Karan. G. Kaval, Ph.D.

Crispy snap of the Super Blue Moon on 08/19/2024 with clear skies. f/8, ISO 100, 1/200s, 500mm with a Canon R5.

For 25 years, the Toll-like Receptor pathway was considered a series of distinct protein complexes that drive inflammation. Today, we report that the entire pathway, from receptor to transcription factor, is executed from within one complex—the myddosome. nature.com/articles/s4158…

@HenrikStrahl Congratulations Henrik 🥳

Here is now the corresponding job advert with the Job ID 74536 uni-goettingen.de/de/644546.html

Zooming around a bacteria cell. It's so cool I just got the cell imported (including lipids) and rendering correctly with the new rendering engine (it's called Angstrom). 3x performance boost! So much detail (too much?!) #screenshotsunday #gamedev #scicomm #xcode #swiftlang

Partial Annular Solar Eclipse as seen from the DFW area (Oct 14, 2023). Used my Canon R5, a 70-200mm f/2.8 lens and an ND512 filter. Yes, my love for time-lapse imaging extends beyond microscopy! ☀️🌑

Happy to share our new review on the fascinating T3SS sorting platform! This cytosolic complex plays a crucial role in bacterial pathogenesis. Check it out to dive into the intriguing world of microbial weaponry #T3SS #sortingplatform onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.100…

Postdoc is conceptually different from a #PhD position. Below are some key points to keep in mind before starting postdoc. 1️⃣ The harsh reality of being a postdoc: 1. Postdoc is a contractual (not educational) position. Your postdoc duties are defined by your contract & agreement with your advisor. 2. Usually, a contract is given for 1 year and renewed annually. It does NOT offer the same job security that PhD students enjoy. Be prepared to start searching for a new position in 1st year and leave anytime. 3. Postdoc is inherently a position for academia (with a few exceptions like in bio). Often, companies will assume that you’ve chosen an academic track, not industry. They’d rather hire a fresh PhD graduate from the same field than a postdoc. So, your job search outside academia may become challenging, especially if you do fundamental research. 4. If you want to be a faculty, your postdoc may require a lot more efforts than you originally expected, making it the most intense time of your life. Be prepared. _________ 2️⃣ If you take postdoc because you want to be more competitive for senior academic positions, keep in mind that: 0. Choosing the right lab & advisor is statistically MORE important than simply working hard and publishing papers during postdoc (esp. in the U.S.). However, working with an advisor who can write an excellent recommendation letter does NOT mean that you will also get prepared for a faculty life and become a great scientist. Your advisor should be a good mentor for this. 1. As the competition for faculty positions can easily reach over 1/300 and you have ~1 year before applying for positions, postdoc time often turns into a “race”. The worst part is that hard work does NOT necessarily lead to success. 2. Postdoc is NOT a must for being a faculty. Some students secure professor positions at the end of their PhDs (esp. at the top universities in the U.S.). 3. Postdoc lasts 1-3 years. If you’re a first-year postdoc and apply for faculty positions, committees will be OK with you showing your PhD work during interview. But starting from your 2nd year, they expect you to show successful postdoc results. 4. Some committees expect that a 3-year postdoc should complete as much work as a 5-year PhD student. It’s like a fast-track PhD. 5. Often (esp. in STEM), the expected number of “postdoc papers” is on average 1 paper per 1 year, unless the work is unusually complex. NOT 10 papers/year. 6. Publishing a lot of papers is normally viewed negatively. Coauthoring tens of papers will send a RED flag to the committee. For decent universities, it's (almost always) quality over quantity. 7. Doing a second postdoc is rarely helpful in landing a faculty position. 8. Ideally, postdoc should be in a different field than your PhD. Switching fields is viewed positively and can be helpful in landing a faculty position. But it is much more challenging because your time is very limited but you must do outstanding research. Also, I know many people who didn’t change fields but became faculties nonetheless. Good luck! #AcademicTwitter #AcademicChatter

Bacterial transcription factors often bind sites within genes, but we know little about how these sites function. By mapping the regulon of E. coli PhoB, Fitzgerald et al. provide evidence that most binding sites within genes are nonfunctional. @wadelab loom.ly/mpGqpKQ

Our findings published in @NatureComms got featured on the UTSW website @UTSWNews @UTSWScience. Please go check it out!

The Orth Lab thanks ya’ll for this wonderful comment!!!! A nonstop thrill ride from genes to the assembly of the T3SS injectisome | Nature Communications nature.com/articles/s4146…

Awesome paper by Angela and team!!! So proud!Molecular Determinants for Differential Activation of the Bile Acid Receptor from the Pathogen Vibrio parahaemolyticus jbc.org/article/S0021-…

a gentle reminder to reviewers that if you're proposing experiments that will take >1year or cost >$100k, you're not suggesting modifications — you're describing the NEXT paper. Let's stop holding science back like this eh? It ain't helping.

@orthkim 🙌

Finally!!! It’s out! Congrats KK!!! Yippeee!!! Membrane-localized expression, production and assembly of Vibrio parahaemolyticus T3SS2 provides evidence for transertion | Nature Communications rdcu.be/c6GyM nature.com/articles/s4146…

Our article on how Vibrio utilizes a long hypothesized assembly paradigm #transertion to assemble its T3SS is finally out @naturecomms Grateful to our team at the Orth lab @orthkim @UTSWMolBiol for helping put this together nature.com/articles/s4146…

UT Southwestern researchers use AI to detect new family of genes in gut bacteria : Newsroom - UT Southwestern, Dallas, Texas utsouthwestern.edu/newsroom/artic…

A new signal transduction-mediated assembly paradigm for membrane complexes in bacteria. #transertion @orthkim Transertion is used for localized expression and assembly of Vibrio parahaemolyticus T3SS2 biorxiv.org/content/10.110…

@sallylepage Just a sore arm after both shots

Anyone who had their second Pfizer jab and DIDN'T get any side effects, please make yourselves known. I'm trying to convince my brain that I won't react to it at all.

@palmer_lab Assasin’s Creed Origins is another good one