iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Reposted by Hironori Funabiki

The Rockefeller University @rockefeller.edu · 24/09/2026

Rockefeller's @hirofunabiki.bsky.social studies how chromosomes are copied and maintained. In this Q&A, he discusses how this #basicresearch is shedding light on #cancer, rare #immunediseases, and even how our bodies recognize #viruses. 🔗: bit.ly/4xF17YV

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Hironori Funabiki @hirofunabiki.bsky.social · 09/04/2026

Excited to share our structural insights into how microtubules differentially guide phosphorylation of kinetochore-microtubule regulators, Ndc80 and MCAK, for chromosome segregation. Heroic efforts by Yiming Niu with a fun collaboration with Jennifer DeLuca lab! www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

science.org

Microtubules guide Aurora B substrate geometries for accurate chromosome segregation

Cryo-EM reveals how kinetochore-microtubule attachment is regulated by Aurora B substrate accessibility on microtubules.

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Reposted by Hironori Funabiki

The Rockefeller University @rockefeller.edu · 29/12/2025

A new method from @hirofunabiki.bsky.social dramatically improved cryo-EM’s imaging capabilities, enabling visualization of molecules that are very rare, very small, or hard to produce naturally—including some viruses. #RockefellerScience #YearInReview 🔗: bit.ly/4awR4gv

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Reposted by Hironori Funabiki

MIT Koch Institute @mitkochinstitute.bsky.social · 22/05/2025

Are you a grad student pursuing the life sciences or biomedical research outside the U.S.? Applications now open for the Angelika Amon Young Scientist Award until June 13. Enter to win $1,000 USD & a chance to present your work & network w/ MIT faculty. buff.ly/F7s94vW

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Hironori Funabiki @hirofunabiki.bsky.social · 20/05/2025

The peer-reviewed VOR for the MagIC-cryo-EM paper by @yarimura.bsky.social‬ and @1001hak.bsky.social‬ is finally published! Congrats Yasu!

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Hironori Funabiki @hirofunabiki.bsky.social · 12/03/2025

In preparation for the lecture tomorrow, I opened "The Cell in Development and Heredity" by E.B. Wilson (Columbia Univ), and realized that this 3rd edition was published in 100 years ago. So many things happened since then, including the fact that I, a Japanese Prof in NY, own and read the book.

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Hironori Funabiki @hirofunabiki.bsky.social · 08/03/2025

Even "useless" objects can be appreciated - arts are indispensable for human society. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hyperar... Biologists know that redundant or non-essential parts often play important roles. Still, human society must decide on priorities, and this requires justifications.

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Hironori Funabiki @hirofunabiki.bsky.social · 28/02/2025

I must note that the Japanese scientist Akira Endo isolated statin (compactin) from the mold in 1972, after coming back to Japan from his 2 years of biochemistry study in Albert Einstein College of Medicine, NY, where he recognized the major heart health issues among people in the US. 1/

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Reposted by Hironori Funabiki

John Maciejowski @johnmaciejowski.bsky.social · 17/02/2025

Please check out our preprint where we find that mitotic transcription helps ensure ecDNA inheritance through chromosomal tethering: www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

biorxiv.org

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Reposted by Hironori Funabiki

Adam Bonin @adambonin.bsky.social · 15/02/2025

Engraving on the exterior of the United States Department of Justice headquarters.

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Hironori Funabiki @hirofunabiki.bsky.social · 12/02/2025

　A cool innovation to make live-immunofluorescence microscopy!

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Reposted by Hironori Funabiki

Prasad Jallepalli, MD, PhD @prasad.bsky.social · 08/02/2025

this is a very interesting slide deck from Ropes & Gray, one of the most prestigious & high-caliber law firms in the US tl;dr we have very good litigators on this issue

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Reposted by Hironori Funabiki

Needhi Bhalla 💅🏽 @needhibhalla.bsky.social · 05/02/2025

Useful and great guidance and a script on how to contact your congressional representatives to advocate for federal scientific funding. Thank you @ascbiology.bsky.social! If this is your battle, start here!

