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isabelott.bsky.social
Isabel
@isabelott.bsky.social
11K followers 2.2K following 2.4K posts
Evolutionary & population biology of vector-borne viral disease systems. 🦟 genetics PhD student in NC.
Arbovirologist, orthobunyavirus wonk, feral reference librarian, & public health advocate. 80s mosquito. Coaster-sized earrings. (she/her) 🏳️‍🌈
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isabelott.bsky.social
Isabel @isabelott.bsky.social · Jun 11
The Athens (GA) Immigrants Rights Coalition, which I volunteered with for several years, is currently fundraising for their Support for Immigrant Families in Crisis fund. 98.5% of donations go straight to families in need. Please boost & contribute if you can!
www.athensimmigrantrights.org/donate
SUPPORT FOR IMMIGRANT FAMILIES IN CRISIS SPRING 2025 ABOUT SIFIC Support for Immigrant Families in Crisis (SIFIC) provides emergency assistance to local immigrant families who have limited access to resources, due to their documentation or economic status. SIFIC funds are used to help cover essential needs such as rent, utilities, food, medical expenses, attorney fees and legal fees. We are currently facing a deportation crisis that is separating families and the need for these kinds of support has escalated. Please help us to raise 25K this Spring, so that we can continue to help families in crisis! Thank you, Friend.
Reposted by Isabel
exceedhergrasp1.bsky.social
I just stumbled across this and thought some of you might like to see it. A letter from E.B. White to a man who'd written he'd lost all hope:
Dear Mr. Nadeau: As long as there is one upright man, as long as there is one compassionate woman, the contagion may spread and the scene is not desolate. Hope is the thing that is left to us, in a bad time. I shall get up Sunday morning and wind the clock, as a contribution to order and steadfastness. Sailors have an expression about the weather: they say, the weather is a great bluffer. I guess the same is true of our human society — things can look dark, then a break shows in the clouds, and all is changed, sometimes rather suddenly. It is quite obvious that the human race has made a queer mess of life on this planet. But as a people we probably harbor seeds of goodness that have lain for a long time waiting to sprout when the conditions are right. Man’s curiosity, his relentlessness, his inventiveness, his ingenuity have led him into deep trouble. We can only hope that these same traits will enable him to claw his way out. Hang on to your hat. Hang on to your hope. And wind the clock, for tomorrow is another day. Sincerely, E. B. White
February 10, 2026 at 8:18 PM
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princess-vimentin.bsky.social
This is the plight of #breastcancer scientists all over the country. Even though Congress approved an increase in the #NIH budget, much has irrevocably changed. Research staff has been laid off.

In Joanne Brugge’s case, her federal support ends in August.

🧪 kffhealthnews.org/news/article...
NIH Grant Disruptions Slow Down Breast Cancer Research - KFF Health News
The Trump administration has made the future of federal funding for cancer research uncertain. At one groundbreaking breast cancer research lab, work that could save lives has slowed significantly.
kffhealthnews.org
February 10, 2026 at 1:38 AM
Reposted by Isabel
bencollins.bsky.social
Listen to this. Not a penny more for this. Abolish and prosecute anyone who had anything to do with it.
davidrvetter.bsky.social Dave Vetter @davidrvetter.bsky.social · 11h
"A modern-day concentration camp ... People have been killed by the staff here." Irish citizen Seamus Culleton has been in ICE detention since September, despite having a valid work permit and his own business in the US.
February 10, 2026 at 3:41 PM
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maanvisingh.bsky.social
Uline – a company owned a MAGA mega-donor – brought in workers from Mexico who earned per day about the same as their US counterparts were paid by the hour...

Now one worker from Mexico who was badly hurt on the job has spoken to the Guardian about his experience working for the company.
February 10, 2026 at 6:09 PM
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gostin.bsky.social
President Trump's Mark on Global Health and Human Rights www.thinkglobalhealth.org/article/pres...

I wrote this because, even with all the cruelty & the harms to global health & human rights, I don't believe we fully appreciate how much Trump has destroyed US leadership & values since 1948
President Trump's Mark on Global Health and Human Rights | Think Global Health
A nation that gave birth to grand societal achievements has now shattered the norms and values of international policy
www.thinkglobalhealth.org
February 10, 2026 at 7:46 PM
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karenguzzo.bsky.social
UNC is close to finalizing its policy which outlines permissible circumstances to *SECRETLY RECORD FACULTY IN THE CLASSROOM.*
UNC-Chapel Hill Preps Policy on Recording Professors
The school aims to clarify guidelines after a secret recording controversy and growing fear of surveillance.
www.theassemblync.com
February 10, 2026 at 12:58 PM
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marisakabas.bsky.social
just a fucking weird statement on it's face but also highlights how filthy rich and completely out of touch trump's whole cabinet is. a private boat for a family vacation? stopping by a billionaire's island for lunch? nannies, plural?? the epstein class, indeed.
atrupar.com Aaron Rupar @atrupar.com · 6h
VAN HOLLEN: Did you in fact make the visit to Epstein's private island?

