Needhi Bhalla 💅🏽
@needhibhalla.bsky.social
Cell biologist and geneticist, Professor, mom and consumer of alcohol. Those might all be related. I grind til I own it.
She/her/hers.
ORCID: 0000-0002-6859-0073
personal account
She/her/hers.
ORCID: 0000-0002-6859-0073
personal account
Pinned
Scaling back DEI programmes and the loss of scientific talent
Nature Cell Biology - Programmes that support diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) in science are under attack in the USA. Data indicate that diversity in the scientific workforce increases...
www.nature.com
@joann-trejo.bsky.social, @marymunson4.bsky.social and I have a commentary in @natcellbio.nature.com on recent attacks on DEI in biomedical research: "If scientific research, especially biomedical research, is meant to serve everyone, then it requires that everyone has an opportunity to participate"
Reposted by Needhi Bhalla 💅🏽
I'm just going to submit the manuscript to PMC and let the journal sue me. If they dare.
Does anyone have clarity on whether NIH open access requirements are satisfied by simply posting a paper on bioRxiv? Or are we required to pay the astronomical publication fees to journals?
grants.nih.gov/policy-and-c...
grants.nih.gov/policy-and-c...
Public Access | Grants & Funding
grants.nih.gov
February 18, 2026 at 11:31 PM
I'm just going to submit the manuscript to PMC and let the journal sue me. If they dare.
Reposted by Needhi Bhalla 💅🏽
MOOD. "i could anticipate what the critics are saying better than the critics. i could help them say it better"
-tressie mcmillan cottom
-tressie mcmillan cottom
February 18, 2026 at 10:33 PM
MOOD. "i could anticipate what the critics are saying better than the critics. i could help them say it better"
-tressie mcmillan cottom
-tressie mcmillan cottom
"I did not think the destruction would be this stupid. THAT was a surprise." WORD 🫠
Princeton isn't ready for all the bon mots about to be dropped!
lectures.princeton.edu/lectures/202...
lectures.princeton.edu/lectures/202...
Tressie McMillan Cottom and Kate Manne
Join us as Tressie McMillan Cottom and Kate Manne engage in a wide-ranging conversation on feminism, gender, race, culture, education, and current events. Tressie McMillan Cottom is is a sociologist,...
lectures.princeton.edu
February 18, 2026 at 10:50 PM
"I did not think the destruction would be this stupid. THAT was a surprise." WORD 🫠
Reposted by Needhi Bhalla 💅🏽
Princeton isn't ready for all the bon mots about to be dropped!
lectures.princeton.edu/lectures/202...
lectures.princeton.edu/lectures/202...
Tressie McMillan Cottom and Kate Manne
Join us as Tressie McMillan Cottom and Kate Manne engage in a wide-ranging conversation on feminism, gender, race, culture, education, and current events. Tressie McMillan Cottom is is a sociologist,...
lectures.princeton.edu
February 18, 2026 at 9:39 PM
Princeton isn't ready for all the bon mots about to be dropped!
lectures.princeton.edu/lectures/202...
lectures.princeton.edu/lectures/202...
Reposted by Needhi Bhalla 💅🏽
It sounds like a lot of people had to smack some sense into Prasad & RFK Jr. to stop them from upending vaccine approval with NO basis in science.
But serious damage has been done. Who's going to invest in new vaccines if a conspiracy theorist can block even a review on a whim?
But serious damage has been done. Who's going to invest in new vaccines if a conspiracy theorist can block even a review on a whim?
F.D.A. Reverses Decision and Agrees to Review Moderna’s Flu Vaccine
www.nytimes.com
February 18, 2026 at 9:54 PM
It sounds like a lot of people had to smack some sense into Prasad & RFK Jr. to stop them from upending vaccine approval with NO basis in science.
But serious damage has been done. Who's going to invest in new vaccines if a conspiracy theorist can block even a review on a whim?
But serious damage has been done. Who's going to invest in new vaccines if a conspiracy theorist can block even a review on a whim?
Reposted by Needhi Bhalla 💅🏽
Normalize laughing derisively in men's faces when they deserve it.
February 18, 2026 at 7:00 PM
Normalize laughing derisively in men's faces when they deserve it.
Reposted by Needhi Bhalla 💅🏽
How long does it take a Happy Meal to start working?
February 18, 2026 at 7:25 PM
How long does it take a Happy Meal to start working?
