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

After Endo's initial discovery of compactin, statin development and validation were made possible by collaboration, scientific exchanges, and competition between scientists in Japan and the US over > 15 years of painstaking research. 2/ pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/20467214/ www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...

pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov

A historical perspective on the discovery of statins - PubMed

Cholesterol is essential for the functioning of all human organs, but it is nevertheless the cause of coronary heart disease. Over the course of nearly a century of investigation, scientists have deve...

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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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Hironori Funabiki @hirofunabiki.bsky.social · 28/01/2025

These are the characters of "Fist of the North Star" with their famous quotes, like one by Raoh (left), " "I have no regrets for the life that I've lived!" en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Raoh

en.wikipedia.org

Raoh - Wikipedia

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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 · 24/01/2025

アメリカで育った子供たちが、時々日本語の単語を挟みながら英語で会話しているような感じですか。漢字が結構違うのがネックでしょうが、漢文習ってたことは思わぬところで役立ったりしますよね

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Hironori Funabiki @hirofunabiki.bsky.social · 22/01/2025

Here is our most recent reviewed preprint on MagIC-cryo-EM invented by @yarimura.bsky.social elifesciences.org/reviewed-pre... Please note that this is not the final version, or VOR. A revised version (www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...) is currently being reviewed at eLife.

elifesciences.org

MagIC-Cryo-EM: Structural determination on magnetic beads for scarce macromolecules in heterogeneous 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

According to this old map (must be in early-mid 70's), Dept of Biophysics had 女子控室(women's changing room?). Dr. Nanako Shigesada had her own office. When I was a student there, the infrastructure of Kyoto University was pathetic, but there was a power house for modern biology.

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

I see - I vaguely remembered that the Prof S's office was separated from his lab, which was located on the 4th floor of the southern extension (?).

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

Tomoko Nishiyama san shared this old map of Dept of Biophysics. The new women's restroom is located at the former 344, which was called イースト部屋 "(y)east room". According to this map, Prof. S' room was located at the other side of the same floor (the fact that I did not know).

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

In any case, I look forward to interacting with you here. 13/

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

The other social media were filled with accusations of how things are (not) supposed to be done. I now realized that this thread can be taken as one of those, but this may reflect my sentiment to the unattainable idealism. Hopefully all of this sound to you just stupid. 12/

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

Keeping the workplace safe is important, but it must allow for some risks from collisions and stupidities to make it fun and lively space. The fine balance is difficult but important, and I have been always amazed by human's sensitivity to subtly. 11/

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

Collisions may invite conflicts, confrontations and dramas, but these are opportunities to learn different perspectives and thus for personal growth. And so I recognize my job to increase the chances of collisions for my lab members. 10/

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

Another important source for creativity is collision. The collaboration with Katalin Kariko and Drew Weissman started after they met at a copy machine. This is why modern labs in the US and Europe are design to enhance chances of personal collisions. 9/

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

Perhaps different from "productive stupidity" discussed by Martin Schwartz here (journals.biologists.com/jcs/article/...), but creating atmosphere where people feel comfortable to do stupid things (in a constructive way) is important for creativity. 8/

journals.biologists.com

The importance of stupidity in scientific research

I recently saw an old friend for the first time in many years. We had been Ph.D. students at the same time, both studying science, although in different areas. She later dropped out of graduate school...

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

In the Mitsuhiro Yanagida lab at Kyoto Univ, I heard many legendary stories "The dark spot in the ceiling was made when somebody tried to make a wine in the lab and a cork popped up" "The scratch on the table was made by H who was so upset by the professor" 7/

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