Alice R. Walker

Michigan attorney general launches online portal to track and report ICE, federal immigration enforcement actions Attorney General Dana Nessel's office said its department has received more than 5,000 emails from the public regarding immigration enforcement activity.

Michigan

www.cbsnews.com/detroit/news...

An mTurquoise2-Based Glucose Biosensor Glucose is an important substrate for organisms to acquire energy needed for cellular growth. Despite the importance of this metabolite, single-cell information at a fast time-scale about the dynamics...

Great to see this officially out: An mTurquoise2-Based Glucose Biosensor - works in yeast & mammalian cells and is compatible with FLIM: pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/...

I love this solution, and also preprints!

Of course there are reasons people ignore peer review—sometimes reviewers do a terrible job! But if you’re going through many rounds of rejecting after peer review and resubmit with no changes taken, I think it didn’t really save you time. But your points in this and your comments below are notable

as an assistant prof I'm so appreciative of detailed reviews that we can use to strengthen the paper--it's frustrating when people just ignore it because it's not taking helpful advice, why wouldn't you make the changes??

Very pretty!

Today, I would like to honor the memory of Roger Y. Tsien, born on February 1, 1952. His legacy lives with all who use his technologies, including calcium sensors, fluorescent proteins, the acetoxymethyl (AM) ester, & many more! #FluorescenceFriday
www.nature.com/articles/nme...

Measurement and Control of Crossed Potentials in a Flavoprotein Flavoproteins constitute 1–3% of prokaryotic and eukaryotic proteins, functioning as electron transfer agents, catalysts, and sensing or regulatory modules. Their versatility as redox-active proteins stems from the tunability of the flavin cofactor’s one- and two-electron reduction potentials via interactions with the protein scaffold. Although several mechanisms have been proposed to explain how the flavin-binding pocket modulates redox thermodynamics, a holistic model enabling interpretation and prediction remains to be established. In this study, we investigate how the flavin N5 environment influences the redox properties of the flavin mononucleotide cofactor in the “improved” light-oxygen-voltage (iLOV) sensing protein using site-directed mutagenesis, redox titrations, and hybrid quantum mechanical molecular mechanical (QM/MM) methods combined with classical alchemical free energy simulations. Mutating the residue Q103, which interacts with the flavin N5 and O4 atoms in the X-ray crystallographic structure, exerts a modest <35 mV effect on the overall two-electron reduction potential, but significantly alters the potential separation of the two one-electron couples (potential crossing) by up to 168 mV. QM/MM and free energy calculations reveal that water penetration into the flavin-binding pocket near N5 and O4 largely explains the trend in reduction potentials among the mutants. The results suggest a molecular mechanism of flavin tuning in which hydrogen bonding to the neutral semiquinone, either directly by the side-chain or a protein-penetrating water, contributes significantly to the potential crossing. These findings establish quantitative experimental benchmarks for theoretical models and advance a molecular mechanism for redox tuning in flavoproteins.

It's finally out! Great work Ben, Sichu, Sarah, Brett, Ian and Samer for the wonderful science and effort here. The role of the N5 environment in tuning flavin reduction potentials.
pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/...

Demanding a Homeland Security bill that reins in lawlessness is the best path for science–even if it stalls NIH funding The Senate voted today on a final funding package that included both the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), among many other agencies and institutions.

To the extent that the fate of NIH and ICE funding may continue to be linked, we as scientists may feel forced to choose between protecting our own funding and the safety and wellbeing of our neighbors.

This is a false choice.

open.substack.com/pub/sciencea...

"In 2015, Betanzo was among the earliest technical experts to warn that Flint’s switch to the Flint River without corrosion control posed a serious lead risk and urged her childhood friend, Mona Hanna-Attisha, to test the blood of local children." -@garretellison.bsky.social

Listen, everyone yelled at us last year about the rallies being on a weekday.

WELP NOW THEY ARE ON A SATURDAY SO I HAD BETTER SEE DOUBLE THE TURN OUT!!!!

www.standupforscience.net/march7

#standupforscience #takebackourscience
@standupforscience.bsky.social

We're back for round two. We're taking back our science. I am fighting for science and democracy. March 7th, 2025. Washington, DC. standupforscience.net/march7

We're back for round two. We're taking back our science. I am fighting for science and democracy. March 7th, 2025. Washington, DC. standupforscience.net/march7

We're back for round two. We're taking back our science. I am fighting for science and democracy. March 7th, 2025. Washington, DC. standupforscience.net/march7

RALLY TO TAKE BACK SCIENCE! 🧪✊🔬
March 7th, 2026 in Washington, DC.

We're mobilizing the fight for science and democracy. In the face of assaults on our families, freedoms, and futures, we're taking back science!

Learn more at www.standupforscience.net/ma... (linked in bio)

The Federal Government’s Research Innovation Lifeline Has Gone Dark Congressional inaction has led to the expiration of the federal government’s SBIR/STTR program, cutting off a biotechnology lifeline.

