iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Rachel Smith-Bolton @rachelsmithbolton.bsky.social · 04/10/2026

I’ve been wondering why I haven’t seen more outrage about this book/movie given the clear unethical Title IX violations. I haven’t read/seen it, but maybe the answer is it’s too absurd to be taken seriously?

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Rachel Smith-Bolton @rachelsmithbolton.bsky.social · 16/09/2026

Fly labs: where is everyone getting their mite paper from? Our supplier says their source has discontinued the product …

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Genetics Society of America @genetics-gsa.bsky.social · 09/09/2026

The final three #Dros27 plenary speakers are here! 🧬 @shimlab.bsky.social 🪰 @rachelsmithbolton.bsky.social 🔬 Paul Schmidt From stem cells and tissue homeostasis to injury response, evolution, and adaptation, they complete an exciting lineup. 🔗 buff.ly/VviXmNk

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Shefali @iamshef.bsky.social · 31/08/2026

Registration for the Midwest #Drosophila meeting is open. It's a wonderful meeting to see the Midwest community. And Allerton is a beautiful venue ! You'll not regret making the trip 🎉 midwest-drosophila-conf.indiana.edu/index.html

midwest-drosophila-conf.indiana.edu

Midwest Drosophila Conference

Join us for the Midwest Drosophila Conference, the perfect small meeting setting to promote interactions among PIs, students, and postdocs. Held each year at the self-contained and historic Allerton P...

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Rachel Smith-Bolton @rachelsmithbolton.bsky.social · 28/08/2026

In the Smith-Bolton lab we celebrate funding with cake! So happy we get to survive to continue our science, but also feeling a little survivor’s guilt given so many fabulous labs that have not received similar news.

Homemade cake with MIRA NOA written on it

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Marianne Alleyne @cotesia.bsky.social · 15/08/2026

My Department at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign invites applications from entomologists with research portfolios in which INSECT BIODIVERSITY LOSS is a key element (at the assistant professor level). illinois.csod.com/ux/ats/caree...

Picture of a green tree-lined quad at the University of Illinois Urbana Champaign, with Foellinger Hall in the background. Skies are often this blue.

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Genetics Society of America @genetics-gsa.bsky.social · 01/08/2026

On August 1, 1931, Harriet Creighton and Barbara McClintock published the first experimental proof that genes are physically located on chromosomes—a discovery that transformed genetics. 1/3🧵

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Rachel Smith-Bolton @rachelsmithbolton.bsky.social · 21/07/2026

I think this is why many of us with well-scoring NIGMS grants are not getting funded. Word on the street is they ran out of funds and had to stop making awards to those they had intended to fund. So frustrating for those of us who did everything right and put all our eggs in the R35 basket.

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U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission @cpsc.gov · 01/07/2026

Don't do any of this.

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Rachel Smith-Bolton @rachelsmithbolton.bsky.social · 22/05/2026

Absolutely thrilled to hood two newly minted PhDs and fantastic scientists last weekend. @felicityhsu.bsky.social @anishbose.bsky.social

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Rachel Smith-Bolton @rachelsmithbolton.bsky.social · 08/05/2026

New preprint! What happens to the debris when imaginal disc tissue is ablated? Read to find out! First paper from @snigdhamathure.bsky.social www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...

biorxiv.org

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Rachel Smith-Bolton @rachelsmithbolton.bsky.social · 04/05/2026

Lab spring potluck last night - my students are as talented in the kitchen as they are at the bench. Cheesy breadsticks by @felicityhsu.bsky.social

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Rachel Smith-Bolton @rachelsmithbolton.bsky.social · 25/03/2026

I am delighted to announce that Felicity Ting-Yu Hsu defended her brilliant thesis on Myc, Tor, and cell competition in tissue regeneration yesterday! Felicity gives very clear, well illustrated talks! @felicityhsu.bsky.social

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Rachel Smith-Bolton @rachelsmithbolton.bsky.social · 07/03/2026

Connor Powers @cpowers141.bsky.social explaining his super cool project on lipids in regeneration at Fly Meeting #DROS26

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Rachel Smith-Bolton @rachelsmithbolton.bsky.social · 06/03/2026

Snigdha Mathure @snigdhamathure.bsky.social did a fantastic job presenting her work on debris clearance and epithelial architecture after imaginal disc damage at Fly Meeting this morning! #DROS26

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Rachel Smith-Bolton @rachelsmithbolton.bsky.social · 05/03/2026

So excited to be at Fly Meeting in Chicago! Feels like coming home. #DROS26

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Romance Ever After Podcast @romeverafter.bsky.social · 12/02/2026

Coming in at the wire, I now present you the set bracket for the 2026 #RomComBracket. As usual you can obtain a PDF version of the bracket at bit.ly/RCBrackPDF The Letterboxd list will be updated with the appropriate categories and regions.

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Rachel Smith-Bolton @rachelsmithbolton.bsky.social · 07/02/2026

Does anyone else wait until the weekend to check grant scores? I’m ok with schrodinger’s impact score: simultaneously amazing and awful until you look.

