Tim Stearns
@stearnslab.bsky.social
Professor and Dean of The Rockefeller University. Cell biologist in NYC. Believer in the power of science education.
Reposted by Tim Stearns
NYC Postdocs! Interesting in using comedy in the creative scientific process? NYC Postdoc Night Science will have its first 2026 meeting on Feb. 11 at @nyumedpostdocs.bsky.social. I'll lead this with the amazing stand-up comedian Sarah Adelman!
Free registration: docs.google.com/forms/d/11Sz...
Free registration: docs.google.com/forms/d/11Sz...
January 21, 2026 at 11:49 PM
NYC Postdocs! Interesting in using comedy in the creative scientific process? NYC Postdoc Night Science will have its first 2026 meeting on Feb. 11 at @nyumedpostdocs.bsky.social. I'll lead this with the amazing stand-up comedian Sarah Adelman!
Free registration: docs.google.com/forms/d/11Sz...
Free registration: docs.google.com/forms/d/11Sz...
Reposted by Tim Stearns
Can we design mutations that bias proteins towards desired conformational states?
Today in @science.org, we introduce Conformational Biasing (CB), a simple and scalable computational method that uses contrastive scoring by inverse folding models to identify conformation-biasing mutations.
Today in @science.org, we introduce Conformational Biasing (CB), a simple and scalable computational method that uses contrastive scoring by inverse folding models to identify conformation-biasing mutations.
Computational design of conformation-biasing mutations to alter protein functions
Conformational biasing (CB) is a rapid and streamlined computational method that uses contrastive scoring by inverse folding models to predict protein variants biased toward desired conformational sta...
www.science.org
January 8, 2026 at 7:08 PM
Can we design mutations that bias proteins towards desired conformational states?
Today in @science.org, we introduce Conformational Biasing (CB), a simple and scalable computational method that uses contrastive scoring by inverse folding models to identify conformation-biasing mutations.
Today in @science.org, we introduce Conformational Biasing (CB), a simple and scalable computational method that uses contrastive scoring by inverse folding models to identify conformation-biasing mutations.
Reposted by Tim Stearns
Our attempt to give multinucleate cells the spotlight they deserve (seriously, they’re everywhere), led by the fearless @mrosjac.bsky.social and with @Markus Ganter
doi.org/10.32942/X2M...
We’d love your feedback while this goes through the peer review process!
#MicroEvoSky
#ProtistsonSky 🧪🌏
doi.org/10.32942/X2M...
We’d love your feedback while this goes through the peer review process!
#MicroEvoSky
#ProtistsonSky 🧪🌏
November 26, 2025 at 2:05 PM
Our attempt to give multinucleate cells the spotlight they deserve (seriously, they’re everywhere), led by the fearless @mrosjac.bsky.social and with @Markus Ganter
doi.org/10.32942/X2M...
We’d love your feedback while this goes through the peer review process!
#MicroEvoSky
#ProtistsonSky 🧪🌏
doi.org/10.32942/X2M...
We’d love your feedback while this goes through the peer review process!
#MicroEvoSky
#ProtistsonSky 🧪🌏
Reposted by Tim Stearns
Great talk (and work 🧪 ) by @computingcaitie.bsky.social from @biozentrum.unibas.ch about exploring multiciliated cells with a complementary trio of structural techniques! Looking forward to sharing the preprint. Thanks for the fab collab @centriolelab.bsky.social @stearnslab.bsky.social #TeamTomo
Next up @computingcaitie.bsky.social from @cellarchlab.com marvels us with in situ structural biology of mammalian motile cilia base- power of #cryoET with #XL-MS & #UExM! Stunning cataloguing of MIPs in different axial positions & cilia types, filamentous actin in action. #UKCilia2025 /3
November 25, 2025 at 7:30 PM
Great talk (and work 🧪 ) by @computingcaitie.bsky.social from @biozentrum.unibas.ch about exploring multiciliated cells with a complementary trio of structural techniques! Looking forward to sharing the preprint. Thanks for the fab collab @centriolelab.bsky.social @stearnslab.bsky.social #TeamTomo
Reposted by Tim Stearns
Are you a postdoc in NYC? Come hang out with us at Postdoc Night Science! We are hosting the event at Columbia on Dec 3 at 5PM. Meet other NYC postdocs as well as @itaiyanai.bsky.social & @stearnslab.bsky.social to talk science & creativity! 🧬🧪
Make sure to use the QR code on the poster to sign up!
