Sebastian Kittelmann's Avatar

Sebastian Kittelmann

@sebkittelmann.bsky.social

Research Fellow in the Centre for Functional Genomics at Oxford Brookes University, UK. Genetics, development, sequencing, Drosophila

341 Followers  |  613 Following  |  14 Posts  |  Joined: 08.11.2023  |  1.7504

Latest posts by sebkittelmann.bsky.social on Bluesky

Are you an early-stage graduate student (2nd or 3rd year) or early-stage postdoc based in the US or Canada, working primarily in Drosophila? Would you like to help improve the experience of all trainees working in Drosophila research? If so, read on.

(Please repost to reach a broad audience.)

12.11.2025 04:49 — 👍 45    🔁 86    💬 1    📌 2

Not this time, I'm afraid. Too many stories of people being detained at the border when trying to enter...

12.11.2025 07:06 — 👍 0    🔁 0    💬 0    📌 0
A table showing profit margins of major publishers. A snippet of text related to this table is below. 1. The four-fold drain 1.1 Money Currently, academic publishing is dominated by profit-oriented, multinational companies for whom scientific knowledge is a commodity to be sold back to the academic community who created it. The dominant four are Elsevier, Springer Nature, Wiley and Taylor & Francis, which collectively generated over US$7.1 billion in revenue from journal publishing in 2024 alone, and over US$12 billion in profits between 2019 and 2024 (Table 1A). Their profit margins have always been over 30% in the last five years, and for the largest publisher (Elsevier) always over 37%. Against many comparators, across many sectors, scientific publishing is one of the most consistently profitable industries (Table S1). These financial arrangements make a substantial difference to science budgets. In 2024, 46% of Elsevier revenues and 53% of Taylor & Francis revenues were generated in North America, meaning that North American researchers were charged over US$2.27 billion by just two for-profit publishers. The Canadian research councils and the US National Science Foundation were allocated US$9.3 billion in that year.

A table showing profit margins of major publishers. A snippet of text related to this table is below. 1. The four-fold drain 1.1 Money Currently, academic publishing is dominated by profit-oriented, multinational companies for whom scientific knowledge is a commodity to be sold back to the academic community who created it. The dominant four are Elsevier, Springer Nature, Wiley and Taylor & Francis, which collectively generated over US$7.1 billion in revenue from journal publishing in 2024 alone, and over US$12 billion in profits between 2019 and 2024 (Table 1A). Their profit margins have always been over 30% in the last five years, and for the largest publisher (Elsevier) always over 37%. Against many comparators, across many sectors, scientific publishing is one of the most consistently profitable industries (Table S1). These financial arrangements make a substantial difference to science budgets. In 2024, 46% of Elsevier revenues and 53% of Taylor & Francis revenues were generated in North America, meaning that North American researchers were charged over US$2.27 billion by just two for-profit publishers. The Canadian research councils and the US National Science Foundation were allocated US$9.3 billion in that year.

A figure detailing the drain on researcher time. 1. The four-fold drain 1.2 Time The number of papers published each year is growing faster than the scientific workforce, with the number of papers per researcher almost doubling between 1996 and 2022 (Figure 1A). This reflects the fact that publishers’ commercial desire to publish (sell) more material has aligned well with the competitive prestige culture in which publications help secure jobs, grants, promotions, and awards. To the extent that this growth is driven by a pressure for profit, rather than scholarly imperatives, it distorts the way researchers spend their time. The publishing system depends on unpaid reviewer labour, estimated to be over 130 million unpaid hours annually in 2020 alone (9). Researchers have complained about the demands of peer-review for decades, but the scale of the problem is now worse, with editors reporting widespread difficulties recruiting reviewers. The growth in publications involves not only the authors’ time, but that of academic editors and reviewers who are dealing with so many review demands. Even more seriously, the imperative to produce ever more articles reshapes the nature of scientific inquiry. Evidence across multiple fields shows that more papers result in ‘ossification’, not new ideas (10). It may seem paradoxical that more papers can slow progress until one considers how it affects researchers’ time. While rewards remain tied to volume, prestige, and impact of publications, researchers will be nudged away from riskier, local, interdisciplinary, and long-term work. The result is a treadmill of constant activity with limited progress whereas core scholarly practices – such as reading, reflecting and engaging with others’ contributions – is de-prioritized. What looks like productivity often masks intellectual exhaustion built on a demoralizing, narrowing scientific vision.

