Cynthia Wolberger 🎗️
@CWolberger
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Professor and Director, Biophysics and Biophysical Chemistry @BiophysJHMed @HopkinsMedicine , structural biologist, fan of the active voice. I post preprints.
Johns Hopkins
Joined August 2012
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Just love this little bit on the Mother's Day card from my daughter.
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There has been justifiable anger over mischaracterization of Rosalind Franklin's data as "confirming" the Watson-Crick DNA model. The model was actually based in part on her famous photograph 51, which they used without her knowledge and without attribution. I'll explain 1/n
Today is the 100th birthday of crystallographer Rosalind Franklin, whose X-ray diffraction images of DNA were critical in confirming the structure of DNA. This video highlights the double helix structure and base pairing in PDB entry 1bna:
#Franklin100
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At a recent conference, most talks ended with an ad for postdocs. Unchanged
@NIH
modular budgets, low postdoc salaries, visa complications, uncertain career prospects, are problems. Yet the U.S. research model depends on postdocs. Something has to change.
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OK, for completeness now: Pubmed is now indexing preprints from
@biorxivpreprint
,
@arxiv
,
@ChemRxiv
, and
#trialsjournal
. Fantastic development,
@NCBI
!
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Love in the time of COVID-19. This wasn’t our original plan, but still fortunate to celebrate our 30th wedding anniversary in these unusual times. 🥂💕
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This would also be a good time for
@NIHgrants
to revisit its $26,352 annual stipend for F31 fellowships, with no option to supplement from
@NIH
grants.
@NIHDirector
@NIH
and
@NIHgrants
--I hope you paying attention to the UC strike. If you had not noticed yet, the pay of grad students and postdocs is way too low, and the minimum
@NIH
grant hasn't increased for decades. 1/2 RT
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I am happy for all the recipients of the National Cancer Institute's 2021 Outstanding Investigator Awards. But could someone at
@thnci
explain how they ended up with just 1 woman out of 17 awardees? Is there a plan to address this imbalance,
@NCIDirector
?
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I'm so honored and overwhelmed by all the good wishes from colleagues and friends. A special thank you to all my amazing students, postdocs and technicians, whose work this recognizes.
Congratulations Cynthia Wolberger
@Cwolberger
of
@HopkinsMedicine
, newly elected
#NASmember
!
#NAS156
#biophysics
#biochemistry
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It's great to see all the interest in Rosalind Franklin. Let's also use the occasion of her 100th birthday to remember her pioneering structural studies of viruses (tobacco mosaic virus, turnip yellow mosaic virus). She was working on poliovirus before her death at age 38.
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This remains the best book on the birth of molecular biology, including quite a bit on structural biology. A fantastic read. This was my introduction to the field when I started graduate school.
Those of you looking for a holiday book: I am at page 50 and so far it is captivating, lets see what I think after >720 pages...
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I can’t stop watching this-mesmerizing.
Meet the ATP synthase, the amazing nanoscale machine at the origin of your life |
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Happy Mother's Day to all! Am sharing this lovely p.s. from my awesome daughter
@rladams93
. 💕
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RIP Tom Steitz. He was a giant in structural biology, with ground-breaking studies of hexokinase, DNA-binding proteins, bacterial DNA , RNA polymerases and the ribosome. He also trained a generation of leading scientists. Condolences to Joan Steitz and and their son.
#RNA
and structural biology communities lost a
#Yale
legend with the Oct. 9, '18 passing of Thomas Steitz. Tom and colleagues made major breakthroughs on the structures/mechanisms of important RNAs and proteins, including the
#ribosome
, which was honored with a 2009
#NobelPrize
.
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I'm honored to be a part of this great group with
@WuLabHarvard
,
@NogalesLab
, Steve Chu, Benjamin Schuler, Charlampos Kalodimos, and
@HopkinsMedicine
colleague
@taekjip
Ha.
Biophysical Society is happy to announce Cynthia Wolberger, Johns Hopkins University, has been named a 2020 Society Fellow
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Great news for postdocs: new starting NIH NRSA salary is $50K.
