Xantha Karp
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xanthakarp.bsky.social
Xantha Karp
@xanthakarp.bsky.social
1.6K followers 3.2K following 78 posts
C. elegans geneticist, how diapause affects development, microRNA, equity in STEM, professor at Central Michigan University, she/her/hers.

https://karplab.org
https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6602-5583
Posts Replies Media Videos
Reposted by Xantha Karp
madhupai.bsky.social
Scientists must learn to join larger pro-democracy and people's movements, coalitions. Our science training may not have prepared us for such work, but we can no longer sit in the safety of our labs and expect the world to get better

My book review @thelancet.com

www.thelancet.com/journals/lan...
From doing science to saving science
Science and scientists are under assault. From denial of vaccines to climate change, political leaders are increasingly sacrificing democracy as well as science on the altar of populism and authoritar...
www.thelancet.com
November 28, 2025 at 12:05 PM
Reposted by Xantha Karp
mattrich.bsky.social
working up a little cell/worm counter. ~$40 of adafruit parts (plus some keyboard switches, 3d printing, and minor soldering). Next steps are wifi/bt communication.

currently envision counting and ethotiming modes, but if any c. elegans friends have ideas, I’d be happy to consider them.
November 27, 2025 at 1:25 AM
Reposted by Xantha Karp
genetics-gsa.bsky.social
What happens to the germline under heat stress?

New study in #G3journal shows how wild-type #Celegans increase their germline apoptosis levels from the physiological baseline in response to moderate temperature stress to maintain fertility. buff.ly/SXdoQFA
November 27, 2025 at 2:02 PM
Reposted by Xantha Karp
odedrechavi.bsky.social
Read this inspiring perspectives coauthored by the Worm Resource directors and worm Nobel Laureates! 4 Nobel Prizes and how they were enabled by major NIH-supported research resources (the Caenorhabditis Genetics Center, WormBase, and WormAtlas) www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...
November 25, 2025 at 6:18 AM
xanthakarp.bsky.social
Congratulations to Karp lab student Vusani Ntuli who won the Best Poster Award at the Central Michigan University Biology Undergraduate Research Symposium yesterday! I’m so proud of him and of the other 5 Karp lab presenters.
Two men smiling on stage as a student accepts an award from a professor. The student receiving the award is on the left in a brown shirt with a name tag. The professor on the right is wearing a grey shirt with a CMU logo.
November 22, 2025 at 7:02 PM
Reposted by Xantha Karp
jbwallingford.bsky.social
SAVE THE DATE! Stoked to organize the 2026 Santa Cruz Developmental Biology Meeting with @rashmi-priya.bsky.social, @lowelab.bsky.social, and Shelbi Russell. Come learn about Biomedicine, Biomechanics, and the Biosphere, August 24-28, 2026. Registration dates, etc., coming soon! Please RT
November 19, 2025 at 8:23 PM
Reposted by Xantha Karp
prideinstem.bsky.social
Happy International Day of LGBTQIA+ People In STEM!

How are you celebrating it?

#LGBTQSTEMDay #PrideInSTEM
The logo for LGBTQ+STEM Day, with the hashtags below and the date 18 of November, over a rainbow background
November 18, 2025 at 8:30 AM
Reposted by Xantha Karp
mattrich.bsky.social
New preprint!

It turns out you can integrate arrays with super high efficiency using PhiC31.

