Anne S. Meyer

Congrats to you all for your awards yesterday!

Just wrapped up the 2025 iGEM Jamboree in Paris, and my team won a gold medal and four nominations for their project to create sustainable materials on Mars! @urochester.bsky.social @igemhq.bsky.social

Ugh sorry to hear that - science is not an easy road!

Tough round of rejections recently? 😭

Excited to share a new preprint from a team of researchers I am part of (funded by an NIH grant). The paper helps us understand a question I have been interested in for a while: why are bacteria so resilient?
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
@meyerroc.bsky.social
@juliebiteenlab.bsky.social

Thrilled to share our multidisiplinary work on how genome-wide DNA bridging by H-NS reshapes the stationary phase bacterial nucleoid and affects the transcriptional landscape. With Xindan Wang and @meyerroc.bsky.social
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

Dps binds and protects DNA in starved Escherichia coli with minimal effect on chromosome accessibility, dynamics and organisation Dps is the most abundant nucleoid-associated protein in starved Escherichia coli with ∼180, 000 copies per cell. Dps binds DNA and oxidises iron, facilitating survival in harsh environments. Dps-DNA c...

Lauren, Lindsay, Xiaofeng et al. coupled live-cell super-resolution microscopy with ChIPseq and Hi-C in starved E. coli to learn that the abundant protein Dps compacts DNA while only minimally affecting other nucleoid properties. XindanWang Lab & @meyerroc.bsky.social
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

High genetic complexity!

Exploring antibiotic resistance in diverse homologs of the dihydrofolate reductase protein family through broad mutational scanning DropSynth technology enables scalable and cost-effective exploration of antibiotic resistance across the DHFR protein family.

Our new Science Advances paper is out! 🎉 The Plesa Lab's first, it builds on DropSynth technology as a proof of concept for large-scale synthetic gene libraries, showcasing a synthetic metagenomics approach to studying antibiotic resistance at scale. 👉 www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

For the first time in nearly a decade, the SB#.0 Conference Series convenes this October at the 2025 iGEM Grand Jamboree!

SB 8.0 will highlight and discuss key developments in synthetic biology with the people shaping the field!

See the confirmed speaker roster:
jamboree.igem.org/2025/program...

Insulin recombinantly synthesized by Yersinia pestis?

Huge congrats to Dr. Andrew Holston on a successful PhD defense!! Andrew has been working on the large-scale characterization and engineering of chimeric receptor histidine kinases. He’s looking for roles in biotech/academia, let’s connect if you’re hiring! -> @hkalltheway.bsky.social

Bring factory jobs back to the US (United Slugs)!

Busy day on Capitol Hill today meeting with nine of the New York House Representatives to advocate for NSF funding! Thanks to the CNSF for organizing and to @urochester.bsky.social for supporting my trip.

For the first time since 2017, SB.X is back!

Join us on Oct 30 for the return of synthetic biology’s most influential forum, now hosted at the world’s largest SynBio gathering - the iGEM Grand Jamboree, in Paris.

jamboree.igem.org/2025/program...

Stanford.Berkeley.UCSF Next Generation Faculty Symposium

Are you a postdoc/grad student preparing to launch a faculty search? Do you have a track record of excellence in research, leadership, mentorship & community engagement? Apply to the 2025 Next Generation Faculty Symposium: www.berkeleystanfordnextgensymposium.com! Pls repost! (1/3)

student in a white lab coat and blue latex gloves holds a pipette near a flame.

A researcher is a problem solver 🧪

A team of 10 undergraduate students has pioneered a new 3D-bioprinting technology that efficiently replicates useful chemicals found in plants, including those endangered by our changing climate.

#EverBetter #URochesterResearch | uofr.us/4iZo2Xr

Done! Thanks for the advice

Opinion | Science Suffers With Trump’s Funding Freeze America’s scientific enterprise demands reliable stewardship, not destabilizing political intervention.

My father-in-law, Jack Strominger, and I wrote a letter to the @wsj.com editor about the current threats to science due to Trump's funding freeze. Please repost! www.wsj.com/opinion/scie...

@urochester.bsky.social

Living lenses? Glass-coated microbes might take better photos Bacteria with a gene from sea sponges can coat themselves in glass. Working as tiny, bendable lenses, they could lead to thinner cameras or sensors.

