No-cost workshop opportunities for grad students, postdocs, & trainees! Our Janelia Research Campus is accepting applications for 3 specialized, intensive workshops with presentation & networking opportunities. Accommodations, meals, & travel expenses covered: bit.ly/4roghP6. 🧪
Millions live w/ chronic pain & little relief. #HannaGray Fellow @shanmeltzer.bsky.social & team's new map of the spinal cord — built cell-by-cell — provides insights into how pain-signals travel, & will be openly available to the science community to help speed new pain treatments hhmi.news/4u1eIsJ
Celebrating #HHMIInvestigator Huda Zoghbi, recognized by the Lurie Autism Institute for her ground-breaking discovery that mutations in the MECP2 gene cause Rett syndrome (an autism-related neurodevelopmental disorder) — work that continues to transform autism research today: bit.ly/4sFhNx6.
Congrats to #FreemanHrabowski Scholar Corina Amor Vegas & #HannaGray Fellow Marissa Scavuzzo, both among this year's MIND Prize winners! Recognizing early-to-mid-career scientists, the award honors those with innovative ideas that advance neurodegeneration research: bit.ly/46VrlMh.
Second- or third-year PhD student in biological or biomedical sciences? Get ready — applications for our #GilliamFellows Program open Sept. 1! Robust research support, incredible scientific community, & tailored professional development that can transform a PhD journey. 🧪 bit.ly/4bjdTmr
A new electronic implant system created by #FreemanHrabowski Scholar @juanalvarezdom.bsky.social & colleagues helps lab-grown pancreatic cells mature & function properly, providing a potential new pathway to replace pancreatic tissue damaged by diabetes: bit.ly/4b16OHn.
Thrilled to see #HHMIInvestigator — & now 2026 @brainprize.org winner — David Ginty recognized by The Lundbeck Foundation for his pioneering work on the cellular architecture of touch & pain, which paved the way for a new generation of targeted pain therapies: bit.ly/4sbowiN.
No rabbits, no top hats — just #GilliamFellow Axel Vera leveling up on the standard poster session with a little sleight of hand. We guarantee you've never heard an anti-CRISPR (used to help control & improve precision gene editing) explainer like this before, & it's ... magic 🪄.
Here, UCLA researchers Courtney Young, Melissa Spencer & April Pyle have used a CRISPR-Cas9-based therapy to repair a patient's DMD gene & restore the missing protein (green).
These colorful muscle fibers tell a beautiful story of repair, & point to a potential approach to treating Duchenne muscular dystrophy — a rare, debilitating, & fatal disease. In DMD, a protein that helps muscle cells stay strong is missing.
Face of a fruit fly that helped #HHMIInvestigator Amita Sehgal and team uncover how sleep acts as a critical "cellular housekeeper," keeping our neurons healthy (and so much more) — findings that could drive a better understanding of neurodegenerative diseases like Alzheimer’s: bit.ly/3ZKNFnK.
Calling all #GilliamFellows! 👋 Stay connected with the latest Gilliam program updates, stories, & community news — and contribute your highlights. Sign up by March 2 to get the first issue! hhmi.news/4u4W7MH
By uncovering the origins of a group of rare immune cells called Thetis cells, #GilliamFellow Yoselin Paucar Iza & #FreemanHrabowski Scholar @chrysothemisbrown.bsky.social are unlocking these cells' potential to help treat — or even prevent — food allergies & autoimmune diseases: bit.ly/4cnQpii.
🕸️Spider web or cell’s internal structure? This network of actin filaments — captured by #HHMIInvestigator Xiaowei Zhuang —was imaged using super-resolution STORM microscopy, showing details far beyond a standard microscope. Colors indicate depth: blues/purples closer, greens/yellows farther.
