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PombeDoc

@pombedoc.bsky.social
1.5K followers 1K following 347 posts

Distinguished Professor, fission yeast geneticist. Replication stress and genome integrity. Photographer. 🏳️‍🌈

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Eric Topol @erictopol.bsky.social · 08/10/2026
Why do small dogs live longer than large dog species, and what is the biologic basis of differences in lifespan and healthspan? Epigenetics. There's a lot in the methylation pattern of dogs to explain this @science.org science.org/doi/10.1126/...
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Harmit Singh Malik @harmitmalik.bsky.social · 07/10/2026
One stop codon to evade two divergent immune systems www.fredhutch.org/content/www/... Great writeup by Ashley Person @fredhutch.org Original paper by @tamanash.bsky.social here: www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...
fredhutch.org
One stop codon to evade two divergent immune systems
A recent study reveals how a single stop codon helps alphaviruses evade immune defenses in both mosquitoes and humans
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Ché Pillay @chepillay.bsky.social · 07/10/2026
This is fantastic. Absolutely worth a watch and read
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Jeremy Berg @jeremymberg.bsky.social · 06/10/2026
There is no NSF leadership. They were removed and never replaced.
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PombeDoc @pombedoc.bsky.social · 06/10/2026
The single brain cell cannot address why.
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Nina Friedman @ngfriedman.bsky.social · 06/10/2026
Just went to a fantastic talk at NIH by @kgandersen.bsky.social on the origins of SARS-CoV-2. We worked together on a counterprogramming lecture (linked) when Matt Ridley joined Jay Bhattacharya for the inaugural “Scientific Freedom” lecture at NIH, but I learned even more from watching…
rasmussenretorts.substack.com
NIH FFS: The Freedom From Science Lab Leak Lecture Series
The NIH Director invited a conspiracy theorist to present his evidence-free,views on how the pandemic started. So I brought my co-conspirators to set them straight.
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Barbara Mellone 🇺🇦 @centromellone.bsky.social · 05/10/2026
An other example of the value and beauty of fundamental biology research: we don’t always know what kind of future applications will be made possible by a basic discovery. This work in a single-celled alga open the doors to optigenetics 💡🧬
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Dan Garisto @dangaristo.bsky.social · 06/10/2026
NEW: In March the White House released an FY27 budget request that zeroed out the National Science Foundation's directorate of Social, Behavioral and Economic Sciences (SBE). For months it was unclear what would happen. Now, with FY26 over, the damage to SBE is coming to light. My reporting:
science.org
‘Complete devastation’: How NSF gutted its social sciences research
Agency body that funds sociology, linguistics, and archaeology studies in U.S. gave 90% fewer new grants this year
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Mark Peifer (He, him) @peiferlabunc.bsky.social · 06/10/2026
Earlier this year the scientific community successfully fought back on dramatic changes in Federal funding proposed by the Trump Administration.Now another RFI is proposing substantial changes that would damage peer review. This letter from SDB President Helen McNeill lays out the issue clearly 1/n
Dear SDB Members,
 
I am writing you now to ask everyone to respond to a proposed change to the way that grant review information at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) is communicated to grant applicants, institutions, and NIH program staff. This is your opportunity to provide feedback on the process that selects our grants for funding.
 
The proposed change means that individuals, institutes and NIH staff will no longer receive the final overall impact score or percentile score that reflects the scientific opinion of a panel of experts. Currently, three reviewers provide their detailed opinion of a grant, and then the entire panel asks questions, can examine figures, and discuss the strengths and weaknesses of a grant, and then members all independently score. The final overall impact score reflects this discussion and careful consideration of the entire scientific panel.
 
The proposed change is to now simply divide the scored grants into three categories: Scored applications would be grouped into three broad categories - “Most Competitive (top 25%),” “Competitive (26%-50%),” and “Not Discussed”. The motivation for the change is that decisions would now focus on the comments of reviewers, not the score of the grant to determine which grants to support. However, the current mechanism allows for scores and comments to be considered. Thus, removing the score component from NIH staff makes selection of which grants to fund more burdensome for NIH staff.The loss of detailed scores will also make it more difficult for researchers to assess how competitive an application was and determine whether to revise and resubmit it. An application ranked top 2% and one ranked 24th% would receive the same label, even if the scientific panel viewed them quite differently. Meanwhile, applications ranked 25th%and 26th% would be placed in different categories because of a tiny difference that NIH itself says should not be treated as meaningful. The proposal would erase potentially important differences while creating arbitrary new dividing lines.
 
