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Dan Starr

@danstarrucdavis.bsky.social
2K followers 2.2K following 70 posts

Cell Biologist, Nuclear Envelope, Allen Distinguished Investigator, co-Director of PREP. Associate Dean of Research. Views are my own.

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Dan Starr @danstarrucdavis.bsky.social · 17/09/2026
I agree. Do not bring back the SAT.
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Needhi Bhalla 💅🏽 @needhibhalla.bsky.social · 16/09/2026
"To reinstate the SAT is to follow the pack rather than to lead, to grasp at a dubious shortcut rather than tackle more intractable underlying issues, chief among them the reality that the best public university in the country relies on one of the weakest, most inequitable public school systems"
nytimes.com
Opinion | The University of California Dumped the SAT. Let’s Not Bring It Back. (Gift Article)
There are more intractable underlying issues to tackle.
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Sue Biggins @suebiggins.bsky.social · 18/08/2026
Junior faculty position in Basic Sciences @fredhutch.org! Please repost!
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Dan Starr @danstarrucdavis.bsky.social · 04/08/2026
I am honored. So many of my scientific heroes are ASCB fellows. Thanks to my nominators, my mentors, and to UC Davis ASCB fellows Mark Winey, Jon Scholey, and Jodi Nunnari. But thanks most to all those who have done science with me, @gwgl.bsky.social and all the graduate students and postdocs
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GW Gant Luxton @gwgl.bsky.social · 22/07/2026
Led by @xiangyiding.bsky.social . Starr-Luxton lab (me and @danstarrucdavis.bsky.social) with the @stephanieweber.bsky.social lab. Supported by @NIGMS and the @allenphilanthro.bsky.social .
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anil oza @aniloza.bsky.social · 17/06/2026
A 20 year study on 2 NIH diversity programs in Science Advances shows they doubled undergrads' odds of getting a Ph.D. That is, before the funding for those programs and for the study itself was terminated last year: www.statnews.com/2026/06/17/n...
statnews.com
NIH diversity programs doubled undergraduates’ odds of getting a Ph.D., 20-year study finds
A new study found that two diversity-oriented programs supported by the NIH doubled the odds that an undergraduate would earn a Ph.D.
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Drug Monkey @drugmonkey.bsky.social · 14/04/2026
Reaganism, the perennial student loan debt debate and decency drugmonkey.wordpress.com/2026/04/14/r...
drugmonkey.wordpress.com
Reaganism, the perennial student loan debt debate and decency
The response of many Boomers, particularly those who went through higher education in California, to talk of ballooning student loan debt and the unaffordability of University education is often a …
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Dan Starr @danstarrucdavis.bsky.social · 24/03/2026
I’m completely convinced we should never use student evaluations (good or bad) to merit and promotion at the university. What can we use to better evaluate teaching at the university?
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Quanta Magazine @quantamagazine.org · 18/02/2026
Recent studies in living animals reveal that the cytoplasm is a thick, jam-like fluid. And yet, miraculously, hoards of molecules find their way to each other in every crowded cell. www.quantamagazine.org/the-biophysi...
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Quanta Magazine @quantamagazine.org · 20/02/2026
Forget the textbook view of a cell as a calm, orderly place. Glowing trackers reveal that it is jam-packed as a crowded nightclub — raising questions about how molecules can encounter their partners for the reactions that enable life. www.quantamagazine.org/the-biophysi...
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Quanta Magazine @quantamagazine.org · 22/02/2026
An estimated 1 billion biochemical reactions occur every second in every cell of our bodies. New research is revealing how cells harness physics by packing molecules into tiny spaces to make these reactions happen.
quantamagazine.org
The Biophysical World Inside a Jam-Packed Cell | Quanta Magazine
Innovations in imaging and genetic engineering are coming together to probe the biophysics of cytoplasm inside living animals.
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GW Gant Luxton @gwgl.bsky.social · 19/02/2026
New in @quantamagazine.bsky.social: the science of cytoplasmic crowding. From Liam Holt & Simone Reber's work to our discovery that in vivo cytoplasm is 50x more crowded than cultured cells. Thanks @danstarrucdavis.bsky.social & @gabepopkin.bsky.social! www.quantamagazine.org/the-biophysi...
quantamagazine.org
The Biophysical World Inside a Jam-Packed Cell | Quanta Magazine
Innovations in imaging and genetic engineering are coming together to probe the biophysics of cytoplasm inside living animals.
