Noah Whiteman

AMP thought of as one-off in Drosophila may have moved around a lot…much like genes encoding antiparasitoid proteins fand pore-forming toxins in insects (see karger.com/jin/article/...). Extremely cool. A challenge is that short peptides present a very hard problem—discerning convergence from HGT…

Gabe Duenas (@ucberkeleyofficial.bsky.social undergrad w @tarnopol.bsky.social) at his #Dros26 poster, which was next to Dr. Bayan’s from Goins lab at Stanford, who worked with our collaborators in Hungary (Cinege-Ando labs)! Chicago was fun (there was even a @harmitmalik.bsky.social sighting).

Proud of Dr @tarnopol.bsky.social who received the Sandler Award for “Outstanding Drosophila Thesis” at the fly meeting #Dros26 in Chicago this evening! @genetics-gsa.bsky.social

Efficient genome editing using CRISPR–Cas9 in reef-building corals - Nature Protocols In this protocol, the authors present straightforward and efficient methods to genetically modify corals and study gene function throughout various life-history stages using CRISPR–Cas9-based mutagene...

To increase the use of gene editing in corals, we have made a comprehensive methods paper describing the protocol. We hope this helps the field of functional genetics in corals. www.nature.com/articles/s41...

An advertisement for a PhD position studying "Revealing the mechanistic basis of defence peptide antibacterial specificity." It shows fruit flies infected by green-fluorescent protein expressing bacteria, and describes the project and way to apply.

Very excited to be advertising this project with the excellent cosupervision of Peter Mergaert through @i2bcparissaclay.bsky.social and @uniexecec.bsky.social.

This position is open to international applicants and will involve stints in both Penryn UK and Paris France. Please share!

Apply: adum.fr

White House stalls release of approved US science budgets The US Congress rejected sweeping cuts to science agencies. But the NIH, the NSF and NASA have had their spending slowed.

Congress rejected massive cuts to US science budgets for 2026, but much of the money still isn’t flowing to researchers.

The culprit? The White House Office of Management and Budget (OMB) is quietly slow-walking the release of funds. 🧵👇

Environmental exposure trains the immune system to dampen allergic responses Clean living conditions that lessen exposure to microorganisms are linked to an increase in allergies. Mouse data reveal how the environment affects allergic immune responses.

The most influential explanation of a recent surge in allergies is the hygiene hypothesis

go.nature.com/40woBkB

Join us for a day of talks, posters, and discussions, featuring a morning joint lecture with Nobel Laureates Eric F. Wieschaus and Christiane Nüsslein-Volhard!
Date: Monday, May 4th, 2026
Location: University of Copenhagen, Mærsk Tower
sites.google.com/view/emergin...
Free to participate

Interested in the most recent developments in plant science? Join the Mendel Early Career Symposium on May 21-22 at the @viennabiocenter.bsky.social to exchange with experts about their science and career trajectories. Register by March 13th for a talk. More here: www.oeaw.ac.at/gmi/news-eve...

I had a wonderful visit to BioMed at Brown last week for an interdisciplinary Dean’s seminar. It even snowed. I was hosted by my dear and brilliant friend @sramach.bsky.social who also arranged for a book talk at the Providence Athenaeum, an ancient library that captures the hearts of all who enter

How far back in time can you understand English? An experiment in language change

If you liked this experiment, I published a full piece today in the same vein: a text that gets 100 years older with every section, from a modern blog post to a medieval chronicle.

It's a single story spanning 1000 years of English. See how far you get.

www.deadlanguagesociety.com/p/how-far-ba...

This is very exciting

Can we simulate realistic evolutionary trajectories and “replay the tape of life”? In this work, we propose a flexible, generalizable deep learning framework for modeling how the entire protein sequence evolves over time while capturing complex interactions across sites. 1/n
doi.org/10.64898/202...

I’m so proud of you @tarnopol.bsky.social and have learned so much from you! Congratulations and I’m excited to be in the audience during your talk at the fly meeting in Chicago.

