TheRaiLab
therailab.bsky.social
TheRaiLab
@therailab.bsky.social
Biophysicist-turned-tumor biologist studying redox vulnerabilities in cancer; aiming to do innovative science in a nurturing, collaborative and rigorous space. Views are mine.
Pinned
About me - total nerd, excited by all things redox, secretly want to be an engineer, passionate about training the next gen, tired of the Hunger Games model of publishing and funding but still on the hamster wheel for the sake of my research, committed to putting the bandaids when and where I can.
Sometimes I think Wordle is just trolling us…

Wordle 1,550 3/6*

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September 16, 2025 at 1:18 PM
Reposted by TheRaiLab
STUDY: Denmark tracked over a million children for 21 years, and found vaccines linked to zero extra cases of autism, asthma, or 48 other conditions.

Vaccines are safe, effective, and the best way to eradicate preventable disease. Period.
July 28, 2025 at 1:56 PM
I never fail to be blown away by the intricate beauty of the Blaschka glass flowers at the Harvard Museum of Natural History. The skill and dedication that went into making these botanical specimens is just mind-boggling.
July 27, 2025 at 7:18 PM
A fine example of Nature and nurture
Paper in Nature 150 years ago. Beats reading any single-cell experiment…
July 18, 2025 at 11:41 AM
My 8th and final year as director of our SURF program - it’s grown a bit from the three students in the year I first took over😃
Couldn’t ask for a better person than our new director @chvolmar.bsky.social to take SURF upwards and onwards!
July 10, 2025 at 6:26 PM
Reposted by TheRaiLab
just one of many small actions you can take that make a huge difference in your community, especially now in the face of SNAP cuts — and seriously, no one can stretch a dollar like a food bank
as the wise @nicolechung.bsky.social suggested I've just set up a monthly donation to my local food bank, and I'm gonna see if I can start volunteering there again. it ain't much but it's somethin
July 5, 2025 at 3:31 PM
Never thought I’d miss having a Twitter account but here we are…
June 5, 2025 at 11:03 PM
Reposted by TheRaiLab
My Canadian university, Queen's, is offering TWENTY 4-year funded PhDs (40k CAD/yr) for a student of ANY citizenship who has been accepted at a top 100 US university but have had offer rescinded OR are reconsidering offer due to US policy.
Details found here👇

www.queensu.ca/grad-postdoc...
Queen’s Special U.S. Doctoral Recruitment Initiative | School of Graduate Studies and Postdoctoral AffairsDown arrowDown arrowDown arrowDown arrowDown arrowDown arrowDown arrowDown arrowDown arrowDown...
Queen’s University is a globally engaged, research-intensive institution dedicated to attracting and supporting exceptional PhD students who will significantly advance our research mission.
www.queensu.ca
June 5, 2025 at 3:31 PM
I don’t know who needs to hear this but it’s more important than ever now to remember institutions don’t love you back. Focus on your science, your trainees and collaborators, and your own well-being. Institutions will always find a way to move the goalposts.
June 3, 2025 at 10:14 PM
Reposted by TheRaiLab
The President's Budget request as released yesterday will gut scientific research. Why should you care?
1) Science is fundamentally a jobs program. Many 100,000s are employed to do science and work for you, the US taxpayer.
May 31, 2025 at 3:30 PM
Thank you @itaiyanai.bsky.social for an exciting research seminar and an engaging Night Science workshop! People are still buzzing about all the cool stuff they learned during your visit. (Loved the reminder to seek out science buddies who raise our game and encourage new thinking - very timely).
May 12, 2025 at 2:16 PM
Reposted by TheRaiLab
An amazing new enabling technology. Measurements of molecular size and shape on a chip. Couldn't be prouder of our friend Madhavi Krishnan of @ox.ac.uk this was and is one among the must fun collaborations I ever had. www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...
Measurements of molecular size and shape on a chip
Size and shape are critical discriminators between molecular species and states. We describe a microchip-based high-throughput imaging approach offering rapid and precise determination of molecular pr...
www.science.org
May 9, 2025 at 8:00 AM
My wonderful undergrad Bhipasha received the Outstanding Honors Thesis in Biology award for her project characterizing metabolic dysfunction markers in our obesogenic prostate cancer model. Seeing my trainees thrive and succeed right now gives me so much hope.
May 9, 2025 at 10:42 PM
We are looking forward to your visit @itaiyanai.bsky.social
Miami friends! I'm looking forwarding to see you this Friday, May 9th, at my seminar on cellular adaptation in cancer and a Night Science mini workshop, on the Creative Scientific Process! Location: Sylvester Support Services Building Auditorium (1430 NW 11th Avenue)
May 8, 2025 at 6:15 PM
Looking to hire a PhD level scientist with a solid tumor biology background to work with us on an exciting translational project centered on redox-regulated signaling and metabolism in cancer. Here’s the link (please re-post!):
careers.miami.edu/us/en/job/R1...
May 6, 2025 at 8:11 PM
My chocolate mint has come back to life so many times, it’s basically on the path to attaining nirvana…
I frantically repotted CM and prayed and with in 24 hours it's like a new plant.

