Maitreyi Das
We study cell polarity and cytokinesis in the fission yeast model system with emphasis on GTPase signaling patterns @BostonCollege. Immigrant. She/her. www.daslabpombe.com
- Merry Christmas all. This year we got to celebrate with our family in India. Housefull of kids, nieces and nephews is so much fun. Kept up with tradition and attended midnight service, lots of plum cake and mutton pulao, karahi chicken and raita. The kids loved it.
- @ascbiology.bsky.social 's Women in Cell Biology (WICB) has yet another fantastic event today at 4pm, room 126A. A networking panel on "Thriving in Uncertain Times: Navigating Career and Funding Challenges". #cellbio2025.
- If you are at #cellbio2025 you have got to come see "The scripts of Success: Award Winning Scientists Take the Stage with Humor and Honesty" in the CC 108 at 11am today.
- The Das lab is well represented at #cellbio2025 in Philly. Come learn more about our research and about the Molecular and Cellular Biology PhD Program at Boston College.
- This one is a must see. The title is the talk is "The Importance of Imagination, a Superpower, in Survival, Science, and Our Lives." How cool is that.
- Another fabulous session coming up at the #cellbio2025 @ascbiology.bsky.social @embo.org meeting in Philly! Looking forward to seeing you there!
- Zara Weinberg passed away earlier this week. She joined my lab earlier this year when her postdoc lab formally closed. She was a brilliant scientist, supportive mentor, dear friend, avid music fan, rabid believer in public transit, open science champion, and above all just an amazing human.
- I am so sorry for your loss. She will be missed.
- This thread and all of it! Hoping for a genuis savior is like waiting for A cure for all cancers. Not possible, cannot happen.
- Looks like year 2 grad students can no longer apply for the NSF GRFP. I hope I am wrong. www.nsf.gov/funding/oppo...
- Our latest preprint on the role of the Arp2/3 complex in mitotic entry is now available @biorxiv. This work was done by Dhanya Kalathil, a very talented postdoc in my lab. The story started in 2019 when we were investigating the role of branched actin in cytokinesis. 1/
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View full threadInterestingly, cells that do enter mitosis despite CK666 treatment, show aberrant SPB interaction with the actin ring leading to spindle and nuclear division defects. This suggests that the SPB has an affinity for actin and in the absence of branched actin binds the actin ring instead. 9/
- It is unclear how NE fenestration occurs. We find a potential for branched actin in fenestration. Branched actin promotes NE break down in starfish oocytes. Our findings suggest that branched actin plays a conserved role in mitosis. For more see our preprint. 10/end www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
- If CK666 is required for NE fenestration, treating the cells with CK666 should not display mitotic defects. Indeed, in prophase-arrested nda3-KM11 mutants, treatment with ck666 followed by prophase release did not show any mitotic defects. 7/
- Branched actin is known to remodel membrane. If it helps fenestration on the NE we should see branched actin elements on the NE and near the SPB. Indeed, she found Fimbrin and Arp2/3 components on the NE and near the SPB. 8/
- Cut11 recruitment defects typically indicate failure to inset the SPB in the NE. Just before SPB insertion during fenestration, the SUN domain protein Sad1 forms a ring framing the fenestra. Ck666-treated cells fail to form this ring as seen with Structured illumination microscopy. 5/
- She asked if this is because the fenestra fails to form in these cells. Indeed, CK666 treated cells retain higher levels of NLS-GFP in the nucleus a hallmark of fenestration defect. 6/
- We saw similar defects in mutants of arp3 or actin-bundling protein fimbrin. Fission yeasts undergo closed mitosis and the MTOC or spindle pole body (SPB) duplicates in interphase and just before mitotic onset, is inserted into a fenestra on the nuclear envelope and spindle microtubules nucleate. 3/
- She found that on CK666 treatment, the SPB often failed to recruit the Polo-like kinase Plo1 and the SPB docking protein Cut11. 4/
- We noticed that fission yeast cells treated with the Arp2/3 complex inhibitor CK666 often failed mitotic entry. Dhanya confirmed this finding and it was all the clearer in cell-cycle synchronized cells, where CK666 cells often failed to enter mitosis or did so with a significant delay. 2/
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- Congratulations Katherine and the Aird lab.
- Our latest is now available @jcellsci.bsky.social. The final research article from Bethany Campbell's thesis work. Endocytic patch dynamics are differentially regulated at distinct cell sites in fission yeast. doi.org/10.1242/jcs....
- ASCB Cell Bio 2025, is in Philadelphia 12/6-10. Apply for a Familycare Grant by 9/3. These flexible awards ($500) can be used towards any eligible family care expense that makes it easier for you to attend the Annual Meeting. www.ascb.org/grants-award...
- This looks really interesting. It is going to require some time and attention…
- I wonder if this would work in yeasts. Would be cool if it does.
- Congratulations to all the fellows elected this year! A special shout out to my dear friend @veronicasegarra.bsky.social. Thank you to you and all the fellows for your contributions to cell biology and the community.
- Meet the 14 scientists named 2025 ASCB Fellows! Honored for excellence in research, mentorship, and service, they’ll be recognized at Cell Bio 2025 this December in Philadelphia. Read more: www.ascb.org/society-news...
- Congratulations to all the @ascb awadrees and special shout out to the #WICB awardees @cohenlaboratory.bsky.social for WICB Junior Award for Excellence in Research and Kristen Verhey for the Sandra Masur Senior Leadership award.
