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Lindsey R. F. Backman

@lbackman.bsky.social
941 followers 600 following 92 posts

Whitehead Fellow and PI at Whitehead Institute | Exploring how human microbiome anaerobes cope with oxidative stress | Chemistry PhD at MIT, Chemistry BS at UF | she/her | Opinions are my own

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Reposted by Lindsey R. F. Backman
HHMI @hhmi-science.bsky.social · 18/11/2025
Calling all rising juniors & seniors: Interested in biological or biomedical research? Applications for our ’26 Summer Undergraduate Research Experience Program are now open! Nine weeks, hands-on research, & mentorship from some of the nation’s top scientists — learn more: bit.ly/CechFellows
bit.ly
Summer Undergraduate Research Experience | HHMI
The Cech Fellows Program is a paid, nine-week summer research experience empowering the next generation of scientific leaders.
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Lindsey R. F. Backman @lbackman.bsky.social · 01/07/2025
My best friend from childhood visited my lab with her kids today. One of her sons asked if lava is ever involved in my experiments… I disappointedly had to say no… not yet 😂🫠
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Lindsey R. F. Backman @lbackman.bsky.social · 23/06/2025
Woke up to a note I had apparently written on my phone in the middle of the night that just said “think about solubility”. I do know what I was trying to troubleshoot, but I love that my subconscious self thought that was an important, helpful note. Maybe I’ll just “think about solubility” today.
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Carolyn Bertozzi @carolynbertozzi.bskyverified.social · 19/06/2025
www.kpbs.org/podcasts/kpb...
kpbs.org
Nobel laureate on how Trump's cuts are hurting science
Neuroscientist, biologist and 2021 Nobel Prize winner Ardem Patapoutian joined Midday Edition to talk about how the Trump administration's effort to cut back on science spending is impacting researche...
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Mala Radhakrishnan @atomicromances.bsky.social · 11/06/2025
CHEMISTS We experiment, muse, observe interactions (...and constantly work to achieve a reaction!). POETS We experiment, muse, observe interactions (...and constantly work to achieve a reaction!).
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Carolyn Bertozzi @carolynbertozzi.bskyverified.social · 09/06/2025
I urge others to similarly support our patriots at NIH who use their training and talents to improve human health and position the US as the world’s leader in biomedical discovery, innovation and technology development 🙏
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Elizabeth Villa @thevillalab.bsky.social · 10/06/2025
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Lindsey R. F. Backman @lbackman.bsky.social · 26/05/2025
As a structural biologist starting her independent lab, this is an exciting rite of passage 🤩
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Lindsey R. F. Backman @lbackman.bsky.social · 23/05/2025
A colleague said something today that really conveyed how I was feeling… they expressed how, not only does everything feel so overwhelming right now, but even the moments that would typically be celebrated and give us motivation and purpose, feel too heavy at this moment. These are bizarre times.
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Harmit Singh Malik @harmitmalik.bsky.social · 22/05/2025
This is scary. Especially that someone who does not know the meaning of habeus corpus or due process is allowed to wield so much power. These are not ‘the best people’.
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Ed Boyden @eboyden3.bsky.social · 22/05/2025
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Tami Lieberman @contaminatedsci.bsky.social · 01/05/2025
Do people in the same household share strains when they have the same species? How many cells transmit when a strain is shared? Can strain composition be dynamic when species composition is stable? We answer these and related questions for the facial skin microbiome in our latest paper. 🧵[1/10]
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Cathy Drennan @drennanlab.bsky.social · 29/04/2025
Congratulations Yukiko. So well deserved.
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Joe Katz @joekatz45.bsky.social · 22/04/2025
At least 28 Florida State University students experienced their *second* mass shooting last week - they were at Parkland. They've written an open letter to Ron DeSantis against campus carry and attempts to lower the gun purchase age and for a stronger safe storage law and mental health services.
docs.google.com
PUBLIC: Governor DeSantis from Parkland/FSU Students
Governor DeSantis, We are students from Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School and Florida State University. Two campuses terrorized by deadly shootings. Two communities forever shaped by a crisis your...
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Lindsey R. F. Backman @lbackman.bsky.social · 19/04/2025
Spending the weekend in Cape Cod with my parents, but we found a way to be part of today’s #HandsOff protests! Provicetown’s official rally isn’t until Monday, but we joined a small but passionate group today at their town hall.
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Lindsey R. F. Backman @lbackman.bsky.social · 15/04/2025
I defended my PhD thesis 3 years ago… it’s surreal to now be leading my own academic team. Times in science are bizarre and hard… the bacterial chemistry we’re studying is also bizarre, yet fun. I’m grateful to sometimes escape the stress of the world by focusing on how cool nature and microbes are.
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Cathy Drennan @drennanlab.bsky.social · 05/04/2025
Fred Greene was very kind to me when I started my faculty position at MIT Chemistry in 1999. He made me feel welcome and I will always appreciate that.
