Drummond Lab
@drummondlab.bsky.social
The Drummond Lab at UChicago (drummondlab.org). Cell stress, biomolecular condensation of proteins and RNA, chaperones, translation, evolution.
Reposted by Drummond Lab
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 Drummond Lab
(2/10) We found that disparate drivers of acute myeloid leukemia (AML) – including NPM1c, KMT2A-r, and nucleoporin oncofusions – form nuclear condensates with a shared set of proteins including XPO1 and MENIN to drive leukemic gene expression (e.g. HOXA). www.cell.com/cell/fulltex...
Disparate leukemia mutations converge on nuclear phase-separated condensates
Mutant NPM1 and various leukemia oncofusions form biophysically indistingishable nuclear
condensates, termed C-bodies, which orchestrate leukemogenic gene expression. These
findings consolidate divers...
www.cell.com
November 4, 2025 at 5:58 PM
(2/10) We found that disparate drivers of acute myeloid leukemia (AML) – including NPM1c, KMT2A-r, and nucleoporin oncofusions – form nuclear condensates with a shared set of proteins including XPO1 and MENIN to drive leukemic gene expression (e.g. HOXA). www.cell.com/cell/fulltex...
Reposted by Drummond Lab
(1/10) How do diverse leukemia mutations converge on the same molecular program? In #RibackLab first manuscript @cp-cell.bsky.social, collaboration with @goodell-lab.bsky.social shows that disparate mutations rewire shared protein networks to form nuclear condensates called C-bodies.
November 4, 2025 at 5:58 PM
(1/10) How do diverse leukemia mutations converge on the same molecular program? In #RibackLab first manuscript @cp-cell.bsky.social, collaboration with @goodell-lab.bsky.social shows that disparate mutations rewire shared protein networks to form nuclear condensates called C-bodies.
Reposted by Drummond Lab
My department at UT Austin is looking to hire an Assistant Professor in Evolutionary Biology, broadly defined. Feel free to reach out to me with any questions you may have.
apply.interfolio.com/177547
apply.interfolio.com/177547
Apply - Interfolio
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November 13, 2025 at 3:23 PM
My department at UT Austin is looking to hire an Assistant Professor in Evolutionary Biology, broadly defined. Feel free to reach out to me with any questions you may have.
apply.interfolio.com/177547
apply.interfolio.com/177547
Happy that our paper just got accepted. Also happy that it's been available as a preprint for more than 1.5 years on @biorxivpreprint.bsky.social, updated 3x with new experiments, with >7,500 full-text downloads and 20 citations. Before publication. www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
November 11, 2025 at 5:41 PM
Happy that our paper just got accepted. Also happy that it's been available as a preprint for more than 1.5 years on @biorxivpreprint.bsky.social, updated 3x with new experiments, with >7,500 full-text downloads and 20 citations. Before publication. www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
Reposted by Drummond Lab
A wonderful collaboration between my lab and Andy Ellington and Edward Marcotte here at UT.
We obtained lots of thermal stable plastic degrading enzymes from the deep sea (Guaymas Basin, Gulf of California)
We obtained lots of thermal stable plastic degrading enzymes from the deep sea (Guaymas Basin, Gulf of California)
Plastic degradation by enzymes from uncultured deep sea microorganisms
Abstract. Polyethylene terephthalate (PET)-hydrolyzing enzymes (PETases) are a recently discovered enzyme class capable of plastic degradation. PETases are
academic.oup.com
November 10, 2025 at 6:04 PM
A wonderful collaboration between my lab and Andy Ellington and Edward Marcotte here at UT.
We obtained lots of thermal stable plastic degrading enzymes from the deep sea (Guaymas Basin, Gulf of California)
We obtained lots of thermal stable plastic degrading enzymes from the deep sea (Guaymas Basin, Gulf of California)
Reposted by Drummond Lab
Please read the thoughtful Blog that @richardsever.bsky.social and the @openrxiv.bsky.social team wrote on integrating pre-prints with AI review openrxiv.org/enabling-rev...
