Aaron Straight
Card carrying Cell Biologist. Prof. at Stanford Biochemistry. Lover of neglected and emerging model systems. straightlab.stanford.edu
- @currentbiology.bsky.social has always been one of my favorite journals but I think they have now outdone themselves www.cell.com/current-biol.... And picked up by the @nytimes.com as well! www.nytimes.com/2025/08/18/s...
- New preprint from Kelsey Fryer in the lab using ChAR-seq to identify RNAs that are bound to human centromeres. Lots of surprises! #centromere #RNA www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
- Had the privilege of hooding 5 new PhD grads @stanfordbiosci.bsky.social this weekend including my student Kelsey Fryer! Good day for science.
- Reposted by Aaron Straight“You can get a other job, but you cannot get another soul”.
- Our most recent Synthetic Biology for Sustainability symposium was a great success. Lots of excellent ideas and creative approaches to sustainability. And a wonderful group of scientists too! Check here for more info on our Syn Bio efforts (sb.stanford.edu)
- Reposted by Aaron StraightAre you a postdoc/grad student preparing to launch a faculty search? Do you have a track record of excellence in research, leadership, mentorship & community engagement? Apply to the 2025 Next Generation Faculty Symposium: www.berkeleystanfordnextgensymposium.com! Pls repost! (1/3)
- Reposted by Aaron StraightOur paper on the role of “mitotic” kinesin Eg5 in neuron development has been published in Development (see journals.biologists.com/dev/article-...). A great work by Wen Lu and colleagues!
- This is an amazing opportunity for post-docs, students, faculty search committees and anyone interested in exciting science! Check out the www.berkeleystanfordnextgensymposium.com and apply today.
- Hello Community! Are you a postdoc/grad student preparing to launch a faculty search? Do you have a track record of excellence in research, leadership, mentorship & community engagement? Apply to the 2025 Next Generation Faculty Symposium: www.berkeleystanfordnextgensymposium.com! Pls repost! (1/3)
- Reposted by Aaron StraightWe're disappointed to see Ben Barres's powerful book "The Autobiography of a Transgender Scientist" among the ~400 titles removed from the Naval Academy Library. Needless to say, we're proud to have published his book and will keep it — and his memory — alive.
- I am honored and humbled to be elected as a AAAS fellow (www.aaas.org/news/aaas-we...) with such great colleagues here at Stanford (news.stanford.edu/stories/2025...) and abroad. It really drives home the amazing nature of our scientific community. Special thanks to @dutcherlab.bsky.social's support
- Reposted by Aaron StraightWe are seeking to hire a lab tech, this is an HHMI funded position, please share the job posting: hhmi.wd1.myworkdayjobs.com/en-US/Extern...
- Reposted by Aaron Straightme, as a senior PI: US science as we know it may be ending? Review these cool manuscripts? Serve on these grant review panels? Yes! All in! Going down in a blaze of glory!
- Reposted by Aaron StraightI am proud to share my first preprint working with @naltemose.bsky.social, where we redesign DiMeLo-seq from the ground up. Thankful for the help and input of collaborators in @astraight.bsky.social and Aaron streets’ lab at Berkeley. More to come soon! www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
- Wonderful visit to @hutchbasicsci.bsky.social today and thanks to @yarimura.bsky.social for hosting and dinner with the always entertaining @suebiggins.bsky.social and @harmitmalik.bsky.social. A day discussing science with amazing people is unbeatable.
- Reposted by Aaron StraightAnother fave
- Wanted to share this story about my colleague Bryant Lin. We’re working together on bringing art and science together but his story runs much deeper. www.nytimes.com/2025/02/26/u...
