Nate Himmel

Protein Structure Evolution Seminar November 11, 5pm CET Title: AI-Powered Classification and Discovery Across the Protein Universe Speaker: Joana Pereira Organized by: Claudia Alvarez Carreno, Zachary Ardern, Lars Eicholt, Carolina Sanchez-Rocha, Sergio Romero-Romero and MD. Hassan Uz-Zaman

The next ProSE Seminar will be given by Joana Pereira @joanampereira.bsky.social (VIB, KU Leuven)
🗓️ November 11th, 5pm CET

Registration is now open: tinyurl.com/prose-seminar2
Please share!

FlyBase secures funding for year, but future still uncertain The FlyBase team’s fundraising efforts have proven successful in the short term, but restoration of its federal grant remains uncertain.

🪰 folks! I spoke to the Transmitter about FlyBase. As noted at flybase.org, bridge $ ran out and many staff were laid off.

Good news is stopgap contributions will keep core FlyBase operations active. But community support remains essential. Please donate @FlyBase and share! 1/2

tinyurl.com/FlyBase

a group of Drosophila erecta fruit flies on a small food patch. flies on white background

Excited to share our new #biorxivpreprint

We discovered that the fruit fly #drosophila erecta requires food odor to mate and arousal is further enhanced by social group motion.

Cross-species analysis of brain activity reveals a novel gate evolved from within a conserved circuit

shorturl.at/gGYm7

Reminds me of this truck I once passed in Florida...

In our view, America’s leadership in science and innovation depends on independent thinking and open competition for excellence. In that free marketplace of ideas, the people of MIT gladly compete with the very best, without preferences. Therefore, with respect, we cannot support the proposed approach to addressing the issues facing higher education. As you know, MIT’s record of service to the nation is long and enduring. Eight decades ago, MIT leaders helped invent a scientific partnership between America’s research universities and the U.S. government that has delivered extraordinary benefits for the American people. We continue to believe in the power of this partnership to serve the nation. Sincerely, Sally Kornbluth https://orgchart.mit.edu/letters/regarding-compact

I completed a PhD in Physics at MIT in '03. Even when the intensity seemed to be off-scale, there was one piece that I never doubted: the place had integrity, purpose, and passion.

It's clear the culture and drive of MIT remains.

MIT says no to the compact.

orgchart.mit.edu/letters/rega...

We are recruiting PhD students! If you are interested in evolutionary neuroscience, consider applying: www.crick.ac.uk/careers-stud...

A GPCR signaling pathway in insect odor detection Odor detection differs fundamentally in vertebrates, which use G protein-coupled receptors (GPCRs), and insects, which employ ion channels. Here, we report the first evidence for a GPCR defining tunin...

Having personally sworn for years that insects don’t use GPCRs for odour detection, Suguru Takagi (@sugurutakagi.bsky.social) discovers that, in fact, they sometimes do …

www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

Despite These Times...my department is hiring! I really like my department, we have a good mix of disciplines and organisms and we're really low-drama. We also get pizza at faculty meeting. So if you're a computational and structural biologist, join us! 🧪 jobs.rutgers.edu/postings/260...

Really looking forward to following this!

Adriano Senatore @utoronto.ca and colleagues explore the evolutionary origins of the sodium leak channel NALCN and its ancillary subunits FAM155/Mid1, UNC79, and UNC80. rupress.org/jgp/article/...

#Evolution #IonChannels

NSF Graduate Research Fellowship Program (GRFP)

New: After a long wait, the GRFP solicitation is live! Deadlines have been extended to early November, so applicants have a bit over a month to submit. www.nsf.gov/funding/oppo...

Photograph of Morgan's Fly Room at Columbia University, around 1920. American Philosophical Society.

Thomas Hunt Morgan was born OTD in 1866.

If you're ever feeling that your work is uending and unedifying, remember that he once said this: "Two years work wasted, I have been breeding those flies for all that time and I've got nothing out of it."

