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Ruben Gonzalez @rubenlgonzalez.bsky.social · 23/08/2026

The NSF is on track to award 30% fewer new research grants this year—the lowest number in four decades. Basic science is the foundation of future medicines, technologies, and prosperity. We must fund it. www.nature.com/articles/d41...

nature.com

Exclusive: NSF set to issue lowest number of new grants in four decades

The US science-funding agency is withholding $1 billion of its budget so that the money can go to a special White House project.

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Reposted by Ruben Gonzalez

Biophysical Society @biophysicalsoc.bsky.social · 08/08/2026

The #bps2027 Biophysical Society Lecturer is Susan Marqusee, University of California, Berkeley. Don't miss her talk, "Touring the Energy Landscape" at the Annual Meeting in Philadelphia on Monday, February 22. See you there!

buff.ly

2027 Biophysical Society Lecture | Biophysical Society

University of California, Berkeley

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Ruben Gonzalez @rubenlgonzalez.bsky.social · 12/07/2026

Personal views only (not Columbia’s). US OMB has proposed changes affecting funded scholarship and research, including how grants are awarded or terminated. Comments are due tomorrow, Monday, July 13. You don’t need to be a researcher to comment. Template: aas.org/omb-comments

aas.org

Submit Comments Urging Against Harmful Changes to Federal Grantmaking | American Astronomical Society

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Ruben Gonzalez @rubenlgonzalez.bsky.social · 24/06/2026

Preprint alert! Using smFRET, we define the only essential ATP hydrolysis step in translation initiation. We show that eIF3 and eIF4B stimulate ATP-hydrolysis-dependent recycling of cap-stalled eIF4F, coupling eIF4F recycling to PIC loading onto an mRNA.🔬 doi.org/10.64898/202...

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Ruben Gonzalez @rubenlgonzalez.bsky.social · 26/05/2026

Fantastic science and community at the 2026 Bridge to the PhD in STEM Symposium! Join us at Davis Auditorium in CEPSR today. An emotional moment as this nearly two-decade-old program comes to an end—but the work of broadening participation in science continues on! #cubridgephd

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Ruben Gonzalez @rubenlgonzalez.bsky.social · 22/05/2026

Jaw dropping! 🤯 Congrats Sam, Martin, and the rest of the team in the @sternberglab.bsky.social and #JinekLab!

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Ruben Gonzalez @rubenlgonzalez.bsky.social · 15/05/2026

Congrats to the newly minted Dr. Meghna Maiti on an excellent PhD defense! #GonzalezGroup #ColumbiaChemistry

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Ruben Gonzalez @rubenlgonzalez.bsky.social · 14/05/2026

Fantastic evening honoring #KerstinPerez, @ishmailsaboor.bsky.social , and the other 2026 Lenfest Distinguished Faculty Award winners! So wonderful to celebrate all of what makes @columbiauniversity.bsky.social great! #ColumbiaPhysics #ColumbiaBiologicalSciences #ColumbiaCollege #ColumbiaGSAS

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Ruben Gonzalez @rubenlgonzalez.bsky.social · 01/05/2026

Had a great time celebrating with Claudia Espinoza-Heredia, @bjmarlin.bsky.social, and all the Columbia sacnistas at the SACNAS+ End-of-Year Gala! Complete with a performance by Ballet Folklórico at Columbia University!

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Ruben Gonzalez @rubenlgonzalez.bsky.social · 01/03/2026

C.S. Wu changed physics with the Wu Experiment, proving nature distinguishes left from right—parity isn’t conserved. Although others won the 1957 Nobel, she was excluded. A champion of equity in STEM, her legacy lives on at Columbia Physics with this year’s lecturer, Nathalie P. de Leon.

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Ruben Gonzalez @rubenlgonzalez.bsky.social · 13/02/2026

Tons of fun at the first @columbiacollege.bsky.social Fac’ to Table Lunch at John Jay, hosted by the one and only Dean Josef Sorett! So great to be in community with our amazing students and just talk about what’s on their minds: history, jazz, Frontiers of Science, teaching, and DJ’ing! IYKYK!

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Ruben Gonzalez @rubenlgonzalez.bsky.social · 11/02/2026

Dozens of researchers will move to France from US following high-profile bid to lure talent Large proportion worked at Columbia University, which had its grants cut and frozen by the administration of US President Donald Trump. www.nature.com/articles/d41...

nature.com

Dozens of researchers will move to France from US following high-profile bid to lure talent

Large proportion worked at Columbia University, which had its grants cut and frozen by the administration of US President Donald Trump.

