Mike Lacy

Plasmids are available now! "A universal protein ladder for standardisation of diverse FRET assays"
www.addgene.org/browse/artic...

*to the tune of Hurt by Johny Cash* I cloned a gene today

Just released! Fluorescent Protein Libraries from the Plesa Lab. Benchmarking protein expression, developing imaging tools, fluorescent protein engineering, and more.
www.addgene.org/pooled-libra...

Apply to become a Preprint Editor Development

We are inviting experienced researchers to apply to become Preprint Editors, a new type of editorial role responsible for handling our 'In preprints' articles and forging links with preprint literature. #prepints

Learn more and apply before 30 March 2026:
journals.biologists.com/dev/pages/pr...

Promotional graphic announcing “AAV Packaged on Request – AAV9 now available!” with illustrated tubes and Addgene logo.

AAV9 is now available through Addgene's Packaged on Request service. With 4,000+ eligible cargo plasmids available, what would you like packaged in AAV9 for your next experiment?
Learn more: https://twp.ai/4ivYPg

Monitoring gene expression in the brain with a simple blood test?

In collaboration with @jerzyszablowski.bsky.social & his lab we figured out how to do it nonhuman primates using noninvasive neuroengineering of synthetic serum markers.

nam11.safelinks.protection.outlook.com?url=https%3A...

Specific details about PLOS Biology's mandatory code-sharing policy

In support of #OpenScience, we routinely ask authors to openly share their #research #code before publication.

We are now formalizing this practice with a mandatory #code-sharing policy and clarifying what we mean by code sharing.

May be nice to cut-out the box for reference

plos.io/47dPeOW
🧪

New version of our preprint on bioRxiv about bioRxiv up. Now that’s what I call a revision – 6 years after the first version!
It has new data about our progress and highlights from a massive user survey. 1/n
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

hey team! I need advice! If there were theoretically an organization whose sole purpose was to systematically identify and break nuisance and stupid IP in the biomedical space, creating shareware equivalents, what would be the highest value targets? e.g., AAV serotypes, antibodies, CRISPR, 1/n

New antibodies available from our friends at IPI! Perfect for studying the mysteries of the synaptic cleft 🧠 Find them here:

www.addgene.org/antibodies/p...

We’re excited to announce the next Fluorescent Proteins & Biological Sensors conference! Abstract submissions are now open—hope to see you there.
www.janelia.org/you-janelia/...

blog.addgene.org Hot Plasmids: February 2026

Another round of Hot Plasmids, coming right up! Read the blog to learn about our new-and-improved AAV packaging plasmids, a cellular time capsule, E. coli recoded to use a single stop codon, and more!

Promotional graphic announcing “AAV Packaged on Request – Coming Soon: AAV9” with illustrated tubes and Addgene logo.

AAV9 is coming soon to our Packaged on Request options!

Known for its broad tropism and widely used in neuroscience + gene therapy, AAV9 gives you more flexibility to design and scale experiments.

Be the first to know when it’s live — sign up for Product & Service Updates: https://twp.ai/4iw7aJ

🔵mTurquoise2-based glucose biosensors TINGL and THINGL from @joachimgoedhart.bsky.social and the Teusink Lab!
Find the plasmids here: www.addgene.org/browse/artic...

Scientist's way of saying 'I ❤️ you'

"I found this paper/preprint that made me think of your project."
"I checked the mice/cells/plates already."
"I just sent you the edits you requested."
"I have a slide/diagram that will work for that."
"I had that problem with [lab equipment], I have a fix."

Welcome! You are invited to join a webinar: Streamlining Data Sharing: Practical Tools and Researcher Stories from the NIH GREI. After registering, you will receive a confirmation email about joining the webinar. Join GREI for a three-part series showcasing tools and examples that make it easier to plan, share, and submit data under the NIH Data Management and Sharing Policy. Register for the specific session(s) that fit your interests—one, several, or all. ▶︎ Webinar 1: Simplifying Repository Selection with GREI’s Flowchart and Comparison Chart (Jan 28) Feeling overwhelmed by the number of available data repositories? This session introduces two complementary tools designed to make the selection process easier: the Generalist Repository Selection Flowchart (https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.11105429) and the Generalist Repository Comparison Chart (https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.3946719). You will learn how to use these resources to efficiently navigate key decision points. The session will also feature real-world examples that highlight how researchers are sharing and reusing data across GREI repositories to advance their work. ▶︎ Webinar 2: Improving Data Sharing with GREI’s Submission Checklist (Feb 11) This session will help you make your dataset more FAIR. We will walk through GREI's Data Submission Checklist (https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.14278906), which provides practical guidance for planning, preparing, and publishing your data in a generalist repository. This session will highlight stories from NIH-funded researchers that show how sharing and reusing data through GREI repositories can increase research impact and visibility. ▶︎ Webinar 3: Strengthening Your DMS Plans with GREI’s Practical Guide (Feb 25) A clear and comprehensive Data Management and Sharing (DMS) Plan is essential for meeting NIH policy requirements. This session introduces GREI’s guide to help you incorporate generalist repositories into your DMS Plan (https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.14278957), offering recommended language and concrete examples. Learn how to write a stronger, more compliant plan and hear stories from researchers benefiting from sharing data via GREI repositories.