🌱🐋🧪 #HistSTM

Our lab webpage is out!
takagilab.org

On cloud nine to announce that I'll be starting my own lab at the Department of Biological Science, Florida State University in Spring 2026! We'll study neuronal circuits and sensory-guided behavior by combining comparative and functional approaches using non-model Drosophila flies 🪰

Just a reminder - if you run/recruit or have anything to do with an ecology & evolutionary biology PhD program, check out our database and update your departments salary here: rhettrautsaw.app/shiny/Biolog...

We're hiring (yes, in this economy!) a tenure-track Assistant Professor in Neurophysiology. Hofstra is an R2/PUI that values both research & teaching. We offer REAL startup, manageable teaching loads, & a very collegial, growing dept. (7 new faculty in the past few years + 2 searches this year).

STING cyclic dinucleotide sensing originated in bacteria - Nature Structures of prokaryotic homologues of STING permit the reconstruction of the evolutionary trajectory of its incorporation into metazoan innate immunity, and reveal a role for the conserved cGAS–STIN...

Together with @soreklab.bsky.social, our labs discovered that the human cGAS-STING pathway evolved from ancient bacterial proteins in CBASS anti-phage defense

www.nature.com/articles/s41...
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
www.nature.com/articles/s41...

🤩 Join us for the next TIBBE seminar:
Evolution of brain cell types.
September 10, 2–3pm UTC

This event brings together 2 outstanding evolutionary and developmental neuroscientists who will present their work, followed by an interactive discussion with the audience: www.crowdcast.io/c/evolution-...

I am recruiting a Ph.D. student in microbial ecology, evolution, and systems biology for fall 2026. Please share!
Details: qevomicrolab.org/Documents/Gr...
Apply by October 1 here: forms.gle/38pPS1Ky84HB...

ALT text: A UMAP representation of a single cell RNAseq dataset from the Drosophila ventral nerve cord as well as images of the Drosophila nerve cord connectome and different stages of fly development.

Neuronal diversity is written in transcriptional codes 🧬. But what is the logic of these codes that define cell types and wiring patterns?
To find out we built a #scRNAseq developmental atlas of the Drosophila nerve cord and linked it to the #connectome 🪰🧠
#preprint thread ⬇️1/8

Congrats, Tonni!

Six years ago, I started at the MPIPZ with a head full of ideas. What a journey. I’m thrilled to share that, from Jan 2026, I will be moving to Zurich as a chaired associate professor at the University of Zurich.
A new chapter, and plenty of roots still to grow. Can’t wait for the adventure ahead!

The Zahn lab is transitioning into the TIDAL Lab this Fall and moving to the Appl. Sci. Department at William & Mary.

Would love to chat with students interested in doing a PhD at the nexus of microbial ecology and data science (starting 2026).

RP please!
gzahn.github.io

We are hiring a Postdoc in membrane protein cryo-EM at the University of Georgia. Looking for candidates with expertise in membrane protein purification and biochemistry. Fully funded for up to 5 years. Join us in Athens, GA. Apply: camilo.perez@uga.edu

Strain variation identifies a neural substrate for behavioral evolution in Drosophila Sexual selection acts on heritable differences within species, driving the parallel diversification of signal production in one sex and behavioral responses in the other. This coevolution implies that...

Exciting new Ruta lab preprint by @annaryba.bsky.social et al. on the neural underpinnings of intraspecific behavioral variation: Strain variation identifies a neural substrate for behavioral evolution Drosophila

www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

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!

I’m excited to share that I'll be joining the Department of Cell Biology and Neuroscience at Rutgers University-New Brunswick as a tenure-track Assistant Professor in January 2026! Thrilled to launch my independent lab and be part of this vibrant research community 💖 #newPI

Drosophila picticornis, a Hawaiian fly with patterned wings

Wish I could be at #Evol2025 this year! I’ll be starting a new lab at NYU this fall, and will be recruiting at all levels. Please spread the word if you know anyone who wants to work on evo. genomics, phylogenies, and comparative development of inverts (like Hawaiian Drosophila!) shchurch.github.io

Due to popular demand, I am creating starter packs for a) Biology PIs looking for PhD students and b) Biology PIs looking for POSTDCOCs! Please respond saying if which packs you would like to be added to (or if you want to be added to both).