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Ruben Gonzalez @rubenlgonzalez.bsky.social · 06/01/2026

New work out today in PNAS! Secondary active transporters are everywhere, but direct observation of their structural dynamics is rarely achieved. Here, we capture the real-time dynamics of a sodium-coupled dicarboxylate transporter using smFRET. 🧵⬇️ doi.org/10.1073/pnas...

(Top) smFRET enables direct observation of a sodium-coupled transporter executing rapid, stochastic elevator-type motions in lipid bilayers. (Bottom) Thermodynamic modeling shows how highly cooperative co-substrate binding enables tightly coupled transport, without suppressing these motions.

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Ruben Gonzalez @rubenlgonzalez.bsky.social · 05/01/2026

New Biochem Soc Trans review: eIF3 as a modular, central regulator of translation. Authored by @nickide.bsky.social and Colin Echeverría Aitken, this review integrates genetic, biochemical, and structural perspectives and highlights open mechanistic questions. doi.org/10.1042/BST2...

eIF3 is a central player in translation initiation and has been implicated in events throughout translation.

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Ruben Gonzalez @rubenlgonzalez.bsky.social · 05/01/2026

Slightly overdue article highlight! In PNAS, we use smFRET to reveal how polypeptide release factor 2 (RF2) undergoes a cascade of structural changes to catalyze polypeptide release during translation termination and ArfA-mediated ribosome rescue. 🧵⬇️ doi.org/10.1073/pnas...

Energy-landscape model of RF2 activation. Comparison of termination complexes (TC), wild-type ArfA-bound nonstop elongation complexes (nsECs), and loss-of-function ArfA mutant-bound nsECs reveals that wild-type ArfA promotes RF2 docking to nsECs by reshaping the conformational cascade.

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Ruben Gonzalez @rubenlgonzalez.bsky.social · 04/01/2026

A (belated!) highlight from an excellent collaboration with @dunhamlab.bsky.social and #HouLabTJU. In this Nat Commun paper, we combine smFRET and cryo-EM to show how the tRNA modification m¹G37 stabilizes the reading frame—and what happens when it’s missing.

Mechanistic model for +1 frameshifting suppression. The m¹G37 tRNA modification blocks expanded codon–anticodon interactions, preserving translational fidelity.

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Ruben Gonzalez @rubenlgonzalez.bsky.social · 10/12/2025

The Gonzalez Lab at Columbia University is seeking a scientific leader! Join us in a Research Scientist position, driving single-molecule, structural, and biochemical studies of translation, translational control, and other RNA-based processes. Apply: apply.interfolio.com/176949

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Ruben Gonzalez @rubenlgonzalez.bsky.social · 31/07/2025

New from our lab in @narjournal.bsky.social: We dissect the folding dynamics of a fundamental element of RNA secondary structure—a stem-loop—at single-molecule and microsecond resolution. doi.org/10.1093/nar/... 1/5

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Ruben Gonzalez @rubenlgonzalez.bsky.social · 10/06/2025

Over 60 NIH staff are blowing the whistle on Trump’s assault on biomedical research — calling it unethical, illegal, and dangerous. Grants canceled. Trials halted. Science censored. This is a direct threat to public health. www.standupforscience.net/bethesda-dec...

standupforscience.net

Bethesda Declaration — STAND UP FOR SCIENCE

Support NIH Staff Now!

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Ruben Gonzalez @rubenlgonzalez.bsky.social · 05/06/2025

A Puerto Rican Ph.D. student. A first-gen scientist. Both lost NIH grants under vague “new priorities.” Nearly 2,500 projects and $1.6B in cut or stalled grants. No vote. No debate. Just science erased. www.nytimes.com/interactive/...

nytimes.com

Here Are the Nearly 2,500 Medical Research Grants Canceled or Delayed by Trump

Some cuts have been starkly visible, but the country’s medical grant-making machinery has also radically transformed outside the public eye.

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Ruben Gonzalez @rubenlgonzalez.bsky.social · 02/06/2025

“If things continue as they are, American science is ruined.” This isn’t sabotage from the outside — it’s self-inflicted. Cuts to research, visa bans, and closed doors to global talent are doing what an enemy of the US could only dream of. www.nytimes.com/2025/05/31/w...

nytimes.com

World Scientists Look Elsewhere as U.S. Labs Stagger Under Trump Cuts

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Ruben Gonzalez @rubenlgonzalez.bsky.social · 31/05/2025

Check out group member Meghna Maiti’s poster at #RNA2025! She’s presenting new findings on how frameshift-suppressor tRNAs exhibit altered dynamics in the ribosomal A site that modulate translocation and +1 frameshifting. Friday, 8–10 PM PT — she’s at P2-492!

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Ruben Gonzalez @rubenlgonzalez.bsky.social · 30/05/2025

A blast from the past! The Gonzalez Group, circa 2008, celebrating our first publication! Check out much, much younger versions of, from left to right, Pallav Kosuri, yours truly, Sam Sternberg, Mike Englander, @jingyifei.bsky.social, Daniel MacDougall, Margaret Elvekrog, and Subasree Das!