A figure detailing the drain on researcher time. 1. The four-fold drain 1.2 Time The number of papers published each year is growing faster than the scientific workforce, with the number of papers per researcher almost doubling between 1996 and 2022 (Figure 1A). This reflects the fact that publishers’ commercial desire to publish (sell) more material has aligned well with the competitive prestige culture in which publications help secure jobs, grants, promotions, and awards. To the extent that this growth is driven by a pressure for profit, rather than scholarly imperatives, it distorts the way researchers spend their time. The publishing system depends on unpaid reviewer labour, estimated to be over 130 million unpaid hours annually in 2020 alone (9). Researchers have complained about the demands of peer-review for decades, but the scale of the problem is now worse, with editors reporting widespread difficulties recruiting reviewers. The growth in publications involves not only the authors’ time, but that of academic editors and reviewers who are dealing with so many review demands. Even more seriously, the imperative to produce ever more articles reshapes the nature of scientific inquiry. Evidence across multiple fields shows that more papers result in ‘ossification’, not new ideas (10). It may seem paradoxical that more papers can slow progress until one considers how it affects researchers’ time. While rewards remain tied to volume, prestige, and impact of publications, researchers will be nudged away from riskier, local, interdisciplinary, and long-term work. The result is a treadmill of constant activity with limited progress whereas core scholarly practices – such as reading, reflecting and engaging with others’ contributions – is de-prioritized. What looks like productivity often masks intellectual exhaustion built on a demoralizing, narrowing scientific vision.

A table of profit margins across industries. The section of text related to this table is below: 1. The four-fold drain 1.1 Money Currently, academic publishing is dominated by profit-oriented, multinational companies for whom scientific knowledge is a commodity to be sold back to the academic community who created it. The dominant four are Elsevier, Springer Nature, Wiley and Taylor & Francis, which collectively generated over US$7.1 billion in revenue from journal publishing in 2024 alone, and over US$12 billion in profits between 2019 and 2024 (Table 1A). Their profit margins have always been over 30% in the last five years, and for the largest publisher (Elsevier) always over 37%. Against many comparators, across many sectors, scientific publishing is one of the most consistently profitable industries (Table S1). These financial arrangements make a substantial difference to science budgets. In 2024, 46% of Elsevier revenues and 53% of Taylor & Francis revenues were generated in North America, meaning that North American researchers were charged over US$2.27 billion by just two for-profit publishers. The Canadian research councils and the US National Science Foundation were allocated US$9.3 billion in that year.

A table of profit margins across industries. The section of text related to this table is below: 1. The four-fold drain 1.1 Money Currently, academic publishing is dominated by profit-oriented, multinational companies for whom scientific knowledge is a commodity to be sold back to the academic community who created it. The dominant four are Elsevier, Springer Nature, Wiley and Taylor & Francis, which collectively generated over US$7.1 billion in revenue from journal publishing in 2024 alone, and over US$12 billion in profits between 2019 and 2024 (Table 1A). Their profit margins have always been over 30% in the last five years, and for the largest publisher (Elsevier) always over 37%. Against many comparators, across many sectors, scientific publishing is one of the most consistently profitable industries (Table S1). These financial arrangements make a substantial difference to science budgets. In 2024, 46% of Elsevier revenues and 53% of Taylor & Francis revenues were generated in North America, meaning that North American researchers were charged over US$2.27 billion by just two for-profit publishers. The Canadian research councils and the US National Science Foundation were allocated US$9.3 billion in that year.

The costs of inaction are plain: wasted public funds, lost researcher time, compromised scientific integrity and eroded public trust. Today, the system rewards commercial publishers first, and science second. Without bold action from the funders we risk continuing to pour resources into a system that prioritizes profit over the advancement of scientific knowledge.