November 6, 2025 at 3:11 PM
Please read the thoughtful Blog that @richardsever.bsky.social and the @openrxiv.bsky.social team wrote on integrating pre-prints with AI review openrxiv.org/enabling-rev...
Reposted by Drummond Lab
Excited to launch an openRxiv partnership with the scientist-run AI review service qed (@qedscience.bsky.social), the brainchild of @odedrechavi.bsky.social 1/n
openrxiv.org/enabling-rev...
openrxiv.org/enabling-rev...
Enabling options for review: from training and transparency to author-centered AI tools - openRxiv
Peer review is widely viewed as a critical aspect of biomedical communication. Ideally, it provides authors with feedback so they can improve manuscripts and gives readers, particularly nonspecialists...
openrxiv.org
November 6, 2025 at 2:32 PM
Excited to launch an openRxiv partnership with the scientist-run AI review service qed (@qedscience.bsky.social), the brainchild of @odedrechavi.bsky.social 1/n
openrxiv.org/enabling-rev...
openrxiv.org/enabling-rev...
Reposted by Drummond Lab
Slightly less snarkily, manuscript review culture varies a lot. If a person trained in GlamHoundery reviews for a real journal they often are slightly out of step in their demands. So an important editorial function is to enforce the culture of their journal. By saying “nah don’t do all that”.
November 3, 2025 at 5:36 PM
Slightly less snarkily, manuscript review culture varies a lot. If a person trained in GlamHoundery reviews for a real journal they often are slightly out of step in their demands. So an important editorial function is to enforce the culture of their journal. By saying “nah don’t do all that”.
As an author, I frequently encounter reviewers who should be overruled -- gatekeepers. My main complaint is has been that many editors do not have the confidence/expertise to do so (but some do). a) Thank goodness for preprints, b) I review with the expectation that the paper will be published.
Remember, reviewers make recommendations, not decisions. Editors make decisions. If an editor ignores your comments, that's their prerogative
October 28, 2025 at 7:06 PM
As an author, I frequently encounter reviewers who should be overruled -- gatekeepers. My main complaint is has been that many editors do not have the confidence/expertise to do so (but some do). a) Thank goodness for preprints, b) I review with the expectation that the paper will be published.
Reposted by Drummond Lab
“It’s too easy to be swamped by a short-term political and social environment.” Neil Shubin tells “Babbage” why he remains optimistic about science in America
Neil Shubin: defender of American science
Our podcast on science and technology. We speak to the polar palaeontologist poised to lead America’s National Academy of Sciences
econ.st
October 25, 2025 at 8:00 PM
“It’s too easy to be swamped by a short-term political and social environment.” Neil Shubin tells “Babbage” why he remains optimistic about science in America
Reposted by Drummond Lab
More pictures of the brilliance that is (lab manager) Aida de la Cruz with her creation.
October 25, 2025 at 2:41 AM
More pictures of the brilliance that is (lab manager) Aida de la Cruz with her creation.
Reposted by Drummond Lab
Our photoswitchable HaloTag is out in Angewandte Chemie @angewandtechemie.bsky.social ! We now also show that this system can be used to control emitter density in SMLM. Congrats to Franzi, Bego, and our amazing collaborators. Check it out: onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10....
A Photoswitchable HaloTag for Spatiotemporal Control of Fluorescence in Living Cells
Photoswitchable fluorophores are critical for advanced bioimaging. Here, we develop a photoswitchable self-labeling HaloTag that can reversibly modulate the emission of a bound fluorogenic dye via a ....
onlinelibrary.wiley.com
October 25, 2025 at 8:56 AM
Our photoswitchable HaloTag is out in Angewandte Chemie @angewandtechemie.bsky.social ! We now also show that this system can be used to control emitter density in SMLM. Congrats to Franzi, Bego, and our amazing collaborators. Check it out: onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10....