Make sure to use the QR code on the poster to sign up!
November 23, 2025 at 12:59 PM
Are you a postdoc in NYC? Come hang out with us at Postdoc Night Science! We are hosting the event at Columbia on Dec 3 at 5PM. Meet other NYC postdocs as well as @itaiyanai.bsky.social & @stearnslab.bsky.social to talk science & creativity! 🧬🧪
Make sure to use the QR code on the poster to sign up!
Make sure to use the QR code on the poster to sign up!
Reposted by Tim Stearns
Hot off the press! Our latest paper led by @fernpizza.bsky.social, understanding how plasmids evolve inside cells. These small, self-replicating DNA circles live inside bacteria and carry antibiotic resistance genes, but also compete with one another to replicate. 1/
www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...
www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...
Intracellular competition shapes plasmid population dynamics
From populations of multicellular organisms to selfish genetic elements, conflicts between levels of biological organization are central to evolution. Plasmids are extrachromosomal, self-replicating g...
www.science.org
November 20, 2025 at 9:42 PM
Hot off the press! Our latest paper led by @fernpizza.bsky.social, understanding how plasmids evolve inside cells. These small, self-replicating DNA circles live inside bacteria and carry antibiotic resistance genes, but also compete with one another to replicate. 1/
www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...
www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...
Reposted by Tim Stearns
My dept. is hiring a microbiologist (broadly defined)! We are a deeply curious and friendly dept. with lots of enthusiasm for unusual systems and strengths in regeneration & dev bio, ecology & evolution, and circadian rhythms. I highly encourage anyone to apply: ukjobs.uky.edu/postings/600....
Assistant or Associate Professor in Microbiology
The Department of Biology in the College of Arts and Sciences at the University of Kentucky in Lexington, KY seeks to fill a tenure-eligible faculty position at the Assistant or Associate Professor le...
ukjobs.uky.edu
October 1, 2025 at 2:20 PM
My dept. is hiring a microbiologist (broadly defined)! We are a deeply curious and friendly dept. with lots of enthusiasm for unusual systems and strengths in regeneration & dev bio, ecology & evolution, and circadian rhythms. I highly encourage anyone to apply: ukjobs.uky.edu/postings/600....
Reposted by Tim Stearns
Beautiful drawing of ciliogenesis in airway cells from Sorokin, 1968: journals.biologists.com/jcs/article/.... Just shown on stage by @mahjoublab.bsky.social at #GEF25
September 30, 2025 at 7:41 AM
Beautiful drawing of ciliogenesis in airway cells from Sorokin, 1968: journals.biologists.com/jcs/article/.... Just shown on stage by @mahjoublab.bsky.social at #GEF25
Reposted by Tim Stearns
Interested in learning how to be a good speaker and give effective talks? Season 2 of the NYC Postdoc Night Science Club begins October 15th. Join us NYC Postdocs for a 2hr workshop and maybe also a drink at a bar! Free registration (usually ~100 come): docs.google.com/forms/d/1dII...
September 30, 2025 at 1:40 PM
Interested in learning how to be a good speaker and give effective talks? Season 2 of the NYC Postdoc Night Science Club begins October 15th. Join us NYC Postdocs for a 2hr workshop and maybe also a drink at a bar! Free registration (usually ~100 come): docs.google.com/forms/d/1dII...
Reposted by Tim Stearns
A new study in ants from @danielkronauer.bsky.social reveals a previously unknown mechanism that ensures that each olfactory neuron expresses only one odorant receptor, with broad implications for the study of gene regulation. #RockefellerScience
https://bit.ly/4pwPFLY
https://bit.ly/4pwPFLY
September 19, 2025 at 3:30 PM
A new study in ants from @danielkronauer.bsky.social reveals a previously unknown mechanism that ensures that each olfactory neuron expresses only one odorant receptor, with broad implications for the study of gene regulation. #RockefellerScience
https://bit.ly/4pwPFLY
https://bit.ly/4pwPFLY
Frank Stahl was a visiting scientist in the lab next to where I was a grad student at MIT in the 1980's. He loved nothing more than doing experiments with phage lambda, staring at the plaques through a pair of magnifying goggles, thinking about recombination. www.nytimes.com/2025/07/07/s...
