banner
rodrigofg.bsky.social
Rodrigo Fernandez-Gonzalez
@rodrigofg.bsky.social
3.1K followers 2.5K following 140 posts
Epithelial morphogenesis, microscopy and image analysis. Cytoskeleton and cell adhesion. Author of pyjamas.readthedocs.io and bitbucket.org/rfg_lab/junkie. Keeping a group of brilliant scientists entertained at www.quantmorph.ca. Also marathons and sushi.
Posts Media Videos Starter Packs
Pinned
rodrigofg.bsky.social
Rodrigo Fernandez-Gonzalez @rodrigofg.bsky.social · Nov 11
A quick re-intro: we are interested in the mechanisms of collective cell behaviour, particularly cell movement. We use fly embryos, quantitative microscopy, image analysis and computer-based modelling. One of the systems where we study collective cell movement is the wound healing response.
5 16 98
rodrigofg.bsky.social
Rodrigo Fernandez-Gonzalez @rodrigofg.bsky.social · 12h
Gracias Rubén!
rodrigofg.bsky.social
Rodrigo Fernandez-Gonzalez @rodrigofg.bsky.social · 12h
Thank you Mark!
1
rodrigofg.bsky.social
Rodrigo Fernandez-Gonzalez @rodrigofg.bsky.social · 15h
And thanks [email protected] for hosting the defence!!
1
rodrigofg.bsky.social
Rodrigo Fernandez-Gonzalez @rodrigofg.bsky.social · 15h
Congrats to Dr. @negberry.bsky.social , who successfully defended her PhD in @bme-uoft.bsky.social @utoronto.ca last week!! Negar and I had our annual career one-on-one today, and she showed up with this totally AMAZING present. If you don’t yet, you should follow her: she is onto great things!!
Two cross-stitched fruit flies, male and female, with three-dimensional wings (one of them is Curly!!).
3 2 12
Reposted by Rodrigo Fernandez-Gonzalez
tryangregory.bsky.social
T. Ryan Gregory 🇨🇦 @tryangregory.bsky.social · 3d
Ok, then there's no Alberta oil or Saskatchewan potash, it's Canada's oil and Canada's potash.

www.cbc.ca/news/canada/...
'There is no B.C. coast. It's Canada's coast': Sask. premier supports Alta. pipeline proposal | CBC News
Sask. Premier Scott Moe repeated his support for the proposed pipeline between Alberta and the northern B.C. coast earlier this week by Alberta Premier Danielle Smith.
www.cbc.ca
18 63 270
Reposted by Rodrigo Fernandez-Gonzalez
katecavanaugh.bsky.social
Kate Cavanaugh @katecavanaugh.bsky.social · 7d
See this? This = implanting mouse embryo. Usually this happens inside its mother and is invisible to us, but we can actually watch implantation ex vivo with the hope of understanding why implantation goes awry in embryos of older women. A 🧵...
11 68 220
rodrigofg.bsky.social
Rodrigo Fernandez-Gonzalez @rodrigofg.bsky.social · 11d
JAMÓN!!!!!!
2
Reposted by Rodrigo Fernandez-Gonzalez
angierasmussen.bsky.social
Angie Rasmussen @angierasmussen.bsky.social · 11d
Terrific new review of flu & COVID vaccine recommendations in Vaccine from Jessica Breznik, Matt Miller, & @msmacrophage.bsky.social!

They make a compelling data-driven case for expanding COVID vaccines & optimizing timing for COVID waves, as we do for flu.👇

