Tim Stearns

David Botstein was one of the giants of genetics and genomics, my mentor, colleague and friend. nytimes.com/2026/03/20/sci…

Most mass spectrometers still analyze molecules one or just a few at a time. Now, a new MultiQ-IT prototype from Rockefeller's Brian Chait described in @ScienceAdvances can cool, trap, filter, and redirect over a billion ions simultaneously. 🔗: bit.ly/47FWUd6

Excellent example of how AI tools can be engines for learning concepts, not just finding an answer: openai.com/index/new-ways…

David Botstein, a titan within the scientific community, died last week. GSA mourns his passing and celebrates his legacy. Read more about his significance to our community in this thread ⬇️🧵

Huge congratulations to Gabriella Chua (@BadAtCloning) and Andrea Terceros, 2026 recipients of the Weintraub Award! The award, given by @fredhutch, is considered among the most prestigious prizes for graduate students in the biosciences: bit.ly/4sfaxI9

New paper alert 🚀 Our organism-wide single-cell ATAC-seq atlas of mammalian aging is now out in @ScienceMagazine, led by our fantastic graduate student @ziyu__lu from @RockefellerUniv! science.org/doi/10.1126/sc…

Ok so I tried out the tool on an area where I’m an expert where I already have very strong knowledge of the literature and understanding of the prevailing wisdom of the field. I also input a dataset I generated and analyzed myself (literally with my hands) so I knew the methodology backwards and forwards. Quick aside to define some terms: nearly all of your cells have an antenna, a cilium, that does two way communication to sense and transmit signals and its length has everything to do with its function. Hundreds of genes are involved in the formation, maintenance, and function of this antenna. When they’re mutated, you get a whole host of multi-symptom disorders from blindness to sterility to developmental disorders to kidney disease and and and and …. The mechanisms that affect cilium length/function are therefore of great translational interest. The dataset I generated (like 15+ years ago) was a chemical screen of 1280 FDA approved drugs with known targets to identify mechanisms affecting cilium length and function. The hypothesis it generated with the greatest surprisal score was an interesting one. The prior was indeed a vague opinion I held, that on the basis of existing research, there was a potential mechanistic tie between cilium resorption and autotomy (self-severing in response to stress). Think shrinking vs. severing. Various studies showed the activities occur in tandem or in sequence. And number of cellular processes involve both. The two activities can be independent and separable but the relationship is unclear and suggestive. The tool suggested due to insufficient evidence (not statistically significant) of enrichment of shortening drugs among severing set and vice versa that the data don’t support a shared mechanism. And there’s relatively little overlap between the compounds that result in both outcomes. So despite the suggestive evidence of a link, these specific data don’t support it. So what do I think about this conclusion? A hypothesis presumed to be true for which the null based on the data cannot be rejected. As always with AI, I’m not using it to replace my thinking but it’s making me think differently and more deeply. About the prior evidence too. And indeed even the evidence of shared mechanism in shrinking and severing are vaguely suggestive but not clearly demonstrated. But also the lack of mutual enrichment given the bias in the library and relatively small N is certainly no nail in the coffin. So interpretation of imperfect data via other imperfect data is well…imperfect. But this exercise is immensely useful and it has meaningfully changed my perspective. The lab experiments I’d propose to tease it apart are different. And I wouldn’t just throw up my hands and be opinionated about the parsimonious model based on what’s known (objectively little) but would instead be more precise in the perception of likelihoods in my mind. Once again, I implore scientists to not live or die by the specific outputs of these models and tools but enjoy the absolute richness of the experience of being given a jet pack. That we get to live in this technological moment as scientists is hard to fully appreciate. Making scientists better and ask harder questions previously not sufficiently explored IS making science better even if it doesn’t yet replace us.

This was from 7 years ago, but it continues to be one of my favorite posts of all time. Thank you @StearnsLab for your very kind support always!