This is a dramatic loss of transparency in the scientific review process. Under the new plan, principal investigator(s), applicant institutions, NIH program staff, ICO leadership, and the relevant NIH Advisory Council will no longer have access to the final overall score.
 
NIH is explicitly asking for input on this particular question.
 
This is a Request for Information (RFI), not simply an announcement of a policy that has already been finalized. NIH says comments will be used to inform the final recommendation, including implementation and communication.
 
Please comment here: https://rfi.grants.nih.gov/?s=6a2b1c22c3fcfda46e0badd2
 
Deadline for response receipt is October 13, 2026, 11:59 PM ET.
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PombeDoc @pombedoc.bsky.social · 06/10/2026
It shouldnt just be Californian leders who areniutraged
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PombeDoc @pombedoc.bsky.social · 06/10/2026
It’s the tournament model of science. Only one person gets there first.
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PombeDoc @pombedoc.bsky.social · 06/10/2026
So the President okays the potential destruction of two of the largest cities in the country and how is this not the lede in the morning news?
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mtsw @mtsw.bsky.social · 06/10/2026
Saying he'd be cool with Iran nuking my home city is pretty bad but not quite as bad as when Hillary said some trump supporters were deplorable so I can see why the media turned the latter into a major scandal and not the former
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Science Magazine @science.org · 05/10/2026
Exclusive: A new analysis refutes James Watson’s claim that he was the first to recognize the significance of the famed photograph 51. scim.ag/4rTKck8
scim.ag
How did Rosalind Franklin miss the helix in her iconic DNA image? She didn’t
New analysis refutes James Watson’s claim he was first to recognize significance of famed photograph 51
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PombeDoc @pombedoc.bsky.social · 02/10/2026
The nave is where the congregation sits and if you look up at the ceiling, in many older more traditional churches, it looks like a boat (nave same root as naval) . This photo I took in St Paul’s Episcopal Cathedral n San Diego
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Jim Woodgett @jwoodgett.bsky.social · 01/10/2026
Discovered today that thanks to Trump administration tariffs, shipping transgenic mice to requestors in the US can add $5-10K to expenses. Sorry, we aren't paying that.
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María Fernández-Casañas @emefece.bsky.social · 01/10/2026
Happy to see our review out! 🧬 How does ssDNA arise during DNA replication, and how can complementary approaches help us distinguish its different molecular origins and potential outcomes? www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti... So, mind the…replication-associated ssDNA (one for the UK commuters).
sciencedirect.com
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Richard Lenski @relenski.bsky.social · 22/09/2026
"Philosophy of Biology: The power of theory in the life sciences" elifesciences.org/articles/112... @zdblount.bsky.social shared this thought-provoking paper with the lab group.
elifesciences.org
Philosophy of Biology: The power of theory in the life sciences
Theory can help address cell and molecular biology’s major challenges, particularly those arising from large omics datasets.
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Professa Murray @kalimurray.bsky.social · 20/09/2026
An Executive Order must be consistent with established law. You want a new administrative board: pass a law. And one of the reasons I keep on encouraging @hakeem-jeffries.bsky.social on to create a commission on Science and Innovation is to put to rest this nonsense.
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Jeremy Berg @jeremymberg.bsky.social · 20/09/2026
Seeing this in my timeline reminded me of this classic... www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fl4L...
youtube.com
Zheng Lab - Bad Project (Lady Gaga parody)
YouTube video by ZhengLabProductions
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Jenna Norton @jenna-m-norton.bsky.social · 20/09/2026
Russell Vought wants to be in charge of #ScienceDeathPanels at NIH. Congress has made it pretty clear they don’t want political appointees in charge of funding decisions. Science community: it’s time to get loud (again)! www.politico.com/news/2026/09...
politico.com
Trump asked budget chief to draft order bringing health research funding under his control
The move came after the NIH director refused Trump’s request to cut Harvard grants in an Oval Office meeting.
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Kumaran Ramamurthi @ramamurthilab.bsky.social · 18/09/2026
