Hypothesis Fund

So excited to participate in this panel discussing the history and future of #PalaeoPERCS and the amazing, inclusive, and absolutely brilliant international community of early career pal(a)eo scientists! Please join us at 15:00 UTC today for this really important discussion!

5/5 Awardee @chuchuzhang.bsky.social explores how different body states (eg, pregnancy) may change what neurons sense & how they respond. Her work may lead to new ways to address nausea associated w/ pregnancy🤰 & chemo.
🍾Congrats Dr. Zhang! @dgsomucla.bsky.social
🙏 #HFScout @pipethero.bsky.social

4/ How do the most abundant photosynthetic organisms on 🌎 combat viral infection? Awardee Alex Meeske's project may lead to discoveries in bacterial warfare important for ecological challenges, such as harmful algal blooms.
🎉Congrats Dr. Meeske! @UW
🙏 #HFScout Joseph Mougous

3/ Using a novel approach to study regulatory proteins at scale, Awardee Christian Cuba Samaniego hypothesizes that time⏰ is a key factor in cellular reprogramming-a process critical to tissue repair & regeneration.
🎉Congrats Dr. Cuba Samaniego! @scsatcmu.bsky.social
🙏#HFScout @drkhaynes.bsky.social

2/ Awardee Eva Dyer is investigating the computational rules that shape how 🧠 cells process information. Her non-invasive approach may open the door for future research on difficult-to-study brain regions or disorders.
🥳Congrats Dr. Dyer! @pennengineering.bsky.social
🙏 #HFScout Kay Tye

📣 Bold science alert! We're thrilled to announce our newest awardees whose projects span neuroscience, bacteriology, & synthetic biology. Join us in celebrating them as we showcase their research projects below!

Meet all of our awardees: bit.ly/HFAwardees. 1/

In the final episode of The Leap, Oceanographer Victoria Orphan (center) and her colleagues embark on one of the deepest science dives ever. Then, things start going awry.

Explore *the entire* 10-part series now, from @hypothesisfund.bsky.social and SciFri: buff.ly/5lNhOmV

🌊New Episode 🌊 @caltech.edu oceanographer & @hypothesisfund.bsky.social scientific advisor Victoria Orphan was in the #Alvin submersible on her deepest dive yet... when the sub started misbehaving. A deep sea dive you’ll never forget on The Leap👇

@drkhaynes.bsky.social isn’t trying to fit in. Like when she was invited to a scientific conference & decided to bring a 3’x4’ stretched canvas & live-paint her poster🎨. Listen to her story on The Leap (HF + @scifri.bsky.social): www.sciencefriday.com/segments/eve...

📷: @phylogenomics.bsky.social

I am deeply honored & moved to have my story featured in The Leap from NPR Science Friday. It’s a story about being a multi-layered STEM outlier (identity & technical approach) and a testament to the power of support from #STEMdads and #STEMparents @scifri.bsky.social @hypothesisfund.bsky.social

Hypothesis Fund Scout Karmella Haynes (@drkhaynes.bsky.social) is working on the cutting edge of the cutting edge. And that’s not an easy place to be.

Listen to the latest episode of The Leap!

Mars? It Was A Miracle We Got To Florida Geologist Steve Squyres risked his career and millions of dollars to get the Spirit and Opportunity rovers on Mars.

When the world thinks your project is impossible, how do you keep going? Listen to Steve Squyres talk about his bumpy ride to Mars on The Leap (from @hypothesisfund.bsky.social , via @scifri.bsky.social ):
www.sciencefriday.com/segments/mar...

🔴🚀 New episode of The Leap! 💫
Spirit and Opportunity, the first rovers to explore Mars’s surface, almost didn’t leave the launchpad. “There were so many times when I thought ‘This is it, it’s over.’”
--Steve Squyres

Listen below!

Berkeley Public Health’s Filipa Rijo-Ferreira wins prestigious Howard Hughes Medical Institute award for outstanding early career faculty The award is given to early career faculty who have the potential to become leaders in their fields.

🍾Congrats to HF Awardee Filipa Rijo-Ferreira for being named a @hhmi.org Freeman Hrabowski Scholar! As a proud early supporter of her malaria + circadian rhythms research, we can't wait for the discoveries she makes next! We're celebrating w/ you, Filipa! 🥳 publichealth.berkeley.edu/articles/spo...

You Do Realize… That’s Impossible Physicist Suchitra Sebastian may have discovered a new state of matter. But the hardest part was convincing the doubters.

“A hypothesis requires a certain amount of madness.” 💫😵‍💫
--Piers Coleman (of Rutgers-Newark) dropping gems on this episode of The Leap, from @hypothesisfund.bsky.social & @scifri.bsky.social .

🎧 Listen here: www.sciencefriday.com/segments/you...

