Rachel Hutto
@rahutto.bsky.social
Associate professor + photoreceptor mitochondria and zebrafish enthusiast!
Reposted by Rachel Hutto
Polygenic embryo screening is being marketed commercially – but how do IVF clinicians view it?
• General approval is low (12%)
For specific uses:
• 59% approved of health-related embryo selection
• 6% approved of trait-based selection
🧵 Survey findings in NPJ Genomic Medicine
• General approval is low (12%)
For specific uses:
• 59% approved of health-related embryo selection
• 6% approved of trait-based selection
🧵 Survey findings in NPJ Genomic Medicine
December 1, 2025 at 8:24 PM
Polygenic embryo screening is being marketed commercially – but how do IVF clinicians view it?
• General approval is low (12%)
For specific uses:
• 59% approved of health-related embryo selection
• 6% approved of trait-based selection
🧵 Survey findings in NPJ Genomic Medicine
• General approval is low (12%)
For specific uses:
• 59% approved of health-related embryo selection
• 6% approved of trait-based selection
🧵 Survey findings in NPJ Genomic Medicine
Reposted by Rachel Hutto
Lac operon: Wait… what?! Noise in the basement?
by Christoph — If you've ever come across the topic of 'gene regulation in bacteria' in your biology classes at high school, college or university, you've inevitably learned about a classic: the lac operon of E. coli. Well, this it's not an exam…
by Christoph — If you've ever come across the topic of 'gene regulation in bacteria' in your biology classes at high school, college or university, you've inevitably learned about a classic: the lac operon of E. coli. Well, this it's not an exam…
Lac operon: Wait… what?! Noise in the basement?
by Christoph — If you've ever come across the topic of 'gene regulation in bacteria' in your biology classes at high school, college or university, you've inevitably learned about a classic: the lac operon of E. coli. Well, this it's not an exam here! Just ask yourself what you remember without the help of an AI.
smallthingsconsidered.blog
December 1, 2025 at 9:00 AM
Lac operon: Wait… what?! Noise in the basement?
by Christoph — If you've ever come across the topic of 'gene regulation in bacteria' in your biology classes at high school, college or university, you've inevitably learned about a classic: the lac operon of E. coli. Well, this it's not an exam…
by Christoph — If you've ever come across the topic of 'gene regulation in bacteria' in your biology classes at high school, college or university, you've inevitably learned about a classic: the lac operon of E. coli. Well, this it's not an exam…
Reposted by Rachel Hutto
So there you have it, twin study estimates were greatly inflated, and molecular data sets the record straight. I walk through possible counter-arguments, but ultimately the uncomfortable truth is that genes contribute to traits much less than we always thought.
November 21, 2025 at 10:34 PM
So there you have it, twin study estimates were greatly inflated, and molecular data sets the record straight. I walk through possible counter-arguments, but ultimately the uncomfortable truth is that genes contribute to traits much less than we always thought.
Reposted by Rachel Hutto
We need a total and complete shutdown of WSJ data graphics until our country's representatives can figure out what is going on.
h/t @merz.bsky.social @drmikewiser.bsky.social
h/t @merz.bsky.social @drmikewiser.bsky.social
November 20, 2025 at 4:53 AM
We need a total and complete shutdown of WSJ data graphics until our country's representatives can figure out what is going on.
h/t @merz.bsky.social @drmikewiser.bsky.social
h/t @merz.bsky.social @drmikewiser.bsky.social
Reposted by Rachel Hutto
Scientists long assumed that inactive vents, without the mineral-rich plumes that make active vents so mesmerizing, didn’t host unique lifeforms.
“It turns out that we just weren’t looking very closely,” says marine biologist Jason Sylvan.
www.biographic.com/life-finds-a...
“It turns out that we just weren’t looking very closely,” says marine biologist Jason Sylvan.
www.biographic.com/life-finds-a...
Life Finds a Way, Even on Inactive Hydrothermal Vents - bioGraphic
In the darkness of the deep sea, animals flourish on hydrothermal vents that have gone cold.
www.biographic.com
November 14, 2025 at 12:59 PM
Scientists long assumed that inactive vents, without the mineral-rich plumes that make active vents so mesmerizing, didn’t host unique lifeforms.
“It turns out that we just weren’t looking very closely,” says marine biologist Jason Sylvan.
www.biographic.com/life-finds-a...
“It turns out that we just weren’t looking very closely,” says marine biologist Jason Sylvan.
www.biographic.com/life-finds-a...
