Craig Kaplan
@triggerloop.bsky.social
Professor, Department of Biological Sciences, University of Pittsburgh. RNA polymerase II mechanism, classic films, #classiccountdown once in awhile
Reposted by Craig Kaplan
Critics have claimed the recipe requires half a dozen eggs, while others have noted that only six eggs are required
How did the @nytimes.com editors let this sentence appear?
"Critics have likened Mr. Trump’s approach to extortion, while others have chalked it up as a cost of doing business with this administration."
www.nytimes.com/2025/11/26/u...
"Critics have likened Mr. Trump’s approach to extortion, while others have chalked it up as a cost of doing business with this administration."
www.nytimes.com/2025/11/26/u...
Northwestern University Nears Deal to Resolve Its Conflict With the White House
www.nytimes.com
November 29, 2025 at 2:58 PM
Critics have claimed the recipe requires half a dozen eggs, while others have noted that only six eggs are required
🎵🎤You’re much too young to mess around with me 🐑
November 28, 2025 at 5:03 PM
🎵🎤You’re much too young to mess around with me 🐑
Reposted by Craig Kaplan
This is probably my favorite paper of 2025. Beautiful work by @elphegenoralab.bsky.social and @karissalhansen.bsky.social that should be on the top of the reading list for everyone with even a slight interest in gene expression!
Bah, who needs cohesin if you're at the right place (near). Grover once taught us the difference between near and far (my favourite Sesame Street piece), and now amazing work from @elphegenoralab.bsky.social led by @karissalhansen.bsky.social shows us how: www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...
Synergy between regulatory elements can render cohesin dispensable for distal enhancer function
Enhancers are critical genetic elements controlling transcription from promoters, yet how they convey regulatory information across large genomic distances remains unclear. Here, we engineer pluripote...
www.science.org
November 27, 2025 at 9:21 PM
This is probably my favorite paper of 2025. Beautiful work by @elphegenoralab.bsky.social and @karissalhansen.bsky.social that should be on the top of the reading list for everyone with even a slight interest in gene expression!
JAM
November 27, 2025 at 3:09 PM
JAM
Reposted by Craig Kaplan
Single-Molecule DNA Footprinting and Transcription Imaging Reveal the Molecular Mechanisms of Promoter Dynamics https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.11.26.690466v1
November 27, 2025 at 3:19 AM
Single-Molecule DNA Footprinting and Transcription Imaging Reveal the Molecular Mechanisms of Promoter Dynamics https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.11.26.690466v1
Reposted by Craig Kaplan
The CDC website has been lobotomized. Where it once presented the decades of evidence debunking the false claims of a link between vaccines and autism, that has now been replaced with junk science.
November 20, 2025 at 6:23 PM
The CDC website has been lobotomized. Where it once presented the decades of evidence debunking the false claims of a link between vaccines and autism, that has now been replaced with junk science.
Reposted by Craig Kaplan
RFK Jr. is neither a joke nor a well-intentioned proponent of public health with a few kooky beliefs. He's a menace, evil even by the standards of Trump's inner circle, and the failure of the political press to convey this is maddening
I actually think it’s okay to take a ridiculous scandal seriously when it involves a wingnut conspiracy theorist in charge of things like vaccine policy and pandemic preparedness
Sorry to be a wet blanket 🤷🏻♀️
Sorry to be a wet blanket 🤷🏻♀️
She never misses a beat, of course, but Marina's first paragraph this week is *chef's kiss*
www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...
www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...
November 25, 2025 at 11:44 PM
RFK Jr. is neither a joke nor a well-intentioned proponent of public health with a few kooky beliefs. He's a menace, evil even by the standards of Trump's inner circle, and the failure of the political press to convey this is maddening
Reposted by Craig Kaplan
NEW: AI “recipe slop” is overrunning search and social. Food creators say Google’s AI Overviews and glossy fake food pics are drowning out real, tested recipes — collapsing traffic and setting home cooks up for disaster, especially this Thanksgiving.
Gift link: www.bloomberg.com/news/article...
Gift link: www.bloomberg.com/news/article...