❤️ Happy Love Data Week! #LoveData26

Coming up 2/11: Improving Data Sharing w/ GREI’s Submission Checklist
Learn to plan, prepare, & publish data in a generalist repository. This webinar shares steps to more FAIR data, ft. examples from NIH-funded researchers.

Register:

Been on multiple search committees

For me (personally so YMMV)…I basically dismiss everything that’s labeled *submitted* unless there’s a preprint I can read

Using ampicillin as a selectable marker? You can skip the post-transformation outgrowth! YouTube video by the bumbling biochemist

Using ampicillin as a selectable marker? You can skip the post-transformation outgrowth! Why? Because Amp targets cell wall synthesis, not protein synthesis, so the bacteria isn’t impeded from making the protein it needs to combat it! youtu.be/XZn8QG6dzgc

Cognitive Helmets for the AI Bicycle: Part 1 I hear people name these three fears: will developers lose their problem-solving skills, learning opportunities, and critical thinking? One science-backed area can help: better metacognitive strategie...

So many developers have sent me that Anthropic skills/mastery case study that I realized I should ungate what I *already wrote* about this: beginning principles to design workflows that work *with* your mind, not against it, & protect your problem-solving

www.fightforthehuman.com/cognitive-he...

Today, I would like to honor the memory of Roger Y. Tsien, born on February 1, 1952. His legacy lives with all who use his technologies, including calcium sensors, fluorescent proteins, the acetoxymethyl (AM) ester, & many more! #FluorescenceFriday
www.nature.com/articles/nme...

Advancing regulatory variant effect prediction with AlphaGenome - Nature AlphaGenome, a deep learning model that inputs 1-Mb DNA sequence to predict functional genomic tracks at single-base resolution across diverse modalities, outperforms existing models in variant effect...

I had intended to post something about this new Google DeepMind paper that appeared yesterday in Nature, but the press coverage has added to what there is to say. So this is a long 🧵
www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Header image with the paper title: "Improved in vivo gene knockout with high specificity using multiplexed Cas12a sgRNAs"

Make your gene knockouts more efficient with multiplexed Cas12a sgRNAs. Our new paper is out now, with tools available from @addgene.bsky.social , www.plasmids.eu and @vdrc-flies.bsky.social.

www.nature.com/articles/s41...

#CRISPR #geneediting #Drosophila 🧪🧬✂️🔬🪰

Summary 🧵 below.

Sending babies to nursery completely reshapes their microbiomes Socializing at a young age helps to develop greater diversity in their microbiota, according to an analysis of baby-to-baby transmission of gut bacteria.

A few months at nursery gives a roughly 1-year-old baby more new microbes for its gut microbiome than it has acquired in its WHOLE LIFE up until that point from its family. 🤯

🧪 #microbiome #science

My latest for @nature.com

www.nature.com/articles/d41...

Great news! @mariaingaramo.bsky.social 's company (Nonfiction Labs) made a remote-controlled antibody.

Its binding turns on and off with a magnet.

This is a HUGE step towards our dream of magnetically controlled drugs. Imagine a cancer drug that ONLY attacks the tumor, not the rest of your body.

Help requested: my friend is interviewing for TTF positions at private SLACs in the US, and wants to prepare a startup package list that is fitting. Can anyone share startup $ ranges at their SLACs, so it's a reasonable number? Please RT.

‘Shattered’: US scientists speak out about how Trump policies disrupted their careers Researchers lay bare the human toll of lay-offs, funding cuts and attacks on science one year after the president’s return to the White House.

This is so grim. Science isn’t just something nerds do, but the foundation of the modern world. What the Trump regime has done to US science will harm Americans for generations.

Artificial intelligence tools expand scientists’ impact but contract science’s focus - Nature Artificial intelligence boosts individual scientists’ output, citations and career progression, but collectively narrows research diversity and reduces collaboration, concentrating work in data-rich a...

One of my concerns with AI-assisted research in biology is that we're already looking only in the lamplight and AI incentivizes us to narrow the beam. Seems like it's happening...
www.nature.com/articles/s41...

blog.addgene.org Addgene’s Expanding Collection of Research Tools for Industry Scientists

Are you an industry scientist? Addgene's mission is to empower scientists with access to research materials, and that means you too! Our repository includes nearly 10,000 tools available to industry laboratories. Check them out in our latest blog post:

2) What's REPROcode? A barcoded, arrayed lentiviral library of 408 immune TFs (now available through Addgene - www.addgene.org/Filipe_Perei...) + scRNA-seq that links which reprogramming TFs a cell receives to the identity it acquires. With no extra barcode PCR steps!

How to lead a journal club you won’t be embarrassed by later One of the jobs facing an early-career scientist, and a developing writer, is to learn what their field’s literature looks like. One of the best tools to that end is the journal club. If you’ve nev…

It's easier to tear down than build up, and in science we have a bad case of that. So: how to lead a journal club that actually finds value in what you read. scientistseessquirre... 🧪