Anne-Ruxandra Carvunis
carvunis.bsky.social
Anne-Ruxandra Carvunis
@carvunis.bsky.social
Associate Prof. University of Pittsburgh. Computational and Systems Biology. Mechanisms of Evolutionary Innovation. Yeast. www.carvunis.com.
Reposted by Anne-Ruxandra Carvunis
After testing virtually all reasonable permutations of sample prep, spectra acquisition, database selection, data processing...

This team (convincingly, I think) demonstrates that ~85% of the small, *annotated* bacterial proteins are undetectable by mass spec—much less non-annotated ones. (1/4) 🧵
September 26, 2025 at 6:41 PM
Reposted by Anne-Ruxandra Carvunis
The findings at the recent trial and today's Columbia chaos is pushing me to the edge.

I just sent the following email...
June 18, 2025 at 7:29 PM
Reposted by Anne-Ruxandra Carvunis
I heard this morning that my informatics colleague Dr. Atul Butte passed after a battle with cancer. He was a giant in the field & inspired many of us over his distinguished career. He was a passionate champion of the power of big data & his impact on our field is immeasurable. RIP Atul & thanks.
June 14, 2025 at 1:20 PM
Reposted by Anne-Ruxandra Carvunis
Very smart, high ROI initiative from the Spencer Foundation.

Providing bridge funding for canceled NSF grants:

1) directs funds to projects already screened by a top-noch review process.
2) avoids imposing proposal prep costs on researchers.
3) ameliorates the disruption from GOP sabotage.
Rapid Response Bridge Funding Program
In the face of recent abrupt shifts in federal funding for education research, including large-scale terminations of National Science Foundation (NSF) research grant awards, we have developed a rap...
www.spencer.org
June 6, 2025 at 11:09 PM
Reposted by Anne-Ruxandra Carvunis
Interview with a Harvard graduate student from Harvard about some of the consequences of the administration's current policies.
May 27, 2025 at 11:14 PM
Reposted by Anne-Ruxandra Carvunis
Senator Durbin noted that some (I believe Republican Senators) had indicated the US had been doing more than its share of biomedical research and it was time for other countries take a turn.

I felt I had to interrupt to respond...
May 23, 2025 at 8:53 PM
Reposted by Anne-Ruxandra Carvunis
I appreciate the offers from other scientists to help Harvard (students, labs, etc) through this attack, but what would be most helpful is for you to use your position to contact your elected representatives and make it clear this fight isn't just Harvard, it will affect you, and their districts too
May 24, 2025 at 5:47 PM
Reposted by Anne-Ruxandra Carvunis
I'm so excited to share a new preprint on exploring sequence, structure, and function relationships and how we can use evolutionary information to help us design new proteins that work in the native context of a cell
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
Deep homology and design of proteasome chaperone proteins in Candida auris
A central tenet of biology is that protein structure mediates the sequence-function relationship. Recently, there has been excitement about the promise of advances in protein structure modeling to gen...
www.biorxiv.org
May 16, 2025 at 4:54 PM
Reposted by Anne-Ruxandra Carvunis
An NSF PO on its upcoming 75th anniversary: "In nature, systems evolve towards minimum of energy, following the laws of physics. In the US today things evolve to a location of maximum pain, violating the laws of the land." www.linkedin.com/posts/tomasz...
May 7, 2025 at 4:06 PM
Reposted by Anne-Ruxandra Carvunis
As a follow-up to the Kaiser interview, here is my exchange with Dr. Bhattacharya starting Sunday evening...

1/n
May 6, 2025 at 12:33 PM
Reposted by Anne-Ruxandra Carvunis
I wrote about how we must stand and fight against the threat of eugenics.

Fueled by white nationalism and scientific racism, these beliefs are factually wrong and ethically abhorrent.

This fight includes supporting efforts to diversify our workforce & science. To stop now would be a deep betrayal.
Eugenics is on the rise again: human geneticists must take a stand
Scientists must push back against the threat of rising white nationalism and the dangerous and pseudoscientific ideas of eugenics.
www.nature.com
April 24, 2025 at 12:44 PM
Reposted by Anne-Ruxandra Carvunis
Join our lab to study transcriptional regulation in mouse germ cells and embryonic stem cells at @haskoliislands.bsky.social in beautiful Reykjavík!
Apply here: tinyurl.com/34y6jcrd
#epigenetics #TranscriptionFactors #transcriptomics #stemCells #pluripotency
April 22, 2025 at 5:24 PM
Reposted by Anne-Ruxandra Carvunis
ATTENTION

I am hearing from several sources that "NIH" sent out termination notices for most or all "diversity" awards yesterday to coincide with the new Notice.

If you were affected by this and are willing to share, please DM me or reach me on Signal (jeremymberg.78)

1/2
a person is holding a red object in their hand .
ALT: a person is holding a red object in their hand .
media.tenor.com
April 22, 2025 at 11:48 AM
Reposted by Anne-Ruxandra Carvunis
April is #Autism Awareness Month. This is a month to accept, understand and love those in the Autism Spectrum. Above all accepting that someone is different and respecting their differences is the most important thing we can do. Here are some facts to help understand (a thread):
April 21, 2025 at 5:39 PM
Reposted by Anne-Ruxandra Carvunis
Another moment of WTF...

The evolution of the www.covid.gov site...

Warning: May be jarring!

1/4
a man with curly hair and glasses is making a funny face and saying huh .
ALT: a man with curly hair and glasses is making a funny face and saying huh .
media.tenor.com
April 18, 2025 at 5:17 PM
Reposted by Anne-Ruxandra Carvunis
After 21 years at my dream job, I’m very sad to announce my early retirement from the National Institutes of Health. My life’s work has been to scientifically study how our food environment affects what we eat, and how what we eat affects our physiology.
April 16, 2025 at 9:00 PM
Reposted by Anne-Ruxandra Carvunis
All snails have tentacles. Some have 1 pair, other 2 pair. In some (but not all) snails, the eyes are placed at the end of one of these pairs of tentacles, called an 'ommatophore' or eyestalk.

And, as you can see, they can fully RETRACT (evert) them at will.
April 11, 2025 at 12:29 PM
Reposted by Anne-Ruxandra Carvunis
💐 To NIH and NSF program officers, and anyone else trying to keep those institutions alive:

Thank you for trying to do an impossible job in an impossible time. I’m sorry for all of us that this is the world we’re living in. 1/n
Just before bedtime last night I got a message from inside NIH which read:

“It’s so, so bad and no one cares (who has any influence)”

I asked “What, in particular?”

My friend responded “Everything”
March 28, 2025 at 11:27 AM
Reposted by Anne-Ruxandra Carvunis
New story about grant terminations in Pittsburgh

www.post-gazette.com/business/hea...

1/2
Three more Pitt researchers lose NIH funding
‘I don’t understand the politics.’
www.post-gazette.com
March 26, 2025 at 10:17 AM
Reposted by Anne-Ruxandra Carvunis
🧵
From Medscape (widely read by health professionals):

"What Not to Say to People With Complex Chronic Illness"

www.medscape.com/viewarticle/...
(may require free registration)

#MEcfs #LongCovid

1/
March 20, 2025 at 8:28 PM
Reposted by Anne-Ruxandra Carvunis
I know that the mRNA is larger than the protein it codes for but I don't believe it
March 3, 2025 at 6:07 PM
Reposted by Anne-Ruxandra Carvunis
If you are wondering why universities and academic medical centers seem so stressed, one major reason is these imposed cash flow challenges.

These funds were expected in good faith (and based on past practices), but have not been forthcoming.

12/n
March 17, 2025 at 7:30 PM
Reposted by Anne-Ruxandra Carvunis
Why wouldn't you want to understand vaccine hesitancy?(Gift link)

wapo.st/3Dw7WG0
NIH to terminate or limit grants related to vaccine hesitancy and uptake
The order covers more than 40 awards to researchers around the country seeking to understand why vaccine acceptance has declined.
wapo.st
March 10, 2025 at 11:37 PM
Reposted by Anne-Ruxandra Carvunis
Bluetorial: Women, courage, and leadership

What follows will include some generalizations based on population averages of what I have experienced over the course of my career. There are, of course, exceptions in every group who are substantially more to one extreme or the other.
a cartoon says hey everybody an old man 's talking while bart simpson looks on
ALT: a cartoon says hey everybody an old man 's talking while bart simpson looks on
media.tenor.com
March 9, 2025 at 4:33 AM