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Bruce Springsteen @brucespringsteen.net · 28/01/2026
I wrote this song on Saturday, recorded it yesterday and released it to you today in response to the state terror being visited on the city of Minneapolis. It’s dedicated to the people of Minneapolis, our innocent immigrant neighbors and in memory of Alex Pretti and Renee Good. Stay free
youtu.be
Bruce Springsteen - Streets Of Minneapolis (Official Audio)
YouTube video by Bruce Springsteen
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Mark Peifer (He, him) @peiferlabunc.bsky.social · 25/01/2026
My sister-in-law's dad died last week, in hospice in the VA hospital in Minneapolis. I just learned Alex Pretti was part of his care team. They shot Alex less than 1/2 mile from my niece's house while doing the same observation work that my niece is doing. These are real people. Step up folks!
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Jeremy Berg @jeremymberg.bsky.social · 20/01/2026
The conference (agreement between House and Senate) appropriations bill that includes HHS and NIH was released this morning. www.appropriations.senate.gov/news/majorit... 1/5
appropriations.senate.gov
Committee Releases Conferenced Defense, Homeland Security, Labor, Health and Human Services, Education, and Related Agencies, and Transportation, Housing and Urban Development, and Related Agencies Bi...
United States Senate Committee on Appropriations
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JoAnn Trejo @joann-trejo.bsky.social · 14/12/2025
NIGMS R35 Maximizing Investigator's Research Award (MIRA) for Outstanding Investigators new NOFO is available!! Submission dates starting in January 2026 through May 2028. See link below: simpler.grants.gov/opportunity/...
R35 MIRA NOFO
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Dan Starr @danstarrucdavis.bsky.social · 15/12/2025
We persist.
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GW Gant Luxton @gwgl.bsky.social · 05/12/2025
Grateful to be featured in Nature Methods discussing how @danstarrucdavis.bsky.social and I run the joint Starr-Luxton Lab @ucdavis.bsky.social together. Thanks to Vivien Marx for the thoughtful interview - she really captured what makes this model work. www.nature.com/articles/s41...
nature.com
Two as one: when scientists run a lab together - Nature Methods
Leading a lab is both a venture and an adventure. It’s double that for these researchers.
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Jeremy Berg @jeremymberg.bsky.social · 02/12/2025
New York Times article on science funding with some depressing but familiar curves with interactive graphics. www.nytimes.com/interactive/...
nytimes.com
The U.S. Is Funding Fewer Grants in Every Area of Science and Medicine (Gift Article)
A quiet policy change means the government is making fewer bets on long-term science.
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Dan Starr @danstarrucdavis.bsky.social · 26/11/2025
This is our community!
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Dan Starr @danstarrucdavis.bsky.social · 10/11/2025
@padilla.senate.gov @schiff.senate.gov do not vote to open the govern without obtaining an extension of the ACA subsidies. Protect working class. Protect access to healthcare. DO NOT CAVE.
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Dan Starr @danstarrucdavis.bsky.social · 04/11/2025
Warning. ⚠️ If you are writing an NSF GRFP, new this year, you need official transcripts to apply. Beware. They will not review applications without official transcripts. ‼️
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Needhi Bhalla 💅🏽 @needhibhalla.bsky.social · 23/10/2025
@joann-trejo.bsky.social, @marymunson4.bsky.social and I have a commentary in @natcellbio.nature.com on recent attacks on DEI in biomedical research: "If scientific research, especially biomedical research, is meant to serve everyone, then it requires that everyone has an opportunity to participate"
nature.com
Scaling back DEI programmes and the loss of scientific talent
Nature Cell Biology - Programmes that support diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) in science are under attack in the USA. Data indicate that diversity in the scientific workforce increases...
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Dan Starr @danstarrucdavis.bsky.social · 06/10/2025
Submitting an R01 to NIH today. We're super proud of the work, and feel its important, but where is it going now?
media.tenor.com
a blurry picture of a person wearing red sunglasses and a colorful shirt
ALT: a blurry picture of a person wearing red sunglasses and a colorful shirt
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Josh Currie @joshcurrie.bsky.social · 29/09/2025
Just a reminder if you're getting a manuscript together (like we are) to thank your core facilities!
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Xiangyi Ding @xiangyiding.bsky.social · 23/09/2025
🎉Check out our new preprint!! 🧬We found that lamin mutations in muscular dystrophy don’t just affect the nucleus — they disrupt a nucleolar–ribosomal axis that reorganizes the entire cytoplasm. Very grateful to @danstarrucdavis.bsky.social, @gwgl.bsky.social and our lab for collaboration & support!
