Constance Bailey

Establishing Conserved Biosynthetic Gene Clusters of the Phylum Myxococcota biorxiv.org/content/10.110…

@CartoonsHateHer @smokedgouda5 Why do we feel the knee jerk impulse to clarify "unrelated to age" as if using IVF for age (which it's not even that effective for compared to other reasons) is shameful?

@smokedgouda5 When we met we both wanted 2. Briefly we flirted with 1, when it was time to do IVF (unrelated to age) we were split between 2-3. Now he wants 2 and I want 4 lmao

For better or worse, birth rate discussions are framed as women choosing to have fewer children. But for most married couples, it’s a joint discussion. Why are we assuming men don’t have opinions on this? Link in replies.

My dept in London at Imperial (Bioengineering) is recruiting a group leader at Professor level 🧑‍🎓 Please RT. It's a great department with world-class expertise in all sorts of biomedical & biological engineering topics, including synthetic biology. 🇬🇧imperial.ac.uk/jobs/search-jo…

@igordownunder Track record matters (publishing frequently and/or in top journals and having highly cited papers) and first/last authored papers, just not so much the actual numbers.

@igordownunder Hmm not my experience applying for grants in NIH, NSF, DOE, and various DOD agencies along with some fancy philanthropic awards. Some institutions and universities care for promotion and internal stuff.

Citation metrics: In the US I found they were not at all emphasized when applying for grants. I would look up my H-index/total cites once a year when filling out some annual paperwork for the university. In Australia I find them extremely emphasized in grant applications.

It just wasn't as focused on metrics

To be clear, there were often sections when I would make an argument about my track record/contributions to science/relevant pubs, highlight 1st or last authored papers esp. w/ PhD students and postdocs, demonstrate I had published high impact papers or highly cited papers, etc.

@RuxandraTeslo @mattyglesias Any med has pros and cons. It's very much up to clinical judgment at what point (long term) do the pros outweigh the cons for what severity of ADHD symptoms.

@RuxandraTeslo @mattyglesias Stimulant meds can be life changing for some but they are potentially addictive, can exacerbate heart/hypertensive issues w/ chronic use, can exacerbate chronic sleep issues and anxiety disorders, and can worsen anorexia. Certainly some downsides to over prescribing.

There's probably a middle ground to this but I know 2 Romanian men who underperformed in school despite being very smart (both computer scientists). Their entire life changed post taking ADHD medication in UK. I mean not just productivity, but also better mood etc.

Exploring alternative hosts for engineered PKSs is a promising strategy. In our latest publication, we established P. putida as a production host for unnatural polyketides. sciencedirect.com/science/articl…

Establishing a High-Yield Bacillus subtilis-Based Cell-Free Protein Synthesis System for In Vitro Prototyping and Natural Product Biosynthesis | ACS Synthetic Biology pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/ac…

@LNuzhna My favorite computational biologists are the sorts who decide to spend at least a bit of time doing some wet work (or transition out of it) and appreciate how messy the data they are basing their models on can be and are realistic about limitations.

@LNuzhna These models can be useful, but sometimes physicists when applying to disciplines with an infinite number of variables don't have hubris for appreciating how woefully insufficient/reductive the necessary simplifications are.

I used to feel "physics is the mother of all sciences, yay," but more and more I think that physics-derived concepts have actively harmed other fields (biology, finance, CS) and are holding them back.

@ATinyGreenCell @malikules Ultimately having the resources to do this sort of complex evolutionary biology and to understand past genetics is unethical to do on humans, and too underfunded to do without all the VC hype.

@ATinyGreenCell @malikules Dogs/wolves are a reasonably tractable model to work with for complex mammals. Colossal does other things that are less flashy, like biobanking samples of endangered/extinct animals and looking at genetic variance to introduce into endangered animal populations.

it's honestly so embarrassing that bio community decided to pull the biggest "uhm acshualllyyyy☝️🤓" on this subject

@ATinyGreenCell @malikules I think the notion of is "de-extinction" about genotype or phenotype is an interesting one (although certainly the language is not precise and it is gimmicky). Restoring phenotypes that no longer exist is the ultimate goal of these genetic engineering experiments.

@malikules Why? Pushing back against actual charlatans giving bio a bad name is important work. Im still waiting for the scathing articles around the moral bankruptcy of frivolous engineering of wild animals as a cynical marketing stunt.

@mattyglesias Hey, the AUD isn't doing so well right now. Tracks closely with raw materials trading since it is so linked to mining. Total economic collapse in Australia from these tarrifs could be closer than you imagine!

@TanentzapfLab @bakermind In practice you get paid your 9 month salary over 12 months and have the option to get paid more through grants for the 3 months as a bonus. Have worked both in the U.S. and out of the U.S.

@bakermind I don’t see the distinction between having to come up with your own salary & getting paid part of the year. If you have to raise 50% or 80% of your salary it’s equivalent to getting paid 50% or 20% of the year.

Of all the things I find baffling about American Science the weirdest is how university based researchers work year round but (if they are lucky) get paid by the institution for 9 months of the year. A bizarre, archaic, & abusive arrangement that has somehow been normalized.