Deepa Rajan

Help us record firefly flashes! 👇🙏

Our research on wound resistance in Stentor is live on bioRxiv! Tldr; we squeezed the cells through microfluidic constrictions and the formidable lead author Rajorshi Paul characterized what makes the cells get wounded!

thank you!!

Our paper on single-cell learning is now published in
@currentbiology.bsky.social!
@wallaceucsf.bsky.social

sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

Stentor in Every School: t.co/2AalQ8y91l

I'm leading a program at the Exploratorium @exploratorium.bsky.social this weekend! Come check out "Mini Microbe Missions", an opportunity for kids (and adults) to do citizen science using the single cell Stentor coeruleus, supported by our Stentor in Every School initiative t.co/VX8r9BHxsJ

Went to a wonderful reunion for the birthday of dear friend and colleague Gerd Blobel yesterday. In the end, it’s funny how all the papers and grants fade away and the main thing you remember are the people.

Marines with Skin Condition Affecting Mostly Black Men Could Now Be Booted Under New Policy A new Marine Corps policy says troops with a genetic skin condition that can cause pain and scarring from shaving and mainly affects Black men can be separated if the health issue persists.

pete hegseth carrying out his effort to resegregate the military www.military.com/daily-news/2...

channeled my inner Joan Baez at the Stand Up for Science protest today

G-quadruplex–stalled eukaryotic replisome structure reveals helical inchworm DNA translocation DNA G-quadruplexes (G4s) are non–B-form DNA secondary structures that threaten genome stability by impeding DNA replication. To elucidate how G4s induce replication fork arrest, we characterized fork ...

I am so proud to share a major part of my graduate school research, published today in Science, where we use cell-free replication assays and cryo-EM to describe a central mechanism of eukaryotic DNA replication:

www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

When your kids ask you what you did to save US science in the crisis of ‘25, you will say that you showed up! Please spread the word and join us!!
@standupforscience.bsky.social

For those who aren't biologists: This is a biosafety cabinet. Every biomedical research lab in the country has one or more of these bio safety cabinets. They use air flow to protect cells from contamination by bacteria and fungal spores while you are working with them.

Today they went nuclear.

Imagine all firefighters were told "You all still have salaries, but as of today the government will no longer pay for building maintenance, firetruck maintenance and repair, hydrant upkeep, or admin assistants."

That's what they're doing to US universities.

transcription people: are there examples where a transcriptional program gets re-set by cell division?

you know what *is* available. TiK ToK by kesha

Squid primary cell culture as a model system and experimental tool Squid primary cells from various tissues and ages are isolated, maintained in culture, and express exogenous genes. This protocol opens up numerous opportunities in molecular biology, neuroscience, an...

HNY! In case you thought 2025 is the year of the snake, it's actually the year of the SQUID 🦑 Excited to present this new protocol paper from the @brangwynnelab.bsky.social on isolating+transfecting squid primary cells 🧫✨! Check it out here: www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

yes was so great to meet you in person!!

I brought live Stentor cells with me on the train and have regaled a few fellow passengers with tales of this mysterious giant cell that can learn #scicomm

after a week in Chicago for the Biological Systems that Learn workshop @nitmb.bsky.social, I've been traveling back to SF via train over ~55 hours. Today is Day 3 on Amtrak for me and I've never experienced more scenic backdrops for working on a manuscript

love learning about the neurobiology of the two genders (lordosis and aggression) 🫠

2x Preprint drop!!! Mitochondrial pearling has arrived!
“The Biophysical Mechanism of Mitochondrial Pearling”.
“Pearling Drives Mitochondrial DNA Nucleoid Distribution” 1/10
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

Mitochondria consist of networks of cylindrical tubes, right? Not necessarily! - in our new preprint, @gavsturm.bsky.social investigates how mitochondria transiently adopt a beads-on-a-string morphology

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

Delighted to share our new preprint on the cell biology and genome of Stentor pyriformis, a giant ciliate that maintains Chlorella endosymbionts in surface-associated microtubule baskets.

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

2024 Current Biology dispatch article

if it's behind a paywall for you, here's the pdf: online.fliphtml5.com/UCSFcellbio/...

check out my new dispatch article with
@wallaceucsf.bsky.social in @currentbiology.bsky.social
about cellular cognition! www.cell.com/current-biol...

If you are at ASCB and you missed the poster by @DeepaRajan about the molecular substrates of memory in the single cell Stentor, its not too late - you can see her talk tomorrow (Tue Dec 17) at 5:35 pm in Ballroom 20A

putting the final touches on my #ASCB2024 talk in sunny San Diego while my Stentor cheer me on

thank you Rikki!!

I also brought some live Stentor with me on the plane along with a portable microscope if you want to see them up close! Stentor plushie made by lab mate Connie Yan

If you're at #ASCB2024 and want to learn more about my research on learning in single cells, please come to my talk "Probing the molecular substrates of memory in the single cell Stentor coeruleus" at 5:35 pm today!