www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
Rationalizing recommendations for influenza and COVID-19 vaccines
Influenza vaccination saves lives, reduces short-term and long-term health consequences, decreases healthcare utilization, and improves pregnancy outc…
www.sciencedirect.com
38 110
Reposted by Rodrigo Fernandez-Gonzalez
jeffvandermeer.bsky.social
Jeff VanderMeer @jeffvandermeer.bsky.social · 11d
"War-ravaged" Portland today... #WarRavagedPortland
beautiful orange flower in a hellscape of calming shadow and a gorgeous white picket fence during a morning of peace and quiet an explosion... of yellow leaves on a winsome tree on a lazy fall day a riotous... number of white pollinator blossoms in front of the purple haze of a nicely maintained house with a lovely set of stairs leading to the street the civil disobedience of a quiet, well kept street with delightful gardens beyond moss encrusted stone terracing
28 250 1.1K
Reposted by Rodrigo Fernandez-Gonzalez
thetnholler.bsky.social
The Tennessee Holler @thetnholler.bsky.social · 11d
It’s funny because it isn’t 😕 🇺🇸
680 4.3K 15K
rodrigofg.bsky.social
Rodrigo Fernandez-Gonzalez @rodrigofg.bsky.social · 25d
Isn’t that hate speech???? Shouldn’t it be prosecuted????
atrupar.com
Aaron Rupar @atrupar.com · 25d
Brian Kilmeade endorses euthanizing homeless people: "Involuntary lethal injection, or something. Just kill them."
3
Reposted by Rodrigo Fernandez-Gonzalez
moorejh.bsky.social
Jason Moore @moorejh.bsky.social · Sep 7
A wonderful open-source software package en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blender... #blender
Blender (software) - Wikipedia
en.wikipedia.org
1 2 9
Reposted by Rodrigo Fernandez-Gonzalez
spavel.bsky.social
Pavel @spavel.bsky.social · Sep 7
UNLIMITED VELOCITY
One of the ways that LLM-authored code improves productivity is by merely SAYING it does things. It's way faster than the whole time-consuming process of actually doing things. This is real code someone sent to me for review. A screenshot of a code editor. The line numbers are in the lefthand column, running from 121 to 125. There is a comment that says "Verify packages were created and check sizes" Then line 123 says echo Verifying Lambda packages were created... and Line 124 says echo checkmark emoji colon All Lambda packages verified successfully. There is no line in here that actually did anything.
62 840 3.6K
Reposted by Rodrigo Fernandez-Gonzalez
hillaryclinton.bsky.social
Hillary Rodham Clinton @hillaryclinton.bsky.social · Sep 1
If you enjoy…

Weekends
Safe working conditions
Retirement benefits
Paid vacations
Breaks at work
Sick leave
Paid holidays

… then you’re part of the labor movement. Happy Labor Day.
440 5.8K 24K
Reposted by Rodrigo Fernandez-Gonzalez
peiferlabunc.bsky.social
Mark Peifer (He, him) @peiferlabunc.bsky.social · Aug 24
If anyone wants to write individually or collectively (but politely):

President Alan Garber
Harvard University
[email protected]

