Irini Topalidou

A big thank you to the one and only @harmitmalik.bsky.social for such a thoughtful and memorable gift and for an unforgettable collaboration at Fred Hutch’s Basic Scuences Division @basicsci.fredhutch.org ! We love you, Harmit! ♥️

Structure and sequence fill evolutionary gaps for essential centromeric proteins. Work by @jeremyahollis.bsky.social, @irinakitop.bsky.social, & Jason Stonick. Article by Kelsey Woodruff. www.fredhutch.org/content/www/... Paper: www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

Friends and colleagues, I’d like to invite you to my seminar this Thursday, the 20th, as part of the GSA Seminar Series featuring the 2026 GSA Award recipients. I’d be very happy to see you there! 😊 ECT: 1:00–2:00 PM WCT: 10:00–11:00 AM

The ever amazing Steve Henikoff! @fredhutch.org @basicsci.fredhutch.org

Many congrats to the amazing @jeremyahollis.bsky.social and the one-and-only @harmitmalik.bsky.social So much fun to be part of this collaboration!!! Worms, fish, and many other metazoan species come together to build this beautiful story!!! 🐛🐟🐀

With heat waves shattering temperature records across the globe, leading to needless deaths, let me just say that history will not look fondly on those who put fossil fuel profits above saving the planet.

Very excited for our new paper, now out in @cellcellpress.bsky.social! /🧵 The protein Tau forms intracellular toxic tangles in neurons in Alzheimer’s disease and Tauopathies. Tau pathology slowly spreads from cell-to-cell but the mechanisms are not clear /1 authors.elsevier.com/sd/article/S...

It’s been a while since I mentioned how much I appreciate the worm community! Thank you all for replying to my message and for being so generous and eager to help! I appreciate you all!

Progress in cancer research has been one of the incredible areas of biomedical advancement over the past two decades. Many cancers which were absolute death sentences just a few years ago are now chronic, managed conditions. And this was only possible through NIH/NCI/NIAID research/funding.

Hey C. elegans friends! What's your preferred method for cell-specific knockout or knockdown? Would love any paper recommendations too! Thank you!!!

Thank you, @fredhutch.org and @genetics-gsa.bsky.social for this great honor!

Special thanks to John Higgins for the article, Robert Hood for the photos, and the @fredhutch.org news team for bringing this piece together on the @genetics-gsa.bsky.social mentoring award. Special thanks to @singhvilabglia.bsky.social for the nomination. 💜 www.fredhutch.org/en/news/cent...

The GSA gave me the opportunity to write an article in GENETICS reflecting on my journey as an immigrant in the USA and how those experiences have shaped my life and career. Thank you to all of my mentees, friends, and family who have supported me along the way 🙏 academic.oup.com/genetics/adv...

Thank you GSA! 🙏🥹 @genetics-gsa.bsky.social

Truly honored to be part of this inspiring story, driven by the super talented student @jeremyahollis.bsky.social and made possible through the collaboration of four different labs at @basicsci.fredhutch.org. Science at its best!!!

My awesome colleague, @yarimura.bsky.social, is recruiting a postdoc to start at the end of 2026 or early 2027! His lab uses cryo-EM to uncover structural basis of key chromatin events using native complexes isolated from human cells or Xenopus egg extracts! careers-fhcrc.icims.com/jobs/30706/p...

Inspiring talks, signs, and crowd at today's #StandForScience2025 event in Seattle. Thanks to everyone who participated and gave us hope!

For this reason I was very pleased to see Tom Maniatis's article and petition on NIH’s decision to cap indirect cost reimbursement at 15% in @cellpress.bsky.social www.cell.com/cell/fulltex...

that Trumpers think the US Postal *SERVICE* should be a profit-making enterprise exposes the fallacy in their conception of government

Any talk you hear from the current administration about making the US more competitive in science and technology is utter bullshit. What they are doing is sabotaging our country for years if not decades to come.

Maybe I wasn’t clear about this. I wanted more egg and no plane crash, not many plane crash and no egg.

While Trump “floods the zone,” we must stay focused.  NO to oligarchy, tax breaks for the rich and cuts to working class programs. NO to authoritarianism and unlimited power for one man. YES to growing the union movement and raising wages. YES to health care as a human right.

Thanks to everyone who shared this request. We updated our new Trump Tracker blog today with the voices of some federal scientists who reached out. More to come. www.science.org/content/arti...

Dear federal scientists: If you have been affected by the probationary firings and would be willing to speak with Science, please reach out to me by email (klangin@aaas.org) or on Signal. We can guarantee annonymity.

I do think we will see a lot of people leaving America over this. Our country is going back to factory settings.

I foresee a massive brain drain of scientists from the U.S. in the next few years, along with immigrant scientists avoiding the country. Trump's voters destroyed the unique appeal the U.S. once had for scientists 😢😣

Sweeping layoffs are set to hit federal health and science agencies, including at the NIH, and former director Monica Bertagnolli called the situation at the NIH “devastating.”

It’s quite clear by now that the answer to “why is the Trump administration doing x terrible thing?” is that they are *trying* to dismantle America and destabilize the entire world.

Trainees who applied for an NIH diversity fellowship whose applications were withdrawn/not being reviewed, there's a NYTimes reporter who wants to talk, especially interested in applicants with disabilities. DM me & I'll put you in touch, will keep all contact confidential. Please amplify

"Keep calling, keep writing, Knowing you can always make a change for sure. That's what we're here for. Through good times and bad times, We'll stand by the side of research more. That's what we're here for." Bad but more modern version of "that's what friends are for"

If only that breast cancer commercial ended with a notice about all the research funding cuts the current administration is pushing through and how it has immediate negative impacts on breast cancer research and screening.

As Christopher Hitchens said "never be a spectator of unfairness or stupidity. The grave will supply plenty of time for silence.” Now is the time for all of us to resist the absolute stupidity this government has imposed on our lives. www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/int...

In the midst of the dark ages, we MUST retain optimism—keep going, keep publishing, keep talking science, and keep doing fun experiments! Our latest paper on the fascinating TF SKN-1/NRF presents exciting new findings using our one and only #Celegans #genetics #oxidativestress #proteasome

#Celegans #Worms - I'm guessing sending whole labs to big conferences might be too expensive for many labs this year. I want to highlight this meeting will be FREE. VAI will cover all costs and lunch and if people still want night networking I will set something up if enough are interested.

That the White House feels the need to push back on this is good news. It means they are feeling the heat, and it's not just being seen as an inside baseball issue. Because it's not. Keep pushing! Keep calling! Keep fighting!

Gene editing technology began by people studying salt marshes. Ozempic began by folks studying the venom of Gila Monsters. Support for basic science has empowered us to understand our world. Tethering it to applications health has transformed and saved countless lives.

👇😭

I’m reflecting on the many reasons immigrants like myself left their homes to come to this country—to join a scientific community built on innovation, creativity, freedom, and discovery. Trump, his supporters, and those who voted for him are destroying this incredible world 😢

A great 🧵 explaining why the new NIH directive felt like a bomb dropped on our heads 💣

I can’t wait to not watch the inauguration.

🧪 Lab's latest!! Work by PD (and now PI) Alison Philbrook. C. elegans sensory neurons have gorgeous #cilia. We’ve always thought that a) no cilia = no sensory responses, & b) no IFT = no cilia. Punchline is we thought wrong. Read paper for more! #neuroscience journals.plos.org/plosbiology/...

Hi worm world! We are looking for promoters that label hyp 4-6 (in any combination/subset). Do you have any leads? Have not gotten clean promoter bashed version from alr-1, so would love any help. Thank you in advance! #celegans #worm