Siegenthaler Lab

Hi, are you an academic biology lab in the Boston area? I am a lab manager at a local biotech and I will be getting rid of a lot consumables in the near future (as will many of my colleagues, unfortunately). If you would be interested in free consumables, please reach out to me!

What we talk about when we talk about risk How embryo selection exploits our flawed intuitions about risk

I wrote about how genetic risk works in the context of embryo selection and how people often think about it all wrong. A short 🧵:

I still get chills

Meet Mike
*30+ years severe depression
*first hospitalized @ 13y
*20 meds
*3 rounds of ECT
*2 near-fatal suicide attempts

Mike felt joy for the first time in decades after we turned on his new brain pacemaker or PACE

see videos, read paper, follow thread
doi.org/10.31234/osf...

At home, we used Bayes Tuning, an optimization procedure to refine and personalize stimulation settings.

@ 7 weeks → suicidal thoughts gone.
@ 6 Months → depression in full remission.
@ 30 months later → Mike is still well.

As a bonus some of if cognitive skills improved!!

How a Colorado dietitian became Instagram’s top MAHA critic Jessica Knurick is one of Instagram's fiercest MAHA critics — and with a Ph.D in nutrition science, she's dedicated to debunking misinformation.

Jessica Knurick wants to reach the MAHA moms who’ve been swept up in misinformation. www.statnews.com/2025/08/08/j...

Clark has a had a rough couple weeks...'mom' has been too busy writing grants to hike ⛰️...he was bit by another dog on a walk [required a vet visit & staples 🥴]...BUT 'mom's' grant is submitted, wound is healed & it's a GREAT day for a long hike....made perfect with a dip in the creek at the end. ❤️

collage of pictures of

Pretty certain running a lab is mostly about making signs to avoid inconveniences & minor catastrophes. 😊

I developed mRNA vaccines. RFK Jr is endangering US public health Katalin Karikó says the health secretary’s decision to pull research funding for the technology is akin to ‘dropping a bomb on the US’

Not just endangering US public health but global health

www.thetimes.com/us/news-toda...

A reminder that the mRNA vaccine technology saved millions of lives during the Covid pandemic and received the 2023 Nobel Prize for Medicine

200 days in, checking in on HHMI funding opportunities:

Freeman Hrabowski Scholars Program - not accepting applications

Gilliam Fellows Program - not accepting applications

Hanna H. Gray Fellows Program - not accepting applications

Investigator Program - not accepting applications

A group photo during the last official meeting of the Diversifying the Community of Neuroscience longitudinal mentorship program. The group of faculty, postdoctoral fellows, and physicians are smiling for a photo on an outdoor terrace at the University of Minnesota campus.

The 2025-26 cohort of incoming first year and second year MIND post-baccalaureate researchers with their program leadership. The group is smiling for a selfie outside in front of trees.

The 2025 neuroscience group of the Life Sciences Summer Undergraduate Research Program. The undergraduates and their program directors are all dressed up and smiling for a group photo at the end of the summer symposium

Summer has been busy for all my programs ☀️

•bittersweet end of the Diversifying the Community of Neuroscience program❤️‍🩹

•welcomed our new cohort of MINDS post-baccalaureate scholars 🙌🏾

•celebrated at the symposium for our summer undergrad researchers 📊

Grateful to still pour into our communities💖

This piece was so fun to write because the whole lab chipped in and team-wrote it over the series of a few lab meetings (+finessing)

The events of yesterday are sinking in and we are all feeling very shaken up.

CDC staff, please reach out to family and friends. We need each other right now. If anyone doesn’t have a buddy to talk to, DM us here or on signal.

Here's some info from the NCIRD all hands that happened at 11 today👇

Pathway to Independence – an interview with Giulia Paci

In this interview, @giuliapaci.bsky.social talks about physics, mechanics, comics, her research journey, and the importance of public engagement:

journals.biologists.com/dev/article/...