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Lindsey R. F. Backman @lbackman.bsky.social · 05/04/2025
Before and after… Time for a spring haircut for our unique chihuahua/poodle/yorkie mutt, Lumo ❤️🌸🌼🌱
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Tami Lieberman @contaminatedsci.bsky.social · 04/04/2025
Job opportunity in SF to work at a small startup with the first PhD graduate of the Lieberman Lab!
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Cathy Drennan @drennanlab.bsky.social · 04/04/2025
I am right there with you Krystle - the cancellation of MOSAIC started me crying in my office. Programs that support young scientists in the US are all being cancelled. It is heartbreaking.
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Lindsey R. F. Backman @lbackman.bsky.social · 04/04/2025
Today marks 2 years since I got my lab space. Being a new PI isn't easy, especially during these times... but my lab has grown, I've written many grants, and we've had some of the most exciting discoveries of my life that we are only on the cusp of exploring. Times are hard, but we are persisting.
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Jeremy Berg @jeremymberg.bsky.social · 01/04/2025
You look at science (or at least talk of it) as some sort of demoralizing invention of man, something apart from real life, and which must be cautiously guarded and kept separate from everyday existence. But science and everyday life cannot and should not be separated. Rosalind Franklin (to father)
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Carl T. Bergstrom @carlbergstrom.com · 30/03/2025
1. Another Friday afternoon massacre of sorts: NIH just rescinded its Scientific Integrity Policy. h/t @lizborkowski.bsky.social
grants.nih.gov
NOT-OD-25-080: Rescission of the Final Scientific Integrity Policy of the National Institutes of Health
NIH Funding Opportunities and Notices in the NIH Guide for Grants and Contracts: Rescission of the Final Scientific Integrity Policy of the National Institutes of Health NOT-OD-25-080. OD
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SmithLabUMBC @smithlabumbc.bsky.social · 28/03/2025
Our 28-yr U-RISE/MARC NIH grant that has served over 500 students and made us one of the top institutions producing African American students who go on to receive MD/PhDs in the United States was just cancelled yesterday. What a unnecessary and tragic end to such an impactful program...
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Brandon (“YOU’RE WELCOME”) Greene @keepitgreene.bsky.social · 26/03/2025
This is finally out!!! Nitric oxide (NO) irreversibly inhibits glycyl radical and radical SAM enzymes associated with anaerobic central metabolism relevant to numerous human pathogens. pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/... 1/n
pubs.acs.org
Nitric Oxide Inhibition of Glycyl Radical Enzymes and Their Activases
Innate immune response cells produce high concentrations of the free radical nitric oxide (NO) in response to pathogen infection. The antimicrobial properties of NO include nonspecific damage to essen...
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Harmit Singh Malik @harmitmalik.bsky.social · 25/03/2025
As unbelievably brazen and bizarre #Signalgate revealing US classified information is, I wonder how many academics feel a grudging kinship with some folks in the group based on their multiple academic experiences in 'reply-all' disasters... "Please take me off this email thread." indeed.
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Lindsey R. F. Backman @lbackman.bsky.social · 24/03/2025
Big day for the Backman lab! First student to submit a thesis from my lab. Annie Class, an undergrad student in the Harvard MCB program, submitted a beautiful senior thesis today. I’m so proud of all her hard work studying metalloprotrins associated with metabolic bacterial microcompartments. 👩🏻‍🔬🔬🦠
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Harmit Singh Malik @harmitmalik.bsky.social · 13/03/2025
Current mood
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Lindsey R. F. Backman @lbackman.bsky.social · 11/03/2025
Was wonderful to have Leslie Vosshall (@leslievosshall.bsky.social) visit @whiteheadinstitute.bsky.social today. Here's just a few scientists who have benefitted from @hhmi.org programs. I'm not sure if I would have earned a PhD, much less be starting my own lab now, without HHMI Gilliam and EXROP.
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Sean Elliott @profsje.bsky.social · 07/03/2025
@drennanlab.bsky.social and I, refusing to sit down and to shut up.
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Cathy Drennan @drennanlab.bsky.social · 07/03/2025
We Stood Up For Science 2025
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Lindsey R. F. Backman @lbackman.bsky.social · 08/03/2025
Sadly couldn’t attend Boston’s Stand Up for Science rally in person due to mobility issues (a month of shingles on a leg and two sprained ankles), but grateful to @drennanlab.bsky.social for taking my sign and making my voice heard. I never thought my career would be controversial. Research matters.
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Mike Feigin 🥯 @mikefeigin.bsky.social · 07/03/2025
Today is the day!! Absolutely in awe about what a bunch of grad students were able to pull off when they looked around and realized no one else was standing up.
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Stand Up for Science! @standupforscience.net · 06/03/2025
SO MANY STAND UP FOR SCIENCE EVENTS TO CHOOSE FROM—153 and COUNTING! To get more information on our local events and to register your own, head to www.standupforscience2025.org/local-event-information/ ☀️⬇️🌎
List of Stand Up for Science events—official events in red, solidarity events in blue.