Ruth L. Kirschstein National Research Service Award (NRSA) Stipends, Tuition/Fees and Other Budgetary Levels Effective for Fiscal Year 2019
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Congratulations to Wolberger lab student, Mel Nune, who has won the
@HopkinsMedicine
Young Investigators Day Alicia Showalter Reynolds Award.
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We are hiring in the Dept. of Biophysics & Biophysical Chemistry
@BiophysicsJHMed
at
@HopkinsMedicine
! We invite applicants working in any related field including cryo-ET, cryo-EM, computational biology, single molecule Biophys. and more. Please RT!
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Cryo EM at 100 keV! from Chris Russo.
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Note how much sharper the features are in Franklin's data. The top smear showed bases were 3.4 Å apart, while the spacing between the layer lines showed the pitch was 34 Å, which mean the helix had 10 bp/turn. 5/n
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Finally decided to change this sign to explicitly show my degree and professorial rank after mail was dropped off in my office for distribution to the entire floor. Let's see if it stops others from presuming I am office staff.
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@eric_lander
@NobelPrize
Ground-breaking, pioneering, seminal, invention of - all are more accurate than the watered down "contributions to."
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LOL - I received an email solicitation from a journal that is literally called Nature Cell and Science. The ultimate CNS journal?
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Reviewing NIH grants now and am amazed that multiple applicants don't know how to generate a link to their MyNCBI bibliography for the biosketch. Folks, set up a bibliography in MyNCBI and use the link under "Share your bibliography with this URL:" And test the link first!
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As senior women scientists, we should be proactive about nominating women for awards. I am currently working on three nominations: 1 initiated by me, 2 by others. Get the candidate to generate a first draft and polish it yourself. And re-nominate the next year if necessary.
@DrAnneCarpenter
Yes, this is a thing. I'm routinely asked to nominate colleagues for awards. They send me their CV and list of potential letter writers and I take it from there. Happy to do it.
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It's a great honor to be Chromatin Haikued! We're excited about our new work explaining how H2B -
#ubiquitin
activates H3K79 methylation by Dot1L - some real surprises. Also excited to report our first
#cryoEM
structures.
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On this
#HolocaustRemembranceDay
I remember my grandmother, Cywia Wolberger, and aunts, Aliza and Perel Wolberger, who were murdered in the Warsaw Ghetto.
#NeverAgain
#YomHaShoah
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Incredible
@FedExHelp
- we shipped precious protein samples to
@TechnionLive
in Haifa, Israel, and
@FedEx
sent them to Haiti!! Multiple requests to add dry ice went unanswered! Now just praying that you really did correct Haifa HT to IS(rael). How could this have happened? Help!
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@deniswirtz
A reminder that legacy admissions, and other criteria for admission to elite colleges, were implemented to exclude Jews. Their broader exclusionary effect continues.
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Congratulations to our newest PhD, Dr. Sara Haile!! We are so proud of you!
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Congratulations to the lab's newest Ph.D., Dr. Mel Nune! Fantastic thesis seminar - we are all very proud of you!
#BlackInBiophysicsWeek
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Got to share this pic on International
@WomenScienceDay
- (L-R)
@smarqusee
,
@WuLabHarvard
,
@NogalesLab
,
@CWolberger
,
@leemorj
. Here's to all the amazing
#WomenInScience
here on Twitter (and beyond).
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This is perfect
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On
#HolocaustMemorialDay
remembering my grandmother, Cywia Wolberger, & aunts Aliza and Perel Wolberger, who were murdered in the Warsaw Ghetto. Also honoring relatives Zisel Kohn, Zvi Kohn, Chana Rosner, Herschel Rosner from Hungary who were murdered in Auschwitz.
#NeverAgain
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I am incredibly sad to share the news of Mario Amzel's passing. He was a scholar, mentor, teacher extraordinaire and role model for Latinx biophysicists
@SOBLA_BIOF
. His passing leaves a huge hole in our department,
@HopkinsMedicine
and
@JohnsHopkins
. RIP.
It is with great sorrow that we share the news that our colleague, Mario Amzel, has passed away. He was a long-time faculty member and recent dept. Director. Mario was a pillar of the biophysics community
@JohnsHopkins
and throughout the world. He will be sorely missed.
