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Tim Stearns

@stearnslab.bsky.social
4.9K followers 826 following 193 posts

Professor and Dean of The Rockefeller University. Cell biologist in NYC. Believer in the power of science education.

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Reposted by Tim Stearns
Max Heiman @heiman.bsky.social · 10/04/2026
New preprint! "A stereotyped glial attachment determines the morphology and function of neuronal cilia" doi.org/10.64898/202... We find that C. elegans neuronal cilia attach to glia, we identify a protein required for cilia-glia attachment, and we show that glial attachments alter cilia signaling.
biorxiv.org
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Ben Engel @cellarchlab.com · 08/04/2026
It’s done!! Molecular architecture of the ciliary base in mammalian multiciliated cells! A study 13 years in the making 👴, thanks to collab with @stearnslab.bsky.social + @centriolelab.bsky.social & visionary work by @computingcaitie.bsky.social, who integrated native #cryoET with #XLMS & #UExM 🧪🧶🧬🔬
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Tim Stearns @stearnslab.bsky.social · 08/04/2026
Beautiful work from @computingcaitie.bsky.social and colleagues, showing the power of combining multiple approaches to studying complex in situ cell biology!
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Hiten Madhani @hitenmadhani.bsky.social · 21/03/2026
Very sad to hear of the passing today of our UCSF colleague Mike Bishop at the age of 90. A legendary and inspiring figure. He also led UCSF as Chancellor. Have a listen to his Nobel lecture. youtube.com/watch?v=CDv7...
youtube.com
Michael Bishop, Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine 1989: Official Lecture
YouTube video by Nobel Prize
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Tim Stearns @stearnslab.bsky.social · 21/03/2026
David Botstein was one of the giants of genetics and genomics, and my mentor, colleague and friend for more than 40 years. I’m sad that he is gone, but his larger-than-life persona comes through here. www.nytimes.com/2026/03/20/s...
nytimes.com
David Botstein, Gene-Mapping Pioneer, Dies at 83
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EMBL-EBI @ebi.embl.org · 16/03/2026
You asked, we listened. Millions of AI-predicted protein complex structures are now available in the #AlphaFold Database. This spans homodimers from 20 of the most studied species, including humans, as well as the World Health Organization’s priority pathogens list. www.ebi.ac.uk/about/news/t...
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Itai Yanai @itaiyanai.bsky.social · 21/01/2026
NYC Postdocs! Interesting in using comedy in the creative scientific process? NYC Postdoc Night Science will have its first 2026 meeting on Feb. 11 at @nyumedpostdocs.bsky.social. I'll lead this with the amazing stand-up comedian Sarah Adelman! Free registration: docs.google.com/forms/d/11Sz...
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Alice Ting @aliceyting.bsky.social · 08/01/2026
Can we design mutations that bias proteins towards desired conformational states? Today in @science.org, we introduce Conformational Biasing (CB), a simple and scalable computational method that uses contrastive scoring by inverse folding models to identify conformation-biasing mutations.
science.org
Computational design of conformation-biasing mutations to alter protein functions
Conformational biasing (CB) is a rapid and streamlined computational method that uses contrastive scoring by inverse folding models to predict protein variants biased toward desired conformational sta...
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Gautam Dey @gautamdey.bsky.social · 26/11/2025
Our attempt to give multinucleate cells the spotlight they deserve (seriously, they’re everywhere), led by the fearless @mrosjac.bsky.social and with @Markus Ganter doi.org/10.32942/X2M... We’d love your feedback while this goes through the peer review process! #MicroEvoSky #ProtistsonSky 🧪🌏
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Ben Engel @cellarchlab.com · 25/11/2025
Great talk (and work 🧪 ) by @computingcaitie.bsky.social from @biozentrum.unibas.ch about exploring multiciliated cells with a complementary trio of structural techniques! Looking forward to sharing the preprint. Thanks for the fab collab @centriolelab.bsky.social @stearnslab.bsky.social #TeamTomo
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Jaeseung Hahn @jaeseunghahn.bsky.social · 23/11/2025
Are you a postdoc in NYC? Come hang out with us at Postdoc Night Science! We are hosting the event at Columbia on Dec 3 at 5PM. Meet other NYC postdocs as well as @itaiyanai.bsky.social & @stearnslab.bsky.social to talk science & creativity! 🧬🧪 Make sure to use the QR code on the poster to sign up!
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Michael Baym @baym.lol · 20/11/2025
Hot off the press! Our latest paper led by @fernpizza.bsky.social, understanding how plasmids evolve inside cells. These small, self-replicating DNA circles live inside bacteria and carry antibiotic resistance genes, but also compete with one another to replicate. 1/ www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...
science.org
Intracellular competition shapes plasmid population dynamics
From populations of multicellular organisms to selfish genetic elements, conflicts between levels of biological organization are central to evolution. Plasmids are extrachromosomal, self-replicating g...
