iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Sebastian Samwald (Basti) he/him @samwalds.bsky.social · 24/09/2026

Huw? No? Why? Just why would that be a thing you actually like?

Sebastian Samwald (Basti) he/him @samwalds.bsky.social · 23/09/2026

As I have encountered more stunted T1 seedlings (both with intronised and intronless constructs) with the ABA sensor, an analysis comparing accumulation levels of T1 plants would have been confounded. So we decided against that.

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Sebastian Samwald (Basti) he/him @samwalds.bsky.social · 23/09/2026

Thanks 🙂 We have not explicitly tested for this. I would assume that it might help, but as we have not tested it, I can't verify it nor put solid numbers on it. It might also be a different case for each promoter, tissue, sensor etc. in the scenarios you describe.

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Sebastian Samwald (Basti) he/him @samwalds.bsky.social · 23/09/2026

*choose (Clearly I was too excited whilst compiling this thread 😅)

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Sebastian Samwald (Basti) he/him @samwalds.bsky.social · 23/09/2026

None of this would have been possible without @tonnigrubeandersen.bsky.social and @cbtomsen.bsky.social. Check the full preprint out: doi.org/10.64898/202...

doi.org

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Sebastian Samwald (Basti) he/him @samwalds.bsky.social · 23/09/2026

In conclusion: Intronised fluorophores could be a solution for working with "weak" native promoters, and to keep your fluorescence signals more stable over generations. Or if you simply want MORE SIGNAL. 😉✨

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Sebastian Samwald (Basti) he/him @samwalds.bsky.social · 23/09/2026

And indeed our intronised constructs were able to retain fluorescence signals better over generations. 🤩

A scientific graph showing that we encountered less loss of fluorescence over generations when using intronised constructs.

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Sebastian Samwald (Basti) he/him @samwalds.bsky.social · 23/09/2026

Finally, we wanted to see if intronisation could also help to reduce the loss of fluorescence over generations, that some FRET biosensors are prone to. For this I've intronised the fluorophores of the ABA biosensor ABACUS2, and compared T2 with their corresponding T3 fluorescence signals.

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Sebastian Samwald (Basti) he/him @samwalds.bsky.social · 23/09/2026

Next we used the well characterised pSCR to show how powerful intronisation can be in enhancing your signals with a tissue specific promoter. And wow, did the intronised fluorophores not disappoint. 😱

A scientific graph showing that intronised fluorophores under the pSCR promoter produce a lot more signal than intronless fluorophores

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Sebastian Samwald (Basti) he/him @samwalds.bsky.social · 23/09/2026

What is more striking is that we could even recapitulate that effect when comparing independent T1 Arabidopsis plants in such a clear way. (red marks intronised constructs in T1 plants, blue marks intronless constructs in T1 plants)

A screenshot of a Westernblot.
It demonstrates that one can get more protein abundance by using intronised constructs.

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Sebastian Samwald (Basti) he/him @samwalds.bsky.social · 23/09/2026

And indeed we saw a further increase in fluorescence signal and protein abundance when transiently expressing these constructs in Nicotiana benthamiana. Have a look at the intronised (marked with a red i) bands in comparison to the intronless protein abundances. ✨

A scientific graph.
Showing that intronised fluorophores indeed do produce more signal than intronless constructs.

A screenshot from a Westernblot.
Demonstrating that intronised constructs produce a lot more signal.

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Sebastian Samwald (Basti) he/him @samwalds.bsky.social · 23/09/2026

One can chose a brighter fluorophore, or even triplicate the fluorophore to enhance the signal. We took it one step further and intronised our fluorophores of choice.

A graphical scheme of how non-intronised coding sequence results in some fluorophores, whilst intronised coding sequence results in more fluorophores.