Franklin W. Stahl, 95, Dies; Helped Create a ‘Beautiful’ DNA Experiment
www.nytimes.com
July 8, 2025 at 11:04 PM
Frank Stahl was a visiting scientist in the lab next to where I was a grad student at MIT in the 1980's. He loved nothing more than doing experiments with phage lambda, staring at the plaques through a pair of magnifying goggles, thinking about recombination. www.nytimes.com/2025/07/07/s...
Reposted by Tim Stearns
RIP Franklin W. Stahl (1929–2025)
here is Frank explaining semiconservative replication of DNA in the marvelous interview from 2020 together with Matt Meselson (youtu.be/7-tnuAqEp9g)
here is Frank explaining semiconservative replication of DNA in the marvelous interview from 2020 together with Matt Meselson (youtu.be/7-tnuAqEp9g)
July 8, 2025 at 10:45 AM
RIP Franklin W. Stahl (1929–2025)
here is Frank explaining semiconservative replication of DNA in the marvelous interview from 2020 together with Matt Meselson (youtu.be/7-tnuAqEp9g)
here is Frank explaining semiconservative replication of DNA in the marvelous interview from 2020 together with Matt Meselson (youtu.be/7-tnuAqEp9g)
UCSF Asilomar retreat t-shirt, 1990
July 7, 2025 at 12:55 PM
UCSF Asilomar retreat t-shirt, 1990
Good to see acknowledgment from industry about the importance of fundamental research funding. We need more industry leaders to step up to make this point to Congress. www.statnews.com/2025/06/27/b...
Proposed cuts could have ‘catastrophic effect,’ 110 biomedical, health sciences industry leaders tell Congress
Proposed cuts will have “a catastrophic effect on the advancement of biomedical and biotechnology capabilities in the United States,” more than 100 leaders of biomedical/health sciences companies tell...
www.statnews.com
July 1, 2025 at 1:27 AM
Good to see acknowledgment from industry about the importance of fundamental research funding. We need more industry leaders to step up to make this point to Congress. www.statnews.com/2025/06/27/b...
Reposted by Tim Stearns
Thank you, Tim! The Last Class film about Robert Reich is playing in NYC throughout this week at the wonderful Quad Cinema Greenwich Village through Thursday, July 3. Tickets available now here: quadcinema.com/film/the-las...
June 30, 2025 at 3:08 AM
Thank you, Tim! The Last Class film about Robert Reich is playing in NYC throughout this week at the wonderful Quad Cinema Greenwich Village through Thursday, July 3. Tickets available now here: quadcinema.com/film/the-las...
Saw the new film by @elliotkirschner.bsky.social about Robert Reich’s last class taught at UC Berkeley. It’s a film about @rbreich.bsky.social’s remarkable life, but also about the power of teaching and the classroom. Check it out!
June 29, 2025 at 8:30 PM
Saw the new film by @elliotkirschner.bsky.social about Robert Reich’s last class taught at UC Berkeley. It’s a film about @rbreich.bsky.social’s remarkable life, but also about the power of teaching and the classroom. Check it out!
About the art of writing, but applies to doing science, too.
Happy birthday to the prophetess Octavia Butler. We live in the times she foretold. From her notebooks.
June 23, 2025 at 12:30 AM
About the art of writing, but applies to doing science, too.
Court invalidates NSF 15% indirect cost cap. Strong ruling. storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.us...
June 20, 2025 at 11:45 PM
Court invalidates NSF 15% indirect cost cap. Strong ruling. storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.us...
An amazing group of Freeman Hrabowski Scholars from @hhmi.org !
Great to see Steve Bonilla, who is off to an outstanding start at @rockefelleruniv.bsky.social
www.hhmi.org/programs/fre...
Great to see Steve Bonilla, who is off to an outstanding start at @rockefelleruniv.bsky.social
www.hhmi.org/programs/fre...
The 2025 Freeman Hrabowski Scholars | HHMI
Freeman Hrabowski Scholars are outstanding early career faculty who have the potential to become leaders in their research fields.
www.hhmi.org
June 20, 2025 at 11:22 PM
An amazing group of Freeman Hrabowski Scholars from @hhmi.org !