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Alex Long @alexandralong.bsky.social · 01/10/2025
My dept. is hiring a microbiologist (broadly defined)! We are a deeply curious and friendly dept. with lots of enthusiasm for unusual systems and strengths in regeneration & dev bio, ecology & evolution, and circadian rhythms. I highly encourage anyone to apply: ukjobs.uky.edu/postings/600....
ukjobs.uky.edu
Assistant or Associate Professor in Microbiology
The Department of Biology in the College of Arts and Sciences at the University of Kentucky in Lexington, KY seeks to fill a tenure-eligible faculty position at the Assistant or Associate Professor le...
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Christophe 🔬 Leterrier @christlet.bsky.social · 30/09/2025
Beautiful drawing of ciliogenesis in airway cells from Sorokin, 1968: journals.biologists.com/jcs/article/.... Just shown on stage by @mahjoublab.bsky.social at #GEF25
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Itai Yanai @itaiyanai.bsky.social · 30/09/2025
Interested in learning how to be a good speaker and give effective talks? Season 2 of the NYC Postdoc Night Science Club begins October 15th. Join us NYC Postdocs for a 2hr workshop and maybe also a drink at a bar! Free registration (usually ~100 come): docs.google.com/forms/d/1dII...
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The Rockefeller University @rockefeller.edu · 19/09/2025
A new study in ants from @danielkronauer.bsky.social reveals a previously unknown mechanism that ensures that each olfactory neuron expresses only one odorant receptor, with broad implications for the study of gene regulation. #RockefellerScience bit.ly/4pwPFLY
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Tim Stearns @stearnslab.bsky.social · 09/07/2025
www.npr.org/2025/07/09/n...
npr.org
Canceled grants get the spotlight at a Capitol Hill 'science fair'
On Tuesday, scientists held an event organized by House Democrats in which they stood in front of posters outlining their work — and the federal cuts that now threaten it.
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Tim Stearns @stearnslab.bsky.social · 09/07/2025
Frank Stahl was a visiting scientist in the lab next to where I was a grad student at MIT in the 1980's. He loved nothing more than doing experiments with phage lambda, staring at the plaques through a pair of magnifying goggles, thinking about recombination. www.nytimes.com/2025/07/07/s...
nytimes.com
Franklin W. Stahl, 95, Dies; Helped Create a ‘Beautiful’ DNA Experiment
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STCmicrobeblog @stcmicrobeblog.bsky.social · 08/07/2025
RIP Franklin W. Stahl (1929–2025) here is Frank explaining semiconservative replication of DNA in the marvelous interview from 2020 together with Matt Meselson (youtu.be/7-tnuAqEp9g)
Frank Stahl, screen capture from: https://youtu.be/7-tnuAqEp9g
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Tim Stearns @stearnslab.bsky.social · 07/07/2025
UCSF Asilomar retreat t-shirt, 1990
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Tim Stearns @stearnslab.bsky.social · 01/07/2025
Good to see acknowledgment from industry about the importance of fundamental research funding. We need more industry leaders to step up to make this point to Congress. www.statnews.com/2025/06/27/b...
statnews.com
Proposed cuts could have ‘catastrophic effect,’ 110 biomedical, health sciences industry leaders tell Congress
Proposed cuts will have “a catastrophic effect on the advancement of biomedical and biotechnology capabilities in the United States,” more than 100 leaders of biomedical/health sciences companies tell...
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Inequality Media Civic Action @imcivicaction.bsky.social · 30/06/2025
Thank you, Tim! The Last Class film about Robert Reich is playing in NYC throughout this week at the wonderful Quad Cinema Greenwich Village through Thursday, July 3. Tickets available now here: quadcinema.com/film/the-las...
quadcinema.com
The Last Class — Quad Cinema
Established in 1972, Quad Cinema is New York's original multi-screen cinema.
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Tim Stearns @stearnslab.bsky.social · 29/06/2025
Saw the new film by @elliotkirschner.bsky.social about Robert Reich’s last class taught at UC Berkeley. It’s a film about @rbreich.bsky.social’s remarkable life, but also about the power of teaching and the classroom. Check it out!
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Tim Stearns @stearnslab.bsky.social · 23/06/2025
About the art of writing, but applies to doing science, too.
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Tim Stearns @stearnslab.bsky.social · 21/06/2025
Court invalidates NSF 15% indirect cost cap. Strong ruling. storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.us...
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Tim Stearns @stearnslab.bsky.social · 21/06/2025
An amazing group of Freeman Hrabowski Scholars from @hhmi.org ! Great to see Steve Bonilla, who is off to an outstanding start at @rockefelleruniv.bsky.social www.hhmi.org/programs/fre...
hhmi.org
The 2025 Freeman Hrabowski Scholars | HHMI
Freeman Hrabowski Scholars are outstanding early career faculty who have the potential to become leaders in their research fields.
