iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

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Virginia Schutte @vgwschutte.bsky.social · 29/09/2026

Looking for life sciences 🧪 faculty/staff/trainers who want science communication to be more valued w/in academia We built an NSF-funded coaching program to help you w/ #SciComm in job & award apps, promotion materials, curriculum proposals, etc. We want to help you get more respect, credit, & pay

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Joe Hanly @hanliconius.bsky.social · 10h

@cellpress.bsky.social has just released an.... interesting new 'short review' on pre-implantation gene editing, in which author Cathy Tie argues for the ethical imperative of pushing for this technology. www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti... There are, to put it mildly, a few issues here. 1/

Medicine has a responsibility to develop interventions that safely reduce human suffering. Therapeutic germline gene editing should be judged by the scientific evidence supporting it, not by the history of the field. If rigorous clinical evaluation demonstrates that it is safe and effective, continued prohibition would itself require ethical justification.

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Academic Chatter @academic-chatter.bsky.social · 29/09/2026

There’s also a huge amount of invisible labour in making research reproducible..cleaning data, documenting methods, sharing code, checking other people’s work. None of it makes for a particularly exciting headline, but it’s what makes the research usable.

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Sophien Kamoun @kamounlab.bsky.social · 27/09/2026

I just published: How do we recognize world-class science? Not by the journal it appeared in What I told early-career researchers about prediction, rigour, failure, priors — and the tyranny of bar graphs. kamounlab.medium.com/how-do-we-re...

kamounlab.medium.com

How do we recognize world-class science? Not by the journal it appeared in

What I told early-career researchers about prediction, rigour, failure, priors — and the tyranny of bar graphs.

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Erin Purcell @erinpurcell.bsky.social · 24/09/2026

'We have replaced the danger of mouth-pipetting with the danger of a generation of scientists spending their most productive years writing grants that will not be funded. This is its own form of danger, just slower and less honest than the phenol.' Onion-level satire with a side of 'oooof.'

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Alex Crits-Christoph @acritschristoph.bsky.social · 24/09/2026

Two preprints both out today identifying *different* reverse transcriptase systems associated with arrays reminiscent of CRISPR/Cas, encoded by different phage. One from Anthropic and one from Stanford. Worth pointing out that the Stanford work clearly began earlier, and has more wetlab follow-up:

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Center for Disease Neurogenomics @cdneurogenomics.bsky.social · 23/09/2026

Today we're publishing nine #PsychAD papers across @NaturePortfolio journals, mapping 6.3M+ brain cells to study aging, disease, genetic regulation and new computational methods. Explore the PsychAD collection: nature.com/collections/... Learn more: psych-ad.org #OpenScience

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Amanda Heidt @scattercushion.bsky.social · 23/09/2026

🧪Today, the PsychAD Consortium published EIGHT papers across Nature journals detailing their efforts to create the largest map of the human prefrontal cortex. It's hard to overstate the amount of work here, nor the absolute treasure trove this team has created for researchers.

nature.com

Landmark map of human brain’s gene activity holds clues to Alzheimer’s disease and more

The atlas of gene expression in the prefrontal cortex was created using samples from almost 1,500 donors of all ages — from infants to centenarians.

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Alex Wenzel @alexwenzel.bsky.social · 22/09/2026

For every one of these men who get a dramatic front page story, there are 25-50 postdocs who leave the country much less voluntarily.

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Addgene @addgene.bsky.social · 18/09/2026

We now offer Transfection-Ready DNA — NGS sequence-verified plasmid DNA from Addgene, ready to go for your next transfection. Available now: twp.ai/4hvlbn #Plasmids #Transfection

Addgene graphic promoting 27,000+ plasmids available as Transfection-Ready DNA, featuring a pipette and “Browse Plasmids” call to action.

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Basil Greber @bjgreber.bsky.social · 16/09/2026

Is there a recent review that summarises all the biggest, baddest, most mind-boggling #cryoEM structures out there? What I need is basically just 10 pages worth of "look at this crazy thing!" Suggestions welcome! 😆

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Mike Lacy @mlacyphd.bsky.social · 15/09/2026

Sometimes you just don't want to deal with bacteria culture and prep - Addgene now delivers DNA ready to go! 🧬🚀 Check it out: www.addgene.org/dna-service/

addgene.org

Addgene: DNA Service - Transfection-Ready DNA

Save time with Addgene's Transfection-Ready DNA service and order ready-to-pipette DNA from over 27,000 plasmids.

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Addgene @addgene.bsky.social · 14/09/2026

What happens when scientists share their materials? Faster, more reproducible research. That’s the spirit of #OpenScienceWeek, and it’s been Addgene’s mission for 20+ years. Learn more about what drives our work: twp.ai/4hvnqx.

twp.ai

Addgene: Mission

Learn about Addgene's mission, services, and history. Addgene is a nonprofit organization dedicated to making it easier for scientists to share plasmids.