www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
High-efficiency targeted integration of extrachromosomal arrays in C. elegans using PhiC31 integrase
Extrachromosomal arrays are unique chromosome-like structures created from DNA injected into the C. elegans germline. Arrays are easy to create and allow for high expression of multiple transgenes. Th...
www.biorxiv.org
November 13, 2025 at 2:59 AM
Reposted by Xantha Karp
meital.bsky.social
C. elegans enthusiasts- save the date for two consecutive C. elegans meetings, taking place in Bordeaux, 29 June–3 July 2026.
Abstract submission will open around January, with many opportunities for oral presentations.
Check out our website for more details: ceneuroeuro2026.sciencesconf.org.
European C. elegans and CeNEURO Meeting 2026 - Sciencesconf.org
2026 European C. elegans and CeNEURO meeting
ceneuroeuro2026.sciencesconf.org
November 13, 2025 at 1:08 PM
Reposted by Xantha Karp
patrickphillips.bsky.social
Make males live more than 400% longer and prevent sexual disfunction late in life?! We're down with it. Our latest preprint: Disruption of the insulin signaling pathway in C. elegans dramatically increases male longevity and enhances reproductive health late in life. www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
November 6, 2025 at 11:14 PM
Reposted by Xantha Karp
jeremymberg.bsky.social
Well reported story on the PBS News Hour about science cuts and the ongoing and potential brain drain.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=yLvO...

Thanks to Terrance Tao and other scientists at various career stages for having the courage to speak out.

Watch and share!

1/7
Top researchers consider leaving U.S. amid funding cuts: 'The science world is ending'
YouTube video by PBS NewsHour
www.youtube.com
October 30, 2025 at 11:36 AM
Reposted by Xantha Karp
labgrosshans.bsky.social
Nektarios Tavernarakis on why curiosity-driven research, not focusing on application, is fundamental to problem solving and requires government support in @emboreports.org doi.org/10.1038/s443...
For the love of frontier research, or why Elon’s rockets keep blowing up | EMBO reports
EMBO Press is an editorially independent publishing platform for the development of EMBO scientific publications.
doi.org
October 29, 2025 at 11:57 AM
Reposted by Xantha Karp
gotworms.bsky.social
Cool! Thanks @embojournal.org for this great News and Views on our recent work characterizing how a conserved protein complex times C. elegans molting! www.embopress.org/doi/full/10....
Such a fun collaboration with @labgrosshans.bsky.social @partchlab.bsky.social
Old cogs, new clocks: a conserved protein complex controls developmental and circadian timing | The EMBO Journal
EMBO Press is an editorially independent publishing platform for the development of EMBO scientific publications.
www.embopress.org
October 25, 2025 at 8:48 PM
Reposted by Xantha Karp
wyomingwormboy.bsky.social
For what it’s worth, The Wyoming Worm lab has funding for 5 years along with exciting projects with solid foundations. We are is still looking for capable, dedicated, and fun-to-work-with lab members at all career stages. [email protected]

scholar.google.com/citations?us...
October 22, 2025 at 1:28 PM
Reposted by Xantha Karp
labgrosshans.bsky.social
And the next one: dx.doi.org/10.1038/s44318-025-00585-z . Super-fun collaboration with @partchlab.bsky.social & @gotworms.bsky.social to find similarities between developmental and circadian clocks – supported by @fmiscience.bsky.social Facilities and, financially, @snsf.ch and @erc.europa.eu . 1/n
October 20, 2025 at 1:25 PM
Reposted by Xantha Karp
jeremymberg.bsky.social
This is a powerful account from a PhD student whose fellowship was terminated by NIH because it was part of a "diversity" program without any other considerations or understanding of what the program or the students were actually doing.

undark.org/2025/10/09/o...

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NIH Student Grant Cancellation Will Weaken Scientific Innovation
The termination of federal F31 diversity fellowships puts many graduate students in a bind — and U.S. science at risk.
undark.org
October 13, 2025 at 2:41 PM
Reposted by Xantha Karp
labgrosshans.bsky.social
Watch Lucas' amazing artistic/musical rendition of C. elegans larval development and our work on developmental timing and molting here youtu.be/-hGHYRvw87w and read on his inspiration and challenges below
October 13, 2025 at 7:59 AM
Reposted by Xantha Karp
vambros.bsky.social
An excellent piece by Joachim Frank, 2017 Nobel Laureate in Chemistry, about how we must resist the Trump Administration's crackdown on universities.