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Paul & Virginie - Centriole Lab @centriolelab.bsky.social · 19/06/2025
🚨 New preprint! Using U-ExM + in situ cryo-ET, we show how C2CD3 builds an in-to-out radial architecture connecting the distal centriole lumen to its appendages. Great collab with @cellarchlab.com @chgenoud.bsky.social @stearnslab.bsky.social 🙌. #TeamTomo #UExM www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
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Ben Engel @cellarchlab.com · 19/06/2025
Woo! Very excited to share our collaborative work on the centriole's Luminal Distal Ring ⭕. This project started 13 years ago with @hugovdhoek.bsky.social & @stearnslab.bsky.social, and then beautifully came together with @computingcaitie.bsky.social & @centriolelab.bsky.social. #TeamTomo #UExM 🧪🧶🧬🔬
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Jason Moore @moorejh.bsky.social · 14/06/2025
I heard this morning that my informatics colleague Dr. Atul Butte passed after a battle with cancer. He was a giant in the field & inspired many of us over his distinguished career. He was a passionate champion of the power of big data & his impact on our field is immeasurable. RIP Atul & thanks.
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Tim Stearns @stearnslab.bsky.social · 25/05/2025
Fifth Avenue, NYC.
The Louis Vuitton building under wraps on Fifth Avenue in NYC.
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Tim Stearns @stearnslab.bsky.social · 15/05/2025
RIP Dick Garwin, who I had the pleasure of working alongside every summer for more than 20 years. A brilliant thinker and compassionate person, Dick is the perfect example of how high-level science advice has been critical to the success of the U.S. www.nytimes.com/2025/05/14/s...
nytimes.com
Richard L. Garwin, a Creator of the Hydrogen Bomb, Dies at 97
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Paul & Virginie - Centriole Lab @centriolelab.bsky.social · 23/04/2025
New lab preprint! Unveiling the Molecular Architecture of T Cells and Immune Synapses with Cryo-Expansion Microscopy (Cryo-ExM). A fantastic collaboration with Dr. Benita Wolf. Congratulations to all authors, especially Florent Lemaitre, for leading this amazing work! www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
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Tim Stearns @stearnslab.bsky.social · 15/05/2025
Itai and I, along with Kelsey, have been doing these sessions with postdocs across NYC. Great fun and much science buddy interaction! Join us at the New York Genome Center on June 2 for the final meeting before we take a summer hiatus.
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Asaf Levy @asaflevylab.bsky.social · 14/05/2025
A new preprint from the lab in collaboration with Feng Jiang. www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1... This is a thread for you if you're interested in secretion systems, phages, and evolution. The extracellular contractile injection system (eCIS) is a mysterious microbial toxin delivery system.
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Itai Yanai @itaiyanai.bsky.social · 14/05/2025
NYC Postdocs! Join us for Night Science at the New York Genome Center on June 2nd for a discussion on the creative process of finding novel questions. This time we hit the bar after! Register: docs.google.com/forms/d/1s9W... @stearnslab.bsky.social @kelseymonson.bsky.social @rmassonix.bsky.social
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Samara Reck-Peterson @samreckpeterson.bsky.social · 13/05/2025
As the incoming Chair of Biochemistry and Biophysics at Weill Cornell Medicine, I am looking for a Director of Research. Exciting opportunity for a PhD scientist to shape the future of this new Department! Apply here: jobs.weill.cornell.edu/NY/job/New-Y...
jobs.weill.cornell.edu
Director of Research, Biochemistry & Biophysics
Director of Research, Biochemistry & Biophysics
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Tim Stearns @stearnslab.bsky.social · 12/05/2025
The Clearwater sloop docking at Cold Spring on a beautiful day on the Hudson. Clearwater has been the symbol of the very successful effort to clean up the Hudson River for almost sixty years and is a great example of how bringing information to people can effect change. www.clearwater.org/about/
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Manuel Thery @manuelthery.bsky.social · 06/05/2025
This desperate attempt to sort diffusing motors is a fight against entropy and disorder. Life shall win. Numerical simulation by Floran Lavrilleux.
