Dave Matus

New preprint out!
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...
One of the most salient lessons I learned in all my adventures with screening and protein engineering is the importance of context. The context in which you test a gene or protein determines what function it has.

Another life has been lost at the hands of Trump’s masked agents. Their violence is unacceptable and un-American. Our leaders must put an end to ICE’s reign of terror and its cruelty.

Our eLetter github.com/caseywdunn/s... responding to a recent Science paper was just posted. The paper found more genes with consistent support for sponge-sister than ctenophore-sister. We found several technical issues that, when corrected, reverse the conclusions and recover ctenophore-sister.

Stoked to have helped get this out the door! If you want to inject lots of mRNA into your embryos for higher SnR or to multiplex or to have it last longer… this is the way!

You should! We’ve made a bunch of transgenics with it - it’s awesome! I can send you constructs if it’s helpful / just let me know!

Any zebrafish people at ASCB interested in chatting about staygold or in vivo live imaging talk to Aline at her poster at P1238, and additional Swinburne lab posters as at P1238 (Maria) and P1229 on Tuesday

Plasmids are enroute!

since you made it all the way to then end - we've already made transgenic lines with the mSG from Ando et al - it's amazing! here's a movie from our Cell Observatory project at the Advanced BioImaging Center 7/7

We also looked at the new mGold2 variants - a bright new version of an mVenus derived FP - they are super bright (brighter than mNG when imaged with a 514nm laser), but show similar photostability to mNG. Plasmids should be available soon @addgene.bsky.social for all these FPs. 6/7

At medium and high laser powers the three mSG variants (mSG(E138D) -orange, mSG from Ando et al - red, mBaoJin - green) are all very photostable as expected compared to mNG (blue) 5/7

photobleaching of mNeonGreen vs. mStayGold

but where these new FPs really shine is in photostability - we live imaged continuously for 800 frames in single FOVs 4/7

plot comparing the intensity between mNG and mStayGold variants

We found that the mStayGold variant published by Ando et al. was the brightest in our experiments (mSG(A) in the plot below) 3/7

single confocal images comparing mNG vs. mStayGold

We need to build lots of new transgenic lines that are both very bright and photostable, so I was excited to test membrane fusions of the three published mStayGold variants compared to mNeonGreen. We injected mRNA into zebrafish embryos and imaged at 24hpf. 2/7

So excited to post my first official #zebrafish paper in my new gig at UC Berkeley with my amazing co-authors @swinburnelab.bsky.social @alinetschanz.bsky.social

The TL;DR is that monomeric StayGolds are game changers for in vivo imaging in zebrafish 1/7

micropublication.org/journals/bio...

Had such an amazing time at #Worm25 catching up with old friends and making new ones! Love this community - and remember #justdogenetics!

What a great talk!

Don’t miss your chance to join an awesome new lab!

Strain boring : DQM, but I liked that Sherwood had picked his strain name (NK) after his kids, so I made my allele name (bmd) after my girls and wife (Bria, Maile, Deirdre)

Omg!

Maybe I won the internet today 😄

We are looking for scientists with experience in light sheet microscopy, biological imaging, image processing and analysis to join a dedicated team of biologists, engineers and optical physicists that are pushing the boundaries of 4D in vivo imaging!

Come help us make movies like this!

#hiring! come join us at the Advanced BioImaging Center at UC Berkeley to help us build the #CellObservatory! 1/2

aprecruit.berkeley.edu/JPF04858

Jealous! Enjoy the gig!

Yes! Haven’t tested with lifeact yet but have been testing membrane and histone fusions of two new mScarlet3 derivatives - so far mScarlet3S2 is the winner / am sending some plasmids to @itsthewoolab.bsky.social happy to send!

Hello SF!
#StandUpForScience2025

Can’t wait to come visit you in Vancouver!!!

NIH funding cuts could have ‘devastating impact’ on medical advancements, Chicago researchers say The National Institutes of Health under President Donald Trump announced this month that it was cutting payments covering overhead costs for research institutions that receive its grants.

Freezing out the NIH's funding means freezing out American innovation.

Research into curing cancer, Alzheimer's, and Parkinson's all delayed.

And ultimately it won't just cost us advancements in life-saving research, it will cost us lives.

Trump Team Dismantles Efforts to Find a Cure for Cancer and Other Deadly Disorders and Diseases President Trump’s Administration is imposing a new policy to cap indirect costs for National Institutes of Health (NIH) research grants at 15 percent, which would cut billions of dollars in funding fo...

Press release by the appropriations subcommittee on NIH budget slashing by @delauro.house.gov 🙏

Trainees who applied for an NIH diversity fellowship whose applications were withdrawn/not being reviewed, there's a NYTimes reporter who wants to talk, especially interested in applicants with disabilities. DM me & I'll put you in touch, will keep all contact confidential. Please amplify

He’s pretty good