Rachel C Thayer

NIH Grant Terminations Disrupt 1 in 30 Clinical Trials, Impacting Over 74,000 Participants | AJMC Infectious disease was hit hardest by funding cuts to NIH grant for clinical trials that did not align with the Trump administration's priorities.

JAMA study: NIH grant terminations disrupted 3.5% of active clinical trials, affecting over 74,000 patients and resulting in a $1.81 billion funding loss. More than 115 active cancer trials were disrupted. www.ajmc.com/view/nih-gra...

🚨New paper! 🚨
@jasminealqassar.bsky.social led this work on the silk glands of the pantry moth.

These two long tubes inside the caterpillar continuously make a ton of silk
How does this special organ work?

www.cell.com/iscience/ful...
@cp-iscience.bsky.social

🧵THREAD🧵

Sperm length and seminal fluid proteins promote male reproductive success in Drosophila melanogaster Abstract. Spermatozoal morphology varies widely within and among species, often corresponding to the shape of the female sperm storage organs in ways that

Galvin, J., Yedigarian, S., Rahman, M., Borziak, K., DeNieu, M., Larson, E. L., Manier, M. K. (2025). Sperm length and seminal fluid proteins promote male reproductive success in D. melanogaster. J Evol Biol academic.oup.com/jeb/article-...

Insertion of an invading retrovirus regulates a novel color trait in swordtail fish For over a century, evolutionary biologists have been motivated to understand the mechanisms through which organisms adapt to their environments. Coloration and pigmentation are remarkably variable wi...

I am so excited to share new work on a TE insertion that regulates iridescence in swordtails, led by fantastic grad student @nadiahaghani.bsky.social and with help from many coauthors! In a time that has been so difficult to navigate, this & other projects have kept my spirits up: shorturl.at/NE65A

This is key. Implication: have a record of who they turned away.

What is the most profitable industry in the world, this side of the law? Not oil, not IT, not pharma.

It's *scientific publishing*.

We call this the Drain of Scientific Publishing.

Paper: arxiv.org/abs/2511.04820
Background: doi.org/10.1162/qss_...

Thread @markhanson.fediscience.org.ap.brid.gy 👇

It's out, Minos transgenesis in the pantry moth by
@donyaniyaz.bsky.social
@lucalivraghi.bsky.social

High efficient, glowing eye and silk gland markers

peerj.com/articles/202...
@peerj.bsky.social

More new NIH institute and center director positions posted
with a closing date of 11/26/25.

hr.nih.gov/careers/open...

These include the Center for Scientific Review (CSR), National Institute of Nursing Research (NINR), National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), ...

1/3

Are you an early-stage graduate student (2nd or 3rd year) or early-stage postdoc based in the US or Canada, working primarily in Drosophila? Would you like to help improve the experience of all trainees working in Drosophila research? If so, read on.

(Please repost to reach a broad audience.)

Hi Bluesky community - I'm teaching computational genomics again in the Spring term; always happy to have auditors or folks Zoom in. Just have your students email me for deets.

I need to go to ESA

SIGNATURES For Cornell University: Michael I. Kotlikoff President of Cornell University Office of the President 300 Day Hall Cornell University Ithaca, NY 14853 Ben the Winited States (including but not limited to the U.S. Department of Health & Human Servives and the U.S, Department of Education): /N istant Attorney General U.S. Department of Justice, Civil Rights Division 950 Pennsylvania Avenue, N.W. Washington, D.C. 20530 For the Department of Health and Human Services: Paula Matana S Paula M. Stannard Director, Office for Civil Rights U.S. Department of Health & Human Services 200 Independence Avenue, S.W. Washington, D.C. 20201 Effective Date: 14/7/2025.

BREAKING: Cornell caved.

Here is the settlement agreement, signed today by the university's president, Michael Kotlikoff: statements.cornell.edu/2025/documen...

How to apply Learn how to apply to the Common Themes in Reproductive Diversity graduate program at Indiana University with detailed steps, requirements, and deadlines.

If you're looking for a #postdoc but aren't quite a fit for my lab, check out this exciting opportunity via IU's Common Themes in Reproductive Diversity group! 2-year NIH traineeship to work on one of the group's core themes. Details here! ctrd.indiana.edu/how-to-apply/

Scientists Changed the Blood Type of a Kidney. That’s Extraordinary. Transforming organs from any blood type into the universal donor Type O could help patients receive transplants faster.

The world seems like we are going backwards at the moment, so it is important to take the time to spread awareness of advances.

Scientists have developed an enzyme that converts organs into universal 'O' type. This is huge.

www.popularmechanics.com/science/heal...