The costs of inaction are plain: wasted public funds, lost researcher time, compromised scientific integrity and eroded public trust. Today, the system rewards commercial publishers first, and science second. Without bold action from the funders we risk continuing to pour resources into a system that prioritizes profit over the advancement of scientific knowledge.

We wrote the Strain on scientific publishing to highlight the problems of time & trust. With a fantastic group of co-authors, we present The Drain of Scientific Publishing:

a 🧵 1/n

Drain: arxiv.org/abs/2511.04820
Strain: direct.mit.edu/qss/article/...
Oligopoly: direct.mit.edu/qss/article/...

11.11.2025 11:52 — 👍 263    🔁 201    💬 2    📌 23

Do apply for this position - Ben is a fantastic person and a top-notch scientist. #STEMjobs #postdocjobs

11.11.2025 14:42 — 👍 3    🔁 0    💬 1    📌 0
Junior European Drosophila Investigators | Home A simple website based on [*folio](https://github.com/bogoli/-folio) design.

Hi folks,

Check out our updated website!
Details on next year's conference will be posted there soon!

fly-jedi.org

05.11.2025 13:42 — 👍 5    🔁 5    💬 1    📌 0
AI-generated image of a lightsaber-wielding figure conquering Portugal.

AI-generated image of a lightsaber-wielding figure conquering Portugal.

Preparations for the next JEDI meeting are underway! The upcoming Junior European #Drosophila Investigator / #NewPI meeting is planned for Portugal in June. Final dates and additional details will be announced soon - stay tuned for updates!​

28.10.2025 22:13 — 👍 18    🔁 13    💬 1    📌 2
Preview
Labs in bacterial immunity

Hi everyone, a few years ago, we started a list of labs studying bacterial immunty for students, editors, conference organizers... (currently n=79).

Update time ! Send me a message to 1) add your lab or others 2) Correct info
docs.google.com/spreadsheets...
#Phagesky #Microsky

04.11.2025 15:06 — 👍 66    🔁 42    💬 12    📌 0
Post image Post image

Hey #Drosophila: need to dissect and look a bit more closely, but do these puncta seem like an obvious pattern for a set of nerves, or resemble some sort of expression pattern in the brain (especially looking at the sort of Y-shape near the eye). Also thorax?
GenesOfInterest-GAL4>mCD8::RFP here 🔬

21.10.2025 10:55 — 👍 4    🔁 2    💬 2    📌 1
Preview
LondonEvoDevo meeting's website

Come join the #LondonEvoDevo network half day meeting, hosted at @ucl.ac.uk on Friday November 7th, 2025. Submit your abstract by Oct 27th (or your interest in joining) here: forms.gle/TRbdrCkQTcY2.... Friendly vibes and free registration. More info here: londonevodevo.co.uk.

20.10.2025 13:42 — 👍 18    🔁 16    💬 0    📌 0

Welcome to Bluesky, European Drosophila Population Genomics Consortium @droseu.bsky.social.

We've added you to the Model Organism Research Resources starter pack go.bsky.app/Npxsd7h

19.10.2025 16:02 — 👍 6    🔁 4    💬 0    📌 1
Post image Post image

We are in Bluesky and we are happy to share our two last consortium publications: the DrosEU expanded DEST dataset and a Continent-wide study of phenotypic differentiation among European #Drosophila melanogaster populations (1/7)

19.10.2025 09:34 — 👍 47    🔁 35    💬 2    📌 3
Preview
Epigenetics and Gene Regulation in Health and Disease: Linking Basic Mechanisms with Therapeutic Opportunities | Keystone Symposia Join us at the Keystone Symposia on Epigenetics and Gene Regulation in Health and Disease: Linking Basic Mechanisms with Therapeutic Opportunities, March 2026, in Geneva, with field leaders!

Come join us in Geneva for everything epigenetics and gene regulation. It will be a great meeting! Please repost!
www.keystonesymposia.org/conferences/...

