Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

Joseph Luna @virologistjoe.bsky.social · 3d

“I found my footing surrounded by people who took for granted that of course I would succeed.” My advisors had similar faith in me, and though I felt it a tad misplaced, I see such talent and dedication in my students, that now I get it. They’ll succeed, and I’m stoked I get to help them get there!

Harmit Singh Malik @harmitmalik.bsky.social · 3d

I am leaving Rochester NY after attending the retirement fest of four giants in the field of evolutionary biology including my PhD advisor. This visit gave me a chance to revisit old haunts and reflect on my own somewhat unlikely origin story. 1/n

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Joseph Luna @virologistjoe.bsky.social · 8d

I made a sign for the lab with our informal lab motto, inspired by this convo between @itaiyanai.bsky.social and Martin Lercher: nightscience.buzzsprout.com/1744020/epis.... A good reminder that talking is among the best forms of thinking!

A plastic sign with a logogram of two people in conversation alongisde text that reads "There are no lone geniuses"

Our new "There are no lone geniuses" sign mounted on the door to the lab.

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Joseph Luna @virologistjoe.bsky.social · 19d

Lol, I guess I called this one a few weeks in advance. They just won for physics!

arstechnica.com/science/2025...

Meet the 2025 Ig Nobel Prize winners

The annual award ceremony features miniature operas, scientific demos, and the 24/7 lectures.

arstechnica.com

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Reposted by Joseph Luna

William Garland @willgarland.bsky.social · 21d

How do cells sort which RNAs to keep or destroy? New preprint from THJ, Brenneke and Plaschka labs shows that export and decay machineries (TREX2/PAXT) both recognise UAP56-bound RNAs. Whether they’re exported or degraded depends on where in the nucleus this happens.
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

Molecular basis of polyadenylated RNA fate determination in the nucleus

Eukaryotic genomes generate a plethora of polyadenylated (pA+) RNAs, that are packaged into ribonucleoprotein particles (RNPs). To ensure faithful gene expression, functional pA+ RNPs, including prote...

www.biorxiv.org

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Joseph Luna @virologistjoe.bsky.social · Sep 5

What a fun read. Get these authors a 2025 IgNobel Prize

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Reposted by Joseph Luna

Philip Ball @philipcball.bsky.social · Sep 5

Regulation by RNAs might be even more extensive than we thought. Many enzymes and other proteins not previously considered as RNA-binding proteins do seem to fall into this class & might have their activity regulated by RNA.
www.cell.com/cell/fulltex...

Rethinking RNA-binding proteins: Riboregulation challenges prevailing views

The advent of system-wide proteomic approaches has largely expanded the number of RNA-binding proteins (RBPs). This review discusses how recent discoveries are transforming our understanding of biolog...

www.cell.com

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Joseph Luna @virologistjoe.bsky.social · Aug 20

What a towering loss! Jim was as kind as he was brilliant and he was very, very brilliant.

Kara Marshall @karalmarshall.bsky.social · Aug 19

What a legacy Jim leaves. His brilliance and love of science was palpable and inspiring. He was an incredible scientist- I teach his groundbreaking work on careful measurements of mechano ion channels every year. I’ll miss him. Here is a good memory with 3rd gen @yasmeen-hamed.bsky.social.

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Reposted by Joseph Luna

Harmit Singh Malik @harmitmalik.bsky.social · Aug 6

To have this paper appear the same day that RFK Jr is canceling all mRNA vaccine funding is further indication that irony is not dead, even though we might all be soon.

SARS‑CoV‑2 (COVID-19) @covid19disease.bsky.social · Aug 5

www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

Vaccination with mRNA-encoded membrane-anchored HIV envelope trimers elicited tier 2 neutralizing antibodies in a phase 1 clinical trial

Membrane-anchored HIV envelope trimer mRNA vaccines elicited high response rates of serum autologous tier 2 neutralizing antibodies in humans.

www.science.org

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Reposted by Joseph Luna

Kristian G. Andersen @kgandersen.bsky.social · Aug 5

"We reviewed the science, listened to the experts, and acted..."

Words really don't mean anything anymore, do they?

The incompetence is staggering, the political motives, clear as day.

www.hhs.gov/press-room/h...

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Joseph Luna @virologistjoe.bsky.social · Aug 1

Thanks Joe! Sending you a DM

Joseph Luna @virologistjoe.bsky.social · Aug 1

I’m lucky to celebrate this RNA day by completing the West Highland Way. 96 miles in 8 days, and a ton of memories. Time for a pint!