Reposted by Rachel Hutto
I wrote this insight for eLife. A friend said, "Why would you want to step on that rake?". Well, I guess that's just who I am. Enjoy. elifesciences.org/articles/109...
Transgenerational Epigenetic Inheritance: Twists and turns in the story of learned avoidance
Evidence that learned avoidance of a pathogenic bacterium can be transmitted to future generations in C. elegans is growing.
elifesciences.org
November 11, 2025 at 7:37 PM
I wrote this insight for eLife. A friend said, "Why would you want to step on that rake?". Well, I guess that's just who I am. Enjoy. elifesciences.org/articles/109...
Reposted by Rachel Hutto
What a gem from @dudinlab.bsky.social @gautamdey.bsky.social @centriolelab.bsky.social in Cell! Expansion microscopy atlas of >200 eukaryotes comparing cytoskeletal architectures revealing structures not seen before. Stunning visualisation! Exactly the kind of transformative cell biology we need.
October 31, 2025 at 5:45 PM
What a gem from @dudinlab.bsky.social @gautamdey.bsky.social @centriolelab.bsky.social in Cell! Expansion microscopy atlas of >200 eukaryotes comparing cytoskeletal architectures revealing structures not seen before. Stunning visualisation! Exactly the kind of transformative cell biology we need.
WHAT
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
For the first time, researchers have captured rats hunting bats by grabbing them from the sky. Learn more: https://scim.ag/3Jqldmn
October 28, 2025 at 12:27 AM
WHAT
Reposted by Rachel Hutto
The journal Science covers the UC spyware saga. The UC administrators’ policy assurances are like saying one does not have to lock one’s car because it is illegal for someone to steal the car or its contents. #highereducation 🧪⚛️🔭 #academicsky www.science.org/content/arti...
University of California faculty push back against Big Brother cybersecurity mandate
School officials defend software as bulwark against ransomware, but professors fear potential surveillance of their devices
www.science.org
October 23, 2025 at 8:23 PM
The journal Science covers the UC spyware saga. The UC administrators’ policy assurances are like saying one does not have to lock one’s car because it is illegal for someone to steal the car or its contents. #highereducation 🧪⚛️🔭 #academicsky www.science.org/content/arti...
Reposted by Rachel Hutto
The data is from April but holy moly
October 11, 2025 at 5:11 PM
The data is from April but holy moly
Reposted by Rachel Hutto
Lost Science is a new NYT series of accounts from scientists who have lost their jobs or funding. You can send your story to the Times here www.nytimes.com/2025/10/08/c...
October 10, 2025 at 8:38 AM
Lost Science is a new NYT series of accounts from scientists who have lost their jobs or funding. You can send your story to the Times here www.nytimes.com/2025/10/08/c...
Reposted by Rachel Hutto
One of my favorite moments from Nobel Prize history:
The Nobel Committee couldn’t reach Stanford professor Paul Milgrom to let him know that he had been awarded the Nobel Prize for Economics, so his fellow winner, Robert Wilson, went over to his house in the middle of the night to wake him up!
The Nobel Committee couldn’t reach Stanford professor Paul Milgrom to let him know that he had been awarded the Nobel Prize for Economics, so his fellow winner, Robert Wilson, went over to his house in the middle of the night to wake him up!
October 10, 2025 at 12:43 PM
One of my favorite moments from Nobel Prize history:
The Nobel Committee couldn’t reach Stanford professor Paul Milgrom to let him know that he had been awarded the Nobel Prize for Economics, so his fellow winner, Robert Wilson, went over to his house in the middle of the night to wake him up!
The Nobel Committee couldn’t reach Stanford professor Paul Milgrom to let him know that he had been awarded the Nobel Prize for Economics, so his fellow winner, Robert Wilson, went over to his house in the middle of the night to wake him up!
Reposted by Rachel Hutto
“His mother & nine of her 13 siblings developed Alzheimer’s & died in the prime of their lives. So did his oldest brother, and other relatives going back generations. It is the largest family in the US known to have an Alzheimer’s-causing mutation…Something has shielded him from his genetic destiny”
He Was Expected to Get Alzheimer’s 25 Years Ago. Why Hasn’t He?
www.nytimes.com
October 8, 2025 at 2:06 AM
“His mother & nine of her 13 siblings developed Alzheimer’s & died in the prime of their lives. So did his oldest brother, and other relatives going back generations. It is the largest family in the US known to have an Alzheimer’s-causing mutation…Something has shielded him from his genetic destiny”
Reposted by Rachel Hutto
Some good advice in here but one critical piece I always give is this:
Get a hobby. Preferably a mildly social one. One that has NOTHING TO DO WITH SCIENCE. NOTHING.
