Aaron Straight

Excited to be representing #PLOSMedicine at #IDWeek In D.C.! Looking forward to great science & medicine and #InfectiousDisease advocacy!

We did it again! Another successful Xenopalooza! Bay area frog labs get together to celebrate the power of the frog! Thanks to @goodfrognosis.bsky.social for organizing. #frog #xenopus 🐸

Congratulations to the 2026 ASCB Fellows! ASCB is proud to recognize 15 scientists whose careers have advanced cell biology through outstanding research, leadership, mentorship & service. Meet the 2026 Fellows: https://www.ascb.org/society-news/fifteen-visionary-scientists-named-2026-ascb-fellows/

These two reviews on centromeres and kinetochores in @natrevmcb.nature.com cap off @andrea-musacchio.bsky.social sabbatical at @stanfordbiochem.bsky.social from @valleefoundation.bsky.social. Long time in the making! Non-paywall versions rdcu.be/fxD9V, rdcu.be/fxEar

Also another good synopsis here elizabethginexi.substack.com/p/summary-of...

@currentbiology.bsky.social has done it again! What a great interview with one of my favorite scientists www.cell.com/current-biol.... Linda Wordeman @mtwonderland.bsky.social. She taught me everything I know about guinea pigs and a lot about mitosis too!

. @stanfordmedicine.bsky.social's 'Walk With Me' features @carolynbertozzi.bskyverified.social, Baker Family Director of Sarafan ChEM-H, whose work explores how chemical biology can help understand disease & develop new approaches to treating cancer & immune disorders:

I'm incredibly honored at election into the American Academy for Arts and Sciences. And Jodi Foster and Rita Moreno too! Credit goes to the amazing people I've been lucky to work with over many years. www.amacad.org/news/new-mem...

@currentbiology.bsky.social has always been one of my favorite journals but I think they have now outdone themselves www.cell.com/current-biol.... And picked up by the @nytimes.com as well! www.nytimes.com/2025/08/18/s...

New preprint from Kelsey Fryer in the lab using ChAR-seq to identify RNAs that are bound to human centromeres. Lots of surprises! #centromere #RNA www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

Had the privilege of hooding 5 new PhD grads @stanfordbiosci.bsky.social this weekend including my student Kelsey Fryer! Good day for science.

Our most recent Synthetic Biology for Sustainability symposium was a great success. Lots of excellent ideas and creative approaches to sustainability. And a wonderful group of scientists too! Check here for more info on our Syn Bio efforts (sb.stanford.edu)

Are you a postdoc/grad student preparing to launch a faculty search? Do you have a track record of excellence in research, leadership, mentorship & community engagement? Apply to the 2025 Next Generation Faculty Symposium: www.berkeleystanfordnextgensymposium.com! Pls repost! (1/3)

Our paper on the role of “mitotic” kinesin Eg5 in neuron development has been published in Development (see journals.biologists.com/dev/article-...). A great work by Wen Lu and colleagues!

This is an amazing opportunity for post-docs, students, faculty search committees and anyone interested in exciting science! Check out the www.berkeleystanfordnextgensymposium.com and apply today.

We're disappointed to see Ben Barres's powerful book "The Autobiography of a Transgender Scientist" among the ~400 titles removed from the Naval Academy Library. Needless to say, we're proud to have published his book and will keep it — and his memory — alive.

I am honored and humbled to be elected as a AAAS fellow (www.aaas.org/news/aaas-we...) with such great colleagues here at Stanford (news.stanford.edu/stories/2025...) and abroad. It really drives home the amazing nature of our scientific community. Special thanks to @dutcherlab.bsky.social's support

I am proud to share my first preprint working with @naltemose.bsky.social, where we redesign DiMeLo-seq from the ground up. Thankful for the help and input of collaborators in @astraight.bsky.social and Aaron streets’ lab at Berkeley. More to come soon! www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

Wonderful visit to @hutchbasicsci.bsky.social today and thanks to @yarimura.bsky.social for hosting and dinner with the always entertaining @suebiggins.bsky.social and @harmitmalik.bsky.social. A day discussing science with amazing people is unbeatable.

