Rachel Roberts-Galbraith
Planarians in the Peach State. UGA. Biologist, public servant, & mom. Interests: regeneration, development, neurobio, books, printmaking, spiders, & chocolate. Opinions my own. (She/Her)
Lab website: robertsgalbraithlab.org
- Reposted by Rachel Roberts-GalbraithWe wrote this piece as a call to action before what has been happening in MN. The myth of neutrality is a luxury scientists can no longer afford— we all have a role to play. Please repost w/ links to local orgs to help connect scientists to existing collectives they can join. rdcu.be/e1Tvv
- A few other highlights: We were joined by three awesome undergrads this semester - Kathleen, Zoe, and Ella. They have contributed to the lab intellectually, scientifically, and socially - such a great team. Here they are at their end-of-term presentations. 1/4
- Skylar and Christina were celebrated as ARCS scholars; so proud of them and their hard work! The ARCS foundation has been supportive of several of our students and we are so grateful for their encouragement and material support of outstanding scholars. 2/4
- On a sillier note, Jazmine dressed up as me for Halloween. I was very honored, but apparently my keys are very loud. Ha! 3/4
- We also enjoyed a fall full of great community and science at @universityofga.bsky.social. Lots of great seminars, symposia, and informal gatherings. We also love all the great things we have done across campus this year (@georgiamuseum.bsky.social & State Botanical Garden of Georgia). 4/4
- I got behind in posting updates this fall, but want to make sure I highlight some of the fun and amazing things that we (mostly my trainees) have been doing this fall and winter! Let's start off with our semester's high point - @taylormlanier.bsky.social's defense and graduation! 1/5
- First, @taylormlanier.bsky.social defended her thesis and earned her Ph.D. on Halloween! She did an amazing job presenting her research. We celebrated with her committee, who have been a source of encouragement and great science ideas throughout! (It was also a beautiful day!) 2/5
- We celebrated @taylormlanier.bsky.social with receptions at her church and in our lab building; it was so great to have her family and friends join us for such a special day! She is easy to celebrate both because of her amazing thesis but also because she is such a wonderful person! 3/5
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View full thread@taylormlanier.bsky.social has been such an amazing, inspiring, and impactful member of our research group. She is a leader, a scientist, a TikTok star, and more. It is bittersweet to send her to her postdoc in the Mokalled and Johnson labs at WashU. So proud of you and we'll also miss you TML! 5/5
- Reposted by Rachel Roberts-GalbraithASCB President Mary Munson awards Francis Collins the ASCB Public Service award, noting this is the first time it’s been awarded for defense of science #cellbio2025
- Reposted by Rachel Roberts-GalbraithWhen people celebrate the individual genius of folks in science, they should also mourn the collective loss of genius of folks who were actively discouraged or disadvantaged from a career in science because of the same person(s)
- Reposted by Rachel Roberts-GalbraithWe have a bunch of new job ads out @arcadiascience.com. If you haven’t checked them out, take a look! www.arcadiascience.com/careers
- Reposted by Rachel Roberts-GalbraithSpeaking science in a fractured world: making truth land when facts alone cannot A Perspective by @rebeccacalisi.bsky.social, @kaliceaphd.bsky.social, Jamy Peng, @spiraldoc.bsky.social & @rogerslabucd.bsky.social on how to combat scientific misinformation journals.biologists.com/dev/article/...
- Reposted by Rachel Roberts-GalbraithIn our newest paper, we show that expression of a familial natural short sleep mutation in flies extends lifespan through enhanced mitochondrial physiology. First first-author paper for former graduate student Pritika Pandey! @pritika26.bsky.social @lsuscience.bsky.social @lsu.bsky.social
- Reposted by Rachel Roberts-GalbraithSo jealous that I'm not at #PRC10 (because I haven't yet figured out how to clone myself and be in two places at once) but the programme looks so brilliant. I really hope there's some discussion about how framing peer review as pedagogy may be a useful way forward too wonkhe.com/blogs/peer-r...
- Reposted by Rachel Roberts-Galbraith🧪🪰We are hiring, please help us get the word out! The official ads will be up very soon & I'll link to them later. My lab is looking to recruit/hire at all levels: 1. A technician/post-bacc researcher to start ~fall 2026 2. A postdoc to start sometime in 2026 3. At least one graduate student (RA)
- Reposted by Rachel Roberts-Galbraith📢Call for papers. Submit your latest research to our upcoming special issue – The Extracellular Environment in Development, Regeneration and Stem Cells Guest Editors: Alex Hughes and Rashmi Priya 📅 Deadline: 1 March 2026 journals.biologists.com/dev/pages/ex... #DevBio
- Happy to highlight our recent preprint by the amazing Skylar Settles, with her undergrad student, Kathleen. Skylar started with the goal of carefully (& tediously) describing the in vivo cellular environment of planarian stem cells, unusual for their adult pluripotency. 1/6 doi.org/10.1101/2025...