- This is what they mean when they say person skilled in the art. You've got to streak a lot of colonies to get to this level. Not surprised its from Bonnie Brewer 👑 #yeast #toothpick
- Reposted by Aaron StraightPeople keep asking us: “Why are early-career scientists organizing Stand Up for Science?” Because early-career scientists—especially those from underrepresented backgrounds—are getting hit the hardest. Our futures—and the future of science itself—are on the line. 🧵 ⬇️
- Reposted by Aaron StraightOk scientists & those who love science 🧪: here is another exhortation. Call Congress TODAY about the freeze on NIH Council Meetings and Study Sections. Emphasize that this means NO new grants are being funded & labs will soon start to shut down and fire employees. Phone numbers are at: 5calls.org
- Reposted by Aaron StraightHonored be named a #SloanFellow! Grateful to my amazing team @stanford-chemh.bsky.social —this wouldn’t be possible without them.
- 🎉Congrats to the 126 early-career scientists who have been awarded a Sloan Research Fellowship this year! These exceptional scholars are drawn from 51 institutions across the US and Canada, and represent the next generation of groundbreaking researchers. sloan.org/fellowships/...
- Way to go Brian and @arcinstitute.org!!
- Reposted by Aaron StraightVery important to get this word out!
- I just covered this for @thetransmitter.bsky.social — will keep following! www.thetransmitter.org/funding/fede...
- Reposted by Aaron Straight"This feels like the early days of the pandemic, except there's less I can do about it", a colleague told me yesterday. Yep. One thing you *can* do is outreach. My sense is that the majority of the country doesn't yet understand the scale or the stakes of what is happening. We have to tell them:
- Join us! Science Homecoming helps scientists reconnect with communities by writing about the importance of science funding in their hometown newspapers. We’ve mapped every small newspaper in the U.S. and provide resources to get you started. Help science get back home 🧪🔬🧬 🏠 sciencehomecoming.com
- Read this and understand how important science is and can continue to be in the US if we fight for it. Thanks @gsherloc.bsky.social
- Reposted by Aaron Straight(Sorry I took a brief timeout for uncontrollable weeping) In other NIH news, I have heard from multiple sources that NIH plans to fire most, if not all, probationary employees this afternoon. The numbers I am hearing are >5000. Lots of folks extramural staff, intramural scientists, etc.

- Varmus is right. Time to stand up for science. www.nytimes.com/2025/02/14/o...
- Reposted by Aaron StraightMake no mistake. This is an all-out attack on health in America. Not only is the EIS vital to controlling infectious disease; it was where a remarkably high fraction of our public health leaders received formative training and experience. www.statnews.com/2025/02/14/t...
- Reposted by Aaron StraightWith measles flaring up and threatening to become a significant concern and H5N1 knocking on the door, today seems like a perfect day to fire all the fellows and postdocs working at the CDC WTAF?!
- Reposted by Aaron StraightTrue story: when my older boys were little, they both got whooping cough even though they were vaccinated. It was bad. We asked the pediatrician what would’ve happened if they hadn’t been vaccinated. They would’ve died, he said. www.nytimes.com/interactive/...
- Just saw that Mike Lauer is stepping down as director of extramural research. A steadfast supporter of the NIH scientific mission. Call your representatives. www.statnews.com/2025/02/13/n...
- Reposted by Aaron StraightWelcome to the Bluesky account for Stand Up for Science 2025! Keep an eye on this space for updates, event information, and ways to get involved. We can't wait to see everyone #standupforscience2025 on March 7th, both in DC and locations nationwide! #scienceforall #sciencenotsilence
- @carlbergstrom.com sums up the NIH cut problem perfectly
- 1. Today the NIH director issued a new directive slashing overhead rates to 15%. I want to provide some context on what that means and why it matters. grants.nih.gov/grants/guide...
- One of my colleagues referred to this as the Friday Night Massacre given the destructive impact this will have. A clear and concise message about the facts and impact is so important now. This will hit science in all states regardless of whether they are red or blue.