AI Slop Recipes Are Taking Over the Internet -- And Thanksgiving Dinner
Food bloggers see traffic dip as home cooks turn to AI, inspired by impossible pictures
www.bloomberg.com
November 25, 2025 at 3:16 PM
NEW: AI “recipe slop” is overrunning search and social. Food creators say Google’s AI Overviews and glossy fake food pics are drowning out real, tested recipes — collapsing traffic and setting home cooks up for disaster, especially this Thanksgiving.
Gift link: www.bloomberg.com/news/article...
Gift link: www.bloomberg.com/news/article...
Reposted by Craig Kaplan
Here we go. Its ALL #NIHGrant applications. Dec 8 is the new deadline. And a one page prelim data update will be accepted for all May Council submissions. grants.nih.gov/grants/guide...
NOT-OD-26-012: Updated Guidance on Reopening of NIH Extramural Activities Following the October 1, 2025 - Lapse in Appropriations
NIH Funding Opportunities and Notices in the NIH Guide for Grants and Contracts: Updated Guidance on Reopening of NIH Extramural Activities Following the October 1, 2025 - Lapse in Appropriations NOT-...
grants.nih.gov
November 24, 2025 at 6:52 PM
Here we go. Its ALL #NIHGrant applications. Dec 8 is the new deadline. And a one page prelim data update will be accepted for all May Council submissions. grants.nih.gov/grants/guide...
Reposted by Craig Kaplan
Confirmation of the new triage line at 65-70% of proposals. Introduction of a new “competitive but ND” class to permit exception pay pickups.
November 24, 2025 at 6:57 PM
Confirmation of the new triage line at 65-70% of proposals. Introduction of a new “competitive but ND” class to permit exception pay pickups.
Reposted by Craig Kaplan
🪱 Selfish genes are everywhere and drive some of biology’s biggest innovations (CRISPR, antibody recombination, epigenetics). Yet almost no one asks the obvious question: how does a selfish gene begin? Our new manuscript uncovers how selfishness can emerge directly from the host genome.
November 24, 2025 at 1:03 PM
🪱 Selfish genes are everywhere and drive some of biology’s biggest innovations (CRISPR, antibody recombination, epigenetics). Yet almost no one asks the obvious question: how does a selfish gene begin? Our new manuscript uncovers how selfishness can emerge directly from the host genome.
This seems like it could be a cool paper in the quote post trying to get at mechanism of super important surveillance kinase 1/
November 24, 2025 at 2:24 AM
This seems like it could be a cool paper in the quote post trying to get at mechanism of super important surveillance kinase 1/
Glorious Technicolor
November 23, 2025 at 7:03 PM
Glorious Technicolor
I sent for juice you give me poison >>>>>>>>>>>
November 23, 2025 at 4:28 AM
I sent for juice you give me poison >>>>>>>>>>>
Reposted by Craig Kaplan
Dream on, Sluggo
November 23, 2025 at 4:25 AM
Dream on, Sluggo
Reposted by Craig Kaplan
Stop supporting AI
November 22, 2025 at 11:05 PM
Stop supporting AI
Reposted by Craig Kaplan
I have been looking at Black Friday sales for a week but I do not actually need anything so instead I closed all those tabs and bought a Polaroid for a foster kid in Florida who uses photography to deal with big feelings. Perhaps you would like to do the same for one of the kids at the link below?
🧵 We are, in fact, doing the thing again for @onesimplewish.bsky.social. In 2024, the kind people of this community put the money cannon on blast to help grant $75K in wishes for children in foster care. Toys, tech, a suit for job interviews. Here we go again! 👇
www.onesimplewish.org/giving/megwa...
www.onesimplewish.org/giving/megwa...
November 22, 2025 at 9:48 PM
I have been looking at Black Friday sales for a week but I do not actually need anything so instead I closed all those tabs and bought a Polaroid for a foster kid in Florida who uses photography to deal with big feelings. Perhaps you would like to do the same for one of the kids at the link below?
Me logging on
November 22, 2025 at 3:19 PM
Me logging on
Reposted by Craig Kaplan
FYI: turning off "Smart features" also turns off spell check and the promotions and social tabs. And more.
In effect, a lot of traditional tools in gmail are switched off if you don't let them upload your contracts, love notes, and sad messages to your friends into their plagiarism machine.
