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Sabrina Absalon, Phd

@sabsalon.bsky.social
905 followers 811 following 77 posts

Cell biologist | microscopist studying the nuclear and cell division of Malaria parasites | www.absalonlab.com |Co-founder of Peers in Parasitology | Be who you are 🏳️‍🌈 |Healthcare is a human right

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Reposted by Sabrina Absalon, Phd
Journal of Cell Biology @jcb.org · 10/08/2026
Rhoptry biogenesis in #Plasmodium sporozoites is uncoupled from #mitosis and forms distinct pairs. New study from Benjamin Liffner (Adelaide University), Sabrina Absalon @sabsalon.bsky.social (Indiana University) and colleagues: rupress.org/jcb/article/... #Organelles #CelDivision #Malaria
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Reposted by Sabrina Absalon, Phd
Rockefeller University Press @rupress.org · 03/08/2026
In @jcb.org, Liffner, @sabsalon.bsky.social et al. apply Mosquito Tissue Ultrastructure Expansion Microscopy to reveal previously inaccessible details of #Plasmodium sporozoite formation and salivary gland invasion. rupress.org/jcb/article/... #Organelles #Microbiology #CelDivision #Malaria
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Reposted by Sabrina Absalon, Phd
Journal of Cell Biology @jcb.org · 03/08/2026
Liffner, @sabsalon.bsky.social et al. apply Mosquito Tissue Ultrastructure Expansion Microscopy to reveal previously inaccessible details of #Plasmodium sporozoite formation and salivary gland invasion. rupress.org/jcb/article/... #Organelles #Microbiology #CelDivision #Malaria
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Reposted by Sabrina Absalon, Phd
Ira Blader @bladerlab.bsky.social · 19/05/2026
Glad to see two kick ass parasitologists on this list. Congrats @sabsalon.bsky.social and @cmholab.bsky.social
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Sabrina Absalon, Phd @sabsalon.bsky.social · 20/05/2026
Thank you so much Ira. It cannot be even more special than crossing the finish line with a friend. I am so thrilled and thank you for all your support to our parasitology community
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Reposted by Sabrina Absalon, Phd
Paul & Virginie - Centriole Lab @centriolelab.bsky.social · 22/04/2026
Day 2 of the EMBO U-ExM Workshop at EMBL Heidelberg #EMBOExM. Gels are ready and expanding nicely! We also had a lively poster session and inspiring talks from @sabsalon.bsky.social and @gautamdey.bsky.social. A very engaged group, great to see such thoughtful discussions around expansion microscopy
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Reposted by Sabrina Absalon, Phd
Kit Yates @kityates.bsky.social · 06/03/2026
"TRUST YOUR NERDS"
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Reposted by Sabrina Absalon, Phd
Thibaut Brunet @thibautbrunet.bsky.social · 28/02/2026
Final version @nature.com of our paper describing unconventional multicellular development in a choanoflagellate inhabiting an extreme environment. A ton of new data since the first @biorxivpreprint.bsky.social preprint (which we've kept updating). A brief 🧵 (carried over from the old place)
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Sabrina Absalon, Phd @sabsalon.bsky.social · 09/02/2026
Just watched The Thinking Game and loved it. A thoughtful, human look at the people behind AlphaFold—and a reminder of the responsibility we have as scientists using AI. Highly recommend watching and sharing.
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Reposted by Sabrina Absalon, Phd
ACLU @aclu.org · 04/02/2026
The average public school in the U.S. has 500 students. ICE is currently detaining over 7 schools' worth of children, many of whom are being held in inhumane conditions. Children do not belong in government detention.
Black graphic with a shape of a child's head filled with red dots to symbolize kids in ICE detention. White and red text reads "ICE has detained at least 3,800 children under the second Trump administration."
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Reposted by Sabrina Absalon, Phd
Meade Krosby @meadekrosby.bsky.social · 07/11/2025
Thinking only of Rosalind Franklin today, and what was stolen from her (and so many other female scientists alongside her).
science.org
Rosalind Franklin and the damage of gender harassment
Spurred by a recent report on sexual harassment in academia, our columnist revisits a historical case and reflects on what has changed—and what hasn’t
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Reposted by Sabrina Absalon, Phd
UCSD Health Sciences Office of Faculty Affairs @ucsdfacaffairs.bsky.social · 03/11/2025
Applications for UC San Diego RAPID program's 2026-27 cohort are now open! This highly-rated and effective career development opportunity is for junior faculty researchers in #InfectiousDiseases. Learn more and apply today at rapid.ucsd.edu! #UCSD_RAPID #FacultyDevelopment
