Tim
Executive Editor at Life Science Alliance. I help decide how biology thinks 🤔
Views are my own and do not reflect editorial policy.
www.timfessenden.com
- One of the spammy things you see repeatedly as a journal editor are invitations to publish conference proceedings. They get to have a paper and the targeted journal collects an APC. Like this one. Is this real? Who knows
- 👀
- Sir Francis Bacon griping about publication bias in 1605 😍 From Steven Jay Gould’s collection of essays Dinosaur in a Haystack
- Reposted by TimWiley: "We’re supporting responsible research assessment practices" onlinelibrary.wiley.com/journal/1520... Also Wiley: "Prove that your article is a good fit for this journal 😉😉😉😉😉 by citing at least two of our articles in your manuscript before we will even consider reviewing it" 🤡
- You can submit proposals for scientific sessions at CellBio aka ASCB until Feb 22nd. This includes minisymposa, special interest sessions workshops. If you thought CellBio should improve, now is your chance to make that happen 👇 www.ascb.org/cellbio2026-...
- keeping up (barely 🥴) with my fave immunologists!! First: Sometimes macrophages nibble (trogocytosis) and sometimes they chomp (phagocytosis). @fletcherlabucb.bsky.social nicely show how target cell mechanical properties bias macrophage behavior. Beautiful work! doi.org/10.1038/s415...
- Updating a 56 year-old JCB paper with digitized videos from 16 mm film 😍. Well done first author Tom Pollard!!
- #Addendum to 1970 paper, “CYTOPLASMIC FILAMENTS OF AMOEBA PROTEUS: I. The Role of Filaments in Consistency Changes and Movement,” includes eight video sequences originally recorded on 16-mm films. No technology was available at the time to include this data. 🎞️ rupress.org/jcb/article/... #Actin
- A pleasure to work with these authors on this study! Check out very nice imaging showing ER-microtubule interactions in regenerating axons.
- Reposted by TimTwo new 🔥pre-prints 🔥 TODAY by us & @pwoakes.bsky.social @myosincity.bsky.social change the way we think about the septin cytoskeleton Septins buffer mechanical stress on actin and membranes! Septins are like intermediate filaments www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6... www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...
- Reposted by Tim🚨 We are hiring TWO postdocs to join the Cell Migration Lab (cellmig.org) 🇫🇮 as part of the new Centre of Excellence in Immune–Endothelial Interfaces (IMMENs). Join us to decode immune regulation & develop next-gen imaging tools! 🧪🔬 Details in thread 🧵👇 #ScienceSky #Postdoc #AcademicJobs Please RT🫶
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- Still no idea wtf the Vault evolved to do, but it can be made useful!! Glad to see this out finally! “A genetically encoded device for transcriptome storage in mammalian cells” www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...
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- Poll of two postdocs I happened to sit with for lunch yesterday (at Rockefeller U): -Editor at @science.org offered guidance to authors on how to respond to reviewer comments. -Editors at @nature.com did NOT. Just sent a form email inviting revisions.
- Fantastic work on autophagy in flies from Juhasz and Szabo labs!! Super happy see this work out from world experts in this area.
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- We at @lsajournal.org have discussed doing calls for papers/special issues. Some great journals like @jcellsci.bsky.social have them. But our leadership was VERY clear: MDPI, Frontiers, and their ilk have so sullied this publication mechanism that no one wanted to go there. The concept is tainted.
- 🧪 Thousands of special issues are stained with PISS (>33% of articles authored by the guest editor). See @hansonmark.bsky.social's thread below for a brief summary, read our preprint (arxiv.org/abs/2601.07563), explore our ShinyApp to see where it occurs (paolocrosetto.shinyapps.io/Editors_as_a...).
- interesting
- Reposted by Tim🚨Introducing DevBioConnect ‼️ Developmental Biology launches a new author webinar series showcasing recently published research, presented by the authors themselves 🗓️ Jan 13 • Feb 10 • Mar 10, 2026 ⏰ 11am–12pm CST 📄 See flyer for details #DevBio #DevelopmentalBiology
- Too many fabulous seminars here at @rockefeller.edu On Tuesday @deepakkrish.bsky.social (formerly @prakashlab.bsky.social, now @fletcherlabucb.bsky.social) showed gorgeous loricate choanoflagellates!! Difficult but rewarding to study how these critters deftly manipulate materials at the mesoscale.
