Juan Carvajal Garcia

That's great! Congrats!

This wouldn't have been possible without the many mentors and colleagues that I have accumulated over the years, I feel so much gratitude to you all. Now, time to do the work and get some cool data!

It feels wild to post this, given the state of things, but I just got the NoA for my first NIH grant ever, a K99/R00 award from the NIEHS! I will be studying the role of bacterial error-prone DNA polymerases in mutagenesis and the evolution of antibiotic resistance.

I’m so happy to share a project very close to my ❤️ launching this September: Atlas de Científicxs Latinoamericanxs que Inspiran ✨
We’re currently collecting nominations!
This atlas spotlights researchers from LATAM who trained in the North & returned home to lead labs. Here’s why this matters 🧵👇

Una selectividad más compleja no logra bajar las desorbitadas notas de acceso a la universidad El número de solicitudes ha vuelto a crecer, aumentando la competencia, de forma que el ingreso está al alcance de pocos en muchos grados

Creo que estamos confundiendo a nuestra juventud con una oferta a todas luces excesiva de grados con nombres a cual más atractivo, cuando en realidad deberíamos apostar por grados genéricos y transversales, dejando la especialización para el máster y tesis. #biología 💪
elpais.com/educacion/20...

Recognizing the importance of language accessibility in science and scientific communication, I have translated this work into Spanish. You can find the Spanish translation in Supplementary file 3!

Bacteriophage infection drives loss of β-lactam resistance in methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus In methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus, evolution of bacteriophage resistance causes trade-offs that re-sensitize the bacteriato β-lactam antibiotics.

I'm excited to announced that the version of record of this article is out in @elife.bsky.social. With the other first coauthor My Tran, we found that phage resistance cause reduced beta-lactam resistance and reduced virulence phenotypes in diverse MRSA strains.

elifesciences.org/articles/102...

🦠 El pasado viernes contamos en el @ipblncsic.bsky.social con la visita de @jucarvag.bsky.social investigador en la Universidad de Vanderbilt para hablarnos sobre los mecanismos moleculares implicados en la evolución y aparición de #resistencia a #antibióticos en bacterias💊

¡Muchas gracias!👏

On the shoulders of giants

24 years waiting…just a few seconds more…

Really proud of PhD Candidate Carl Stone, advocating for science and scientific funding by wiring this opinion piece for his hometown newspaper in Minnesota.

Vanderbilt University Medical Center to lay off up to 650 after Trump administration grant cuts • Tennessee Lookout Vanderbilt University Medical Center, expects to lay off 650 employees as a result of grant and funding cuts by the Trump Administration,

Vanderbilt University Medical Center, one of the largest academic research and hospital care systems in the southeast, expects to lay off 650 employees as a result of grant and other funding cuts made by the Trump Administration, it said in a statement. From @anitawadhwani.bsky.social.

A collage featuring materials related to the 1925 Scopes Trial. The main panel reads “1925 Scopes Trial” with a brief description of the trial’s origins in Dayton, Tennessee. Two historic newspaper clippings are overlaid. One headline reads “Science Academy’s Brief Quotes Two Vandy Professors,” referring to their support of evolution in the trial. Another reads “Evolution Bill Backward Step,” noting Dr. E.E. Reinke of Vanderbilt opposing anti-evolution legislation.

A collage of clippings and photos related to Scopes Trial history. At top left, a photo of John Scopes and Clarence Darrow in 1925. At top right, a man points to the Tennessee historical marker for the Scopes Trial. Center right is a newspaper article announcing Scopes’ 1960 talk at Peabody College. Bottom left features a poster for a 2005 play adaptation starring Ed Asner and John de Lancie, based on the Scopes Trial. Bottom right is a continuation of a newspaper article discussing free speech and minority rights, referencing Vanderbilt events and speakers.

📢 Headed to #Evol2025? Before Saturday afternoon’s Scopes Trial sessions, swing by our booth! Come learn about Vanderbilt's role... and what we’re doing now! #ScopesTrial #ScopesSwag

Hágase

Bioenergetic stress potentiates antimicrobial resistance and persistence - Nature Communications The bactericidal action of some antibiotics is associated with increased ATP consumption, cellular respiration, and reactive oxygen species formation. Here, Li et al. show that constitutive hydrolysis...