Folks have known for years that adding magnesium to media rescues the lethality of deleting many 'essential' genes, but why? @eswaralab.bsky.social and @subtisilly.bsky.social say that free iron builds up in these mutants. Mg2+ mitigates this by redirecting metabolism towards limiting ROS production
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Joy Jeongyoon Choi @joyjoychoi.bsky.social · 14/09/2026
Excited to share our new preprint on in situ chromatin structure of the inactive X chromosome in differentiated female mouse embryonic stem cells. www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6... 🧵1/8
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PombeDoc @pombedoc.bsky.social · 10/09/2026
My commute js disrupted due to heavy surf in SoCal interfering with the Surfline, the historical single track that connects San Diego to LA. 2nd busiest train corridor in the country and its closed because waves are breaking over the tracks.
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🎃Darin S Pumpkins🎃 @darinself.com · 07/09/2026
This is absolutely incredible news. My uncle could still be alive if we had had this vaccine a decade ago.
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Abby Dernburg @adernburg.bsky.social · 07/09/2026
Enter or upload comments here: rfi.grants.nih.gov?s=6a2b1c22c3.... For inspo, I suggest this excellent essay: www.forbes.com/sites/brucel...
rfi.grants.nih.gov
Request For Information
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Abby Dernburg @adernburg.bsky.social · 07/09/2026
Biomedical scientists - a reminder that NIH proposes to "improve" peer review by hiding impact scores from Program Officers and applicants, and binning applications into broad categories of "Most competitive,""Competitive," or "Not discussed." Please provide feedback before the October 13 deadline!
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Drug Monkey @drugmonkey.bsky.social · 05/09/2026
The deets of this theft of NIH appropriations.
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Needhi Bhalla 💅🏽 @needhibhalla.bsky.social · 03/09/2026
absolute fuckers "Trump officials at NIH disclosed the existence of DoD’s efforts only after being pressed for information by House Appropriations Committee Democrats." democrats-appropriations.house.gov/news/press-r...
democrats-appropriations.house.gov
Defense Officials Attempt to Raid NIH Funds to Cover Department of Defense Activities
House Appropriations Committee Ranking Member Rosa DeLauro (D-CT-03) has learned that officials at the Department of Defense (DoD) are working to divert billions of dollars from the National Institute...
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Stand Up for Science! @standupforscience.net · 02/09/2026
We see our biggest victory as building a political machinery for scientists in the United States. The lack of a system is part of the reason science even ended up in this situation. Once the midterms are over, and we have levers of power to pull, goodness, we'll pull them.
Protesters in inflatable dinosaur and yellow duck costumes stand outside the capitol holding signs that read "Don't let good SCIENCE go EXTINCT" and "Science saves Lives" beneath text that reads "Scientists are unbelievably difficult to mobilize
Our victory is that Stand Up for Science built political machinery for scientists in the United States.
The fact that scientists didn’t put up any sort of resistance before is part of the reason why science even ended up in this situation.
Once Stand Up for Science gets through the upcoming midterms, and we have some levers of power to pull, goodness, we’ll pull them."
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PombeDoc @pombedoc.bsky.social · 31/08/2026
Unroll @unroll.skywriter.blue
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PombeDoc @pombedoc.bsky.social · 28/08/2026
I shall read this with interest . Many years ago we published evidence that the damage checkpoint is not active in meiosis (Pankratz and Forsburg )
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hellabores92.bsky.social @hellabores92.bsky.social · 26/08/2026
Protect Peer Review. Please take the time to read the article written by knowledgeable NIH current and former workers. Submit a comment by October 13th! bsky.app/profile/nihv...
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PombeDoc @pombedoc.bsky.social · 25/08/2026
I was once invited to submit to a minor journal in psychiatry because of my expertise. I’m a Schizosaccharomyces pombe geneticist. Schizo, i guess? Dont recall if it was MDPI.
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Dr. Robin Tanamachi 🌪️ @tornatrix.bsky.social · 24/08/2026
You might be thinking, “Wait, didn’t we just close a public comment period on this same OMB rule back on 14 July?” Yes, we did. They’re trying to make an end run around the process and sneaking it in through another mechanism. Dust off your previous comment and resubmit it!
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Job Dekker @jobdekker.bsky.social · 24/08/2026