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GW Gant Luxton @gwgl.bsky.social · 23/09/2025
🧬 NEW Starr-Luxton Lab PREPRINT: Our 🌠grad student @XiangyiDing figured out why muscular dystrophy mutations cause such widespread cellular chaos. The answer wasn't what we expected - and it changes how we think about the disease. Thread🧵 (1/6). www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
biorxiv.org
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GW Gant Luxton @gwgl.bsky.social · 10/09/2025
biology.ucdavis.edu/news/worms-r...
biology.ucdavis.edu
Worms Reveal Just How Cramped Cells Really Are
In a new study published in Science Advances on September 10, a team of UC Davis researchers tracked the movement of fluorescent particles inside the cells of microscopic worms, providing unprecedente...
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GW Gant Luxton @gwgl.bsky.social · 10/09/2025
🧬Want the full story of our paper without the science jargon? Our @ucdavis.bsky.social department broke down our "cells are crowded AND constrained" findings in plain English! Perfect explanation of why worm cells are nothing like cultured cells 🪱🌠
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GW Gant Luxton @gwgl.bsky.social · 10/09/2025
🧬BREAKING!🪱Plot twist: Cells aren't meditation pools, they're overcrowded concerts with VIP ropes everywhere! Our study reveals worm cells are insanely crowded AND compartmentalized. Ribosomes = packing peanuts, ANC-1 = the bouncer! www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...
science.org
Giant KASH proteins and ribosomes establish distinct cytoplasmic biophysical properties in vivo
Living tissues maintain unique intracellular biophysical properties under the control of cytoplasmic constraints and crowding.
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Xiangyi Ding @xiangyiding.bsky.social · 10/09/2025
Thrilled to share that a big piece of my thesis here in the Starr–Luxton is now out in Science Advances! We discovered that the cytoplasm of living animal tissues is extremely crowded and constrained, maintained by ribosomes and the giant KASH protein ANC-1. www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...
science.org
Giant KASH proteins and ribosomes establish distinct cytoplasmic biophysical properties in vivo
Living tissues maintain unique intracellular biophysical properties under the control of cytoplasmic constraints and crowding.
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GW Gant Luxton @gwgl.bsky.social · 09/09/2025
🚨Our fabulous graduate student Selin's paper on how the KASH protein UNC-83 regulates the activity of kinesin-1 to control developmental stage-specific nuclear migration is out! Another great collaboration between the Starr-Luxton and MOM labs. www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
sciencedirect.com
The KASH protein UNC-83 differentially regulates kinesin-1 activity to control developmental stage-specific nuclear migration
Nuclear migration plays a fundamental role in development, requiring precise spatiotemporal control of bidirectional movement through dynein and kines…
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Ardem Patapoutian @ardemp.bskyverified.social · 05/09/2025
One of the best arguments I have read about DEI: Gift article from The New York Times. You can read it for free without a subscription. www.nytimes.com/2025/09/05/o...
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prathima14.bsky.social @prathima14.bsky.social · 21/08/2025
Would recommend constitutional law professor Steve Vladeck’s take which is more optimistic! www.tiktok.com/@steve_vlade...
tiktok.com
A quick video on Thursday’s #SCOTUS ruling re: NIH funding—a short-term win for Trump, but one that signals a big long-term loss. #supremecourt
TikTok video by Steve Vladeck
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Senator Scott Wiener @scottwiener.bsky.social · 02/08/2025
Trump is withholding $300M in science funding from UCLA based on antisemitism & inviting UCLA to “resolve this matter,” presumably by giving Trump control of the university. Having worked hard to stop antisemitism at UCLA & other UCs, I’ll say the following about this pretextual, fascist move:🧵
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Vanni Lab at UNIFR, Switzerland @labvanni.bsky.social · 23/07/2025
Happy to share the latest work from the lab, led by @mudgal17.bsky.social‬, in collaboration with the Weis lab @ethzurich.bsky.social. How do nuclear membranes fuse during NPC assembly? We answer this question in our latest work, where we identify a new mechanism for membrane fusion… (1/13)
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Wyoming Wormboy @wyomingwormboy.bsky.social · 19/07/2025
Thanks to @isakoditomassi.bsky.social and the McClintock Letters Initiative who motivated me to submit this.
wyomingnews.com
Fay: Cuts to research funding risk the collapse of U.S. science and technology
I started as an assistant professor of molecular biology at the University of Wyoming in 2001.
