Carlos Rodríguez
@carloslab.bsky.social
#newPI studying plant chemical diversity through Mass Spectrometry, and Natural Products biosynthesis whenever I can.
Opinions are my own. 🇲🇽
Opinions are my own. 🇲🇽
Reposted by Carlos Rodríguez
The Matthew Effect is alive and well in academia - always makes me wary of programs aimed at identifying rising stars in an already highly talented pool...
elifesciences.org/reviewed-pre...
elifesciences.org/reviewed-pre...
elifesciences.org
November 12, 2025 at 7:03 PM
The Matthew Effect is alive and well in academia - always makes me wary of programs aimed at identifying rising stars in an already highly talented pool...
elifesciences.org/reviewed-pre...
elifesciences.org/reviewed-pre...
Reposted by Carlos Rodríguez
That's why funders hold the power here. Funders can decide to pay for services or not. They can decide to support authors who publish in for-profit journals, or not. They can decide to pay APCs in for-profit journals, or not.
9/n
9/n
November 11, 2025 at 11:52 AM
That's why funders hold the power here. Funders can decide to pay for services or not. They can decide to support authors who publish in for-profit journals, or not. They can decide to pay APCs in for-profit journals, or not.
9/n
9/n
Reposted by Carlos Rodríguez
🌱plantiSMASH 2.0💥 is now live!
I’m very excited to share that the 2.0 version of plantiSMASH is now available online and as a preprint on bioRxiv 📄https://lnkd.in/dN4F56pf
🌱 What’s new in plantiSMASH 2.0? ⬇️
I’m very excited to share that the 2.0 version of plantiSMASH is now available online and as a preprint on bioRxiv 📄https://lnkd.in/dN4F56pf
🌱 What’s new in plantiSMASH 2.0? ⬇️
plantiSMASH 2.0: improvements to detection, annotation, and prioritization of plant biosynthetic gene clusters https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.10.28.683968v1
October 29, 2025 at 1:23 PM
🌱plantiSMASH 2.0💥 is now live!
I’m very excited to share that the 2.0 version of plantiSMASH is now available online and as a preprint on bioRxiv 📄https://lnkd.in/dN4F56pf
🌱 What’s new in plantiSMASH 2.0? ⬇️
I’m very excited to share that the 2.0 version of plantiSMASH is now available online and as a preprint on bioRxiv 📄https://lnkd.in/dN4F56pf
🌱 What’s new in plantiSMASH 2.0? ⬇️
SAVE THE DATE! The annual meeting of the PSNA will be on June 15-19 in Wisconsin! Check the website go.wisc.edu/PSNA2026 and follow @psna-official.bsky.social for updates.
And if you do research in phytochemistry, consider joining the PSNA; I've found the community to be very welcoming.
And if you do research in phytochemistry, consider joining the PSNA; I've found the community to be very welcoming.
PSNA2026@Madison
Save the date!!
June 15 Monday - June 19 Friday, 2026
go.wisc.edu
September 16, 2025 at 5:07 PM
SAVE THE DATE! The annual meeting of the PSNA will be on June 15-19 in Wisconsin! Check the website go.wisc.edu/PSNA2026 and follow @psna-official.bsky.social for updates.
And if you do research in phytochemistry, consider joining the PSNA; I've found the community to be very welcoming.
And if you do research in phytochemistry, consider joining the PSNA; I've found the community to be very welcoming.
Reposted by Carlos Rodríguez
Faculty opening in Cornell Chemistry at the Assistant Professor level in the area of chemical biology, broadly defined! academicjobsonline.org/ajo/jobs/30338 #chemjobs
Cornell University, Chemistry and Chemical Biology
Job #AJO30338, WDR-00054776 Assistant Professor - Chemistry and Chemical Biology, Cornell University (Ithaca, NY), Chemistry and Chemical Biology, Cornell University, Ithaca, New York, US
academicjobsonline.org
August 25, 2025 at 8:30 PM
Faculty opening in Cornell Chemistry at the Assistant Professor level in the area of chemical biology, broadly defined! academicjobsonline.org/ajo/jobs/30338 #chemjobs
Reposted by Carlos Rodríguez
Essentially, narratives about the efficiency and efficacy of AI have flooded our cultural conversation about AI thereby resulting in the uncritical uptake of anything branded as "AI" as inherently more valuable, more effective, than anything without AI, EVEN IF AI IS NOT NECESSARY.