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Tim Stearns @stearnslab.bsky.social · 05/05/2025
The EU recognizes the critical moment for science. The US must, too. “We are choosing to be the continent where universities are pillars of our societies and our way of life…where innovation serves humanity, where global talent is welcomed.” ec.europa.eu/commission/p...
ec.europa.eu
Closing speech by President von der Leyen at the ‘Choose Europe for Science' event at La Sorbonne
“Check against delivery” Monsieur le Président, cher Emmanuel, Honourable Dean, Esteemed Professors, Ladies and Gentlemen, It is an honour to be here in the Sorbonne – surrounded by some of the bright
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Tim Stearns @stearnslab.bsky.social · 03/05/2025
ASCB and other science orgs file an amicus brief in support of the NIH MOSAIC grant program that has been terminated. www.ascb.org/society-news...
ascb.org
Leading Life Science Organizations: Unlawful Grant Terminations Pose Grave Threat to America’s Innovation Pipeline - ASCB
Amicus Brief Filed in Support of Suit Calling for Immediate Funding Restoration WASHINGTON, DC – Four leading life science organizations, including the ASCB, filed an amicus brief today asking the cou...
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Maureen Barr @barrlab.bsky.social · 29/04/2025
Congratulations to Susan Dutcher, a luminary in the cilia field! @dutcherlab.bsky.social www.nasonline.org/news/2025-na...
nasonline.org
National Academy of Sciences Elects Members and International Members - NAS
WASHINGTON — The National Academy of Sciences announced today the election of 120 members and 30 international members in recognition of their distinguished and continuing achievements in original res...
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Itai Yanai @itaiyanai.bsky.social · 28/04/2025
Barbara McClintock proposed – over 40 years ago – that transposable element activity could be a response to stress, and I think that we are still only beginning to understand how right she was.
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Susana Godinho @susanagodinho.bsky.social · 24/04/2025
'Centrosomes and cancer: balancing tumor-promoting and inhibitory roles' - It was so much fun writing this review with Renata Basto! Thanks for bringing me on board 🙏 Perfect timing to reflect on the field's most recent advances and open questions 👇 www.cell.com/trends/cell-...
cell.com
Centrosomes and cancer: balancing tumor-promoting and inhibitory roles
The centrosome duplicates only once per cell cycle such that, in preparation for mitosis, cells contain two centrosomes, allowing the formation of a bipolar spindle and segregation of chromosomes to t...
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Sam Lewis, Ph.D. @samlewis.bsky.social · 18/04/2025
I'm thrilled to share that our story is now out in Science Advances! 🎉 We use quantitative imaging to map the mito central dogma, define translation hubs in the mitochondrial matrix, and show that they're replaced by Mitochondrial Stress Bodies (MSB) when mtRNA processing is perturbed 1/4
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Mary Mirvis @marymirvis.bsky.social · 19/04/2025
New(ish) preprint! 📰What whole-cell patterns emerge from the arrangement, morphologies, and interactions of organelles in the 3D space of the cell? What would we see if we could gather ALL the whole-cell reconstruction data that's out there in one place? www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1... 🧵 1/11
biorxiv.org
A scoping study of the whole-cell imaging literature: a foundational corpus, potential for mesoscale data synthesis, and implications for standardization of an emerging field
The level of cellular organization bridging the mesoscale and whole-cell scale is coming into focus as a new frontier in cell biology. Great progress has been made in unraveling the complex physical a...
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Mark Peifer (He, him) @peiferlabunc.bsky.social · 16/04/2025
Our field has lost an amazing scientist, mentor, and old friend. Benny, along with Mike Hoffman, had a brilliant idea in the early 1980s. The first oncogenes were being cloned and they realized if we wanted to understand their roles in cancer, we needed to understand their normal function 1/n 🧪
Our colleague Prof. Benny (Ben Zion) Shilo passed away this morning 
@WeizmannScience
 . Benny worked at the forefront of world science in the study of molecular and developmental genetics. Among other things, he won the A.M.T. Prize in the field of genetics in 2013. He was also a great explainer of science, a kind teacher - and an artist photographer with a sharp eye and a sensitive soul. Benny, we will miss you very much. May his memory be blessed.
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John Dolan @tintinnman.bsky.social · 17/04/2025
On Per Theodor Cleve (1840-1905) the amazing part-time protistologist: ejournals.eu/en/journal/a... #protistsonsky
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Tim Stearns @stearnslab.bsky.social · 14/04/2025
Harvard president Alan Garber: "The administration’s prescription goes beyond the power of the federal government. It violates Harvard’s First Amendment rights and exceeds the statutory limits of the government’s authority..." www.harvard.edu/president/ne...
harvard.edu
The Promise of American Higher Education
No government—regardless of which party is in power—should dictate what private universities can teach, whom they can admit and hire, and which areas of study and inquiry they can pursue
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Philippe Bastin's Lab @bastinlab.bsky.social · 14/04/2025
Dear cilia researchers, join us in the heart of the beautiful Vosges mountains to share your latest findings! This year, partnership with @for5547.bsky.social and keynote lectures by @micromotility.bsky.social and @mick-lab.bsky.social Registration is now open www.cfc2025.conferences-pasteur.org
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Tim Stearns @stearnslab.bsky.social · 11/04/2025
Join us at Columbia on April 22 for the latest round of Postdoc Night Science NYC!
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