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Mara Duncan

@mcduncanlab.bsky.social

1.4K followers 240 following 1.5K posts

Associate Professor at the University of Michigan. I post photos of my cat and garden, and helpful tips for running a lab. Thoughts my own.

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Mara Duncan @mcduncanlab.bsky.social · Nov 29

🧪Dear Grad student,

Are you overdue for a thesis committee meeting but feel like you have nothing to show since your last meeting? I'm begging you to schedule that meeting now!

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Mara Duncan @mcduncanlab.bsky.social · 8h

My thought is speeds are higher on rural roads so sedans are as deadly as SUVs therefor nor increase in deaths as SUVs get bigger. Most rural accidents are probably as lethal as they are going to be.

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Reposted by Mara Duncan

Sigolène Meilhac @meilhacsigolene.bsky.social · 15d

New publication :
Despite being a core member of the PCP pathway, Vangl2 can play roles unrelated to planar polarity. This is the case during mouse heart morphogenesis.

bioRxiv Developmental Biology @biorxiv-devbio.bsky.social · Sep 5

VANGL2 shapes the mouse heart tube from adjacent epithelia and without planar polarity https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.09.05.674213v1

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Mara Duncan @mcduncanlab.bsky.social · 8h

My point is that getting hit by an SUV or a sedan at 45 mph is probably equally lethal so this point does not detract from the conclusion that SUVs rather than phones or legal weed or decreased humanity is the proble.

Mara Duncan @mcduncanlab.bsky.social · 8h

Absolutely. The point I was responding to was that rate of deaths on rural roads are not increasing even though there are pedestrians and bikes there and potentially even more SUVs. This was cited in the article as confusing since we would expect the rates to go up there too if SUVs are to blame.

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Mara Duncan @mcduncanlab.bsky.social · 9h

I have thoughts.

For sedans, they can’t see around the big SUV and strike ped/bikes at higher speeds. Plus sedans are getting bigger and higher too.

For rural roads, due to the speeds on the road it doesn’t matter if you are hit by a sedan or a semi.

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Mara Duncan @mcduncanlab.bsky.social · 2d

Biology is not just physics and chemistry; it is also history. You will never be able to solve it numerically. Theory cannot account for the fact that this potential ancestor with these genes twisted its ankle and died, even if it had 'better' genes overall.

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Reposted by Mara Duncan

Kresten Lindorff-Larsen @lindorfflarsen.bsky.social · 2d

One of the great advantages of biology is that you can write HELLO WORLD in amino acids since PROTEINS ARE AMAZING

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Mara Duncan @mcduncanlab.bsky.social · 2d

Dang! I didn't follow the GRC survival guide and played soccer one year and tore my meniscus. This is a notch up from that!!

www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

A Gordon Conference Survival Guide

I have the utmost respect for T. S. Eliot, but it seems to me that June, not April, is the cruelest month. With June comes the Gordon Research Conference season, and with it, danger for thousands of u...

www.science.org

Reposted by Mara Duncan

Frankie D Heyward @frankiedheyward.bsky.social · 3d

I’m excited to share our new preprint! We built a single-nucleus multiomic (snRNA-seq+snATAC-seq) atlas of leptin receptor-expressing hypothalamic neurons (LepRᴴʸᵖᵒ) and identified conserved cis-regulatory elements overlapping human obesity-linked variants and eQTLs🧠🧬
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

Single-nucleus transcriptional and chromatin accessibility profiling of mouse hypothalamic LepRb neurons reveals cell type-specific cis-regulatory elements linked to human obesity

Leptin receptor-expressing hypothalamic neurons (LepRHypo) are key regulators of energy balance, yet a comprehensive, cell type-resolved, chromatin accessibility map of these neurons is lacking. We pr...

www.biorxiv.org

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Mara Duncan @mcduncanlab.bsky.social · 4d

Cheese sticks are for afternoon munchies.

She says as she finishes cheese stick #2 at 12:35.

Mara Duncan @mcduncanlab.bsky.social · 4d

Contaminated or something.

We do leave unused ice next to the sink in case someone else needs it.