Dr. Rachelle Gaudet
Chair, Harvard MCB Department
[email protected]
peiferlabunc.bsky.social
Mark Peifer (He, him) @peiferlabunc.bsky.social · Aug 23
The community of Drosophila researchers is amazing, mutually supportive and collaborative. Right now a key resource for our community, @flybase.bsky.social , is threatened by the cancellation of its NIH grant and is seeking community help in raising short term funds 1/n 🧪 please share
Dear Fly Community, In May 2025, the NIH terminated all grant funding to Harvard University, including the NHGRI grant that supported FlyBase. This grant also funded FlyBase teams at Indiana University (IU) and the University of Cambridge (UK), and as a result, their subawards were also canceled. The Cambridge team has secured support for one to two years through generous donations from the European fly community, emergency funding from the Wellcome Trust, and support from the University of Cambridge. At IU, funding has been secured for one year thanks to reserve funds from Thom Kaufman and a supplement from ORIP/NIH to the Bloomington Drosophila Stock Center (BDSC). Unfortunately, the situation at Harvard is far more critical. Harvard University had supported FlyBase staff since May but recently denied a request for extended bridge funding. As a result, all eight employees (four full-time and four part-time) were abruptly laid off, with termination dates ranging from August to mid-October depending on their positions. In addition, our curator at the University of New Mexico will leave her position at the end of August. This decision came as a shock, and we are urgently pursuing all possible funding options. To put the need into perspective: although FlyBase is free to use, it is not free to make. It takes large teams of people and millions of dollars a year to create FlyBase to support fly research (the last NHGRI grant supported us with more than 2 million USD per annum). To help sustain FlyBase operations, we have been reaching out to you to ask for your support. We have set up a donation site in Cambridge, UK, to which European labs have and can continue to contribute, and a new donation site at IU to which labs in the US and the rest of the world can contribute. We urge researchers to work with their grant administrators to contribute to FlyBase via these sites if at all possible, as more of the money will go to FlyBase. However, we appreciate that some fu… https://wiki.flybase.org/wiki/FlyBase:Contribute_to_FlyBase Our immediate goals are: 1. To maintain core curation activities and keep the FlyBase website online 2. To complete integration with the Alliance of Genome Resources (The Alliance). Integration with the Alliance is essential for FlyBase’s long-term sustainability. For nearly a decade, NHGRI/NIH has supported the unification of Model Organism Databases (MODs) into the Alliance, which we aim to achieve by 2028. Therefore, securing bridge funding to sustain FlyBase over the next three years is crucial for successful integration and the long-term access to FlyBase data. At present, our remaining funds will allow us to keep the FlyBase website online for approximately one more year. Beyond that, its future is uncertain unless new funding is secured. We will, of course, continue pursuing additional grant opportunities as they arise. Given the uncertainty of future NIH or alternative funding sources, we are relying on the Fly community for support. Your contributions will directly help us retain the staff needed to complete this transition and to secure ongoing fly data curation into the Alliance beyond 2028. We at FlyBase are incredibly grateful for the outpouring of support from the community during this challenging time. Your encouragement has strengthened our resolve and underscores how vital this resource remains to Drosophila research worldwide. Sincerely, The FlyBase Team
1 5 6
Reposted by Rodrigo Fernandez-Gonzalez
peiferlabunc.bsky.social
Mark Peifer (He, him) @peiferlabunc.bsky.social · Aug 23
The community of Drosophila researchers is amazing, mutually supportive and collaborative. Right now a key resource for our community, @flybase.bsky.social , is threatened by the cancellation of its NIH grant and is seeking community help in raising short term funds 1/n 🧪 please share
Dear Fly Community, In May 2025, the NIH terminated all grant funding to Harvard University, including the NHGRI grant that supported FlyBase. This grant also funded FlyBase teams at Indiana University (IU) and the University of Cambridge (UK), and as a result, their subawards were also canceled. The Cambridge team has secured support for one to two years through generous donations from the European fly community, emergency funding from the Wellcome Trust, and support from the University of Cambridge. At IU, funding has been secured for one year thanks to reserve funds from Thom Kaufman and a supplement from ORIP/NIH to the Bloomington Drosophila Stock Center (BDSC). Unfortunately, the situation at Harvard is far more critical. Harvard University had supported FlyBase staff since May but recently denied a request for extended bridge funding. As a result, all eight employees (four full-time and four part-time) were abruptly laid off, with termination dates ranging from August to mid-October depending on their positions. In addition, our curator at the University of New Mexico will leave her position at the end of August. This decision came as a shock, and we are urgently pursuing all possible funding options. To put the need into perspective: although FlyBase is free to use, it is not free to make. It takes large teams of people and millions of dollars a year to create FlyBase to support fly research (the last NHGRI grant supported us with more than 2 million USD per annum). To help sustain FlyBase operations, we have been reaching out to you to ask for your support. We have set up a donation site in Cambridge, UK, to which European labs have and can continue to contribute, and a new donation site at IU to which labs in the US and the rest of the world can contribute. We urge researchers to work with their grant administrators to contribute to FlyBase via these sites if at all possible, as more of the money will go to FlyBase. However, we appreciate that some fu… https://wiki.flybase.org/wiki/FlyBase:Contribute_to_FlyBase Our immediate goals are: 1. To maintain core curation activities and keep the FlyBase website online 2. To complete integration with the Alliance of Genome Resources (The Alliance). Integration with the Alliance is essential for FlyBase’s long-term sustainability. For nearly a decade, NHGRI/NIH has supported the unification of Model Organism Databases (MODs) into the Alliance, which we aim to achieve by 2028. Therefore, securing bridge funding to sustain FlyBase over the next three years is crucial for successful integration and the long-term access to FlyBase data. At present, our remaining funds will allow us to keep the FlyBase website online for approximately one more year. Beyond that, its future is uncertain unless new funding is secured. We will, of course, continue pursuing additional grant opportunities as they arise. Given the uncertainty of future NIH or alternative funding sources, we are relying on the Fly community for support. Your contributions will directly help us retain the staff needed to complete this transition and to secure ongoing fly data curation into the Alliance beyond 2028. We at FlyBase are incredibly grateful for the outpouring of support from the community during this challenging time. Your encouragement has strengthened our resolve and underscores how vital this resource remains to Drosophila research worldwide. Sincerely, The FlyBase Team
1 130 150
Reposted by Rodrigo Fernandez-Gonzalez
cdelawalla.bsky.social
Colette Delawalla @cdelawalla.bsky.social · Aug 23
As one can imagine, I have some thoughts. Here’s a thread no one asked for:

