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Alex Pike

@alexpike.bsky.social

assistant prof at Oberlin College 🧬 dna replication, biochemistry, telomeres, naps πŸ‘©β€πŸ”¬ she/her https://sites.google.com/oberlin.edu/alexpike/research

536 Followers  |  701 Following  |  15 Posts  |  Joined: 18.12.2023  |  1.8804

Latest posts by alexpike.bsky.social on Bluesky

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Proteins are dynamic structures, but structural biology often shows them as static snapshots. Inspired by long-exposure photography and generative art, I built ProteinCHAOS, an artistic tool inspired by molecular dynamics to capture protein flexibility over time, much like long-exposure images.

23.11.2025 23:18 β€” πŸ‘ 76    πŸ” 20    πŸ’¬ 5    πŸ“Œ 0

my amazement with the technology surpasses my annoyance with my past self for not sequencing this plasmid sooner, since my original map has lots of issues

03.10.2025 16:52 β€” πŸ‘ 0    πŸ” 0    πŸ’¬ 0    πŸ“Œ 0

Gotta take time to appreciate the small joys in life, like samples getting delivered at 8:30am to @plasmidsaurus.bsky.social and results getting emailed to you right at noon!

03.10.2025 16:33 β€” πŸ‘ 4    πŸ” 0    πŸ’¬ 1    πŸ“Œ 0
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Assistant Professor of Biology The Biology Department at Oberlin College invites applications for a full-time tenure track faculty position in the College of Arts and Sciences in conservation ecology. Initial appointment to this po...

Our department is hiring a conservation ecologist!
See the job posting here & please share:
jobs.oberlin.edu/postings/16671

05.08.2025 14:35 β€” πŸ‘ 1    πŸ” 0    πŸ’¬ 0    πŸ“Œ 0
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In #GENETICS, Grace Duke and Robert V. Skibbens report on novel gene deletion combinations with implications in cohesion activities and show their requirements in #yeast cell cycle progression and cell viability.

Read more: buff.ly/Fa2FAfQ

21.07.2025 16:12 β€” πŸ‘ 1    πŸ” 2    πŸ’¬ 0    πŸ“Œ 0
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Grad student Gayathri Muthukumar investigates how the outer mitochondrial membrane (OMM), a hub for signaling proteins, helps regulate mitochondrial function. Her research aims to uncover how changes in the OMM’s protein makeup can fine-tune the behavior of individual mitochondria. #Sciencein60

07.07.2025 15:14 β€” πŸ‘ 1    πŸ” 1    πŸ’¬ 1    πŸ“Œ 3
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Researchers show that the cell nucleus is the pacemaker for cell division Researchers at the Francis Crick Institute have shown that the 'pacemaker' controlling yeast cell division lies inside the nucleus rather than outside it, as previously thought. Having the pacemaker i...

Crick researchers have shown that the β€˜pacemaker’ controlling yeast cell division is located inside the nucleus, rather than outside it as was previously thought.

This research was led by @nitinkapadia.bsky.social and Paul Nurse.
www.crick.ac.uk/news/2025-06...

25.06.2025 15:55 β€” πŸ‘ 18    πŸ” 6    πŸ’¬ 0    πŸ“Œ 2
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Hopped onto the tenure track today! What were your favorite purchases when you started your lab? We're doing genetics and biochemistry in yeast 🧬

01.07.2025 14:44 β€” πŸ‘ 2    πŸ” 0    πŸ’¬ 0    πŸ“Œ 0

Postdoc positions open in my lab (Francis Crick Institute) to study

1. initiation of DNA replication.

2. chromatin replication/epigenetic inheritance.

Great for biochemists, biophysicists and cryo-EM/cryo-tomography scientists.

Deadline 3 August 2025.

crick.wd3.myworkdayjobs.com/External/job...