Reposted by Mara Duncan

Chenxin Li, PhD @chenxinli2.bsky.social · 5d

It's grad school application season! My lab (cxli233.github.io/cxLi_lab/ ) will be recruiting a PhD student via the MPS program at MSU (mps.natsci.msu.edu) for Fall 2026.

Happy to take inquires via email (which can be found in the lab website) if you are applying this cycle.

Our current carbon economy relies on fossil fuels, from which we isolate small organic molecules to produce medicines, plastics, cosmetic, or other chemicals that we use everyday. However, sustainability requires a more biomass-based carbon economy, where we engineer plants to produce precursor molecules, which can then be assembled to desired chemicals that we use daily. Plants have evolved an amazing diversity of metabolites, but these metabolites are not produced in every cell of the plant. Therefore, it is essential to understand how plants can express different metabolic pathways across different organs, tissues, and even cell types. We are interested in the following questions: How are metabolic pathways (especially specialized metabolism) controlled by cell fate? How can we reprogram plant cell fates for biomanufacturing? How can we toggle between differentiated cell states for metabolic engineering and totipotent cell state for genetic engineering?

cxli233.github.io

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Reposted by Mara Duncan

Krista Koeller @kristalerista.bsky.social · 6d

Anyone know where I might find this year's list of herpetology-minded labs that are taking students?

I would also take any other related list for other taxa.

Thank you!

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Reposted by Mara Duncan

Garcia-Mata Lab @rhopower.bsky.social · 7d

Toledo CellulART 2025 was a success!! Inspiring talks, incredible art, old friends, new friends and beautiful weather! Thanks to @promegacorporation.bsky.social @ibidicells.bsky.social @proteintech.bsky.social , Cytoskeleton and @biologists.bsky.social !

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Mara Duncan @mcduncanlab.bsky.social · 7d

Congrats!!

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Mara Duncan @mcduncanlab.bsky.social · 8d

You could contact the authors. I’ve done that previously when an online resource went down when I wanted to use it for a class, the authors were super helpfu.

Mara Duncan @mcduncanlab.bsky.social · 10d

At one point, I wanted to be the Jane Goodall of ants. Although my interests changed in college, and I'm now a cell biologist, I point to her as a major role model for me throughout my career.

Phil Lewis @phillewis.bsky.social · 10d

Jane Goodall, ethologist and conservationist, has died. She was 91

Mara Duncan @mcduncanlab.bsky.social · 10d

Sorry, I'm going to miss it this year!

Reposted by Mara Duncan

Garcia-Mata Lab @rhopower.bsky.social · 10d

Come and get yours! www.toledocellulart.org

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Reposted by Mara Duncan

Laura White @laurakwhite.bsky.social · 10d

The grad student organizers of Colorado's long-running RNA Club have been putting together this event to demystify the PhD application process for the past few years. Pass along to folks applying to grad school this cycle 🍁

It's a flyer for Colorado RNA Club's Undergrad Day event on Oct 21st at 1:30PM.

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Reposted by Mara Duncan

Rui Gonçalo Martinho @martinholab.bsky.social · 11d

Quick Drosophila question: I’m planning to integrate a construct on the second chromosome but would like to avoid the attP40 landing site. Any suggestion for a good alternative attP site on chromosome II? It’s for a skeletal-muscle–related project.
Thanks! 🙂
Rui

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Mara Duncan @mcduncanlab.bsky.social · 11d

As someone in this situation, I do wonder if little black bar of new R01s is actually high enough to account for people who previously had an R01/R35 and are thus now out of eligibility for an R35, but have a meritorious proposal.

Its probably currently a fairly small number.

Mara Duncan @mcduncanlab.bsky.social · 14d

Well, I've got some vested interest in the outcome. I'd like to get the strain made so we can do an experiment to potentially go into the grant I'm writing.

Mara Duncan @mcduncanlab.bsky.social · 14d

Ok, not quite 45 min on that cycle, but ~2hrs to pour plates and cool two of them enough so I could use them, ain't bad. see ya later!

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Mara Duncan @mcduncanlab.bsky.social · 14d

At least we have a spiffy new autoclave so the media will be done in 45 min, I should be able to pour the plates in 1.5 hrs.

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