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Rachel Smith-Bolton @rachelsmithbolton.bsky.social · 03/02/2026

I have seen the cartoon posted by the Illini Republicans. I am not reposting it because once you have seen it you cannot scrub it out of your brain. It is abhorrent, and has been reported to the appropriate university offices. Please know that it is being widely condemned across campus.

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Rachel Smith-Bolton @rachelsmithbolton.bsky.social · 08/01/2026

I’d like to highlight @felicityhsu.bsky.social ‘s recently publish work in @dev-journal.bsky.social ! She showed that the regeneration blastema consists of concentric zones of differential growth and translation driven by Myc and Tor. journals.biologists.com/dev/article/...

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Rachel Smith-Bolton @rachelsmithbolton.bsky.social · 07/01/2026

I’m on day #2 of this nonsense and it’s refusing to download the PDF … 🤦🏼‍♀️

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Rachel Smith-Bolton @rachelsmithbolton.bsky.social · 13/12/2025

A huge congratulations to the newly minted Dr. Anish Bose @anishbose.bsky.social on a fantastic thesis defense!! What a great day! A toast to Zelda, Forkhead, the exit from regeneration, and all the mysteries we haven’t yet solved.

Anish and Rachel posing with an empty champagne bottle

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Shawn Gilmore @gipperfish.bsky.social · 11/11/2025

Happy to report that the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign academic senate overwhelmingly passed a resolution against the federal “compact” all of us in higher ed have been offered, encouraging our administrators to keep opposing it. #MADC www.senate.illinois.edu/2025-2026/20...

senate.illinois.edu

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Rachel Smith-Bolton @rachelsmithbolton.bsky.social · 09/11/2025

Great departmental retreat! Awards for Connor and Snigdha, plus tug-of-war to wake up between talks. Tagging @snigdhamathure.bsky.social and @cpowers141.bsky.social

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Development @dev-journal.bsky.social · 31/10/2025

A threshold level of JNK activates damage-responsive enhancers via JAK/STAT to promote tissue regeneration Read this #LifelongDevSI #OA Research Article by John W. Quinn, Robin E. Harris and colleagues in our Stem Cells and Regeneration section doi.org/10.1242/dev....

(D-D′) The peripheral DRWNT activity (yellow arrowhead) is lost upon Stat92E knockdown, while JNK activity is unaffected. (E) Posterior-specific Stat92E knockdown (hh-GAL4) shows reduced DRWNT in posterior wound periphery (yellow arrowheads) compared to wild-type anterior; anterior/posterior boundary indicated by dashed line. (F) DRWNTΔSTAT-GFP (lacking Stat92E sites) shows loss of peripheral activity at 18 h AHS (yellow arrowhead)

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Katie Mack @astrokatie.com · 19/06/2025

Chatbots — LLMs — do not know facts and are not designed to be able to accurately answer factual questions. They are designed to find and mimic patterns of words, probabilistically. When they’re “right” it’s because correct things are often written down, so those patterns are frequent. That’s all.

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Rachel Smith-Bolton @rachelsmithbolton.bsky.social · 20/10/2025

I’ll be on both sides of this next week - not reviewing and not being reviewed at the same time. It is absurd.

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Rachel Smith-Bolton @rachelsmithbolton.bsky.social · 19/10/2025

And congratulations to Devan Bianchini for winning first place undergraduate poster presentation!

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Rachel Smith-Bolton @rachelsmithbolton.bsky.social · 19/10/2025

The lab showed off their findings at the Midwest Drosophila Research Conference!

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Rachel Smith-Bolton @rachelsmithbolton.bsky.social · 17/10/2025

So great to hear Petra Levin @redrockcity.bsky.social give a seminar at U of I today! Petra was my mentor when I was an undergrad - she taught me how to pipet, she taught me how to streak colonies, and she taught me sterile technique! (Now that I work on flies I do none of those things …)

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Rachel Smith-Bolton @rachelsmithbolton.bsky.social · 16/10/2025

Reviews are due tomorrow, I’m reading my last one now.

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@LaBonneLaB @labonnelab.bsky.social · 26/09/2025

Continuing efforts to hurt the research pipeline, the very late NSF GFRP solicitation no longer allows 2nd year PhD students to apply. Lots of these students chose not to apply last year because they were told they would have a better change once in their thesis lab www.nsf.gov/funding/oppo...

nsf.gov

NSF Graduate Research Fellowship Program (GRFP)

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Rachel Smith-Bolton @rachelsmithbolton.bsky.social · 26/09/2025

Very disappointed that second-year students are no longer eligible, as this restriction shuts out my outstanding new student. 😢

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Casey terHorst @ecoevolab.bsky.social · 08/09/2025

The GRFP lives!! (due end of October) www.nsf.gov/funding/oppo...

nsf.gov

NSF Graduate Research Fellowship Program (GRFP)

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