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Ken Halvorsen

@halvorsenlab.bsky.social

200 followers 150 following 52 posts

Mostly posting science from our lab at RNA Institute, UAlbany.

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Ken Halvorsen @halvorsenlab.bsky.social · Feb 24

New lab paper out! We look into the effects of individual base stacking interactions on the stability of a DNA nanostructure (a tetrahedron in this case)...
@jibinpunnoose.bsky.social @thernainstitute.bsky.social
pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/...

Tuning the Stability of DNA Tetrahedra with Base Stacking Interactions

DNA nanotechnology uses the programmable assembly of DNA to create nanoscale objects. Recent work from our laboratory suggested that terminal stacking interactions between adjacent strands could be a ...

pubs.acs.org

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Reposted by Ken Halvorsen

Erik Poppleton @floppleton.bsky.social · 12d

Some really nice fundamental biophysics of DNA base stacking 🧬!

Ken Halvorsen @halvorsenlab.bsky.social · 12d

Well, it's been a minute but we have a new preprint to share! Final project in our lab by @jibinpunnoose.bsky.social, investigating strand polarity in base stacking. We measured experimentally with centrifuge force microscope and computationally with MD.

www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

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Ken Halvorsen @halvorsenlab.bsky.social · 12d

Thanks! This would be interesting, and doing some RNA and hybrid stacks was on our to-do list. I think @jibinpunnoose.bsky.social may continue a lot of this work in his new lab. Now that we know experiments align so well with MD here, I wonder if MD may be sufficient...

Ken Halvorsen @halvorsenlab.bsky.social · 12d

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arunrichard.bsky.social @arunrichard.bsky.social · 13d

New editorial by Madhan Barathraj and me, discussing DNA nanostructures for nucleic acid delivery, is now online at Expert Opinion on Drug Delivery.

www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....

DNA nanocarriers for nucleic acid drug delivery

Published in Expert Opinion on Drug Delivery (Ahead of Print, 2025)

www.tandfonline.com

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Ken Halvorsen @halvorsenlab.bsky.social · Aug 23

meant to tag @jibinpunnoose.bsky.social in original post...

Ken Halvorsen @halvorsenlab.bsky.social · Aug 23

Yesterday we bid farewell to Jibin, who has been in the lab for 7 years and is starting as Assistant professor of chemistry at SUNY New Paltz. Congrats and best wishes - we were so fortunate to have you in the lab.

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Reposted by Ken Halvorsen

Maureen Barr @barrlab.bsky.social · Aug 1

We need a new microscope objective. A $1.6k tariff for something that you can hold in your hand and that is only manufactured in Germany

Quote for a 63x objective. The objective is $12,784. The tariff is $1,661.92

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Ken Halvorsen @halvorsenlab.bsky.social · Jul 23

don't lose all hope - for MIRA they really push to use the entire range of scores. Some get funded with scores that would never fly at other institutes...

Ken Halvorsen @halvorsenlab.bsky.social · Jul 23

Oh no!

Reposted by Ken Halvorsen

Max Kozlov @maxkozlov.bsky.social · Jul 14

NEW: In an unprecedented move, the NIH will soon disinvite dozens of scientists about to take positions on advisory councils that make final decisions on grant funding.

NIH staff were told to select others aligned with the Trump administration and told to expect placements by political appointees.

Exclusive: NIH to dismiss dozens of grant reviewers to align with Trump priorities

The move would undo years of work, leaving advisory councils understaffed, and without the full expertise needed for reviews.

www.nature.com

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Ken Halvorsen @halvorsenlab.bsky.social · Jul 10

This is so sad...plus I'm all in on science, there is no plan B

Carl Zimmer @carlzimmer.com · Jul 9

If you’re a US researcher, now is the time to establish a plan B www.nature.com/articles/d41...

If you’re a US researcher, now is the time to establish a plan B

The scale of funding cuts in the United States means that countless scientists will lose their jobs. It would be naive not to start thinking about alternative career paths.

www.nature.com

Ken Halvorsen @halvorsenlab.bsky.social · Jun 24

Exciting for both - congrats!

Ken Halvorsen @halvorsenlab.bsky.social · Jun 21

The craziest part is that supposedly this would have been signed off on by 3 people (at a minimum!) - two reviewers and en editor

Reposted by Ken Halvorsen

JAMES HEATHERS @jamesheathers.bsky.social · Jun 20

Wake up, losers - new giant rat testomcelles have just dissilced, and they have truly got their dck out.