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Sebastian Samwald (Basti) he/him @samwalds.bsky.social · 23/09/2026

This has originally developed out of a thought along the lines of: "What can you do if you only manage to get weak fluorescence signals?" A short explaining thread 🧵

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Sarah McAnulty, Ph.D. @sarahmackattack.bsky.social · 22/09/2026

Just emailed 26,000 people about snail facts advent calendars. This better result in 500 snail sales. Snales. Wait that just sounds like snails. Is that a good omen?? Get a calendar here: SquidFacts.net

An 11x14 inch poster featuring snails, slugs, nudibranchs, and other snails! There are 24 yellow-green snail shells that you can scratch off. There's a leaf sheep and sea bunny and sea angel and fire snail and banana slug and mystery snail and ramshorn snail and candy cane snail

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PlantEvolution 🌱🌾 @plantevolution.bsky.social · 14/09/2026

Please consider submitting comments on the implementation for genome edited plants in the EU. Reminder: this is not the place for general statements regarding your personal vie of #NGT. Instead, the Commission is asking for input for the development of workable rules.

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Marc Somssich @somssich.bsky.social · 18/08/2026

We are looking for a Group Leader in #Wheat research for pre-breeding here @kwsgroup.bsky.social. This is a full-time, permanent position at KWS France. You would be working on a research station near Lille or Paris. jobs.kws.com/job/Mons-en-... #PlantScience #PlantSciJobs #PlantScienceJobs

jobs.kws.com

Group Lead Wheat Research & Pre-Breeding (m/f/d)

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Sebastian Samwald (Basti) he/him @samwalds.bsky.social · 06/08/2026

Yes. Every time I get told by an institute administration person: “Well, it isn’t a rule. But it would be good to have in case of an audit. Therefore you/we have to do it.”

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Juan Carlos De la Concepcion @delaconcepcionjc.bsky.social · 05/08/2026

PLEASE SHARE! New job openings in my lab @zmbp-tuebingen.bsky.social. We have a broad interest into the mechanistic basis of how molecular complexes are rewired during cellular development in plants and during invasion by pathogens. 🌱🍄🔬 See details below 👇 #PlantSciJobs

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Antoine Cabon @acabon.bsky.social · 31/07/2026

Another reason why cities should develop bike infrastructures: it simply makes economical sense!

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John Innes Centre @johninnescentre.bsky.social · 30/07/2026

VACANCY - We’re looking for a Research Assistant/Lab Manager to join the @tinaschreier.bsky.social group, working on plant cell biology and C4 photosynthesis. okt.to/ewfnRI Closing date - 18 August 2026 Contract - 36 months, full-time

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Sarah McAnulty, Ph.D. @sarahmackattack.bsky.social · 13/07/2026

This coming school year's Lego League theme is biodiversity, which means it's about to be all-hands-on-deck for ecologists. Let's get ready for the flood. Ecologists, if you're willing to answer questions from classrooms or LEGO teams, we need ya. docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1F...

docs.google.com

Fall 2026 Scientist Form

Thank you for Volunteering with Skype a Scientist for the Fall 2026 semester! We match all classrooms up once per week. You may get a match immediately and you may not get a match for a few months. ...

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Sebastian S. Cocioba @atinygreencell.bsky.social · 08/07/2026

@breakliquid.bsky.social and I are delighted to say our OpenEVO preprint is finally live! An open source hand-made turbidostat that's modular, affordable, and made to be customized. Designed with love for the research community. Enjoy!!!💚 www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...

biorxiv.org

OpenEvo: An Open-Source Platform for Automated Evolution and Analysis

Here we introduce OpenEvo, a fully open-source, low-cost turbidostat platform for automated continuous culture and directed evolution experiments. Existing tools are expensive, complex, or lack open-s...

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Tonni Andersen @tonnigrubeandersen.bsky.social · 07/07/2026

Time for another preprint from the lab: www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6... Led by @yuanyuanzhang.bsky.social and @defengshen.bsky.social. We found some surprising secrets that connect and uncouple root barrier formation with systemic nitrogen signaling in shoots. see the thread below for more details

biorxiv.org

A tunable receptor separates root barrier formation from nutrient signaling through ligand-perception states

In roots, the endodermis controls nutrient entry by forming a barrier known as the Casparian strip. Yet how barrier-associated processes interface with systemic signaling remains unclear. Here, we sho...