LUTNICK: I did have lunch w/ him as I was on a boat going across on a family vacation. My wife was with me as were my 4 children and nannies. We had lunch on the island. That's true. For an hour. We left with all of my children
February 10, 2026 at 4:36 PM
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crof.bsky.social
Mike Coston: afludiary.blogspot.com/2026/02/natu...
Nature Comms: Assessing HPAI-H5 Transmission Risk Across Wild Bird Migratory Flyways in the United States
#19,048 The world has been watching HPAI H5N1 for nearly 3 decades, but today's HPAI H5 viruses are a far cry from the A/Goose/Guangdong/1...
afludiary.blogspot.com
February 10, 2026 at 5:16 PM
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napaaqtuk.bsky.social
The current administration wants to do away with 8(a) contracts, which prioritizes minority owned businesses. I have a lot of mixed feelings abt that as an Alaska Native who has shares in an Alaska Native company. However, this kind of bias in contracts is exactly why they exist.
neillewisjr.bsky.social Neil Lewis, Jr. @neillewisjr.bsky.social · 8h
"Black- and Brown-owned businesses win significantly less contract value compared to certified vendors owned by white women and Asian-American men. In addition, there is a gender disparity and Native American-owned firms received close to no contracts."
nyamnews.bsky.social New York Amsterdam News @nyamnews.bsky.social · 8h
#NYC Comptroller Mark Levine found disparities persist in the city’s contracting of certified Minority and Women-owned Businesses (M/WBEs) according to a report released on January 30. He pointed to contract value, rather than procurement rates, as the key issue. #MWBE

February 10, 2026 at 2:25 PM
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listo.bsky.social
February 10, 2026 at 5:51 AM
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isabelott.bsky.social
as the saying goes, “the more spherical the catnap, the more potent the research assistance”
February 10, 2026 at 1:37 PM
Reposted by Isabel
biorxiv-molbio.bsky.social
A Naïve RNA Sampling Core Enables Adaptive piRNA Specificity Against Transposable Elements https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.02.07.704324v1
February 10, 2026 at 5:17 AM
Reposted by Isabel
carolinaforward.bsky.social
[NEW] Voter fraud is almost nonexistent in North Carolina.

Despite overwhelming evidence that voter fraud in North Carolina is extremely rare, our state's lawmakers are pushing new rules that make it harder for eligible voters to register and cast a ballot.

carolinaforward.org/blog/propose...
February 10, 2026 at 1:01 PM
Reposted by Isabel
isabelott.bsky.social
if I ever glance offscreen on zoom calls, it’s because my research assistant has brought something urgent to my attention. (usually a dire need for scritches)
a tuxedo tort cat tucked into a perfect ball of fluff to snooze. she’s sitting on a green velvet chair with a baby blanket on it a very satisfied tuxedo tort cat receiving head scritches a desk setup shot, showing that liesl the cat’s chair is right next to (& perpendicular to) my own. she’s waiting for me to come back. there’s a pillowcase over the back of my chair so she doesn’t scratch it up
February 10, 2026 at 3:19 AM
Reposted by Isabel
peiferlabunc.bsky.social
VERY excited that @harmitmalik.bsky.social will be giving the UNC Biology seminar tomorrow, and is featured in one of Bob Goldstein's gig posters. I missed him the last time he cams through (I was away giving a talk) and thus have never heard him speak
Gig poster--Genetic Conflicts during meiosis
February 9, 2026 at 4:38 PM
Reposted by Isabel
bjesseshapiro.bsky.social
Co-occurrence is the most important predictor of HGT, followed by phylogenetic distance. Genomes from particle-associated fractions of the water columns tend to share more genes, as do genomes sampled at similar depths, temperatures, salinity, etc. (3/n)
Coefficients in logistic regression model based on all pairwise genome comparisons. The response is whether those genomes have at least one called horizontal gene transfer event (based on the cluster-based approach) between them or not. Co-occurrence (based on the hypergeometric approach) is a binary variable indicating whether those genomes significantly co-occur. “Free-living” and “Free-living and particle-attached” indicate whether the genomes being compared are both enriched in samples filtered to enrich for small particles, or those with little or no size filters. The other variables are ordered quantile normalized continuous values. Variables with “diff.” represent the median inter-sample difference in each environmental variable for all samples encoding the two genomes being compared. Coefficient values less than 0 indicate that decreases in those variables are associated with increases in horizontal gene transfer, whereas a positive value represents the opposite. The intercept for this model was −14.35. Error bars represent 95% confidence intervals (1.96 × standard error). All variables were significant (P values <0.05) except for “small particle enriched”.
February 9, 2026 at 8:42 PM
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psychicozma.bsky.social
I tried to take a photo of a grasshopper on my windshield, but now it looks like a gigantic bug destroying the town.
February 10, 2026 at 6:10 AM
Reposted by Isabel
lenasun.bsky.social
NEW: The AMA and a leading public health research group focused on vaccines are teaming up to create a parallel system to review vaccine safety and effectiveness. 
The CDC’s vaccine review process has “effectively collapsed” under RFKJr. My story.
www.washingtonpost.com/health/2026/...
AMA joins effort to launch vaccine science review amid CDC turmoil
The American Medical Association and a partner group are taking on a new role in reviewing vaccine safety and effectiveness as the CDC’s review process faces criticism.
www.washingtonpost.com
February 10, 2026 at 12:15 PM
Reposted by Isabel
josiegz.bsky.social
Unilateral steps by Israel's govt make it easier for Jewish settlers to buy land and undercut the Palestinian Authority in parts of the West Bank that it administers, appearing to flout important agreements that Israel signed under the Oslo peace process decades ago.