- Meet the 2025 ASCB Award Winners—trailblazing scientists honored for research, mentoring, education, and innovation. Celebrate excellence across all career stages in cell biology. Read more: www.ascb.org/society-news...
- Our latest by the very talented postdoc Dr. Samridhi Pathak, “Differential gene expression drives cell-cycle-dependent transition from monopolar to bipolar growth in fission yeast.” Now available on @biorxiv-cellbio.bsky.social 1/x
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View full threadG2 phase cells upregulate cellular component biogenesis, cell-wall organization, and plasma membrane maintenance pathways to facilitate bipolar growth. 6/x
- Our results suggest that the stress response pathway needs to be downregulated not only for cell-cycle progression but also for the transition to bipolarity. These findings highlight the interplay between cell cycle, growth, stress response and polarity pathways.7/end www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
- To identify the factors promoting the transition from monopolar to bipolar growth, we analyzed differential gene expression patterns between G1/S and G2 phase cells. We used the cdc10-129 mutants that arrest in G1/S under restrictive conditions. 4/x
- Using a combination of GSEA and KEGG analysis, protein-protein interaction networks and validation with cell biology we identified that the nutritional stress response pathway that promotes G1-arrest is upregulated in G1/S phase and prevents precocious bipolar growth. 5/x
- Fission yeast is a great model for cell polarity research. These cells start out monopolar and on reaching a certain size become bipolar. Previously we showed that the cell ends compete with each other and bipolarity ensues when cells grow, make more material and overcome the competition. 2/x
- However, G1/S-arrested cells fail to become bipolar even at a larger cell size. This suggests that bipolarity is cell-cycle dependent. The basic polarity factors including Cdc42 and its regulators do not seem to behave differently in G1/S suggesting that the regulation may be at a systemic level.3/x
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View full threadTo identify the factors promoting the transition from monopolar to bipolar growth, we analyzed different gene expression between G1/S and G2 phase cells. 4/x
- Using a combination of GSEA and KEGG analysis, protein-protein interaction networks and validation with cell biology we identified that the nutritional stress response pathway that promotes G1-arrest is upregulated in G1/S phase and prevents precocious bipolar growth. 5/x
- Fission yeast is a great model for cell polarity research. These cells start out monopolar and on reaching a certain size become bipolar. Previously we showed that the cell ends compete with each other and bipolarity ensues when cells grow, make more material and overcome the competition. 2/x
- However, G1/S-arrested cells fail to become bipolar even at a larger cell size. This suggests that bipolarity is cell-cycle dependent. The basic polarity factors including Cdc42 and its regulators do not seem to behave differently in G1/S suggesting that the regulation may be at a systemic level.3/x
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- I am so sorry. I lost my dad in 2010. It took years before I could remember him without crying. Grief would hit suddenly and hard. Now when I think of him, it's always with a smile or wishing he was here with me. May your dad's memory be a blessing.
- I would be so embarrassed if I did not get this. 😌 Wordle 1,502 4/6 🟨⬛⬛⬛⬛ ⬛⬛⬛⬛⬛ ⬛⬛⬛🟩⬛ 🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩
- Are you an early-career biologist or ecologist who would benefit from an invited seminar? Would you like to come to UMaine next fall or spring to give a talk? Leave a brief comment with some info about what you do. I'm co-hosting our seminar series again, and am filling out our rosters.
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- I know of a couple of folks who got their NOAs.
- Extremely honored to receive this prize from @socdevbio.bsky.social, which recognizes not only my love for developmental biology, but the extremely online I am 🧪 (protect science, protect people, viva la dev bio!)
- Congratulations! And thank you so much for your service to the scientific community.
- Thank you to @septinlab.bsky.social @mcmomany.bsky.social and @talbotlabtsl.bsky.social for organizing a fantastic septin meeting. I learned a lot and was delighted to share our research. It was great to meet old colleagues and make new connections. #SeptSRC
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- Congratulations! Wish you the very best.
- Nominate a colleague or yourself for the WICB @ascbiology.bsky.social Sandra K. Masur Senior Leadership Award for late career scientists with outstanding scientific achievements, coupled with leadership in mentoring women and underrepresented groups. Deadline, June 30th. www.ascb.org/award/sandra...
- Nominate a colleague or yourself for the @ascbiology.bsky.social WICB Junior Award for Excellence in Research. Open to women or non-binary people in early career, within 7 years of appointment to an independent position at the nomination deadline (June 30th). www.ascb.org/award/women-...
- I have thoughts about this. NIH allows a PI to mention in the biosketch how the pandemic impacted their lab. But it is not required. So folks who were not impacted because they did not sit down their lab do not mention it. This is unfair. 1/
- One group had to point to the reasons for their low productivity while the other group can pretend like nothing happened. Making the statement a requirement is fair. NIH can fix this. 2/end
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- This was my 5yo at a meeting I had to attend way back. The last time I had to tag him along at a lecture I gave, he was 10. He told me I was a very good teacher because students did not seem confused. 😂
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- I teach intro mol/cell bio. I emphasize conceptual understanding rather than memorizing facts. So far AI really lacks in that aspect. It is consistently wrong when it has to synthesize higher order thinking from multiple nuggets of facts. Right now it does more harm than good.
- If you see this post a flower💐 The peonies are opening! I wish I could transport the smell to you, so lovely
- Our first peony ever. Planted the bulb last year.