Reposted by Drummond Lab
Why do complex traits differ in their genetic architecture?
In our new PLOS Biology paper, we will try to convince you that two simple scaling laws drive differences in the number, effect sizes and frequencies of causal variants affecting complex traits.
Thread:
journals.plos.org/plosbiology/...
In our new PLOS Biology paper, we will try to convince you that two simple scaling laws drive differences in the number, effect sizes and frequencies of causal variants affecting complex traits.
Thread:
journals.plos.org/plosbiology/...
Simple scaling laws control the genetic architectures of human complex traits
Genome-wide association studies have revealed that the genetic architectures of complex traits vary widely. This study shows that differences in architectures of highly polygenic traits arise mainly f...
journals.plos.org
October 24, 2025 at 1:51 AM
Why do complex traits differ in their genetic architecture?
In our new PLOS Biology paper, we will try to convince you that two simple scaling laws drive differences in the number, effect sizes and frequencies of causal variants affecting complex traits.
Thread:
journals.plos.org/plosbiology/...
In our new PLOS Biology paper, we will try to convince you that two simple scaling laws drive differences in the number, effect sizes and frequencies of causal variants affecting complex traits.
Thread:
journals.plos.org/plosbiology/...
Reposted by Drummond Lab
At this point, I'm just writing grants as a matter of personal artistic expression. I don't expect anything to come of it.
October 21, 2025 at 11:35 PM
At this point, I'm just writing grants as a matter of personal artistic expression. I don't expect anything to come of it.
Reposted by Drummond Lab
Thoughts from our own Tom Rapoport on the role of basic science in curing disease. magazine.hms.harvard.edu/articles/rev...
“Revolutionary Science Comes from Unexpected Angles”
magazine.hms.harvard.edu
July 29, 2025 at 4:00 PM
Thoughts from our own Tom Rapoport on the role of basic science in curing disease. magazine.hms.harvard.edu/articles/rev...
Reposted by Drummond Lab
NIH Study Sections are on hold...again. drugmonkey.wordpress.com/2025/10/13/n...
NIH Study Sections are on hold…again.
The primary input to deciding on the merit of proposals submitted to the NIH for potential funding, as most of my remaining blog audience well knows, is the outcome of the initial peer-review proce…
drugmonkey.wordpress.com
October 13, 2025 at 9:20 PM
NIH Study Sections are on hold...again. drugmonkey.wordpress.com/2025/10/13/n...
Reposted by Drummond Lab
Reposted by Drummond Lab
AI in biology: "I read about some new computational method...get excited because it’s exactly what I need...I try the method...Most of the time things don’t work...I have seen this play out so many times my default assumption is nothing is going to work" blog.genesmindsmachines.com/p/we-still-c...
We still can’t predict much of anything in biology
Biology is hard. Yes, even for AI.
blog.genesmindsmachines.com
October 9, 2025 at 6:13 PM
AI in biology: "I read about some new computational method...get excited because it’s exactly what I need...I try the method...Most of the time things don’t work...I have seen this play out so many times my default assumption is nothing is going to work" blog.genesmindsmachines.com/p/we-still-c...
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"Lacking even any particularly useful theory of emergence, and confronted with the obvious wild variety of emergent phenomena, it seems likely that predictive theories of biology are unknowably far off" via @dadrummond.art open.substack.com/pub/clauswil...
D. Allan Drummond on Genes, Minds, Machines
Great piece, Claus. Very much enjoying the rebirth of your blog.
"Biology is just physics and chemistry" -- you discuss the "levels of organization" later, but perhaps it's worth saying that "just" i...
open.substack.com
October 9, 2025 at 6:21 PM
"Lacking even any particularly useful theory of emergence, and confronted with the obvious wild variety of emergent phenomena, it seems likely that predictive theories of biology are unknowably far off" via @dadrummond.art open.substack.com/pub/clauswil...
