Alissa Armstrong

I've emerged from my faculty job app cocoon to open up the Etsy shop for a bit. Come grab some #Drosophila swag and support @flybase.bsky.social ! All proceeds are donated, here's the belated donation from December's sales.

Experimental set-up. 3 to 5-day-old virgin flies were collected and separated into groups of ten by sex, using ten vials of ten flies per sex/genotype/treatment combination. Flies in the exercise-treated group underwent five consecutive days of exercise using the Treadwheel, while animals in the control group were handled the same way, but without the treatment on the Treadwheel. 1 day after completing the exercise treatment, climbing ability of all animals was measured. At this point, the animals were weighed and frozen for metabolite analysis.

James Walts & co use #Drosophila melanogaster to investigate how exercise impacts body composition, specifically, protein content. doi.org/10.1242/bio....

#ExercisePhysiology #Metabolites #TreadWheel #GWAS

Excited that Lena's undergraduate research efforts have been recognized by funding in the form of a Magellan Scholar Grant. We look forward to learning more about how RTK-mediated signaling allows fat tissue to communicate to ovarian tissue in #drosophila. 🪰🔬

Chad and Alissa taking a selfie with their doctoral regalia on

Full body picture of Chad and Alissa in their doctoral regalia

Today we celebrated @chsphd.bsky.social earning his doctoral degree at the hooding ceremony. It’s the end of an era, with all members of the first generation of Armstrong lab earning their degrees. #uofsc25 #uofscbiologicalsciences

Download our large database of funding opportunities for early-career faculty and researchers

Download it here: research.jhu.edu/rdt/funding-...

433 funding opportunities.

Photograph of Armstrong Lab members - from left to right, Olivia, Chad, Carly, David, Isaiah, Dr. Armstrong, Lena, Jenna, Payal, Ymani, and Shanieka

Photograph of Armstrong Lab members - from left to right, Chad, J'nea, Shanieka, Payal, Olivia, Dr. Armstrong, Carly, Lena, Isaiah, and Ymani

End of Fall 2025 Celebration with the Armstrong Lab!

Rel is not essential for DSS-dependent ISC proliferation but impacts survival rates after DSS treatment. (A) 10-day-old unchallenged (UC) esgts/+ flies fed PBS/5% sucrose solution for 48 h; and DSS-treated esgts/+ or esgts/RelRNAi flies fed 3% DSS in 5% sucrose for 48 h. Scale bars: 25 µm. DNA (cyan), esg+ progenitors (yellow), and Dl+ ISCs (magenta) labelled.

Aurélia Joly, @micro-megs.bsky.social & co show that stem cell-intrinsic NF-κB activity is crucial for preventing apoptosis and ensuring proper intestinal epithelial repair following injury in #Drosophila. 🪰

doi.org/10.1242/bio....

#StemCells #Intestine

Photo of BINGO cards containing terms related to recombinant DNA technology, like restriction enzymes, plasmid, multiple cloning site, transformation, vector, etc.

Played a modified version of BINGO in my Fundamental Genetics class today, and the students enjoyed it!

Chad standing next to a podium presenting one of his data slides from his dissertation talk

Selfie of Chad and Alissa after the news was delivered that Chad had passed his defense with flying colors

Chad’s celebration cake with a pumpkin border design

A picture of the Armstrong lab at Chad’s celebration

Today a major milestone was achieved as @chsphd.bsky.social gave a beautiful presentation and successfully defended his dissertation. CONGRATULATIONS to the newly minted Dr. Simmons!!! 🎉🥳🍾🪰🔬👨🏾‍🔬

Love this! Had never seen it before, but will definitely share.

Flyer announcing a dissertation defense for Chad Simmons, a doctoral student in the Armstrong Lab

An Armstrong lab trainee is preparing to leave the nest - @chsphd.bsky.social presents his doctoral work and defends is dissertation next week.