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Reposted by Joseph Luna

skelly @iid.bsky.social · Jul 20

do you ever stare at the ceiling and think about how the worldwide scientific establishment did the impossible and created a COVID vaccine in under a year and the response of the general public has been to go on an unstoppable rampage to destroy science and scientists

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Reposted by Joseph Luna

Tiffany Lowe-Power 🌱🦠 @tlowepower.bsky.social · Jun 26

Advice distilled from an NSF PO:

Apply for NSF funding this year. Because NSF's current policy is to forward-fund active projects (e.g. pay down their mortgage on the future years of funding), there are plausible budget scenarios where NSF has a LARGE budge to spend next fiscal year (on your grant)

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Joseph Luna @virologistjoe.bsky.social · Jun 26

Just finished reading Eco's "How to Write a Thesis" before adding it to the lab library. "First, writing a thesis should be fun. Second, writing a thesis is like cooking a pig: nothing goes to waste." So many gems of advice, clever sourcing ideas, and encouragement, even for modern scientists.

A picture of a book by Umberto Eco entitled "How to Write a Thesis"

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Joseph Luna @virologistjoe.bsky.social · Jun 25

3D printed by the singular @franktedeschi.bsky.social!

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Joseph Luna @virologistjoe.bsky.social · Jun 25

Have a random Wednesday timeline cleanse in the form of this iridescent tRNA! 🤩🧬

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Joseph Luna @virologistjoe.bsky.social · Jun 18

“A thesis represents an investment with an uncertain return, mostly because its life-changing aspects have to do with process.” So true! Very thoughtful write up here

The New Yorker @newyorker.com · Jun 18

Umberto Eco’s enduringly popular manual “How to Write a Thesis” is more than a guide for undergraduates; the book is a celebration of the magical process of self-realization.

A Guide to Thesis Writing and a Guide to Life

Writing and research manuals like Umberto Eco’s “How to Write a Thesis” offer a vision of our best selves, Hua Hsu wrote, in 2015.

www.newyorker.com

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Reposted by Joseph Luna

Alex Wild @alexwild.bsky.social · May 25

Dear science journalism,

Please start including the funding source and whether it has been imperiled by the coup in your coverage of cool new science papers. The public should know the floor is being cut out from under us.

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Reposted by Joseph Luna

Jon Freeman @freemanjb.bsky.social · May 21

🚨 A new rule would let career scientists like NSF/NIH program officers be replaced by political appointees

Already 14,000+ public comments, deadline is Friday

📣 Comments can be short. Courts consider them—and scientists with NSF/NIH experience are especially impactful

Speak up! shorturl.at/WKuBj

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Needhi Bhalla 💅🏽 @needhibhalla.bsky.social · May 13

important historical perspective on the value of federal funding of basic research at universities: "These are the building blocks of America's extraordinary strength, created over the last 100 years, and they are now being dismantled in 100 days" 🧪

www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Qk4...

Fareed’s Take: Trump is gutting what made American science great

YouTube video by CNN

www.youtube.com

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Reposted by Joseph Luna

Adam Phillippy @aphillippy.bsky.social · May 12

NIH is allowing us to recruit postbacs and postdocs again. Please reach out if you are interested in working with us! Ad: genomeinformatics.github.io/jobs2025/

We are looking for postbacs and postdocs!

Join our team and contribute to the development of complete, personalized “telomere-to-telomere” (T2T) genome assemblies and the analysis of previously inaccessible regions of the genome! We are curre...

genomeinformatics.github.io

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Joseph Luna @virologistjoe.bsky.social · May 10

As in I don’t use it as a planner. I use it to log what I actually did. It’s all retrospective. Google cal is the actual planner for upcoming meetings, commitments, etc

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Joseph Luna @virologistjoe.bsky.social · May 10

I use a planner notebook in reverse as a sort of log to write down what I did each day. At the end of each week, I then take stock of how the week went and jot down goals/experiments for the following week. Takes all of 5 minutes and for me it allows full, guilt free detachment.

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Joseph Luna @virologistjoe.bsky.social · May 8

#3 is my favorite, I show last years goals and then color code the ones we hit and which we missed. We accomplish ~80% of what we set out to do each year. The 20% we miss are either false starts or project zags we then collectively plan around. These meetings are blast. Also bring food!

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Joseph Luna @virologistjoe.bsky.social · May 7

Some ideas I’ve done: 1) have a lab timeline for lab milestones through the year, gives a sense of collective accomplishment, 2) include broad project summaries and their (planned) source of funding, 3) have a goals for next year slide <- use this as slide 1 for next year to see how much you did!

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