Dr Benjamin Bartelle
bioprotean.bsky.social
Dr Benjamin Bartelle
@bioprotean.bsky.social
ASU Bioengineering
Microglial functional states
Systems neuroimmunology
Democratized biologics
Weird Synthbio

#iGEM #microglia
Reposted by Dr Benjamin Bartelle
Submit your work to MBoC! The flagship journal of @ascbiology.bsky.social, driven & powered by scientists, dedicated to advancing scientific discovery. Why? 1) peer reviewed by scientists like you, 2) fast turnaround and 3) high visibility >2.5 million views & downloads, 4) high acceptance rate: 43%
December 7, 2025 at 12:46 PM
Reposted by Dr Benjamin Bartelle
ASCB President Mary Munson awards Francis Collins the ASCB Public Service award, noting this is the first time it’s been awarded for defense of science #cellbio2025
December 6, 2025 at 9:19 PM
Reposted by Dr Benjamin Bartelle
"Journal retracts weed killer study backed by Monsanto, citing ‘serious ethical concerns’
Highly cited paper was used as evidence that the widely used herbicide Roundup is safe."

JFC

www.science.org/content/arti...
Journal retracts weed killer study backed by Monsanto, citing ‘serious ethical concerns’
Highly cited paper was used as evidence that the widely used herbicide Roundup is safe
www.science.org
December 6, 2025 at 1:13 AM
Reposted by Dr Benjamin Bartelle
That study the federal government relied on heavily to contend that Roundup is safe. Yeah, well, it was ghostwritten by Monsanto. In fact, the evidence suggests glyphosate causes cancer in humans. Here's a dispatch from our resident Roundup expert.
Science journal retracts widely cited study that claimed Roundup is safe
The Trump administration, meanwhile, aims to shield its manufacturer from lawsuits.
www.motherjones.com
December 5, 2025 at 6:45 PM
Reposted by Dr Benjamin Bartelle
New York Times article on science funding with some depressing but familiar curves with interactive graphics.

www.nytimes.com/interactive/...
The U.S. Is Funding Fewer Grants in Every Area of Science and Medicine (Gift Article)
A quiet policy change means the government is making fewer bets on long-term science.
www.nytimes.com
December 2, 2025 at 11:57 AM
Reposted by Dr Benjamin Bartelle
Interesting 🧵. IANAE so won’t comment on the science beyond noting that phase separation (in biology) is highly contentious (see e.g. genesdev.cshlp.org/content/33/2...). But it does bring up issues around publishing and editorial decisions 1/n
December 2, 2025 at 12:38 PM
Reposted by Dr Benjamin Bartelle
ill be damned
December 1, 2025 at 11:18 PM
Im thankful for this to drop just before the ASCB/EMBO meeting.

Something fun to talk about besides the macabre parade of harm being done to everything we value.
Debates about the so-called nuclear matrix and lipid rafts were polarizing and aggressive but nothing like what’s brewing with phase separation…
I believe that we are about to see a major scientific conflict play out here on BlueSky, for better or for worse. I'll weigh in on this on the blog once I'm sure that I understand everyone's positions:
December 1, 2025 at 3:02 PM
They really are bent on destroying every institution that ever made us great.
November 26, 2025 at 2:23 PM
Hey my first #microglia paper was featured by ASCB! This was a wild result that I first saw as a grad student and couldn’t get out of my head. Im proud of my team for getting this out into the world.
🧠 MBoC study from Benjamin Bartelle (ASU) shows that after neural injury, microglia—not invading macrophages—express Tie2. MRI + Ts-Biotag imaging reveal microglial activity over time. 🔗 www.molbiolcell.org/doi/10.1091/...
November 22, 2025 at 10:49 PM
What if we kissed in the late Pleistocene epoch? 👉👈☺️🦣
November 20, 2025 at 4:05 AM
Reposted by Dr Benjamin Bartelle
Reposted by Dr Benjamin Bartelle
James Watson has died www.nytimes.com/2025/11/07/s...
James Watson, Co-Discoverer of the Structure of DNA, Is Dead at 97
www.nytimes.com
November 7, 2025 at 8:00 PM
CSHL was a formative time for me. I acknowledge Jim Watson fostered so much of the molecular biology field in his heyday and I’m thankful for the positive things he built.

Meeting him though, I learned how flawed leaders can be, and how far we still had to go as a community.
November 7, 2025 at 9:32 PM
Something I have learned about myself. If you send me too many meeting reminders, I will schedule over whatever that was.
November 4, 2025 at 4:29 PM
Reposted by Dr Benjamin Bartelle
Talk about an in-flight meal.

For the first time, researchers have captured rats hunting bats by grabbing them from the sky. Learn more: https://scim.ag/3Jqldmn
October 27, 2025 at 10:31 PM
Reposted by Dr Benjamin Bartelle
But shall this crazed old man be tamely suffered to drag a whole ship’s company down to doom with him?
October 27, 2025 at 8:47 AM
Reposted by Dr Benjamin Bartelle
'(...)I can tell you this: most proposals get 15-20 minutes of discussion time in a panel that’s reviewing 30-50 proposals over three days. Your carefully crafted 15-page research plan? The primary reviewer read it thoroughly. The other two panelists skimmed it. Everyone else glanced at the summary'
“What Grant Reviewers Actually Look For (and What They Ignore)”
A close colleague of mine at a major US research university begins the process of preparing a grant proposal by creating something he calls a “storyboard”.  When I was growing up in LA, the concept…
jim-olds.org
October 24, 2025 at 1:51 PM
Reposted by Dr Benjamin Bartelle
o! to be a hornbill stabbing a pumpkin on a bright fall morning!
Toogle loves carving pumpkins! 🎃

Come see him and other Zoo Boise animals receive Halloween treats, plus trick or treat stations, costume contests, and lots more fun on Saturday, Oct. 25 and Sunday, Oct. 26 for Boo at the Zoo, presented by Delta Dental of Idaho.

🎥: So. ground hornbill enrichment
October 22, 2025 at 12:02 PM
Reposted by Dr Benjamin Bartelle
I think the most beautiful thing about studying biology is that life is literally all around you. In the air you breathe, in the rooms you dwell, on the soles of your shoes, in the clouds of a storm. Everywhere. There is still ***so much*** to explore and so many stories to tell.
a black background with a circle of rings on it
ALT: a black background with a circle of rings on it
media.tenor.com
October 21, 2025 at 6:20 AM
Roman lead pipe redux

www.science.org/content/arti...
October 14, 2025 at 11:17 PM
Reposted by Dr Benjamin Bartelle
October 12, 2025 at 6:16 PM
They both seem really focused on that cup of…is that a urine sample?
October 12, 2025 at 3:19 AM
Reposted by Dr Benjamin Bartelle
That's not how science works.
October 9, 2025 at 5:21 PM