- Surprised (pleasantly!!) that total science research posts on X were only a wee but more than twice the research posts on Bluesky! Great news given the huge disparity in total volume between the two platforms.
- Reposted by TimInterested in the MBL Physiology Course in Woods Hole and want to learn more before you apply? Join myself and Cliff at our Virtual Open House TOMORROW 2–3 PM ET. You will hear what the course experience is like and get all your questions answered. Register/Join: princeton.zoom.us/j/97673682905
- Interested in the MBL Physiology Course and want to learn more before you apply? Join our Virtual Open House on Tues, Jan 6, 2026 | 2–3 PM ET to meet the team, hear what the course experience is like, and get your questions answered. 🔗 Register/Join: go.mbl.edu/r5q
- Neat!
- Giving the gift of negative data 🥰 Since I joined @lsajournal.org I have handled several stellar manuscripts that report null results. These papers do very well and reviewers almost always appreciate them! Thanks @rockefeller.edu news team for the article! www.rockefeller.edu/news/38829-t...
- This interview grew from a talk I gave for Rockefeller's stellar R^3 series (Rigor, Reproducibility, Reporting). All institutions should have such a dedicated program. Check them out: www.rockefeller.edu/research/r3/
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- With a smaller, somewhat fraught #cellbio2025 behind us I am nevertheless still inspired and amazed at this community. Curious to hear others’ impressions!!
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- Lovely work on the origins of vascular pathologies in progeria. Check out the nice video made by the authors describing their findings 👇
- Flyers for @lsajournal.org with our cell bio collection: Collect all 4 to recreate the full artwork by our fantastic collaborator Laurène! And come get a tshirt with this work today 1-3pm at @embo.org booth 🎊
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- Today and every day at #cellbio2025 💥 find me and chat about @lsajournal.org 💥 take a gorgeous flyer 💥 get a free t-shirt 🥳
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- I recall the first time you did this!! A fabulous demonstration of biology’s beauty.
- #LivingArchitectures We put cells and cytoskeleton filaments on the architecture of the musée d'Orsay. www.musee-orsay.fr/fr/agenda/ev... Scientists of the #CytoMorphoLab adapted their protocols to illustrate the questions that keep them awake at night. -> Two shows on the 24th and 25th of January.
- Although the original thread from @andrea-musacchio.bsky.social was deleted, he was correct to bring his concerns to editors who are key players in how/where/when controversial papers are published. Appreciate Richard's points on the larger issue (not, as he notes, the specifics of LLPS).
- I imagine a triage mechanism that accelerates decisions on obviously low quality applications. More involvement than that seems dicey. Interested to learn the outcome of this testing either way though.
- UKRI exploring use of AI in grant review - this will prompt debate but interested to know if people think it’d encourage novelty or the opposite? www.chemistryworld.com/news/ukri-op...
- Has anyone seen this executive order establishing "Genesis Mission" at the DOE? In particular the provision that this initiative will be provided with "scientific datasets" and "experimental and production tools" to further its mission. www.whitehouse.gov/presidential...
- Read our top papers in cell bio from the past year, then come find me at #CellBio2025 and tell me what you thought!
- Beautiful!
- Today, our animation synthesizing decades of research on actin-mediated endocytosis in budding yeast was published: journals.biologists.com/jcs/article/... The result of a fantastic Iwasa-Drubin lab collaboration. @margotriggi.bsky.social @jiwasa.bsky.social movie.biologists.com/video/10.124...
- Get pumped!! My first CellBio as executive editor at LSA! 💪💪💪🥳🥳🥳
- The assumed link between conceptual advance and journal impact factor is alive and well 😔
- The latest AI slop published by @springernature.com (great work!) has me wondering if, unlike the rat testicle one, this could be explained by English illiteracy? The graphics are not obviously wrong. Does anyone know?