Science News Explores published this fun article about our engineered bacteria that focus light like tiny lenses! This kind of research can be the starting point to develop new technologies, which is why the current freezes on NIH and NSF funding are so damaging.
www.snexplores.org/article/glas...

Wow, amazing news!

I am a professor at Columbia University. All of the student NIH training grants have been canceled and now there are reports that ALL funding will be frozen. Why are Universities not banding together and speaking out publicly and forcibly about governmental attacks on biomedical research?

Dear Colleagues: I have been out of town attending a conference and was dismayed to learn from news reports that the visas of six of our international students have been terminated by the federal government. At this time, I do not have information about why these students were targeted, though similar actions are occurring at universities across the country, including Duke and NC State. Since last night, I have heard from many faculty members who are distressed and angry, not only because this has happened, but also because we had to learn about it from media reports. At this point, we have not received any communication from university administration. I have written to Chancellor Roberts and Vice Provost for Global Affairs Barbara Stephenson to request as much information as possible, and that it be provided to us promptly. However, information is not our only need. As a faculty, we also urgently need to speak up in support of our international students and colleagues, who are an integral part of our vibrant academic environment at UNC. They enrich our classrooms, our research, and campus community life with their perspectives, ideas, and experiences. We also must speak up for our values as an academic community, especially academic freedom and free expression, the cornerstones of a thriving institution of higher education.

These values ensure that universities remain spaces where ideas can be explored, debated, and tested. They empower both faculty and students to engage with complex and evolving issues, fostering the environment of intellectual growth and critical thinking that we all cherish. While I do not know why our students' visas were revoked, I know that students at other campuses appear to have been targeted for their speech. UNC has a long history of students and other campus community members expressing their views, and the peaceful expression of viewpoints should never be a ground for removing a person from our community. Indeed, freedom of speech and assembly are enshrined in our country’s Constitution. I will share any information I receive from the administration with you. In the upcoming days, as we learn more, members of faculty governance will be considering potential actions we can take to support these six students as well the hundreds of international students, scholars, staff, and faculty here at UNC who may be affected by these and similar actions taken by the federal government. We will likely be reaching out to many of you for your perspectives and guidance. In addition, the April 25 Faculty Council meeting is a joint meeting with the General Faculty during which we can further discuss and propose action. Thank you for the deep concern and care for our students that I see reflected in your anguished emails, texts and calls. In these terrible times, such collective compassion is uplifting—and essential. In solidarity, Beth Kathryn E. (Beth) Moracco, PhD, MPH Chair of the Faculty

The horrifying actions of ICE, kidnapping immigrants & international students & holding them without charges or trial, have now come home to UNC. aculty Chair Beth Moracco told us yesterday at least 6 UNC students had visas revoked. It's time to act for all of us, or know we remained silent 1/2

NSF has awarded almost 50% fewer grants since Trump took office The reasons aren’t clear—and the agency’s director claims the president’s policies haven’t slowed grant awards

This hasn't gotten much attention—but new National Science Foundation grants have dropped by almost half since Trump took office, an analysis by @davidimiller.bsky.social shows. www.science.org/content/arti...

(Story by @policyhound.bsky.social)

Cultivating Bangladesh’s Synthetic Biology Ecosystem Through iGEM — iGEM Blog Building Bangladesh’s synthetic biology future starts with passionate iGEMers like Showmick Paul, Usrat Nubah and Abrar Hasan. Read how iGEM is opening doors, inspiring young scientists and shaping th...

Building Bangladesh’s synthetic biology future starts with passionate iGEMers like Showmick Paul, Usrat Nubah, and Abrar Hasan. For them, iGEM is more than a competition, it’s a gateway to a global network and a vision to unlock Bangladesh’s synbio future.

blog.igem.org/blog/2025/3/...

Congratulations ✨✨✨

MSFC did not meet as scheduled on 2/24
public.csr.nih.gov/StudySection...

The role of bacterial metabolism in antimicrobial resistance Nature Reviews Microbiology - In this Review, Ahmad et al. examine how antibiotics influence bacterial metabolism and how metabolism, in turn, affects drug efficacy and the emergence and evolution...

New review out in @NatureRevMicro on the complex rltnshp btween metabolism & AMR! A true labor of love from previous postbac Mehrose, grad students Varun & Zirui, and collaborator @drrobsmith.bsky.social (plus figures I'll likely use for many talks to come 😊) rdcu.be/eaES2