You need friends. Not colleagues. FRIENDS. Friends who will love you no matter your research prospects...
Get a hobby. Preferably a mildly social one. One that has NOTHING TO DO WITH SCIENCE. NOTHING.
You need friends. Not colleagues. FRIENDS. Friends who will love you no matter your research prospects...
What's one piece of advice you'd give to someone considering a PhD?
We asked 3785 doctoral candidates across 107 countries for their hard-won wisdom
go.nature.com/4nDjJ7t
We asked 3785 doctoral candidates across 107 countries for their hard-won wisdom
go.nature.com/4nDjJ7t
27 things we wish we’d known when we started our PhDs
Nature’s survey of PhD candidates reveals hard-won wisdom on choosing supervisors, managing mental health and surviving academic culture.
go.nature.com
October 6, 2025 at 2:23 PM
Some good advice in here but one critical piece I always give is this:
Get a hobby. Preferably a mildly social one. One that has NOTHING TO DO WITH SCIENCE. NOTHING.
You need friends. Not colleagues. FRIENDS. Friends who will love you no matter your research prospects...
Get a hobby. Preferably a mildly social one. One that has NOTHING TO DO WITH SCIENCE. NOTHING.
You need friends. Not colleagues. FRIENDS. Friends who will love you no matter your research prospects...
Reposted by Rachel Hutto
What's one piece of advice you'd give to someone considering a PhD?
We asked 3785 doctoral candidates across 107 countries for their hard-won wisdom
go.nature.com/4nDjJ7t
We asked 3785 doctoral candidates across 107 countries for their hard-won wisdom
go.nature.com/4nDjJ7t
27 things we wish we’d known when we started our PhDs
Nature’s survey of PhD candidates reveals hard-won wisdom on choosing supervisors, managing mental health and surviving academic culture.
go.nature.com
October 6, 2025 at 2:17 PM
What's one piece of advice you'd give to someone considering a PhD?
We asked 3785 doctoral candidates across 107 countries for their hard-won wisdom
go.nature.com/4nDjJ7t
We asked 3785 doctoral candidates across 107 countries for their hard-won wisdom
go.nature.com/4nDjJ7t
Reposted by Rachel Hutto
Twenty-four years ago today, our paper “A forkhead-domain gene is mutated in a severe speech and language disorder” was published: www.nature.com/articles/350....
A personal thread about the ups & downs of the journey we took to get to that point....1/n
🗣️🧬🧪
A personal thread about the ups & downs of the journey we took to get to that point....1/n
🗣️🧬🧪
October 4, 2025 at 1:34 PM
Twenty-four years ago today, our paper “A forkhead-domain gene is mutated in a severe speech and language disorder” was published: www.nature.com/articles/350....
A personal thread about the ups & downs of the journey we took to get to that point....1/n
🗣️🧬🧪
A personal thread about the ups & downs of the journey we took to get to that point....1/n
🗣️🧬🧪
Reposted by Rachel Hutto
Mental and metabolic health are closely linked - but what drives this connection? In our new theory paper, we (w/ @camillanord.bsky.social & @hugofleming.bsky.social g.bsky.social) propose dysregulation of interoceptive energy allostasis as a key mechanism.
www.science.org/doi/10.1126/... 🧵 1/n
www.science.org/doi/10.1126/... 🧵 1/n
An interoceptive model of energy allostasis linking metabolic and mental health
Interactions between metabolic interoception and regulation may drive comorbidity between mental and metabolic ill-health.
www.science.org
September 25, 2025 at 10:39 AM
Mental and metabolic health are closely linked - but what drives this connection? In our new theory paper, we (w/ @camillanord.bsky.social & @hugofleming.bsky.social g.bsky.social) propose dysregulation of interoceptive energy allostasis as a key mechanism.
www.science.org/doi/10.1126/... 🧵 1/n
www.science.org/doi/10.1126/... 🧵 1/n
Reposted by Rachel Hutto
If someone you know buys into claims about "genetic optimization" of embryos using polygenic scores of cognition, just send them our 2024 paper on Beethoven & musicality. We wrote it to help communicate limits of individual-level genetic predictions & complexity of links between DNA & behaviour. 🧪👇
Notes from Beethoven’s genome
Wesseldijk et al. compare the genomic information collected from Ludwig van Beethoven
with population-based datasets used to quantify musical achievement.
www.cell.com
August 7, 2025 at 11:10 AM
If someone you know buys into claims about "genetic optimization" of embryos using polygenic scores of cognition, just send them our 2024 paper on Beethoven & musicality. We wrote it to help communicate limits of individual-level genetic predictions & complexity of links between DNA & behaviour. 🧪👇
Reposted by Rachel Hutto
Over 20 years after Julius’s lab and mine cloned TRPM8, it is rewarding to see this science helping patients. The TRPM8 agonist Tryptyr treats dry eye by increasing tear production. A reminder that NIH-funded curiosity-driven research translates to medicines.
tryptyr.myalcon.com?gad_source=1...
tryptyr.myalcon.com?gad_source=1...
