Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

Howard Salis

@hsalis.bsky.social

1.2K followers 810 following 120 posts

Professor of synthetic biology, biological, & chemical engineering. De Novo DNA founder. Engineering microbes with predictive models & algorithms.

Posts Media Videos Starter Packs

Pinned

Howard Salis @hsalis.bsky.social · Dec 2

NEW paper 🚨! We engineered TNT sensors in soil bacteria for long-term detection of explosive in natural soil, enabling geospatial detection of contaminated soil. This work (led by Erin Essington) included new sensors, circuits, modeling, & a 28-day testing workflow. 1/
www.nature.com/articles/s41...

An autonomous microbial sensor enables long-term detection of TNT explosive in natural soil - Nature Communications

Engineered microbes can detect harmful chemicals, but may not work well in complex environments. Here, the authors built microbial sensors for detection of TNT explosive and tested their response over...

www.nature.com

6 30 75

Howard Salis @hsalis.bsky.social · Jul 27

Passing through Coralville, IA!
Shout out to IDT!!

Howard Salis @hsalis.bsky.social · Jul 21

That tiniest of moments when a devops restarts their load balancer

Howard Salis @hsalis.bsky.social · Jul 10

Need to remove any repetitive DNA via redesign …

Howard Salis @hsalis.bsky.social · Jun 22

Putida is also used in bioconversion of cellulosic hydrolysate to FDCA (2,5-Furandicarboxylic acid)

Reposted by Howard Salis

capitolhunters @capitolhunters.bsky.social · Jun 15

It's an OK article but the tag line should be "Trump illegally cancels Northwestern's contracts and refuses to pay them", not "Trump blew up Northwestern's business model". If you hold up a bank at gunpoint and abscond with bags of money you're not "blowing up its business model". You're stealing.

1 1 18

Howard Salis @hsalis.bsky.social · Jun 15

All these ML-centric rewordings of old ideas is getting tired.

Next someone will write a perspective comparing evolution and reinforcement learning.

Or ensemble modeling as wisdom of the crowd.

Boring!

Howard Salis @hsalis.bsky.social · Jun 13

EPIGENETIC HULK WAS WAITING FOR GREENSKY.

EPIGENETIC HULK THEN REALIZED THAT HIGH-ENERGY SMASH CAUSES BLUE-SHIFT.

MORE SMASH MORE BLUESKY

Howard Salis @hsalis.bsky.social · Mar 21

Every compiler error in tech would be a dead person in biotech.

Howard Salis @hsalis.bsky.social · Mar 21

What a shitty time to run out.

1 7

Reposted by Howard Salis

Jason Rasgon @vectorgen.bsky.social · Mar 10

As a Jew looking at the administration's sudden "concern" over University antisemitism

2 3 10

Reposted by Howard Salis

Mark Peifer (He, him) @peiferlabunc.bsky.social · Mar 1

In a remarkable new paper, Qureshi and Duss use multi-colour single-molecule fluorescence microscopy to directly and simultaneously track transcription, translation & coupling 3/n
www.nature.com/articles/s41...

3 21 60

Reposted by Howard Salis

Mark Hamill @markhamillofficial.bsky.social · Feb 28

Could not agree more. The Prez & VP are shameful, embarrassing Putin puppets & a disgrace to our country. 🤮

#SlavaUkraine 🇺🇦

1.6K 13K 66K

Reposted by Howard Salis

Joseph Fasano @josephfasano.bsky.social · Feb 27

5 34 170

Reposted by Howard Salis

A.R. Moxon @juliusgoat.bsky.social · Feb 20

Normalize calling Republicans Nazis.

WuTangIsForTheChildren @wutangforchildren.bsky.social · Feb 20

🔥🔥🔥 Former Vikings punter Chris Kluwe was arrested for civil disobedience after speaking against a MAGA display that the city council of Huntington Beach agreed to put up at the public library…..that’s what’s up….every word👇

15 260 1.2K

Howard Salis @hsalis.bsky.social · Feb 18

Wowzers the SNL 50th anniversary special was truly fantastic and man did I need to laugh a bit to cleanse the soul after the last two weeks.

My favorite bit: youtu.be/l8GbTZ8v1-w?...

The whole Shebang is streaming on Peacock.

New York 50th Musical – SNL50

YouTube video by Saturday Night Live

youtu.be

Howard Salis @hsalis.bsky.social · Feb 16

Excellent reason to only use defined, designed barcodes (flanking inserts) and identify/filter out any discordant barcode pairs.

Random barcodes == you never know what you're going to get!

Reposted by Howard Salis

bioRxiv Synthetic Biology @biorxiv-synthbio.bsky.social · Feb 16

Simultaneous in vitro expression of minimal 21 transfer RNAs by tRNA array method https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.02.15.638384v1

4 6

Reposted by Howard Salis

Jeremy Berg @jeremymberg.bsky.social · Feb 14

I am hearing that about 1/2 of the ARPA-H staff were probationary and are being let go. Many of these folks are long-time NIHers who were promoted into new positions in ARPA-H and became probationary in these new positions despite many years of NIH service.

10 67 160

Reposted by Howard Salis

Angel Goñi-Moreno @angelgm.bsky.social · Feb 14

Today's the day! Getting ready for the workshop on #AI in #Biology. While these fields aren’t new (of course!), the intersection of the two is having a major moment right now.

Angel Goñi-Moreno @angelgm.bsky.social · Jan 28

Looking forward to this timely workshop on #AI in #Biology at @cnb-csic.bsky.social (Feb 14)! Excited to hear from experts like @hsalis.bsky.social , @alfonsovalencia.bsky.social , @noeliaferruz.bsky.social , @pablocarb.bsky.social , and others. (Note: Won’t be streamed.) 🧬🤖 #Science #synbio

1 1 6

Reposted by Howard Salis

Shockratees @thatshockratees.bsky.social · Feb 11

Ok folks. Time for me to pull my law rank and correct some shit. When a judge issues a civil contempt order, she does not hand it to the prosecutor or AG and say “enforce this if you feel like it.” The judge hands it directly to a law enforcement officer, who has no discretion on whether to serve it

16 120 370

Reposted by Howard Salis

Victor de Lorenzo (CNB, Madrid) @vdlorenzo.bsky.social · Feb 14

Thrilled to have @hsalis.bsky.social as the keynote speaker for today’s workshop on AI in Biology! After a prologue of intense discussions, he follows the tradition of every visitor by stepping onto Km 0 at Puerta del Sol—the geographical center of Spain & a place of significance for every Madrileño

1 6

Howard Salis @hsalis.bsky.social · Feb 12

I feel sorry for anyone studying phospho-diesterase I (pDEI).

ecocyc.org/gene?orgid=E...

Escherichia coli K-12 substr. MG1655 pdeI

ecocyc.org

2 11

Reposted by Howard Salis

Josh Gerstein @joshgerstein.bsky.social · Feb 11

BREAKING: Federal judge in Boston broadens block on Trump's NIH grant 15% overhead limit (indirect cost rates) to all recipients nationwide. Doc: www.documentcloud.org/documents/25...
#TROpalooza ain't done

AAMCOrd021025

www.documentcloud.org

11 220 700

Howard Salis @hsalis.bsky.social · Feb 10

Fucking seriously......

Howard Salis @hsalis.bsky.social · Feb 10

Parties to suit: Massachusetts, Illinois, Michigan, Arizona, California, Connecticut, Colorado, Delaware, Hawaii, Maine, Maryland, Minnesota, Nevada, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, Oregon, Rhode Island, Vermont, Washington & Wisconsin.

WTF no Pennsylvania???

1 2 27