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adamezracohen.bsky.social @adamezracohen.bsky.social · 10/09/2026

We wrote a tutorial guide on voltage imaging, now out in Neuron: authors.elsevier.com/a/1nlgh3BtfH... Indicators, microscopes, and software have all advanced to the point that it's not so hard -- you can now directly watch the electrical activity of neurons in live animals or in culture.

authors.elsevier.com

Please wait whilst we redirect you

All content on this site: Copyright © 2026 Elsevier B.V., its licensors, and contributors. All rights are reserved, including those for text and data mining, AI training, and similar technologies. For all open access content, the relevant licensing terms apply.

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Addgene @addgene.bsky.social · 08/09/2026

DNA prep shouldn't be the hardest part of your experiment. Something's changing in our catalog on September 15. We can't wait to show you what's next. #Plasmids #Transfection

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Addgene @addgene.bsky.social · 09/09/2026

We love to see it! 👀 Neuro-seeER is a fluorescent reporter for tracking neuronal estrogen response dynamics in vivo. Thanks @endoeartha.bsky.social, @acara333.bsky.social, @edvanveenphd.bsky.social et al. for sharing! Learn more 👇 and find the plasmids here 🧬: www.addgene.org/browse/artic...

addgene.org

Addgene: A bifunctional optical reporter for tracking estrogen response dynamics in neurons.

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Reposted by Mike Lacy

Guillaume Balavoine @balavoinelab.bsky.social · 07/09/2026

Hello people doing transgenics in any model, i have a question for you : in your experience, would you say that using codon- optimized sequences for your model’s trangenes is - compulsory - recommended - probably useless as long as all tRNAs are present in your model ? Thanks a lot for any hints !

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Sophien Kamoun @kamounlab.bsky.social · 02/09/2026

Talks for early career researchers A menu of short talks on how science actually works — skills, publishing, open science, statistics, and integrity. Most grew out of blog posts. They run short by design, because the discussion afterwards is the point. kamounlab.dreamhosters.com/KamounLab_EC...

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Igor Ulitsky @igorulitsky.bsky.social · 01/09/2026

A pervasive RT–qPCR artifact inflates RNA knockdown by RNA-targeting CRISPR - Yikey Yikes! BTW, similar concerns apply to siRNAs/ASOs that are sometimes suspected to affect RT and/or PCR . So nice somebody looked into this! rdcu.be/RUYFaGa649va

rdcu.be

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Addgene @addgene.bsky.social · 01/09/2026

Nick! Shred! Cut! Read about the latest prime editors from David Liu Broad Institute, RNA-targeted cell killing with Cas12a2 from Yang Liu @utah.edu & Doudna Lab, CoCUT&Tag chromatin mapping from Derek Janssens @vai.org, and more in our latest Hot Plasmids:

twp.ai

blog.addgene.org

Hot Plasmids: September 2026

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Reese Richardson @reeserichardson.bsky.social · 25/08/2026

A massive update: At least ~15 companies~ are selling scientists antibodies using faked validation data. We've documented 18,000+ manipulated images on 17,000+ products sold by leading laboratory suppliers including Thermo Fisher, Abcam, Santa Cruz Biotechnology, Millipore Sigma and Bio-Techne. 1/🧵

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Anh Hoang Le, PhD 🏳️‍🌈🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿🇻🇳 @anhhle2702.bsky.social · 24/08/2026

journals.plos.org/plosbiology/... Wow, this is kind of significant. GFP or FLAG tag Coronin makes the protein relocalise more to F-actin, while endogenous proteins don't. The paper also says that Coronins dont do actin-related functions. Wonder what'd happen if the linkers for the tags are longer?

journals.plos.org

Reassessment of the roles of coronin proteins as actin effectors and in signaling

Coronins are evolutionarily conserved proteins involved in many biological processes, but exactly how coronin proteins exert their function is unclear. This study shows that peptide or fluorescent pro...