20.06.2025 09:38 β€” πŸ‘ 77    πŸ” 80    πŸ’¬ 1    πŸ“Œ 2
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Following court order, NIH ceases new terminations of politically sensitive grants After a judge told agency to restore hundreds of killed grants, NIH backs off plans to cancel more existing projects

Breaking news: The National Institutes of Health has ceased terminating grants on politically sensitive topics after a federal judge ruled last week that the cancellations were illegal.
scim.ag/4l9MO8Y

25.06.2025 17:36 β€” πŸ‘ 590    πŸ” 181    πŸ’¬ 4    πŸ“Œ 24

Especially in file names

Please, mentees, I am begging you

24.06.2025 12:45 β€” πŸ‘ 27    πŸ” 13    πŸ’¬ 4    πŸ“Œ 2
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NIH grant cuts will axe clinical trials abroad β€” and could leave thousands without care US agency’s new policy could abruptly end studies of infectious diseases and cancer, leaving researchers scrambling for funds.

The NIH has said it will implement a "new award stucture" by October.

But researchers say it is absolutely senseless and reckless to cut off funding without an alternative in place.

I spoke to nine affected researchers.

This is their story.

02.06.2025 15:12 β€” πŸ‘ 64    πŸ” 30    πŸ’¬ 2    πŸ“Œ 0

URGENT: FlyBase has lost practically all its funding overnight; even user fees are tied up in denied grant funding. 🀬🀯

Any lab using @flybase.bsky.social please donate using the link in post below.

This incredible community, on whose backs our #Drosophila labs depend, can't be left out to dry.

03.06.2025 17:19 β€” πŸ‘ 225    πŸ” 253    πŸ’¬ 4    πŸ“Œ 19
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Molecular_Bio - YouTube

Re-upping this: I curated a YouTube playlist on molecular biology. I use it to train undergrads and new grad students. I usually have them watch the playlist first before showing them how to do in the lab.

www.youtube.com/playlist?lis...

30.05.2025 01:17 β€” πŸ‘ 42    πŸ” 8    πŸ’¬ 3    πŸ“Œ 1

This framing is all wrong

Our international students are not a β€œcrucial funding source”

They are our STUDENTS

They are the reason we EXIST

We teach STUDENTS

22.05.2025 18:21 β€” πŸ‘ 1481    πŸ” 357    πŸ’¬ 37    πŸ“Œ 29

Harvard today, your institution tomorrow.

It's all part of the Project 2025 plan to destroy high education in America.

All leading US universities depend on federal funding and tuition dollars from international students. They severely curtailed the former. Now they're eliminating the latter.

22.05.2025 18:38 β€” πŸ‘ 1527    πŸ” 634    πŸ’¬ 46    πŸ“Œ 42

definitely worth checking surplus lab equipment vendors β€” some items are barely used or even brand new β€” as a way of getting around the tariffs

19.05.2025 19:16 β€” πŸ‘ 1    πŸ” 1    πŸ’¬ 0    πŸ“Œ 0

an exciting time to receive your start-up funds πŸ’Έ

19.05.2025 19:07 β€” πŸ‘ 11    πŸ” 2    πŸ’¬ 1    πŸ“Œ 0

Wow.

16.05.2025 16:25 β€” πŸ‘ 13    πŸ” 1    πŸ’¬ 5    πŸ“Œ 1
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We have updated our database of funding opportunities for Early-Career Researchers (private foundations, federal, international)

We have 456 entries, for which we provide $ amount, deadline, eligibility criteria, etc.

Download this massive database here for free: research.jhu.edu/rdt/funding-...

07.05.2025 16:46 β€” πŸ‘ 193    πŸ” 141    πŸ’¬ 3    πŸ“Œ 1
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Oberlin Welcomes Tenure-Track Faculty Members for the 2025-2026 Academic Year | Oberlin College and Conservatory Scholars and performers bring world-class expertise in arts, sciences, and the humanities.

Excited to be jumping onto the tenure track at Oberlin after a couple of years as a visiting prof!! www.oberlin.edu/news/oberlin...