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Sebastian Samwald (Basti) he/him @samwalds.bsky.social · 04/07/2026

My favourite ‘snacking whilst running’ season has kicked off ✨

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Sebastian Samwald (Basti) he/him @samwalds.bsky.social · 13/06/2026

For better science 🧪 And to ensure we don’t accidentally pay for 500 avocados 🥑😂

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Sebastian Samwald (Basti) he/him @samwalds.bsky.social · 13/06/2026

Which can happen to any of us. At any point. The important thing though is to be able to critically evaluate the type of data and outputs we have and get. To catch these events. And that needs a lot of fundamental understanding of the science we do. 5/

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Sebastian Samwald (Basti) he/him @samwalds.bsky.social · 13/06/2026

We were both easily able to catch this discrepancy as it was such a big and obvious one. However, there was no malicious intent. No purposeful manipulation. Probably just a slip of a finger on a key pad. 4/

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Sebastian Samwald (Basti) he/him @samwalds.bsky.social · 13/06/2026

Both me and the cashier understood that the final payment sum was way too high to be the real and realistic value. We knew the rough value to be expected and knew that we had to figure out why that differed from our expectations. 3/

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Sebastian Samwald (Basti) he/him @samwalds.bsky.social · 13/06/2026

Turns out, I got accidentally charged not just for 1, or 2, or 3 avocados. But for 500 avocados! 🥑 2/

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Sebastian Samwald (Basti) he/him @samwalds.bsky.social · 13/06/2026

I just lived through a real-life metaphor of why we need to always critically judge and understand our data: At the check-out at the supermarket, my bill was way too high. Like utterly beyond reason too high. The cashier and I looked confused at each other and my cart. 1/

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KleineVehnLab @kleinevehnlab.bsky.social · 29/05/2026

Wanted: Outstanding plant scientist and fantastic colleague. If your science combines fundamental discovery with future applications, we would love to hear from you @dompsfr.bsky.social @biologyunifreiburg.bsky.social @cibss.bsky.social @uni-freiburg.de uni-freiburg.de/en/job/00005...

uni-freiburg.de

University of Freiburg

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🌈Dr. Frizzle @swilua.bsky.social · 24/05/2026

This screenshot that came up in my FB memories today is based on a real peer reviewed study! Published in the BMJ, which is an extremely reputable journal! What the AI Overview misses (because it cannot think!) is the study, itself, was satirical: a demonstration of the limits of randomized trials.

Brett Weed
@tarheelphan.bsky.social
Guys....
8:574
@ google.com
All
Images Videos
News Forums
Al Overview
Learn more :
According to a 2018 randomized controlled trial published in The BMJ, parachutes are no more effective than backpacks at preventing death or major injury when jumping from an aircraft. The study involved 23 people who were randomly given either a parachute or a backpack and then jumped from a biplane or helicopter. The researchers found no statistically significant difference in the primary outcome (death)
between the treatment (parachute) and control (no parachute) arms.
Sh

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Christine Faulkner @pdchristine.bsky.social · 13/05/2026

Plasmodesmal closure triggers stress responses! Turns out cells are generally better off with connections to their neighbours. This manuscript represents a decade-long team collaboration, with heroic effort from Estee Tee to lead it over the line! #PlantScience link.springer.com/article/10.1...

link.springer.com

Plasmodesmal closure elicits stress responses - EMBO Reports

Plant cells are connected to their neighbors via plasmodesmata facilitating the exchange of nutrients and signaling molecules. During immune responses, plasmodesmata close, but how this contributes to...

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Julia Lazzari-Dean @jlazzaridean.bsky.social · 12/05/2026

We invented “triplet tumbling microscopy” (TTM) to track protein-protein interactions in living cells! Tag your protein with GFP and see it interact with *untagged* binding partners www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...

A cartoon overview of triplet tumbling microscopy, comparing data from bound and unbound samples.

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Sebastian Samwald (Basti) he/him @samwalds.bsky.social · 07/05/2026

the snacks the experiments for the with the collaborators collaborators

A plant science experimental set-up
A hand wearing a green lab coat. A green gloved hand is giving a thumbs up.