17.10.2025 14:36 — 👍 42    🔁 27    💬 1    📌 0
Preview
How to Turn Off AI Tools Like Gemini, Apple Intelligence, Copilot, and More via @ConsumerReports AI features are crowding into Google search, Gmail, iPhones, Windows laptops, and other products. If you're suffering from AI overload, these settings can help.

oooh. Bookmarking this! "How to turn off AI tools in Apple, Google, Microsoft, and more." Step-by-step instructions from Consumer Reports.

15.10.2025 20:53 — 👍 5107    🔁 3101    💬 42    📌 44
Atmospheric evening view of Bristol and the Clifton suspension bridge. Adobe Stock c Stephen Davies

Atmospheric evening view of Bristol and the Clifton suspension bridge. Adobe Stock c Stephen Davies

🎉 Big news! 🎉

We will be moving to @bristolbiosci.bsky.social @bristoluni.bsky.social in 2026!!

We're so excited to be joining such a dynamic and thriving department, university, and city - thank you to everyone who has already been so welcoming!

📢 But that's not all - come and join us! 👇

17.10.2025 13:25 — 👍 35    🔁 9    💬 3    📌 2

Exciting times ahead - I'm beyond delighted to be joining @bristolbiosci.bsky.social in 2026! 🎉🕷️🎉🐌🎉

I'm also looking for a PhD student to join @multipleye-lab.bsky.social in our new home! Come and study the effects of light pollution on the evolution and development of spider eyes with us 🌃🕷️👀 👇

17.10.2025 13:38 — 👍 65    🔁 26    💬 9    📌 3
Preview
Promoter-proximal gatekeepers restrict pleiotropic enhancer inputs to achieve tissue specificity Developmental enhancers are central regulatory elements that can activate multiple genes, yet how they selectively regulate one gene over its neighbours remains unclear. Using the Drosophila twist E3 ...

Ever wondered what drives enhancer-promoter specificity? Why would an enhancer activate one gene rather than another neighboring one?

Check our latest preprint, led by @mmasoura.bsky.social, to find out!
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

16.10.2025 12:33 — 👍 99    🔁 41    💬 2    📌 5
FlyBase Update – October 2025 The termination of the NIH/NHGRI FlyBase grant has placed the long-term sustainability of FlyBase at risk. However, thanks to the generous support of several key individuals and institutions, we are pleased to announce that FlyBase will remain operational through the coming year. We extend our deepest gratitude to Yukiko Yamashita, Cassandra Extavour, Hugo Bellen, Thom Kaufman, the Genetics Society of America / Drosophila Board, the Bloomington Drosophila Stock Center, an anonymous donor and the Wellcome Trust. We are especially thankful for a generous gift from Seemay Chou, Jed McCaleb, and The Navigation Fund. We also greatly appreciate the continued support from the broader Drosophila community – your donations and service fees have been vital in helping us stay afloat. Special thanks also go to Jessica Manning for her tireless administrative work at Harvard, to Ruth Lehmann, Hugo Bellen, and Paul Sternberg for advice and efforts, and to the Board of the European Drosophila Society for all their efforts. Sadly, we must also share that several long-standing FlyBase team members have recently moved on. We are immensely grateful to Susan Russo-Gelbart, Lynn Crosby, Gil dos Santos, Kris Broll, Victoria Jenkins, and TyAnna Lovato for their many years of dedicated service and contributions to FlyBase. Looking ahead, ensuring FlyBase’s sustainability beyond the next year – and successfully integrating with the Alliance – will require new funding sources. We kindly ask for your continued support: • European labs: Please consider contributing to the Cambridge, U.K. FlyBase group • U.S. and other non-European labs: Please consider contributing to the U.S. FlyBase groups • Both U.K. and U.S. FlyBase are working diligently to establish an invoicing system. We appreciate your continued patience. For more information on how to support us, please visit: Contribute to FlyBase wiki page https://wiki.flybase.org/wiki/FlyBase:Contribute_to_FlyBase

