Victor Ambros

The best time to reimagine yourself as an activist was years ago, the second best time is TODAY.

You can say you messed up and should have fought and then…you can fight with us.

The tent is big and we need all the science fighters we can get!

SO GET IN, DORKS!

The press has reported on yesterday’s Supreme Court decision as if it were only about tariffs. Wrong. It’s far bigger and even more important. Let me explain. https://robertreich.substack.com/p/the-supreme-courts-tariff-decision

Since I can’t sleep, here’s another hot take: The world would be a better place if everyone‘s science literacy was much better. There should be more emphasis on teaching basic science at all levels in school. Science isn’t just something nerds do, it’s the foundation of the modern world.

With federal research funding uncertain, states debate new science initiatives A handful of states are considering initiatives to increase funding for scientific research as uncertainty around federal dollars has grown.

With federal research funding uncertain, states debate new science initiatives www.statnews.com/2026/02/20/s... via @statnews.com

I would appreciate hearing context on this issue. Is the concern that if the patient’s medication is working, and hence their clinical presentation is mild, then they would get an assessment that would result in losing benefits that enable them to get the medication?

thanks @lucksmith.bsky.social
15 years after your key paper with Nelson Lau showing the abundance & widespread nature of piRNAs from 3' UTRs, we now start to get the logic.

dissecting how the Yb protein reads out U-content, and talks to the Upf1-related SF2 helicase Armitage, will be interesting.

Would add to this thorough list of harms at NIH:

1) multiyear funding, Vought’s trick to fund less new research with the same amount of $

2) presidentializing of NIH, shifting toward a political agenda rather than science. More on that from @markhisted.org: open.substack.com/pub/donmoyni...

There must be trials. Not as an emotive aspiration, rhetorical meme, or empty threat. A concrete plan. A dedicated special court for it. Structural legislation and prosecutors and funding and all the rest of it. Everything necessary for it can be done constitutionally. All it takes is the will.

Streets of Minneapolis by Bruce Springsteen on Apple Music Song · 2026 · Duration 4:35

music.apple.com/us/album/str...

Leadership is everything — Colette Delawalla and the team at Stand Up For Science provide inspiration and practical framework for community action. We are in a historic stress-test of all our democratic institutions, including Science. We are learning from this and will emerge stronger.

🧪Scientists from our Haselbach lab captured how proteins begin to fold as they’re being made.

Using cryo-EM, they visualised chaperones guiding nascent proteins on the ribosome: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-025-67685-6

Texas A&M, Under New Curriculum Limits, Warns Professor Not to Teach Plato

Texas A&M, Under New Curriculum Limits, Warns Professor Not to Teach Plato www.nytimes.com/2026/01/07/u...

Many people do not realize that data shared with an LLM are no longer secure or private. This is important for many reasons. Many institutions now have an ‘Enterprise LLM’ setup which can address many of these issues. Check with your institution.

Very cool!

Bridging single cells to organs: Mesoscale modules as fundamental units of tissue function - PubMed Recent studies at molecular and genomic scales have enriched our understanding of life's most fundamental building block: the cell. However, bridging the gap between single-cell phenotypes and the emergent functions of tissues and organs remains a formidable challenge. Here, we suggest that the conc …

pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/41237758/ A thought-provoking perspective on animal development and tissue homeostasis.

AGO1(ΔF180) retains the ability to form functionally mature RISCs.

One of the most-viewed PNAS articles in the last week is “Neurodevelopmental disorder–linked Argonaute mutations permit delayed RISC formation and unusual shortening of miRNAs by 3′→5′ trimming.” Explore now: https://ow.ly/hwP450XxHM6

For more trending articles, visit https://ow.ly/q6Cl50XxHGN.

Caenorhabditis elegans, imaged with confocal laser scanning microscopy, and modeled by surface rendering software. Stock image.