NYC Postdocs! Interesting in using comedy in the creative scientific process? NYC Postdoc Night Science will have its first 2026 meeting on Feb. 11 at @NYULH_postdocs. I'll lead this with the amazing stand-up comedian Sarah Adelman! Free registration: docs.google.com/forms/d/11SztT…

@Archaeon_Alex Best wishes for a great start at Indiana, Alex! I look forward to hearing about your Great Salt Lake project. The microbialites are so interesting!

I am beyond excited to announce that the Bisson Lab has a new home!!! Starting January 2026, I will join the Biology Department at Indiana University Bloomington as Associate Professor with tenure. The Bissons are now with the Bisons! Check out our updated website: bissonlab.com We’ll continue to focus on archaeal cell mechanobiology and tool-building to study microbial life, while expanding to new projects at the Great Salt Lake (more details soon). I am deeply grateful to my future colleagues at IU-Biology for their warmth and support. It is a privilege to join a department with a foundational legacy in microbiology, shaped by figures such as Salvador Luria and Giuseppe Bertani. I am actively recruiting scientists across all levels (see the details by the end of the thread) [1/4]

@KoenenMascha @ScienceMagazine @LeducqCardioBAT @ar_dilorenzo @Revson_Fdn Beautiful work @KoenenMascha !

Very excited to share that my postdoc paper is out today @ScienceMagazine scim.ag/4pQ4us8😍 I would like to thank Paul and the whole Cohen Lab (current+past members), all our collaborators @LeducqCardioBAT @ar_dilorenzo and @Revson_Fdn for all your support!😍

A study in @ScienceMagazine from Paul Cohen's lab, led by @KoenenMascha, demonstrates how beige fat directly influences blood pressure. The findings offer a new target for treating vascular disease and could lead to more precise therapies for hypertension: rockefeller.edu/news/38906-how…

🚨The Neurocyto lab is branching out in our latest preprint! We used tubulin microinjection to visualize microtubule turnover in developing neurons, demonstrating the presence of in-lattice repair and stabilization in the nascent axon. Check below 🧵1/9 biorxiv.org/content/10.648…

Immunera (startup cofounded with @zazius & @ScottBoydLab) is hiring senior ML researchers and engineers in NYC. We’re building blood tests powered by sequencing and protein language models. See below for more details. Please RT. 1/

@JSheltzer @arjunrajlab Also, most expression constructs for mammalian cells have a 5’ intron, without which expression is poor, so engagement with the splicing machinery in mammals at least is important, so you’re really asking whether alternative splicing is important (which I’m sure you know!).

@JSheltzer @arjunrajlab The cDNA is almost always overexpressed, often grossly, compared to wt, so this is probably not an experiment sensitive to subtle differences. When done carefully in yeast, removal of introns mostly didn’t matter: doi.org/10.1091/mbc.e0…

I have almost never seen a published experiment in which wild-type cDNA fails to rescue a CRISPR knockout. What can we conclude from this?

@toddham Excellent - theremin 2.0

My weird iPad synth experiment continues with hand tracking. My kids think it's hilarious.

@HHMINEWS Summer Undergraduate Research Experience - #CechFellows named in honor of Prof Tom Cech Deadline to apply: 12/22/2025 Spend 9 weeks in a paid, mentored biomedical research experience in an HHMI lab. See you next summer!!! hhmi.org/programs/cech-…

@taniabishola @UNESCO Nice work, Tania!

Thanks @UNESCO for the support over the past years. Through metagenomics, we are investigating the role of wastewaters as environments where antimicrobial resistance genes can emerge and thus, we can use these data to prevent the spread of AMR #Science #AMR

NYC Postdocs: Join us for our next Postdoc Night Science NYC session, when we will practice how to get new ideas using "puzzle-switching"! This time we're in Columbia (Morningside Campus) on Dec 3rd at 5PM. Free registration: docs.google.com/forms/d/1onfmd… @StearnsLab @KelseyRMonson