Great to see Steve Bonilla, who is off to an outstanding start at @rockefelleruniv.bsky.social
www.hhmi.org/programs/fre...
Great to see Steve Bonilla, who is off to an outstanding start at @rockefelleruniv.bsky.social
www.hhmi.org/programs/fre...
Reposted by Tim Stearns
🚨 New preprint!
Using U-ExM + in situ cryo-ET, we show how C2CD3 builds an in-to-out radial architecture connecting the distal centriole lumen to its appendages. Great collab with @cellarchlab.com @chgenoud.bsky.social @stearnslab.bsky.social 🙌. #TeamTomo #UExM
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
Using U-ExM + in situ cryo-ET, we show how C2CD3 builds an in-to-out radial architecture connecting the distal centriole lumen to its appendages. Great collab with @cellarchlab.com @chgenoud.bsky.social @stearnslab.bsky.social 🙌. #TeamTomo #UExM
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
June 19, 2025 at 8:58 AM
🚨 New preprint!
Using U-ExM + in situ cryo-ET, we show how C2CD3 builds an in-to-out radial architecture connecting the distal centriole lumen to its appendages. Great collab with @cellarchlab.com @chgenoud.bsky.social @stearnslab.bsky.social 🙌. #TeamTomo #UExM
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
Using U-ExM + in situ cryo-ET, we show how C2CD3 builds an in-to-out radial architecture connecting the distal centriole lumen to its appendages. Great collab with @cellarchlab.com @chgenoud.bsky.social @stearnslab.bsky.social 🙌. #TeamTomo #UExM
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
Reposted by Tim Stearns
Woo! Very excited to share our collaborative work on the centriole's Luminal Distal Ring ⭕. This project started 13 years ago with @hugovdhoek.bsky.social & @stearnslab.bsky.social, and then beautifully came together with @computingcaitie.bsky.social & @centriolelab.bsky.social.
#TeamTomo #UExM 🧪🧶🧬🔬
#TeamTomo #UExM 🧪🧶🧬🔬
🚨 New preprint!
Using U-ExM + in situ cryo-ET, we show how C2CD3 builds an in-to-out radial architecture connecting the distal centriole lumen to its appendages. Great collab with @cellarchlab.com @chgenoud.bsky.social @stearnslab.bsky.social 🙌. #TeamTomo #UExM
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
Using U-ExM + in situ cryo-ET, we show how C2CD3 builds an in-to-out radial architecture connecting the distal centriole lumen to its appendages. Great collab with @cellarchlab.com @chgenoud.bsky.social @stearnslab.bsky.social 🙌. #TeamTomo #UExM
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
June 19, 2025 at 9:41 AM
Woo! Very excited to share our collaborative work on the centriole's Luminal Distal Ring ⭕. This project started 13 years ago with @hugovdhoek.bsky.social & @stearnslab.bsky.social, and then beautifully came together with @computingcaitie.bsky.social & @centriolelab.bsky.social.
#TeamTomo #UExM 🧪🧶🧬🔬
#TeamTomo #UExM 🧪🧶🧬🔬
Reposted by Tim Stearns
I heard this morning that my informatics colleague Dr. Atul Butte passed after a battle with cancer. He was a giant in the field & inspired many of us over his distinguished career. He was a passionate champion of the power of big data & his impact on our field is immeasurable. RIP Atul & thanks.
June 14, 2025 at 1:20 PM
I heard this morning that my informatics colleague Dr. Atul Butte passed after a battle with cancer. He was a giant in the field & inspired many of us over his distinguished career. He was a passionate champion of the power of big data & his impact on our field is immeasurable. RIP Atul & thanks.
RIP Dick Garwin, who I had the pleasure of working alongside every summer for more than 20 years. A brilliant thinker and compassionate person, Dick is the perfect example of how high-level science advice has been critical to the success of the U.S. www.nytimes.com/2025/05/14/s...
Richard L. Garwin, a Creator of the Hydrogen Bomb, Dies at 97
www.nytimes.com
May 15, 2025 at 4:22 PM
RIP Dick Garwin, who I had the pleasure of working alongside every summer for more than 20 years. A brilliant thinker and compassionate person, Dick is the perfect example of how high-level science advice has been critical to the success of the U.S. www.nytimes.com/2025/05/14/s...