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Could
@NIHFunding
@NIGMSgenes
@CSRpeerreview
comment on the focus on undergrad grades in F32 reviews? This makes no sense to those of us who are training young scientists. What is the evidence that undergrad classroom performance predicts success in the lab?
It breaks my heart to see a postdoc’s NRSA grant rejection summary statement citing mixed undergraduate grades from a decade ago as a weakness. Reviewers: you have a lot of power to empower or discourage young people, use it wisely.
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Spread the word - we are hiring
@BiophysicsJHMed
! All areas of biophysics, structural and computational biology. Great colleagues and trainees, exciting research, collegial environment, terrific facilities. Info and application at: . Please RT!
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A great day for Johns Hopkins at
@theNAMedicine
!
@Sarah_Szanton
@JHUNursing
, Ted Dawson, Pablo
@Celnik_Lab
, Drew
@dpardol1
,
@GoldenSherita
,
@taekjip
Ha, Jessica Gill
@HopkinsMedicine
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I'm so honored to be part of this august group at the
@americanacad
- thank you! Also includes colleagues Rachel
@GreenLabJHMI
and Ken Kinzler
@HopkinsMedicine
. Congrats to all!
Congratulations to all new members of the
@americanacad
in particular
@MichelleObama
, Danesh Moazed,
@CWolberger
, Yfan Cheng, and and and! Being in the same cohort as Michelle Obama is truly something!!!). Check it out and celebrate all our colleagues!
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On today's
#HolocaustRemembranceDay
I honor the memory of my grandmother, Cywia Wolberger, and aunts, Aliza and Perel, who were murdered in the Warsaw Ghetto.
#NeverForget
#YomHaShoah
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Postdoc position available! Projects centered on mechanisms of transcription regulation via chromatin modifications, with a special interest in cross-talk between ubiquitination and other histone modifications. Please R/T.
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Someone has been arrested for the murder of Suzanne Eaton. This has all been too terrible, but I hope this development will eventually lead to some sort of closure for the family. My heart goes out to them.
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@aemonten
Just say that you will apply for every fellowship for which you are eligible, but ask what would happen in the event that you don't get one. It's a perfectly reasonable question. If you get a bad reaction, that's a huge red flag.
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Beautiful essay by Ron Vale.
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Actually, they drew this conclusion by ignoring the reviewers' criticisms. Unbelievable. Reviews are posted along with the article:
@NatureComms
has published a paper which comes to the conclusion that female students should avoid female mentors, based solely on publication metrics. They can only draw this conclusion by completely ignoring the systemic bias built into our system.
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It was not until 1980 that Watson & Crick's model for B-DNA was confirmed by Dickerson & Drew, who determined the x-ray crystal structure of a 12-bp B-DNA helix (PDB ID 1BNA). 8/n
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Working on an NIH grant resubmission for the July deadline? Write a gracious and constructive Introduction page!! Address the Resume and Summary of discussion (score-driving issues0, don't waste space on minor points in reviews. 1/n
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Congratulations to newly minted Ph.D., Dr. Chad Hicks
@HicksChadW
!! 🥂 Terrific thesis seminar on beautiful work! I'm very proud of you.
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These detailed parameters could only be derived from Franklin's data (recorded with student Ray Gosling), not from Wilkins's. Max Perutz showed W&C Franklin's data in a grant application, without her knowledge. This information helped W&C contruct their model for B-DNA. 7/n
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Happy to report a positive journal experience - just got reviews back from JBC 17 days after submission! Thanks
@jbiolchem
for handling our paper so quickly. Comments addressable, so revised MS coming soon. Was also great to be able to upload MS from
@biorxivpreprint
.
@ASBMB
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A reminder to everyone preparing
@NIHgrants
that you can reference preprints in your research strategy and biosketch. Posting submitted manuscripts enables reviewers to see preliminary data and progress.
@biorxivpreprint
@ASAPbio_
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@fraser_lab
Wow. Just…wow. I would love to meet that woman. What courage and integrity. And what a disgraceful display by Wutrich.
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This guy wins the online teaching award for all time.
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Spread the word - open search for a junior faculty member
@BiophysicsJHMed
at
@HopkinsMedicine
! We have a vibrant, collaborative community, outstanding facilities. Please retweet! Apply here:
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Oh my god, you just changed my life. I will sleep longer tomorrow, knowing how much time this will save me. Kd, kcat, Km, Zn2+, Rfree,
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Yes!!!