Reposted by Needhi Bhalla 💅🏽
BREAKING: NIH director Jay Bhattacharya will take on the additional role of acting director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, two administration officials told @sherylnyt.bsky.social on Wednesday.
Bhattacharya will also continue to run the NIH, she reports for @nytimes.com.
Bhattacharya will also continue to run the NIH, she reports for @nytimes.com.
N.I.H. Director Will Temporarily Run C.D.C. in Leadership Shake-Up
www.nytimes.com
February 18, 2026 at 6:53 PM
BREAKING: NIH director Jay Bhattacharya will take on the additional role of acting director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, two administration officials told @sherylnyt.bsky.social on Wednesday.
Bhattacharya will also continue to run the NIH, she reports for @nytimes.com.
Bhattacharya will also continue to run the NIH, she reports for @nytimes.com.
Reposted by Needhi Bhalla 💅🏽
Rev. Jesse Jackson built the Rainbow Coalition as a political home rooted in dignity and solidarity. That struggle continues here in New York City, in every fight for housing, justice, and equality.
Today, we lower our flags in his honor — and recommit to the movement he called us to build.
Today, we lower our flags in his honor — and recommit to the movement he called us to build.
February 18, 2026 at 5:35 PM
Rev. Jesse Jackson built the Rainbow Coalition as a political home rooted in dignity and solidarity. That struggle continues here in New York City, in every fight for housing, justice, and equality.
Today, we lower our flags in his honor — and recommit to the movement he called us to build.
Today, we lower our flags in his honor — and recommit to the movement he called us to build.
Reposted by Needhi Bhalla 💅🏽
This is the kind of thing white supremacists have been doing to Emmett Till’s memorial for decades.
It’s wild to see them do this to a white woman who the entire world saw extrajudicially murdered.
It’s wild to see them do this to a white woman who the entire world saw extrajudicially murdered.
Someone doused Renee Good’s Minneapolis memorial and a nearby pile of wood with gasoline and started a fire at about 9 p.m. Tuesday.
Renee Good memorial site in south Minneapolis doused in gasoline
Damage was minimal but police are investigating.
bit.ly
February 18, 2026 at 5:19 PM
This is the kind of thing white supremacists have been doing to Emmett Till’s memorial for decades.
It’s wild to see them do this to a white woman who the entire world saw extrajudicially murdered.
It’s wild to see them do this to a white woman who the entire world saw extrajudicially murdered.
Reposted by Needhi Bhalla 💅🏽
i really love @alexiscoe.bsky.social's biography of washington because she gets at exactly this: the fact that "george washington" is a character created by george washington, a man so consumed with presenting himself as an example of republican virtue that he became one
The Uncanny Artifice of George Washington
I got a number of fascinating replies to yesterday’s post about the...
talkingpointsmemo.com
February 18, 2026 at 4:29 PM
i really love @alexiscoe.bsky.social's biography of washington because she gets at exactly this: the fact that "george washington" is a character created by george washington, a man so consumed with presenting himself as an example of republican virtue that he became one
Reposted by Needhi Bhalla 💅🏽
There’s much more in the manuscript than can fit in a Bluesky thread. The full story is here: www.nature.com/articles/s41... 13/14
Ancient co-option of LTR retrotransposons as yeast centromeres - Nature
Evolutionarily related ‘proto-point’ centromeres providing resolution to the evolutionary origins of point centromeres are identified in yeast, and comparison shows they evolved in an ancestor with re...
www.nature.com
February 18, 2026 at 4:03 PM
There’s much more in the manuscript than can fit in a Bluesky thread. The full story is here: www.nature.com/articles/s41... 13/14
Reposted by Needhi Bhalla 💅🏽
In sum, point centromere DNA most likely arose by long-term domestication of Ty5-family LTR sequences (with identifiable intermediates, see also doi.org/10.1371/jour...), while 2µ is best explained as a later hitchhiker of the chromosome segregation environment rather than the source of it. 11/14
Centromeres in budding yeasts are conserved in chromosomal location but not in structure
Author summary Centromeres are an evolutionary paradox. Their molecular function is highly conserved, but their structures vary tremendously among eukaryotes. The “point” centromeres of the yeast Sacc...
doi.org
February 18, 2026 at 4:03 PM
In sum, point centromere DNA most likely arose by long-term domestication of Ty5-family LTR sequences (with identifiable intermediates, see also doi.org/10.1371/jour...), while 2µ is best explained as a later hitchhiker of the chromosome segregation environment rather than the source of it. 11/14
Reposted by Needhi Bhalla 💅🏽
Even more striking was that in two Saccharomycodales species, these proto-point centromeres are embedded within dense clusters of Ty5 LTR retrotransposons.