✨Development meets design in this embryonic chameleon lung 🫁 🦎. Smooth muscle swirls 🟣 and branching tips and cartilage 🟢 come together in reptilian lung morphogenesis. Image taken by @drkatiegoodwin.bsky.social 🔬🧪
#FluorescenceFriday #DevBio

Tissue bending through localized BM growth or dissolution.

Alteration in tissue morphology by intrinsic stresses in an assembling BM network.

Branching morphogenesis driven by localized deposition of interstitial matrix.

Asymmetric tissue expansion through anisotropic BM remodeling.

Maybe it's time we rethink the idea that development is a cell centric process? In this beautiful review, María-del-Carmen and @stramerlab.bsky.social discussed how the ECM underlies and influences many morphogenesis processes from wing unfolding to mammary gland development.
doi.org/10.1016/j.cd...

JP Flores brings science home, connecting science to community with op-eds | American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS)

“Bridging science and society is a problem everywhere...As someone passionate about science and society, I want the scientific workforce to reflect the diversity of the country, and these executive orders are going to stop that.” @jpflores.rbind.io

www.aaas.org/membership/m...

“It is also advantageous for students who are not from Indigenous groups to be exposed to other ways of knowing. And by showing that they value Indigenous researchers, universities can lessen perceived hierarchies in academia and in wider society.” 2/2

“Increasing the presence of Indigenous researchers in a university benefits Indigenous students, who gain from being taught, mentored and supervised by Indigenous scientists in a variety of fields.”

This is so impactful and empowering. Also the colleagues and collaborators who engage too!
1/2

Good news for Ireland and Austria....

Michael is right to raise concerns about this rule, which seeks to force around half of international students to renew their student visa at least once during the time they’re studying.

But the “good” news is that it’ll be a proposed rule, so there will be notice and comment and time to oppose.

Grateful to @rhomomoney.bsky.social & @profjeffries.bsky.social who invite us to inquire & care about our world, celebrate our connections, & strive for greater, stronger community.

UCL – University College London UCL is consistently ranked as one of the top ten universities in the world (QS World University Rankings 2010-2022) and is No.2 in the UK for research power (Research Excellence Framework 2021).

We are recruiting a new PI at the FIL @imagingneuroucl.bsky.social, Associate or Full Professor. This is an amazing place to do cognitive neuroscience, in the heart of London. If you or someone you know might be interested, please pass it on. #neuroskyence

www.ucl.ac.uk/work-at-ucl/...

I’ll point out J-1 visas, which are used for #residency training programs are “student visas”
only residencies that take 4 years or less are:
- internal medicine
- emergency medicine
- pediatrics
And a few other smaller specialties. Assuming no fellowship
No more international surgeons for us

J-1 visas are used by postdoctoral fellows--limiting these to 4 years would eliminate foreign postdocs in our labs

Thrilled to see our work published in @embojournal.org
#asgard #archaea #cytoskeleton #tubulin #FtsZ
We sincerely appreciate the constructive peer review and the reviewers’ thoughtful, supportive feedback, which greatly strengthened our work.

The updated version of the database of PhD fellowships produced and maintained by my team can be downloaded by anyone here:

research.jhu.edu/rdt/funding-...

For each of the 187 fellowships, you will find a short description, deadline, $ amount, link, etc.

Good luck!

A postdoc position in the Torben Heick Jensen lab, Aarhus University, Denmark: Mammalian Nuclear RNA Production and Turnover Systems - Vacancy at Aarhus University Vacancy at Department of Molecular Biology and Genetics - RNA Biology and Innovation, Aarhus University

Final call for postdoc positions in Aarhus, Denmark. Sorting of gene expression and beyond. Please get in touch for further information or apply using this link:
mbg.au.dk/en/news-and-...

www.nih.gov/about-nih/ni...

Please share my 1 min video on the importance of maintaining NIH funding of infectious diseases and drug discovery research vs rising antibiotic resistance

Drastic budget cuts harm our health and imperil the next generation of scientists

More @UCSanDiego “Behind Every Breakthrough” bit.ly/3FlXQs3