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Reposted by Mike Lacy

PomBase: The S. pombe knowledgebase @pombase.bsky.social · 20/08/2026

Treat biological databases as infrastructure, not projects www.nature.com/articles/d41... We're quietly defunding the infrastructure modern biology runs on. PomBase, FlyBase, HGNC. have faced, or facing, existential funding crises since 2024. Curation expertise, once lost, is difficult to rebuild.

nature.com

Treat biological databases as infrastructure, not projects

Letter to the Editor

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Neil Hall @neilhall.bsky.social · 20/08/2026

Biological Databases are critical infrastructure - not projects. As so much effort is put into harnessing AI to solve all our problems, we are allowing the foundational data resources crumble. Treat biological databases as infrastructure, not projects www.nature.com/articles/d41...

nature.com

Treat biological databases as infrastructure, not projects

Letter to the Editor

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Rosanne Rademaker @rademaker.bsky.social · 18/08/2026

If you’re a PI who’s written documentation about values, expectations, or practicalities of your lab AND you don’t mind this being referenced in an upcoming article (with Christine Pfund and @weijima.bsky.social), I would ❤️ it if you shared your 📄 with us. Thanks!

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David Gorski, MD, PhD @gorskon.bsky.social · 17/08/2026

The NIH just released an RFI (request for Information) on a proposed new format for reporting the scores of grant applications determined by study sections. If implemented, this new system will make it easier to hide political manipulation of grant funding. sciencebasedmedicine.org/the-opposite...

sciencebasedmedicine.org

The opposite of “transparency”: Sneaking Lysenkoism into NIH peer review

On Friday, the NIH released an RFI (request for Information) on a proposed new format for reporting the scores of grant applications determined by study sections. If implemented, this new system will

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David Zipper @davidzipper.bsky.social · 17/08/2026

Since everyone’s arguing about speed cameras, let’s keep a couple facts in mind: 1) Research show that camera enforcement is much more popular than the media implies – in suburbs as well as cities. Lesson: Don’t conflate a few angry car owners with “public opinion.” (cont'd)

bloomberg.com

Automated Traffic Enforcement Is More Popular Than You Think

Cameras that ticket drivers who run red lights and speed are effective and widely popular with city residents. So why are they banned in so many places?

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Christian Landry @christianlandry.bsky.social · 13/08/2026

For colleagues working in molecular biology labs. Do you have a 3D printer you'd recommend for printing small hardware parts?

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vincentholst.bsky.social @vincentholst.bsky.social · 13/08/2026

In 2023, @nature.com published 'Papers and patents are becoming less disruptive over time', receiving world-wide media attention. Our Matters Arising, published after a 32 month delay (more on that soon), shows that the reported decline can largely be attributed to dataset artefacts. 🧵

The average CD_5 index per year for Web of Science. The original Park et al. decline (top curve) becomes essentially flat (bottom curve) when removing papers with CD_5=1. Those papers largely correspond to dataset artefacts.

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vincentholst.bsky.social @vincentholst.bsky.social · 13/08/2026

Instead of a decline in the disruptiveness of scientific and technological knowledge, the data mainly show an increasing metadata quality over time: relatively fewer papers with zero references due to database errors. 7/8

The decline in disruption (including zero reference papers, left panel) mirrors the relative decrease of zero reference papers which were wrongly counted as being maximally disruptive (right panel).

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Katie Corker @katiecorker.bsky.social · 12/08/2026

For those looking for alternatives to OSF, I recommend two resources comparing features of other Generalist Repositories. Resources are from GREI, an NIH funded initiative. Comparison tool to help you pick which one you like best: doi.org/10.5281/zeno... Decision tree: doi.org/10.5281/zeno...

doi.org

Generalist Repository Comparison Chart

The Generalist Repository Comparison Chart and FAIRsharing Collection (https://fairsharing.org/collection/GeneralRepositoryComparison) was originally an outcome of the NIH Workshop on the Role of Gene...

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Addgene @addgene.bsky.social · 11/08/2026

It’s prime time! 😎 New AI-redesigned PE8, from the David Liu lab at Broad Institute, inspired us to update our prime editing post — and boy has this field been busy! Check it out:

twp.ai

blog.addgene.org

Prime Editing: Adding Precision and Flexibility to CRISPR Editing

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Peter Rupprecht @ptrrupprecht.bsky.social · 07/08/2026

Excited to share our work now in Nature Methods! We wrote this manuscript to help others better analyze and interpret calcium imaging data. As a central aspect, we show why nonlinear behavior of calcium indicators matters in practice. Very happy about this work!

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Dr Kathleen Millen @neurodevkathy.bsky.social · 05/08/2026

🔬🧫 Biology friends. Who do you outsource cell line CRISPR editing to? We could do in my lab, but given people and time constraints I want to explore commercial $ to edit standard hES cell line - KO/cKO. Bonus if work is done in USA and not shipped to international facility.

static.klipy.com

SML Chef Pee Pee: The Crisper, The Better

Alt: SML Chef Pee Pee: The Crisper, The Better

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Addgene @addgene.bsky.social · 04/08/2026

Twenty years ago, Addgene co-founder Melina Fan, PhD, couldn’t get the plasmids she needed for her research, so she helped build a better way to share them. 🧬 On Aug. 1, Melina stepped into a new role as Chief Scientific Advisor. A thank-you and a look at what’s next:

twp.ai

blog.addgene.org

Thank You, Melina: A New Chapter After 20 Years

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Jed Brown @jedbrown.org · 30/07/2026

The reputation-laundering operation known as AlphaFold has been shut down. It changed culture in damaging ways, and similar protein-structure packages carry the mantle of black-box short-cuts that break the "chain of custody of why", offloading labor to often-haphazard and de-emphasized validation.

engadget.com

Google shuts down its Nobel-prize winning AlphaFold project as it focuses on Gemini - Engadget

DeepMind's award-winning AlphaFold team is no more.