These are effectively “living fossil” centromeres.
8/14
These are effectively “living fossil” centromeres.
8/14
February 18, 2026 at 4:03 PM
Even more striking was that in two Saccharomycodales species, these proto-point centromeres are embedded within dense clusters of Ty5 LTR retrotransposons.
These are effectively “living fossil” centromeres.
8/14
These are effectively “living fossil” centromeres.
8/14
Reposted by Needhi Bhalla 💅🏽
We searched in the sister order Saccharomycodales and found what we term “proto-point” centromeres:
a single Cse4/CENP-A nucleosome
an AT-rich core
flanking motifs that are more relaxed and variable than in modern point centromeres
They look like evolutionary intermediates.
7/14
a single Cse4/CENP-A nucleosome
an AT-rich core
flanking motifs that are more relaxed and variable than in modern point centromeres
They look like evolutionary intermediates.
7/14
February 18, 2026 at 4:03 PM
We searched in the sister order Saccharomycodales and found what we term “proto-point” centromeres:
a single Cse4/CENP-A nucleosome
an AT-rich core
flanking motifs that are more relaxed and variable than in modern point centromeres
They look like evolutionary intermediates.
7/14
a single Cse4/CENP-A nucleosome
an AT-rich core
flanking motifs that are more relaxed and variable than in modern point centromeres
They look like evolutionary intermediates.
7/14
Reposted by Needhi Bhalla 💅🏽
Our paper is now out in Nature:
“Ancient co-option of LTR retrotransposons as yeast centromeres”
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
A short thread on how retrotransposons helped give rise to yeast point centromeres.
1/14
“Ancient co-option of LTR retrotransposons as yeast centromeres”
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
A short thread on how retrotransposons helped give rise to yeast point centromeres.
1/14
Ancient co-option of LTR retrotransposons as yeast centromeres - Nature
Evolutionarily related ‘proto-point’ centromeres providing resolution to the evolutionary origins of point centromeres are identified in yeast, and comparison shows they evolved in an ancestor with re...
www.nature.com
February 18, 2026 at 4:03 PM
Our paper is now out in Nature:
“Ancient co-option of LTR retrotransposons as yeast centromeres”
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
A short thread on how retrotransposons helped give rise to yeast point centromeres.
1/14
“Ancient co-option of LTR retrotransposons as yeast centromeres”
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
A short thread on how retrotransposons helped give rise to yeast point centromeres.
1/14
Reposted by Needhi Bhalla 💅🏽
My friend @alexisgoldstein.bsky.social was fired from the CFPB for standing up to DOGE. Now she’s running for Congress. www.democracynow.org/2026/2/18/al...
CFPB Staffer Alexis Goldstein Fired for Confronting DOGE Members, Announces Run for Congress
The Trump administration has fired Consumer Financial Protection Bureau program manager Alexis Goldstein for documenting a meeting a year ago between the agency and Elon Musk’s Department of Governmen...
www.democracynow.org
February 18, 2026 at 4:08 PM
My friend @alexisgoldstein.bsky.social was fired from the CFPB for standing up to DOGE. Now she’s running for Congress. www.democracynow.org/2026/2/18/al...
Reposted by Needhi Bhalla 💅🏽
In departure from norm, Coast Guard demands immigration papers on Louisiana docks
In St. Bernard Parish, fishing deckhands fear death and detention amid regular immigration sweeps – not by ICE, but the Coast Guard
lailluminator.com/2026/02/18/c...
In St. Bernard Parish, fishing deckhands fear death and detention amid regular immigration sweeps – not by ICE, but the Coast Guard
lailluminator.com/2026/02/18/c...
In departure from norm, Coast Guard demands immigration papers on Louisiana docks • Louisiana Illuminator
Seafood workers say that the Coast Guard, in a departure from the norm, has conducted about seven sweeps since early November, resulting in multiple arrests.
lailluminator.com
February 18, 2026 at 3:57 PM
In departure from norm, Coast Guard demands immigration papers on Louisiana docks
In St. Bernard Parish, fishing deckhands fear death and detention amid regular immigration sweeps – not by ICE, but the Coast Guard
lailluminator.com/2026/02/18/c...