FlyBase Update – October 2025 The termination of the NIH/NHGRI FlyBase grant has placed the long-term sustainability of FlyBase at risk. However, thanks to the generous support of several key individuals and institutions, we are pleased to announce that FlyBase will remain operational through the coming year. We extend our deepest gratitude to Yukiko Yamashita, Cassandra Extavour, Hugo Bellen, Thom Kaufman, the Genetics Society of America / Drosophila Board, the Bloomington Drosophila Stock Center, an anonymous donor and the Wellcome Trust. We are especially thankful for a generous gift from Seemay Chou, Jed McCaleb, and The Navigation Fund. We also greatly appreciate the continued support from the broader Drosophila community – your donations and service fees have been vital in helping us stay afloat. Special thanks also go to Jessica Manning for her tireless administrative work at Harvard, to Ruth Lehmann, Hugo Bellen, and Paul Sternberg for advice and efforts, and to the Board of the European Drosophila Society for all their efforts. Sadly, we must also share that several long-standing FlyBase team members have recently moved on. We are immensely grateful to Susan Russo-Gelbart, Lynn Crosby, Gil dos Santos, Kris Broll, Victoria Jenkins, and TyAnna Lovato for their many years of dedicated service and contributions to FlyBase. Looking ahead, ensuring FlyBase’s sustainability beyond the next year – and successfully integrating with the Alliance – will require new funding sources. We kindly ask for your continued support: • European labs: Please consider contributing to the Cambridge, U.K. FlyBase group • U.S. and other non-European labs: Please consider contributing to the U.S. FlyBase groups • Both U.K. and U.S. FlyBase are working diligently to establish an invoicing system. We appreciate your continued patience. For more information on how to support us, please visit: Contribute to FlyBase wiki page https://wiki.flybase.org/wiki/FlyBase:Contribute_to_FlyBase

There's an update on the state of FlyBase on the FlyBase.org front page. You can contribute to FlyBase at this link wiki.flybase.org/wiki/FlyBase...
We express enormous gratitude to the people, labs, groups, and foundations who have already helped us.
#FlyBase #Drosophila

03.10.2025 18:19 — 👍 46    🔁 42    💬 1    📌 1

Some of you reached out after seeing this post and it has led to some promising leads! A re-up for this week in case someone with louse samples hasn't seen it yet! Many thanks and I'm happy to answer questions!
🧪

29.09.2025 18:34 — 👍 22    🔁 17    💬 0    📌 0
Post image

And, that's a wrap! The #PopGen and #Evolution session at #EDRC2025 just ended. Great talks from Divyansh Mittal from @bentonlab.bsky.social, Virginie Curtier-Orgogozo, Paco Majic @hhydrochaerus.bsky.social, and Alexandra Ozerova. A pleasure to co-chair the session with Thomas Flatt!

28.09.2025 09:48 — 👍 25    🔁 3    💬 0    📌 0

Thank you to all #EDRC2025 participants and a big applause to the organizing committee for this great #Drosophila meeting! See you all in Bonn for #EDRC2027

28.09.2025 16:00 — 👍 41    🔁 9    💬 0    📌 0

Dear JEDIs,
as we are self-organizing using the #EDRC as a nucleator we decided it is time for a JEDI database to boost our network! If you identify as a JEDI, please contact us here or send a mail to katja.rust@uni-marburg.de to be added to our database.
#Drosophila
@fly-eds.bsky.social

26.09.2025 15:43 — 👍 33    🔁 28    💬 4    📌 1
Preview
A Balanced Inversion Polymorphism Exhibits a Dominance Reversal at the Gene Expression Level that Depends on Developmental Context Abstract. How genetic variance for fitness is maintained is incompletely understood. Mutation-selection balance and single-locus overdominance cannot accou

Mitchell, @sebkittelmann.bsky.social et al. study how an inversion polymorphism in D. melanogaster affects gene expression and chromatin accessibility. Results are consistent with a role for shifts of dominance in maintaining inversion polymorphism.