BREAKING NEWS:
The 2020
#NobelPrize
in Chemistry has been awarded to Emmanuelle Charpentier and Jennifer A. Doudna “for the development of a method for genome editing.”
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We are recruiting faculty in all areas of molecular and cellular biophysics! Join our exciting, collaborative
@BiophysicsJHMed
faculty and benefit from a supportive environment and amazing facilities and resources. Deadline Oct 15! Pls R/T
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Initial submissions (a.k.a. submission inquiries) should only require contact information for the corresponding author and should require only a single pdf of the complete manuscript. This is the policy at
@elife
but unfortunately not at many other journals.
Dear journal editors - I know that you control the fate of my career, but you don't have to troll me by forcing me to enter the contact information of my 20 co-authors at initial submission just for a screening reject.
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Together again with
@NogalesLab
@WuLabHarvard
and
@smarqusee
@BiophysicalSoc
#bps2020
#WomenInScience
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Our paper on highly specific inhibitors of the human SAGA deubiquitinating module/USP22 is out
@CellChemBiol
! Great work by
@MikeyXtalsPhd
, great collaboration with Hiroaki Suga and Tatsuya Ikenoue.
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Deviating a bit from “science only Twitter “ to wish my Mom a happy 94th birthday. Amazing lady! Looking forward to celebrating in NYC this weekend. 🎉🎂🍾
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Reviewing grants and papers this weekend and repeatedly seeing the right-justification fans
not considering
readability when
words are spread
too far apart.
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A theoretical framework predicts that using polygenic screening to select embryos against traits that depend on many genes has few benefits
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RIP Michael Rossmann, a giant in structural biology whose remarkable contributions spanned more than a half century. End of an era.
Renowned Purdue University scientist Michael Rossmann dies.
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Grad application season is starting, and with it lots of advice on how to navigate the process of applying for PhD programs. Here is my biggest tip: before following any advice, make sure it comes from someone in your field! Admissions practices can be very field-specific. 1/n
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There were other data not shown here that showed the two DNA strands were antiparallel. The missing 4th layer line in this photo meant that the two strands were not symmetrically coiled - i.e. the grooves were not of equal size (major and minor grooves). 6/n
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So shocked to hear the sad news that Huib Ovaa has passed away. A leader in chemical biology who had a major impact on the Ubiquitin field. RIP
Intens verdrietig bericht van het overlijden van prof. Huib Ovaa (46). Verslagenheid bij heel velen. Zojuist verscheen een In Memoriam. Wij wensen Huibs partner, naasten, familie, vrienden en collega’s alle sterkte.
@LUMC_Leiden
@LeidenScience
@NKI_nl
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Note that ground-breaking paper by Richard Henderson on high-res cryo EM was published in JMB
@JMolBiol
, not C/N/S.
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Mel Nune
@Nune_Mel
is a
#BlackInBiological
Ph.D. candidate and
@NSFGRFP
fellow in the
@Cwolberger
lab
@HopkinsMedicine
using biochemistry and
#cryoEM
to study histone ubiquitination and chromatin dynamics.
#BlackInChemWeek
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This is an absurd rule. The NIH may withdraw your application if you accidentally include a hyperlink to e.g. the Protein Data Bank? Your university's data repository? What purpose could this rule possibly serve for a data sharing plan?
Public Service Announcement: hypertext/URLs are not allowed even in the data sharing plan!
You're supposed to write the name of the resource but not include links to it.
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I am so thrilled by the awesome face mask made by Karolin
@LugerLab
with fabric print of David
@dsgoodsell
nucleosome art. I'll be wearing this everywhere! Thank you!
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In the 1950s, it was not possible to determine the 3D structure of DNA (or any macromolecule) at atomic resolution. But it was possible to learn about overall DNA parameters by recording the way long DNA fibers scattered x-rays. This is known as x-ray fiber diffraction. 2/n
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Now on-line in
@CellCellPress
: Mechanism of Cross-talk between H2B Ubiquitination and H3 Methylation by Dot1L. Awesome work by
@WordenEvan
, Nik Hoffmann and Chad Hicks.