I scolded peppermint and told it it was a bully. Peppermint undaunted.
May 5, 2025 at 9:31 PM
Reposted by TheRaiLab
Quick question for New PIs: We’re hosting a New PI Success Essentials Workshop next Friday, April 11, from 10am to 2pm ET. Given the challenging circumstances many of you are facing, we’re making this session free for PIs in the US. Consider it our small contribution ;)
April 4, 2025 at 9:31 PM
Today’s happy place - spending the day listening to some amazing cutting-edge science at our annual Tumor Biology symposium. Great talks from external speakers Drs Koumenis, Akbay and Cunniff as well as from our stellar faculty and trainees!
March 18, 2025 at 11:29 PM
Reposted by TheRaiLab
Check our recent work on a CRISPR screen to identify regulators of human somatic cell reprogramming where we identify USP22 as an important factor. Now published @CommsBio. rdcu.be/ed1l6
A chromatin-focused CRISPR screen identifies USP22 as a barrier to somatic cell reprogramming
Communications Biology - Ubiquitin-specific peptidase 22 (USP22) is identified as a key chromatin-based barrier to human iPSC derivation through a chromatin-focused CRISPR-Cas9 screen.
rdcu.be
March 18, 2025 at 11:59 AM
Reposted by TheRaiLab
Much will be written about how 4 PhD students and a PhD –Colette Delawalla, Sam Goldstein, Emma Courtney, Leslie Berntsen & JP Flores – organized @standupforscience.bsky.social to
unite scientists in the US and worldwide. Now let's keep the momentum going to defend science!
bsky.app/starter-pack...
March 9, 2025 at 12:57 PM
Today’s positive was belting “Science is real” with They Might Be Giants and 100s of fellow S Floridians.

A scientific theory
Isn't just a hunch or guess
It's more like a question
That's been put through a lot of tests
And when a theory emerges
Consistent with the facts
The truth is with science
March 2, 2025 at 5:27 AM
Reposted by TheRaiLab
Liver ALKBH5 regulates glucose and lipid homeostasis independently through GCGR and mTORC1 signaling | Science www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...
Liver ALKBH5 regulates glucose and lipid homeostasis independently through GCGR and mTORC1 signaling
Maintaining glucose and lipid homeostasis is crucial for health, with dysregulation leading to metabolic diseases such as type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) and metabolic dysfunction–associated fatty liv...
www.science.org
February 28, 2025 at 6:38 AM
This thread really brought home to me why the mental load is so crushing right now. Academic research requires so much planning ahead, risk management and handling uncertainty even at the best of times. Now, key support structures for our problem-solving are falling apart.
When I was talking a lot about getting prepared for FEMA cuts and trade war, someone told me apologetically needed to mute me because it was stressful hearing about preparation they couldn't afford to do.

That's a huge stress right now for ALL of us, I think-- there is no getting fully prepared.
February 27, 2025 at 4:12 PM
Reposted by TheRaiLab
Wondering if your study section cancelled? I update this sheet daily. As of today, 56/124 study sections that should have met since Jan 2, 2025 have "not met as scheduled." docs.google.com/spreadsheets...
2025 Study section tracking
docs.google.com
February 24, 2025 at 4:17 PM
Reposted by TheRaiLab
If you haven't read this scathing email from an EPA fed to Lee Zeldin yet, do yourself a solid and check it out: www.muellershewrote.com/p/exclusive-...
EXCLUSIVE: Email from a Federal Worker at EPA to Lee Zeldin
I have obtained a copy of - and permission to publish - an email sent from Jason Poe to the EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin. Jason has asked me to share this email, along with his name, with the public.
www.muellershewrote.com
February 23, 2025 at 11:58 PM