How do nuclear compartments form inside cell nuclei? We show RNA glues certain loci together to form a nuclear compartment. This involves special GC-rich regions of highly expressed genes that also associate with nuclear speckles, but interactions between these loci are independent of speckles!
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PombeDoc @pombedoc.bsky.social · 21/08/2026
Yes. The truth of academic success is that there’s a lot of random luck.
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Drug Monkey @drugmonkey.bsky.social · 21/08/2026
How do you oversee the grant award policy of a NIH Institute/Center to achieve gold standard science if you’ve never been PI responsible for generating gold standard science? Or *any* science, for that matter.
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Dr. Lucky Tran @luckytran.com · 20/08/2026
AI did not discover a cancer vaccine. Scientists discovered it because their research was supported and funded.
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Prasad Jallepalli, MD, PhD @prasad.bsky.social · 20/08/2026
per the article, NSF is withholding $1 billion of its budget so that the money can go to a special White House project grant (and grand) theft in broad daylight
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Needhi Bhalla 💅🏽 @needhibhalla.bsky.social · 18/08/2026
I just completed my standing study section service in June (2022-2026) and want to emphasize Bryan's point: maintaining the integrity of the peer review process is an important act of service for our colleagues, especially right now. If you are asked and can swing it, please consider serving.
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Drug Monkey @drugmonkey.bsky.social · 18/08/2026
NIH RFI on plans to stop using percentiles to select grants for funding drugmonkey.wordpress.com/2026/08/18/n...
drugmonkey.wordpress.com
NIH RFI on plans to stop using percentiles to select grants for funding
The NIH issued NOT-OD-26-088 Request for Information (RFI) on Proposed Changes to Reporting Outcomes from NIH Peer Review on 8/14/2026. It proposes a radical upheaval of the way that NIH’s Pr…
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Robert MJ Thompson @wh0n0z.bsky.social · 18/08/2026
From another selection of 250/250 compiled by @hcrichardson.bsky.social www.youtube.com/watch?v=zI-8...
youtube.com
Stonewall Uprising, Narrated by Bishop Mariann Edgar Budde
YouTube video by Heather Cox Richardson
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Johns Hopkins Berman Institute of Bioethics @bermaninstitute.bsky.social · 17/08/2026
NIH plan to keep peer-review scores for grants secret draws concern. Under “binning” proposal, applications’ numerical ratings would no longer be used for final funding decisions. | Science | AAAS www.science.org/content/arti...
science.org
NIH plan to keep peer-review scores for grants secret draws concern
Under “binning” proposal, applications’ numerical ratings would no longer be used for final funding decisions
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Needhi Bhalla 💅🏽 @needhibhalla.bsky.social · 13/08/2026
"Citizens cannot tell the truth if they do not know the truth. Those who believe in free, open, and responsive institutions must recognize how critically linked science is to democracy itself and defend its integrity with every tool at their disposal."
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PombeDoc @pombedoc.bsky.social · 11/08/2026
I have done so many I’m surprised I didn’t get acrylamide poisoning. But I am a very old molecular biologist. So old that I first learned to do Maxam-Gilbert sequencing because hydrazine why not? New fangled Sanger sequencing was such an improvement…
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Prof Peter Hotez MD PhD DSc(hon) @peterhotezmdphd.bsky.social · 10/08/2026
Executive Order
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PombeDoc @pombedoc.bsky.social · 07/08/2026
Taking early retirement.
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PombeDoc @pombedoc.bsky.social · 07/08/2026
Yeah but the NYC tax set a value so it was targeted against very rich people, while the San Diego version was going to hit the snowbirds who have a small condo here in the winter. Voters who have their own vacation home somewhere were naturally sympathetc.
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callista yee @csybio.bsky.social · 06/08/2026
hiiii everyone! my department @zoology.ubc.ca is hiring an assistant professor in cell and developmental biology! deadline is october 1! academicjobsonline.org/ajo/jobs/32408 // please share!!!!!
academicjobsonline.org
University of British Columbia, Department of Zoology
Job #AJO32408, Assistant Professor in Cell and Developmental Biology, Department of Zoology, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, British Columbia, CA
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