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Maria Bustillo

@mbustill.bsky.social
226 followers 509 following 12 posts

developmental biologist, fruit fly enthusiast | Wellesley College alumna | Leading Edge Fellow | she/her 🏳️‍🌈| views and opinions = mine

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Reposted by Maria Bustillo
Mark Peifer (He, him) @peiferlabunc.bsky.social · 28/09/2026
Are you looking for a postdoc exploring the cell biology of development, defining how cells change shape and move? Do you want to develop a research program & teaching skills preparing you for a position at a college or small University? Our new NIH grant will support those goals 1/n Please share
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Meike van der Heijden @meikeesther.bsky.social · 17/06/2026
The problem: most developmental circuits make more connections than are ultimately used. These connections compete with each other for selection in final circuits. Atypical circuit assembly arises when functional inputs are favored over dysfunctional ones. Is that good or bad?
An immunofluorescent image of the cerebellum with Purkinje cells in green and some connecting climbing fibers in purple.
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Meike van der Heijden @meikeesther.bsky.social · 17/06/2026
New Preprint: Competitive Olivocerebellar Input Selection Promotes Resilient Circuit Formation -- Join the ride for some developmental neuroscience, stay for some pretty pictures. doi.org/10.64898/202...
doi.org
Competitive Olivocerebellar Input Selection Promotes Resilient Circuit Formation
Many neural circuits undergo competitive input selection, a process in which supernumerary connections compete for innervation territory on target cells. This process can create atypical circuits when...
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MwahahahahahadScientist @mads100tist.bsky.social · 17/09/2026
We are at a critical point in which we need to decide whether we like our job and whether we like our colleagues, and whether we like our community, and what we can do to make it stronger. Otherwise, isolationism will lead to communities going the way of the Dodo 🧪
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MwahahahahahadScientist @mads100tist.bsky.social · 17/09/2026
You know what's also interactive? Reading the paper. Talk to your colleagues about the paper you just read. Tell them why you loved it. Tell them why you hated it. And even better: invite the authors to talk about their paper 🧪
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Jane Rosenzweig @janerosenzweig.bsky.social · 17/09/2026
Here's what I like about this: Instead of answering the question, what should we do about AI, these outcomes answer the question, what do we want our students to be able to do? Yes, implementation has new challenges now because of AI. And in some fields, what we want our students to be able to do/1
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Sweta Agrawal @hokuba.bsky.social · 16/09/2026
Towards this end, Wayne developed a novel behavioral assay, informally referred to as the "Hokie Pokie." Flies are tethered and flying in the dark, and then we raise a platform to contact their legs and see what happens.
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Sweta Agrawal @hokuba.bsky.social · 16/09/2026
The Agrawal lab has published its first paper! "Sticking the landing: leg mechanosensory feedback coordinates the transition from flight to landing" www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6... This project was led by a technician in the lab, Tse-Wei (Wayne) Kuo. Brief 🧵on what we found
agrawal-lab-workspace.slack.com
Slack
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Dr. Jaye Gardiner @jayeperview.bsky.social · 17/09/2026
An article was written up about me and my research for the Tufts newspaper! Check it out here: now.tufts.edu/2026/09/10/l...
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Noah Whiteman @nkwhiteman.bsky.social · 15/09/2026
Fly people: please consider nominating your PhD student who completed their dissertation in any area of Drosophila research between July 2025 and December 2026 for the @genetics-gsa.bsky.social Larry Sandler Award. Nominations due by November 12: genetics-gsa.org/awards/larry...
genetics-gsa.org
Larry Sandler Award - Genetics Society of America
The Larry Sandler Award was established in 1988 by the colleagues, friends, and students of Dr. Larry Sandler after his untimely death in 1987. The award serves to honor Dr. Sandler for his many contr...
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Shefali @iamshef.bsky.social · 11/09/2026
Hey #Drosophila folks - the #flycross #mentee survey is open for #grad students, #postdoc and #pretenure faculty. ~95 mentors from across the world, with diverse expertise. The co-chairs @shyama13.bsky.social and @jocmcdonald.bsky.social have done a phenomenal work in taking the program forward 🎉
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Itai Yanai @itaiyanai.bsky.social · 09/09/2026
PhD students: this is happening tomorrow so there is still time to sign up (already 90 participants registered!).