Reposted by Drummond Lab
Today my @nytimes.com colleagues and I are launching a new series called Lost Science. We interview US scientists who can no longer discover something new about our world, thanks to this year‘s cuts. Here is my first interview with a scientist who studied bees and fires. Gift link: nyti.ms/3IWXbiE
nyti.ms
October 8, 2025 at 11:29 PM
Today my @nytimes.com colleagues and I are launching a new series called Lost Science. We interview US scientists who can no longer discover something new about our world, thanks to this year‘s cuts. Here is my first interview with a scientist who studied bees and fires. Gift link: nyti.ms/3IWXbiE
Reposted by Drummond Lab
Very insightful reconsideration what Stress Granules might actually be good for!
Going back to the fundamentals & questions arising from Susan Lindquist's and Nancy Kedersha's work.
Amazing talk & scholarship by @drummondlab.bsky.social!
youtu.be/caAPToh8v0Q
Going back to the fundamentals & questions arising from Susan Lindquist's and Nancy Kedersha's work.
Amazing talk & scholarship by @drummondlab.bsky.social!
youtu.be/caAPToh8v0Q
Physical Properties of the Cytoplasm Seminar Series #25 | Allan Drummond
YouTube video by Physical Properties of the Cytoplasm
youtu.be
October 9, 2025 at 12:39 PM
Very insightful reconsideration what Stress Granules might actually be good for!
Going back to the fundamentals & questions arising from Susan Lindquist's and Nancy Kedersha's work.
Amazing talk & scholarship by @drummondlab.bsky.social!
youtu.be/caAPToh8v0Q
Going back to the fundamentals & questions arising from Susan Lindquist's and Nancy Kedersha's work.
Amazing talk & scholarship by @drummondlab.bsky.social!
youtu.be/caAPToh8v0Q
Reposted by Drummond Lab
Humbled to announce that we received a New Innovator award. I thank the NIH’s civil servants for their hard work during a stressful funding cycle. I thank the leadership (and chair, Marc Diamond) at UTSW for betting on my lab’s high risk, high reward research. www.utsouthwestern.edu/newsroom/art...
UT Southwestern researcher receives NIH Director’s New Innovator Award
David Sanders, Ph.D., Assistant Professor in the Center for Alzheimer’s and Neurodegenerative Diseases and Molecular Biology at UT Southwestern Medical Center, has been awarded $2.4 million over five ...
www.utsouthwestern.edu
October 8, 2025 at 8:26 PM
Humbled to announce that we received a New Innovator award. I thank the NIH’s civil servants for their hard work during a stressful funding cycle. I thank the leadership (and chair, Marc Diamond) at UTSW for betting on my lab’s high risk, high reward research. www.utsouthwestern.edu/newsroom/art...
Reposted by Drummond Lab
Reposting, submit soon!
🚨 Microbiologists! We are recruiting Assistant / Associate Professors in 3 collaborative areas of our U. Pittsburgh School of Medicine.
1) MMG (my dept): fundamental research in med micro
2) Peds ID / I4Kids institute
3) Center for Vaccine Research
🔗 to all 3 w/info: www.linkedin.com/posts/vaughn...
1) MMG (my dept): fundamental research in med micro
2) Peds ID / I4Kids institute
3) Center for Vaccine Research
🔗 to all 3 w/info: www.linkedin.com/posts/vaughn...
Faculty Professor Associate - Full-Time | Vaughn Cooper
We are recruiting Faculty microbiologists in three (3) different, complementary, and collaborative areas at the University of Pittsburgh associated with the School of Medicine.
1) Fundamental researc...
www.linkedin.com
October 8, 2025 at 12:16 AM
Reposting, submit soon!
Reposted by Drummond Lab
The most important paper in evolutionary biology I'd never heard of:
1/
www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
1/
www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
October 6, 2025 at 2:00 PM
The most important paper in evolutionary biology I'd never heard of:
1/
www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
1/
www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...