Photo credit: Pallav Kosuri by way of Jingyi Fei.

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Ruben Gonzalez @rubenlgonzalez.bsky.social · 30/05/2025

Excited to share that group member Riley Gentry will present a talk at #RNA2025 tomorrow! He’ll reveal how PIC-bound eIFs collaborate to drive mRNA loading during translation initiation. Don’t miss “The mechanism of mRNA activation” at 9 AM in the Translation Mechanisms plenary.

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Ruben Gonzalez @rubenlgonzalez.bsky.social · 07/05/2025

“Undermining the future of American science is not a path to accountability — it’s a path to decline.” In a powerful new piece, my colleague Daphna Shohamy explains how canceled grants are driving young scientists out of science—and out of the country. 🔗 www.statnews.com/2025/05/07/u...

statnews.com

What am I supposed to say to this generation of young scientists?

Undermining the future of American science is not a path to accountability — it’s a path to decline.

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Ruben Gonzalez @rubenlgonzalez.bsky.social · 28/04/2025

This op-ed details how the billionaires now destroying basic science at our universities built their fortunes on its breakthroughs. They're aggressively moving to deny others the very foundation that made their own successes possible. www.nytimes.com/2025/04/28/o...

nytimes.com

Opinion | The White House Tech Bros Owe Their Fortunes to the Research They’re Killing

Underlying many investments are breakthroughs in medicine and technology from great universities.

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Ruben Gonzalez @rubenlgonzalez.bsky.social · 17/04/2025

A really important op-ed from my colleague, Matt Connelly, in our History Department. He sets the record straight on several important facts about Columbia’s response to the Trump administration that have been misreported and mischaracterized. 1/5 www.nytimes.com/2025/04/16/o...

nytimes.com

Opinion | I’m a Columbia Professor. Here’s the Really Disheartening Part of This Mess.

Where were these voices when the university was under assault from the Trump administration?

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Ruben Gonzalez @rubenlgonzalez.bsky.social · 08/04/2025

Young scientists are leaving science to stay in the US or leaving the US to stay in science. We’re losing the talent we trained. To lead in medicine, AI, and energy, we must support young scientists as if the future depends on them—because it does. www.nytimes.com/2025/04/03/o...

nytimes.com

Opinion | America’s Brightest Minds Will Walk Away

Young researchers are choosing between staying in science and staying in the United States.

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Ruben Gonzalez @rubenlgonzalez.bsky.social · 12/03/2025

As some of you already know, I was appointed Dean of Science at Columbia in December and began my role on Jan 1. It’s an honor to support our students, postdocs, and faculty—especially in this challenging moment. Science at Columbia is strong. #ColumbiaScience fas.columbia.edu/news/ruben-g...

fas.columbia.edu

Ruben Gonzalez Appointed Dean of Science | Arts & Sciences

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Reposted by Ruben Gonzalez

Florian Ullrich @fullrich.bsky.social · 19/12/2024

This hot-off-press paper reveals how eukaryotic eIF4F recognizes & activates messenger RNA by stochastically sampling along its length & utilizing allosteric communication between its subunits. We get a revised model for mRNA activation & translation initiation. www.nature.com/articles/s41...

nature.com

The mechanism of mRNA cap recognition - Nature

Allosteric communication between the eIF4F subunits drives mRNA cap-recognition and subsequent activation of the message.

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Ruben Gonzalez @rubenlgonzalez.bsky.social · 17/12/2024

Thanks to #JeffreyKieft for an excellent SCI-Talk Seminar visit to #NYSBC! A great day of science, friends, and potential collaborations!

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Ruben Gonzalez @rubenlgonzalez.bsky.social · 11/12/2024

Our latest work is out in Nature today! Using smFRET, we directly visualized recruitment of the eIF4F complex to the 5' cap of eukaryotic mRNAs and formation of an activated mRNA. Our findings reveal new and surprising roles for each eIF4F component. 1/3 www.nature.com/articles/s41...

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Ruben Gonzalez @rubenlgonzalez.bsky.social · 11/12/2024

A beautiful mechanistic study of coupled transcription translation, exciting new results, and several technical advances! Congrats on this awesome study, @olivierduss.bsky.social! 🍾

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Ruben Gonzalez @rubenlgonzalez.bsky.social · 21/11/2024

New day, new platform, same mission: Unlocking molecular mysteries and breaking barriers in STEM and academia. 🚀 Let’s connect, collaborate, and amplify science for all! #BlueskyBound #RNA #Ribosomes #Transporters #SingleMolecules #ScienceForAll

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