闵娅(Min Ya; Minya) PhD
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minyaaa.bsky.social
闵娅(Min Ya; Minya) PhD
@minyaaa.bsky.social
Assist Prof at UIUC Plant Bio #NewPI. NSF Postdoc UConn EEB. PhD Harvard OEB. Erasmus MEME evobio alumna. She/Her. Lover of ALL plants.
🧪🔬🌱🌾
Development; Evolution; Evo-Devo; Microscopy; Meristems.
Lived in 🇨🇳🇯🇵🇸🇪🇫🇷🇩🇪🇺🇸
www.minyaaa.com
Pinned
Very happy to share that this paper is now online on @currentbiology.bsky.social !! 🥳🧪 Check out the final published verion here: www.cell.com/current-biol...
#mimuluspropaganda
Reposted by 闵娅(Min Ya; Minya) PhD
A Postdoctoral Associate position is available in the Roeder Laboratory at Cornell University in Ithaca, NY with a focus on researching Polyploidy. Apply by March 1. Please spread the word. apps.hr.cornell.edu/recruiting/f...
February 14, 2026 at 9:14 PM
Reposted by 闵娅(Min Ya; Minya) PhD
Happy Valentine’s Day from the “love vine” - a parasitic plant parasitizing other plant parasites! #ValentinesDay
February 14, 2026 at 3:18 PM
Asked my Intro Plant Bio students to make Valentine's day plant meme using what they learned in class so far, and dang, it gives me SO MUCH joy seeing all the submissions.
Some of my favs here: #valentinesday #ib103 #iamabotanist #plantjoy @botsocamerica.bsky.social l @plantteaching.bsky.social
February 14, 2026 at 3:41 PM
Decided to transplant some plants in the greenhouse in between meetings - pure therapy session that I didn’t know I needed! #newPI
February 11, 2026 at 5:19 PM
Reposted by 闵娅(Min Ya; Minya) PhD
Fun news! @gcbias.bsky.social and I are teaching a 2-week online population genetics workshop this summer to raise money for the Center for Population Biology at UC Davis. We're trying to gauge interest -- please fill this out if you might be interested! And please share broadly!
Davis Summer Population Genomics Program
Want to learn population genetics? Please fill out this form to indicate your potential interest in a 2-week intensive online summer population genetics course taught by Jeffrey Ross-Ibarra and Graham...
docs.google.com
February 9, 2026 at 6:24 PM
Reposted by 闵娅(Min Ya; Minya) PhD
Final phase of #TattooYourResearch, working with the original XRM scan data of the young soybean flower used by the brilliant and talented Adriana from Self Inflicted Studios (St. Louis).
February 6, 2026 at 9:32 PM
Reposted by 闵娅(Min Ya; Minya) PhD
This week in @science.org, a celebration of plant pangenomes. A pangenome analysis for massively polyploid sugarcane species, and one for Brassica rapa giving insight into subspeciation.

What's all the fuss about pangenomes? Pamela and Douglas Soltis explore this in an insightful Perspective(1/4)
February 6, 2026 at 9:57 AM
I thought NSF PRFB is back but it turned out it's NSF AI PRFB is here. Regardless, if you're interested in evo-devo in flowers, definitely reach out - we will put some AI in to get real work done! #PRFB #postdoc
Holy shit: it's an RFP for the NSF Postdoctoral Research Fellowship in Biology (PRFB). Hello old friend www.nsf.gov/funding/oppo...
Postdoctoral Research Fellowships in Biology (PRFB)
www.nsf.gov
February 6, 2026 at 4:08 PM
This semester so far has been INSANELY busy so I haven't been on the bench for a very long time. Finally found some time to squeeze in some PCR today, while grabbing my pipette, I noticed this little sticker hidden behind it and instantly I'm like 🥹🥹🥹🥹🥹🥹 #newPI
February 5, 2026 at 4:25 PM
Reposted by 闵娅(Min Ya; Minya) PhD
NSF GRFP applicants (and mentors): Was your application Returned Without Review and deemed ineligible despite fitting in the allowed topics?
1) Write NSF
2) Write your Congressperson
3) CC us at [email protected] so we can compile + follow up

Details and template at grant-witness.us/grfp-letter
February 2, 2026 at 5:58 PM
Reposted by 闵娅(Min Ya; Minya) PhD
Out First Release in @science.org this week:
A feedback loop allows two shoot stem cell populations to respond differently to environmental conditions: www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

#plantscience
A negative feedback loop between TERMINAL FLOWER1 and LEAFY protects inflorescence indeterminacy
Inflorescences of flowering plants adopt diverse genetically programmed and environmentally tuned architectures. By contrast, continued maintenance of the stem-cell pool within the apical meristem is ...
www.science.org
January 23, 2026 at 1:03 PM
Reposted by 闵娅(Min Ya; Minya) PhD
nph.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/share/JAIVZX...