- This is tragic. Such a great program
- Reposted by Aaron StraightWe are pleased to introduce the newest members of the JCB Editorial Board: Anna Akhmanova, @msubrandizzilab.bsky.social, @goleylab.bsky.social, @christlet.bsky.social, @olzmannlab.bsky.social, Marisa Otegui, Christian Ungermann, Chonglin Yang, and Yan Zhao. buff.ly/3Q1O0NT
- Reposted by Aaron Straight
- Reposted by Aaron StraightThey…turned off…National Institutes of Health grants? That’s nearly $50 billion of scientific research.
- Reposted by Aaron StraightCommunications shutdown. Travel ban. Canceled study sections. Now a hiring freeze? Shutting down the NIH indefinitely without stated cause is literally an act of sabotage. Left: yesterday. Right: today.
- Reposted by Aaron Straight[This post could not be retrieved]
- Our latest collaboration with Ron Biggs and John Marko at Northwestern is in the wild. Surprising centromere resistance to deformation even in the absence of most core centromere proteins. With @elinehendrix.bsky.social, Kousik Sundararajan and Mina Sun. #centromere www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
- Thrilled to announce that Angelina Chan who is doing her masters degree with my group was just awarded a Marshall Scholarship! www.marshallscholarship.org/scholars/202...
- Reposted by Aaron StraightSave the date 📆 Dyche Mullins and I are hosting the “Cell Biology at the Extremes” session at the #CellBio24 meeting on Monday, Dec 16, 5:00 PM. @ascbiology.bsky.social You’ll learn about the latest cool ❄️ hot 🔥 and ultrafast 💨 cell biology. Kindly supported by @focalplane.bsky.social
- Reposted by Aaron StraightHello world! After my lab has been operating in "stealth mode" for 1.5 years, I am excited to announce that we finally have a website: www.huttenhainlab.com By the way I'm also hiring and looking for a postdoc with proteomics experience: postdocs.stanford.edu/prospective/... #TeamMassSpec
- Reposted by Aaron StraightThe Li lab is at the Cell Symposium @cellpress.bsky.social! Lab leader @lingyinli.bsky.social presents the lab's work on new therapeutic modalities harnessing the STING pathway
- Reposted by Aaron StraightThis starter pack is in honor of Assistant Professor Antentor Hinton Jr (AJ) at Vanderbilt School of Medicine - Basic Sciences. AJ curated the first 100 Inspiring Black Scientists in America list and in collaboration with the Community of Scholars expanded this list to the 1000. go.bsky.app/DsJrwRat://did:plc:uhvmpxupupiq36qvw27pl7d7/app.bsky.graph.starterpack/3lboiant4y42x
- Reposted by Aaron StraightOur latest discovery of “lowest recorded temperature for eukaryotic cell motility” going all the way down to -15deg C. Come for the crazy cold Arctic & stay for diatoms. Will write longer thread - but enjoy video below of diatoms gliding on frozen ice surfaces. Congrats @zqing.bsky.social & team.
- I am thrilled to share our new work: "Frozen Flow - Gliding Motility of Diatoms in the Ice"! ❄️ Check it out here: biorxiv.org/content/10.1... #ice #glidingmotility #microbiology #diatoms #extremebiology @prakashlab.bsky.social
- Reposted by Aaron StraightExcited that our Core investigators and Cofounders Silvana Konermann and Patrick Hsu are on this year's @vox.com #FuturePerfect50 List, highlighting also the work of @lingyinli.bsky.social, Songnan Wang, @mgdurrant.bsky.social, and Nick Perry. www.vox.com/future-perfe...
- This is a really cool method and thanks to my postdoc Nancy Sanchez for sending me the paper!
- Reposted by Aaron StraightIt's my great pleasure to present the next big preprint from SheqLab! An exciting application of our O-MAP platform that I hope will transform the study of nuclear architecture. If you've ever wanted to dissect the subnuclear "neighborhood" around an individual locus, read on! (1/30)
- Reposted by Aaron StraightLong-read special issue of GR is out, including our paper on T2T assembly using only Nanopore. Just in time for ONT to discontinue duplex cells on Nov 27 😅😂 Good thing Verkko also works great with HERRO-corrected simplex data! 📄 genome.cshlp.org/content/34/1... 📖 genome.cshlp.org/content/34/1...
