Michael F. Wells

Laboratory Assistant II - Human Genetics - UCLA Health Careers - Job #29031 - Los Angeles, CA Take a look at a great career opportunity where you can make a real difference at UCLA Health

We're hiring villagers!

We are looking for a lab technician to help us discover how gene-by-environment interactions shape the developing brain via in vitro cell villages. Please DM me or visit our website at mfwellslab dot com for more info.

Deadline to apply is March 11th: tinyurl.com/34seyjaj

That's right. Worse than Pointless
www.nytimes.com/2026/02/23/o...

Happy to see this work out now in Genome Biology! Check out the final version here for your FACS DMS needs: link.springer.com/article/10.1...

Scientists face fallout for past associations with Epstein Jack Horner, who was a consultant for the Jurassic Park films, is among the researchers whose work or careers have been affected because of revelations from newly released documents.

Several scientists who are linked to convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein in files released last month are now facing consequences.

go.nature.com/4qXFkYS

Welcome to hell my friend

Before I turn 40 tomorrow, I want to share some advice: Beware bragging about your kids.

Last month, I was proudly telling everyone that my 3-yr-old son loved mature artists like Childish Gambino, Radiohead, & Gorillaz.

Today, he made me play "Taco Farts" by Mr. Farts 7 times en route to daycare.

I just wasted half my day on this. I keep getting a "try again later" error when I try to link my ORCID and can't figure out who to email for technical support.

Stress-induced loss of CTCF reveals an alternative, promoter-based mode of cohesin looping Cells continually encounter environmental stressors that challenge homeostasis. How three-dimensional (3D) chromatin structure contributes to these stress responses, particularly under hyperosmotic co...

Excited to finally share what I’ve been working on during my PhD 😊 Best holiday gift EVER!

We just posted a new preprint from the @dphansti.bsky.social 👇

Preprint: www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...

🧵

NIH funding rates for early-career researchers plunged in 2025, new data show A Trump administration change to how NIH awards grants has sharply reduced early-stage investigators’ odds of securing funding.

New story in STAT with data about Early Stage Investigators

www.statnews.com/2025/12/18/n...

1/4

‘This year nearly broke me as a scientist’ – US researchers reflect on how 2025’s science cuts have changed their lives US science lost a great deal in 2025, including tens of billions of dollars of federal funding, entire research agencies and programs, and a generation of researchers.

This year has been brutal for science, especially early career researchers and those working with communities further marginalized by this administration. Please read the experiences of these scientists.

And when you’re done reading, find a way to fight back.
theconversation.com/this-year-ne...

Generating 3D mouse organoids for cortex development and evo-devo How do cis-regulatory differences, across mouse subspecies over timescales, shape cell-type specification and maturation during corticogenesis? In this issue of Developmental Cell, Medina-Cano et al. ...

Nice preview of our paper by Hanwen Yu and Yan Liu.

Generating 3D mouse organoids for cortex development and evo-devo: Developmental Cell www.cell.com/developmenta...

another must-read from @sashagusevposts.bsky.social

NEXT TUE: DDD seminar, Dec. 16, 2025 @ 1PM Eastern US:
Dr. Tommy Vierbuchen @tvierbuchen.bsky.social will share his recent work on on cell villages using outbred mice: "A pluripotent stem cell platform for in vitro systems genetics studies of mouse brain development". carlocolantuoni.org/seminar

Are you a senior grad student or new post-doc in genetics/genomics?

Apply now for the 2026 Emerging Genomic Scientist Symposium hosted by the UCLA Human Genetics department.

To apply: medschool.ucla.edu/about/depart...

DM me if you have any questions and please spread the word

We used rabies virus 👾 to map how #psilocybin modifies long-range circuits 🧠, revealing network-specific reorganization that we didn’t expect.

The full study is now online at Cell. @cp-cell.bsky.social

Paper 👉 www.cell.com/cell/fulltex...

Thread for a synopsis 👉
bsky.app/profile/alex...

