Dave Baltrus 🦦
@surtlab.bsky.social
Professor at UArizona interested in genome rummaging, microbial evolution, and occasional tales about having backyard farm animals.
“I’m something of a scientist myself”
Baltrus(at)Arizona.edu
“I’m something of a scientist myself”
Baltrus(at)Arizona.edu
Reposted by Dave Baltrus 🦦
Dammit! UCLA fired eminent ecologist Dr. Priyanga Amarasekare anyway, after putting her through 3 years of hell for speaking her mind about diversity (and violating faculty code of conduct, of course). Her punishment began soon after she was honored with ESA’s Robert MacArthur award.
Terrible news
Terrible news
UC Board of Regents approves dismissal of tenured ecology professor - Daily Bruin
The UC Board of Regents approved the dismissal of a tenured UCLA professor Wednesday. Priyanga Amarasekare, an ecology and evolutionary biology professor who began at UCLA in 2005, was initially suspe...
dailybruin.com
January 24, 2026 at 2:34 AM
Dammit! UCLA fired eminent ecologist Dr. Priyanga Amarasekare anyway, after putting her through 3 years of hell for speaking her mind about diversity (and violating faculty code of conduct, of course). Her punishment began soon after she was honored with ESA’s Robert MacArthur award.
Terrible news
Terrible news
Reposted by Dave Baltrus 🦦
Remember when these guys lied that they were preserving Confederate monuments because you had to leave up the whole messy contested historical record rather than erasing history?
More than 400 years of history and a decade of advocacy were torn down Thursday afternoon when National Park Service employees removed every single display at the President’s House.
🔗 What's next? We explain: www.inquirer.com/politics/nat...
🔗 What's next? We explain: www.inquirer.com/politics/nat...
January 24, 2026 at 12:31 PM
Remember when these guys lied that they were preserving Confederate monuments because you had to leave up the whole messy contested historical record rather than erasing history?
Reposted by Dave Baltrus 🦦
Since Americans insist on parallels to Nazi-controlled Europe over the American history that inspired the Nazis, now is a good time to remind everyone that Anne Frank didn’t die in the gas chamber or by firing squad. She was kidnapped by the gestapo and died of typhus in a prison camp.
I’ve been writing Popular Information for 8 years, and this is one of the most important stories I’ve ever published. This is a humanitarian crisis that has gone unreported.
ICE has stopped paying for detainee medical treatment
ICE halted payments in October, and the situation will persist for at least several more months
popular.info
January 24, 2026 at 1:32 PM
Since Americans insist on parallels to Nazi-controlled Europe over the American history that inspired the Nazis, now is a good time to remind everyone that Anne Frank didn’t die in the gas chamber or by firing squad. She was kidnapped by the gestapo and died of typhus in a prison camp.
Reposted by Dave Baltrus 🦦
Four-time Grammy Award nominee Jesse Welles performs his song "Join Ice."
Bob Dylan once said a single folk singer could defeat an entire army. Ladies and gentlemen, I think we have our man.
Bob Dylan once said a single folk singer could defeat an entire army. Ladies and gentlemen, I think we have our man.
January 24, 2026 at 9:10 AM
Four-time Grammy Award nominee Jesse Welles performs his song "Join Ice."
Bob Dylan once said a single folk singer could defeat an entire army. Ladies and gentlemen, I think we have our man.
Bob Dylan once said a single folk singer could defeat an entire army. Ladies and gentlemen, I think we have our man.
Reposted by Dave Baltrus 🦦
A quorum-sensing molecule from Pseudomonas aeruginosa induces defensive multicellularity in a coinfecting pathogen
-in PNAS from @anukharelab.bsky.social
www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...
-in PNAS from @anukharelab.bsky.social
www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...
A quorum-sensing molecule from Pseudomonas aeruginosa induces defensive multicellularity in a coinfecting pathogen | PNAS
Microorganisms commonly exist in polymicrobial communities, where they can respond
to interspecies secreted molecules by altering behaviors and phy...
www.pnas.org
January 24, 2026 at 11:38 AM
A quorum-sensing molecule from Pseudomonas aeruginosa induces defensive multicellularity in a coinfecting pathogen
-in PNAS from @anukharelab.bsky.social
www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...
-in PNAS from @anukharelab.bsky.social
www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...
Reposted by Dave Baltrus 🦦
These things are getting elaborate
ITS A SCAM. THE JOB IS A SCAM.