In St. Bernard Parish, fishing deckhands fear death and detention amid regular immigration sweeps – not by ICE, but the Coast Guard
lailluminator.com/2026/02/18/c...
Just the biggest fucking losers
February 18, 2026 at 4:03 PM
Just the biggest fucking losers
Reposted by Needhi Bhalla 💅🏽
There hasn't been enough of a look back at agencies that have seen significant attrition during Trump's assault on the federal workforce. Today we do that with a profile on those who departed the VA health care system, many of them vets themselves. The system is struggling to survive.
How Trump Put Veteran Care in Crisis - The American Prospect
Thousands of staff have left the health care side of the Department of Veterans Affairs, and those who remain are approaching burnout.
prospect.org
February 18, 2026 at 4:01 PM
There hasn't been enough of a look back at agencies that have seen significant attrition during Trump's assault on the federal workforce. Today we do that with a profile on those who departed the VA health care system, many of them vets themselves. The system is struggling to survive.
Reposted by Needhi Bhalla 💅🏽
Great to see folks increasingly use "Epstein Class" as moniker. More potent and accurate still would be "Epstein Regime" as it's not merely a cohort but rather tied to the folks in political power and determined to rule over us.
February 18, 2026 at 1:46 AM
Great to see folks increasingly use "Epstein Class" as moniker. More potent and accurate still would be "Epstein Regime" as it's not merely a cohort but rather tied to the folks in political power and determined to rule over us.
Reposted by Needhi Bhalla 💅🏽
i have come to the view that there is an extent to which elites are projecting the salience of bigotry on the broad public. *they* are preoccupied with this stuff and so they imagine the public must be obsessed with it.
February 18, 2026 at 2:09 PM
i have come to the view that there is an extent to which elites are projecting the salience of bigotry on the broad public. *they* are preoccupied with this stuff and so they imagine the public must be obsessed with it.
Reposted by Needhi Bhalla 💅🏽
This makes it four Polk Awards for @statnews.com in five years — a credit to an incredibly talented staff.
www.prnewswire.com/news-release...
www.prnewswire.com/news-release...
LONG ISLAND UNIVERSITY ANNOUNCES 2024 GEORGE POLK AWARDS IN JOURNALISM
/PRNewswire/ -- Incisive reports from four areas of bloody conflict — Sudan, the Russian-Ukraine war zone, Israel's West Bank and Haiti — are among 15 winners...
www.prnewswire.com
February 18, 2026 at 3:38 PM
This makes it four Polk Awards for @statnews.com in five years — a credit to an incredibly talented staff.
www.prnewswire.com/news-release...
www.prnewswire.com/news-release...
Reposted by Needhi Bhalla 💅🏽
I argued in a piece I wrote in 2013 called ‘the frustrated gene’ that caps are an antiviral defense. Hence some viruses steal caps, other have their own capping enzymes, while others evolved IRESs. Here’s a virus that captured the entire cap recognition machinery. Conflicts begets comlexity.
Max Fels @mfels.bsky.social from our lab discovers giant DNA viruses that infect amoeba encode eIF4E and the entire suite of 4F complex proteins to control mRNA translation, including beautiful crystal structures of viral 4E bound to modified mRNA 5' caps:
www.cell.com/cell/fulltex...
www.cell.com/cell/fulltex...
February 18, 2026 at 7:08 AM
I argued in a piece I wrote in 2013 called ‘the frustrated gene’ that caps are an antiviral defense. Hence some viruses steal caps, other have their own capping enzymes, while others evolved IRESs. Here’s a virus that captured the entire cap recognition machinery. Conflicts begets comlexity.
Reposted by Needhi Bhalla 💅🏽
News piece in Science @science.org about Max's research:
"Giant viruses hijack their hosts’ protein factories"
www.science.org/content/arti...
"Giant viruses hijack their hosts’ protein factories"
www.science.org/content/arti...
February 17, 2026 at 6:18 PM
News piece in Science @science.org about Max's research:
"Giant viruses hijack their hosts’ protein factories"
www.science.org/content/arti...
"Giant viruses hijack their hosts’ protein factories"
www.science.org/content/arti...