Applications are now accepted for UC San Diego Raising Advancement and Parity for Infectious Disease Researchers (RAPID) Program. RAPID is a one-year, NIAID-sponsored research development and mentoring program, which includes in-depth training in grant writing for research-oriented junior faculty. Apply by March 1, 2026 @ http://rapid.ucsd.edu. The graphic includes the program logo and a photo of an aerial view of La Jolla Cove.
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Shailly Gupta @shaillygupta.bsky.social · 19/10/2025
Yet another starting example highlighting that countries and communities continue to suffer as foreign aid depletes, first with US cuts and then by other developed countries. Thanks for your relentless reporting on this topic @stephanienolen.bsky.social www.nytimes.com/2025/10/17/h...
nytimes.com
A Somali Hospital Closed After U.S. Aid Cuts. Fired Employees Reopened It Without Pay.
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Prof Gavin Yamey MD MPH @gavinyamey.bsky.social · 23/10/2025
Jay Bhattacharya, MAGA world, corruption, & the politicization of science: ‼️🚨‼️He replaced the chief of the NIH’s environmental health institute with a dear friend of Vice President JD Vance without going through any of the usual NIH due processes More on this ghastliness from @markhisted.org 👇
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Reposted by Sabrina Absalon, Phd
G Elliott Morris @gelliottmorris.com · 19/10/2025
Good evening. We estimate that between 4.2 and 7.6 million people turned out for the No Kings Day demonstrations held around the country on Saturday. This makes Oct 18 very likely the biggest single-day U.S. protest event since 1970. www.gelliottmorris.com/p/second-no-...
gelliottmorris.com
Second "No Kings Day" protests likely the largest single-day political demonstration since 1970, with 4.2-7.6 million participants
Here are the initial results from our crowdsourced crowd-counting estimates
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Reposted by Sabrina Absalon, Phd
The New York Times @nytimes.com · 18/10/2025
The University of Virginia became the fifth school to rebuff a White House proposal to give universities preferential treatment if they uphold a set of government demands.
nyti.ms
University of Virginia Won’t Join White House’s Compact for Colleges
It was the fifth school in a matter of days to refuse an offer of preferential funding treatment from the government, even as the White House has threatened schools that do not sign up.
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Reposted by Sabrina Absalon, Phd
Oded Rechavi @odedrechavi.bsky.social · 15/10/2025
BIG ANNOUNCEMENT📣: I haven’t been this excited to be part of something new in 15 years… Thrilled to reveal the passion project I’ve been working on for the past year and a half!🙀🥳 (thread 👇)
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Sabrina Absalon, Phd @sabsalon.bsky.social · 14/10/2025
"Paper accepted in principle" is the best email to read while being in vacation with the inlaws in Brazil.
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Prof Peter Hotez MD PhD DSc(hon) @peterhotezmdphd.bsky.social · 30/05/2025
No words
America’s brain drain
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Sabrina Absalon, Phd @sabsalon.bsky.social · 12/10/2025
An absolute diamond of cell biology work. Congratulations 🎉 to all authors #UExM #Parasitesrule #CellBiology #Cilia
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Deb Houry @drdebhoury.bsky.social · 07/10/2025
From the 6 Surgeon Generals who served across administrations since President Bush: "Secretary Kennedy is entitled to his views. But he is not entitled to put people’s health at risk. He has rejected science, misled the public and compromised the health of Americans."
washingtonpost.com
Opinion | Six surgeons general: It’s our duty to warn the nation about RFK Jr.
We took an oath to declare dangers when we found them. We’re doing that again today.
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Reposted by Sabrina Absalon, Phd
Karim Majzoub @karimaj.bsky.social · 03/10/2025
Our @viroscope.bsky.social Joe McKellar interviewed by The-Scientist Magazine ! Look at all these beautiful cells we have in the lab :)
the-scientist.com
Boa Constrictor Brain Cells Slither into Focus
From reptiles and Tasmanian devils to humans, one researcher zooms in on unseen features of the brain and liver cells, like the cytoskeleton.
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Reposted by Sabrina Absalon, Phd
Peter O'Toole @yorkbioimaging.bsky.social · 03/10/2025
Happy #FluorescenceFriday. Christophe Leterrier⭐in #TheMicroscopists and reflects on the make-or-break moment at the end of his postdoc when he came close to leaving academia before securing his CNRS position and how these experiences shape the way he mentors others. Stream: bit.ly/microscopist...
bit.ly
The Microscopists | Christophe Leterrier (CNRS & Aix-Marseille Université)
This time on The Microscopists, we're joined by Christophe Leterrier, team leader at NeuroCyto in Marseille and director of a Nikon Center of Excellence for super-resolution microscopy.Christophe r...