03.05.2025 17:01 β€” πŸ‘ 1    πŸ” 0    πŸ’¬ 0    πŸ“Œ 0
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American Thoracic Society | Advocacy The American Thoracic Society is the world's leading medical society dedicated to accelerating the advancement of global respiratory health through…

β€œIn essence, the EPA is proposing to roll back the clock on environmental protection and allow industry to release tons more toxic pollutants into the air we breathe,” Gillian C. Goobie, MD, PhD.

Read more about the impact of the EPA’s announcement to reconsider over 30 EPA regulations:

14.03.2025 18:37 β€” πŸ‘ 9    πŸ” 5    πŸ’¬ 0    πŸ“Œ 2
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Johns Hopkins Plans Staff Layoffs After $800 Million Grant Cuts Local and international health research efforts are already winding down as the university braces for even more potential cuts.

Our top health official thinks castor oil cures measles, while his bosses cut funds to much of the most important medical research in the world.

The toll in disease and death is beyond our ability to imagine.

And the goddamned eggs still cost $9 a dozen.

Gift link: www.wsj.com/health/healt...

12.03.2025 00:42 β€” πŸ‘ 439    πŸ” 162    πŸ’¬ 19    πŸ“Œ 11
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Many of these grants are fellowships and training grants supporting smart young people interested in bettering the world through their research. It is sad to see NIH funding used as an indiscriminate tool of retribution.

11.03.2025 17:41 β€” πŸ‘ 12    πŸ” 6    πŸ’¬ 1    πŸ“Œ 0
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China Bans Imports of Illumina DNA Machines in US Retaliation China banned the import of Illumina Inc. gene-sequencing machines as part of a wave of retaliatory measures against fresh US tariffs on all Chinese goods, deepening the US company’s woes in one of its...

In #NextGenSequencing news, China now outright bans the imports of Illumina $ILMN machines in US Retaliation. www.bloomberg.com/news/article...

04.03.2025 09:55 β€” πŸ‘ 150    πŸ” 66    πŸ’¬ 5    πŸ“Œ 9
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Musk says DOGE β€˜restored’ Ebola prevention effort. Officials say that’s not true. USAID’s initiatives to fight Ebola and other diseases have been gutted, current and former agency officials said.

Every news outlet reporting Elon Musk's comment about accidentally canceling Ebola prevention efforts and quickly restoring them should also say they haven't been restored, they're still canceled, the outbreak-fighting teams are dismantled, the money is gone

www.washingtonpost.com/politics/202...

27.02.2025 15:18 β€” πŸ‘ 9042    πŸ” 4192    πŸ’¬ 187    πŸ“Œ 172
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a man in a suit and tie sitting in a chair ALT: a man in a suit and tie sitting in a chair

More NIH intramural news...

As part of the new Executive Order IMPLEMENTING THE PRESIDENT'S "DEPARTMENT OF GOVERNMENT EFFICIENCY" COST EFFICIENCY INITIATIVE, NIH staff are advised not to use their NIH Purchasing Cards.

If this get any more efficient, they will not be able to so anything...

27.02.2025 14:40 β€” πŸ‘ 53    πŸ” 21    πŸ’¬ 4    πŸ“Œ 0
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Trump Places Freeze On Federal Credit Cards In Newest DOGE Executive Order The order gives the Department of Government Efficiency more power over federal funds and spending practices.

This is a straight ban on purchasing at #NIH β€” for cancer trials, treating patients, and developing cures. @chrislhayes.bsky.social

Almost all purchases at NIH are made on govt credit cards.

It’s clear what’s happening: Trump/Musk are blowing up the govt using devious… 1/
www.forbes.com/sites...

27.02.2025 16:40 β€” πŸ‘ 212    πŸ” 123    πŸ’¬ 7    πŸ“Œ 11

@alexpike is following 20 prominent accounts