Sign in

Phil Ross

@philippzross.com
567 followers 544 following 142 posts

Vaccine scientist at ArkeaBio | Biologically inspired design for a better planet | Runner and anime enthusiast

PostsRepliesMedia
Reposted by Phil Ross
Harmit Singh Malik @harmitmalik.bsky.social · 05/09/2026
The current NIH Director’s animus against NIAID to sign away much needed research funds so we can continue bombing another country is… a staggering betrayal of Congressional intentions and authority. Not surprising but still staggering.
5466116
Reposted by Phil Ross
Katie Prout @katieprout.bsky.social · 26/08/2026
If you have a podcast related to Chicago specifically, Illinois generally, that has recently come out or is on the horizon, I'm interested in knowing about it: kprout@chicagoreader.com.
1199
Phil Ross @philippzross.com · 19/08/2026
@devoevomed.bsky.social just reread Oryx and Crake after a long in between. Still so good and probably even more pertinent now!
110
Phil Ross @philippzross.com · 14/08/2026
Feels like something @devoevomed.bsky.social should know about: www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...
science.org
Reassessing the role of progesterone receptor isoforms PGR-A and PGR-B in female fertility
Progesterone is a critical reproductive hormone that acts via progesterone receptor transcriptional regulators. The short PGR-A isoform lacks a 164–amino acid amino-terminal region present in PGR-B th...
021
Phil Ross @philippzross.com · 13/08/2026
Saw Jeff's talk today. Great stuff! Wonder how hard would it be to embed these into cell membranes? Would you need to do it in two steps sort of like the opposite of www.nature.com/articles/s41...? Also thanks for the pizza.
110
Phil Ross @philippzross.com · 24/07/2026
What a gem! Thanks for sharing!
010
Reposted by Phil Ross
Derek Lowe @dereklowe.bsky.social · 23/07/2026
Carl’s thread here is a much more detailed version of what I said today on the blog - bringing the receipts!
14318
Phil Ross @philippzross.com · 12/07/2026
Need to wait until other commitments are out of the way, but sounds like it’s time to do more literature deep dives 😎
010
Phil Ross @philippzross.com · 10/07/2026
Got it, thanks!! Yeah I’m curious for some hobby projects is all. Haven’t seen much about LTEE-like experiments in archaea yet, but assume someone must be working on it.
110
Phil Ross @philippzross.com · 09/07/2026
Hey Alex, what groups that you know of are currently working on lab evolution of archaea?
100
Reposted by Phil Ross
Sven T. Stripp @stripplab.bsky.social · 06/07/2026
075
Phil Ross @philippzross.com · 07/07/2026
Neat stuff. Wonder if you could design binders against a small molecule of interest and then use something like folddisco to search for natural proteins that have similar binding sites?
110
Phil Ross @philippzross.com · 30/06/2026
Very cool application of protein design! We need more stuff like this
110
Reposted by Phil Ross
Nick Polizzi @nickpolizzi.bsky.social · 26/06/2026
Our lab's paper on the de novo design of small-molecule binding proteins is out! In it, we show how neural nets can be trained and used to design binders to drugs with very high success rates. www.nature.com/articles/s41...
nature.com
Zero-shot design of drug-binding proteins via neural iterative selection−expansion - Nature
 By pairing two neural networks in an iterative optimization algorithm, small-molecule binding proteins can be designed from scratch with high accuracy, affinity and success rates, showing p...
2279
Reposted by Phil Ross
Mike Feigin 🥯 @mikefeigin.bsky.social · 14/06/2026
This is how I’m ending my seminars from now on.
0284
Reposted by Phil Ross
David Ho @davidho.bsky.social · 19/04/2026
Vaccines are humanity’s greatest scientific achievement.
bbc.co.uk
Pregnancy vaccine reduces baby hospital admissions for RSV by 80%
A study confirms the vaccine gives excellent protection for babies against life-threatening chest infections.
72455620
Phil Ross @philippzross.com · 17/04/2026
Tips are helpful, but I think the headline misses the point (again). Time flexibility is the best part of a PhD. Some people work more, some people less. All that should matter is the output and whether students are sufficiently trained. Upper time caps needed cuz $ www.nature.com/articles/d41...
nature.com
The nine-to-five PhD: mere myth or an achievable goal?
Can you squeeze your graduate programme into a 40-hour working week? These 13 current and former PhD candidates reveal their top time-management tips.
