iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Becky Johnson @entomososwin.bsky.social · 21/09/2026

I'm very excited to announce that I'll be joining the Entomology Department at Penn State University and starting a lab in the summer of 2027!!! The lab will focus on mosquito biology/physiology and mosquito-host interactions and how these impact viral transmission dynamics. More to come soon! 🎉🦟🔬

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Ryan Smith @vectorimmunity.bsky.social · 07/01/2026

👀There will be a Keystone Symposium with a focus on Vector-Pathogen Interactions to be held in Geneva, Switzerland in February 2027. It should be a great meeting and hope to see you there! www.keystonesymposia.org/conferences/...

keystonesymposia.org

Vector-Pathogen Interactions: From Vector Biology to Innovative Control Strategies | Keystone Symposia

Join us at the Keystone Symposia on Vector-Pathogen Interactions: From Vector Biology to Innovative Control Strategies, February 2027, in Geneva, with field leaders!

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derek guy @dieworkwear.bsky.social · 01/10/2025

Jane Goodall was my first childhood hero, as I loved animals as a kid and was inspired by her story. I still remember the National Geographic specials about her. RIP.

Jane Goodall reaches out and touches a small monkey.

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Mara Wilson @marawilson.bsky.social · 01/10/2025

Some of you may remember my rant about getting surprise charged $653 for a medically necessary ultrasound to screen for the cancer that killed my mother. Well, I wrote about it, and now my bad experience has been made into a cartoon for The Out of Network Network! open.substack.com/pub/outofnet...

open.substack.com

Paying $653 to See if I Had the Disease That Killed My Mother

Written by Mara Wilson / Illustrated by Emily Flake

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Becky Johnson @entomososwin.bsky.social · 19/08/2025

So great to finally have this out!!

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Becky Johnson @entomososwin.bsky.social · 05/08/2025

Today I found out that my NIH NIAID K99 looking at mosquito basement membrane repair processes was funded!!! Thank you to my mentor @brackneylab.bsky.social, my co-mentor Andrea Page-McCaw, my colleagues & letter writers, the outstanding people at NIH, and everyone else who has been so supportive!!

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Entomological Society of America @entsocamerica.bsky.social · 04/08/2025

NEWS: The @entsocamerica.bsky.social Governing Board has elected nine new Fellows of the Society for 2025: Joanna Chiu, Laura Harrington, John Heraty, Margaret Mayfield, Bob Peterson, Paula Shrewsbury, Andrew Suarez, Michael Ulyshen, and Jessica Ware. MORE: entsoc.org/news/press-r...

A collage of nine headshots featuring five women and four men of varying ages, all smiling or with neutral expressions, with a variety of backgrounds including outdoor scenes and plain backdrops.

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Chantal Vogels @chantalvogels.bsky.social · 31/07/2025

Our first Wolbachia paper now published in Nature Communications! 🦟 Check out Becky's thread! 👇

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Isabel @isabelott.bsky.social · 30/07/2025

Likewise thrilled to have been able to contribute to an amazing team effort on this! 🦟

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Becky Johnson @entomososwin.bsky.social · 03/07/2025

This was such a fun study with great collaborators! Glad to have it finally out. 🎉 We found that hemocytes actually help viruses disseminate to new organs within the mosquito.

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brackneylab @brackneylab.bsky.social · 01/07/2025

Despite all the shit going on, we have to celebrate our victories. New publication with @entomososwin.bsky.social and @vectorimmunity.bsky.social showing that hemocytes play a central role in disseminating flaviviruses to secondary tissues potentially functioning as a Trojan Horse(TBD) rdcu.be/euj4g

rdcu.be

Mosquito immune cells enhance dengue and Zika virus infection in Aedes aegypti

Nature Communications - Infection of mosquito immune cells by dengue and Zika virus enhances the spread of virus infection to mosquito tissues, such as the salivary glands, to promote virus...

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Jason Rasgon @vectorgen.bsky.social · 27/06/2025

New RasgonLab paper (ahead of print) published in Autophagy! By Dr. Sujit Pujhari & other former RasgonLab members "Sindbis virus is suppressed in the yellow fever mosquito Aedes aegypti by Atg6/BECN1 (autophagy-related 6)-mediated activation of autophagy" www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....

tandfonline.com

Sindbis virus is suppressed in the yellow fever mosquito aedes aegypti by Atg6/BECN1 (autophagy-related 6)-mediated activation of autophagy

Macroautophagy/autophagy is a critical modulator of pathogen invasion response in vertebrates and invertebrates. However, how it affects mosquito-borne viral pathogens that significantly burden pub...

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Dr. David Miller 🏳️‍🌈 @davidimiller.bsky.social · 22/05/2025

🧪 Detailed data viz NYT article, out today, on the extent of funding cuts at the National Science Foundation. This "broken pie chart" is neat & new to me: Powerfully shows the slowdown in new NSF awards across areas. www.nytimes.com/interactive/...

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Becky Johnson @entomososwin.bsky.social · 21/05/2025

No photo but saw my first one this morning!

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Stand Up for Science! @standupforscience.net · 07/03/2025

TODAY IS THE DAY! 🧪☀️⬇️ Join us at the Lincoln Memorial or your local site to Stand Up for Science!

