Max Heiman
@heiman.bsky.social
Associate Professor of Genetics
Harvard Medical School, Boston Children's Hospital
It should be fun, or what's the point?
http://heimanlab.com
Harvard Medical School, Boston Children's Hospital
It should be fun, or what's the point?
http://heimanlab.com
Reposted by Max Heiman
Cell-specific roles for the conserved Galpha chaperone RIC-8 in cilia biology https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.02.07.704597v1
February 9, 2026 at 1:32 PM
Cell-specific roles for the conserved Galpha chaperone RIC-8 in cilia biology https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.02.07.704597v1
but curly quotes still break SciENcv
SCOOP: Palantir's AI has been deployed at HHS since last March to audit grants, grant applications, & job descriptions for anything related to "DEI" or "gender ideology"
The goal was to ensure compliance with 2 of Trump's executive orders:
www.wired.com/story/hhs-is...
The goal was to ensure compliance with 2 of Trump's executive orders:
www.wired.com/story/hhs-is...
HHS Is Using AI Tools From Palantir to Target ‘DEI’ and ‘Gender Ideology’ in Grants
Since March of 2025, the Department of Health and Human Services has been using tools from Palantir and the startup Credal AI to weed out perceived alignment with “DEI” or “gender ideology.”
www.wired.com
February 2, 2026 at 11:18 PM
but curly quotes still break SciENcv
To be fair, I have been hallucinating references since before AI. "I know I saw this somewhere -- I can picture the figure!"
February 1, 2026 at 12:49 AM
To be fair, I have been hallucinating references since before AI. "I know I saw this somewhere -- I can picture the figure!"
Reposted by Max Heiman
Our first 2026 paper is out @currentbiology.bsky.social!
👏 to @nathancsharris.bsky.social (now Asst Prof, GA State) and PD Priya Dutta.
Here we show how transcriptional and trafficking pathways coordinate thermoreceptor levels to precisely modulate response plasticity
www.cell.com/current-biol...
👏 to @nathancsharris.bsky.social (now Asst Prof, GA State) and PD Priya Dutta.
Here we show how transcriptional and trafficking pathways coordinate thermoreceptor levels to precisely modulate response plasticity
www.cell.com/current-biol...
Experience-dependent reconfiguration of thermoreceptors regulates neuronal response plasticity
Harris, Dutta, et al. find that experience-dependent plasticity in the activation
threshold of the AFD thermosensory neurons is mediated by modulating warm and cold
thermoreceptor levels at the sensor...
www.cell.com
January 28, 2026 at 5:37 PM
Our first 2026 paper is out @currentbiology.bsky.social!
👏 to @nathancsharris.bsky.social (now Asst Prof, GA State) and PD Priya Dutta.
Here we show how transcriptional and trafficking pathways coordinate thermoreceptor levels to precisely modulate response plasticity
www.cell.com/current-biol...
👏 to @nathancsharris.bsky.social (now Asst Prof, GA State) and PD Priya Dutta.
Here we show how transcriptional and trafficking pathways coordinate thermoreceptor levels to precisely modulate response plasticity
www.cell.com/current-biol...
Reposted by Max Heiman
Friends! I am so happy to share our new preprint!
Hydrogen peroxide has been the most common reactive chemical threat to life forms since the Great Oxygenation Event 2.5 billion years ago.
How do animals like C. elegans sense it fast and escape?
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...
Thread 1/
Hydrogen peroxide has been the most common reactive chemical threat to life forms since the Great Oxygenation Event 2.5 billion years ago.
How do animals like C. elegans sense it fast and escape?
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...
Thread 1/
January 28, 2026 at 3:13 PM
Friends! I am so happy to share our new preprint!
Hydrogen peroxide has been the most common reactive chemical threat to life forms since the Great Oxygenation Event 2.5 billion years ago.
How do animals like C. elegans sense it fast and escape?
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...
Thread 1/
Hydrogen peroxide has been the most common reactive chemical threat to life forms since the Great Oxygenation Event 2.5 billion years ago.
How do animals like C. elegans sense it fast and escape?
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...
