- **Engineered skin bacteria induce antitumor T cell responses against melanoma.** Y. Erin Chen et al. 2023 *Science*. Sounds like sci-fi. - **The neuronal gene *Arc* encodes a repurposed retrotransposon Gag protein that mediates intercellular RNA transfer.** Pastuzyn et al. 2018 *Cell*. Arc protein, essential for memory and synaptic plasticity, is derived from an ancient retrotransposon and behaves like a viral gag protein (retroviruses like HIV use *gag* to build their protein shell). Basically, the Arc protein self assembles into capsids, packages Arc mRNA, and gets released in EVs that neighboring neurons can take up and translate when it (the recipient neuron) fires. Who would've thought evolution would repurpose a retroviral-like element to create a new mode of intercellular (interneuronal) communication? - Great accessible article about this by Ed Yong in [The Atlantic](https://www.theatlantic.com/science/archive/2018/01/brain-cells-can-share-information-using-a-gene-that-came-from-viruses/550403/) - **A programmable dual-RNA-guided DNA endonuclease in adaptive bacterial immunity**. Jinek et al. 2012 *Science*. Imprinted in my mind from MCB 120 (Berkeley class) lol. We took the final exam for that class just a few floors below where Jinek and colleagues first saw the results from the gel in Figure 5D. Game-changing tool. - **Long somatic DNA-repeat expansion drives neurodegeneration in Huntington's disease.** Handsaker, Kashin, and Reed et al. 2025. *Cell*. Amazing talk by Prof. Steven McCaroll on 20260403 @ McGovern Institute (similar talk by McCaroll on [YouTube](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BCRAlmFv7ag&t=211s)). They propose a compelling new model for Huntington's. If this model of lifelong somatic expansion of repeated DNA applies to other diseases caused by simple DNA sequence repeats (e.g., Friedrich's Ataxia, *C9orf72*-related ALS, etc., many of which are brain diseases btw), perhaps there could be some blanket treatment for all of them. ## Fun - **Periodic cooking of eggs**. [Di Lorenzo et al. 2025](https://www.nature.com/articles/s44172-024-00334-w) *Communications Engineering*. Entertaining read but periodic cooking is not worth the hassle. Cooking eggs (straight from the fridge) in boiling water for 7 min (add a splash of vinegar to the water to facilitate egg peeling), then dunking them in ice/cold water for 5 min or longer provides the same perfectly-cooked eggs with set egg whites and jammy yolks in less than half the time. ## Advice - **Four golden lessons**. [Weinberg, S. 2003](https://www.nature.com/articles/426389a) *Nature* 1. No one knows everything, and you don't have to. 2. While you are swimming and not sinking you should aim for rough water. Go for the messes (where things haven't yet been figured out as much) - that's where the action is. 3. Forgive yourself for wasting time. You'll never be sure what the "right problems" to work on are, so most of your time in lab or at your desk will be wasted. If you want to be creative, you will have to get used to spending most of your time not being creative. 4. Learn something about the history of science, or at a minimum the history of your own branch of science. This history may be of use in your own scientific work and can make your work seem more worthwhile to you by making you recognize that your work is a part of this history. - **Problem choice and decision trees in science and engineering**. [Fischbach, M](https://www.cell.com/cell/fulltext/S0092-8674(24)00304-0). 2024 *Cell*