Evoquant received SBIR funding from the NIH in 2025 to develop new/better methods for finding anti-cancer and antibacterial small molecules produced by bacteria

With success, we would apply for a Phase 2 grant, which would allow the company to stay alive & commercialize. Unfortunately...

Read the Save HHS open letter!

www.savehhs.org/letter-we-wi...

Science and Industry Need to Push Back Hard - TimmermanReport.com The days of strongly worded letters, statements to the press, white papers, and op-eds are over. The people dismantling science are coming at all we care about with a pliers and a blowtorch. If I have...

Powerful call to action from @cdelawalla.bsky.social founder of @standupforscience.bsky.social

timmermanreport.com/2026/01/scie...

Dark state-mediated photobleaching in mCherry-basedred fluorescent proteins https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.01.21.700914v1

Magnetically sensitive proteins could lead to new imaging tools and remote-controlled drugs New study shows how engineered proteins can be tracked with an MRI-like approach

Magnetically sensitive proteins could lead to new imaging tools and remote-controlled drugs | Science | AAAS 🧪 www.science.org/content/arti...

I found QE the easiest to learn, though my students interested in liquid ish things prefer cp2k

Careers - Calico

I'm excited to be hiring an intern to develop new fluorescence-based assays for alpha synuclein aggregation at Calico during summer 2026 😃 🔬

If you're a current PhD student who loves microscopy, unnatural amino acids, and/or synuclein biophysics, please apply!

www.calicolabs.com/careers/?gh_...

PhD contract available in the @icmabcsic.bsky.social in my group to work on the synthesis and characterization of New Photosensitisers for Panchromatic Photoisomerization. Retweets appreciated. Candidates please contact me directly.

Enough is enough!

The CDC has become a space of misinformation. The US is dealing w/ measles outbreaks. ACIP is incompetent.

Michigan representative Haley Stevens introduced articles of impeachment against RFK Jr.

@standupforscience.bsky.social was instrumental behind this.
Let it begin!

#Pinks

In an email to MedPage Today, Delawalla further said that "although House minority leadership has not signaled support for this effort, we believe with sufficient civic engagement from the public, Congress can be encouraged to respond to the articles." "We are calling on individuals, societies, and organizations to endorse the articles," she said. "We want to show lawmakers that this is not a fringe political stunt, but a legitimate effort backed by the scientific and medical community and the public. We deeply believe in the power of standing up and speaking out."

WhAt’S tHe PoInT oF aRtIClEs???

Filing the articles is step one.

*YOU* endorsing them, so we can show Congress that America wants him gone, is step two!

Head to:
Standupforscience.net/impeach-rfkjr

SIGN. SHARE. STAND UP FOR SCIENCE.

@standupforscience.bsky.social

Janelia is hiring! "Invent new imaging methods, molecular tools, or protein chemistry approaches"

www.janelia.org/content/lead...

If you like to sample from the Boltzmann distribution and are in San Diego for NeurIPS, be sure to check out Rishal's (@rishalchich.bsky.social) poster (#2110). Great work with Nick Boffi (@nmboffi.bsky.social) and Jacky Chen.
neurips.cc/virtual/2025...
arxiv.org/abs/2507.00846

The Department at Wayne State University is inviting applications for a faculty position in the broad area of microelectronics chemistry. Wayne State is a Carnegie R1 research university.

Visit the following link to apply: waynetalent.csod.com/ux/ats/caree...

Cartoon with principle of Flash-away and images of cells

FLASH-AWAY: Intrabody-Directed Targeting of Optogenetic Tools for Protein Degradation: pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/...

Summer Undergraduate Research Experience | HHMI The Cech Fellows Program is a paid, nine-week summer research experience empowering the next generation of scientific leaders.

Calling all rising juniors & seniors: Interested in biological or biomedical research? Applications for our ’26 Summer Undergraduate Research Experience Program are now open! Nine weeks, hands-on research, & mentorship from some of the nation’s top scientists — learn more: bit.ly/CechFellows

StayRose: A photostable StayGold derivative redshifted by genetic code expansion Photobleaching of fluorescent proteins often limits the acquisition of high-quality images in microscopy. StayGold, a novel dimeric GFP recently monomerized through sequence engineering, addresses thi...

Our new paper is published in the Journal of Chemical Biology! 🏮 We share StayRose, a red version of StayGold 🏮 StayRose has an unnatural amino acid-based chromophore, and has the same immense photobleach-resistance as StayGold 💡

Introducing the 𝐏𝐈-𝐚𝐭-𝐜𝐨𝐧𝐟𝐞𝐫𝐞𝐧𝐜𝐞 𝐒𝐥𝐚𝐜𝐤 𝐦𝐨𝐝𝐞! 🤯

When activated, it will auto-reply to your PI's frantic ideas for new experiments, analyses, and projects with "Great suggestion! Saving this for later" (aka: let's talk when you’re back and got some sleep)

#sfn2025 #sfn25

Is there a hashtag for STEM internships?

Merck is accepting applications for internships in cell biology and assay development, immunogenicity, protein metabolism, biostatistics, vaccine communications, DMPK, and discovery and process chemistry.