Luca Valzania

Toward more sustainable research: reducing the environmental impact when working with Drosophila Abstract. The ever-increasing amounts of plastic waste and greenhouse gas emissions worldwide threaten our environment. Biomedical laboratories across the

Now proper out: doi.org/10.1093/gene...

Harvard University lays off fly database team The layoffs jeopardize this resource, which has served more than 4,000 labs for about three decades.

FlyBase, a Drosophila database, will lose a third of its team in early October because the Harvard grant that covered the employees’ salaries was canceled. Scientists warn that losing FlyBase could devastate fly research.

By @claudia-lopez.bsky.social

www.thetransmitter.org/community/ha...

From @yalesom.bsky.social. Yale has sunk in my estimation, maybe it's following the spirit of our times since Jan 20th. This is like phrenology.

The discovery of a digestion-slowing hormone in the Gila monster's venom paved the way for Ozempic. When a Gila monster named Pebbles needed medicine in return, a pharmaceutical chemist pivoted to help save the species. nyti.ms/4i5w40U

This illustration depicts users lining up to input prompts at a console attached to a machine that represents the language model. Three large funnels represent inputs from public databases of protein sequences, structures, and functional annotations.

Researchers have developed a deep learning protein language model, ESM3, that enables programmable protein design.

Learn more in this week's issue of Science: https://scim.ag/3Qo3HPw

‘Dark proteins’ hiding in our cells could hold clues to cancer and other diseases The human genome encodes potentially thousands of tiny proteins that were previously overlooked. The search is on to find out what they do.

The rise of dark proteins

Let’s stop treating "leaving academia" as negative. Scientists train for academia, industry, or what suits them. Industry isn’t an alternative; it’s a choice. In fields like engineering, most PhDs go to industry, and no one calls it "leaving academia." We should train scientists for diverse paths.

'One of the most important species for science': How the humble fruit fly transformed four fields of research The common fruit fly (Drosophila melanogaster), more correctly called the vinegar fly, is a frequent visitor to ripe fruit in households around the world, where it often deposits eggs on rotting flesh...

I love this article partly because it details how this little fly has been vital for all sorts of research, including for human health.

But I really love the part about where fruit flies originated and how they’ve conquered the world. 🍓🍒🍷🪰

🧪 🪲 🪳

phys.org/news/2025-01...

Top: Drosophila muscles show disrupted mitochondrial structures when SLMO is knocked down. Bottom: Immunofluorescence shows that SLMO localizes to mitochondria.

How are #phospholipids transferred within #mitochondria? A study in #Drosophila shows that SLMO transfers phosphatidylserine (PS) from the outer to the inner mitochondrial membrane, where it is converted into PE, so contributing to mitochondrial form & function 🧪 #PLOSBiology plos.io/4iHc9qg

Figure 1 (Ai) Schematic shows 24×MS2 loops (orange box) inserted into a gene intron. Following transcription, fluorescent coat proteins (grey crescents with green stars) bind to the stem-loops in the RNA. (Aii) Still from a live-imaging movie showing TSs, visualised as bright fluorescent foci of MCPGFP bound to the stem-loops, within the nuclei marked by HisRFP. Fluorescent intensity can be tracked over time as shown for the TS in one nucleus (inset). Scale bars: 10 µm. (B) A flowchart showing the three genetic components required for visualisation of live transcription in vivo: (1) the MiMIC insertion, (2) the stem-loop options and (3) the corresponding coat protein fly stocks generated or used in this study.

A simple MiMIC-based approach for tagging endogenous genes to visualise live transcription in Drosophila

Read this Techniques and Resources Article by Lauren Forbes Beadle, Catherine Sutcliffe and Hilary Ashe @official-uom.bsky.social:
https://doi.org/10.1242/dev.204294

The birth of fruit fly's central nervous system imaged with multicolor #adaptive #lightsheet microscopy. The microscope self-aligns to a signal that appears during imaging.

www.nature.com/articles/nbt...

European Drosophila Society logo: a stylised fly on blue background with yellow stars created by MC Diaz de la Loza.

The European Drosophila Society is delighted to join Bluesky! Follow us for the latest European fly news.
#EDRC2025
#Drosophila
#Drosofeed

‘A place of joy’: why scientists are joining the rush to Bluesky Researchers say the social-media platform — an alternative to X — offers more control over the content they see and the people they engage with.: https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-024-03784-6

There are already many articles for which there is more attention on Bluesky than on other comparable micro-blogging sites, meaning the academic community and the general public have clearly adopted Bluesky as one of its core places to disseminate and discuss new research.

A Place of Joy.

Thanks to a new technique, scientists can now see where RNAs are inside a brain without slicing into it. That and more of the best from Science and science in this edition of #ScienceAdviser: www.science.org/content/arti... 🧪

Figure 4. Position and type of fluorescent tag affect protein expression and P-body numbers in vivo.

The dark side of fluorescent protein tagging: the impact of protein tags on biomolecular condensation
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

How the #brain talks to the #gut and vice versa!
🧪🧠💩

Check out the great primer on gut-brain communication and #interoception by @amberalhadeff.bsky.social and Nilay Yapici

👇👇👇
www.cell.com/current-biol...

We are happy to report that our journals and community sites now have Bluesky accounts. Follow them at:
@dev-journal.bsky.social
@jcellsci.bsky.social
@jexpbiol.bsky.social
@dmmjournal.bsky.social
@biologyopen.bsky.social
@the-node.bsky.social
@prelights.bsky.social
@focalplane.bsky.social

often overlooked in EDI strategies and key to perceptions of excellence. Language coaching not the only solution (takes extra time too): need to normalise non-native accents/accept different ways of expressing oneself

🎨 In case anyone need…

The NIH BioArt Source is an awesome library of *free* professionally drawn illustrations for scientific presentations or figures. Downloadable in HD. Thank you NIH for this invaluable tool 🙏!

Check it out 👇
bioart.niaid.nih.gov

Would it be possible to add me? Thanks a lot

Excited to see my project carried out in the Léopold lab at Institut Curie (Paris) published in Developmental Cell. Check it out if you are curious about how amino acids are strategically stored and then used efficiently during development www.cell.com/developmenta...