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Sabrina Absalon, Phd @sabsalon.bsky.social · 28/09/2025
Please visit @benliffner.bsky.social poster at #GEF25 to know more
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Sabrina Absalon, Phd @sabsalon.bsky.social · 28/09/2025
The Zeiss Objective C-Apo 40x/1.2 W Corr works beautifully for us and we even discussed it in our method paper for expansion microscopy on mosquito whole organs: MoTissU-ExM | BMC Methods | Full Text share.google/atZ9aoKRvw0U...
share.google
Mosquito Tissue Ultrastructure-Expansion Microscopy (MoTissU-ExM) enables ultrastructural and anatomical analysis of malaria parasites and their mosquito - BMC Methods
Background Study of malaria parasite cell biology is challenged by their small size, which can make visualisation of individual organelles difficult or impossible using conventional light microscopy. In recent years, the field has attempted to overcome this challenge through the application of ultrastructure expansion microscopy (U-ExM), which physically expands a biological sample approximately 4.5-fold. To date, U-ExM has mostly been used to visualise blood-stage parasites and used exclusively on parasites in vitro. Methods Here we develop Mosquito Tissue U-ExM (MoTissU-ExM), a method for preparing dissected mosquito salivary glands and midguts by U-ExM. MoTissU-ExM preserves both host and parasite ultrastructure, enabling visualisation of oocysts and sporozoites in situ. We also provide a point-by-point protocol for how to perform MoTissU-ExM. Results We validate that MoTissU-ExM samples expand as expected, provide a direct comparison of the same dissected tissues before and after MoTissU-ExM, and highlight some of the key host and parasite structures that can be visualised following MoTissU-ExM. Discussion We discuss potential use cases for MoTissU-ExM for study of malaria parasite biology, and more broadly. We detail drawbacks or challenges MoTissU-ExM and imaging these expanded tissues, along with information troubleshooting this technique. Finally, we discuss how MoTissU-ExM could be applied and adapted in future to increase its utility.
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Reposted by Sabrina Absalon, Phd
Nisha Philip @nishaphilip.bsky.social · 16/09/2025
Delighted to report our publication on a divergent cyclic nucleotide binding protein that regulates malaria transmission to mosquitoes. Great work by Domi Kwecka , @jennyregan.bsky.social @choel Kim #malaria #ookinete #mosquitoes #signalling journals.plos.org/plospathogen...
journals.plos.org
A divergent cyclic nucleotide binding protein promotes Plasmodium ookinete infection of the mosquito
Author summary Malaria parasites complete their life-cycle within mammalian and mosquito hosts requiring specialised forms to invade and establish infection in host tissue. In order to transmit to the...
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Reposted by Sabrina Absalon, Phd
Josh Luke Davis 🏳️‍🌈 @joshlukedavis.com · 03/09/2025
woah this is genuinely, utterly WILD Ant queens of one species produce males of another species, so she can then mate with them and produce hybrid workers! This is so gloriously weird I can't quite compute it 🤯🧪🐜 www.nature.com/articles/d41...
nature.com
‘Almost unimaginable’: these ants are different species but share a mother
Ant queens of one species clone ants of another to create hybrid workers that do their bidding.
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Sabrina Absalon, Phd @sabsalon.bsky.social · 29/08/2025
Whoever works with me knows how much I hate doing Western blots. Well today I feel the WB fairy helped me get the most beautiful sodium carbonate extraction samples analyzed with 6 antibodies, they all work amazingly and I have not a single bubble, dirt or weird running. Rebuttal paper looking good
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Sabrina Absalon, Phd @sabsalon.bsky.social · 28/08/2025
I would love that and I can show the cool stuff we have on actin ;-)
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Sabrina Absalon, Phd @sabsalon.bsky.social · 28/08/2025
Omaya your preprint made my day. Totally interesting any chance I will see you at ExM Gottingen?
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Paul & Virginie - Centriole Lab @centriolelab.bsky.social · 28/08/2025
Trouble imaging actin in ExM? Meet HAK-Actin, a probe for U-ExM, cryo-ExM & iU-ExM. Enables post-expansion labeling for max signal. www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1... Soon at @spirochrome.com Led by O.Mercey and @lreymond.bsky.social, in collab with @dudinlab.bsky.social and @marinelap.bsky.social
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Mark Peifer (He, him) @peiferlabunc.bsky.social · 23/08/2025
The community of Drosophila researchers is amazing, mutually supportive and collaborative. Right now a key resource for our community, @flybase.bsky.social , is threatened by the cancellation of its NIH grant and is seeking community help in raising short term funds 1/n 🧪 please share
Dear Fly Community,