www.usnews.com/opinion/arti...
www.usnews.com
October 12, 2025 at 3:47 PM
Reposted by Xantha Karp
ercanlab.bsky.social
C. elegans is a little animal with sexually dimorphic tails. Fitch lab does wonderful work on the evolution and transcriptional regulation of tail tip morphogenesis in nematodes.
genetics-gsa.bsky.social Genetics Society of America @genetics-gsa.bsky.social · Oct 9
New in #GENETICS: Using Chip-seq and mutant analysis, Fernandez et al. show the transcriptional control of the male tail tip morphogenesis during development by the master regulator of a male-specific morphogenesis gene DMD-3. buff.ly/EGahYv2
October 10, 2025 at 5:34 PM
Reposted by Xantha Karp
labgrosshans.bsky.social
Paper alert! doi.org/10.1038/s443... - "A scheduler for rhythmic gene expression". We show how 9 txn factors suffice for rhythmic gene expression of thousands of genes with any phase or amplitude in #Celegans larvae (and also look at the tissues where oscillations happen) 1/n
October 10, 2025 at 2:17 PM
Reposted by Xantha Karp
sarahmackattack.bsky.social
I'm doing another print run of these "Biology is Bigger than Binaries" shirts!

Back, quite literally, by popular demand. Bullying works, sure, but so does a bunch of nice cutie patooties politely asking!

Order 'em now, I'll mail 'em in early November.

SquidFacts.net
a woman with short bown hair, glasses, and tassel earrings, wears a purple KN95 and looks cool as hell in her biology is bigger than binaries shirt, in orange a woman with green glasses takes a selfie lookin' cool as hell in her pink biology is bigger than binaries shirt. She's also got ice cream, that lucky dog. a woman with long brown hair and glasses hangs out in the back yard with her pink biology is bigger than binaries shirt A man with a hat and sunglasses stands in hero-pose with his biology is bigger than binaires shirt (orange)
October 10, 2025 at 12:02 AM
Reposted by Xantha Karp
katzlab.bsky.social
Very excited to share our very exciting story on how misinherited chromatin affects individual cells to cause a behavior defect in C. elegans (a thread👇) www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...
PNAS
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS), a peer reviewed journal of the National Academy of Sciences (NAS) - an authoritative source of high-impact, original research that broadly spans...
www.pnas.org
October 7, 2025 at 2:43 PM
Reposted by Xantha Karp
jeremymberg.bsky.social
I have been trying to get this published as an op-ed, but I am going to post it here since I think it is timely in light of the "consent" extortion events.

Deafening Quiet from the Scientific Establishment

jeremymberg.github.io/jeremyberg.g...

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jeremymberg.github.io
October 6, 2025 at 11:28 PM
Reposted by Xantha Karp
celjauebel.bsky.social
Hi fellow C. elegans scientists, I've made a few videos that may be of use for new trainees working in worm labs. Hoping to add more in the future, but figured I'd share this resource as is in case it's helpful :)
www.youtube.com/@Workingwith...
Working with C. elegans
This channel provides clear demonstrations of core C. elegans lab skills, including: recognizing life stages and common phenotypes, picking and manipulating worms, and maintaining healthy cultures. De...
www.youtube.com
October 1, 2025 at 7:20 PM
Reposted by Xantha Karp
malar0ne.bsky.social
IMO this hasn't gotten enough attention: a recent memo at NIH announces that peer review will be devalued in determining which grants get funded, granting more power to political appointees to make decisions based on the admin's whims over scientific merit

kffhealthnews.org/news/article...
Changes at NIH Give Political Appointees Greater Power To Fund or Block Research - KFF Health News
The National Institutes of Health’s long-held standard of peer review for grantmaking has been subverted by President Donald Trump and NIH Director Jay Bhattacharya, who gave unprecedented power to po...
kffhealthnews.org
October 5, 2025 at 1:33 PM