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Mike Lacy @mlacyphd.bsky.social · 22/07/2026

It's been a long time coming, but I'm so proud of my amazing wife @erinduffyphd.bsky.social starting her lab at Brown next year 🎉 Follow her for all things RNA in the brain! 🧠🧬

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Cat Hicks @grimalkina.bsky.social · 20/07/2026

One of my teacher friends often says that people confuse "few people are able to do x" with "x reveals who is good" and I think about that a lot

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Albert Blanch-Asensio @ablanchasensio.bsky.social · 20/07/2026

The STRAIGHT-IN (Dual) kit is now available via @addgene.bsky.social! 🧬 A complete 24-plasmid toolkit for installing up to two orthogonal CLYBL landing pads, DASIT-based enrichment without FACS, and efficient large DNA integration in human cells. Link: www.addgene.org/kits/gallowa... 🧵

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Addgene @addgene.bsky.social · 08/07/2026

Plasmid errors are more common than expected, and not every method catches them all. Find the right approach in our webinar with plasmidsaurus 📅 July 15 | 12 PM ET ✅ Sanger, short + long-read ✅ Interpret quality metrics ✅ Pick the right approach Register: twp.ai/4htXC1

Addgene and Plasmidsaurus co-branded webinar graphic with the title "How Well Do You Actually Know Your Plasmid?" and subtitle "Long-Read Sequencing and What It Changes for Researchers." A cartoon lizard is shown inside a circular blue arrow, representing a plasmid loop.

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Mike Lacy @mlacyphd.bsky.social · 09/07/2026

💯💯 endorse - thank you @kamounlab.bsky.social and colleagues!

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Richard Sever @richardsever.bsky.social · 26/06/2026

“the academic community is enormously heterogeneous and it’s almost impossible to keep everyone happy” Never a truer word said in this analysis of downstream consequences of openness by @jacoates.bsky.social ripplingideas.org/2026/06/26/t...

ripplingideas.org

The 1% club and the rocky road ahead for bioRxiv

The recent launch of qed’s “top 1%” preprint ranking has sparked controversy, with concerns about its arbitrary nature, potential harm to authors, and low-quality inclusions. Whil…

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Reposted by Mike Lacy

Addgene @addgene.bsky.social · 23/06/2026

If you’ve ever wished for hundreds of immune-specific transcription factors in barcoded lentiviral vectors, ready to use in high-throughput combinatorial screens… that’s a very specific wish. But we’ve got you, thanks to a deposit by Pereira Lab Check it out!

twp.ai

blog.addgene.org

A 400-Plasmid Collection for Making Immune Cells from Scratch

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Addgene @addgene.bsky.social · 23/06/2026

Heading to Barcelona for #FENS2026? Come find us at Booth 147! We'd love to chat about your research and what's new at Addgene. See you there! 🧠 twp.ai/4hrfwD

Addgene promotional graphic for FENS Forum 2026, July 6–10 in Barcelona, Spain, Booth 147. Text reads: Meet us at FENS Forum 2026. Navy background with illustrated viral vectors and DNA helices.

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Hannah Waters @hanner.bsky.social · 18/06/2026

My first art credit! 💅 Art director Samuel Velasco and I wanted a new visual metaphor for the genome — not a code or a sequence, but its tangled, twisted physical form. More cool yarn sculptures inside! Also it's a great piece by @philipcball.bsky.social that will change the way you think about DNA

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Addgene @addgene.bsky.social · 18/06/2026

PHP.eB is now available via Addgene's Packaged on Request service. Not sure if it's the right capsid for your experiment? Our Viral Vectors 101 post on systemic capsids includes a decision tree and comparison table to help you choose.

twp.ai

blog.addgene.org

Viral Vectors 101: Systemic Capsids

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Mike Lacy @mlacyphd.bsky.social · 17/06/2026

This free webinar from my colleagues is tomorrow! Get an overview and intro to using #CRISPR in the lab - great for students or anybody new to the topic 🧬🧪💻 June 18, 12pm ET / 9am PT

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