Dominic Luciano (He/Him)
@dominicinscience.bsky.social
Hi! I am a PhD candidate in the Mitchell Lab, where I study novel PTMs in RiPP biosynthesis and their functions! I am passionate about scientific communication, the queer STEM community, and having fun!
Reposted by Dominic Luciano (He/Him)
Reposted by Dominic Luciano (He/Him)
Eukaryogenesis was a billion year spree, but the acquisition of mitochondria happened when the party was winding down www.nature.com/articles/s41...
Dated gene duplications elucidate the evolutionary assembly of eukaryotes - Nature
Analysis of eukaryotic gene sequences using a relaxed molecular clock methodology indicate that eukaryotes emerged 3.0–2.25 billion years ago as a result of mitochondrial endosymbiosis with complex ar...
www.nature.com
December 3, 2025 at 7:55 PM
Eukaryogenesis was a billion year spree, but the acquisition of mitochondria happened when the party was winding down www.nature.com/articles/s41...
Reposted by Dominic Luciano (He/Him)
I love Pattie Gonia so much! 100 miles… in drag. It’s spectacular. Consider checking out their fundraising project. (Plus, I love a mustachioed queen!) Aaaaand, they were in the #Out100 with @mswmedia.com’s own @dgcomedy.bsky.social. 🫶🏻
my name is pattie gonia and i’m backpacking 100 miles in drag to try to raise $1,000,000 for 8 outdoor nonprofits. here goes nothing.
TikTok video by pattiegonia
www.tiktok.com
December 1, 2025 at 3:50 AM
I love Pattie Gonia so much! 100 miles… in drag. It’s spectacular. Consider checking out their fundraising project. (Plus, I love a mustachioed queen!) Aaaaand, they were in the #Out100 with @mswmedia.com’s own @dgcomedy.bsky.social. 🫶🏻
Reposted by Dominic Luciano (He/Him)
An archaeal genetic code with all TAG codons as pyrrolysine www.science.org/doi/abs/10.1... #jcampubs
An archaeal genetic code with all TAG codons as pyrrolysine
Multiple genetic codes developed during the evolution of eukaryotes and bacteria, yet no alternative genetic code is known for archaea. We used proteomics to confirm our prediction that certain archae...
www.science.org
November 21, 2025 at 4:20 PM
An archaeal genetic code with all TAG codons as pyrrolysine www.science.org/doi/abs/10.1... #jcampubs
Reposted by Dominic Luciano (He/Him)
November 13, 2025 at 7:23 PM
Reposted by Dominic Luciano (He/Him)
Happy to share Jialin's first publication. She did a great job exploring the transition to land in animals. Co-supervised by the great Jordi Paps and me and in collaboration with Davide Pisani and @phil-donoghue.bsky.social
Nature research paper: Convergent genome evolution shaped the emergence of terrestrial animals
go.nature.com/4i0i61w
go.nature.com/4i0i61w
Convergent genome evolution shaped the emergence of terrestrial animals - Nature
Comparisons of 154 genomes from 21 animal phyla and outgroups have been used to reconstruct ancestral adaptation to life on land across 11 distinct terrestrialization events, revealing strong evidence for convergent genomic evolution across the animal kingdom and recurring periods of terrestrial colonization.
go.nature.com
November 13, 2025 at 3:18 PM
Happy to share Jialin's first publication. She did a great job exploring the transition to land in animals. Co-supervised by the great Jordi Paps and me and in collaboration with Davide Pisani and @phil-donoghue.bsky.social
Reposted by Dominic Luciano (He/Him)
Dual transposon sequencing profiles the genetic interaction landscape in bacteria | Science www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...
Dual transposon sequencing profiles the genetic interaction landscape in bacteria
Gene redundancy complicates systematic characterization of gene function as single-gene deletions may not produce discernible phenotypes. We report dual transposon sequencing (dual Tn-seq), a platform...
www.science.org
September 25, 2025 at 11:19 PM
Dual transposon sequencing profiles the genetic interaction landscape in bacteria | Science www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...
Reposted by Dominic Luciano (He/Him)
Bacterial cell wall & periplasm paradigm shift - important read #MicroSky
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
July 29, 2025 at 4:01 PM
Bacterial cell wall & periplasm paradigm shift - important read #MicroSky
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
At the edge of centennial park fighting for democracy ❤️
April 5, 2025 at 8:08 PM
At the edge of centennial park fighting for democracy ❤️
Reposted by Dominic Luciano (He/Him)
From 2010 to 2016 (latest data I have ), NIH research contributed to EVERY drug approved by the FDA
March 22, 2025 at 10:44 AM
From 2010 to 2016 (latest data I have ), NIH research contributed to EVERY drug approved by the FDA
Reposted by Dominic Luciano (He/Him)
Telomeric transposons are pervasive in linear bacterial genomes | Science www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...