In May 2025, the NIH terminated all grant funding to Harvard University, including the NHGRI grant that supported FlyBase. This grant also funded FlyBase teams at Indiana University (IU) and the University of Cambridge (UK), and as a result, their subawards were also canceled.

The Cambridge team has secured support for one to two years through generous donations from the European fly community, emergency funding from the Wellcome Trust, and support from the University of Cambridge. At IU, funding has been secured for one year thanks to reserve funds from Thom Kaufman and a supplement from ORIP/NIH to the Bloomington Drosophila Stock Center (BDSC).

Unfortunately, the situation at Harvard is far more critical. Harvard University had supported FlyBase staff since May but recently denied a request for extended bridge funding. As a result, all eight employees (four full-time and four part-time) were abruptly laid off, with termination dates ranging from August to mid-October depending on their positions. In addition, our curator at the University of New Mexico will leave her position at the end of August. This decision came as a shock, and we are urgently pursuing all possible funding options.

To put the need into perspective: although FlyBase is free to use, it is not free to make. It takes large teams of people and millions of dollars a year to create FlyBase to support fly research (the last NHGRI grant supported us with more than 2 million USD per annum).

To help sustain FlyBase operations, we have been reaching out to you to ask for your support. We have set up a donation site in Cambridge, UK, to which European labs have and can continue to contribute, and a new donation site at IU to which labs in the US and the rest of the world can contribute. We urge researchers to work with their grant administrators to contribute to FlyBase via these sites if at all possible, as more of the money will go to FlyBase. However, we appreciate that some fu…https://wiki.flybase.org/wiki/FlyBase:Contribute_to_FlyBase

Our immediate goals are:

1. To maintain core curation activities and keep the FlyBase website online

2. To complete integration with the Alliance of Genome Resources (The Alliance).

Integration with the Alliance is essential for FlyBase’s long-term sustainability. For nearly a decade, NHGRI/NIH has supported the unification of Model Organism Databases (MODs) into the Alliance, which we aim to achieve by 2028. Therefore, securing bridge funding to sustain FlyBase over the next three years is crucial for successful integration and the long-term access to FlyBase data.

At present, our remaining funds will allow us to keep the FlyBase website online for approximately one more year. Beyond that, its future is uncertain unless new funding is secured. We will, of course, continue pursuing additional grant opportunities as they arise.

Given the uncertainty of future NIH or alternative funding sources, we are relying on the Fly community for support. Your contributions will directly help us retain the staff needed to complete this transition and to secure ongoing fly data curation into the Alliance beyond 2028.

We at FlyBase are incredibly grateful for the outpouring of support from the community during this challenging time. Your encouragement has strengthened our resolve and underscores how vital this resource remains to Drosophila research worldwide.