Thread 1/
do you know the answer? again, please correct me if I'm wrong, but my impression is it was probably a combination but mostly not something she felt at any point that she needed
January 26, 2026 at 3:16 PM
do you know the answer? again, please correct me if I'm wrong, but my impression is it was probably a combination but mostly not something she felt at any point that she needed
and -- correct me if i'm wrong -- all this WITHOUT bothering to get a PhD! just a genuinely curious person who is wired to make connections across fields.
Jane Richardson was born #OTD in 1941
+ Developed the Richardson (ribbon) diagram to represent proteins' 3D structure (becoming a standard representation for protein structures)
+ MacArthur Fellow, 1985
+ Elected, Nat'l Academy of Sciences, 1991
+ President, Biophysical Society, 2012
#WomenInSTEM
+ Developed the Richardson (ribbon) diagram to represent proteins' 3D structure (becoming a standard representation for protein structures)
+ MacArthur Fellow, 1985
+ Elected, Nat'l Academy of Sciences, 1991
+ President, Biophysical Society, 2012
#WomenInSTEM
January 26, 2026 at 1:07 PM
and -- correct me if i'm wrong -- all this WITHOUT bothering to get a PhD! just a genuinely curious person who is wired to make connections across fields.
good day for an electric heated birdbath!
January 26, 2026 at 12:34 PM
good day for an electric heated birdbath!
"The law allows NIH/HHS to grant a single 180-day extension to members' terms."
Could Congress change this law, eg add an exception that extends terms indefinitely while fewer than X members remain on the council?
Could Congress change this law, eg add an exception that extends terms indefinitely while fewer than X members remain on the council?
January 23, 2026 at 1:54 AM
"The law allows NIH/HHS to grant a single 180-day extension to members' terms."
Could Congress change this law, eg add an exception that extends terms indefinitely while fewer than X members remain on the council?
Could Congress change this law, eg add an exception that extends terms indefinitely while fewer than X members remain on the council?
Reposted by Max Heiman
Lipocalins and Scavenger Receptors affect the luminal matrix that prevents narrow tubes from collapsing - now in press in Development! #aECM #Celegans
journals.biologists.com/dev/article/...
journals.biologists.com/dev/article/...
Opposing roles for lipocalins and a CD36 family scavenger receptor in apical extracellular matrix-dependent protection of narrow tube integrity
Summary: Lipocalins and SCARBs are lipid transporters that influence susceptibility to infection and disease. This study shows that lipocalin and SCARB mutations affect the organization of a protectiv...
journals.biologists.com
January 20, 2026 at 10:37 PM
Lipocalins and Scavenger Receptors affect the luminal matrix that prevents narrow tubes from collapsing - now in press in Development! #aECM #Celegans
journals.biologists.com/dev/article/...
journals.biologists.com/dev/article/...
For what it's worth bioRxiv already posts AI summaries for every preprint. In my experience, for our own preprints, they do not have value.
January 17, 2026 at 2:18 PM
For what it's worth bioRxiv already posts AI summaries for every preprint. In my experience, for our own preprints, they do not have value.
Untitled Goose Game -- A+++
January 16, 2026 at 11:40 PM
Untitled Goose Game -- A+++
Reposted by Max Heiman
RNA-binding proteins function through network effects, coordinately binding and weakly regulating many transcripts – or don’t they? Read our new preprint on how LIN28 controls developmental timing through only two targets, one mRNA, one miRNA. doi.org/10.64898/202...
January 15, 2026 at 7:48 AM
RNA-binding proteins function through network effects, coordinately binding and weakly regulating many transcripts – or don’t they? Read our new preprint on how LIN28 controls developmental timing through only two targets, one mRNA, one miRNA. doi.org/10.64898/202...
Yes gramps but did you calculate the area under a curve by cutting it out and weighing it?
January 13, 2026 at 10:50 PM
Yes gramps but did you calculate the area under a curve by cutting it out and weighing it?
Endoplasmic reticulum patterns insect cuticle nanostructure. New study from Sachi Inagaki, Shigeo Hayashi @riken-bdr.bsky.social and colleagues: rupress.org/jcb/article/...
