Buttitta Lab

Nobel laureate Hamilton Smith, who discovered molecular 'scissors' to cut DNA, dies at 94 Smith, a microbiologist whose discovery revolutionize the field of genetic engineering, was a Johns Hopkins School of Medicine alumnus and professor emeritus

🧪🧪 Nobel laureate Hamilton Smith, who discovered molecular 'scissors' to cut DNA, dies at 94 -- Smith, a microbiologist whose discovery revolutionized the field of genetic engineering, was a Johns Hopkins School of Medicine alumnus and professor emeritus

hub.jhu.edu/2025/11/04/n...

Reaffirming the value of model organisms in training scientific minds - Nature Cell Biology As biomedical research prioritizes human models and translational promise, classic model organisms are increasingly dismissed. Here we argue that they have a lasting value, both in enabling discovery and in cultivating scientific thinking, by training researchers in systems reasoning, integrative thinking and independent inquiry.

PREACH!

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

Trump's Harvard cuts threaten a giant in biomedical research: A database about the tiny fruit fly This spring, the Trump administration rescinded a grant that maintained FlyBase, a pillar of global basic research, as part of its broader $2.2 billion funding cuts at Harvard.

The FlyBase situation has made the national news www.nbcnews.com/science/scie...

New cell cycle meeting starts next summer!
events.faseb.org/event/c40174...

Society for Developmental Biology Ethel Browne Harvey Postdoctoral Seminar Series Friday, September 12, 2025, 3:00pm - 4:00 pm Eastern Time Sarah Colijn (Washington University in St. Louis) Novel roles for centriolar protein WDR90 in endothelial cells and cardiac tissue Shyama Nandakumar (University of Pittsburgh) Ring canals in the larval adipose of Drosophila buffer stress response http://bit.ly/4649fWS

Don't miss the next #SDBPostdocSeminar this Friday, September 12 at 3pm ET featuring @sarahcolijn.bsky.social‬ from Washington University in St. Louis and @shyama13.bsky.social‬ from the University of Pittsburgh. Register today and join us. bit.ly/4649fWS

New in #GENETICS: From a genetic screen, Yi-Ting Huang and Brian Calvi identified the Src42A-Shark-Slpr pathway as an upstream regulator of JNK in induced endocycling cells in #Drosophila wing disc. buff.ly/wJmn8lp

'The ship is going down and we are powerless'- The Impact of Federal Funding Changes on Researchers Training the Next Generation of Scientists https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.08.22.671828v1

Haha! Been there. Did not like.

Thank you for featuring this work on #polyploidy and organ growth.

Highly frequent undesired insertional mutagenesis during Drosophila genome editing https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.08.11.669658v1

This 👇🏻

Picture of Kristen Verhey, University of Michigan Sandra Masur Senior Leadership Award Presented to a scientist at a later career stage (generally full professor or equivalent) whose outstanding scientific achievements are coupled with a record of active leadership in mentoring women and individuals from underrepresented groups in their scientific careers.

Congrats to Kristen Verhey ‪@kjverhey1.bsky.social‬, winner of
@ascbiology.bsky.social's Sandra Masur Senior Leadership Award. She combines remarkable scientific insight into molecular motors with leadership and mentoring in cell biology 🧪
www.ascb.org/society-news...

A window of cell cycle plasticity enables imperfect regeneration of an adult postmitotic organ in Drosophila https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.06.05.658044v1

Evidence for Transcriptomic Conservation Between the Main Cells of the Drosophila Prostate-Like Accessory Gland and Basal Cells of the Mammalian Prostate. https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.06.05.658085v1

Thank you for the highlight of our work! #drosophila #cancer model.

Thank you for the highlight of our work! #drosophila #cancer model.

As a “fly person” even I have to admit this is pretty cool! 😎

Proposed cut to NSF Biology budget is 70%.

70%. Seventy.

Call your senators & reps nonstop. Give them numbers on NSF impact for state/district. tableau.external.nsf.gov/views/NSFbyN... explain this will decimate the economy if their districts, especially if it has a major research univ. 🧪

Hi Erik, can we also be added to the feed? sites.lsa.umich.edu/buttitta-lab/

Pleased to share and amplify our most recent paper. Looking at #oncogene effects in the #drosophila #prostate which is #postmitotic and #polyploid. 🧪

Love seeing the cancer cell biology collection @jcb.org! The image they went with for the cover is also pretty great 😜. rupress.org/collection/6...

Wow! This is so cool!

How does one little diploid nucleus contain all of the source for the massive amount of transcription that must take place in this cell!

If using Bloomigton #Drosophila Stock Center stocks, pls. acknowledge them & their NIH funding (P40 OD018537). Papers listing this no. are being harvested as evidence. We massively depend on the @bdsc.bsky.social & they need our support in these dire times! @flybase.bsky.social @fly-eds.bsky.social

Nobel laureate: I owe America my success. Today, its scientific future is in danger | CNN Dr. Ardem Patapoutian says he watches “with deep sadness as the United States’ remarkable scientific enterprise, which took generations of hard work and national investment to build, faces a concerted...

Published an op-ed for @cnn.com: “Nobel laureate: I owe America my success. Today, its scientific future is in danger.”
A personal reflection on what’s at stake as science funding gets slashed. I’d be grateful if you could amplify both in and beyond the science world.
www.cnn.com/2025/04/09/h...

Developmental Biology, the official journal of the SDB, publishes original research on mechanisms of development, differentiation, growth, homeostasis and regeneration in animals and plants at the molecular, cellular, genetic and evolutionary levels.

Why Publish in Developmental Biology?
1/8

Reason #1 - DB is strongly committed to supporting trainees and junior scientists. Publish your first paper with us!

DB is the official journal of the SDB @socdevbio.bsky.social

Learn more here
elsevier.com/locate/ydbio

Potent and specific genetic interference by double-stranded RNA in Caenorhabditis elegans. Nature. 1998

Developmental biology research leads to fundamental discoveries for biomedical research.
12/12

RNA Interference. Fire et al., 1998 PMID: 9486653
Worm image by Tokiko Furuta

@socdevbio.bsky.social
@rrbehringer.bsky.social

The “drosophila dress” at #dros25. (For the fly peeps - zoom in on the pattern at the neckline)

Formation and detection of RNA-DNA hybrid molecules in cytological preparations. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 1969

Developmental biology research leads to fundamental discoveries for biomedical research.
5/12

In Situ Hybridization
Gall & Pardue, 1969. PMID: 4895535
Frog image by Brandy Walker (Rachel Miller Lab)

@socdevbio.bsky.social

@rrbehringer.bsky.social

Hi Esther! Great idea! We’d like to be added please!