Another fave

Wanted to share this story about my colleague Bryant Lin. We’re working together on bringing art and science together but his story runs much deeper. www.nytimes.com/2025/02/26/u...

This is what they mean when they say person skilled in the art. You've got to streak a lot of colonies to get to this level. Not surprised its from Bonnie Brewer 👑 #yeast #toothpick

People keep asking us: “Why are early-career scientists organizing Stand Up for Science?” Because early-career scientists—especially those from underrepresented backgrounds—are getting hit the hardest. Our futures—and the future of science itself—are on the line. 🧵 ⬇️

Ok scientists & those who love science 🧪: here is another exhortation. Call Congress TODAY about the freeze on NIH Council Meetings and Study Sections. Emphasize that this means NO new grants are being funded & labs will soon start to shut down and fire employees. Phone numbers are at: 5calls.org

Honored be named a #SloanFellow! Grateful to my amazing team @stanford-chemh.bsky.social —this wouldn’t be possible without them.

Way to go Brian and @arcinstitute.org!!

Very important to get this word out!

"This feels like the early days of the pandemic, except there's less I can do about it", a colleague told me yesterday. Yep. One thing you *can* do is outreach. My sense is that the majority of the country doesn't yet understand the scale or the stakes of what is happening. We have to tell them:

Read this and understand how important science is and can continue to be in the US if we fight for it. Thanks @gsherloc.bsky.social

(Sorry I took a brief timeout for uncontrollable weeping) In other NIH news, I have heard from multiple sources that NIH plans to fire most, if not all, probationary employees this afternoon. The numbers I am hearing are >5000. Lots of folks extramural staff, intramural scientists, etc.

Varmus is right. Time to stand up for science. www.nytimes.com/2025/02/14/o...

Make no mistake. This is an all-out attack on health in America. Not only is the EIS vital to controlling infectious disease; it was where a remarkably high fraction of our public health leaders received formative training and experience. www.statnews.com/2025/02/14/t...

With measles flaring up and threatening to become a significant concern and H5N1 knocking on the door, today seems like a perfect day to fire all the fellows and postdocs working at the CDC WTAF?!

True story: when my older boys were little, they both got whooping cough even though they were vaccinated. It was bad. We asked the pediatrician what would’ve happened if they hadn’t been vaccinated. They would’ve died, he said. www.nytimes.com/interactive/...

Just saw that Mike Lauer is stepping down as director of extramural research. A steadfast supporter of the NIH scientific mission. Call your representatives. www.statnews.com/2025/02/13/n...

Welcome to the Bluesky account for Stand Up for Science 2025! Keep an eye on this space for updates, event information, and ways to get involved. We can't wait to see everyone #standupforscience2025 on March 7th, both in DC and locations nationwide! #scienceforall #sciencenotsilence

@carlbergstrom.com sums up the NIH cut problem perfectly

One of my colleagues referred to this as the Friday Night Massacre given the destructive impact this will have. A clear and concise message about the facts and impact is so important now. This will hit science in all states regardless of whether they are red or blue.

This is tragic. Such a great program

We are pleased to introduce the newest members of the JCB Editorial Board: Anna Akhmanova, @msubrandizzilab.bsky.social, @goleylab.bsky.social, @christlet.bsky.social, @olzmannlab.bsky.social, Marisa Otegui, Christian Ungermann, Chonglin Yang, and Yan Zhao. https://buff.ly/3Q1O0NT

They…turned off…National Institutes of Health grants? That’s nearly $50 billion of scientific research.

Communications shutdown. Travel ban. Canceled study sections. Now a hiring freeze? Shutting down the NIH indefinitely without stated cause is literally an act of sabotage. Left: yesterday. Right: today.

How hard do bacteria-eating nematodes bite in order to break the bacterial cell wall? Check out our new paper, led by Jason Casar & collab with Jen Dionne, using pressure sensing beads that change color upon compression (bluetorial coming soon) rdcu.be/d5n7v

Our latest collaboration with Ron Biggs and John Marko at Northwestern is in the wild. Surprising centromere resistance to deformation even in the absence of most core centromere proteins. With @elinehendrix.bsky.social, Kousik Sundararajan and Mina Sun. #centromere www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...