1. SCIENCE IN THE US IS POLITICAL. No matter how much you want to ignore that fact, it is supported by taxpayer dollars and is therefore, political by nature.

2. BUT it has had bipartisan support for decades, which…
theatlantic.com
The Atlantic @theatlantic.com · Aug 23
For some scientists fighting partisan attacks, the goal is to defend their work from political interference. But in retaliating, @katherinejwu.com reports, they also run the risk of advancing the narrative that they want to fight.
Scientists Are Caught in a Political Trap
Fighting back against the Trump administration means they start to look more like activists.
bit.ly
17 250 600
Reposted by Rodrigo Fernandez-Gonzalez
harmitmalik.bsky.social
Harmit Singh Malik @harmitmalik.bsky.social · Aug 23
It bears repeating that nearly the entire US enterprise in science and technology has been irreversibly gutted. This is shocking.

All this loss has occurred without any real benefit to the average US citizen. Except we now have the biggest, best funded secret police force perhaps ever.

Yay for us!
8 120 330
Reposted by Rodrigo Fernandez-Gonzalez
sabivm.bsky.social
Sabina Vohra-Miller @sabivm.bsky.social · Aug 23
I mentioned to a couple of people that I had a surprise waiting to be shared when Moderna got approval for its updated COVID-19 vaccine. It’s approved, and the big news??? Completely produced domestically!!!!! 🥳🤩

Approved as usual for all aged 6mo+!
Moderna just received Health Canada authorization for its updated LP.8.1 variant COVID-19 vaccine. The exciting part? It will be manufactured domestically! Their authorization allows parts of the vaccine to be produced at Moderna’s new facility in Quebec, while the fill-finish will be handled by Novocol Pharma in Ontario. The domestically produced vaccine will be ready for this year’s fall vaccination campaign.
22 290 760
rodrigofg.bsky.social
Rodrigo Fernandez-Gonzalez @rodrigofg.bsky.social · Aug 19
Thanks Mark!!
Reposted by Rodrigo Fernandez-Gonzalez
hansonmark.bsky.social
Mark A. Hanson @hansonmark.bsky.social · Aug 14
A reminder you/your lab can support FlyBase at Cambridge through the following link. Every bit helps. Please share if you yourself can't donate.

www.philanthropy.cam.ac.uk/give-to-camb...
1 110 79
Reposted by Rodrigo Fernandez-Gonzalez
ardemp.bskyverified.social
Ardem Patapoutian @ardemp.bskyverified.social · Aug 13
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 (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
6 57 200
rodrigofg.bsky.social
Rodrigo Fernandez-Gonzalez @rodrigofg.bsky.social · Aug 12
This is a disaster. So sorry for all those losing their jobs. And so worried about the long term effects that this will have on our community and research progress. 😢
1
Reposted by Rodrigo Fernandez-Gonzalez
theomoudakis.bsky.social
Theo Moudakis @theomoudakis.bsky.social · Aug 12
Please enjoy my cartoon in today's Toronto Star
13 130 400
rodrigofg.bsky.social
Rodrigo Fernandez-Gonzalez @rodrigofg.bsky.social · Aug 12
Thank you!!
1