While it is a dark time for US science, I'm grateful to be able to celebrate some recent lab successes! A brief thread... 🧵 First, the final version of our article on the katherine johnson (kj) gene came out in GENETICS @genetics-gsa.bsky.social in March! academic.oup.com/genetics/art... - ThreadSky

geofffindlay.bsky.social • 25 days ago

While it is a dark time for US science, I'm grateful to be able to celebrate some recent lab successes! A brief thread... 🧵 First, the final version of our article on the katherine johnson (kj) gene came out in GENETICS @genetics-gsa.bsky.social in March! https://academic.oup.com/genetics/article-abstract/229/3/iyaf008/7998592

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geofffindlay.bsky.social•25 days ago

Our undergraduate team, led by Sara Guay '23, with a big assist from Jonathan Thomalla from @wolfnerlab.bsky.social, discovered the first molecularly identified gene to be required for D. melanogaster sperm to efficiently enter eggs! Sara also got admitted to several MD programs this winter!

geofffindlay.bsky.social•25 days ago

*Jonathon, sorry! [Where's the edit feature on this thing? ;) ]

geofffindlay.bsky.social•25 days ago

We also just posted to @biorxiv-genetic.bsky.social a new manuscript led by our superb staff scientist Dr. Prajal Patel in collaboration with @lacholt.bsky.social from @bornberglab.bsky.social. We explored the functionality of orphan gene orthologs in D. melanogaster.
https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.05.01.651694v1

geofffindlay.bsky.social•25 days ago

The goddard gene is required for fly sperm tail elongation in melanogaster. We took a page from the @harmitmalik.bsky.social and @levine-lab.bsky.social book and asked whether we could learn about which aspects of the mel protein are important by testing divergent orthologs for function in mel.

geofffindlay.bsky.social•25 days ago

We were surprised to find that a highly divergent ortholog from D. mojavensis was perfectly functional in mel, but @lacholt.bsky.social tracked down some structural and sequence similarities that might explain the result. We'd love to get feedback on the project!

geofffindlay.bsky.social•25 days ago

Several recent alums have also achieved some big career milestones! Emily Rivard '19 just added Dr. to her title with her amazing thesis work on the functional divergence in the Drosophila germline patterning gene, oskar. We were lucky to hear a preview of her defense in our HC Bio seminar series!

geofffindlay.bsky.social•25 days ago

Jill O'Toole '21 is completing her Masters in Genetic Counseling from Penn and just accepted a job in Boston! Jill will be "replaced" at Penn's program by Brenna McCormick '24, who recently matched there after a year working at Dana-Farber. Jill and Brenna will be excellent, empathetic providers.

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