Jfc this is so targeted. Recruiting emails. A nice website & game sample on Steam. Interview focusing on storyboarding skills. Portfolio review. Official employment letter. Onboarding emails across two days. Then they hit me with wanting me to cash a check. 😫
Jfc this is so targeted. Recruiting emails. A nice website & game sample on Steam. Interview focusing on storyboarding skills. Portfolio review. Official employment letter. Onboarding emails across two days. Then they hit me with wanting me to cash a check. 😫
January 24, 2026 at 3:31 AM
These things are getting elaborate
Reposted by Dave Baltrus 🦦
Seeing a bunch of normal ass midwestern moms and dads marching in -20 degrees knowing they might be tear gassed or worse really drives home what a cowardly lot of people the pundit class is
January 23, 2026 at 10:08 PM
Seeing a bunch of normal ass midwestern moms and dads marching in -20 degrees knowing they might be tear gassed or worse really drives home what a cowardly lot of people the pundit class is
Reposted by Dave Baltrus 🦦
in case you're curious about how angry Minnesota is about ICE, it was -20 today
January 24, 2026 at 12:38 AM
in case you're curious about how angry Minnesota is about ICE, it was -20 today
Reposted by Dave Baltrus 🦦
My former student Sofia wrote this story for @startribune.com. She’s less than a year out of college and helping cover the biggest story in the country. I am very proud of her.
Two women trained as first responders were abducted by three ICE agents. One of the agents starts seizing. The other two don’t know what to do. The women jump into action and save the agent’s life, only to be re-handcuffed and processed.
www.startribune.com/detained-by-...
www.startribune.com/detained-by-...
Detained by ICE, two women became first responders during agent’s seizure
The women say they guided agents through the emergency, later raising concerns about medical protocols, weapons safety and accountability.
www.startribune.com
January 24, 2026 at 1:38 AM
My former student Sofia wrote this story for @startribune.com. She’s less than a year out of college and helping cover the biggest story in the country. I am very proud of her.
Reposted by Dave Baltrus 🦦
Governed by people in admin with terminal brainrot
CNN: DHS officials have come to FEMA staff and told them to limit the use of the word ice…they are worried that by posting something like, watch out for the ice, that it's going to become a meme….
January 24, 2026 at 12:10 AM
Governed by people in admin with terminal brainrot
Reposted by Dave Baltrus 🦦
Reposted by Dave Baltrus 🦦
There are many serious governments in the world.
The US is not one of them.
(There are no penguins in Greenland.)
The US is not one of them.
(There are no penguins in Greenland.)
January 23, 2026 at 11:12 PM
There are many serious governments in the world.
The US is not one of them.
(There are no penguins in Greenland.)
The US is not one of them.
(There are no penguins in Greenland.)
It’s a little ecosystem…I bring in chicken food, mice eat chicken food, snake eats mice, circle of life
There’s a rattlesnake that lives under a food container in my chicken coop…and it’s been there for months/years
The chickens and snake all get along
Feels like children’s book potential
The chickens and snake all get along
Feels like children’s book potential
January 23, 2026 at 3:49 PM
It’s a little ecosystem…I bring in chicken food, mice eat chicken food, snake eats mice, circle of life
There’s a rattlesnake that lives under a food container in my chicken coop…and it’s been there for months/years
The chickens and snake all get along
Feels like children’s book potential
The chickens and snake all get along
Feels like children’s book potential
January 23, 2026 at 3:48 PM
There’s a rattlesnake that lives under a food container in my chicken coop…and it’s been there for months/years
The chickens and snake all get along
Feels like children’s book potential
The chickens and snake all get along
Feels like children’s book potential
🤔
I’m skeptical that this kind of thing could happen in actual cancer in a human body (as opposed to tissue culture in this manuscript), but if it can that’s paradigm shifting
I’m skeptical that this kind of thing could happen in actual cancer in a human body (as opposed to tissue culture in this manuscript), but if it can that’s paradigm shifting
Extracellular vesicles facilitate the horizontal transfer of drug resistance and stem-like properties between ovarian tumor cells https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.01.20.699925v1
January 23, 2026 at 10:53 AM
🤔
I’m skeptical that this kind of thing could happen in actual cancer in a human body (as opposed to tissue culture in this manuscript), but if it can that’s paradigm shifting
I’m skeptical that this kind of thing could happen in actual cancer in a human body (as opposed to tissue culture in this manuscript), but if it can that’s paradigm shifting
Reposted by Dave Baltrus 🦦
Isn't this a telling aspiration? To want robots to look after your kids, so you can do stuff, rather than robots to do stuff, so you can spend time with your kids?
The darkness inside these shrivelled men must be like a gaping unfillable void.
The darkness inside these shrivelled men must be like a gaping unfillable void.