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Lindsey R. F. Backman @lbackman.bsky.social · 06/03/2025
To bring some joy to your newsfeeds… my dog LUMO got a free professional photoshoot at our apartment, and these were her results. I truly adopted the most awkward (but adorable) dog at the shelter. Always rooting for the underdog 😂❤️🐕
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Lindsey R. F. Backman @lbackman.bsky.social · 06/03/2025
If I hear the phrase “that’s what science is about” one more time from a politician attacking federal scientific institutions and asserting how they know better, my head might explode… 🫠🤯
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Nima Sharifi MD @nimasharifimd.bsky.social · 27/02/2025
More tragic news about NIH and NIH science. Grant system is frozen and intramural program is being slashed. All will claw back on treatments and cures for cancer and other human diseases. This can’t be what the public wants. 🧪 www.science.org/content/arti...
science.org
NIH ban on renewing senior scientists adds to assaults on its in-house research
Policy follows firings of tenure-track scientists and suspension of training programs
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Leslie B Vosshall PhD @leslievosshall.bsky.social · 24/02/2025
HHMI Science Department is hiring! We are looking for an outstanding immunologist/ cancer biologist to join our senior leadership team. Remote work eligible, 24 weeks a year onsite, possibility of running a small lab with HHMI support @hhmi.bsky.social hhmi.wd1.myworkdayjobs.com/External/job...
hhmi.wd1.myworkdayjobs.com
Senior Director - Scientific Officer
Current HHMI Employees, click here to apply via your Workday account. The Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI) advances the discovery and sharing of scientific knowledge to benefit us all. As a biom...
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Jacquelyn Gill @jacquelyngill.bsky.social · 21/02/2025
I'm handling a manuscript and have invited seventeen reviewers. So far, the responses are: no response, declined, declined, no response, declined, declined, declined, declined, declined, no response, no response. One person has turned in a review and I'm still trying to find a second reviewer.
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Lindsey R. F. Backman @lbackman.bsky.social · 20/02/2025
So far in 2025, while the country and US research institutions are falling apart, I managed to (1) get stress induced shingles while writing an NIH grant, and now (2) slip on ice leading to a severe ankle sprain (on same leg with shingles) that has me on crutches. Can I get some good luck soon? 🙃
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Tami Lieberman @contaminatedsci.bsky.social · 19/02/2025
If you have friends or family who live in districts with Republican legislators, please encourage them to call and urge the legislators to demand that NIH funding resumes.
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Science Magazine @science.org · 19/02/2025
Scientists are now organizing events, called Stand Up for Science, on 7 March in Washington, D.C., and state capitals. So far, they have attracted more than 100 volunteers from some 30 states who are hoping to rally support for research as a public good. scim.ag/4328LAD
scim.ag
‘I really wanted something to happen.’ The students behind the Stand Up for Science protests
New group hopes to turn out researchers for 7 March demonstrations against Trump administration policies
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Jonathan Lambert @jonlambert.bsky.social · 18/02/2025
NEW: NSF confirmed that they fired 168 employees today, out of their staff of ~1,500 feds. This includes some people who'd finished their 1-year probationary periods, which were extended to 2-years last month without explanation. More to come.
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Jeremy Berg @jeremymberg.bsky.social · 18/02/2025
The "schedule" of upcoming National Advisory Council meetings (based on posted dates) No special meetings have been posted. These meetings must be announced at least 15 days in advance in the Federal Register Once communications and Federal Register posting bans are lifted these may change...
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Harmit Singh Malik @harmitmalik.bsky.social · 15/02/2025
If you worked in an HR department and fired a whole bunch of people to meet a quota, then realized you actually need these people to run the company, and then had to rehire the same people (which might be kind of difficult now), the next person the HR department should be firing is you.
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K.T. Elliott @ktelliottmicro.bsky.social · 15/02/2025
I was pretty critical about @asm.org's anticipatory obedience to the EOs so I want to amplify this statement & point out some positive actions - They admitted they'd made mistakes & apologized to affected individuals and in a town hall - They committed to holding ABRCMS 2025. This is a big 1/
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ASM @asm.org · 15/02/2025
ASM stands firm in its commitment to diversity, equity and inclusion, as such efforts are critical to advancing the microbial sciences for everyone. Read our statement: asm.org/Press-Releas...
asm.org
ASM’s Commitment to Diversity, Equity and Inclusion
The American Society for Microbiology stands firm in its commitment to diversity, equity and inclusion, as such efforts are critical to advancing the microbial sciences for everyone.
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Matthias C. Rillig @mrillig.bsky.social · 15/02/2025
A thallus-forming N-fixing fungus-cyanobacterium symbiosis from subtropical forests A fungus living in a structure formed by cyanobacteria - not the other way around! www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...
science.org
A thallus-forming N-fixing fungus-cyanobacterium symbiosis from subtropical forests
Fungus lives within cyanobacterial sheaths in a thallus-forming symbiosis, named “phyllosymbia.”
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Chrystal Starbird @drstarbird.bsky.social · 12/02/2025
Triple down. You will NEVER make me feel bad for supporting my trainees, from all backgrounds, in the way I do, or for thinking science (and everywhere else) benefits from the creative collective of many voices.
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