TRYPTYR (acoltremon ophthalmic solution) 0.003% eye drops | Alcon US
TRYPTYR is a prescription eye drop used for the treatment of the signs and symptoms of dry eye disease. See prescribing information, how to save, and more.
tryptyr.myalcon.com
August 13, 2025 at 9:17 PM
Over 20 years after Julius’s lab and mine cloned TRPM8, it is rewarding to see this science helping patients. The TRPM8 agonist Tryptyr treats dry eye by increasing tear production. A reminder that NIH-funded curiosity-driven research translates to medicines.
tryptyr.myalcon.com?gad_source=1...
tryptyr.myalcon.com?gad_source=1...
Reposted by Rachel Hutto
From my own academic research, even pre LLMs there was a huge danger of zombie factoids that begin in a respectable publication by mistake and then get reprinted for decades because no one is backtracing to the original source. Once bad info gets into the system it can take years to clear it out.
I've seen numerous examples of this in recent days - we're at a point where some reporters are using LLMs as a source and not even remotely properly factchecking, but also where LLM generated material is making its way into other material and being unknowingly reproduced by others.
WTF? I was quoted in this story but I have never spoken to the reporter nor would I have said those things. Is everything just generated by LLMs these days?
cosmosmagazine.com/earth/oceans...
cosmosmagazine.com/earth/oceans...
July 30, 2025 at 8:16 AM
From my own academic research, even pre LLMs there was a huge danger of zombie factoids that begin in a respectable publication by mistake and then get reprinted for decades because no one is backtracing to the original source. Once bad info gets into the system it can take years to clear it out.
WATCH THIS, MURPH!!!! 🔥
(my favorite moment from #dimension20 live in Seattle tonight!)
(my favorite moment from #dimension20 live in Seattle tonight!)
July 21, 2025 at 7:27 AM
WATCH THIS, MURPH!!!! 🔥
(my favorite moment from #dimension20 live in Seattle tonight!)
(my favorite moment from #dimension20 live in Seattle tonight!)
Reposted by Rachel Hutto
In 1890, the X and Y chromosomes were discovered. It was found that the men who were tested had 46 chromosomes, including an X and a Y, while women who were tested also had 46 chromosomes, including 2 X chromosomes.
So obviously the conclusion was that the Y chromosome defined masculinity.
So obviously the conclusion was that the Y chromosome defined masculinity.
November 8, 2024 at 11:28 PM
In 1890, the X and Y chromosomes were discovered. It was found that the men who were tested had 46 chromosomes, including an X and a Y, while women who were tested also had 46 chromosomes, including 2 X chromosomes.
So obviously the conclusion was that the Y chromosome defined masculinity.
So obviously the conclusion was that the Y chromosome defined masculinity.
Reposted by Rachel Hutto
My latest for American Scientist Magazine helps give scientists the tools to fight back against politicized charges that our research is silly or pointless- tools that will work whether you’re asked “why are we funding this” from your asshole uncle at Thanksgiving or an asshole US Senator.
🧪🌎
🧪🌎
“Why Are We Funding This?”
Long-standing myths about “silly science” have contributed to the reckless slashing of government-supported research.
www.americanscientist.org
June 17, 2025 at 9:47 PM
My latest for American Scientist Magazine helps give scientists the tools to fight back against politicized charges that our research is silly or pointless- tools that will work whether you’re asked “why are we funding this” from your asshole uncle at Thanksgiving or an asshole US Senator.
🧪🌎
🧪🌎
Reposted by Rachel Hutto
These NPG spinoff journals are out of control
June 29, 2025 at 4:50 PM
These NPG spinoff journals are out of control
Wow. Stark data here.
The 500 additional GRFPs NSF awarded were not very evenly distributed across fields, it seems.
www.science.org/content/arti...
www.science.org/content/arti...
June 26, 2025 at 7:26 PM
Wow. Stark data here.