by Fillip PortRichard Sever @richardsever.bsky.social · 09/07/2026Is the real issue less a guilty/not guilty verdict but - as in Tessier-Lavigne’s case - the fact this seems bound to occur in a hypercompetitive environment incentivizing fraud and a feudal system ill-equipped and disincentivized to address it? 4197
Fillip Port @crisprflydesign.bsky.social · 29/06/2026Think it could specifically compromise preprints. Preprints have no other quality signal associated, so a score carries much more weight. And the risk of receiving a low score could discourage authors from posting preprints, if they worry it signals something to journal editors down the line. 180
Fillip Port @crisprflydesign.bsky.social · 26/06/2026'We don't review or rank manuscripts' is a core principle of biorxiv and collaborating with a ranking website contradicts that. Having your logo on their website is active endorsement, not just 'everyone can use preprints however they want'. 180
Fillip Port @crisprflydesign.bsky.social · 26/06/2026Agree that preventing such rankings is incompatible with the mission to freely disseminate papers. But being listed as collaborator on their website is an active choice and gives them credibility, making the "not using it" harder. 121
Fillip Port @crisprflydesign.bsky.social · 11/06/2026We continue to use wildtype SpCas9 in many applications. The high-fidelity variants we tried had reduced activity and PAM relaxed variants higher risk of off-targets, so for us the WT continues to represent a good balance. In flies we have mostly switched to Cas12a to make use of sgRNA multiplexing. 220
Fillip Port @crisprflydesign.bsky.social · 10/06/2026Don't think there is an answer to this question without defining what "good" means for your applications. Cas9s have been optimised in many dimensions (activity, specificity, target space, temperature, etc.) and optimising for one can lead to trade-offs for others. 100
Reposted by Fillip PortSteffen Scholpp @scholpplab.bsky.social · 06/06/2026After months of experiments, failed injections, unexpected results, and those rare moments when everything suddenly works - our manuscript is finally submitted. Read our newest story about a journey of tiny vesicles carrying big biological messages, now in bioRxiv. www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6... 1279
Reposted by Fillip PortReese Richardson @reeserichardson.bsky.social · 05/06/2026The Thermo Fisher situation keeps getting worse. We've now collected 450+ problematic images presented as verification data in TF's antibody catalog. This includes: 🖌️ Dozens more images with duplications or painting 🖨️ Hundreds of blots that all share the same background (behold slideshow below) 18590367
Reposted by Fillip PortJonas Koeppel @jonaskoeppel.bsky.social · 04/06/20261/n What fraction of the human genome is essential for cells? Excited to share our preprint that explores this question by combining an unusual CRISPR system, phage promoters, and thousands of deletion launchpads. @sudpinglay.bsky.social @jshendure.bsky.social www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6... 28134