Flyer for stand up for science--more information available at www.standupforscience2025.org

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Stand Up for Science! @standupforscience.net · 06/03/2025

WHERE WILL YOU BE TOMORROW?

Stand up for science flyer, happening on March 7th in DC & nationwide with more information at www.standupforscience2025.org

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The Transmitter @thetransmitter.bsky.social · 18/02/2025

A large portion of grants awarded by the U.S. National Institutes of Health cannot be funded for the foreseeable future because of an indefinite hold on submissions to the Federal Register, according to an email reviewed by The Transmitter. By @avaskham.bsky.social bit.ly/3X8ngz8

thetransmitter.org

Federal Register hold makes ‘end run’ around court pause on NIH funding freeze

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Katie Hinde @mammalssuck.bsky.social · 18/02/2025

I escaped poverty because I am a scientist. And I am a scientist because of the National Science Foundation. A 🧵:

A Lady Professor with brown hair and glasses, wearing a scarf in red, green, yellow, & black, a gift from an incredible lactation consultant, sitting in in front of cactus.

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Carl T. Bergstrom @carlbergstrom.com · 08/02/2025

I’ve been seething and grieving since yesterday’s Friday Night Massacre of NIH overheads, a seeming bit of bureaucratic trivial that will in fact destroy the US university system if unchecked. But I want to get away from budgets and rate breakdowns and F&A percentages for a moment. Humor me?

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Stephen Heard @stephenbheard.bsky.social · 07/02/2025

This mosquito is Uranotaenia sapphirina. Most of the time it looks pretty ordinary (right). But get the light just so (left) and it has a little surprise. (The other surprise is that it feeds on leeches and earthworms. No, really!)

Two photographs under a microscope of a mosquito. On the right, a specimen on a paper point; it looks like a pretty ordinary mosquito. On the left, one before mounting shows bright blue reflecting scales in a line down the middle of its thorax and in patches on both sides.

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Chantal Vogels @chantalvogels.bsky.social · 07/02/2025

📢New preprint! We studied the impact of successive feeding on inhibition of dengue virus by Wolbachia Key finding: mosquito feeding behavior matters, but Wolbachia remains effective🦟🦠 Study led by @entomososwin.bsky.social and Mallery Breban www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

biorxiv.org

Implications of successive blood feeding on Wolbachia-mediated dengue virus inhibition in Aedes aegypti mosquitoes

Dengue virus (DENV) is a mosquito-borne virus that poses a continued and increasing threat to public health. A promising strategy to mitigate the burden of DENV is introgression of the virus-inhibitin...

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Becky Johnson @entomososwin.bsky.social · 29/12/2024

Can any birders help me with an ID? I saw this murre at Crescent Beach SP in Maine on Dec. 28th. I'm btwn a thick-billed murre and a common murre (Merlin thinks thick-billed is more likely and the wing seems to match that better but there's white on the head that looks more like a common murre?

Side view of a plump black and white bird that somewhat resembles a penguin lies on its belly on a beach covered in seaweed

Front view of same plump black and white bird lying on the beach

Close up of the head of the black and white bird

Another side view of plump black and white bird lying on the beach

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Josh Gibson, Ph.D. @drstrangeant.bsky.social · 19/12/2024

Closeup of the business bits.

image of the mouthparts of a tick created from microCT data

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Chloé Lahondère @lahonderelab.bsky.social · 10/12/2024

I created a starter pack highlighting Women in the field of Disease Vector Biology and Ecology: go.bsky.app/E7wuQus Please share and let me know if you’d like to be added! 🦟🦠🪰

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🍁 Alex Smith 🍁 @alexsmithants.bsky.social · 12/11/2024

My first #entomology starter pack filled up (only 150 fantastic folk allowed) 🎉#Entomology starter pack # 2 is now being populated! 🎉 Did I miss you? Aplogies! Reply to this post and I'll remedy that! #StarterPack #Invertebrate 🪲🐞🐜🐛🦟🪳🦋🐝🦗🪰🕸️ go.bsky.app/JVRwhS1

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Shaun Cross @shauntcross.bsky.social · 07/11/2024

Made a starter package for vector-borne disease folks! Please feel free to comment if you'd like to be added or see somebody missing. This is just the start and grabbed as many as I could quickly find! 🦟 go.bsky.app/U8D4FV2

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Becky Johnson @entomososwin.bsky.social · 07/11/2024

During the pandemic, like many others, I picked up some new hobbies-including birding! The other day I got to see two female harlequin ducks, a lifer for me! I don't have a camera set up (yet) but got a few photos through my binoculars.

Two small female harlequin ducks swimming in the water. White cheek patches are visible.

Single harlequin female swimming in the water (the second had recently dove sending ripples across the water). White cheek patches are visible

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Becky Johnson @entomososwin.bsky.social · 05/04/2024

This was a really cool project and fun collaboration with @vectorimmunity.bsky.social, Hyeogsun Kwon and David Hall! In this work we found an unexpected role for hemocytes in virus dissemination!

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Ryan Smith @vectorimmunity.bsky.social · 05/04/2024

Excited to share our latest work! Together with @brackneylab.bsky.social and @entomososwin.bsky.social we demonstrate that mosquito immune cells act as "trojan horses" to help spread DENV and ZIKV infection from the midgut to other mosquito tissues! www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

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