Someone get me (genetic epidemiologist) & my husband (school psychologist) on a podcast bc our rants on these people are...fiery. We spent 5y in the bay around these folks and oh boy.

I'm also so sick of these puff pieces that avoid saying plainly what this actually is. Shoddy science for eugenics.

Not to brag, but Steve gives a shout out to my 3-year-old son in the intro of this book.

(I lied, this is a brag)

(Also, go buy this book, it is great)

Applications are open for the Postdoctoral Enrichment Program (PDEP)—supporting postdocs as they advance cutting-edge research and build thriving scientific careers.
Learn more & apply: bwfund.org/pdep #bwfpdep

Soooooo cool

Bart De Strooper's lab used microglia villages to show that Alzheimer’s polygenic risk translates into a stronger immune response to amyloid

assets-eu.researchsquare.com/files/rs-779...

NEXT TUE: DDD seminar, Nov. 18, 2025 @ 1PM Eastern US: Continuing our focus on approaches to the study of many pluripotent stem cell lines, Dr. Michael Wells @mfwells.bsky.social will share his recent work on "cell villages". seminar info: carlocolantuoni.org/seminar [repost to spread the word]

The first (of hopefully many) reports to come from our collaboration with @hjp.bsky.social

We present a new type of cell fitness assay that allows you to both quantify and explain differences across human donors in cell proliferation and sensitivity to environmental toxicants.

Super excited to get this out. This collab started a few years ago and is the first paper from it. Here, with experimental and computational approaches we:

1. establish that cell villages can be just as accurate (one might argue more accurate!) than arrayed-based designs

bsky.app/profile/bior...

The Neuronal Primary Cilium is a Key Regulator of Homeostatic Plasticity The capacity of neurons to maintain stable activity levels through homeostatic plasticity is essential for proper brain function. Primary cilia, which are non-motile, antenna-like organelles projectin...

New #cilia preprint alert

Our latest manuscript is now live on bioRxiv:
"The Neuronal Primary Cilium is a Key Regulator of Homeostatic Plasticity"

We hope you enjoy reading it!

www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

CRISPR activation for SCN2A-related neurodevelopmental disorders - Nature Using SCN2A haploinsufficiency as a proof-of-concept, upregulation of the existing functional gene copy through CRISPR activation was able to rescue neurological-associated phenotypes in Scn2a haploin...

CRISPR activation restores expression of a haploinsufficient neuronal sodium channel, rescuing neuronal deficits associated with multiple neurodevelopmental disorders. #NBThighlight www.nature.com/articles/s41...

$29.95?? IN THIS ECONOMY????

How to Change a Memory: One Neuroscientist’s Quest to Alter the Past Buy How to Change a Memory: One Neuroscientist’s Quest to Alter the Past on Amazon.com ✓ FREE SHIPPING on qualified orders

Good morning everyone!
So, I wrote a book (!!) and it’s coming out November 4th in physical and audiobook form. It’s called *How to Change a Memory*

www.amazon.com/How-Change-M...

CONGRATS!

Alarming levels of Pfas in blood of those living near US air force base, study finds Toxic ‘forever chemicals’ were found at a level 10 times higher than people who did not work in contaminated zone

ICYMI

Alarming levels of Pfas in blood of those living near US air force base, study finds

Toxic ‘forever chemicals’ were found at a level 10 times higher than people who did not work in contaminated zone

www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025...

91,000 Premature Deaths Each Year Linked to US Air Pollution Air pollution from oil and gas production and use in the U.S. has an enormous health toll. A new study tallies the cost.

Air pollution from oil and gas is linked to 91,000 premature deaths and hundreds of thousands of health issues across the United States each year—with Black, Asian, Native American and Hispanic groups consistently among the most affected.
time.com/7311655/us-o...

What we talk about when we talk about risk How embryo selection exploits our flawed intuitions about risk

I wrote about how genetic risk works in the context of embryo selection and how people often think about it all wrong. A short 🧵: