Joseph Luna
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virologistjoe.bsky.social
Joseph Luna
@virologistjoe.bsky.social
1.8K followers 930 following 140 posts
Assistant Professor of Biochemistry | Case Western Reserve University | Viruses, RBPs, innate immunity and RNA tech | Views my own | 🇺🇸🇲🇽 | Lab website: lunalab.org
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virologistjoe.bsky.social
Finally finished this gorgeously written tome on mostly North American geology. What does one read next if they want to become a hobbyist rock person? Like birding but for rocks? I’m 100% serious
November 6, 2025 at 7:58 PM
virologistjoe.bsky.social
There are great in vivo and in vitro translation reporters, but here we invent the first “in morte” system 🎃
A carved pumpkin with a ribosome in the shape of a skull translating RNA made of pumpkin innards
October 30, 2025 at 9:33 PM
virologistjoe.bsky.social
A milestone worth celebrating: this past weekend I co-organized the 31st Rustbelt RNA Meeting (RRM) with @schafferlab.bsky.social. 324 scientists, 180 posters, and 23 talks spanning undergrads to faculty from across the Midwest and beyond. What an incredible community!
October 28, 2025 at 3:59 PM
Reposted by Joseph Luna
markhisted.org
The NIH institute director firing last Friday is very bad.

I made a video explainer about why.

Stay for last post, w link to @science.org story from @jocelynkaiser.bsky.social

1/4
🧪
October 23, 2025 at 4:02 AM
Reposted by Joseph Luna
angierasmussen.bsky.social
I don’t know who needs to hear this but the CDC is being eviscerated right now. America is not going to have any kind of outbreak response capacity after tonight. Americans’ health data is no longer secure. Say goodbye to federal public health in any capacity. It’s a disaster. We won’t recover.
October 11, 2025 at 3:05 AM
virologistjoe.bsky.social
“I found my footing surrounded by people who took for granted that of course I would succeed.” My advisors had similar faith in me, and though I felt it a tad misplaced, I see such talent and dedication in my students, that now I get it. They’ll succeed, and I’m stoked I get to help them get there!
harmitmalik.bsky.social Harmit Singh Malik @harmitmalik.bsky.social · Oct 5
I am leaving Rochester NY after attending the retirement fest of four giants in the field of evolutionary biology including my PhD advisor. This visit gave me a chance to revisit old haunts and reflect on my own somewhat unlikely origin story. 1/n
October 5, 2025 at 5:50 PM
virologistjoe.bsky.social
I made a sign for the lab with our informal lab motto, inspired by this convo between @itaiyanai.bsky.social and Martin Lercher: nightscience.buzzsprout.com/1744020/epis.... A good reminder that talking is among the best forms of thinking!
A plastic sign with a logogram of two people in conversation alongisde text that reads "There are no lone geniuses" Our new "There are no lone geniuses" sign mounted on the door to the lab.
September 30, 2025 at 4:54 PM
Reposted by Joseph Luna
willgarland.bsky.social
How do cells sort which RNAs to keep or destroy? New preprint from THJ, Brenneke and Plaschka labs shows that export and decay machineries (TREX2/PAXT) both recognise UAP56-bound RNAs. Whether they’re exported or degraded depends on where in the nucleus this happens.
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
Molecular basis of polyadenylated RNA fate determination in the nucleus
Eukaryotic genomes generate a plethora of polyadenylated (pA+) RNAs, that are packaged into ribonucleoprotein particles (RNPs). To ensure faithful gene expression, functional pA+ RNPs, including prote...
www.biorxiv.org
September 17, 2025 at 10:31 AM
Reposted by Joseph Luna
philipcball.bsky.social
Regulation by RNAs might be even more extensive than we thought. Many enzymes and other proteins not previously considered as RNA-binding proteins do seem to fall into this class & might have their activity regulated by RNA.
www.cell.com/cell/fulltex...
Rethinking RNA-binding proteins: Riboregulation challenges prevailing views
The advent of system-wide proteomic approaches has largely expanded the number of RNA-binding proteins (RBPs). This review discusses how recent discoveries are transforming our understanding of biolog...
www.cell.com
September 5, 2025 at 3:49 PM
virologistjoe.bsky.social
What a towering loss! Jim was as kind as he was brilliant and he was very, very brilliant.
karalmarshall.bsky.social Kara Marshall @karalmarshall.bsky.social · Aug 19
What a legacy Jim leaves. His brilliance and love of science was palpable and inspiring. He was an incredible scientist- I teach his groundbreaking work on careful measurements of mechano ion channels every year. I’ll miss him. Here is a good memory with 3rd gen @yasmeen-hamed.bsky.social.
August 20, 2025 at 12:57 AM
Reposted by Joseph Luna
harmitmalik.bsky.social
To have this paper appear the same day that RFK Jr is canceling all mRNA vaccine funding is further indication that irony is not dead, even though we might all be soon.
August 6, 2025 at 12:35 AM
Reposted by Joseph Luna
kgandersen.bsky.social
"We reviewed the science, listened to the experts, and acted..."

Words really don't mean anything anymore, do they?

The incompetence is staggering, the political motives, clear as day.

www.hhs.gov/press-room/h...
August 5, 2025 at 11:06 PM
virologistjoe.bsky.social
I’m lucky to celebrate this RNA day by completing the West Highland Way. 96 miles in 8 days, and a ton of memories. Time for a pint!
August 1, 2025 at 4:39 PM
Reposted by Joseph Luna
iid.bsky.social
do you ever stare at the ceiling and think about how the worldwide scientific establishment did the impossible and created a COVID vaccine in under a year and the response of the general public has been to go on an unstoppable rampage to destroy science and scientists
July 20, 2025 at 6:46 PM
Reposted by Joseph Luna
tlowepower.bsky.social
Advice distilled from an NSF PO:

Apply for NSF funding this year. Because NSF's current policy is to forward-fund active projects (e.g. pay down their mortgage on the future years of funding), there are plausible budget scenarios where NSF has a LARGE budge to spend next fiscal year (on your grant)
June 26, 2025 at 7:04 PM
virologistjoe.bsky.social
Just finished reading Eco's "How to Write a Thesis" before adding it to the lab library. "First, writing a thesis should be fun. Second, writing a thesis is like cooking a pig: nothing goes to waste." So many gems of advice, clever sourcing ideas, and encouragement, even for modern scientists.
A picture of a book by Umberto Eco entitled "How to Write a Thesis"
June 26, 2025 at 7:09 PM
virologistjoe.bsky.social
Have a random Wednesday timeline cleanse in the form of this iridescent tRNA! 🤩🧬
June 25, 2025 at 9:50 PM
virologistjoe.bsky.social
“A thesis represents an investment with an uncertain return, mostly because its life-changing aspects have to do with process.” So true! Very thoughtful write up here
newyorker.com The New Yorker @newyorker.com · Jun 18
Umberto Eco’s enduringly popular manual “How to Write a Thesis” is more than a guide for undergraduates; the book is a celebration of the magical process of self-realization.
A Guide to Thesis Writing and a Guide to Life
Writing and research manuals like Umberto Eco’s “How to Write a Thesis” offer a vision of our best selves, Hua Hsu wrote, in 2015.
www.newyorker.com
June 18, 2025 at 1:43 AM
Reposted by Joseph Luna
alexwild.bsky.social
Dear science journalism,

Please start including the funding source and whether it has been imperiled by the coup in your coverage of cool new science papers. The public should know the floor is being cut out from under us.
May 25, 2025 at 12:55 PM
Reposted by Joseph Luna
freemanjb.bsky.social
🚨 A new rule would let career scientists like NSF/NIH program officers be replaced by political appointees

Already 14,000+ public comments, deadline is Friday

📣 Comments can be short. Courts consider them—and scientists with NSF/NIH experience are especially impactful