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Virtual Gastrulation Zoom Talks @vgzt2021.bsky.social · 07/09/2026
🧬✨ VGZT SEASON 8 IS HERE! ✨🧬 Calling all developmental biology enthusiasts 👀 A new season of Virtual Gastrulation Zoom Talks is officially underway, and we have an exciting speaker line-up coming your way! Check out the poster below for everything coming up in Season 8! 👇 #devbio#gastrulation#sci
VGZT season 8
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Ele Willoughby @minouette.bsky.social · 05/09/2026
This is an obvious choice for me. Lovely red Cuprite might be full of copper but Orpiment, which literally means gold pigment is a poisonous pigment used since antiquity! Vote Orpiment! #MinCup26 But, have I got a story for you… Orpiment is used by the deep-sea worm Paralvinella hessleri 🧵
popsci.com
Deep sea worm wears Rembrandt’s favorite toxic color
Rembrandt painted with it. This worm survives on it. Say hello to orpiment.
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Shyama Nandakumar @shyama13.bsky.social · 31/08/2026
#drosophila folks, the Mentor survey for FlyCROSS closes soon! Please sign up using the link below, please RT and spread the word!! @flybase.bsky.social @fly-eds.bsky.social @fly-jedi.bsky.social @genetics-gsa.bsky.social @iamshef.bsky.social docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1F...
docs.google.com
2026 FlyCROSS Survey For Mentors
We appreciate you taking the time and volunteering to be a mentor! Add dmelcross@gmail.com to your email address book or safe sender list, so that you can receive our emails. To be a participating men...
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EMILY WILSON @emilyrcwilson.bsky.social · 22/07/2026
Odysseus repeatedly tells lies about coming from Crete. Crete is a land of a past that never happened. The Cretan cover says: As you read this Odyssey, think about lying, identity, story-telling, myth, and whether the past can ever be truly recaptured.
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AAUP @aaup.org · 22/07/2026
The White House didn’t weigh scientific merit or alleged noncompliance of grant terms when they cut billions in life-saving research, they just looked for words they didn’t like. Blue states were specifically targeted for defunding.
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Developmental Biology @devbiol.bsky.social · 22/07/2026
#DBfeature A tribute to Gail R Martin, mouse geneticist and mentor extraordinaire (April 12, 1944 - Feb 9, 2026) By Alexandra Joyner doi.org/10.1016/j.ydbio.2026.05.007
Gail Martin looking at the camera, sitting on a bench in front of a lily pad pond in her garden in Berkeley. Photo from Brigid Hogan.
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Anna Kornbluh @annakornbluh.bsky.social · 20/07/2026
the best day for the presidents of every R1 to hold a press conference screaming that higher ed is our second largest export and destroying it is economic sabotage and soft power detonation was Jan 21st 2025. the next best day is tomorrow.
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Mark Peifer (He, him) @peiferlabunc.bsky.social · 18/06/2026
The array of organs in the animal body differ dramatically in their architecture, but cell-cell adhesion mediated by cadherins is a common principle. Our lab usually focuses on epithelia but cadherins are also active in migrating mesenchymal cells like these migrating testis myoblasts 1/n 🧪
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Nature Cell Biology @natcellbio.nature.com · 15/06/2026
🏳️‍🌈This June, we celebrate Pride by discussing with @gunawanlab.bsky.social about his personal and academic journey as an LGBTQIA+ immigrant. Happy Pride month! #PrideinSTEM #LGBT 👉https://rdcu.be/forCt www.nature.com/articles/s41...
nature.com
A scientist can come from anywhere - Nature Cell Biology
This June, we celebrate Pride by discussing with Felix Gunawan, assistant professor at the University of Toronto and co-affiliate group leader at the University of Münster, about his personal and acad...
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Leading Edge Fellows Program @leadingedgeprogram.bsky.social · 09/06/2026
We are thrilled to announce the 2026 Zara Weinberg Leading Edge Fellows! 40 remarkable postdocs pursuing transformative research in biological/biomedical sciences. This is the 7th Leading Edge cohort and we are so excited to welcome them! www.leadingedgesymposium.org/fellows/
Congratulations to the 2026 Zara Weinberg Leading Edge Fellows! 
Airi Yoshimoto, Yijun Yang, Alexandra Wells, Simran Virdi, Archana Venkataraman, Emery Usher, Marianna Tannus Ruckert, Wenzhi Song, Kathryn Shelley, Selin Schamiloglu, Julia Peloggia de Castro, Ines Patop, Ruhi Patel, Suranjana Pal, Bernie Simone Owusu Yaw, LaShae Nicholson, Sivapratha Nagappan Chettiar, Dallas Mould, Jessica Moore, Deka Mohamed, Sierra Marable, Annie Ly, Xi (Lucy) Lu, Deirdre Logsdon, Anna Lipkin, Ellen Lesser, Mia Konjikusic, Veronika Kondev, Cayla Jewett, Lucia Ichino, Erin Huiting, Maggie Horst, Isabella Gaeta, Martha Echevarria-Andino, Natasha Claxton, Sarah Cherkaoui, Nikita Bhalerao, Merci Best, Meenakshi Asokan, Alicer Andrew
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Michalis Averof @michalis-averof.bsky.social · 19/04/2026
These images show live embryos of animals (jellyfish, crustacean, worm, sea urchin, sea squirt, beetle) and one of animals closest single-celled relatives. They were captured taking advantage of fluorescent proteins localised on the outer membrane of cells, allowing us to observe cell outlines. 1/9
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Swapna Krishna @swapnakrishna.com · 07/04/2026
Earthset from Artemis II. I am overcome.