August 15, 2025 at 5:40 AM
Essentially, narratives about the efficiency and efficacy of AI have flooded our cultural conversation about AI thereby resulting in the uncritical uptake of anything branded as "AI" as inherently more valuable, more effective, than anything without AI, EVEN IF AI IS NOT NECESSARY.
Has anyone else seen an increase in manuscript submissions using triple quads for untargeted metabolomics? Are vendors telling people they can do untargeted with a TQD? Or did I miss something?
August 14, 2025 at 2:47 PM
Has anyone else seen an increase in manuscript submissions using triple quads for untargeted metabolomics? Are vendors telling people they can do untargeted with a TQD? Or did I miss something?
Reposted by Carlos Rodríguez
Call for Ambizione
Ambizione grants are aimed at early-career researchers who wish to conduct and lead a project of their own. Interested in learning more about this call? Take part in our online info event on 14 August 2025.
Submission deadline: 4 November 2025
➡️ buff.ly/dDQl9QA
Ambizione grants are aimed at early-career researchers who wish to conduct and lead a project of their own. Interested in learning more about this call? Take part in our online info event on 14 August 2025.
Submission deadline: 4 November 2025
➡️ buff.ly/dDQl9QA
August 5, 2025 at 8:50 AM
Call for Ambizione
Ambizione grants are aimed at early-career researchers who wish to conduct and lead a project of their own. Interested in learning more about this call? Take part in our online info event on 14 August 2025.
Submission deadline: 4 November 2025
➡️ buff.ly/dDQl9QA
Ambizione grants are aimed at early-career researchers who wish to conduct and lead a project of their own. Interested in learning more about this call? Take part in our online info event on 14 August 2025.
Submission deadline: 4 November 2025
➡️ buff.ly/dDQl9QA
Reposted by Carlos Rodríguez
I’ve been mystified for years why my line of research (which includes genetic engineering of plants) makes (German) people so much more upset than the AI work of my campus neighbors.
And why does eco-anxiety have a @wikipedia.org page, but not AI-anxiety?
And why does eco-anxiety have a @wikipedia.org page, but not AI-anxiety?
'In a more speculative scenario where LLM participation in the economy increasingly takes the form of closed-access, autonomous LLM-based agents, LLM bias favoring LLM-produced communications may gradually marginalize human economic agents as a class'
www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...
www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...
AI–AI bias: Large language models favor communications generated by large language models | PNAS
Are large language models (LLMs) biased in favor of communications produced by LLMs,
leading to possible antihuman discrimination? Using a classica...
www.pnas.org
July 30, 2025 at 6:39 AM
I’ve been mystified for years why my line of research (which includes genetic engineering of plants) makes (German) people so much more upset than the AI work of my campus neighbors.
And why does eco-anxiety have a @wikipedia.org page, but not AI-anxiety?
And why does eco-anxiety have a @wikipedia.org page, but not AI-anxiety?
Also, I can tell you exactly all the components on your sample with a single test, including concentrations and place of origin! That's why my screen has all these spinning structures.
Hello, I am a scientist in a film. All my liquids are brightly coloured. The time it takes to perform tests and experiments is dependent on plot requirements, not biology or chemistry. Also, my safety glasses are extremely stylish.
Hello. I am an expendable character in an action film. If you shoot me with a regular gun I will scream in pain before I die. But if you shoot me with a silencer I will - obligingly - just let out a quiet gasp.
July 27, 2025 at 8:43 PM
Also, I can tell you exactly all the components on your sample with a single test, including concentrations and place of origin! That's why my screen has all these spinning structures.
Reposted by Carlos Rodríguez
Hello, I am a scientist in a film. All my liquids are brightly coloured. The time it takes to perform tests and experiments is dependent on plot requirements, not biology or chemistry. Also, my safety glasses are extremely stylish.
Hello. I am an expendable character in an action film. If you shoot me with a regular gun I will scream in pain before I die. But if you shoot me with a silencer I will - obligingly - just let out a quiet gasp.
Hello. I am a person in a film or television drama. I never use the toilet.
July 27, 2025 at 1:29 PM
Hello, I am a scientist in a film. All my liquids are brightly coloured. The time it takes to perform tests and experiments is dependent on plot requirements, not biology or chemistry. Also, my safety glasses are extremely stylish.
Reposted by Carlos Rodríguez
Fiiiine, apparently half my readers enjoy an info dump, so here we go!
Grasslands Sequester Carbon Too or “Why trees are not the be-all and end-all.”
Ahem. *takes a sip of water*
Grasslands Sequester Carbon Too or “Why trees are not the be-all and end-all.”
Ahem. *takes a sip of water*
I THINK they’re mad because of the hardscaping? Not entirely sure.
(One guy tried to claim it didn’t store CO2. Do you want a lecture on prairie carbon sequestration? Because this is how you get a lecture on prairie carbon sequestration.)
(One guy tried to claim it didn’t store CO2. Do you want a lecture on prairie carbon sequestration? Because this is how you get a lecture on prairie carbon sequestration.)
July 25, 2025 at 11:50 PM
Fiiiine, apparently half my readers enjoy an info dump, so here we go!
Grasslands Sequester Carbon Too or “Why trees are not the be-all and end-all.”
Ahem. *takes a sip of water*
Grasslands Sequester Carbon Too or “Why trees are not the be-all and end-all.”
Ahem. *takes a sip of water*
Reposted by Carlos Rodríguez
We owe this confidence to generations of scientists who pushed the boundaries of knowledge, not knowing if their efforts would make a difference. Oliver and Schafer didn’t put calf adrenal extracts into dogs to save my son but because they thought the world should know what adrenal glands do. 20/n
May 5, 2025 at 7:11 AM
We owe this confidence to generations of scientists who pushed the boundaries of knowledge, not knowing if their efforts would make a difference. Oliver and Schafer didn’t put calf adrenal extracts into dogs to save my son but because they thought the world should know what adrenal glands do. 20/n
Reposted by Carlos Rodríguez
Started as a very successful master thesis, now published in JACS. Screening sequence similarity networks turned out to be a great way to discover oxidosqualene cyclases with unusual activity from more than thousand plant transcriptome sequence datasets.
pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/...
pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/...
Expansion of the Stereochemical Space of Triterpenes by Mining Noncanonical Oxidosqualene Cyclases Across the Diversity of Green Plants
Triterpenoids and steroids are structurally complex polycyclic natural products with potent biological functions, for example, as hormones. In all eukaryotes, the carbon skeletons of these compounds a...
pubs.acs.org
March 18, 2025 at 10:15 AM
Started as a very successful master thesis, now published in JACS. Screening sequence similarity networks turned out to be a great way to discover oxidosqualene cyclases with unusual activity from more than thousand plant transcriptome sequence datasets.
pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/...
pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/...
Reposted by Carlos Rodríguez
Authoritarians love "Gen AI" because it
- Sounds confident even when factually wrong
- Broadly conforms to & reproduces their biases, off the shelf
- Lets them create bespoke realities (text, audio, moving & still image) which agree w/ their biases
- Degrades trust in knowledge/evidence/expertise…
- Sounds confident even when factually wrong
- Broadly conforms to & reproduces their biases, off the shelf
- Lets them create bespoke realities (text, audio, moving & still image) which agree w/ their biases
- Degrades trust in knowledge/evidence/expertise…
April 24, 2025 at 2:05 PM
Authoritarians love "Gen AI" because it
- Sounds confident even when factually wrong
- Broadly conforms to & reproduces their biases, off the shelf
- Lets them create bespoke realities (text, audio, moving & still image) which agree w/ their biases
- Degrades trust in knowledge/evidence/expertise…
- Sounds confident even when factually wrong
- Broadly conforms to & reproduces their biases, off the shelf
- Lets them create bespoke realities (text, audio, moving & still image) which agree w/ their biases
- Degrades trust in knowledge/evidence/expertise…
Reposted by Carlos Rodríguez
Three back-to-back Salicylic Acid biosynthesis papers 1/3 www.nature.com/articles/s41...
Three-step biosynthesis of salicylic acid from benzoyl-CoA in plants - Nature
The salicylic acid (SA) biosynthesis pathway—involving ligation of benzoyl coenzyme A and benzyl alcohol to give benzyl benzoate; hydroxylation of benzyl benzoate to give benzyl salicylate; and cleava...
www.nature.com
July 23, 2025 at 3:50 PM
Three back-to-back Salicylic Acid biosynthesis papers 1/3 www.nature.com/articles/s41...
Reposted by Carlos Rodríguez
The 64th Annual Meeting of the Phytochemical Society of North America (#PSNA2025) starts today at York University, Toronto. We welcome all attendees to dive into groundbreaking phytochemical research, vibrant networking, and fun experiences! #PlantScience #Phytochemisty
Download detailed programme
Download detailed programme
June 24, 2025 at 5:50 PM
The 64th Annual Meeting of the Phytochemical Society of North America (#PSNA2025) starts today at York University, Toronto. We welcome all attendees to dive into groundbreaking phytochemical research, vibrant networking, and fun experiences! #PlantScience #Phytochemisty
Download detailed programme
Download detailed programme
Reposted by Carlos Rodríguez
"a fascinating case study on the limits of AI in biology and the harms of current publishing incentives" rachel.fast.ai/posts/2025-0...
Rachel Thomas, PhD - Deep learning gets the glory, deep fact checking gets ignored
an AI researcher going back to school for immunology
rachel.fast.ai
June 4, 2025 at 3:53 PM
"a fascinating case study on the limits of AI in biology and the harms of current publishing incentives" rachel.fast.ai/posts/2025-0...
Highly recommended read on the discovery of a very, very elusive enzyme!
Next preprint out from my work @oconnorlab.bsky.social @mpi-ce.bsky.social : the discovery or iridoid cyclase in asterids!
Thread below.
#PlantScience
#natprod
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
Thread below.
#PlantScience
#natprod
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
www.biorxiv.org
June 20, 2025 at 1:04 AM
Highly recommended read on the discovery of a very, very elusive enzyme!
Reposted by Carlos Rodríguez
Today in Nature we report a systematic strategy to activate & identify gene sets in plants. We identify 8 new genes from the yew tree's Taxol biosynthetic pathway, enabling us to engineer tobacco with 17- & 20-gene pathways to Taxol precursors baccatin III & deBz-deoxy-Taxol #SingleCell #secmet 🧬🧪🌾
Discovery of FoTO1 and Taxol genes enables biosynthesis of baccatin III - Nature
An approach that combines single-nucleus RNA sequencing and multiplexed perturbation identifies genes that enable the biosynthesis of direct precursors of the anti-cancer drug Taxol, whose curren...
www.nature.com
June 11, 2025 at 7:50 PM
Today in Nature we report a systematic strategy to activate & identify gene sets in plants. We identify 8 new genes from the yew tree's Taxol biosynthetic pathway, enabling us to engineer tobacco with 17- & 20-gene pathways to Taxol precursors baccatin III & deBz-deoxy-Taxol #SingleCell #secmet 🧬🧪🌾
Reposted by Carlos Rodríguez
Fantastic work by the Sattely group on taxol biosynthesis, featuring a highly innovative application of single nuclei sequencing to find elusive biosynthetic genes 👏
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
Discovery of FoTO1 and Taxol genes enables biosynthesis of baccatin III - Nature
An approach that combines single-nucleus RNA sequencing and multiplexed perturbation identifies genes that enable the biosynthesis of direct precursors of the anti-cancer drug Taxol, whose curren...
www.nature.com
June 11, 2025 at 7:48 PM
Fantastic work by the Sattely group on taxol biosynthesis, featuring a highly innovative application of single nuclei sequencing to find elusive biosynthetic genes 👏
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
Reposted by Carlos Rodríguez
Hi everyone! I’m new to Bluesky. At the beginning of the year, I moved to Zurich @UZH_en to start a postdoc with #CyrilZipfel and @pedrobeltrao.bsky.social, investigating protein phosphorylation in plants 🌱
If you’re nearby or working on something similar, let’s connect 😀
If you’re nearby or working on something similar, let’s connect 😀
June 1, 2025 at 9:24 PM
Hi everyone! I’m new to Bluesky. At the beginning of the year, I moved to Zurich @UZH_en to start a postdoc with #CyrilZipfel and @pedrobeltrao.bsky.social, investigating protein phosphorylation in plants 🌱
If you’re nearby or working on something similar, let’s connect 😀
If you’re nearby or working on something similar, let’s connect 😀
Reposted by Carlos Rodríguez
New preprint out from the @oconnorlab.bsky.social department led by Moonyoung Kang, Anh Vu and Lorenzo Caputi.
Metabolomics and RNA-seq on the same single cell!
Or as we call it here in the lab: "the split-cell method"
Metabolomics and RNA-seq on the same single cell!
Or as we call it here in the lab: "the split-cell method"
Single-cell metabolome and RNA-seq multiplexing on single plant cells https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.05.20.655036v1
May 23, 2025 at 3:44 PM
New preprint out from the @oconnorlab.bsky.social department led by Moonyoung Kang, Anh Vu and Lorenzo Caputi.
Metabolomics and RNA-seq on the same single cell!
Or as we call it here in the lab: "the split-cell method"
Metabolomics and RNA-seq on the same single cell!
Or as we call it here in the lab: "the split-cell method"
Reposted by Carlos Rodríguez
I got hit by some rather sudden and extreme financial hardship so if anyone is in need of remote wetlab contract research, strictly BSL1, do let me know. Currently scrambling for gigs.
Plant, Bacterial, Archaeal Non-model Bioeng
Custom Lab Hardware
Turn Key Genetic Design
Please repost for reach 💚
Plant, Bacterial, Archaeal Non-model Bioeng
Custom Lab Hardware
Turn Key Genetic Design
Please repost for reach 💚
May 2, 2025 at 2:39 PM
I got hit by some rather sudden and extreme financial hardship so if anyone is in need of remote wetlab contract research, strictly BSL1, do let me know. Currently scrambling for gigs.
Plant, Bacterial, Archaeal Non-model Bioeng
Custom Lab Hardware
Turn Key Genetic Design
Please repost for reach 💚
Plant, Bacterial, Archaeal Non-model Bioeng
Custom Lab Hardware
Turn Key Genetic Design
Please repost for reach 💚
Reposted by Carlos Rodríguez
We're hiring!
🥼 2-year lab technician at UCPH from 01 Aug
🌿 Support our research in plant natural products with relevance in agriculture, nutrition, and medicine.
🧬 Your skills: plant molecular biology and/or tissue culture & transformation
📅 Deadline 18 May 2025
jobportal.ku.dk/administrati...
🥼 2-year lab technician at UCPH from 01 Aug
🌿 Support our research in plant natural products with relevance in agriculture, nutrition, and medicine.
🧬 Your skills: plant molecular biology and/or tissue culture & transformation
📅 Deadline 18 May 2025
jobportal.ku.dk/administrati...
Laboratory Technician, Department of Plant and Environmental Sciences
jobportal.ku.dk
April 16, 2025 at 1:27 PM
We're hiring!
🥼 2-year lab technician at UCPH from 01 Aug
🌿 Support our research in plant natural products with relevance in agriculture, nutrition, and medicine.
🧬 Your skills: plant molecular biology and/or tissue culture & transformation
📅 Deadline 18 May 2025
jobportal.ku.dk/administrati...
🥼 2-year lab technician at UCPH from 01 Aug
🌿 Support our research in plant natural products with relevance in agriculture, nutrition, and medicine.
🧬 Your skills: plant molecular biology and/or tissue culture & transformation
📅 Deadline 18 May 2025
jobportal.ku.dk/administrati...