Kirby Leo

Very excited to share our latest preprint, where we visualize the impact of force on the catch bonding actin crosslinker α-actinin-4. Led by @alfredcchin, a great collaboration with Glen Hocky's lab. biorxiv.org/content/10.648…

@RockefellerUniv i took this picture of Jim on the first day of my sabbatical. This is how I will remember him. Jim showed us how to be a different kind of scientist, an ideal hard to emulate, but always an inspiration. A great loss of a legend.

We are deeply saddened to share that our friend and colleague Jim Hudspeth passed away on Saturday. We will remember and continue to be inspired by Jim’s integrity, his humility, and his unwavering commitment to discovery. rockefeller.edu/news/38152-a-j…

Optogenetically induced chemo-mechanical excitations are used to drive and study shape deformations in starfish oocytes. Understanding and eventually controlling such waves is important for the development of synthetic cells. nature.com/articles/s4156…

Mr Alfred Chin, young scientist from Alushin Lab at The Rockefeller University in the USA, joined us for our Inaugural Forum. He appreciated the opportunity to be able to engage in talks by Shaw Laureates who shared their life experiences regarding their research journeys.

🔔Apply now!🔔 January 27 is the final day to submit applications to the MBL's 2025 Physiology Course. This seven-week lab course has educated generations of leading biologists and fostered groundbreaking discoveries. Learn more: bit.ly/3BZSj9c #ScienceStartsHere

HNY! In case you thought 2025 is the year of the snake, it's actually the year of the SQUID🦑Excited to present this new protocol paper from the @brangwynnelab on isolating+transfecting squid primary cells🧫✨! Check it out here: biorxiv.org/content/10.110…

Excited to announce that our 2025 Advanced Research Training Course schedule is up and applications are open! 🎉🎉🎉 See you in Woods Hole! mbl.edu/courses

Delighted to share my PhD work on the mechanics of protocadherin 15, an inner-ear protein critical for human hearing, out now in @PNASNews! Read on to hear👂🏼more! pnas.org/doi/10.1073/pn…

@yoonj_k @RockefellerUniv @leslievosshall @brangwynnelab @Princeton Welcome!!! 🤗

Hello from NYC! Excited to be starting my postdoc in the Vosshall lab at @RockefellerUniv - Big thank you to @leslievosshall for having me here, my PhD advisor Cliff @brangwynnelab and friends at @Princeton and beyond for their support:) excited for what’s to come! Lezgooo✨👩🏻‍🔬

It's #MicroscopyMonday, so let's take a peek into the 🔬! This is the marine invertebrate trichoplax, a tiny multicellular organism, stained with membrane dye. It was imaged while crawling during the 2024 Physiology Course at the MBL. Credit: Zachary Sanchez.

How do you weave a neural basket around a sensory organ? The final VOR is out! #content" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener">elifesciences.org/articles/89926…

That's a wrap for Physiology 2024! #MBLphysiology @MBLScience . Special thanks to co-Director @GladfelterLab & manager @samjlord. Too many others to thank - CAs+dozens of rotation/skillsweek faculty+TAs came through - really takes a village. **Amazing** & life-changing summer!!!

Two month update: my @light_bio Firefly Petunias made an epic comeback 💡🪴🚀

Thanks to fantastic students, TAs, & faculty #MBLPhysiology @MBLScience who just wrapped up rotation #1. Fantastic end-of-rotation talks - @brangwynnelab + @GladfelterLab & @SamReckPeterson rotation talks all amazing! Stay tuned for Rotation #2 pics...

Nice dinner out in Woods Hole with lab members @yoonj_k @ranaushnish @nimajaberi_ who came to @MBLScience to help teach our 2-wk rotation in #MBLPhysiology . A truly awesome team!

I received Firefly Petunias 🪴💡 from @light_bio about a month ago. An update: The plant arrived in a rough condition (somewhat expected). After a week, growth was still stagnant and flower petals wilted. In an effort to save it, I pruned it, transplanted it to a new pot with new soil, and brought it to @RockefellerUniv where there’s lots of sunlight ☀️. Half of it died at ~3 weeks, and here’s the remaining half. Parts of it are glowing*, but it looks like it’s succumbing to some sort of infection (fungal?). Overall, it was an interesting product. It’s great to see “consumer biotech” for the masses. Hopefully my Firefly Petunia survives, but either way I will definitely buy the next plant from @light_bio! *Picture taken with iPhone camera (3s exposure)

Although I was selected as a @RockefellerUniv nominee for this year’s @Regeneron Prize for Creative Innovation, unfortunately I was not chosen as a finalist. In the spirit of advancing open science, I’m posting my proposal here. (It’s supposed to be a “dream project” unrelated to applicants’ current research.) Hopefully this is useful to someone! My idea was inspired by @davidrliu’s phage-assisted continuous evolution (PACE) platform and peptide-aminoacyl tRNA ligases (PEARLs) discovered by Wilfred van der Donk @ChemistryUIUC.

Development of a transgenic zebrafish embryo. Credit to @MarioMendieta_S. #ZebrafishZunday

Stimulating muscle fibers with magnets programs the direction they grow, researchers find. Read more in @Device_CP cell.com/device/fulltex… @DrRituRaman