🎦 See video summary by Sachi Inagaki 👉 youtu.be/50JRPysrTNU
#Drosophila #ER_literature #Development #Organelles
🎦 See video summary by Sachi Inagaki 👉 youtu.be/50JRPysrTNU
#Drosophila #ER_literature #Development #Organelles
January 13, 2026 at 10:22 PM
good stuff!
Latest paper is now out and features on the cover of Science Advances 👉 tinyurl.com/vea5862x
Very grateful Igor Bonacossa Pereira, Dat Le & Massimo Hilliard @hilliardlab.bsky.social for their creativity & passion.
Read more about it 👉
tinyurl.com/56awjda5
& 👉 tinyurl.com/2vp8p8uk
Very grateful Igor Bonacossa Pereira, Dat Le & Massimo Hilliard @hilliardlab.bsky.social for their creativity & passion.
Read more about it 👉
tinyurl.com/56awjda5
& 👉 tinyurl.com/2vp8p8uk
An epidermal membrane-associated periodic skeleton restricts endocytosis to stabilize neuron-epidermal attachment and preserve axons
An epidermal membrane periodic scaffold protects axons from damage.
tinyurl.com
January 8, 2026 at 12:01 PM
good stuff!
"Before we were born did you already make unfunny jokes, or did you only start when we were born because then they're dad jokes?"
January 7, 2026 at 12:22 AM
"Before we were born did you already make unfunny jokes, or did you only start when we were born because then they're dad jokes?"
Reposted by Max Heiman
How do cells fabricate nanoscale extracellular matrix structures? Inagaki, Hayashi et al. @riken-bdr.bsky.social show that the ER network stimulates complex remodeling of the plasma membrane, thereby patterning nanoscale cuticular pore formation in insect sensilla. rupress.org/jcb/article/...
January 6, 2026 at 7:02 PM
How do cells fabricate nanoscale extracellular matrix structures? Inagaki, Hayashi et al. @riken-bdr.bsky.social show that the ER network stimulates complex remodeling of the plasma membrane, thereby patterning nanoscale cuticular pore formation in insect sensilla. rupress.org/jcb/article/...
Reposted by Max Heiman
In #GENETICS, @inechipurenko.bsky.social and colleagues studied the effects of mutations in the GNAI1, a G protein–coupled receptor gene, identifying their effects on ciliogenesis in human cells and #Celegans. buff.ly/MF1bSVn
December 31, 2025 at 7:03 PM
In #GENETICS, @inechipurenko.bsky.social and colleagues studied the effects of mutations in the GNAI1, a G protein–coupled receptor gene, identifying their effects on ciliogenesis in human cells and #Celegans. buff.ly/MF1bSVn
Reposted by Max Heiman
Modern biology research is biased towards investigating genes that are widely conserved and present in humans. What about genes that ARE widely conserved but NOT present in humans? Can genes missing from humans tell us something about what makes our biology different from that of other animals? 1/8
December 31, 2025 at 7:29 PM
Modern biology research is biased towards investigating genes that are widely conserved and present in humans. What about genes that ARE widely conserved but NOT present in humans? Can genes missing from humans tell us something about what makes our biology different from that of other animals? 1/8
i.makeagif.com
December 31, 2025 at 10:03 PM
The likelihood scale adopted by the IPCC for discussing climate change outcomes may be relevant.
Here is one article about it:
link.springer.com/article/10.1...
Here is one article about it:
link.springer.com/article/10.1...
Confidence levels and likelihood terms in IPCC reports: a survey of experts from different scientific disciplines - Climatic Change
Scientific assessments, such as those by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), inform policymakers and the public about the state of scientific evidence and related uncertainties. We s...
link.springer.com
December 31, 2025 at 2:59 PM
The likelihood scale adopted by the IPCC for discussing climate change outcomes may be relevant.
Here is one article about it:
link.springer.com/article/10.1...
Here is one article about it:
link.springer.com/article/10.1...
"Snowflakes! What a classic peaceful New England --"
Cardinals: "Fill the feeder you lazy @$#%"
Cardinals: "Fill the feeder you lazy @$#%"
December 25, 2025 at 4:01 PM
"Snowflakes! What a classic peaceful New England --"
Cardinals: "Fill the feeder you lazy @$#%"
Cardinals: "Fill the feeder you lazy @$#%"