Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

Suckjoon Jun’s lab at UCSD @junlab.bsky.social · 1d

Must read for graduate admissions committees everywhere.

Kresten Lindorff-Larsen @lindorfflarsen.bsky.social · 1d

A good day to remember John Gurdon’s school report from his biology master at Eton

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Suckjoon Jun’s lab at UCSD @junlab.bsky.social · 2d

SJ - I’ve just started my 1-year sabbatical in NYC, splitting time between the Flatiron Institute and NYU Economics to explore “econophysiology,” supported by the Simons Foundation Pivot Fellowship. If you’re in the area and would like to connect or interact with me & my lab, feel free to reach out!

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Suckjoon Jun’s lab at UCSD @junlab.bsky.social · 2d

We celebrated afterwards with friends’ labs — Tzer Han Tan, Hongbo Zhao, and Seungeun Oh among them.

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Suckjoon Jun’s lab at UCSD @junlab.bsky.social · 2d

Congratulations to Haochen — one of the rare breeds who did both real experiments and theory. He successfully defended his PhD last Friday and is starting his independent Lewis-Sigler Scholar position at Princeton this week. We’ll miss you!

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Reposted by Suckjoon Jun’s lab at UCSD

Markus Deserno @markusdeserno.bsky.social · 12d

I am super excited to announce that we have a tenure-track faculty position in biophysics open in the Department of Physics at Carnegie Mellon! 🧪

Interfolio link: apply.interfolio.com/174360

PLEASE, share widely across the blue skies!

Let me briefly explain what we're looking for:

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Tenure-track Position in Biophysics at Carnegie Mellon University, Department of Physics

Location: Pittsburgh, PA
Open Date: Sep 19, 2025

Description
The Department of Physics at Carnegie Mellon University invites applications for a tenure-track faculty position in biophysics. The appointment is intended to be at the Assistant Professor level, but exceptional candidates at a higher level may also be considered. We seek outstanding candidates with a strong record in cellular and subcellular biophysics. Topics of particular interest include, but are not limited to, uncovering how key characteristics of living systems arise from the interplay between supramolecular cellular structures, how the emergent cellular circuitry defines goals and enables robust decision making, and how metabolic resources are allocated. This encompasses understanding of how information is learned, stored, transduced, and processed across subcellular structures. Applicants with theoretical, data science, or experimental backgrounds within biological physics are encouraged to apply. The ideal candidate will strengthen and extend research programs of current biophysics faculty in the Department of Physics and collaborate with broader life science activities across many departments at CMU and the wider Pittsburgh area.

More details on Interfolio: https://apply.interfolio.com/174360

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Jeremy Berg @jeremymberg.bsky.social · Sep 2

A show of bipartisan support for NIH. Basically flat except for ARPA-H.

The President’s budget proposal basically ignored (as it should have been).

Ian L Morgan @ianlmorgan.bsky.social · Sep 1

House LHHC bill is out. Lots of hits to HHS, but the top line number for NIH is 1% decrease, mostly due to cuts ARPA-H. This seems like a huge rejection of the president's budget request.

democrats-appropriations.house.gov

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Suckjoon Jun’s lab at UCSD @junlab.bsky.social · Aug 21

This is a great piece of work

SeppeKuehnLab @seppekuehnlab.bsky.social · Jul 17

New paper in @nature.com! With @kiseokmicro.bsky.social , Siqi Liu, Kyle Crocker, Jojo Wang, Mikhail Tikhonov & Madhav Mani — a massive dataset and simple model reveal a few conserved regimes that capture how soil microbiome metabolism responds to perturbations. www.nature.com/articles/s41...

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Reposted by Suckjoon Jun’s lab at UCSD

NPR @npr.org · Jul 19

Congress eliminated public media funding. At a time of deep division, public media brings us together.

Help keep it strong. Join our monthly donors today: n.pr/458sOhq

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Suckjoon Jun’s lab at UCSD @junlab.bsky.social · Jun 27

If you’re eligible for a Pew Latin American Fellowship, please reach out to Suckjoon Jun (Pew ‘13). We have ambitious bluesky projects planned for the next decade, backed by exceptionally strong funding, and we’d love for you to join us!

www.pew.org/en/projects/...

Pew Latin American Fellows: To Apply

www.pew.org

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Reposted by Suckjoon Jun’s lab at UCSD

Matthias Heinemann @matthiasheinemann.bsky.social · Jun 27

Proteins of amino acid metabolism form large structures and determine diffusion in the cytoplasm!

Our 7-year-long tour-de-force is now out on Bioxriv www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

Thanks everyone involved! And especially to Jose Losa who pioneered this!

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Reposted by Suckjoon Jun’s lab at UCSD

Sonja-Verena Albers @archaellum.bsky.social · Feb 3

Would you expect that Bacteria use an archaellum for swimming? We didn't, but we found that some Chloroflexota do! Find the story here: www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

A little thread below 1/n

Horizontal gene transfer of the functional archaellum machinery to Bacteria

Motility in Archaea is driven by a nanomachinery called the archaellum. So far, archaella have been exclusively described for the archaeal domain; however, a recent study reported the presence of arch...

www.biorxiv.org

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Reposted by Suckjoon Jun’s lab at UCSD

Milstein Lab @ UofT @milsteinlab.bsky.social · Jun 17

Our experimental lab w/ the Hilfinger lab @uoft.bsky.social are jointly looking to hire a #postdoc in experimental biological #physics. Exploring noise and dynamics within single-cells and bacterial populations. Please share with anyone you think might be interested.