000
Reposted by Phil Ross
RCSB Protein Data Bank @rcsbpdb.bsky.social · 04/04/2026
Meet the Microbes That Munch Mountains of Mining Waste Biomining uses engineered microbes to harvest critical minerals
scientificamerican.com
Engineered Microbes Pull Critical Minerals from Mining Waste
Biomining uses engineered microbes to harvest critical minerals
042
Phil Ross @philippzross.com · 02/04/2026
media.tenor.com
a poster for the project hailmary features a silhouette of two people
ALT: a poster for the project hailmary features a silhouette of two people
010
Reposted by Phil Ross
DrArchivalGenomics @ehekkala.bsky.social · 31/03/2026
🌏🧪😡👎
02912
Phil Ross @philippzross.com · 30/03/2026
Didn't realize SCoV2 spike protein interacts with so many cell-surface receptors. Interesting that it appears to requires ACE2 for cell entry, but binds better to CNTN1. www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...
biorxiv.org
000
Phil Ross @philippzross.com · 26/03/2026
"survival of the fittest" != "objectively best organisms survive" the same way that "if your discoveries were worth something, they’d be funded by the market" doesn't make any fucking sense...
000
Phil Ross @philippzross.com · 25/03/2026
111
Reposted by Phil Ross
Dmitri Petrov @petrovadmitri.bsky.social · 24/03/2026
A question for biologists: we often talk about evolutionary novelty. What does “novelty” mean for you? What’s your favorite definition if any? Or just a rule of thumb for what is and isn’t novel.
183718
Phil Ross @philippzross.com · 12/03/2026
“Take AI seriously, but not everything that’s written about it” open.spotify.com/episode/6PN2...
open.spotify.com
AI Reality Check: Is the Economy About to Collapse?
000
Phil Ross @philippzross.com · 07/03/2026
#Caturday
0110
Phil Ross @philippzross.com · 20/02/2026
Protein crystals next?!? www.nature.com/articles/s41...
nature.com
Harnessing microalgae for the biosynthesis of molecular crystals - Nature Biotechnology
Crystalline materials for optical applications are synthesized in living dinoflagellates.
000
Reposted by Phil Ross
Carl Zimmer @carlzimmer.com · 18/02/2026
Scientists have seen Asgard archaea crawling for the first time. When it comes to the origin of eukaryotes, this is like seeing a feathered dinosaur in the wild. (Video courtesy of Philipp Ralder)
10470136
Phil Ross @philippzross.com · 15/02/2026
www.profgalloway.com/role-models/
profgalloway.com
Role Models | No Mercy / No Malice
“Society grows great when old men plant trees whose shade they’ll never sit under.” There’s an inverse to that wisdom. Great societies decline when old men chop down forests meant to provide shade and...
000
Reposted by Phil Ross
Andrew Plested @andrewplested.bsky.social · 07/01/2026
What a breakthrough! Such a puzzle for 30 years, this is real progress! I wonder how general this mechanism of repression is for other systems where highly-selective expression is needed. www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...
biorxiv.org
The transcription of a single olfactory receptor per neuron is enforced by epigenetic silencing of their enhancers
The ability to discriminate thousands of odors in our environment requires each olfactory neuron to express a single olfactory receptor from hundreds of available genes. The biochemical mechanism enfo...
35419
Phil Ross @philippzross.com · 27/12/2025
🐣
110
Reposted by Phil Ross
Leonie Moyle @speciationlab.bsky.social · 14/10/2025
Great new postdoc fellowship for foundational plant research. If you’re into genetics and genomics of plant reproductive evolution or adaptive convergence (incl in the cool and charismatic nightshades!) I’d be happy to talk about possible projects! www.simonsfoundation.org/grant/simons...
simonsfoundation.org
Simons Postdoctoral Fellowships in Plant Biology
Simons Postdoctoral Fellowships in Plant Biology on Simons Foundation
12934
Reposted by Phil Ross
Yehlin Cho @yehlincho.bsky.social · 13/10/2025
Thrilled to announce our new preprint, “Protein Hunter: Exploiting Structure Hallucination within Diffusion for Protein Design,” in collaboration with @Griffin, @GBhardwaj8 and @sokrypton.org 🧬Code and notebooks will be released by the end of this week. 🎧Golden- Kpop Demon Hunters
35316
Reposted by Phil Ross
Maddy Seale @maddyseale.bsky.social · 07/10/2025
Out First Release in @science.org this week: The development of a directed evolution strategy with proof of concept in plant immune protein engineering. www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...
science.org
Engineered geminivirus replicons enable rapid in planta directed evolution
Directed evolution can rapidly generate genetic variants with new and enhanced properties, yet efficient platforms for performing such evolution directly in plant cells have been lacking. We developed...