- Highly recommend following @mobydickatsea.bsky.social. Today’s gem on immigration
- Reposted by Aaron StraightHello Bluesky community! What a better way to introduce myself and my research team than post our lab’s first paper freshly off press 🥳🍾 We reveal how tubulins regulate the stability of their mRNA via reversible sequestration of TTC5. Bravo A. Batiuk and all coauthors 👏🏻🥂 doi.org/10.1038/s414...
- Reposted by Aaron StraightHope I'm the first to post this all time classic on this platform
- Reposted by Aaron StraightDownload our database of 492 (!) funding opportunities for EARLY-CAREER FACULTY AND RESEARCHERS. For each entry, we provide link to funder, description, amount, deadline, and eligibility criteria (e.g. citizenship). Download freely here: research.jhu.edu/rdt/funding-...
- I also just read this memorial for Joe. What a wonderful and amazing scientist. He really helped us as we were trying to isolate and understand Xenopus centromeres. His knowledge was extraordinary and he was incredibly kind and generous.
- In September the world lost one of the great biologists of our time: Joe Gall. He bridged the transition from the histology era of cell biology to our molecular present, contributing a remarkable set of insights in his 9 decades 1/n 🧪 rupress.org/jcb/article-...
- Reposted by Aaron StraightI put together a starter pack with researchers on related fields of chromosome biology. Let me know if you want to be added. go.bsky.app/KqsM3kdat://did:plc:2wgziobyeaserfm6we5shnnd/app.bsky.graph.starterpack/3laqru4ystx2g
- Reposted by Aaron StraightAnnouncing the next EMBO Chromosome Segregation and Aneuploidy Meeting! Italy 2025. Please register and join us for another exciting and friendly meeting in a beautiful location meetings.embo.org/event/25-ane...
- Reposted by Aaron StraightLooking to connect with other labs and science people here: Kristen Kroll and laboratory @kkroll.bsky.social interested in biology, stem cells, women in STEM, neuroscience, transcriptional and epigenetic regulation, neurodevelopmental disorders sites.wustl.edu/krolllab/
- Reposted by Aaron StraightReally cool model from Brian Hie and Patrick Hsu! www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...
- Reposted by Aaron StraightAnd now Stanford and Arc Institute’s @lingyinli.bsky.social has arrived, let the chem bio party begin full swing! Fun facts: Lingyin is a Sarafan ChEM-H Institute Scholar and PhD alum of @laurakiessling.bsky.social
- Oh no that is sad. What a great scientist and person.
- Very sad to hear of the passing of Joanne Chory, who was an iconic scientist and person. Truly, one can say she spent her whole career trying to make a better planet and a better environment in science for all. Interview: www.sebiology.org/resource/in-... TED talk: www.ted.com/speakers/joa...
- Reposted by Aaron StraightThe peer-reviewed version of our paper is out! Thanks to all co-authors, editor and reviewers for the smooth process 🤓🎉 And don’t miss the chromatin haiku! www.cell.com/molecular-ce...
- Do you want to know what happens when cells stop assembling chromatin during DNA replication? Check out the latest pre-print from our lab! True team work with many essential collaborators.. feedback welcome! www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
- Reposted by Aaron StraightI put together a list of profiles in somehow related subjects of chromosome biology go.bsky.app/KqsM3kdat://did:plc:2wgziobyeaserfm6we5shnnd/app.bsky.graph.starterpack/3laqru4ystx2g
- Reposted by Aaron StraightSo, we are also opening an account here. Same idea as in twitter: we will explain our work as well as the work of others in the field of multicellularity, animal origins, and #protists. #ProtistsOnSky We focus a lot on unicellular relatives of animals, mostly #Ichthyosporea & #Filasterea.