Sincerely,
The FlyBase Team
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Sabrina Absalon, Phd @sabsalon.bsky.social · 17/08/2025
At the top of my to do read
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Simone Reber @simonereber.bsky.social · 15/08/2025
FINALLY! Challenging to publish but we believe it is an important discovery: rdcu.be/eATFz 💚 Thanks to the team ‪@biswashere.bsky.social‬, Omar Muñoz, ✨Q✨ C. Hoege, B. Lorton, R. Nikolay ‪@matthewkraushar.bsky.social‬ @dshechter.bsky.social @gucklab.bsky.social @vasilyzaburdaev.bsky.social‬ 💚
rdcu.be
Conserved nucleocytoplasmic density homeostasis drives cellular organization across eukaryotes
Nature Communications - Cells can regulate their mass density. Here, the authors demonstrate how eukaryotes establish and maintain a lower density in the nucleus than in the cytoplasm via pressure...
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Phil Mandelbaum @philmandelbaum.bsky.social · 11/08/2025
4 new quick-guides to help you help your friends and fam STAND UP FOR SCIENCE and protect democracy www.standupforscience.net/activate-eng... www.standupforscience.net/inform-activ... www.standupforscience.net/team-science www.standupforscience.net/calling-values @standupforscience.bsky.social
A cutout of protesters in grayscale over a dark blue background, with the following text in white, all caps: (line 1; larger) ACTIVATE AND ENGAGE; and (line 2) THE TIME IS NOW.A closeup of a polluted river filled with trash, in grayscale, with the following text in white, all caps: (line 1; larger) INFORM AND ACTIVATE; and (line 2) THE TIME IS NOW.A cutout of three lab scientists looking at an iPad over a red background, with the following text in white, all caps: (line 1; larger) TEAM SCIENCE; and (line 2) THE TIME IS NOW.A cutout of a side view of a bronze justice statue over a maroon background, with the following text in white, all caps: (line 1; larger) CALLING ON VALUES; and (line 2) THE TIME IS NOW.
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Harmit Singh Malik @harmitmalik.bsky.social · 08/08/2025
If RFK Jr approach to develop a vaccine against all viruses involves sequentially exposing himself to each of these viruses and letting his amazing body develop a vaccine the natural way, then I highly endorse this approach. I would start with something easy like Nipah or Hendra virus
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Nature @nature.com · 05/08/2025
Nearly one-third of all retracted papers at PLoS ONE can be traced back to just 45 researchers who served as editors at the journal go.nature.com/3UITVts
go.nature.com
Exclusive: retraction-prone editors identified at megajournal PLoS ONE
Study says small editor group handled many problematic manuscripts — and a Nature investigation finds out who they are.
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Stand Up for Science! @standupforscience.net · 04/08/2025
“To the scientists wondering if there will even be an NIH by the end of this administration, this committee’s resounding message is: ‘Yes, Congress has your back’,” said @murray.senate.gov We’re not near the finish line yet - but this is a strong step in the right direction. zurl.co/AzSK7
nature.com
‘Congress has your back’: US senators tell scientists they want to protect NIH budget
Senate budget bill includes small increase for the health-research agency — but faces a long road before being signed into law. Senate budget bill includes small increase for the health-research agency — but faces a long road before being signed into law.
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Stella Hurtley @smhsci.bsky.social · 01/08/2025
