Steffi (she/her)

Damn now I want goth plates

We are hiring!
We are looking for a motivated and enthusiastic postdoc to study mammalian DSB repair using innovative genomic approaches.
Our lab is at the Curie Institute in Paris and offers vibrant scientific environnement and cutting edge platforms.
Please repost or apply here:
lnkd.in/eJ9q3QrR

With many postdoc grants like the NSF PRFB, Ford Fellowship, and Hanna H. Gray fellowships disappearing, I am currently looking for grants that could fund incoming postdoctoral scholars. Here is a thread of some of them 🧵

Tenure-track faculty search of the UCSF Biochemistry & Biophysics Department is open for applications!

We are looking for creative, innovative scientists asking fundamental questions in any area of biology.

Join our vibrant, collaborative, and supportive community!

aprecruit.ucsf.edu/JPF05702

Very pleased to say we have an Assistant Professor job opening (tenure track) in the Department of Genetics at Trinity College Dublin! 😀
www.jobs.ac.uk/job/DOA399/a... - deadline is August 19th! Please repost!

Congrats, Amruta!

DO NOT MIX THESE CLEANING PRODUCTS BLEACH + VINEGAR Bleach and vinegar mixture produces chlorine gas, which can cause coughing, breathing problems, burning and watery eyes. BLEACH + AMMONIA Bleach and ammonia produce a toxic gas called chloramine. It causes shortness of breath and chest pain. BLEACH + RUBBING ALCOHOL Bleach and rubbing alcohol makes chloroform, which is highly toxic. HYDROGEN PEROXIDE + VINEGAR This combination makes peracetic/peroxyacetic acid, which can be highly corrosive

PSA for flood response: remember to NEVER mix cleaning solutions across classes, especially bleach x any ammonia or ammonium salts derivative (e.g. Lysol & many medical-grade spray cleaners)!! Biological hazard-graded respirators won’t protect against hazardous chemical fumes.

Halibut Crochet Pattern (U.S. National Park Service)

TIL (on mastodon) that the US National Park Service has crochet patterns!

www.nps.gov/articles/000...

We ran a randomized controlled trial to see how much AI coding tools speed up experienced open-source developers.

The results surprised us: Developers thought they were 20% faster with AI tools, but they were actually 19% slower when they had access to AI than when they didn't.

FDA-NIH Workshop: Reducing Animal Testing The FDA is hosting a workshop on reducing animal testing. The workshop is open to current FDA and NIH employees.

🧪 After the workshop on 7/7, the FDA and NIH are asking for public comments on implementing novel methodologies and other strategies to reduce the use of animal testing by 7/14:

www.fda.gov/news-events/...

Oh no I didn’t! Gotta check it out, thanks! Haha I take it I wasn’t able to provide any new names though which is sad. I’ll have to ask my wife, she has a lot more time for reading than me

Reposting this as the same issue continues at #IZFC2025: lots of red/green LUTs in talks.

Especially the #zebrafish crowd, with imaging as a key technique in our field, should be able to do better. And know how to.
#WeTheColorBlind #2025IZFC @izfs.bsky.social

Tamsyn Muir would be quite something different (unless you already read her books of course haha), I also really liked Malka Older’s “The mimicking of known successes” plus sequel

Would love to hear any thoughts!

Drosophila melanogaster SC gene with that of a close relative. The data suggests that Corolla is directly involved in crossover formation. Extra fun: There is a temperature sensitive phenotype and we find very cool polycomplexes (aberrant structures consisting of SC proteins).

In short: There is evidence that in many organisms the synaptonemal complex (SC) has a role in crossover formation during meiosis. Unfortunately, studying this role has been difficult because most SC mutants we have are null alleles. Here we made a partial-loss-of-function mutation by replacing the

Using evolution as a tool: Replacing corolla in Drosophila melanogaster with its Drosophila mauritiana ortholog creates a novel hypomorphic allele In Drosophila melanogaster females, as in most organisms, the segregation of meiotic chromosomes depends on the proper distribution of crossovers along paired maternal and paternal chromosomes. In mos...

The preprint for my first first-author paper is up! www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

The diet Coke is a given

This review has a special place in my heart. This will be the only part of my written PhD works that received direct feedback from Scott. Sadly, he never even got to see the (very nice) reviewer comments.

From conservation to adaptation: understanding the synaptonemal complex’s evolutionary dynamics The synaptonemal complex (SC) is structurally conserved across eukaryotes and is essential for a proper progression of meiosis. Despite this conservat…

In this review, I write about why it is important to study synaptonemal complex protein evolution and highlight this with a few key examples of conserved features and unique adaptations.

Wrapping my PhD up much faster than initially planned to get my wife and I out of Missouri and into a blue state... Though right now, we're not sure that will be enough..

He must have been an absolutely amazing undergrad advisor. Just as he was as a graduate advisor to me. He was a very special person. Wishing you well in recovering from this loss.

No way!! He never mentioned it!

That's an awesome story, sounds just like him

It was an honor to be the last PhD student he took in. He was always excited about even the smallest progress I made. But he was truly more than just a scientific advisor and I will miss him deeply. Rest In Peace, Scott. And thank you for everything.

If you have been affected by the fires in LA, or are concerned about your ability to keep precious Drosophila strains going during the latest funding crisis, we will host your strains as a backup. Please email me.

Please amplify. If you are also able to host fly strains, add your name as well.

I have been recommending Signal to folks as an alternative to Whatsapp. It's very secure, I have never gotten spam messages on there (which I can't say for Whatsapp or Telegram), and has all the features your heart could desire!

They are "wrestling" with how much they should resist?! Excuse me?

I know the feeling well. If there is no way to reduce immediately, the most important thing has been eating and sleeping properly. Try to get movement into your day somehow. And plan to take at least a few days off for when this semester is over. Wishing you the best!

Haven't been on there that long but it's definitely hard. Especially since it was an easy way to keep in touch with people in Germany. The biggest mistake was allowing Meta to become such a monopoly...