If you go to Africa, here are some localities you should avoid:

GUTNED
CLINE LSOGLE
NAOZAWA V
GROSGRIVER

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Ken Halvorsen @halvorsenlab.bsky.social · Jun 20

this one actually made me LOL though

A terrible AI image of an interdisciplinary triangle that is actually a circle

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Mark Peifer (He, him) @peiferlabunc.bsky.social · Jun 12

Join the 22,339 people who have joined to support our NIH colleagues. Let's get this to 50,000 RT

Mark Peifer (He, him) @peiferlabunc.bsky.social · Jun 12

The new leadership of NIH is dismantling long standing biomedical science programs & putting in their place scientifically questionable ideas. A courageous group of current NIH employees pushed back, publishing “The Bethesda Declaration” 1/2

www.standupforscience.net/bethesda-dec...

Bethesda Declaration — STAND UP FOR SCIENCE

Support NIH Staff Now!

www.standupforscience.net

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Reposted by Ken Halvorsen

Tal Nuriel, PhD @talnuriel.bsky.social · Jun 10

Announcing an official fundraising campaign to support my lab’s research on APOE4 and Alzheimer’s disease: joinus.cuimc.columbia.edu/participant/.... This campaign is itself an experiment of sorts. But mostly, it's an attempt to save my lab during an unprecedented time of turmoil in academia. 1/9

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Reposted by Ken Halvorsen

Dr. Kat Napaaqtuk❄️ @napaaqtuk.bsky.social · Jun 10

For non-scientists: the funding rate is somewhere between 7% to ~25% (rare) for NIH or NSF grants, depending on where you are applying. Grants are reviewed by a panel of peers who read the grants, score them, then debate the ratings for 1-2 days to rank them. It is INCREDIBLY competitive already.

Max Kozlov @maxkozlov.bsky.social · Jun 10

Republican Senator Katie Britt: We need to create a system "where the beat idea wins... This is our opportunity to make a dollar go further and to make it have a greater impact."

(NIH already generates $2.56 for every $1 spent it spends on research.)

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Reposted by Ken Halvorsen

Max Kozlov @maxkozlov.bsky.social · Jun 10

🚨 NIH director Jayanta Bhattacharya is testifying before the US Senate Appropriations Committee today.

The hearing is bound to be spicy, after more than 300 agency staff wrote him a letter decrying his leadership and actions as director. 🔥

I'll be live-posting the hearing, so follow along here.

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Denis Wirtz @deniswirtz.bsky.social · Jun 9

The NIH has not issued a single new call for proposals since the end of January.

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Reposted by Ken Halvorsen

Science Magazine @science.org · Jun 9

Breaking news: Staff at the National Institutes of Health have issued a declaration calling on their director to depoliticize the agency and reverse spending cuts.

NIH staff and biomedical community sound alarm about agency politicization, funding slowdown

In test of NIH director’s support of dissent, NIH staff sign Bethesda Declaration urging reversal of grant cuts and freezes

scim.ag

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Reposted by Ken Halvorsen

Benjamin Riley @benjaminjriley.bsky.social · Jun 7

Let's have some fun. In this NYT story, we see a picture of an OpenAI billboard on a college campus, suggesting the following prompt: "Give me a guide for mastering this Calc 101 syllabus. In two weeks. Small steps please."

What happens when we actually use ChatGPT to do this? THREAD!

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Ken Halvorsen @halvorsenlab.bsky.social · Jun 5

uh-huh, LMK when its working so I can retire

Nature @nature.com · Jun 5

FutureHouse aims to build an ‘AI scientist’ that can command the entire research pipeline, from hypothesis generation to paper production

https://go.nature.com/3HGQ6lf

Exclusive: Start-up FutureHouse debuts powerful AI ‘reasoning model’ for science

The model, called ether0, outperforms other advanced AIs at chemistry tasks and is a stepping stone towards automating the entire research pipeline.

go.nature.com

Reposted by Ken Halvorsen

Eric Topol @erictopol.bsky.social · May 30

"If the proposal is enacted, Americans today and tomorrow will be sicker, poorer, and die younger”
an $18 Billion cut
Only 3 NIH Institutes will remain in place, and even they will have their funds markedly reduced
www.statnews.com/2025/05/30/n...

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Charles Ornstein @charlesornstein.bsky.social · May 27

A Harvard scientist built a database of 2,100 NIH grant terminations. Then his own funding was cut, via @statnews.com

A Harvard scientist built a database of 2,100 NIH grant terminations. Then his own funding was cut

Harvard's Scott Delaney helped build a database of NIH grant terminations that is being used in litigation against the Trump administration.

www.statnews.com

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