Leonardo Morsut

1/27 We have a new paper out! Turns out that snowflake yeast have been hiding a secret from us - they've evolved a (very!) crude circulatory system. Not with blood vessels or a heart, but through spontaneous fluid flows powered by their metabolism. 🧪🔬

www.science.org/doi/full/10....

Join us! This will be a great meeting.

📣 New review! Dynamical systems and low-dimensional geometric structures in phase space help rationalize how embryos develop form and function, from large datasets. We focus on morphogenesis, cell differentiation, and their interconnection.
@alex-plum.bsky.social

sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

A Review of the President’s Fiscal Year 2026 Budget Request for the National Institutes of Health | United States Senate Committee on Appropriations United States Senate Committee on Appropriations

Senate hearing on the FY26 NIH budget with Jay Bhattacharya
June 10, 10am ET
www.appropriations.senate.gov/hearings/a-r...

Database Guide: Allen Brain Cell (ABC) Atlas An in-depth guide for undergraduate students on how to use the Allen Brain Cell (ABC) Atlas to ask and explore research questions

Undergraduate educators, introduce your students to the wealth of information inside the Allen Brain Cell Atlas with our new student-friendly guide!

🧠📈 alleninstitute.org/resource/dat...

#EduSky #iTeachBio

Photos of Clifford Brangwynne, James Nuñez and Leoardo Morsut with the titles of the talks they will give at the 2025 Saltiel Life Sciences Symposium: "Tools for probing the assembly and function of ribosomes," "Editing the epigenomes of human cells with CRISPR," and "Synthetic signaling applications to control patterning and morphogenesis in developmental systems"

The 2025 Saltiel Life Sciences Symposium is this Thursday (5/29)!
@brangwynnelab.bsky.social will start us off with the Mary Sue and Kenneth Coleman Lecture at 9:00 AM, followed by talks from @jamesknunez.bsky.social at 9:55 and @leonardomorsut.bsky.social at 10:25.
myumi.ch/lsi-symposiu...

"I have a message for America's scientists: I want to tell you how much I appreciate your work, how much I value and treasure your work, how much support you have within the Congress...we are aware of the deep damage that is being done to your profession and we are determined to make it stop" 🧪

The Education Lab is officially open! ✂️🎀

This custom-built 1327 ft² learning space allows students, educators, and scientists to take part in hands-on STEM activities offered by our Education and Engagement Program and powered by our open science and cutting-edge research.

#EduSky #iTeachBio

Esteemed Goldwater scholarships go to USC Dornsife student scientists The undergrads, majoring in neuroscience and biological sciences, are conducting research in developmental biology and pediatric neurology

Congratulations to Jason Toliao and Catcher Salazar!

USC Dornsife students have consistently won the prestigious Goldwater scholarship throughout the years--including every year since 2019.

"We need the whole country to appreciate that by investing in university research and educating the next generation of explorers and innovators, the country has reaped, and will continue to reap, tremendous rewards in new cures, treatments, and inventions, and in new industries, companies, and jobs"

Reading this article (must read) and finding the same words and sentiments I read here www.einaudi.it/catalogo-lib... in a book (Italian only sorry) that describes Italy in the 20s leading up to fascism.

Step up--great action plan here!!

I'd like to share a little bit of happy lab news in these chaotic times: a new preprint, driven by the brilliant Qinhao Cao!
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
We address a big challenge in synbio: If you give me a protein "X", how can I give you a version of X whose activity is controlled by a kinase?

Join me May 1st at Engineering Biology Club! This month: "Principles for introducing new genes and species for conservation" by @wskamau.bsky.social of the MIT Media Lab. Register here to attend👇
www.ginkgo.bio/events/engin...

This could be one of the coolest meetings of the year!!

Synthetic Biology Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Meetings & Courses -- a private, non-profit institution with research programs in cancer, neuroscience, plant biology, genomics, bioinformatics.

2025 Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Course in Synthetic Biology - apply!
Deadline: April 14, 2025
Financial Aid: Stipend awards are available.
Notifications: Applicants will be notified by May 15, 2025.
meetings.cshl.edu/courses.aspx...

🙌🏽🙌🏽

First association that came to me was with the anatomical theatre at Padova University where I did my undergrad and PhD: it’s the first stable anatomical theatre in the world used to teach human anatomy. To me symbolizes the longing for knowledge and for teaching. Looking forward to read the book!

🧵

three ostrich cartoon characters are standing in the sand with the words head in the sand above them ALT: three ostrich cartoon characters are standing in the sand with the words head in the sand above them

Dear scientists, The public distrust in US means that the policy makers do not have as incentives to maintain the scientific enterprise as we know it in the US. We need to organize and use our voices in the public. Keeping our heads in the sand will not save us! What should we do? 1/

Yes. The situation at NIH is worse than the public realizes.

The #NIH is on track to be effectively ended as a funder of evidence-based research within a year.

That is not an exaggeration. The firings and consolidation announced today will create a new, MUCH worse NIH.
1/

Capstone course gives UChicago Engineering undergrads real-world experience – and real-world problems to solve

As part of an Engineering Design capstone course, UChicago undergrads majoring in molecular engineering design and present real-world products they developed under the guidance of industry mentors, helping bring their skills from the classroom to the real world. 🧪
pme.uchicago.edu/news/capston...

Science Under Threat in the United States: Feeling abandoned but energized Many individual researchers are frustrated by the response - or the lack of a response - from universities to a growing crisis.

My OpEd in @elife.bsky.social

“It feels as if we are trying to fight a series of attacks on science with one arm tied behind our back and our lips half sewn shut.”

“Yet we are not beaten, and some of us are downright energized.”

elifesciences.org/articles/106...

Prior to submitting an application, applicants should review presidential actions found at: https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/ and DOI secretary’s Orders found at: https://www.doi.gov/document-library/secretary-order. By submitting an application in response to this Notice of Funding Opportunity, the applicant certifies awareness and compliance with all current and applicable executive and secretary orders.

I'm looking at a National Park Service grant where, in applying, the applicant agrees to all White House executive orders. Obviously, institutions are going to balk at allowing researchers to even apply for this🏺🧪

“Who runs casual errands with their passport?”

Tissue engineered skeletal muscle typically generates force in 1 direction. We’ve developed STAMP: a method for patterning multi-oriented muscles with single fiber precision, and used it to build a tissue engineered “iris” robot capable of light-controlled pupil constriction:
doi.org/10.1039/D4BM...

@delauro.house.gov talking to researchers in CT about how cuts to NIH are going to impact cures and economy.
She wants us to:
1. Tell the story about how NIH impacts peoples lives
2. Medical centers in every state need to go to their representatives offices and tell them the impact of these cuts

My speech at #StandUpForScience rally on March 7 @ucsantacruz.bsky.social: “But I also want to highlight a larger role that these cuts are playing: these cuts are part of a larger strategy to this dismantle the importance of expertise and evidence-based policy making at all levels in our country…

How do the different posterior tissues affect the physical elongation of the body axis? Very happy to share the work led by Georgina Stooke-Vaughan, together with Shuo-Ting Yen and Sangwoo Kim, that we recently published in @naturecomms.bsky.social 🥳

▶️ www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Excited to share a new preprint! Wireless devices use FM modulation to transmit multiplexed noise-resistant data. Led by @born2raisecell.bsky.social, we create a biochemical analogue of this paradigm using genetically encoded oscillators (GEOs) for single-cell FM streaming tinyurl.com/nbs8rw42 🧵