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Johannes Herpell @herpell.bsky.social · 05/05/2026

A side project that got out of hand—in the best way 🚀 New paper is out: www.nature.com/articles/s41... We sequenced the first Clusia genomes to understand something subtle but fundamental: 👉 CAM is a drought adaptive mechanism in plants - how do different physiotypes of CAM evolve? A 🧵 👇 1/14

nature.com

Clusia genomes shed light on the evolution and diversity of crassulacean acid metabolism physiotypes - Nature Communications

Clusia species exhibit diverse photosynthetic physiotypes. The authors present genome assemblies for C. major (weak CAM), C. minor s.l. (facultative CAM), and C. rosea (strong CAM), and speculate that...

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Sebastian Samwald (Basti) he/him @samwalds.bsky.social · 03/05/2026

Das heißt aber auch, dass jedeR gut frei präsentieren sollte. Und die Zeit auch demensprechend selbst einplanen muss. Inkl. Kontext, Einleitung, den ganzen Daten, und der Conclusio. Und das ist echt ein wichtiger Skill so eine Präsentation ans Publikum und an die Zeit angepasst zu geben.

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Sebastian Samwald (Basti) he/him @samwalds.bsky.social · 03/05/2026

Ja, da bin ich immer wieder aufs Neue überrascht wie sich da die Disziplinen unterscheiden. In den Pflanzenwissenschaften wird z.b. eigentlich niemals ein Manuskript vorgetragen. Sondern immer nur ein Teil davon. Als Highlight bzw. self-contained story.

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Sebastian Samwald (Basti) he/him @samwalds.bsky.social · 03/05/2026

Eine Präsentation zu halten ist ja schließlich auch schon einer der Skills der damit gelernt/abgeprüft werden soll. 🙃 Aber ja spätestens bei den anschließenden Prüfungsfragen würde ich erwarten, dass es solche KI-Nutzer*innen dann ziemlich schwer haben mit dem vollständigen Verständnis der Materie.

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Sebastian Samwald (Basti) he/him @samwalds.bsky.social · 03/05/2026

Oh wow. Also ganz grundsätzlich wer bei einer Präsentation stur Text abliest verliert bei mir schon sehr viel an Wohlwollen bzw. Punkte in der Benotung. (Das letzte Mal als ich Präsentation benotet habe ist aber auch in der Pre-AI Zeit gewesen)

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Sebastian Samwald (Basti) he/him @samwalds.bsky.social · 03/05/2026

Vielleicht bin ich zu naiv, aber wie nutzen Studierende bei mündlichen Prüfungen eine KI?

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Simon Hammann @simonhammann.bsky.social · 20/04/2026

Don't be shy to take on a little two-week side project. These five months will be the most precious three years of your academic journey.

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Sebastian Samwald (Basti) he/him @samwalds.bsky.social · 17/04/2026

The “my train is delayed”-treat in the sunshine. Life could be worse 🤷‍♂️☀️

An ice cream/ice lolly held up against the background of a German train station.

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mariebarberon.bsky.social @mariebarberon.bsky.social · 17/04/2026

Registrations are open for PADiBa2026!

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Meroz Lab @merozlab.bsky.social · 31/03/2026

New preprint 🌱 Segment plants in time-series images using foundation model SAM2 - without training a model 🪩. Magician Alex Abbey! 💡SAP works across species, scales, and even z-stacks. From single cells to whole plants→ quantitative growth & dynamics . tinyurl.com/3raedtvm @biosofttau.bsky.social

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plasmidsaurus @plasmidsaurus.bsky.social · 24/03/2026

A new chapter for open science 🧬 Plasmidsaurus is excited to announce a four-year strategic partnership with @addgene.bsky.social Open science runs on verified materials. Learn more: plasmidsaurus.com/news/a-new-c...

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Marc Somssich @somssich.bsky.social · 06/03/2026

Another really interesting #SciHis Story by @asimovpress.bsky.social. Goes to show that there are interesting and curious stories and facts in everything - even little things like Agar that seem simple and straightforward. www.asimov.press/p/agar #ScienceHistory #MolecularBiology #Agarose #Seaweed

asimov.press

The Origins of Agar

First introduced into laboratories in 1881, agar remains indispensable as a culture medium.

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