In effect, a lot of traditional tools in gmail are switched off if you don't let them upload your contracts, love notes, and sad messages to your friends into their plagiarism machine.
If you use GMail, AI (Gemini) was turned on yesterday by default and now scans all of your content for machine learning. To turn off, go to Settings>General and scroll down. Uncheck the box for "Smart features."
There's other "Smart" add-ons as well, but that's the one that reads your content.
There's other "Smart" add-ons as well, but that's the one that reads your content.
November 20, 2025 at 10:05 PM
FYI: turning off "Smart features" also turns off spell check and the promotions and social tabs. And more.
In effect, a lot of traditional tools in gmail are switched off if you don't let them upload your contracts, love notes, and sad messages to your friends into their plagiarism machine.
In effect, a lot of traditional tools in gmail are switched off if you don't let them upload your contracts, love notes, and sad messages to your friends into their plagiarism machine.
Reposted by Craig Kaplan
Hot off the press! Our latest paper led by @fernpizza.bsky.social, understanding how plasmids evolve inside cells. These small, self-replicating DNA circles live inside bacteria and carry antibiotic resistance genes, but also compete with one another to replicate. 1/
www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...
www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...
Intracellular competition shapes plasmid population dynamics
From populations of multicellular organisms to selfish genetic elements, conflicts between levels of biological organization are central to evolution. Plasmids are extrachromosomal, self-replicating g...
www.science.org
November 20, 2025 at 9:42 PM
Hot off the press! Our latest paper led by @fernpizza.bsky.social, understanding how plasmids evolve inside cells. These small, self-replicating DNA circles live inside bacteria and carry antibiotic resistance genes, but also compete with one another to replicate. 1/
www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...
www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...
Reposted by Craig Kaplan
The administration is building a legal pathway for ad hoc grant terminations:
"if the agency determines that the award no longer effectuates the program goals or agency priorities"
Converting multiyear grants to 'at whim' coin flips will undermine the stability & leadership of American science.
"if the agency determines that the award no longer effectuates the program goals or agency priorities"
Converting multiyear grants to 'at whim' coin flips will undermine the stability & leadership of American science.
Update on a significant development NIH grant terms.
On 10/1, a change to grant making regs went into effect that gives NIH more power to terminate grants for policy reasons.
But to use this power, new grant terms must include specific language. See @aniloza.bsky.social w/ the story from July.
1/
On 10/1, a change to grant making regs went into effect that gives NIH more power to terminate grants for policy reasons.
But to use this power, new grant terms must include specific language. See @aniloza.bsky.social w/ the story from July.
1/
HHS devises legal playbook for future grant terminations, internal memo shows
Exclusive: HHS devises a legal playbook for future research grant terminations, an internal memo shows.
www.statnews.com
November 20, 2025 at 4:06 PM
The administration is building a legal pathway for ad hoc grant terminations:
"if the agency determines that the award no longer effectuates the program goals or agency priorities"
Converting multiyear grants to 'at whim' coin flips will undermine the stability & leadership of American science.
"if the agency determines that the award no longer effectuates the program goals or agency priorities"
Converting multiyear grants to 'at whim' coin flips will undermine the stability & leadership of American science.
Reposted by Craig Kaplan
This is revolting
CDC has overhauled its website to assert that “the claim ‘vaccines do not cause autism’ is not an evidence-based claim”
November 20, 2025 at 2:53 AM
This is revolting
Reposted by Craig Kaplan
Shameful
CDC has overhauled its website to assert that “the claim ‘vaccines do not cause autism’ is not an evidence-based claim”
November 20, 2025 at 2:52 AM
Shameful
Reposted by Craig Kaplan
Time to vote for our GSA officers!
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Please repost
☑️ GSA Board Elections are open—we're calling our members to make their voice heard!
Help shape the future of our Society by voting for the next Vice President, Treasurer, and three Directors. Cast your ballot by November 30, 2025: buff.ly/TAENAkq
Help shape the future of our Society by voting for the next Vice President, Treasurer, and three Directors. Cast your ballot by November 30, 2025: buff.ly/TAENAkq
November 19, 2025 at 7:52 PM
Time to vote for our GSA officers!
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Please repost