If you’re looking for some weekend reading about PIEZOs and interoception, we have just the review! Hope that it’s helpful. Congratulations to
@MostlyYas
and
@BRIITYA
!
Starting a lab is slow...but the lab is starting to fill with supplies, Max and I each submitted a paper, and we have achieved approximately 1 unit of science! (Still plenty of fridge space left.)
I'm so excited to share our new work out today in
@nature
! PIEZO2 helps you pee! We found PIEZO2 is a critical mechanosensor for urination in mice and humans. Very fun collab w/
@ardemp
@scrippsresearch
,
@Alex_Chesler
& Bönnemann at
@NIH
. Read here:
Reposting my "Welcome to lab" quiz, in case any PIs find this helpful. I send it to all new members and rotation students to get a sense for their likes/dislikes, strengths/weaknesses, and work styles. It helps me help them!
Dreams really do come true! I am so excited to open up the Marshall lab at
@bcmhouston
@bcm_neurosci
in 2022! I can't wait to join this fantastic group of colleagues and build a fun, inclusive lab team to study interoception. Texas, I'm comin' home.
I keep telling students: try to find a PI whose approach to science, mentoring, and communication style fit with you. I'm more and more convinced that being able to communicate with your PI is key. Can you comfortably talk to this person? Seems simple, but it's so important!
I am so honored and excited to be named a
#FHScholar
along with these incredible scientists! It still feels like a dream! I am grateful for the support this provides to train scientists and to spur discovery.
#HHMI
is changing the landscape by emphasizing inclusive mentorship!
HHMI is proud to announce our inaugural class of Freeman Hrabowski Scholars, outstanding early career faculty in science who have potential to become leaders in their research fields and to create diverse and inclusive lab environments. 1/3
#FHScholars
Chalk talks seem like a fun idea and everything, but maybe it isn't great that the first time most of us witness one is when we're doing one for our own job interview?
I am so honored and grateful for this support from
@pewtrusts
&
@pewhealth
! This will contribute to exciting directions in lab and brings together a wonderful community. Congrats to all!
.
@pewhealth
announces the 2023 class of 22 researchers to join the Pew Scholars Program in the Biomedical Sciences:
@KaraLMarshall
@bcm_neurosci
is one of them! Congrats!! 👏👌 TY you & all other scholars for advancing science to improve human health:
I am a little late, but the lab just turned 1! Hard to believe, but what a wonderful, whirlwind year. We have a great group and we’re settling into the science. I'm so lucky to work with these brilliant people! Reflecting on some of what I've learned as a
#newPI
:
I made a website:
I will be hiring in 2022 at all levels, so please share with anyone interested in working on interoception. We have exciting questions to explore! There is also Houston info, for those who don't know how affordable, diverse and fun it is.
Check out our new preprint! Read for a surprising story about how a familiar tool, FM 1-43, labels Piezo2-dependent activity in vivo. We used this to discover new urethral neurons, which we named "Torrey Pines" neurons. (Images reveal why!) Thanks to Nick, Adrienne and
@ardemp
!
Very happy to share the lab's first publication with
@ardemp
. We found (to our surprise!) that FM1-43 is a PIEZO2 activity-dependent dye in vivo! Congrats especially to Nick Villarino for his hard work, as well as other authors (+ entire Marshall lab!)
Taught my first class yesterday, so I feel like a real professor! Just wanted to tip my hat to all of you out there teaching entire courses. Wow, that is a lot of work. I taught 1 h on my favorite subject and it *still* took so much time to create slides. Cheers to educators!
my lab manager informed us that the colony management software from Transnetyx has a "colony PI" setting with limited controls so that PIs don't mess anything up. 😅
Meeting Freeman Hrabowski was an incredible honor. What an inspiration! I am leaving this meeting with many ideas and so much gratitude to know this amazing community of scholars. Special shout out to
@IshmailSaboor
-somatosensational science ahead!
Something I didn't fully appreciate about this job until recently: if you make friends with great scientists, then you can just invite your friends to give talks! And/or others will invite them, and you can enjoy it when your friends come to town!
I take mentoring seriously. I was alarmed when no one in lab ever knew my musical references, so to remedy this, I made a playlist to introduce them to music from other eras, all with song titles (maybe loosely) related to lab. Enjoy!
In grad school I had a paper on bat wing innervation, and all of my friends said they thought of me whenever they saw bats. They sent me cute bat gifs, and got me cute bat-themed gifts. It was nice. Now I study urination, so...
When I talk to high schoolers who want science career advice, I say: enjoy life! read books! figure out what you like! Many happy scientists I know started as nature wanderers and day dreamers. Am I out of touch? I worry about getting hard skills without nurturing curiosity.
Thanks to technology and the new trend of pre-recorded talks for online meetings, I attended a conference from Yosemite valley last week! I wonder if anyone noticed my background during the live q&a. Maybe online meetings aren't so bad after all...
BREAKING NEWS:
The 2021
#NobelPrize
in Physiology or Medicine has been awarded jointly to David Julius and Ardem Patapoutian “for their discoveries of receptors for temperature and touch.”
Are you an early career faculty doing 1st rate, cutting-edge science?
Do you:
✅ Dream big
✅ Think about transformative science
✅ Want to train next gen scientists
If so, we invite you to apply to the Freeman Hrabowski Scholars Program.
Deadline 5/15:
Interested in interoception and looking for a postdoc position? The Marshall lab had a great first year and built a fun, supportive, inclusive team, and now it's time to grow! Many exciting scientific directions ahead. Apply here, and/or email. Please RT:
This interview season I'm remembering when I "helped" with recruitment. I promised people quick walk through central park to the Met, but I got us lost in the ramble and it became a long, snowy hike. One girl said "I can't live like this" and went to grad school in CA. 😬 Sorry.
It's funny to be back at the place I started in science. The construction manager who oversees lab renovations found my first class picture hanging in an old building!
I know that with time, regular PI experiences will feel routine, but firsts are so exciting for me. First thesis committee invite, first faculty meeting (I know, I know)... all of it is still novel and fun!
The lab went to the Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo! A truly Texan outing. Here we are, dreaming about the future. Picture thanks to the amazing Nick Zhang!
Reason to dress decently well on a flight: sometimes, perhaps rarely, an airline has to choose between taking people or taking checked bags. My flight just chose people. So my travel clothes will also be my "first day of work as a professor" clothes. Hurrah!
My colleagues have been great about inviting me to seminar speaker dinners this season, and it means so much to me. A reminder to do this for your new colleagues! 1. We really need to meet people within and outside the institute, 2. We are lonely!
You should read this tour de force new manuscript from the Ginty lab!
It is truly impressive work, and it was a joy to write this perspective about it with
@ardemp
I knew about predatory journals, but now I get what seem like spam invites to conferences. How do these work? Do they actually host one, and do people go? Or do they take the registration fee and close shop? Some offered travel compensation! Not responding, but I am SO curious
One of my favorite events of the year is our department retreat! Had so much fun meeting the interviewing students. Also I’m so honored that the students voted me as educator of the year. It means so much, thank you! This great quote was part of the nomination.
Rain or shine - we are here at
@TheSanLuisGalv
for the 32nd Rush and Helen Record Forum with our amazing faculty, new and current students! What a great weekend for
#neuroscience
education 🧪
So excited about this amazing paper: nanoscopic fluorescence imaging of PIEZO1! I learned so much from Eric through this: truly the perfect person for this experiment. Janelia AIC folks also said he had the cleanest glass around. Check out the iPALM, and see thread below!
Super excited about this! Check out manuscript from my amazing postdoc Eric Mulhall and collaborators measuring single molecule
#PIEZO1
dimensions in cells with nanometer precision using super-resolution fluorescence microscopy:
1/9
I remember how scary thesis committee meetings could be as a student. Now I really wish I still had regular meetings with people I respect to get their feedback! It is so valuable. So students, don't be scared: your committee is there to help you!
Deep in the internet, I recently found a video of *me* at 21 describing my undergrad research. It is...awful. Every 5th word is “um”! I speak with a slight Texan lilt! (That’s ok, just surprised me.) I'm stilted, vague, and sometimes incoherent! It is deeply embarrassing, but...
I've been pushing through and working long days while having covid. (deadlines!) I finally just gave in and took a nap, and woke up to several emails with good news. A sign from the universe, no doubt!
I am always so grateful for friends and colleagues who are a couple steps ahead, and have been willing to share their grants, award apps, job apps, and advice. I often feel guilty that I can't repay them- but I can pass it on! Excited to be useful to others behind me someday.
Floating after an amazing
@HHMINEWS
meeting! Learned about tapeworms and aphids and songbirds, crispr delivery, infectious disease, feeding,etc! Max presented his work to my science grandpa, and I reunited with FH Scholars! (Missing
@trevor_sorrells
@madsarv
and Angela, sorry!)
Making a precision engineered Nobel medal holder was more complex than you might think! Luckily an incredibly talented friend with a leadership position in aerospace engineering and a garage shop made it happen. He used a vintage 1980s CNC from IBM and ~20 programs in DOS...
For all those people who have told me if they got the
@NobelPrize
they would wear the medal on their neck at all times… here you go! Thanks to the whole lab past and present (with
@KaraLMarshall
’s leadership) for the best precision jewelry. Should I bring this baby to Stockholm?
I've learned so much from this wonderful group of scientists and friends. Postdoc time has truly been the best science time of my life! I'm so grateful.
Scenes from super postdoc
@KaraLMarshall
's going away party. Kara has been a fantastic member of the lab. We will be sad to see her go, but also excited to see what she will do next as an independent investigator:
(everybody boosted and tested negative)
Starting a series: learn from my mistakes. 1. While attending a recruitment event for prospective grad students in your new department, never ask someone you don’t know if they are a current or interviewing student. They might be faculty member you haven’t met yet...
It's so fun to see the science Nobel celebratory tweets. Might I also turn your eyes, science friends, to the poems of Louise Glück, today's winner? "We look at the world once, in childhood. / The rest is memory."
I've been reading an 1833 book about digestion. The author experimented on Alexis St. Martin, who had a permanent opening into his stomach from getting shot. About gastric juice: "It's taste...is similar to thin mucilaginous water slightly acidulated...". So, now you know.
Personal record: Gave 3 talks in 1 day! One on zoom, one recorded, and one for the fun students at
@cshlcourses
#ATMN2023
. So fun to be back for the "Alumni lecture" after taking the course in 2017. Dug through the archives to find this pic with my benchmate.
#team2
It's so relaxing to go back to the place I spent my childhood summers in South Texas. I also made a new friend. Coco knows she's beautiful, loves face scratches, and loves licking people.
Thanks to partnership w/ awesome postdoc Olivia, we’re starting a seminar series at Prairie View A&M! The goal is to let students know about cool research, bc they don’t get access! Let me know if you’re interested in speaking- it was so fun, and the students have great questions
I never thought I'd be the person who woke up at 5:30 AM, got work done, did a run and a swim, showered and had breakfast all before 10...but jetlag made it possible! Hello from the land down under.
To any basic scientists out there who need a retort when someone asks them what their discovery is good for, you could borrow this one. (From Stuart Firestein's wonderful book "Ignorance")
So lucky to work with these amazing people! It has been such a fun few months watching everyone come into their own and thrive. I'm so proud of them. Zoom in to see the cute little lab members on the cake!
My work kryptonite is small administrative tasks. They should be easy, but when multiple when2meet polls and emails with files to download/ fill out come to my inbox at once, and I'm sitting on top of 5 things to finish, my brain glitches and I just stare into the distance.
The Marshall lab goes to the ballet! 🦢🩰 It’s really wonderful to get to share to your interests with your lab! I am lucky to have that space. Also, shoutout to the phenomenal
@HoustonBallet
performers! What a great place to do science (minus the occasional heat waves).
An unanticipated joy of academia is having friends who start labs, and then visiting them and meeting their trainees! Had so much fun with
@MurthySE
seeing the beautiful Vollum institute.
Scientists spend too much time stuck in intellectual silos. Talking to all sorts of scientists who are using varied approaches to understand the world is so refreshing. Thanks to
#KavliFrontiers
organizers for this special opportunity!
I was skeptical of the switch to all questions being submitted through the
#SfN22
app rather than asking through a mic, but my mind is changed. It's nice! It evens the playing field.
I've given 15 talks in the past 6 months (seminars, interviews, outreach). Some included 1:1 mtgs. I still hate zoom talks, but I'm always delighted to meet so many interesting, curious scientists. This must be one of the best parts of the job. Can't wait to do it in person!
I am just amazed at how many fantastic people work in this lovely building. Had a great day catching up with old friends and colleagues at Columbia. Also, they are hiring this year!
I want everyone new to lab to look at DRGs because they are so pretty! Undergraduates, if you're looking for a summer research experience, the
@BCM_SMART
program is awesome! Alexis can tell you about it!
This was a huge project with fascinating results -PIEZO2 in DRGs regulates GI motility! Congrats to
@chio_servin
(on job market soon) and all collaborators!
When you have a 'gut feeling' it might be mechanosensation!
Your gut is in constant motion and these movements are sensed by neurons and regulate GI motility. We describe the role of sensory neuron PIEZO2 in regulating gut function in mice and in humans:
Just got to spend the week collecting samples back "home" in my postdoc lab. It was so comfortable - being a postdoc was fun. Note: new PIs talk about their supportive mentors. Some had unsupportive mentors, and they talk too! Thankful to have the former.
Last year, a paper came out in
@eLife
claiming that a simple dietary supplement (amino acids and sugars) induced limb regeneration in jellyfish, flies, and mice. This seemed incredible. In this preprint, we set out to replicate their fly experiments (🧵)
I feel so lucky to have this dream job and work with these great people. It takes time to adjust, but a supportive environment, amazing colleagues and fun lab people help. Our science future is wide open and I can’t wait to see the next discoveries!
Surely academic twitter has discussed this somewhere, but what are people's favorite electronic lab notebook / data management systems? I want to start the lab off on the right path!