Mara Duncan

Oh science. 3 months to figure out why a standard IP for the lab wasn't working.

1st our tag disrupted the known interaction, then low salt buffer->background too high, then too much detergent->binding too low.

Now it's all fixed.

All to show, no, that gawd-damned hypothesis was wrong.

Postdoctoral Research Assistant - MCDB - UOD2016 Closing date: Thursday 6 November 2025, 23:59

Attention membrane traffickers! I'm recruiting a post-doc to my lab in Dundee. We're dissecting the functions of intrinsically disordered domains of COPII coat proteins. We think they control timing of coat assembly and morphology of carriers.

www.dundee.ac.uk/work-for-us/...

the number of herbs that are just a mint is kind of absurd too

P32 spilled on giger.

My thought is speeds are higher on rural roads so sedans are as deadly as SUVs therefor nor increase in deaths as SUVs get bigger. Most rural accidents are probably as lethal as they are going to be.

New publication :
Despite being a core member of the PCP pathway, Vangl2 can play roles unrelated to planar polarity. This is the case during mouse heart morphogenesis.

My point is that getting hit by an SUV or a sedan at 45 mph is probably equally lethal so this point does not detract from the conclusion that SUVs rather than phones or legal weed or decreased humanity is the proble.

Absolutely. The point I was responding to was that rate of deaths on rural roads are not increasing even though there are pedestrians and bikes there and potentially even more SUVs. This was cited in the article as confusing since we would expect the rates to go up there too if SUVs are to blame.

I have thoughts.

For sedans, they can’t see around the big SUV and strike ped/bikes at higher speeds. Plus sedans are getting bigger and higher too.

For rural roads, due to the speeds on the road it doesn’t matter if you are hit by a sedan or a semi.

Biology is not just physics and chemistry; it is also history. You will never be able to solve it numerically. Theory cannot account for the fact that this potential ancestor with these genes twisted its ankle and died, even if it had 'better' genes overall.

One of the great advantages of biology is that you can write HELLO WORLD in amino acids since PROTEINS ARE AMAZING

A Gordon Conference Survival Guide I have the utmost respect for T. S. Eliot, but it seems to me that June, not April, is the cruelest month. With June comes the Gordon Research Conference season, and with it, danger for thousands of u...

Dang! I didn't follow the GRC survival guide and played soccer one year and tore my meniscus. This is a notch up from that!!

www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

Single-nucleus transcriptional and chromatin accessibility profiling of mouse hypothalamic LepRb neurons reveals cell type-specific cis-regulatory elements linked to human obesity Leptin receptor-expressing hypothalamic neurons (LepRHypo) are key regulators of energy balance, yet a comprehensive, cell type-resolved, chromatin accessibility map of these neurons is lacking. We pr...

I’m excited to share our new preprint! We built a single-nucleus multiomic (snRNA-seq+snATAC-seq) atlas of leptin receptor-expressing hypothalamic neurons (LepRᴴʸᵖᵒ) and identified conserved cis-regulatory elements overlapping human obesity-linked variants and eQTLs🧠🧬
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

Cheese sticks are for afternoon munchies.

She says as she finishes cheese stick #2 at 12:35.

Contaminated or something.

We do leave unused ice next to the sink in case someone else needs it.

It's grad school application season! My lab (cxli233.github.io/cxLi_lab/ ) will be recruiting a PhD student via the MPS program at MSU (mps.natsci.msu.edu) for Fall 2026.

Happy to take inquires via email (which can be found in the lab website) if you are applying this cycle.

Anyone know where I might find this year's list of herpetology-minded labs that are taking students?

I would also take any other related list for other taxa.

Thank you!

Toledo CellulART 2025 was a success!! Inspiring talks, incredible art, old friends, new friends and beautiful weather! Thanks to @promegacorporation.bsky.social @ibidicells.bsky.social @proteintech.bsky.social , Cytoskeleton and @biologists.bsky.social !

Congrats!!

You could contact the authors. I’ve done that previously when an online resource went down when I wanted to use it for a class, the authors were super helpfu.

At one point, I wanted to be the Jane Goodall of ants. Although my interests changed in college, and I'm now a cell biologist, I point to her as a major role model for me throughout my career.

Sorry, I'm going to miss it this year!

Come and get yours! www.toledocellulart.org

It's a flyer for Colorado RNA Club's Undergrad Day event on Oct 21st at 1:30PM.

The grad student organizers of Colorado's long-running RNA Club have been putting together this event to demystify the PhD application process for the past few years. Pass along to folks applying to grad school this cycle 🍁

Quick Drosophila question: I’m planning to integrate a construct on the second chromosome but would like to avoid the attP40 landing site. Any suggestion for a good alternative attP site on chromosome II? It’s for a skeletal-muscle–related project.
Thanks! 🙂
Rui

As someone in this situation, I do wonder if little black bar of new R01s is actually high enough to account for people who previously had an R01/R35 and are thus now out of eligibility for an R35, but have a meritorious proposal.

Its probably currently a fairly small number.

Well, I've got some vested interest in the outcome. I'd like to get the strain made so we can do an experiment to potentially go into the grant I'm writing.

Ok, not quite 45 min on that cycle, but ~2hrs to pour plates and cool two of them enough so I could use them, ain't bad. see ya later!

At least we have a spiffy new autoclave so the media will be done in 45 min, I should be able to pour the plates in 1.5 hrs.