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Hironori Funabiki @hirofunabiki.bsky.social · 02/02/2025

Enjoying a great okonomiyaki in Bushwick, Brooklyn, after being inspired by "Solitary Gourmet"

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Reposted by Hironori Funabiki

Li Zhao @lizhao.bsky.social · 31/01/2025

So sad to hear of the passing of Scott Hawley. In 2008, Michael Ashburner, Scott Hawley, and Casey Bergman held a Drosophila genetics and genomics course in China. This course was instrumental in shaping me as a junior researcher, and I am forever grateful about this eye-opening experience.

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Reposted by Hironori Funabiki

Alex Merz 🇺🇸🇨🇦🇺🇦 @merz.bsky.social · 28/01/2025

Part of a letter I sent today to my Congressional Representative and Senators.

In October of last year, my UW colleague David Baker received the Nobel Prize in Chemistry for his breakthrough creation of an entirely new technology: protein design. The key paper describing the breakthrough had three senior authors: Baker, Varani, and Stoddard. All live and work in Seattle. All were funded to do that work by grants from the NIH. Without that funding, none of this would have happened. Baker did his work in the building where I work.

Before Baker, three other scientists building received Nobel Prizes for work done in our building alone: Hartwell, Krebs, and Fisher. Their work has led to critical treatments for cancer and other diseases. Over at the Fred Hutch, NIH-funded research led to the first bone marrow transplants — another medical breakthrough — and another Nobel Prize (Thomas).

Every one of these scientists did their work with NIH funding. The NIH generates jobs and fuels the economy. Estimates for the return on investment range from $2.46 per dollar to more than $4.00 per dollar invested. NIH funding generates lifesaving cures for devastating diseases. And NIH funding drives American supremacy in the life sciences, including medicine and agriculture.

All of that is on the precipice of destruction.

https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/trump-cancels-science-reviews-at-nih-worlds-largest-public-biomedical/

Meanwhile, research in Europe and Asia charges ahead. They will not wait for us. We lose jobs; we lose experience; we lose expertise; we lose patents and other intellectual property; we fail to invent lifesaving cures and bring them to market. Those benefits instead accrue to our global competitors. We are setting the seed corn of American supremacy in biomedical research aflame, and for what?

I urgently ask you to do everything in your power to save and advance the scientific enterprise. Your colleagues in the Senate must be persuaded that there is no alternative. The nation's wellbeing demands nothing less.

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Reposted by Hironori Funabiki

Needhi Bhalla 💅🏽 @needhibhalla.bsky.social · 28/01/2025

I just contacted my representatives about the nomination of RFK, Jr and the recent executive orders. Here is what I wrote in my email or said to the staffer on the phone: Hello- I am writing/calling on several topics:

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Reposted by Hironori Funabiki

Fred Hutch Basic Sciences Division @basicsci.fredhutch.org · 24/01/2025

Check out a fantastic @elife.bsky.social article highlighting @yarimura.bsky.social’s MagIC #cryoEM technique - a method using specialized magnetic beads that makes it possible to study the structure of proteins from dilute samples. elifesciences.org/articles/105...

elifesciences.org

Cryogenic Electron Microscopy: MagIC beads for scarce macromolecules

Specialized magnetic beads that bind target proteins to a cryogenic electron microscopy grid make it possible to study the structure of protein complexes from dilute samples.

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Hironori Funabiki @hirofunabiki.bsky.social · 07/12/2024

今晩の会食で、谷崎潤一郎が話題に。思春期に祖父の書棚で見つけた『鍵』を密かに手にした体験が、40年以上の時を経て、初めて伏線として回収される。

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Hironori Funabiki @hirofunabiki.bsky.social · 01/12/2024

A thought on stupidity and creativity Last week, I visited a floor where I spent 6 years as a PhD student in Kyoto Univ. The room used to be my lab was converted into a women's restroom. I feel a bit sad, but it was an important improvement for female researchers. 1/

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Reposted by Hironori Funabiki

Kazuhiro Maeshima @kazu-maeshima.bsky.social · 30/11/2024

We are seeking a motivated postdoc to join our lab! Our research focuses on live-cell imaging/analysis to reveal how chromatin behaves in living cells and how its behavior contributes to cellular functions. www.nature.com/articles/s41... www.science.org/doi/10.1126/... Interested? Please DM me!

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Hironori Funabiki @hirofunabiki.bsky.social · 29/11/2024

Well, here is the new start... (Yoshida shrine, Kyoto)

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