Warning. ⚠️ If you are writing an NSF GRFP, new this year, you need official transcripts to apply. Beware. They will not review applications without official transcripts. ‼️

How to Opt-Out of Airlines Selling Your Travel Data to the Government The Airlines Reporting Corporation (ARC), owned by major U.S. airlines, collects billions of ticketing records and sells them to the government to be searched without a warrant. I managed to opt-out o...

PSA from 404 Media: you can opt-out of a data broker selling your flight travel data to the government to be searched without a warrant. Here's how I did it. This is ARC, the data broker owned by major U.S. airlines like United, Delta, American, etc

www.404media.co/how-to-opt-o...

The Lepidoptera are leading the race in reference genome comparative genomics -- beating the Diptera and Drosophila as a model. ecoevorxiv.org/repository/v...

The origins and molecular evolution of sperm https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.11.03.685759v1

GitHub - chakrabortymlab/DLPD: code and scripts relevant to the Drosophila Laboratory Pangenome Database code and scripts relevant to the Drosophila Laboratory Pangenome Database - chakrabortymlab/DLPD

Fellow #Drosophila researchers! Ever wondered about the genome sequence of your lab strain or the balancers? Check out our Drosophila Laboratory Pangenome Database, featuring a growing collection of reference genome assemblies for popular D. melanogaster strains! github.com/chakrabortym...

FlyBase secures funding for year, but future still uncertain The FlyBase team’s fundraising efforts have proven successful in the short term, but restoration of its federal grant remains uncertain.

🪰 folks! I spoke to the Transmitter about FlyBase. As noted at flybase.org, bridge $ ran out and many staff were laid off.

Good news is stopgap contributions will keep core FlyBase operations active. But community support remains essential. Please donate @FlyBase and share! 1/2

tinyurl.com/FlyBase

Wound-induced eyespots on butterfly wings at the intersection of immune response and pigmentation development - BMC Biology Background Butterfly eyespots are striking examples of evolutionary novelty arising through the repurposing of ancestral genetic pathways, including pathways involved in wound healing. Given the activ...

A personal favorite, long time in the making. Adelina and David (@dduneau.bsky.social) were instrumental in getting this done.

doi.org/10.1186/s129...

The male genitalia of an 𝘈𝘦𝘥𝘦𝘴 𝘢𝘭𝘣𝘰𝘱𝘪𝘤𝘵𝘶𝘴 mosquito

What does mating look like when you only have a single shot at getting it right?

Very excited to share our work on an almost-invisible female control, rapidly evolving mating recognition systems, and species that break the rules and take over the world. IN MOSQUITOES>

Great way to understand both how little it will take from each of us to be a part of something bigger and how many people in this country are being crushed by this shutdown. We are all we got.

A fluorescent confocal microscopy image of a butterfly wing scale showing the surface and internal structures

We are looking for a physics/maths graduate with an interest in biology, or a biology graduate with strong computational/mathematical skills/interests, to join us as a PhD student working on biomechanical modelling of butterfly wing scale structure formation www.findaphd.com/phds/project...

It’s here! My first solo published article is available online and in print. This article is the origin of my research on enforced disappearances of migrants that I began 3.5 years ago. Its relevance has only grown in importance. I hope you’ll take a look: digitalcommons.law.scu.edu/lawreview/vo...

Revised evolutionary relationships within Brachycera and the early origin of bicoid in flies Mulhair et al. uncover a functional bicoid in non-cyclorrhaphan flies, pushing the gene's origin back by ∼20 million years. Reassessing the Diptera phylogeny using the largest dataset to date permits ...

Latest work out today in @currentbiology.bsky.social

We find the fly development gene bicoid is much older than previously thought (~20 million yrs older!) 🪰🧬

To pinpoint its origins we tackled the Diptera phylogeny, providing some resolution (many open questions remain).

🔗 tinyurl.com/2vyuevpy

Ichetucknee Springs State Park, a short drive from Gainesville, FL

The Hopkins Lab (hopkins-lab.com) at the University of Florida is looking to recruit a postdoc to work on the genetics of organ function and evolution across Drosophila and beyond. Please visit tinyurl.com/vcsjpmzz or email me for more info. And please RT or send to anyone who might be interested!

Scientists at UT eyeing the vague promise of "increased funding preferences" as if Trump will escort you tp the front of the NIH line.

No. What they mean is, they're gonna hire the unqualified nephew of a Senator for something, and now they've made a mechanism to give him the federal money instead.

1/3 Excited that my final PhD MS is online! Big thanks to Ullasa (PI) (vanasiri.in) & collaborators Freerk and Urszula. Turns out humidity, not just temperature, plays a major role in butterfly eyespot plasticity. doi.org/10.1101/2025...