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Reposted by Suckjoon Jun’s lab at UCSD

Stand Up for Science! @standupforscience.bsky.social · Jun 16

🚨HUGE SCIENCE WIN ALERT🚨

NIH Grants to be restored en masse!!! Thank you Judge Young for standing up for science!

#StandUpforScience
#SummerFightforScience

Kyle Cheney @kyledcheney.bsky.social · Jun 16

BREAKING: A federal judge in Massachusetts (the Reagan-appointed William Young) has declared the Trump administration's cuts to NIH grants — ostensibly over Trump's EOs on gender ideology and DEI — are "illegal" and "void." He's ordering many grants restored.

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Reposted by Suckjoon Jun’s lab at UCSD

Max Kozlov @maxkozlov.bsky.social · Jun 16

🚨 BREAKING: Nearly 4 months the NIH cut its first grants, a judge has ruled that the directives and process that led to cuts are arbitrary and capricious.

"The explanations are bereft of reasoning — virtually in their entirety... unsupported by [facts]."

Each of them are VOID and ILLEGAL, he says.

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Reposted by Suckjoon Jun’s lab at UCSD

Ardem Patapoutian @ardemp.bskyverified.social · Jun 3

Talked to @KateZernike at @nytimes about my journey and the current moment for scientists in the U.S.

“Ardem Patapoutian’s story is not just the American dream, it is the dream of American science.”

Read the article here. No subscription required:

www.nytimes.com/2025/06/03/u...

The U.S. Lit a Beacon for Science. Under Trump, Scientists Fear It’s Dimming

www.nytimes.com

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Reposted by Suckjoon Jun’s lab at UCSD

Peter Gleick @petergleick.bsky.social · May 31

There are 2 previous historical cases of countries destroying their science and universities, crippling them for decades: Lysenkoism in the USSR and Nazi Germany. The Trump administration will be the 3rd.
It's not just budgets but research, institutions, expertise, and training the next generation.

Graphs showing 25 years of budgets for the National Institute of Health, NASA, and the NSF. In all cases, the proposed budget for next year is far, far below any year of the previous quarter century.

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Suckjoon Jun’s lab at UCSD @junlab.bsky.social · May 31

On behalf of our lab, we are really proud of them!

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Reposted by Suckjoon Jun’s lab at UCSD

Erwin Frey @physicsoflifelmu.bsky.social · May 29

Just out in Nature Physics: Research Briefing (with Suckjoon Jun) on how Min protein oscillations in E. coli remain robust. The secret? A conformational switch that buffers change, and a fresh look at an old system through a physicist’s lens.
📘 www.nature.com/articles/s41...
#patternformation

Robust Min protein oscillations revealed in living bacterial cells - Nature Physics

Bacteria can sustain spatial protein oscillations for a remarkably wide range of protein concentrations. The robustness arises from a conformational switch of a key protein between latent versus activ...

www.nature.com

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Reposted by Suckjoon Jun’s lab at UCSD

Bianca Sclavi @bbiancas.bsky.social · May 28

Looking forward to the European Biophysical Societies meeting. This year it will be in Rome from the 30th of June and the 4th of July. You're still in time to register!
www.ebsa2025.eu

EBSA 2025

Join the 15th EBSA Congress in Rome from June 30 to July 4, 2025! Organized by SIBPA, EBSA, and the Protein Society, with support from IUPAB, the event will take place at the Palazzo dei Congressi. Di...

www.ebsa2025.eu

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Suckjoon Jun’s lab at UCSD @junlab.bsky.social · May 27

Research Briefing article with Erwin Frey (@physicsoflifelmu.bsky.social) is also out in Nature Physics.

www.nature.com/articles/s41...

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Stand Up for Science! @standupforscience.bsky.social · May 26

🚨 URGENT RESPONSE CALL 🚨

Trump’s Fool’s Gold Science EO is a dangerous sham.
It gives his appointees the power to dismiss entire bodies of research and punish researchers who fail to fall in line with his agenda.

We’ve launched an open letter.

SIGN & SHARE NOW: actionnetwork.org/petitions/op...

Sign The Open Letter to Stand Up For Science Now!

Science is under siege. Trump’s latest Executive Order calls for politically appointed science commissars to evaluate research. Join us in adding your name to our open letter condemning Trump’s escala...

actionnetwork.org

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Suckjoon Jun’s lab at UCSD @junlab.bsky.social · May 22

Apparently not

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Erwin Frey @physicsoflifelmu.bsky.social · May 9

My lecture “Nonequilibrium Field Theories and Stochastic Dynamics” is now on YouTube!
Here a short film on my teaching philosophy.
Watch lectures here: www.youtube.com/@PhysicsOfLi...

#Physics #Biophysics #StochasticDynamics #NonequilibriumPhysics #SoftMatter #TheoreticalPhysics #ScienceEducation

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Congressman Bill Foster @repbillfoster.bsky.social · May 9

NEWS: I just led 112 of my colleagues in demanding answers from the Trump Administration on their funding freeze of the National Science Foundation.

Cutting off NSF funding threatens vital research, stalls innovation, and risks ceding global scientific leadership to China.

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Reposted by Suckjoon Jun’s lab at UCSD

LMU München @lmumuenchen.bsky.social · May 7

How do bacteria keep their internal patterns stable despite fluctuating protein concentrations? A team led by #LMU biophysicist Erwin Frey @physicsoflifelmu.bsky.social & @junlab.bsky.social found that MinE proteins act as a buffer by switching between active and latent states.

Biological patterns: stability through protein reservoirs

Biophysicists figure out how bacteria form robust patterns despite changing environmental conditions and fluctuating protein concentrations.

www.lmu.de

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