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Wyoming Wormboy @wyomingwormboy.bsky.social · 07/07/2025
While our whole field has been experiencing undeserved turmoil, a few of us have been fortunate enough to receive positive news on funding. This link describes positions that are now open in the Fay Lab. Perhaps some who’ve been displaced can find a home with us. 1/2 drive.google.com/file/d/1XuDO...
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Jeremy Berg @jeremymberg.bsky.social · 07/07/2025
Fascinating piece from Paul Krugman with Jonathan Gruber with a powerful argument for public funding of science. paulkrugman.substack.com/p/health-car... 1/n
paulkrugman.substack.com
Health Care: Jonathan Gruber
A key founding father of Obamacare on what comes next
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Charlotte Clymer @charlotteclymer.bsky.social · 04/07/2025
I’m thinking about him today. I hope he’d be proud of me. I hope my sense of citizenship has lived up to his. Happy Fourth. /thread Full essay here for easier sharing: charlotteclymer.substack.com/p/what-mr-ra...
charlotteclymer.substack.com
What Mr. Ramirez Taught Me
July Fourth means community.
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GW Gant Luxton @gwgl.bsky.social · 30/06/2025
Incredible plenary presentation by Starr-Luxton Lab student @xiangyiding.bsky.social at the International Worm Meeting! Who knew C. elegans cytoplasm has the viscosity of strawberry jam? 🍓 So proud! #Worm2025 #frontierscience @danstarrucdavis.bsky.social
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Genetics Society of America @genetics-gsa.bsky.social · 25/06/2025
Ellen Gregory, @gwgl.bsky.social‬, & @danstarrucdavis.bsky.social‬ show how heterochromatin helps cell nuclei migrate through tight spaces in #Celegans! Learn more in #GENETICS about the process of heterochromatin anchoring to the nuclear periphery that supports nuclei squeezing: buff.ly/kZttVdX
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GW Gant Luxton @gwgl.bsky.social · 28/06/2025
Thank you so much! It was such a joy to see Xiangyi's transformation through the MBL program. Looking forward to the blog post - and thanks for highlighting how these summer courses shape the next generation of scientists!
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Theanne Griffith, PhD 🇧🇧👩🏽‍🔬🇭🇷 @doctheagrif.bsky.social · 14/06/2025
Today I had the honor of speaking in front of nearly 3000 people today at the Woodland #NoKings rally. WE FEAR NO KING BECAUSE WE DONT HAVE ONE ✊🏾✊🏾✊🏾✊🏾 let’s gooooooo
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Carole Hom @clhom.bsky.social · 14/06/2025
@doctheagrif.bsky.social on fire 🔥 in Woodland today
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Graham Coop @gcbias.bsky.social · 07/06/2025
The university of California is a powerhouse of innovation, healthcare, and social mobility for California and the US.
Federal investment in UC research Federal funds are the university’s single most important source of support for research, accounting for more than half of UC’s total research awards.

Many of California’s leading industries grew from UC research, including biotechnology, computing, semiconductors, telecommunications and
agriculture.

Providing health care at UC University of California Health (UC Health) is one of the nation’s largest public academic health systems, serving
as a critical part of the California safety net.

UC trains approximately 36% of the medical residents in California
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Carole Hom @clhom.bsky.social · 07/06/2025
We hosted the 2024-2025 PREP@UC Davis research symposium today and added on a celebration of our alumni. Eight cohorts and "The most important thing I've done in my career. " -- @danstarrucdavis.bsky.social They are the future of our science. prep.ucdavis.edu/news/celebra...
prep.ucdavis.edu
Celebration of PREP@UC Davis
We hosted the 2024-2025 PREP@UC Davis research symposium today and wrapped a celebration of our alumni.So proud of them all. Open the .pdf and you'll see why!2024-25_PREP_retrospective.pdf
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Dan Starr @danstarrucdavis.bsky.social · 02/06/2025
There is a lot of chatter about how the proposed budget hurts research at our Universities. But there are other horrors. The maximum Pell Grant is proposed to be cut by $1,685 per student (23%) and Federal Work Study by 80%. This will hurt the working class, not the Ivy elites. 1/n
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Dr. Ahna Skop @ahnaskop.bsky.social · 16/05/2025
“I was starting to think that these worms have a way of bringing out the best in humans—generosity, cooperation, and an unbridled curiosity about life. But these days, the worm people are worried.”
bostonmagazine.com
Boston Has Worms (The Good Kind)
Inside the world of C. elegans worms and the scientists who know them best.
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Dan Starr @danstarrucdavis.bsky.social · 16/05/2025
Just another example of why we need to protect government funding. Private philanthropy and industry will never make up for what the government does.
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