Online now in @science.org Cryo-EM structure of endogenous Plasmodium falciparum Pfs230 and Pfs48/45 fertilization complex | Science www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...
science.org
Cryo-EM structure of endogenous Plasmodium falciparum Pfs230 and Pfs48/45 fertilization complex
Malaria parasite fertilization occurs in the midgut of a female Anopheles mosquito. Blocking fertilization within the mosquito can prevent malaria transmission. Plasmodium falciparum Pfs230 and Pfs48/...
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Sabrina Absalon, Phd @sabsalon.bsky.social · 02/08/2025
Congratulations 👏🏼🎉 friend. Absolutely deserved
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Andrés Guillén Samander @aguillensamander.bsky.social · 26/07/2025
One for the Apicomplexa peeps: ever wonder how does the IMC grow so fast during progeny formation? Where do all the lipids come from? In our latest work on malaria RBC stages we implicate this monster protein (~6000 residues!) and ER contact sites. Happy+proud to share and keen to hear thoughts!
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bioRxivpreprint @biorxivpreprint.bsky.social · 26/07/2025
A bridge-like lipid transfer protein is critical for generation of invasive stages in malaria parasites www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/202…
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Sabrina Absalon, Phd @sabsalon.bsky.social · 21/07/2025
🎙️ Excited to host Dr. Zhicheng Dou for our next PEERs in Parasitology (PiP) seminar! 🧫 A New Perspective on the “Lysosome” in the Protozoan Pathogen T. gondii #Parasitology #Toxoplasma #PiP #Protozoa #SciTalks #DiversityInSTEM 📅 Fri, July 25 | 🕛 12PM EST🔗 Register: iu.zoom.us/webinar/regi...
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Brooke Fitzwater, PhD (she/her) 🐟🪱🏳️‍🌈♾️ @oceanfilly.bsky.social · 18/07/2025
As Requested - A Starter Pack of PIs in Biology (or adjacent) fields who are recruiting POSTDOCS! Please don't hesitate to reach out if you wish to be added! go.bsky.app/4gbXXR3
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Sabrina Absalon, Phd @sabsalon.bsky.social · 14/07/2025
Feeling seen
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Sabrina Absalon, Phd @sabsalon.bsky.social · 04/07/2025
😂😂😂
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Sharona Gordon @profsharona.bsky.social · 03/07/2025
NIH funding REINSTATED! Thank you to @atg.wa.gov and other attorneys general and to Judge Young. This saves the career of a promising junior scientist. TY @jeremymberg.bsky.social for all your help interpreting these events.
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ppbioimaging.bsky.social @ppbioimaging.bsky.social · 01/07/2025
Acknowledgement matters! At PPBI, we stand with the Royal Microscopical Society and Global Bioimaging to promote recognition of the vital work imaging scientists and facilities do for research. #PPBI #acknowledgementguidelines
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MwahahahahahadScientist @mads100tist.bsky.social · 27/06/2025
TIL that one of the books removed from the Armed Forces Library because it "had DEI" in it is Ben Barres' autobiography. Remember that you can buy and should read this book because Ben was badass and an amazing scientist mitpress.mit.edu/978026253954...
The cover of the book, in greenish blueish color. The title is "The autobiography of a transgender scientist" by one of the most badass human beings that have ever existed, Ben Barres
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