LOL

Feel the love

We're excited to be recruiting an NIH funded postdoc to work in the Coop lab at UC Davis. We're specifically interested in candidates who are want to work at the intersection of human genetics, GWAS, and population genetics modeling. Please RT

Pharmacophagy in insects: Ecological and evolutionary perspectives on the non‐nutritional use of plant specialized metabolites Insects interact with plants not only for nutrition but also to actively seek plant specialized metabolites (PSMs) for chemical defense, reproduction, and self-medication—a behavior known as pharmaco...

Did you know? Insects eat plants as medicine. #OpenAccess
onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...

We are in the middle of MCB graduate admissions interviews. It has renewed my sense of hope—there are so many bright, empathic and resilient young people ready to help advance knowledge and make a difference.

Very excited to be going to the Annual Drosophila Research Conference @genetics-gsa.bsky.social in Chicago this March. I think #Dros26 is the hashtag. There is still time for you to register! The fly community is so welcoming and supportive—if you are new to flies please consider going.

Chill-tolerant Drosophila species maintain electrogenic muscle membrane potential to resist cold-induced depolarization Summary: Unlike chill-sensitive Drosophila that lose muscle membrane polarization in the cold, chill-tolerant species can maintain polarization via preservation of Na+/K+-ATPase-driven electrogenesis,...

Why are some Drosophila flies paralyzed at cold temperatures, and others aren't? 👇

An important study maps how nerves control the Drosophila male reproductive tract, revealing two types of glutamatergic neurons that also release serotonin or octopamine.

🔗 buff.ly/3PV2YQW

Evolution of sensory systems underlies the emergence of predatory feeding behaviors in nematodes | PNAS Understanding how animal behavior evolves remains a major challenge, with few studies linking genetic changes to differences in neural function and...

How does evolution turn a harmless bacterial feeder into an active predator?
Our new study led by @marianneroca.bsky.social and published in @pnas.org explores how sensory systems were rewired to enable prey detection and predatory behaviour in nematodes.
www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...

🧵below!

Mendel Early Career Symposium 2026 Register below for the 2026 Mendel Early Career Symposium21-22 May 2026 at the Campus-Vienna-Biocenter, AUSTRIA   Please select the events you would like to attend and add them to the cart in order ...

Interested in giving a talk? Submit your abstract by 13 March to be considered.

More Information about the event and registration here: events.vbc.ac.at/gmi_events/m...

#Mendel_ECR_26 #WhereKnowledgeGrows

In addition to keynote lectures by @emmanuellebayer.bsky.social and @nkwhiteman.bsky.social, the symposium features a How-"Do-You-Do-It?" workshop on ChimeraX and Alphafold. A networking dinner at the Vienna Rathauskeller will follow, kindly supported by the City of Vienna.

Registration is now open! The 4th edition of the Mendel Early Career Symposium will take place on 21-22 May at the GMI, part of the @viennabiocenter.bsky.social. This two-day event brings together researchers across career stages to discuss the latest research in all areas of plant science.

Color blindness hides a key warning sign of bladder cancer A large U.S. health records study suggests that difficulty seeing blood in urine may put color-blind patients at higher risk.

“For most people with bladder cancer, the first red flag is literally red: blood in the urine. But for people with color blindness, that warning sign may be easy to miss — and missing it could prove deadly.”

#scicomm
#colorblindness

www.sciencenews.org/article/colo...
🧪

I taught my grad-level cell bio seminar using the Socratic method in the fall, and shockingly (to me), students loved it. No slides, just yapping. I assigned two research articles per week as the starting point, but we were mostly led by their questions

Love it!

There’s an intensifying kind of threat to academic freedom – watchful students serving as informants Restricting academic freedom is often thought of in terms of universities telling professors what they can and cannot do or teach. But that isn’t the only scenario.

The academic freedoms of both students and faculty are deeply entwined.

"Helping students understand the meaning and value of academic freedom and enlisting them to help protect it is not an easy task. However, the future of that value may depend on it."

Read more below⬇️