Awesome paper from Jason Yang's lab!
www.nature.com/articles/s41...

RNA transcripts regulate G-quadruplex landscapes through G-loop formation G-quadruplexes (G4s) are prevalent DNA structures that regulate transcription but also threaten genome stability. How G4 dynamics are controlled remains poorly understood. Here, we report that RNA tra...

Excited our paper is out! G-quadruplex (G4) unwinding via an intricate G-loop assembly and disassembly mechanism maintains genome integrity. Pioneered by Koichi Sato with great collaborators Jing Lyu and @simonelsasser.bsky.social Check it out: www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.adr0493 🧵(1/4)

YouTube video by Javi Robles Javi Robles - Vamos Real Oviedo (VÍDEO OFICIAL)

www.youtube.com/watch?v=NsSU...

How many paths lead to evolutionary innovation? How versatile are genomic toolkits? Excited to announce my new @pnas.org paper addressing these questions in collaboration with @rokaslab.bsky.social, @hittingerlab.bsky.social, and the Pennell lab!

www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...

Split-image promoting the Scopes Trial Centennial Symposium and ISEMPH Conference. Left side: a black-and-white photo of John Scopes in a straw hat, glasses, and tie, representing the 1925 trial. Right side: a color photo of a gloved hand using a micropipette to fill test tubes in a lab setting, symbolizing modern scientific research. The contrast highlights the enduring relevance of science and evolution in public discourse.

What do monkey trials, pandemics & climate change have in common? This July, Vanderbilt becomes the epicenter of science, #history & #evolution. #Scopes100 #ISEMPH2025 @ncse.bsky.social @evmed.bsky.social https://loom.ly/aSQj4PQ

Are there going to be positions in the fall for tenure-track Assistant Professors? (Cell biology, reproductive biology, molecular biology, genetics...)

Asking for a friend. Well, myself and a lot of my fellow postdoc friends.

We are not

www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
new preprint on predicting antifungal drug resistance in yeasts is out!

Ontogeny of the vagal gut-brain axis Gut-brain communication is a key component of homeostasis which regulates behaviors such as appetite and reward. Intestinal entero-endocrine cells (EECs) translate nutrient intake into signals which a...

First Bluesky post! I'm excited to share a preprint from my postdoctoral work where we 1) define the developmental mechanisms guiding formation of a vagal gut-brain circuit and 2) discover that this circuit regulates much more than just appetite. www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

Un 7% de los aficionados del FC Barcelona verán así el partido de semifinales de la Champions, debido a su #daltonismo
Los equipos de fútbol deberían tener en cuenta esto antes de jugar con una camiseta verde claro sobre el césped verde. Simulación obtenida con #simdaltonism

Repost w/ correct link!
The Dept of Human Genetics at the Univeristy of Utah is hosting a Rising Stars in Genetics & Genomics postdoc symposium. We are looking to feature postdocs doing cool science! Please self nominate or nominate an excellent postdoc! #ASHGtrainees docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1F...

Oído durante un paseo de 7,5 kilómetros, de la oscuridad a la luz, la tarde del apagón: “España es un país de la hostia” Una caminata de vuelta a casa por la calle de Alcalá, la más larga de Madrid, con comentarios de todo tipo

Pedro Zuazua, como siempre, el mejor
elpais.com/espana/madri...

The Department of Human Genetics at the University of Utah is sponsoring the Rising Stars in Genetics and Genomics symposium!

- We are seeking nominations bu June 1.
- September 18-19, 2025
- Please share with the star postdocs that you know.

docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1F...

i'm just a senior postdoc, standing in front of a career that i have worked really hard for, asking higher education in the united states to not completely implode in front of my eyes before i even get a chance to say the words 'my lab studies'

In developing embryos, cells move a lot! Plenty of that movement is random. Is random cell mixing a feature or bug for tissue patterning? Turns out, it’s both! Excited to share the 1st preprint from my postdoc w/ Sean Megason @seanemcgeary.bsky.social and Allon Klein. 1/20 doi.org/10.1101/2025...

Huge congratulations to my @uncchapelhill.bsky.social colleague Bob Goldstein for being elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. Bob is a brilliant developmental biologist who works on #Celegans, & on tardigrades (water bears). As if that's not enough, he's an amazing artist too!