If you are a researcher whose lab uses FlyBase, consider a tax-deductible personal contribution. A lot of $100 contributions would help bridge the gap until we can set up a user fee system, and even $10 donations send the folks there the message we're behind them. Please share

Selfie of Alissa who is wearing a dress with a DNA double helix pattern

Yesterday’s #OOTD for the first day of genetics class. Topic: DNA structure

#Drosophila community in the US and non- EU countries, please donate to help us support #Flybase. People behind the scenes have put in incredible effort over the past few months - as someone who has seen some of it first hand at #IUBloomington, they deserve all the praise. Please share and donate !

a thank you card with watercolor hearts on a white background ALT: a thank you card with watercolor hearts on a white background

#Bluesky #Blacksky #Edusky Would you repost to help my students in rural SC? Your donation can brighten the classroom experience for our students. Your generosity will make a huge difference in the lives of our students, & I would really appreciate your assistance. www.amazon.com/baby-reg/die...

I am really excited to be a part of this team. We took our time writing this, putting a lot of thought into how our journeys as #NativesInSTEM were affected by different aspects of Universities and looking for commonalities across the world. I hope folks in academia appreciate this work.

Early-career #Drosophila biologists (grad students, postdoc, pre-tenure faculty) looking to add a me tore to your mentoring network, be sure to complete the survey by 9/1 so that you can be matched to the best mentor possible.

👇 Contact me if you're interested!

The Society for Experimental Biology Presents: SEB Annual Conference 8-11 July 2025 A room with a Zoo, Antwerp sebiology.org #SEBCONFERENCE SEB logo

Will you be at #SEB2025 this week? Visit the @biologists.bsky.social booth (#3 & 4) in the exhibition hall to ask about the @biologyopen.bsky.social Fast & Fair peer review initiative. bit.ly/41N31tO
@sebiology.bsky.social

Letters of intent are due Friday, August 1!

Screenshot that says “Dear Professor Armstrong: By action taken during the June 20, 2025 meeting of the University of South Carolina Board of Trustees, I am pleased to inform you approval was given to the administration's recommendation that you be awarded tenure and promoted to the rank of Associate Professor, effective August 16, 2025. Congratulations on your achievement.”

It’s official! Fall 2025, I go from “Assistant” to “Associate” Professor. Thanks to trainees (ugrad/grad/postbacs), professional/personal networks, & family for supporting my goal of establishing a vibrant research program that puts people before projects. More science, scientists, & understanding!

It was a give-away! I’ve never replied to an email faster, lol

Isaiah showing Acchia how to pin dissected fly abdominal carcasses

...and how to dissect fat bodies on our newly acquired, old-school teaching 🔬

Two undergraduate students, Merelin (left) and Acchia (right), working out a genetics cross in Dr. Armstrong's office

Summer brings new @sc.edu undergraduates to the lab - learning some #drosophila genetics...

Summer 2025 Survey For Mentors : FlyCROSS Mentor Mentee Matching Program We appreciate you taking the time and volunteering to be a mentor! Add dmelcross@gmail.com to your email address book or safe sender list, so that you can receive our emails. To be a participating me...

Hey #Drosophila folks ! #FlyCROSS is back and #Mentor surveys are open NOW ! If you're a faculty/postdoc/ equivalent in any scientific career & have #Drosophila research experience - we'd be delighted to have you as mentors to empower early career scientists in the #Dros community !

Urgent: Take Action to Protect Public Services Photo by Katie Rodriguez on Unsplash MAY 23 UPDATE: The comment period has been extended until June 7. Please keep submitting comments! (Thanks to the reader...

DEADLINE EXTENDED TO JUNE 7!!

SAVE THE FEDERAL CIVIL SERVICE! MAKE A COMMENT TODAY!!!

news.chanda.science/archive/urge...

Picture of lab members after dinner. From left to right - David, Chad, Isaiah, Dr. Armstrong, Carly, BiClareline, Vicky, and Dr. Ables in an outside patio

Part of the Armstrong and Ables lab crews met up for dinner at the #SESDB2025 @socdevbio.bsky.social meeting yesterday evening.

Grateful that students in my lab/department and one that I mentor were able to attend the @pair-up.bsky.social workshop at the MBL!

Gold DNA double helix necklace

Lab alum and recent USC graduates really know me! Thanks to Helena and Ivory for my necklace 🧬👩🏾‍🔬

Free Training for PhDs - From PhD to Life Leaving academia? You want a new career as a PhD without wasting time applying for the wrong jobs, but don’t know where to start. Get clarity with Dr. Jen Polk in this free training.

Burned out by academic work that never ends? You’re not alone. My free webinar is for professors, postdocs, and PhDs ready to find a better way forward. #AcademicSky
Watch here: