Happy 121st Birthday to Barbara McClintock...a beloved member of the CSHL family, one of the most influential geneticists of the 20th century, and winner of the 1983 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (the first woman to win that prize unshared!)
Today, we celebrate the birthday of a
@NobelPrize
laureate and the queen of
#epigenetics
herself,
#BarbaraMcClintock
. Find out why she is SO important to CSHL, not to mention to science in general!
72 years ago today, Nobel Laureate Barbara McClintock submitted her discovery of transposons, also known as "jumping genes" which cause the purple spots and streaks on corn kernels.
Happy birthday to Nobel laureate Dr. Barbara McClintock! 🎉🎂 Learn more about this pioneer who pushed on with her research in the face of every challenge, saying, “They said I was crazy—absolutely mad...When you know you are right you don’t care!”
“I never thought of stopping, and I just hated sleeping. I can't imagine having a better life.”
~Barbara McClintock
#OTD
in 1992, CSHL lost a beloved family member,
#BarbaraMcClintock
, who left behind an inspiring legacy for women and scientists facing barriers or adversity.
New CSHL Assistant Professor Katherine Alexander specializes in nuclear speckles (the proteins and RNA housed in the nucleus). Exploring their potential influence on gene regulation could lead to enhanced cancer patient outcomes.
#OTD
in 1983, Barbara McClintock was notified that she had received the
@NobelPrize
for Physiology or Medicine. Days later, McClintock, who eschewed publicity while maintaining a wry, self-effacing sense of humor, showed up at a CSHL event “incognito” wearing a Groucho Marx mask.
Barbara McClintock’s words upon hearing she’d won Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine? “That’s nice.” She was the first, and still only, woman to win this honor unshared. This
#WomensHistoryMonth
, celebrate one of CSHL’s most inspiring scientists:
Congratulations to Prof and HHMI Investigator Zachary Lippman, who has been named the director of
@CSHLsbs
! Lippman graduated from the school back in 2004, and is the first alum to take on the role.
What if a high schooler had the potential to sequence a genome at their fingertips? 🤔 CSHL’s
@DNALC
is collaborating with
@nanopore
to develop educational infrastructure and resources with the potential to make in-class DNA sequencing routine! 🧬
Congratulations to Associate Professor Jessica
@tollkuhn
on being chosen to receive one of
@PershingSqFdn
’s MIND Prizes. Her project highlights the pioneering aspect of her research on how sex hormones affect the body throughout our lifetimes.
Hungry, hungry immune cells can be programmed to fight cancer! CSHL Prof
@megeblad
and her lab developed a treatment that reprograms immune cells to consume breast cancer cells.
Congratulations to Cancer Center Director David Tuveson, who was elected to
@theNAMedicine
! He is being recognized for his leadership in the field of
#pancreaticcancer
research.
Exciting news! Our first At the Lab podcast episode is live, featuring Prof. Zach Lippman and his urbanized tomatoes that are designed to grow indoors with artificial light, no pesticides, and minimal water. Check it out!
#AtTheLab
🌿🍅
@HHMINEWS
has named postdoc
@simonedsun
a 2023 Hanna Gray Fellow! The fellowship provides up to $1.4 million in funding for up to eight years in support of her studies on the effects of sex hormones on the brain during adolescence. Congrats! 🎉
"After arriving at CSHL in the late 1980s, Martienssen had the thrill of working at Dr. McClintock’s side. His early research actually confirmed and extended McClintock’s…"
And now, his work is being celebrated with the most fitting of awards!🏅🎉
CSHL’s
@ArkarupBanerjee
has found that some mice’s brains bend their perception of time to communicate more effectively. This may clue us into how our brains affect our ability to interact with each other.
Congrats to
@simonedsun
, a postdoc in
@tollkuhn
lab, who was named a 2022
@LeadingEdgeSymp
Fellow! She is being honored for her research on the protein estrogen receptor beta, and its role in the development and function of the nervous system.
CSHL Cancer Center Director David Tuveson was chosen President-Elect of
@AACR
: “AACR’s mission is to improve the lives of people world-wide... Collectively we can solve the hardest problems and help the most cancer patients.”
Welcome, Assistant Prof
@GPouchelon
! 🎉 She joins the neuroscience faculty, researching the balance of genetic and environmental factors in neural circuit development.
"...and thank you for the time spent away from your family to save ours."
Doctors Krainer and Bennett accept their
#BreakthroughPrize
through happy tears, hugs, and tiny high fives during last night's
@brkthroughprize
ceremony.
Big congratulations to CSHL Professor
@leemorj
, our new director of research! 🥳She will be a tremendous asset to the lab, influencing its future & driving breakthroughs in research. 🔬
#CSHL
Despite half the population being female, their health needs are often overlooked. CSHL scientists are on it—tackling cancer, hormones, and brain research to bridge the gap in women's health! 💪🧠
#WomensHistoryMonth
#InternationalWomensDay
Wishing a warm welcome to new CSHL Fellow Mitra Javadzadeh, who joined our neuroscience faculty! Her lab studies neural computations behind visual perception and the ways in which the brain processes visual information. 🧠
“Biology is a data science. If we’re getting those tools into the hands of students, we’re opening up what’s possible.”
@DNALC
’s
@JasonWilliamsNY
is bringing programs in bio & data science to underrepresented students and the teachers who educate them.
Tick-tock: What winds our biological clocks? In this At the Lab episode, CSHL’s Chris Hammell shares how C. elegans (roundworms) may unlock the timing of our biological development.
@cmhammell
CSHL has been named the top academic
#research
institution by scientific journal
@nature
in its 2019 Index Annual Tables. Thank you to the 600 wonderful researchers and scientists🌱🧫🧠💻🧬👩🔬👨🔬who made this possible! We couldn't have done it without you:
🎶Sing it from the rooftops!
CSHL Assistant Professor
@arkarupbanerjee
, whose work uses singing mice as a model to investigate the neural circuits in the brain, has been awarded the Klingenstein-Simons Fellowship Award in Neuroscience. Congratulations!
A team led by CSHL researchers figured out how to genetically remove prickles from plants, which may have implications for evolution across all life forms.
"We're finding tens of thousands of variants that are missed using short-read sequencing." 🤯
@mike_schatz
explains how his decision to depart from traditional methods and "start from scratch" has paid off 👇
Nothing like a summer sunset on campus! Thanks to Dr. Luciano Martelotto (
@LGMartelotto
) from the University of Adelaide for snapping this stunning scene!
Happy 90th birthday to James D. Watson! He shared the 1962 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for the discovery of DNA's double helix structure, and served as director and then president of CSHL for a total of over 35 years.
This
#WomensHistoryMonth
, we'll be sharing insights from some of our favorite
#WomenInScience
.
We'll kick things off with an oldie but a goodie. In 2017, CSHL alum and
@NobelPrize
laureate
@CWGreider
shared an important life lesson with our Ph.D. graduates 👩🎓👨🎓
Microglia, the immune cells of the brain, are known for eliminating unwanted germs and debris, like unneeded neuronal connections. Prof Linda Van Aelst has discovered microglia also help neurons grow connections critical to cognitive functioning.
For the first time, an AI model has been trained to predict fly behavior in response to visual stimuli. This breakthrough by CSHL’s Ben Cowley may be the initial step toward artificial vision technology.
@BenjoCowley
CSHL
@DNALC
’s Jason Williams (
@JasonWilliamsNY
) winning idea for
@NSF
2026 Idea Machine: empower K-12 & other educators to engage all members of society in STEM literacy, become the problem-solvers of tomorrow
Congratulations to CSHL Professor Rob Martienssen for being awarded the 2024 Genetics Society Medal, which is given in recognition of outstanding research contributions to the field of genetics! 🏅🎉
@GenSocUK
CSHL and the
@AllenInstitute
used BARseq to examine the visual cortex in mice. They found that when vision is lost, genes in the visual cortex start to resemble those in neighboring cortical brain regions. 🐭
@TonyZador
Congrats to Assistant Prof
@ArkarupBanerjee
, who has been named a 2022 Searle Scholar! He is being honored for his work on neural circuits for flexible vocal communication.
Congratulations to CSHL Assistant Professor
@LucasCheadle
on his selection as a
@HHMINEWS
Freeman Hrabowski Scholar, a new program that supports outstanding early career faculty committed to advancing diversity, equity, and inclusion in science.
.
@biochem_bri
does it all! She's a graduate student in
@leemorj
's lab, the social media chair of
@CSHL_WISE
, and the first ever student ambassador of
@iubmb
. We invite you to dive into the world of biochemistry with her as your guide:
A toast to our very own Adrian Krainer for winning the
#BreakthroughPrize
in Life Sciences! He was awarded for his work on the first approved treatment for
#SpinalMuscularAtrophy
, which is the leading genetic cause of infant death. Cheers to you, Dr. Krainer! 🥂
🧠 Curious about how the brain adapts to sensory changes? CSHL's new Assistant Professor, David Klindt, is using NeuroAI to unravel this fascinating mystery! 🔍
@klindt_david
CSHL Professor and Cancer Center Director David Tuveson has been elected to the American Academy of Arts & Sciences! Congratulations on this monumental achievement! 🎉
@americanacad
For over 17 years, Wayne has kept our labs supplied. So when
#COVID19
emptied our labs, offices, and auditoriums, Wayne and his colleagues remained on campus to safely ensure that crucial
#coronavirus
research can continue. We can’t thank them enough!
Congratulations to Professor Hiro Furukawa (
@furuttini
) for winning the 2020 Nakaakira Tsukahara Memorial Award from
@jnsorg
for his research on the NMDA receptor, a key molecule in the brain!
Happy 120th birthday to
@NobelPrize
winner Dr. Barbara McClintock! We baked her a walnut cake, an homage to her legendary black walnut cake, to celebrate.
What can singing mice teach us about how our brains take in information and respond to it? That’s what new CSHL Assistant Professor
@ArkarupBanerjee
is going to find out.
CSHL neuroscientist
@anne_churchland
tells
@nature
, “All kinds of really interesting stuff is being generated within [animal] brains that changes the way that sensory inputs are processed - and so changes the animals’ behavioral output”
The student has become the master, or in this case, the director. Professor and HHMI Investigator Zachary Lippman is the first alum of the CSHL graduate program to serve as
@CSHLsbs
's director of graduate studies.
Welcome to Assistant Prof
@BenjoCowley
! His lab will study how the brain processes information gathered by the senses, creating computer models to capture the step-by-step calculations across neural circuits.
“She was just beside herself with excitement, and was almost incoherent, she was talking so fast. She had drawn the conclusion that this thing was moving around.”
– Dr. Evelyn Witkin recalls the moment McClintock discovered transposition 😮
via
@hackaday
Congratulations to Professor and
@HHMINEWS
Investigator Zachary Lippman! CSHL held an outdoor celebratory toast to honor his election to
@theNASciences
. Cheers! 🍾🥂
Congrats to CSHL Cancer Center Director David Tuveson on becoming
@AACRPres
, bringing years of scientific and clinical expertise in
#pancreaticcancer
research to the position.
An important update about
#preprints
:
Our friends at
@PLOS
are working to link every PLOS paper back to its respective
@biorxivpreprint
article, immortalizing "an important part of the paper’s life cycle" for all readers 🔬📜👍
#PowerToThePreprint
Just around this time two years ago, the
@US_FDA
approved what many would call "a miracle" – the first-ever treatment for
#SpinalMuscularAtrophy
🎉
You can learn about the whole story –from serendipitous start to joyful finish– by exploring our interactive feature👇
#Climatechange
is turning our favorite movie-night snack to rust, but Adjunct Professor and USDA Agricultural Resource Service biologist Doreen Ware (
@CSHLplants
) is providing open access corn genome maps that can help breeders make more resilient corn.
Did you know plants get stressed? Assistant Prof
@UllasPedmale
and his team discovered that when plants are grown in the shade, they turn on hundreds of stress-related genes, stunting their root growth.
Jason Williams (
@JasonWilliamsNY
) began his science journey as a student at
@DNALC
, and now he’s the Assistant Director for External Collaborations! Read about his journey from one side of the lab bench to the other:
How does breast cancer avoid detection by the body’s immune system? CSHL’s
@megeblad
discovered that cancer cells sabotage local immune cells embedded in tissues. Findings are published in
@JExpMed
.
@wsbsbot
student David Johnson has been awarded a 2019 Gilliam Fellowship for Advanced Study from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute
@HHMINEWS
👏👏👏 He studies glioblastoma multiforme, a type of brain tumor:
Why is it that a pregnancy early in a woman’s life dramatically reduces her risk of developing
#BreastCancer
? This question has led
@caoresco
to investigate the
#epigenome
🔬
Now, the
@psscra
prize will help her continue to ask bold questions 🎉
Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory mourns the passing of Jim Simons, an Honorary Trustee since 2015, an award-winning mathemetician, and a generous philanthropist who was a beloved part of our community. We send our deepest condolences to the Simons family.
Meet the newest
@SloanFoundation
Fellow, Dr. Tatiana Engel! Her lab studies cognition through the use of computational models. Her work is at the cutting edge of
#neuroscience
research and we're proud to have her as a member of our community🧠💻
As much as 98 percent of the human genome🧬consists of “dark matter”: sequences that don’t present immediately visible functions. But to Dr. Andrea Schorn, who joins the faculty as a Research Ass. Professor, this dark matter is actually quite bright.
#DYK
: On this day today -- October 1, 1990: The Human Genome Project officially began
@DNAday
Take our
#DNA
and pop culture quiz to see what you know about the vital fabric of life
Why was corn able to spread and adapt so rapidly across the Americas 4,000 years ago? Research from CSHL’s Rob Martienssen suggests that the answer may lie in a genetic system called Teosinte Pollen Drive.
CSHL’s Rob Martienssen and
@leemorj
teamed up to determine what controls epigenetic inheritance in plants. 🌱 Their discovery could have implications for agriculture, food supplies, the environment, and our understanding of the human genome. 😮