Grateful for the @hypothesisfund.bsky.social and excited for more cool science!

Physicist Suchitra Sebastian might have discovered a new state of matter. The hardest part may be convincing the doubters.

Hear about her "impossible" finding and career in Ep. 7 of "The Leap." By @hypothesisfund.bsky.social‬ + ‪SciFri: buff.ly/kfMkYkM

Garbage In, Garbage Out Biochemist Virginia Man-Yee Lee has spent her career unlocking the proteins involved in neurodegenerative diseases. Her secret? Happiness.

Virginia Man-Yee Lee began her life on the side of the road in China. She went on to win the Breakthrough Prize for huge discoveries in the field of neurodegeneration.

Listen to her journey on The Leap, by @hypothesisfund.bsky.social + @scifri.bsky.social: www.sciencefriday.com/segments/gar...

I am so grateful to @hypothesisfund.bsky.social for this honor. I am excited about the work we will be doing to decode the decisions that cells make:
Should they stay or should they go? Phenomenal to be chosen alongside @drstarbird.bsky.social! 🤩 #DevBio #CellBio #NeuralCrest

I am SO excited to receive this award and even more so to receive it along with @rogerslabucd.bsky.social!!!Congrats to all of the awardees and thank you for your support! We look forward to putting this award to work! 🙏🏾🎉

5/ #DYK that microbes from the deep ocean 🌊 can make their own food without the sun? Awardee Elaine Luo (@oceanmicrobes.bsky.social) will study how these organisms carry out that process, and how they shape our global carbon cycle 🌍.
🥳 Congrats Dr. Luo!
🙏 #HFScout Angel White

4/ Can a cell's skeleton carry instructions that guide when cells should stick together vs move💨? Awardee @rogerslabucd.bsky.social aims to decode how cells transform in a process critical for development & cancer.
🥂Congrats Dr. Rogers! @ucdavisvetmed.bsky.social
🙏 #HFScout @drkhaynes.bsky.social

3/ How do respiratory viruses penetrate the layer of protein meshwork that protects our airways🫁? Awardee Michael Vahey uses a novel approach to study viral entry of these cellular structures w/ unprecedented detail!
🎉 Congrats Dr. Vahey!
🙏 #HFScout Jeanne Stachowiak

2/ How do viruses spread w/o bursting💥 & killing host cells? Awardee @drstarbird.bsky.social aims to discover the mechanisms of an understudied driver of viral spread-which could change the future of virology research!
🍾Congrats Dr. Starbird! @unc-bcbp.bsky.social
🙏 #HFScout @harmitmalik.bsky.social

🌠 Announcing our latest awardees! 🤩 These talented scientists are uncovering how viruses infect cells, decoding cell behavior, and exploring the hidden biology in the ocean: bit.ly/HFAwardees.

Meet the awardees & hear about their bold projects from our #HFScouts 👇 /1

Illustration of Biochemist Virginia Man-Yee Lee

Biochemist Virginia Man-Yee Lee has made key discoveries about neurodegenerative diseases. Her secret? Happiness. “If you’re not happy, you don’t know what you’re capable of.”

Hear about her career in Ep. 6 of “The Leap.” By @hypothesisfund.bsky.social + @scifri.bsky.social‬: buff.ly/HMj3Dno

🤩 Beautiful video capturing Hypothesis Fund Awardee @betulland.bsky.social's research on Earth's ancient microbes! We're a proud early supporter of this pioneering research, and can't wait to see what Betül discovers next! 💫

YouTube video by Pajau Vangay On a boat with Manu Prakash for The Leap

"You can spend a lifetime on a boat looking at stuff, and you're still looking at new stuff every single day."
--Manu Prakash @prakashlab.bsky.social

Hear more about Manu's quest to meet every organism on 🌎 on The Leap, by HF + @scifri.bsky.social.
🎧 bit.ly/3ZVYUtW

youtu.be/iG60FtvhmgU

2025 LIFE RCN Seminar Series Episode 1: Dr. Rogier Braakman — LIFE Research Coordination Network On June 10th, 2025, at 8AM PDT/11AM EDT, the LIFE RCN will be excited to introduce Dr. Rogier Braakman, a research scientist at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and an adjunct scientist at Th...

Excited to give a virtual seminar in the NASA LIFE RCN series next Tuesday June 10th, at 8am PST/11am EST.

I'll be talking about the Chitin Raft Hypothesis and the rise of planktonic marine cyanobacteria.

🧪🦠⚒️🌐 #Paleobio #MEvoSky #MicroSky

www.lifercn.org/events/2025-...

Today's new episode of The Leap features Stanford bioengineer, @macfound.org genius, #HFScout Manu Prakash (@prakashlab.bsky.social ). Take a listen below 👇