🔗 doi.org/10.1093/molbev/msaf209

#evobio #molbio

17.09.2025 14:58 — 👍 4    🔁 2    💬 0    📌 0
Post image

Long time no see...But we are back with a real firework 🎆. Join us tomorrow at noon for the first #Goenomix talk of the semester by Cassandra Extavour from Havard University. Talk: "One two three: developmental counting mechanisms in reproductive output and evolution". PM for Zoom details.

17.09.2025 07:48 — 👍 9    🔁 3    💬 1    📌 0
Research Associate - Neuroscience Research Group (Fixed Term) Post Doctoral Research Associate in Neuroscience (Fixed Term) Are you excited by the mechanisms of neurotransmission and behaviour and looking for a new opportunity? We are looking for an

Are you interested in uncovering how the tiny C. elegans nervous system uses complex dopaminergic signalling to control behaviours? If so check out our new postdoc position, applications are now open: www.cam.ac.uk/jobs/researc...

13.09.2025 08:55 — 👍 4    🔁 4    💬 0    📌 0
Postdoctoral Research Fellow An exciting opportunity has arisen to join the Emmerson lab within the Institute for Regeneration and Repair at the University of Edinburgh. This three year, BBSRC-funded postdoctoral research associa...

I am advertising for a #postdoc for a 3 year BBSRC-funded project exploring the role of macrophages in salivary gland development. The successful candidate will be based at @edinuni-irr.bsky.social at @uni-of-edinburgh.bsky.social. Closing date: 9th Oct. elxw.fa.em3.oraclecloud.com/hcmUI/Candid...

13.09.2025 08:58 — 👍 17    🔁 21    💬 0    📌 3
Preview
A balanced inversion polymorphism exhibits a dominance reversal at the gene expression level that depends on developmental context Abstract. How genetic variance for fitness is maintained is incompletely understood. Mutation-selection balance and single-locus overdominance cannot accou

Very happy to announce that my collaboration with Thomas Flatt and his fantastic ex-postdocs Esra and Envel has been published: doi.org/10.1093/molb... We show that a chomosomal inversion in flies controls the genome-wide expression profile in a context-dependent manner.

03.09.2025 06:58 — 👍 1    🔁 0    💬 0    📌 0
Post image

Calling #Drosophila #grad students #postdoc and #pretenure #faculty to participate in FlyCROSS and be matched by a #mentor of your preferences to gain guidance to your unique needs !
#genetics #dros25 #phdlife

@flybase.bsky.social @bdsc.bsky.social

06.12.2024 16:37 — 👍 30    🔁 42    💬 2    📌 2
Preview
Assessing the impact of whole genome duplication on gene expression and regulation during arachnid development Whole genome duplication (WGD) generates new genetic material that can contribute to the evolution of the regulation of developmental processes and phenotypic diversification. A WGD occurred in an anc...

New preprint from our lab. Great work by @maaseremedios.bsky.social in collaboration with Ralf Janssen looking at gene regulation and expression after whole genome duplication by comparing a spider and harvestman:
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

21.12.2024 13:53 — 👍 24    🔁 11    💬 0    📌 2

Let's try this BlueSky !

A dedicated account to highlight the #womeninSTEM and to give them the visibility they deserve.

Objective: 1,000 portraits of women scientists from all fields, all nationalities and all time periods.

16.10.2023 13:16 — 👍 74    🔁 28    💬 5    📌 0
Preview
Nigel Groome Studentship: Gene Regulatory Networks Driving Male-Female Genital Co-evolution at Oxford Brookes University Discover a PhD Studentship: Nigel Groome Studentship: Gene Regulatory Networks Driving Male-Female Genital Co-evolution Explore more PhD opportunities and apply today!

My colleague Dani Nunes and I are advertising a PhD position at Oxford Brookes. If you're interested in the molecular basis of evolution, gene regulation, sc-seq, CRISPR, and (yes) genital morphology (in flies), check it out: tinyurl.com/2zutha8c #STEMjobs 🧪

05.12.2024 17:26 — 👍 2    🔁 1    💬 0    📌 0

@sebkittelmann is following 20 prominent accounts