Paul Carini

Very proud of the work from lab members and collaborators that coincidentally came out today www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/... and www.nature.com/articles/s41.... A bacterial and viral pathogen associated with mass mortality in seastars and oysters. @kevinzhong2006.bsky.social @rhizalyssa.bsky.social

Congrat's Michael! Be sure to print a bound copy for yourself. Future you & family will appreciate it. And if the department still requires a bound copy, nestle it in the Pernot Library next to mine.

Awesome and important work!

Agree. Nitrosopumilus would be good, as would Methanosarcina.

Need more soil! Bradyrhizobium, Streptomyces, 'Ca. Udaeobacter'

But in reality, Blood Incantation are awesome. Their latest release is a masterpiece.

Periodic post: My postdoc position is over in October and I’m making the big leap into policy - so I’m on the job market!

I’m open to connections with nonprofits, state and local governments, and businesses! If you are someone who can help, please send me a DM - my DMs are open!

wow, 12-15 is wild! I need to step it up!

This is what I try to do. And I'm affiliated with 5 departments, each with their own requirements for dissertations.

Faculty members: Do you limit the number of dissertation or thesis committees you serve on at any one time?

Recognizing that motivation comes and goes in waves, and that's normal, was also important for me.

Lots of thoughts on this (maybe a future blog idea). IMO, momentum is overrated. There is always more to do! I focus on moving forward with momentum that brings out the best in me. And that's not necessarily *my best*. It's slower than I'd like. But it's sustainable. And I'm better for it.

My self preservation realization was: I can't do it all! And, I can say no. That means being very very deliberate with what I take on and making sure it's filling me up, not draining me. Saying yes to research, service, and teaching I'm excited about. Saying no to things that "are good for my CV"

We are out of that phase of parenting (youngest is almost 9). It's hard. Harder for moms. But we both miss it, so enjoy.

I'm only hoping someone can learn from my experience.

How certain are you it's nutella?

I'm a big fan of buying the cheapest freezer and keeping it -70. Cheap=low tech. Usually it's the compressors that fail in the cheap ones. Keeping it at a higher temperature is easier on the unit and likely more than sufficient for preservation.

Bucket list item for me this weekend: Attending the Indy Car race at the Laguna Seca Raceway with the famous 'corkscrew' turn!

Absolutely amazing weather, fast cars, family. Rooting for Pato O'ward (Indycar) and Myles Rowe (Indy NXT), but really just here to have fun!

We've started a Carini Lab instagram account! Thankfully, the undergrads are running it (and not me) so it'll be interesting to follow!

@Carinilab www.instagram.com/carinilab/

Were the methods flawed, or the wrong methods to use and/or the wrong interpretations? This is a slippery slope.

I felt it was a bit more nuanced. The way I read it was that they stand by the data, but not the interpretation of it. I think that's fair and I'd be inclined to do the same. The data "are." It's us scientists that interpret them.

There might be something there. I'll look into it! Thanks for the suggestion.

I mean grow as in "reproduce." But you bring up a good point about biomass that might be important.

Agree. This is an unusual and concerning precedent to set.

I fully agree.

The As-life claims were garbage but the thinking it sparked wasn't.

Anyway, RIP As-DNA Science paper. You were wrong but you made us think weird thoughts and that's worth something. 6/6

The weird thing? This totally bogus paper led us to real discoveries about SAR11 stress tolerance.

Sometimes wrong papers ask the right questions.
Science is messy like that. Even papers that get retracted years later can push you toward actual insights.

Happy Birthday SAR11 SAR11 turns 33 this month

Spoiler: none of it worked. But! We found SAR11 is crazy As-tolerant through normal mechanisms. And we cracked the growth puzzle eventually - no NMPs, just good old fashioned medium optimization. more on that: uncultured.carinilab.com/p/happy-birt...

(some) SAR11 can do phosphorothiolation, so maybe that could stabilize As in DNA? The biochemistry felt plausible enough to chase.

(This is the part where past-me was very excited about a very wrong idea)

The As:P ratios in some ocean regions are high and P very low, so we had this hypothesis that SAR11 imports NMPs to avoid As toxicity.

Then the As-paper drops and we're (mostly me) like... wait. What if SAR11 could just use arsenic in its DNA/RNA instead? Solve the P requirement problem entirely?