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Reposted by Eric (“VJ”) Rubenstein

Indiana Academy of Science @inacademyofscience.bsky.social · 10d

We extend our deepest appreciation to Dr. Samina Akbar for her outstanding service as IAS President over the past year. Her leadership and continued service to the academy are paramount to our success!

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Eric (“VJ”) Rubenstein @vjrubenstein.bsky.social · 19d

Was in my 30s when I learned that pickles are cucumbers.

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Reposted by Eric (“VJ”) Rubenstein

Paul Angelone @angelone.bsky.social · 22d

The WSJ is confirming what I’ve always said about my alma mater: “Ball State is the Harvard of Muncie, Indiana.”

A description of a WSJ story on the “Elite College Myth” for panicky parents and eventual success. Schools mentioned include Ithaca, OSU, UCLA, Duke. Ball State, LSU, Harvard, and University of Texas Austin.

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Eric (“VJ”) Rubenstein @vjrubenstein.bsky.social · 27d

Congratulations, Eric and Sonya!!

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Eric (“VJ”) Rubenstein @vjrubenstein.bsky.social · Sep 4

bsky.app/profile/char...

WSJ op-ed by Monarez

Charles Ornstein @charlesornstein.bsky.social · Sep 4

Blistering op-ed by fired CDC director Susan Monarez: Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the CDC and Me

Opinion | Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the CDC and Me

I was fired after 29 days because I held the line and insisted on rigorous scientific review.

www.wsj.com

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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

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Eric (“VJ”) Rubenstein @vjrubenstein.bsky.social · Aug 22

Fall 2025 Rubenstein Lab. I am blessed to get to work with a great team of students. Looking forward to what we will learn together this year!

Selfie of professor (VJ) with students in his lab - James Avaala, Katrina Procuniar, Halie Barton, LiLi O'Malley, Sudhee Bommineni, Melissa Palackel, Olivia Crooks, Katie Lehman, and Kaikeyi Paxton

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Andrew Stoehr @andrewstoehr.bsky.social · Aug 14

We're hiring TWO (two!) tenure-track assistant professors in my Biology department: cellular/molecular biology and plant biology. Within those categories, we are very open to research focus. Come work with me! And please spread the word! fa-exer-saasfaprod1.fa.ocs.oraclecloud.com/hcmUI/Candid...

Careers At Butler Careers

Welcome

fa-exer-saasfaprod1.fa.ocs.oraclecloud.com

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Eric (“VJ”) Rubenstein @vjrubenstein.bsky.social · Aug 14

* picture of Emmanuel at the trash can is the ceremonial dumping of the tubes (a last-day-in-the-lab tradition)

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Eric (“VJ”) Rubenstein @vjrubenstein.bsky.social · Aug 14

Bittersweet to say farewell to Emmanuel Akoto, who defended his MS thesis & graduated this summer.

Emmanuel made outstanding contributions to several projects & contributed to the growth & well-being of others around him.

I'm excited to watch him continue to grow in his new role at Eli Lilly!

Emmanuel pipetting some important liquid while wearing a Ball State sweater

Emmanuel and the ceremonial dumping of the test tubes (a rite of passage of graduating lab members)

Emmanuel and VJ posing together in the lab on Emmanuel's last day

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Eric (“VJ”) Rubenstein @vjrubenstein.bsky.social · Jul 31

Congratulations!! We need to celebrate the victories, especially now.

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Amit Joshi @joshilaboratory.bsky.social · Jul 30

Congratulations @maliramanlab.bsky.social!! Happy to have contributed to this study.

Journal of Cell Biology @jcb.org · Jul 29

Montes et al. @maliramanlab.bsky.social @tufts.edu find the p97 ATPase and its adaptor UBXD8 maintain #peroxisome abundance by suppressing #pexophagy. p97-UBXD8 degrade ubiquitylated peroxisomal proteins to bypass recognition by #autophagy receptors. rupress.org/jcb/article/...

#Biochemistry

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Author Bill Sullivan @authorbillsullivan.com · Jul 29

Science in America is Dying. We Need Your Help to Keep it Alive.

America can’t be great without support for the sciences.

medium.com/p/99f78ab122ee

Science in America is Dying. We Need Your Help to Keep it Alive.