Telomeric transposons are pervasive in linear bacterial genomes
Eukaryotes have linear DNA and their telomeres are hotspots for transposons, which in some cases took over telomere maintenance. Here we identify several families of independently evolved telomeric tr...
www.science.org
March 6, 2025 at 8:02 PM
Telomeric transposons are pervasive in linear bacterial genomes | Science www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...
Reposted by Dominic Luciano (He/Him)
Now online! Lysine vitcylation is a vitamin C-derived protein modification that enhances STAT1-mediated immune response
Lysine vitcylation is a vitamin C-derived protein modification that enhances STAT1-mediated immune response
Vitamin C directly modifies lysine residues through vitcylation, regulating STAT1 signaling and enhancing anti-tumor immune responses by preventing STAT1 dephosphorylation.
dlvr.it
February 28, 2025 at 7:51 PM
Now online! Lysine vitcylation is a vitamin C-derived protein modification that enhances STAT1-mediated immune response
Reposted by Dominic Luciano (He/Him)
Excited to share the work of Jonathan Perr where he uncovered a surprisingly common feature of cell surfaces - the presentation and clustering of RNA binding proteins with #glycoRNA.
Critically support by #NIH @cp-cell.bsky.social www.cell.com/cell/abstrac...
Critically support by #NIH @cp-cell.bsky.social www.cell.com/cell/abstrac...
RNA-binding proteins and glycoRNAs form domains on the cell surface for cell-penetrating peptide entry
Mammalian cells present RNA-binding proteins on the cell surface that form clustered
domains containing glycoRNAs.
www.cell.com
February 27, 2025 at 3:48 PM
Excited to share the work of Jonathan Perr where he uncovered a surprisingly common feature of cell surfaces - the presentation and clustering of RNA binding proteins with #glycoRNA.
Critically support by #NIH @cp-cell.bsky.social www.cell.com/cell/abstrac...
Critically support by #NIH @cp-cell.bsky.social www.cell.com/cell/abstrac...
Reposted by Dominic Luciano (He/Him)
Whenever you hear someone sneer about scientific research that seems useless to them — “they’re studying the spit of lizards?!” — remind them that’s exactly how we got Ozempic.
globalnews.ca/news/9793403...
globalnews.ca/news/9793403...
How a Canadian scientist and a venomous lizard helped pave the way for Ozempic - National | Globalnews.ca
In 1984, Dr. Daniel Drucker, an endocrinologist from the University of Toronto, discovered a hormone that helped pave the way for popular diabetes drugs such as Ozempic.
globalnews.ca
February 9, 2025 at 5:38 PM
Whenever you hear someone sneer about scientific research that seems useless to them — “they’re studying the spit of lizards?!” — remind them that’s exactly how we got Ozempic.
globalnews.ca/news/9793403...
globalnews.ca/news/9793403...
Reposted by Dominic Luciano (He/Him)
New, very exciting preprint where we identify polycyclic triterpenoids lipids in archaea (Asgards) for the first time. This was a wonderful collaboration with Paula Welander’s lab..… a thread… //www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.02.07.637177v1 @valdeanda.bsky.social and Hanon McShea
Archaeal lineages related to eukaryotes encode functional diterpenoid cyclases
The first eukaryotic cell originated through the union of an archaeon (Asgardarchaeota) and a bacterium (Alphaproteobacteria). Little is known about the molecular basis of eukaryogenesis, but it is li...
www.biorxiv.org
February 8, 2025 at 9:29 PM
New, very exciting preprint where we identify polycyclic triterpenoids lipids in archaea (Asgards) for the first time. This was a wonderful collaboration with Paula Welander’s lab..… a thread… //www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.02.07.637177v1 @valdeanda.bsky.social and Hanon McShea
Reposted by Dominic Luciano (He/Him)
Here's the promised natural product preprint: Flavoaffinins, elusive cellulose-binding natural products from an anaerobic bacterium. www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
February 9, 2025 at 5:46 AM
Here's the promised natural product preprint: Flavoaffinins, elusive cellulose-binding natural products from an anaerobic bacterium. www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
Reposted by Dominic Luciano (He/Him)
Check it out! Another novel RNA modification - ADP-ribosylation - that was previously only known on proteins. A cousin to #glycoRNA 👏
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
February 6, 2025 at 7:38 PM
Check it out! Another novel RNA modification - ADP-ribosylation - that was previously only known on proteins. A cousin to #glycoRNA 👏
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
Reposted by Dominic Luciano (He/Him)
Difficult to focus on science during these times, but if you have the bandwidth, our study on zol is now out in NAR: academic.oup.com/nar/article/...
GitHub: github.com/Kalan-Lab/zol
Please give the software a try and let us know if you have any feedback! And stay tuned for new features...