- One thing that Skylar found is that planarian stem cells' most common neighbor is other stem cells, an observation that raises new and interesting questions about how planarian stem cells influence each other. 2/6
- But our main goal was to define the differentiated cells that "neighbor" planarian stem cells, in search of the elusive niche for these cells. We find that stem cells do likely have a variety of cells nearby, but that the dominant differentiated neighbor is a cathepsin+, phagocytic cell type. 3/6
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View full threadThese innexins are critical for regeneration, as well as stem cell differentiation and maintenance. We conclude that abraçada cells are important contributors to stem cell function in planarians, serving as a bona fide niche. Such a fun discovery and lots to do next! 6/6
- Last CBIO retreat and departmental presentation (until defense) for Taylor! Bittersweet! @taylormlanier.bsky.social
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- Spicebush swallowtail for our 3rd challenging swallowtail ID of the week!
- Plus a very fast zebra swallowtail, variegated fritillary with a photobombing clearwing moth, and purple passionflower (one of my favorites). We also had a double rainbow yesterday evening!
- Up at the parents’ farm for Poppy/Deedee camp (M) and a pre-semester meditative/writing trip (me). Today I spent a while making sure I can tell apart pipevine swallowtails and dark female eastern tiger swallowtails.
- Easier to ID the lighter eastern tiger swallowtail (male I think?) as well as a Monarch and Great Spangled Fritillary!
- Very grounding to focus on an ID of something you think you know fairly well (but actually don’t).
- Reposted by Rachel Roberts-GalbraithCluster hire in ecosystem ecology at UGA! Come join us! 🌎🌱
- FOUR TT positions in ecosystem ecology at Odum School of Ecology, 2 aquatic 2 terrestrial, over next 2 years! visit www.ugajobsearch.com/postings/439... for more info.
- Reposted by Rachel Roberts-Galbraith"As the demographics of our Nation evolve, ensuring individuals from underrepresented communities across the country can enter and sustain a career as part of the STEM workforce is essential to securing the workforce going forward...
- Sounds super fun - GRC in Neural Dev is one of my favorites and I need to bookmark this for next year!
- Bassem Hassan @bassemh.bsky.social, Corey Harwell & yours truly are co-chairs for 2026 Neural Development #GRC August 2-7, 2026 in Newport, RI 🇺🇸 - if you are interested in updates on the conference & to hear about our 🤩 line-up of speakers...follow @neuraldevgrc.bsky.social! 🧠🪰🐭🐙🐸🦎🧒🏻🧫🧪🧠
- Reposted by Rachel Roberts-GalbraithDear all, PLEASE add comments on the importance of model organism research at this link:
- Reposted by Rachel Roberts-GalbraithOne of the largest voter registration cancellations in history began Thursday with 478,000 letters mailed to Georgia voters whose registrations will be removed unless they respond within 40 days. #gapol www.ajc.com/politics/202...
- Reposted by Rachel Roberts-GalbraithIn a study of professors, women got 378 new work requests over 4 weeks vs 118 for men. Women spent more time on service, advising & teaching; men on research. Orgs should track who is taking extra duties & ensure they are rewarded and distributed fairly. www.forbes.com/sites/kimels...
- I had SOOO much fun writing this Dispatch on the Davies Lab's latest paper for @currentbiology.bsky.social! It was so enjoyable to dive into the literature and I had such a fun paper to highlight! Thanks Current Biology for the invitation! www.cell.com/current-biol...
- The excellent paper I had the chance to highlight can be found here: www.cell.com/current-biol...
- Let’s go, Georgia!
- Here's the end-of-workday update, on Day 1 of the United States of Science. A whopping 57% of the map has been covered in the first 24 hours which is *amazing*. Thank you to everyone who filled bubbles! The top 5 states are still open: CA, NY, PA, NJ, FL Fill a few bubbles! givebutter.com/USS2025
- Reposted by Rachel Roberts-GalbraithUGA science folks need to remember these decisions literally affect the USFS building on our campus only ~100m from your office and with lots of great, terrified, science colleagues. Make your calls!!
- To @dbmenke.bsky.social and other lizard colleagues, look what you have done. (Anolis pictures from PR.)
- I couldn’t even fit all of my lizard pictures in one post. The last one is of a whiptail lizard I think Ameiva. Anyway, this is only a sampling of my camera roll!!! 🦎
- The highlight of my @socdevbio.bsky.social meeting was attending with post-bacc student Saraí Rivera, who is a brilliant researcher with unlimited potential. Our post-bacc program was lost to NIH cuts and it has been heartbreaking, since our outcomes and participants have been so very extraordinary.
- Had a great trip to Puerto Rico with my family before the SDB meeting last week! PR was beautiful and it was so special to explore it with my favorite people!!