Speak up! shorturl.at/WKuBj
May 21, 2025 at 5:39 PM
Reposted by Joseph Luna
needhibhalla.bsky.social
important historical perspective on the value of federal funding of basic research at universities: "These are the building blocks of America's extraordinary strength, created over the last 100 years, and they are now being dismantled in 100 days" 🧪

www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Qk4...
Fareed’s Take: Trump is gutting what made American science great
YouTube video by CNN
www.youtube.com
May 13, 2025 at 5:12 PM
Reposted by Joseph Luna
aphillippy.bsky.social
NIH is allowing us to recruit postbacs and postdocs again. Please reach out if you are interested in working with us! Ad: genomeinformatics.github.io/jobs2025/
We are looking for postbacs and postdocs!
Join our team and contribute to the development of complete, personalized “telomere-to-telomere” (T2T) genome assemblies and the analysis of previously inaccessible regions of the genome! We are curre...
genomeinformatics.github.io
May 12, 2025 at 8:50 PM
virologistjoe.bsky.social
As new PhDs graduate, I'm reflecting on the below convocation address I delivered at my own PhD ceremony about science's most essential question: "How do we know that?" Equal parts #NightScience meditation and a call to action. Sometimes we need to hear from our younger selves. #StandUpForScience
I’d like to begin by congratulating my fellow graduates in the Rockefeller Class of 2015. I’m proud to be among you, and as one of your peers there’s obviously not much I can say to you by way of advice. But I can address the important people seated with you, your parents and family. If they’re like mine, they’re probably wondering what exactly their son or daughter has been doing for the past five to seven years. Every path through a PhD is different. From a variety of experiences and educational backgrounds in Applied Physics or Zoology, we arrive here from the world over, don a white lab coat, and call ourselves scientists. Invariably, we all feel like impostors at first. Entering a busy laboratory, it is easy to feel overwhelmed, surrounded by people who know what they're doing, while you expend every ounce of mental effort trying to follow along. But this disorientation is by design. It is in truth, the first real taste of freedom. There are no departments here to define ourselves by, classes are minimal, and the support, from the Dean’s office, the library, or student housing, is so extraordinary, that your next experiment is your sole focus. You are encouraged to learn science the best possible way: by doing it, from day one, your curiosity all the fuel you’ll need. For there is a simple truth behind what a PhD means here, and that is learning how to ask questions. And if I may, I’d like to posit that one question stands out as a key foundation, one that animates every scientist in this room on a daily basis, one that is the source of many of our adventures. It is the first question I asked here in earnest, and it is one that all of us scientist or not, can relate to. Here it is: “How do we know that?” I was in Bob Darnell’s office in my first year when I asked it. Bob had presented to the first year as part of the Seminars in Modern Biology. It’s one of only two mandatory courses here, and it consists entirely of Rockefeller faculty presenting their work to students as they sort out which lab to join. I arrived mainly interested in the cell biology of viruses with the terrific capacity invade cells many times their size and make us sick, from the common cold to Ebola. How did they manage that? However, Bob’s presentation was on a disease called paraneoplastic neurodegeneration and the role of a protein called NOVA in regulating RNA splicing in the brain…he might as well have been speaking in ancient Greek. What’s worse, I’m quite sure I fell asleep. The only thing I recall was him mentioning one of my favorite books on science, Arrowsmith by Sinclair Lewis, which was roughly based on the Rockefeller Institute in its early days. This prompted me to write him an email, and I soon found myself in his office learning what the lab was up to at a more relaxed pace so I could understand. <Lab description> And so I asked “How do we know that?” Without hesitation, Bob fired up his computer and showed me the data. He revealed to me a new cartography of our genomes, that long list of instructions that makes a person, with stunning depth and clarity. It dawned on me that I could take the solutions in one lab and bring them to address scientific questions I was interested in. After our discussion, which lasted the better part of two hours, I asked to rotate in his laboratory. I had found a mentor. “How do we know that?” It’s a powerful question for 5 words. It’s powerful precisely because it takes any explanation or observation and immediately, instinctively even, holds it up to scrutiny. No explanation for the workings of nature is immune to this question. And note that a satisfactory answer to this question is never “we know because I said so,” no matter who is speaking. Only verifiable experiment and careful observation can answer it. The egalitarian quality of this question contributes to a unique culture here. At Rockefeller, you’re surrounded by world-class professors, physicians, postdocs and staff, all of whom are your immediate peers. We share this beautiful campus, run into each other on the way to lunch or a lecture, and rub shoulders over drinks at the Faculty and Student’s Club, where there is little pretense between a Nobel prize winner and a first year student. That is because you are encouraged to question and to doubt, in the service of a better verifiable explanation. This refreshing attitude pervades campus life, such that on a daily basis it’s not President Tessier-Lavigne, Dean Strickland, or Professor Vosshall; it’s Marc, Sid, and Leslie. A fierce curiosity for the natural world is the only badge that is truly required. This curiosity led me to find the right virus to study, which brought me to Charlie Rice’s lab. And one meeting with Bob and Charlie together was all it took, I now had two outstanding mentors. Far from them balking at the idea of an untested first year graduate student taking on an independent project, bridging two laboratories, and requiring biochemical and computational skills he did not possess, they said go for it. Their trust showed me that they are as much students as I am. By asking “how do we know that?” we jolt ourselves into thinking, both critically and creatively, because the answer is often “we don’t”. And that’s okay. In fact that’s good. That’s when “How do we know that?" transforms into “How could we know that?” which we use to test made-up explanations known as hypotheses. It’s a call to action that is usually followed by its famous cousins “I wonder what would happen if…” and later “Are you seeing what I’m seeing?” I know I’m not alone in saying that these questions help form the daily backbone of working on a PhD. Doubt plus curiosity is a powerful combination. Now, contrary to what you might think, I don't want it seem as if science is an all-encompassing panacea for every question worth asking. Knowledge is not the same as wisdom. Part of the reason "How do we know that?" is such an important question to ask in science, is because it’s easy to spot when it no longer applies. Standing in front of the many works of art that adorn this campus, this question is all but useless. It is utterly, perhaps comically, inept while falling in love. This question makes it clear that science is a means, a way of looking at the world, and should not be confused with being an end unto itself. And here again our question has something to offer, because it is best phrased as "how do WE know that?" As a distinctly human creation, science is a great big "WE.” It is less a collection of facts and figures than a riveting history of brave souls who've asked "how do we know that?" devised an experiment, and shared the results with others. It is a history of invention and entrepreneurship, of engagement with public leadership to action, of articulating the need for research, of pointing out uncomfortable truths, and of providing life-saving cures. This is the legacy we formally inherit today, and it hinges on a great responsibility: for as much as we learn to doubt by asking “how do we know that?”, we have an equal if not more pressing responsibility to inspire everyone to ask it. What makes “how do we know that?” so special is that it is the best of Socratic doors. It’s an invitation to bring others in close, to show, to teach, and to nurture face-to-face the very human desire to know. And so, friends and family, I have a challenge for you. Ask your son or daughter, or their advisor, or a passerby later at the reception, who’s carrying and constantly glancing at a timer. They’re probably a student or postdoc in the middle of an experiment, enjoying a brief snack. Ask them what they work on. And when they make a declaration on their subject, ask them, “how do we know that?” I guarantee that the first response is likely to be “it’s complicated,” but if you wait, the follow-up response can move you. And if they're really good, you might just want to head to the lab to ask and see for yourself.
May 5, 2025 at 10:56 PM
Reposted by Joseph Luna
lapassmore.bsky.social
New work from Matti Turtola showing that mRNA poly(A) tail length is controlled by a kinetic ruler. A real pleasure to work with him!
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
A kinetic ruler controls mRNA poly(A) tail length
Poly(A) tails of newly synthesized mRNAs have uniform lengths, arising through cooperation between the cleavage and polyadenylation complex (CPAC) and poly(A) binding proteins (PABPs). In the budding ...
www.biorxiv.org
May 2, 2025 at 5:10 PM
Reposted by Joseph Luna
cdelawalla.bsky.social
Dear Tenured Facility,

Over the past 100 days my career trajectory has turned into a question mark. At best, the TT job market just got even crazier, at worst there won’t be research career options in the US when I finish my PhD. It took me a while to find my path and I love being a scientist. 1/x
April 28, 2025 at 11:44 PM