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Mark Peifer (He, him) @peiferlabunc.bsky.social · 06/04/2026
If you know a graduating undergraduate looking for the chance to spend 1-2 years in a lab before graduate school, we're hiring! Our lab explores morphogenesis, defining how the cell adhesion & cytoskeletal machinery work together to allow cells to change shape & move tarheels.live/peiferlab/ 1/n RT
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Caroline Bartman @cbartman.bsky.social · 07/04/2026
New PI presenting to senior PIs at faculty mtg
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Meike van der Heijden @meikeesther.bsky.social · 01/04/2026
What parents need, is to be able to actually work when we work (affordable, reliable childcare), and actually not work when we don’t work (no meetings or seminars after five).
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Valerie Tornini @valetornini.bsky.social · 31/03/2026
Happy to share our article on @cientificolatino.com's GSEC program: a national mentorship program for 1st-year STEM grad students, geared for those from underrepresented backgrounds. We review why programs like this are urgently needed & what we learned while running it 🧵 doi.org/10.64898/202...
Screenshot of title and author list:
A strong start for sustained success: inclusivity through a national group mentorship program for first-year graduate students
Sergio R. Labra1,2,*, Valerie A. Tornini3,4,5*, Maria Pia Rodriguez Salazar6, Daniela M. Cossio7, Rebekah A. Gelpí8,^, Bryan E. Rubio Perez9, Yanitza M. Rodríguez10, Gerardo Leana Sandoval11, Kimberly Hernandez12, Olivia V. Goldman13,*,#, Robert W. Fernandez14,#,†
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Mark Peifer (He, him) @peiferlabunc.bsky.social · 16/03/2026
Science professors and educators all have a role in combating this eugenics resurgence www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
Trends in Genetics
Volume 41, Issue 4, April 2025, Pages 261-265
Society Logo
Science & Society
We must not ignore eugenics in our genetics curriculum
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Abstract
Eugenics, that promoted planned breeding to ensure 'racial improvement', was central to the development of genetics and led to horrifying policies. However, eugenics is not dead and continues to influence science and policy today. Thus, we should include eugenics in our undergraduate classes to remind students that scientists must speak out when others lie about science and use it to further their political views.
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Evan Bardot (he/him) @ebardot.bsky.social · 16/03/2026
Once again shouting into the void to say that there is no excuse for using red/green for immunofluorescence images. Obviously 4+ color imaging is difficult to present, but any reason someone gives for using red/green in 2-3 color images is trash.
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Kara McKinley @karalmckinley.bsky.social · 12/03/2026
1st McKinley Lab grad student’s 1st preprint! @claireang.bsky.social studied how the uterus safely excises massive amounts of tissue during menstruation and pregnancy. Come for her GORGEOUS images, stay for her incredible discoveries. www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6... w/ @akelleher1017.bsky.social
Immunofluorescence image of a mouse uterus with epithelium labeled in cyan. There is a folded lumen in the center and glands branching off like bunches of grapes.
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Ben Hopkins @brhopkins92.bsky.social · 06/03/2026
Quick plug for our new resource, the Drosophila Species Stock Exchange. This is a database and mailing list that documents species currently in culture and the labs holding them. If you want to know more or sign up then please get in touch. See attached for more info and please share!
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Michelle Chicas @michellechicas.bsky.social · 05/03/2026
I’ve had blue sky for a couple of years now, but it took #DROS26 to inspire me to debut my first post. If you see me around, say hi! I’d love to get to know more people in the community 🪰
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Tara M Finegan @tarafinegan.bsky.social · 06/03/2026
Fly 🪰 people are the best people! 🔬🥼🧬 having a blast in Chicago #Dros26 (but missing Dan who is serving as super dad at home) @mbustill.bsky.social @rodrigofg.bsky.social @krothphd.bsky.social
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Max Kozlov @maxkozlov.bsky.social · 27/02/2026
Congress rejected massive cuts to US science budgets for 2026, but much of the money still isn’t flowing to researchers. The culprit? The White House Office of Management and Budget (OMB) is quietly slow-walking the release of funds. 🧵👇
nature.com
White House stalls release of approved US science budgets
The US Congress rejected sweeping cuts to science agencies. But the NIH, the NSF and NASA have had their spending slowed.