- Reposted by Rachel Roberts-GalbraithPSA: around 5-8% of the population has a color vision impairment for red/green. Many talks at #2025ICDB still use red-green LUTs on slides that are not accessible to everyone. Changing to more accessible colors is doable and easy. We can do better. #devbio #ICDB2025 #WeTheColorBlind
- Reposted by Rachel Roberts-GalbraithExcited to welcome everyone to San Juan for #ICDB25
- Reposted by Rachel Roberts-Galbraithi'd rather ask ursula from the little mermaid for a favour and life advice than ask chatgpt anything
- Reposted by Rachel Roberts-GalbraithI am speaking at 20th International Congress of Developmental Biology. Please check out my talk if you're attending the event! I hope to see you there! #DevBio 💪🏽 @socdevbio.bsky.social
- Reposted by Rachel Roberts-GalbraithBreaking news: Staff at the National Institutes of Health have issued a declaration calling on their director to depoliticize the agency and reverse spending cuts.
- Reposted by Rachel Roberts-GalbraithIf you burn down a forest, you don't miss out on lumber for just that season. You have to replant all the trees, nurture them, and wait for them to grow. The science and research budget cuts happening now are wanton, senseless arson. Recovery, if it ever happens, will take generations.
- Reposted by Rachel Roberts-GalbraithMy little cautionary note on posting hurricane models outcomes 2 weeks out
- If you see this post a flower. 🌵 I rescued a piece of this Eastern Pineland Prickly Pear (Georgia’s only native cactus) a few years ago and this year she had dozens of blooms! 🥰
- Reposted by Rachel Roberts-GalbraithCheck out our work on bioRxiv!! @kendallbclay.bsky.social @awormwelcome.bsky.social
- A bit of happy news. I'm very excited to share the newest from the R-G lab, a preprint focusing on regenerative neurogenesis in our favorite worms! Grad students @kendallbclay.bsky.social and @taylormlanier.bsky.social co-authored this awesome manuscript. 1/5 www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
- We started this project with the goal of understanding how planarians use their pluripotent stem cells to create dopaminergic neurons. Kendall and Taylor completed a big screen to figure this out, finding 11 (!) factors that impact regeneration of dopaminergic neurons in some part of the body. 2/5
- One main finding is the discovery of a set of core factors for the dopaminergic fate and other factors that specify regional identity. Since planarians use pluripotent stem cells instead of resident stem cells, they need factors to encode cell type AND cell place. 3/5
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View full threadFinally, @kendallbclay.bsky.social & @taylormlanier.bsky.social will wrap up their time in the lab in the next year or so (😭) and are seeking postdoc fellowships (🤩 - Kendall in neural development, regeneration, etc. & Taylor in the biology of ALS). Get in touch with them - they are amazing! 5/5
- Happy anniversary, NSF! As a former REU trainee, GRFP fellow, and CAREER awardee, I am a product of NSF through and through. Grateful for all those who have served and continue to serve our nation and scientific community at NSF! ❤️
- Hundreds of National Science Foundation staffers turned out for a group photograph to celebrate the besieged agency’s 75th anniversary—despite efforts by NSF officials to prevent the picture from being taken. scim.ag/4jcGpIt
- The trainee impacts are always the most heartbreaking. Just gutted for colleagues and their groups.
- Reposted by Rachel Roberts-GalbraithOne critical ingredient of diversity, equity, and inclusion in STEM🧪 is being a kind and inclusive reviewer. This means regarding the authors receiving the review as valued members of our community. scienceforeveryone.science/p/the-power-...
- Reposted by Rachel Roberts-Galbraith"You said autistic children are a burden. That they ruin families. That they’ll never pay taxes or write poems. That they are, in essence, collateral damage. I’d like to introduce you to my daughter."
- Reposted by Rachel Roberts-Galbraith🧪💪I know folks are struggling to appeal #NSF grant terminations I created a generic GD version of our team's response plan, including a draft appeal*, based on compiled guidance. *Not a lawyer, best guess! Also, DMs open for ?/feedback. @davidimiller.bsky.social docs.google.com/document/d/1...
- Reposted by Rachel Roberts-GalbraithIt's time for some community care. Athens -- come swing by and pen a letter of appreciation to NSF employees to celebrate the NSF's 75th anniversary. And spread the word! 📣📣
- Reposted by Rachel Roberts-Galbraith🧪 If you had your NSF grant terminated, I'd *highly* recommend going to this Friday's webinar. Friday May 9 at 2-3 pm ET Will talk about both the appeals process, in addition to allowable closeout costs. Share widely. Register here: us02web.zoom.us/webinar/regi...
- Reposted by Rachel Roberts-Galbraith@socdevbio.bsky.social students/postdocs-I know you are feeling all the feels about the assault on science and what it means for your careers. I am planning a few "Resistance and Resilience" zoom meetups as a forum for support and conversation-DM contact info if you are interested in participating
- Reposted by Rachel Roberts-GalbraithThe Spencer Foundation is offering rapid response bridge funding for those who lost NSF research grants. www.spencer.org/grant_types/...