- Reposted by Aaron Straight@chromatinhaiku.bsky.social is finally here y'all. Follow them and maybe your next paper will be haiku'd!
- Reposted by Aaron StraightI am very happy to share our recent publication 𝑹𝒆𝒑𝒆𝒂𝒕-𝒃𝒂𝒔𝒆𝒅 𝒉𝒐𝒍𝒐𝒄𝒆𝒏𝒕𝒓𝒐𝒎𝒆𝒓𝒆𝒔 𝒐𝒇 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒘𝒐𝒐𝒅𝒓𝒖𝒔𝒉 𝑳𝒖𝒛𝒖𝒍𝒂 𝒔𝒚𝒍𝒗𝒂𝒕𝒊𝒄𝒂 𝒓𝒆𝒗𝒆𝒂𝒍 𝒊𝒏𝒔𝒊𝒈𝒉𝒕𝒔 𝒊𝒏𝒕𝒐 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒆𝒗𝒐𝒍𝒖𝒕𝒊𝒐𝒏𝒂𝒓𝒚 𝒕𝒓𝒂𝒏𝒔𝒊𝒕𝒊𝒐𝒏 𝒕𝒐 𝒉𝒐𝒍𝒐𝒄𝒆𝒏𝒕𝒓𝒊𝒄𝒊𝒕𝒚 in Nature Communications @natureportfolio.bsky.social rdcu.be/dZk7W
- I think I’m probably closer to the Intrinsically Disordered People starter pack. Where do I find that one? 🤷
- BONUS! If IDPs are your jam, check out an ever-expanding starter pack! go.bsky.app/J23B51Lat://did:plc:jikts6gfe2anv25vlc5mxoqx/app.bsky.graph.starterpack/3lamkbgfcgw2z
- Reposted by Aaron Straightawww... look who just got tenure @fmattiroli.bsky.social 💯🎉🎉💯😍. So proud of you! 🧪🧪
- Reposted by Aaron StraightDelighted to share my Current Opinions review on nucleosome remodelers in DNA repair, co-authored with Jessica Downs: an uptodate survey of R-loops, 3D organization and remodelers especially jn DSB repair. Enjoy! article link: authors.elsevier.com/sd/article/S...
- 20yr anniversary of our first science experiment!!! Getting ready for the dynamic kinetochore EMBO meeting with @erhardtlab.bsky.social
- Reposted by Aaron StraightOur understanding of centromeres is shaped by the complex underlying DNA sequences and the proteins that bind them. The Centromere Biology GRC will celebrate both with Keynote talks from Rachel O'Neill and Andrea Musacchio + other amazing speakers. Excited to co-chair w @centromellone.bsky.social
- Excited about this new paper from the Jessen Bredeson, Dan Rokhsar lab and a host of other frog enthusiasts to study genome evolution. rdcu.be/dwfzY, www.nature.com/articles/s41.... #frog #evolution
- I like what’s going on in my department
- Reposted by Aaron Straight🎉Our work on the origins of innate immune proteins is now published in PLOS Biology! Great insights from postdoc Ed Culbertson on the connections between mammalian immunity and bacterial anti-phage immunity🦠 plos.io/46SfBqM Original tweet thread on our findings here: x.com/tera_levin/sta…
- Come join us at Stanford Biochemistry! We will start reviewing applications for new tenure track faculty later this month. Apply here facultypositions.stanford.edu/en-us/job/49...
- Poison Oak gives the best fall colors in the Santa Cruz mountains!
- Reposted by Aaron StraightCome be my colleague! The MCB Department at UConn is looking for a TT Assistant Professor in the broad fields of structural biology, biophysics, and biochemistry. Collaborative department, strong graduate program, and state of the art core facilities. academicjobsonline.org/ajo/jobs/25945