America can’t be great without support for the sciences.

medium.com

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Scott Soleimanpour @soleimanpourlab.bsky.social · Jul 21

Type 2 diabetes is often considered a protein misfolding disease. But where are these toxic proteins found? 🤔

🚨In new work out today in @natmetabolism.nature.com, we show that mitochondrial protein misfolding (yes mitos🤯) leads to beta cell damage in T2D. 🚨 nature.com/articles/s42... 1/n

LONP1 regulation of mitochondrial protein folding provides insight into beta cell failure in type 2 diabetes - Nature Metabolism

LONP1, whose expression is downregulated in islets from donors with type 2 diabetes, is vital to mediate efficient mitochondrial protein folding, thus preventing proteotoxicity and promoting islet β c...

nature.com

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Eric (“VJ”) Rubenstein @vjrubenstein.bsky.social · Jul 21

Congratulations, Scott and team! Very cool and important work. You all are crushing it!

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K.T. Elliott @ktelliottmicro.bsky.social · Jul 17

🚨🚨🚨PUI TT Job Alert!!

My dept at TCNJ is hiring a tenure track cell and molecular biologist. Come join my supportive colleagues, helpful staff, & fabulous students!

We're surprisingly well resourced w/excellent equipment (confocal, SEM etc) and research w/students counts towards our teaching load!

Assistant Professor - Biology

Click the link provided to see the complete job description.

tcnj.taleo.net

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Eric (“VJ”) Rubenstein @vjrubenstein.bsky.social · Jul 13

Awesome!! Congratulations, Dequina!

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c0nc0rdance @c0nc0rdance.bsky.social · Jul 8

The Meselson and Stahl experiment demonstrated in 1958 that DNA replicated semi-conservatively.

Meaning, each of the two strands of DNA serves as a template for a new copy to made of the complementary strand.

Foundational finding, elegant experimental design.

The Meselson-Stahl Experiment, diagrammed to show the three possible outcomes: conservative, dispersive or semi-conservative.

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Gabriel Bosslet @gbosslet.bsky.social · Jul 7

Not a good look for Indiana

Humanities education is super important to a thriving civilization and economy

www.chicagotribune.com/2025/07/07/e...

Editorial: Indiana University, Ball State and Purdue are gutted without logic or thought

Taking an axe to degree programs at Indiana University makes no sense.

www.chicagotribune.com

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Ferric Fang, MD @fangferric.bsky.social · Jul 4

Letters in support of the NIH are somewhat more encouraging, as they are bipartisan (incl. 11 Repub Reps, 10 Repub Senators). The House letter recommends an 11% increase over FY25, whle the Senate letter simply states "strong and sustained funding." Fingers crossed.

www.aamc.org/advocacy-pol...

www.aamc.org

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Mark Peifer (He, him) @peiferlabunc.bsky.social · Jul 1

If you, like me, are confused about the relationship of the "Big Beautiful Bill" to the 2025-2026 Federal budget and its relevance to science funding and other issues, here is a GREAT explainer from my friend Kevin Wilson 🧪@ascbiology.bsky.social

American Society for Cell Biology @ascbiology.bsky.social · Jul 1

The "Big Beautiful Bill" isn’t the federal budget—it’s a reconciliation bill focused on tax cuts. The real FY26 funding decisions for NIH, NSF, and more are happening now in Congress.

www.ascb.org/science-poli...

The "Big Beautiful Bill" is Not the Budget - ASCB

If you’ve read recent news about Congress trying to pass “the budget,” you may have noticed that even Washington, D.C. reporters don’t always have a firm grasp on the details of what they’re covering....

www.ascb.org

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American Society for Cell Biology @ascbiology.bsky.social · Jul 1

The "Big Beautiful Bill" isn’t the federal budget—it’s a reconciliation bill focused on tax cuts. The real FY26 funding decisions for NIH, NSF, and more are happening now in Congress.

www.ascb.org/science-poli...

The "Big Beautiful Bill" is Not the Budget - ASCB

If you’ve read recent news about Congress trying to pass “the budget,” you may have noticed that even Washington, D.C. reporters don’t always have a firm grasp on the details of what they’re covering....

www.ascb.org

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Anita Corbett @acorbe2.bsky.social · Jul 2

Our EMORY MARC T34 was just reinstated in response to recent court rulings!!!

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Eric (“VJ”) Rubenstein @vjrubenstein.bsky.social · Jun 30

Thank you!

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Indiana Academy of Science @inacademyofscience.bsky.social · Jun 27

Science With a Twist is back tonight! Follow the QR code to our website for more info and tickets.

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