January 22, 2026 at 5:39 PM
Isn't this a telling aspiration? To want robots to look after your kids, so you can do stuff, rather than robots to do stuff, so you can spend time with your kids?
The darkness inside these shrivelled men must be like a gaping unfillable void.
The darkness inside these shrivelled men must be like a gaping unfillable void.
Reposted by Dave Baltrus 🦦
I just thought everyone should see this
January 22, 2026 at 11:02 PM
I just thought everyone should see this
Reposted by Dave Baltrus 🦦
🚨 New from me: Grant review at more than half of NIH's institutes could be frozen by the end of the year.
That's because crucial NIH grant-review panels are slated to be empty at those institutes by Jan 2027.
A wonky bureaucratic problem with big implications.
A short 🧵
That's because crucial NIH grant-review panels are slated to be empty at those institutes by Jan 2027.
A wonky bureaucratic problem with big implications.
A short 🧵
Exclusive: key NIH review panels due to lose all members by the end of 2026
Thirteen of the agency’s advisory councils, which must review grant applications before funding is awarded, are on track to have no voting members.
www.nature.com
January 22, 2026 at 7:46 PM
🚨 New from me: Grant review at more than half of NIH's institutes could be frozen by the end of the year.
That's because crucial NIH grant-review panels are slated to be empty at those institutes by Jan 2027.
A wonky bureaucratic problem with big implications.
A short 🧵
That's because crucial NIH grant-review panels are slated to be empty at those institutes by Jan 2027.
A wonky bureaucratic problem with big implications.
A short 🧵
Reposted by Dave Baltrus 🦦
the woke mob is giving He-man pronouns
January 22, 2026 at 6:47 PM
the woke mob is giving He-man pronouns
Reposted by Dave Baltrus 🦦
🔔 New paper alert 🔔 www.nature.com/articles/s41...
Some regions in the genome replicate early and some late, but the why and how remain poorly understood. DNA replication and 3D genome organization appear linked, raising the question if one may regulate the other? (1/n)
Some regions in the genome replicate early and some late, but the why and how remain poorly understood. DNA replication and 3D genome organization appear linked, raising the question if one may regulate the other? (1/n)
DNA methylation and lncRNA control asynchronous DNA replication at specific imprinted gene domains - Nature Communications
It is not fully understood why genomic loci show asynchronous DNA replication. Here, the authors show that two imprinted gene domains replicate asynchronously between the parental chromosomes due to d...
www.nature.com
January 21, 2026 at 8:53 PM
🔔 New paper alert 🔔 www.nature.com/articles/s41...
Some regions in the genome replicate early and some late, but the why and how remain poorly understood. DNA replication and 3D genome organization appear linked, raising the question if one may regulate the other? (1/n)
Some regions in the genome replicate early and some late, but the why and how remain poorly understood. DNA replication and 3D genome organization appear linked, raising the question if one may regulate the other? (1/n)
After 15 years, I borked my -80 and had to move everything to backup freezers (handle wore down and finally broke and door wouldn’t close shut anymore)
January 22, 2026 at 2:33 PM
After 15 years, I borked my -80 and had to move everything to backup freezers (handle wore down and finally broke and door wouldn’t close shut anymore)
Reposted by Dave Baltrus 🦦
If you have paywall issues...
Cell cycle dysregulation of globally important SAR11 bacteria resulting from environmental perturbation www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
Cell cycle dysregulation of globally important SAR11 bacteria resulting from environmental perturbation www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
January 22, 2026 at 2:27 PM
If you have paywall issues...
Cell cycle dysregulation of globally important SAR11 bacteria resulting from environmental perturbation www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
Cell cycle dysregulation of globally important SAR11 bacteria resulting from environmental perturbation www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
Reposted by Dave Baltrus 🦦
Good news from Merck & Moderna. Custom-made mRNA vaccine, now dubbed intismeran autogene (mRNA-4157) + Keytruda linked to 49% lower risk of melanoma relapse or death. My read is that these vaccines have real potential not so much for initial treatment but to keep cancer in remission.
Personalized mRNA Vaccine Reduces Melanoma Relapse at 5 Years
A customized neoantigen vaccine plus checkpoint inhibitor immunotherapy lowered the risk of recurrence or death by 49% in a mid-stage trial.
www.cancerhealth.com
January 22, 2026 at 2:23 PM
Good news from Merck & Moderna. Custom-made mRNA vaccine, now dubbed intismeran autogene (mRNA-4157) + Keytruda linked to 49% lower risk of melanoma relapse or death. My read is that these vaccines have real potential not so much for initial treatment but to keep cancer in remission.