05319
Phil Ross @philippzross.com · 16/09/2025
uNaMeRiCaN!!
110
Reposted by Phil Ross
Carl Zimmer @carlzimmer.com · 02/09/2025
Yesterday the president demanded that evidence about Covid vaccines be shown to the public. Today @apoorvanyt.bsky.social & I run through some of the studies made public over the past 4+ years that show that the vaccines work. Gift link: nyti.ms/46k17Tq
nyti.ms
561875680
Phil Ross @philippzross.com · 02/09/2025
I feel this open.substack.com/pub/experime...
open.substack.com
Use this magic bullet to shoot yourself in the foot
OR: Borg vibes
010
Phil Ross @philippzross.com · 23/08/2025
😀
020
Reposted by Phil Ross
Nick Polizzi @nickpolizzi.bsky.social · 19/08/2025
Interested in doing a postdoc at DFCI/Harvard on computationally designing and experimentally characterizing mini-protein binders for biomedical applications? Eric Fischer and I are looking for someone to work in our groups starting asap! Email me or my admin with a CV to apply!
032
Reposted by Phil Ross
Nick Desnoyer @nickdesnoyer.bsky.social · 11/08/2025
Introducing the 1,000 Flower Collection 🧬🌹 I’m creating 1,000 genetically designed flowers each crafted with new colors, patterns, and shapes. Here’s how I’m making it happen… and how you can join me on this journey 🧵(1/7)
213667
Reposted by Phil Ross
Steven Robbins @stevenjrobbins.bsky.social · 21/05/2025
Very excited to present the Great Barrier Reef Microbial Genomes Database (GBR-MGD), a comprehensive DB of 1000s of high-quality prokaryote, virus, plasmid, and chromosome-level eukaryote MAGs using Nanopore long reads. Subthreads incoming. Please share widely. 🙂 www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
biorxiv.org
The planktonic microbiome of the Great Barrier Reef
Large genome databases have markedly improved our understanding of marine microorganisms. Although these resources have focused on prokaryotes, genomes from many dominant marine lineages, such as Pela...
211567
Reposted by Phil Ross
James Fraser @fraserlab.com · 20/05/2025
We are looking to hire (yes, even in this economy!) a jr. specialist to train in protein prep/structural biology related to our AVOID-ome work as part of openadmet.org. A great position for someone who is looking to be a tech for a few years before grad or med school. aprecruit.ucsf.edu/JPF05424
aprecruit.ucsf.edu
Junior/Assistant/Associate/Full Specialist Positions Available
University of California, San Francisco is hiring. Apply now!
02418
Phil Ross @philippzross.com · 16/05/2025
#AStarIsBorn
000
Phil Ross @philippzross.com · 16/05/2025
🤩
100
Phil Ross @philippzross.com · 16/05/2025
Thanks for the meme-ories!
130
Phil Ross @philippzross.com · 12/05/2025
Very cool application for protein design imo
000
Phil Ross @philippzross.com · 12/05/2025
Definitely one of my favorite things to learn recently: sweet proteins! And that companies like Oobli and Amai already exist
100
Phil Ross @philippzross.com · 10/05/2025
I remember having a drunken argument with @boughter.bsky.social over whether you focus efforts on exploring the earth's oceans or space first and I feel somewhat validated by this 😅 www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...
science.org
How little we’ve seen: A visual coverage estimate of the deep seafloor
In decades of deep-sea exploration, humans have observed only 0.001% of the deep seafloor, leaving 66% of planet Earth unseen.
121
Phil Ross @philippzross.com · 09/05/2025
Always a good day when I find out a new sensory receptor structure has been published! www.cell.com/cell/fulltex...
cell.com
The structure of human sweetness
A single taste receptor initiates our reactions to both sugars and artificial sweeteners, triggering a signaling process that drives our intense attraction to sweet foods. Single-particle cryo-EM reve...
020
Reposted by Phil Ross
Nick Polizzi @nickpolizzi.bsky.social · 28/04/2025
Super excited to share a new preprint from our lab on design of small-molecule binding proteins using neural networks! The paper has a bit of everything. A new graph neural network, new design algorithms, and experimental validation. www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1... 🧵🧪
biorxiv.org
Zero-shot design of drug-binding proteins via neural selection-expansion
Computational design of molecular recognition remains challenging despite advances in deep learning. The design of proteins that bind to small molecules has been particularly difficult because it requ...
25523