All hail Caenorhabditis elegans, one of the most researched organisms on Earth. Collaborative data sharing in the nematode research community led to four Nobel Prize-winning discoveries about human development and disease. In PNAS: https://ow.ly/uNqU50Xyj4e

Where did he get that? Did he just make it up? (Does anyone know what is ‘Mortality Match’, indicated by the logo at upper left?) Sweden’s excess death rate was far greater than any of its neighbors in 2020 but got much better in 2021, presumably owing to vaccination among other factors.

Dorothy P. Schafer, PhD

The Cure Alzheimer’s Fund has awarded Dorothy P. Schafer, PhD, more than $400,000 in funding over two years for her project studying ependymal cells and their potential connection to Alzheimer’s disease: direc.to/oamk

#Alzheimers #AlzheimersDisease @curealzheimersfund.bsky.social

Read this inspiring perspectives coauthored by the Worm Resource directors and worm Nobel Laureates! 4 Nobel Prizes and how they were enabled by major NIH-supported research resources (the Caenorhabditis Genetics Center, WormBase, and WormAtlas) www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...

ZAK activation at the collided ribosome - Nature The kinase ZAK is activated at collided ribosomes to mediate the ribotoxic stress response.

Nature research paper: ZAK activation at the collided ribosome

go.nature.com/4a9cika

Regulated decay of microRNAs plays a critical role in controlling body size in mammals! Check out our new paper in @genesdev.bsky.social and see thread previously posted with our pre-print 👇 for more info. Congrats to Collette LaVigne, Jaeil Han, and all authors!
genesdev.cshlp.org/cgi/content/...

The U.S. experiment with profit-driven health care has failed “The market competition, managed care, and ‘corporate efficiency’ that economists prescribed as the cure for health care inflation instead accelerated it.”

www.statnews.com/2025/10/21/h...

Droplet outbursts from onion cutting | PNAS Cutting onions often leads to tear-inducing aerosol release, yet the underlying mechanics remain poorly understood. In this work, via high-speed ch...

Droplet outbursts from onion cutting | PNAS www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...

Paul Simon's "Surprise". Produced by Brian Emo

An excellent piece by Joachim Frank, 2017 Nobel Laureate in Chemistry, about how we must resist the Trump Administration's crackdown on universities.

www.usnews.com/opinion/arti...

Resolution Opposing the "Compact for Academic Excellence in Higher Education" WHEREAS the United States Secretary of Education has requested that the University of Virginia enter into a “Compact for Academic Excellence in Higher Education”, and WHEREAS the Compact contains provisions antithetical to the mission and traditions of the University, and WHEREAS the Compact contains provisions which endanger the independence and integrity of the University, and WHEREAS the compact likely violates state and federal law, and infringes upon the constitutional rights of members of the University community, and WHEREAS the University of Virginia exemplifies American academic values of the highest standard, including universal right to free speech and the cultivation of academic freedom; therefore BE IT RESOLVED that the Faculty Senate of the University of Virginia firmly opposes this Compact as written and calls upon Interim President Mahoney and the Board of Visitors to also reject this Compact outright as well as any similar proposal compromising the mission, values, and independence of the University.

UVA Faculty Senate passed a resolution strongly opposing the Trump “Compact.” We, at least, remain committed to the historic values and mission of the university.

STAND WITH YOUR SCHOOL: Trump attacks 9 universities. Sign the alumni petition now. Are you an alum from one of the 9 schools Trump just attacked? Sign this alumni petition now to support your school, defend democracy, and build a grassroots movement for campus freedom across America...

Are you an alum from one of the 9 schools Trump just attacked? Sign this alumni petition now to support your school, defend democracy, and build a grassroots movement for campus freedom across America. alumni.controlshift.app/petitions/tr...

Rachael, This is funny …. But is it real? Was the video posted by Trump? … No ! …. but … was it? …. No …. (!) … (?) Am I going nuts?

40 years since the Heidelberg genetic screen that revolutionized developmental and cell biology ABSTRACT. Our current understanding of the molecular basis of embryonic development and the shared machinery underlying this remarkable process has its roots in three papers published 40 years ago, wh...

You can read Mark's 2024 @dev-journal.bsky.social Review article here: doi.org/10.1242/dev....