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On today’s
#HolocaustRemembranceDay
I remember my grandmother, Cywia Wolberger, & aunts Aliza and Perel Wolberger, who were murdered in the Warsaw Ghetto, and relatives Zisel Kohn, Zvi Kohn, Chana Rosner, Herschel Rosner from Hungary who were murdered in Auschwitz.
#NeverAgain
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This is a really important point for everyone planning a grant resubmission. If you think the reviewer missed something, it is most likely because you did not make it sufficiently clear. And don't forget that not all reviewers are experts in your area.
Goes double for grant apps. It’s frustrating when reviewers miss something that’s there but always felt it was on me to make it easy on the reader to absorb salient points..and to say explicitly what I think is obvious but may not be to a wider audience.
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Congratulations to colleagues Alex Kolodkin
@HopkinsMedicine
and Arturo Casadevall
@ACasadevall1
@JohnsHopkinsSPH
on their election to
@theNASciences
!!
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Michael Bloomberg has donated $1.8 billion (yes BILLION) to
@JohnsHopkins
for financial aid for undergraduates. This will eliminate loans from all financial aid packages. Simply amazing.
I’m giving $1.8 billion to
@JohnsHopkins
for financial aid so admissions can be permanently need blind. I want to open the same door of opportunity that I had for generations of talented students, regardless of financial circumstances.
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I’m glad I got to take my mother out for her 95th birthday before her assisted living place went on lockdown. Please take extra care with your elderly relatives, who are the most vulnerable.
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RIP Herman Heyn, better known in
#Baltimore
as the sidewalk astronomer. He would set his telescope up amidst the restaurants and bars of Fells Point and share the wonders of the sky with passers-by. He was a beloved fixture in our city.
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Apalled-
@nytimes
obit headline highlights how crystallographer Isabella Karle helped husband, not her seminal work
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"It is my hope that some of the young scientists who read this issue of Cell will come to the realization that much of the great future in biology lies in gaining a detailed understanding of the inner workings of the cell's many marvelous protein machines." - B. Alberts 1998
When I first saw the table of contents, I was gonna say "hey, that thing after the colon is a very bold thing to write in a title". Then I noticed it was written by Bruce Alberts. And I have no problem with it anymore
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We're excited about our new initiative to hire four TT Assistant Professors in the basic sciences, with a focus on faculty diversity. Please spread the word and consider applying! FYI this is in addition to the
@BiophysicsJHMed
search currently underway ()
Cluster Hires
@JHUSOM
!
💠Four tenure-track Assistant Professor slots
💠Open area search in biological discovery sciences
💠Focus on faculty diversity
💠Applications invited from broad and diverse pool of early career researchers
🙏🏿 Please RT! 🙏🏿
More:
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The X-pattern seen in data from both Rosalind Franklin and Maurice Wilkens clearly showed that DNA adopted a long helical structure. It is possible to derive detailed parameters about the helix (width, repeat, spacing between base pairs) IF the data are of high quality. 3/n
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#WeRemember
International Holocaust Remembrance Day. This is the Yad Vashem record of my grandmother, Cywia (Tzvia) Wolberger, who was murdered in the Warsaw Ghetto. I am named after her. My aunts, Aliza and Perel were murdered there, as well.
#NeverForget
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The data from Maurice Wilkens were not of sufficient quality to get all the information W&C needed. Here is his fiber diffraction that was published in the
@nature
paper that accompanied W&C's famous paper. You can see the X, but it is otherwise pretty smeary. 4/n
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This is simply amazing: Structures of the human Mediator and Mediator-bound preinitiation complex
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Postdoctoral position available! We study mechanisms of gene regulation, cross-talk between ubiquitination and other histone modifications, and novel inhibitors of histone-modifying enzymes. Come join us!
Postdoctoral fellow, structural biology with
@cwolberger
Dept. of Biophysics and Biophysical Chemistry, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Baltimore, MD, USA
#ScienceJobs
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It was a privilege to participate in the
@ACAxtal
PDB 50th Anniversary Transactions Symposium and hear all the other amazing talks. Thank you RCSB PDB
@buildmodels
for organizing it, and for sending this fabulous set of playing cards designed by the incomparable
@dsgoodsell
!
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