Celebrating HHMI giant Gerry Rubin today, winner of the Wiley Prize in Biomedical Sciences! Along w/ colleagues, Rubin — founding Exec. Dir. of our Janelia Research Campus — is recognized for mapping connectomes, the wiring diagrams of neurons that underlie how the brain functions: bit.ly/4aXkrs4
A sophisticated poem for our Valentine's crushes, zebrafish & fruit flies — two small-but-mighty model organisms critical to basic science. Fast to reproduce, genetically similar to humans, & key to potential breakthroughs in understanding development & disease. What's not to love?! 💘
After 50 years in science, former #HHMIInvestigator David Clapham’s advice is simple: “You have to see problem-solving as fun.” From training with Nobel laureates to deepening our understanding of ion channels & leading at HHMI, he retires with a lasting legacy: hhmi.news/3O3kYji.
What if the answers to Alzheimer’s & schizophrenia lie in glia, not neurons? Join “SciShow Field Trips” & our own Tangled Bank Studios inside #HHMIInvestigator Beth Stevens' lab to see how these long-ignored brain cells may help us better understand neurological diseases: bit.ly/4kjqU3R.
Kids who grow up in biodiverse environments tend to have fewer allergies—& now we know why. #HHMIInvestigator Ruslan Medzhitov & co have found early exposure to diverse microbes creates broad immune memory, & an antibody that helps block allergic reactions later in life: bit.ly/4rGC59h.
🎶 Sound on! How does a young zebra finch's song connect to treating Parkinson's? #FreemanHrabowski Scholar Vikram Gadagkar & co have ID'd a dopamine-based neural signal in finches that could offer insights into motor learning in humans — esp. those w/conditions like Parkinson’s hhmi.news/4tndfNg
We're proud to join the Vilcek Foundation in recognizing HHMI Investigator Karolin Luger, whose dedication & groundbreaking nucleosome research has led to the development of innovative new drug treatments, including cancer medicines. hhmi.news/49VciEd @vilcekfoundation.bsky.social
CLOSING SOON: Applications for Group Leader roles at our Janelia Research Campus close Feb. 3! Have original, transformative ideas for experimental approaches in imaging, molecular engineering, protein chemistry, mass spectrometry, & beyond? Learn more: janelia.org/groupleader 🧪
"SciShow Field Trips" & our own Tangled Bank Studios take you inside the lab of HHMI Investigator Feng Zhang. Known for engineering CRISPR-Cas9 for use in human cells, his next breakthrough could reach hard-to-access cells associated with conditions like ALS & Huntington's: bit.ly/49JomIt
Biosensors help scientists understand the brain & body like never before, but building one can take years. Researchers Alison Tebo & Srinivas Turaga at HHMI's Janelia Research Campus are using AI to build a tool that will vastly speed biosensor development for all scientists: hhmi.news/4rdhvNt
2/2: Hynes discovered key molecules involved in cell adhesion, driving a better understanding of development and cancer metastasis. Their enormous contributions to basic science and human health live on.
1/2: It is with deep sadness that we share the passing of Joel Habener and Richard Hynes, members of the HHMI Investigator community for more than 3 decades. Habener's discoveries helped transform the treatment of diabetes, obesity, and related conditions.
Science teacher & HHMI BioInteractive Ambassador Samuel Washington Jr. draws students in with more than textbooks. “At first, kids love science—bugs, their bodies, the outdoors—but if you don’t tap into that natural curiosity, they lose it." Via @neatoday.bsky.social bit.ly/4pD1w9W 📸Shea Kastriner
Created using fluorescence microscopy, this stunning image of an animal cell showcases thin, web-like fibers called vimentin — a protein that provides mechanical stability to cells and tissues, despite a single vimentin being ~7000x smaller than the width of a human hair. 📸 @aaandmoore.bsky.social
Driven by an experience familiar to many — watching parents age — HHMI Hanna Gray Fellow Melanie McReynolds wants to answer a fundamental question: How can we age healthier? The key may lie in better understanding NAD+ & how its levels decline as we grow older. Via @asbmb.bsky.social: bit.ly/45tDuHB
12 years after unlocking the famously "undruggable" K-Ras protein — a discovery still driving treatments for cancers with notoriously poor survival rates — HHMI Investigator Kevan Shokat & team are charting new therapies to outmaneuver drug resistance: hhmi.news/3LwWaz5
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