GitHub: github.com/Kalan-Lab/zol
Please give the software a try and let us know if you have any feedback! And stay tuned for new features...
zol and fai: large-scale targeted detection and evolutionary investigation of gene clusters
Abstract. Many universally and conditionally important genes are genomically aggregated within clusters. Here, we introduce fai and zol, which together ena
academic.oup.com
February 5, 2025 at 7:52 PM
Difficult to focus on science during these times, but if you have the bandwidth, our study on zol is now out in NAR: academic.oup.com/nar/article/...
GitHub: github.com/Kalan-Lab/zol
Please give the software a try and let us know if you have any feedback! And stay tuned for new features...
GitHub: github.com/Kalan-Lab/zol
Please give the software a try and let us know if you have any feedback! And stay tuned for new features...
What is it about chaining nucleobases together that turns them into acids? 🤣
February 4, 2025 at 11:31 PM
What is it about chaining nucleobases together that turns them into acids? 🤣
Does anyone know where PhD students can receive supplemental mentorship outside their lab for additional support and scientific discussion? Does something like this exist?
February 4, 2025 at 9:49 PM
Does anyone know where PhD students can receive supplemental mentorship outside their lab for additional support and scientific discussion? Does something like this exist?
Reposted by Dominic Luciano (He/Him)
First post on Blue sky! Congratulations to graduate student Yorick Chiang and scientist Masa Ohashi on discovery of new copper dependent halogen from Nature @nature.com !
Many thanks to the wonderful collaborators!
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
Many thanks to the wonderful collaborators!
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
Copper-dependent halogenase catalyses unactivated C−H bond functionalization - Nature
A halogenase enzyme uses the copper in its active site to catalyse iterative chlorinations on multiple unactivated carbon−hydrogen bonds, enabling carbon−hydrogen functionalization that is not achieva...
www.nature.com
January 29, 2025 at 5:34 PM
First post on Blue sky! Congratulations to graduate student Yorick Chiang and scientist Masa Ohashi on discovery of new copper dependent halogen from Nature @nature.com !
Many thanks to the wonderful collaborators!
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
Many thanks to the wonderful collaborators!
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
Reposted by Dominic Luciano (He/Him)
Can we all PLEASE take a moment to acknowledge that the new forbidden words include female, females, woman, and women which describe about half the population. But of course the words male or men are still allowed.
Am I to understand that this is a direct attempt to defeud women's health research?
Am I to understand that this is a direct attempt to defeud women's health research?
🚨BREAKING. From a program officer at the National Science Foundation, a list of keywords that can cause a grant to be pulled. I will be sharing screenshots of these keywords along with a decision tree. Please share widely. This is a crisis for academic freedom & science.
February 4, 2025 at 2:49 AM
Can we all PLEASE take a moment to acknowledge that the new forbidden words include female, females, woman, and women which describe about half the population. But of course the words male or men are still allowed.
Am I to understand that this is a direct attempt to defeud women's health research?
Am I to understand that this is a direct attempt to defeud women's health research?
Reposted by Dominic Luciano (He/Him)
Doctoral students,
The choice of a mentor is much more important than the choice of a grad school.
The choice of a mentor is much more important than the choice of a grad school.
February 4, 2025 at 12:28 PM
Doctoral students,
The choice of a mentor is much more important than the choice of a grad school.
The choice of a mentor is much more important than the choice of a grad school.
After a delay in Urbana from snow storm Blair to a delay in Tennessee from an unexpected snow storm, we finally set up the lab at Vanderbilt! It took us about a week to unload, unpack and find homes for everything… now just to train before the first experiment can commence!
January 19, 2025 at 7:42 PM
After a delay in Urbana from snow storm Blair to a delay in Tennessee from an unexpected snow storm, we finally set up the lab at Vanderbilt! It took us about a week to unload, unpack and find homes for everything… now just to train before the first experiment can commence!
Reposted by Dominic Luciano (He/Him)
🧵 How does being a #vegan, #vegetarian or omnivore impact your gut #microbiome? 🥦 Find out in our new paper on gut microbiome signatures of vegan, vegetarian & omnivore diets & associated health outcomes across 21,561 individuals in @naturemicrobiol.bsky.social!🎉 1/10
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
Gut microbiome signatures of vegan, vegetarian and omnivore diets and associated health outcomes across 21,561 individuals - Nature Microbiology
Using 21,561 individuals, the authors present a cross-sectional study of how gut microbiome signatures are associated with dietary intake patterns and with host health outcomes.
www.nature.com
January 7, 2025 at 9:30 AM
🧵 How does being a #vegan, #vegetarian or omnivore impact your gut #microbiome? 🥦 Find out in our new paper on gut microbiome signatures of vegan, vegetarian & omnivore diets & associated health outcomes across 21,561 individuals in @naturemicrobiol.bsky.social!🎉 1/10
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
www.nature.com/articles/s41...