Excited to share my latest work in @newphyt.bsky.social. Here, we used TurboID proximity labeling with CLAVATA receptors FEA3 and BAM1D in maize meristems to better understand the signaling pathways important for meristem regulation. #PlantScience
January 26, 2026 at 5:34 PM
8 meters and not a tree?!?!? 🤯🤯🤯🤯🤯
Our paper on the mysterious Devonian organism Prototaxites has now finally been published! See the paper here (www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...) and our explainer thread below!
Prototaxites reconstruction by Matt Humpage
January 21, 2026 at 11:08 PM
First day of class! Ran word cloud with my students and I'm more than entertained lol 🌽🌽🌽🌽🌽
January 21, 2026 at 12:37 AM
Reposted by 闵娅(Min Ya; Minya) PhD
Sphagnum moss

Imaged live on the FV4000, a new, paradigm shifting, laser scanning confocal microscope from Evident LifeScience (aka Olympus).

Green is from the Hyaline Cells and the red from the [chloroplasts in the] Chlorophyllose cells

#sciart #microscopes #moss (scale noted in the Alt-text)
September 13, 2024 at 8:21 PM
Reposted by 闵娅(Min Ya; Minya) PhD
Slime mold, Badhamia utricularis - about 1.5cm wide. NWT, Canada.
#slimemould #fungifriends
January 8, 2026 at 7:54 PM
SO EXCITED!!!
January 8, 2026 at 7:57 PM
Happy winter solstice to everyone from my beautiful hometown Chengdu (where gingko leaves are still hanging on the branches shockingly)!
December 22, 2025 at 2:11 AM
Reposted by 闵娅(Min Ya; Minya) PhD
Join us! We are going to have a ton of fun this summer with 2 week projects on plant and animal morphogenesis! @maizel-lab.org is leading a module. For my section we are going to live image developing leaves.
Advanced grad students + postdocs: apply for the 2026 #kitpqbio summer course, "Physical Principles of Morphogenesis in Plants and Animals," at buff.ly/OXXMKEv. Apply by Feb. 1.
Course directors Adrienne Roeder (Cornell) and Sebastian Streichan (UCSB)
December 18, 2025 at 5:40 PM
Reposted by 闵娅(Min Ya; Minya) PhD
Check our new preprint! How the petal identity gene PhDEF behaves differently in the epidermis and mesophyll, in petunia flowers (1/n)
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...
Interplay between petal identity and cell layer identity in petunia flowers
In flowering plants, floral organ identity is specified by the combinatorial action of homeotic genes. While the role of these genes in the early specification of organ identity is well established, t...
www.biorxiv.org
December 15, 2025 at 8:18 AM
Reposted by 闵娅(Min Ya; Minya) PhD
We 💚 the Stranger Plants—and now they’re on #BSAswag!

The shirts feature bold illustrations by BSA’s own Catrina Adams, with a list of each species by common & scientific name on the back.

BSA members (exp. 2026+) get 10% off—email [email protected] for code.

www.bonfire.com/store/bsa-wi...
December 12, 2025 at 4:29 PM
Reposted by 闵娅(Min Ya; Minya) PhD
Lichens on a stick. Left to right - Vulpicidia, Xanthoria (I think), Physcia, and Hypogymnia. Northwest Territories, Canada.
#lichen #fungi #fungifriends
December 10, 2025 at 11:38 PM
Reposted by 闵娅(Min Ya; Minya) PhD
The 2026 Guarda Summer Course in Evolutionary Biology is now accepting applications. Amazing place, amazing course, amazing opportunity for early grad students.

tb.ethz.ch/education/gu...
Summer school:<br> Evolutionary Biology in Guarda
Information about the annual summer school Evolutionary Biology in Guarda
tb.ethz.ch
December 10, 2025 at 2:24 PM
Reposted by 闵娅(Min Ya; Minya) PhD
A resurrection study of scarlet monkeyflower populations across the species' range finds relatively little adaptive response to a seven-year drought event, showing that evolutionary rescue is not as predictable as we might hope 🌿

buff.ly/L8o4hhr
December 10, 2025 at 2:15 PM