www.nytimes.com/2026/02/09/w...
Israel Gives Itself More Control Over Occupied West Bank
www.nytimes.com
February 10, 2026 at 11:00 AM
Reposted by Isabel
peiferlabunc.bsky.social
Here's a link to the article in the first post
thenode.biologists.com/why-seeing-s...
Why Seeing Still Matters in Biology - the Node
or, Why all biologists needs data visualization Biology probes form and function of Life. Form is easy to grasp: cells under a microscope, subcellular
thenode.biologists.com
February 10, 2026 at 12:11 PM
Reposted by Isabel
peiferlabunc.bsky.social
A perfect chance juxtaposition of posts emphasizing that variation is at the center of life, and we need approaches that highlight rather than average out that variation
Two posts that both illustrate the variation essential to living things--one of fruit fly ovaries and the other cultured COS cells
February 10, 2026 at 12:10 PM
Reposted by Isabel
annehelen.bsky.social
My take on AI use

1) It's making it harder for people to learn *how* to learn

2) If you can't do everything you think ou should be doing without resorting to it — then you're doing (or being asked to do) too much

www.patreon.com/posts/149942...
Don’t Let The Machines Do The Living | Culture Study
Get more from Culture Study on Patreon
www.patreon.com
February 10, 2026 at 3:30 AM
Reposted by Isabel
prisonculture.bsky.social
Jesus.
esghound.com Rude Law Dog @esghound.com · 18h
Thomas Massie is cooking right now and explicitly states that UAE Sultan Ahmed Bin Sulayem was sending torture videos to Epstein
🧵 In response to my posts on X today, DOJ 1) unredacted an FBI file that LABELS two individuals as co-conspirators 2) unredacted a file that lists several men who might be implicated 3) tacitly admitted that Sultan Ahmed Bin Sulayem was the sender of the torture video
February 10, 2026 at 3:36 AM
Reposted by Isabel
clutchscience.bsky.social
The Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine is an extreme org that has opposed all animal research since the group’s inception. They have largely existed at the fringe of science/medicine but now have sway w/ NIH leaders. Primate research is their easiest target but they won’t stop there. 🧪
bita137.bsky.social Bita Moghaddam @bita137.bsky.social · 18h
“A sanctuary is not a strategy. It is a capitulation to fear and the political pressure that ignores scientific reality”

Well said @vincentcostaphd.bsky.social
thetransmitter.bsky.social The Transmitter @thetransmitter.bsky.social · 22h
BREAKING: The Oregon Health & Science University board of directors has voted to begin negotiations with the NIH about potentially transitioning the university’s primate research center to a sanctuary for the animals.

By @callimcflurry.bsky.social

#neuroskyence

bit.ly/4a6mycK
February 10, 2026 at 3:18 AM
Reposted by Isabel
amymaxmen.bsky.social
I talked w/ uniformed health workers about their deployments to prisons where ICE holds immigrants.

ICE's operation is especially secretive at Guantanamo -- the place where America flouted its own rules to torture detainees post 9/11.

@wired.com and @kffhealthnews.org (no paywall)
Public Health Workers Are Quitting Over Assignments to Guantánamo
Doctors, nurses, and other officers are increasingly being deployed to ICE detention centers. Some have resigned in protest, while others offer a rare look into bleak conditions.
www.wired.com
February 9, 2026 at 2:02 PM