Drea Darby, Ph.D.

Ahh! Congrats!! ✨✨ So proud of you and hope you're enjoying ASM Microbe!!!

Join the 22,339 people who have joined to support our NIH colleagues. Let's get this to 50,000 RT

Can't make it to @whysharksmatter.bsky.social's Teach-in this evening? All good!

You can stream it here: www.youtube.com/live/61pM52d...

7pm et, be there, or be square.

#standupforscience
#summerfightforscience

Congrats Brian 🎉🎉🎉🎉

Timeline cleanse: tadpoles in the local park

the word alert is in a purple circle ALT: the word alert is in a purple circle

ACTION ITEM-----ACTION ITEM

Implementation of Schedule F

This is what a lot of us have been worried about.

This allows for many civil service positions to replaced with political appointees. This could include NIH institute directors and even POs.

BUT THERE IS A COMMENT PERIOD...

1/n

🚨URGENT RESPONSE CALL🚨

You’ve seen the bad news. Now it’s time for us to flood the zone.

Over 400 NSF grants — gone. Trump’s cronies are cutting science funding and betting we won’t notice. But we’re not powerless. We’ve got 24 hours to make noise.

Here’s how 🧵(1/3) ➡️

Minorities were TOLD to apply to these instead of the normal mechanisms

W/o a chance to switch mechanisms (by giving notice so they have time to re-apply to other mechanisms), the promising early career scientists who are having their careers cancelled this way are MINORITIES

This is OVERT RACISM

If your NIH grant has been terminated, please let us know as soon as possible using this link ⤵️

forms.gle/cgEyj7gRjGWg...

Unless we know which grants have been cancelled, where, and when, we can't organize and advocate.

last friday my nsf career award to study when and why different forms of racial discrimination are likely to occur was terminated. I’m incredibly crushed and sad and stressed out and also angry. what I don’t feel is any sense of resignation. we’ll find ways to get the research done.

The "Flood the Zone" Strategy Understanding Authoritarian Governance Tactics

“The historical pattern suggests that while the "flood the zone" approach can be initially effective, it also creates vulnerabilities through overreach, administrative chaos, and eventual public backlash”

antiauthoritarianplaybook.substack.com/p/the-flood-...

Got the best news today from my lil brother.
He told me he got into the History MA program he wanted to get into!

Ahh!!!! I am so proud of him and had no doubt in his ability. I can't wait to see what he does. 😊✨

*fly guts

No humans except my hands were harmed in the process of these dissections lol

A black dish of clear buffer solution containing ~350 fly guts.

Spent more than half my work day dissecting fly foreguts with my lab mate that we plan to send off for -omics. We've collected ~1000 fly guys this week and still have another 1000 to go. 😩

My hands are sad and need a break, but I look forward to what we learn from this. 😌

PREP was integral to my career development and shaping my STEM identity.

Cruelty for the sake of being cruel.

YouTube video by Dev M Booker Reading from A. Barber / Rutgers 2025 03 31 C SPAN

🤩🤩🤩
@annikabarber.bsky.social advocacy discussed on the senate floor!!!
@standupforscience.bsky.social !!! @barrlab.bsky.social @monicadriscoll.bsky.social
youtu.be/h3rv9y2PoVU

Dr. Drea Darby posing in front of her title slide of her dissertation titled "Learning on the Fly: Adverse Effects of High-Sugar Diets and Metabolic Consequences of Infection".

Dr. Darby (wearing a purple and blue fly dress with short black hair and square glasses) smiling behind a podium while presenting her dissertation.

I can't believe it has been one year since my dissertation defense. I'm still in awe of what I accomplished in grad school and reaping the fruits of my labor since transitioning to my postdoc.

I am forever thankful to everyone who helped me get to this point. 🙏🏽✨

For folks who don’t know, ethnic studies programs like African American/Africana Studies, Asian American Studies, Chicano Studies and the like come directly from civil right era campus activism. Attempts to disempower such programs should be framed as attacks on civil rights same as much else rn.

Posting about the details of a session at the Dan Diego drosophila meeting focused on impacts of bias in STEM. Pacific ballroom d. Will be awesome!

#Dros25 attendees - starting soon in pacific D- make you way to @dreadarby.bsky.social and @taylarmouton.bsky.social ‘s workshop!

Cell Biology Dros25 dine around participants cheerfully posing in front of a sign stating, "Historic Old Town San Diego".

We had a blast at yesterday's #Dros25 Cell Biology Dine Around in Old Town! What I loved most about our gathering was that we had a diversity of places which people came from, including France, Hong Kong, England, and Scotland. ☺️

On the flight to #Dros25 in San Diego! I attended my first Fly Meeting at the same venue in 2017 as an undergrad. It's a full circle moment to attend this year's meeting now that I have my PhD. ☺️

Excited to see y'all soon!

I sincerely think that universities should suspend their productivity standards for scientists and ask them instead to hold town halls in schools, public libraries, museums, shopping malls, and anywhere else and communicate what is being lost with the collapse of the research ecosystem.

Program note on poster number 816T and the annual fly meeting. The title is the interplay of the gut microbiome and diet on oogenesis.

Sadly had to cancel travel to #Dros25. Will miss the science & catching up w/colleagues. @taylarmouton.bsky.social will rep the lab at Poster 816T. Taylar and @dreadarby.bsky.social are also hosting a workshop Fri PM on the impact & history of bias on STEM teaching. Go learn and support them!

Aw sad you won't be there Nichole! Thank you for the shout out though. 🙏🏽

CALL NOW: Tell Senate Democrats to Hold the Line Against the Extreme MAGA Continuing Resolution

House Democrats held strong against the Musk-Takeover Spending Bill Yesterday. We need your help to ensure that the Senate Democrats do the same. Follow the link and script below to make calls. This vote happens TODAY!

indivisible.org/resource/cal...

It should be very clear to every Senate Democrat that any vote for Cloture will also be considered a vote for the bill.

People aren’t going to be tricked with procedural games.

They know exactly what is going on.

Defend Medicaid.
Vote NO on Cloture.
NO on bill.

I'll share what I conveyed to a grad student recently:

There is much that remains unknown and out of our control right now. The future is extremely uncertain. Multiple job markets have already imploded. Focus on what you can control. Can you finish the dissertation? Then finish the dissertation.

The back of my sign at @standupforscience.bsky.social today was inspired by representative @algreen.house.gov. Thank you to all the organizers, volunteers, and attendees across the country today for making this happen! ✨🧪

Rockin her speech in St Paul! 📣 for @standupforscience.bsky.social 👏👏 Hey @therealdrdukes.bsky.social looks like it was a sunny day to rally in MN!

A person in a mask holding a painting that says “hands off my transgenic mice”

At @standupforscience.bsky.social and the signs are statistically significantly excellent