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Naomi Oreskes @naomioreskes.bsky.social · 26/02/2026
My latest: www.science.org/doi/10.1126/... Next column will address needed guardrails for private funding of science, esp. in light of #Epstein/ #Summers etc.
science.org
Private money cannot replace public funding of science
Who should pay for American science? In the current political climate, many are looking to the private sector to compensate for cuts in public funding. At the Harvard School of Public Health—particula...
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Eric Topol @erictopol.bsky.social · 26/02/2026
This week's cover @thelancet.com
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latinxdb.bsky.social @latinxdb.bsky.social · 20/02/2026
We’re launching our Latinx DevBio interview series 🌎🧬 Our first inspiring conversation features Dr. Rosa Navarro: Leading Developmental Biology research in Mexico. Read here: sites.google.com/view/latinxi... Thanks, Dr. Navarro, for sharing your journey and insights with us! #LatinxInScience
sites.google.com
LatinxDB - Interviews
“The only limit is your imagination”-Dr. Rosa Navarro.
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University of Iowa Department of Biology @uiowabiology.bsky.social · 17/02/2026
Congratulations to the @dshb-antibodies.bsky.social on receiving a $3.4 million NIH grant to renovate its labs and offices! dailyiowan.com/2026/02/08/u...
dailyiowan.com
UI received $3.4 million grant to renovate hybrid cell lab
UI’s Developmental Studies Hybridoma Bank will use a $3.4 million grant from the National Institutes of Health to consolidate its various labs and offices into a lab twice as large on the north wing o...
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Annika Barber @annikabarber.bsky.social · 13/02/2026
The collapse of curiosity driven research has occurred in STEM too. Everything has to be outcomes focused - cure disease, grow better crops, etc. But so much of what humanity has discovered is from "basic" curiosity-driven science. I'm hugely in favor of funding curiosity in every discipline.
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Harmit Singh Malik @harmitmalik.bsky.social · 13/02/2026
Are you a Drosophila researcher & member of @genetics-gsa.bsky.social (at any level of training)? Please vote in the Flyboard elections (we have an amazing slate of candidates) before Feb 20, 2026. Please check your email or go to this website to vote: genetics-gsa.org/2026-fly-boa... Pl repost.
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Carolyn Bertozzi @carolynbertozzi.bskyverified.social · 14/02/2026
Can confirm
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Alejandra Caraballo @esqueer.net · 10/02/2026
The United States is purposefully blockading Cuba from accessing fuel that powers everything from grocery stores to hospitals. People will die. Children will die. What's being done to the people of Cuba is monstrous. The people in power were ok with it in Gaza and now they're doing it to Cuba.
​A screenshot of a post from the account Acyn featuring a video of Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (AOC). The text of the post quotes AOC speaking about the humanitarian crisis in Cuba, drawing parallels to Gaza.
​She describes a "new era of depravity" where innocent civilians are starved or deprived because their political regimes are found "objectionable." She emphasizes the need to defend human rights, mentioning the risk of hospitals running out of fuel and children being put in harm's way. The video thumbnail shows AOC walking through a hallway while being interviewed by a reporter holding a microphone.
​Would you like me to help you draft more QRTs based on these specific images or provide a deeper summary of the AOC video?
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Micah @rincewind.run · 11/02/2026
the rollout of the mRNA vaccines was one of the greatest public health triumphs in history and the end result has been the all-around triumph of the antivax movement and I will never get over it
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Maria Bustillo @mbustill.bsky.social · 10/02/2026
Into it. (ATTN fly eye folks - very cool resource! Add it to the list of tools that make the optic lobe such a phenomenal system...)
cover art for Pink Floyd's The Dark Side of the MoonGraphical abstract for Tadini et al., 2026
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Maria Bustillo @mbustill.bsky.social · 09/02/2026
Co-authored by one of the coolest #wellesley profe’s around!
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Institut Jacques Monod @ijmonod.bsky.social · 09/02/2026
✍️The Konstantinides Lab ( @nkonst4.bsky.social ) published a new article 📖 @devbiol.bsky.social 📃 Gene expression cartography of a developing neuronal structure 🔗 www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
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ArtButMakeItSports @artbutmakeitsports.bsky.social · 09/02/2026
The Sermon on the Mount, by Beryl Lewis, before 1965, 📸 by @ScottStrazzante
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Chrystal Starbird @drstarbird.bsky.social · 05/02/2026
I am SO incredibly excited to announce the launch of a global list of Inspiring Black Scientists. You can use this list to nominate and connect with researchers. Please share and join us in highlighting these outstanding scientists for #BlackHistoryMonth and beyond! www.wiley.com/en-us/resear...
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