HHMI

Before the lab bench, there was the baseball diamond. #GilliamFellow @jpflores.rbind.io brings the resilience he learned as a former D3 shortstop to his research on how DNA's orientation helps cells adapt to stress. Psst: Applications for this year's Gilliam competition open 9/1! bit.ly/Gilliam26 🧪

Clusters of comets coming for you? ☄️ Not quite. This timelapse captures something far smaller: an animal's kidney cells dividing, imaged with confocal microscopy. The glowing orange traces each cell's internal transportation network, reorganizing & splitting as cells divide. 📸: Andy Moore

You asked, we answered — this time for our united #FreemanHrabowski Scholars and #HannaGray Fellows programs. A warm welcome into who's eligible, how the programs connect, and more, from our very own Science Program team members Mary Bonds & Lucy Corcoran. Applications open 11/3! bit.ly/fhs26 🧪

"How can I help keep all people healthy, all around the world?" The question that sparked #HannaGray Fellow Tulika Singh's research now fuels her quest to learn which antibodies destroy viruses best, & how the body saves them as "memories" that can reactivate against the next infection.

These dazzling neurons belong to a fruit fly. Confocal microscopy images of them were taken & combined by researchers at our Janelia Research Campus like pieces of a puzzle to build a rough map of the ventral nerve cord, which coordinates walking, flying, & reflex.

This mesmerizing timelapse captures the nonstop motion inside an animal cell. Red/orange streaks are the growing ends of microtubules, tiny “highways” that can rapidly assemble and disassemble to move proteins & other molecules within the cell. 📸: Andy Moore, HHMI’s Janelia Research Campus

Nematodes follow their noses (er, sensory organs) just like we do — toward smells they love, away from those they don't. #HHMIInvestigator Steven Flavell & collaborators have now mapped this process neuron by neuron, giving a rare look at how brains turn sensation into behavior: bit.ly/3RcNeBp.

You asked, we answered: Sr. Science Program Coordinator Adrielle Munger talks through applicants’ top-5 #GilliamFellows questions, from eligibility to what’s new for ‘26. 2nd- or 3rd-year PhD student in the biological or biomedical sciences? Applications open 9/1! bit.ly/Gilliam26 🧪

What looks like a kaleidoscope is actually living cells dividing in real time. 🌈 These intestinal epithelial cells were grown from an organoid, and the colors? Not just beautiful — they're depth-coded: blues and purples are closer, while yellows are farther away. 📸: Matthew Tyska, @vanderbilt.edu

The power of science, community, curiosity, & love — all in under 2 minutes. (Oh, & sea cucumbers.) Meet #GilliamFellow Julienn Torres-Rodriguez, who’s got a message for all potential '26 Gilliam applicants: "Don't miss it. Capisce?" Applications open 9/1! bit.ly/4qQArRh 🧪

Cystic fibrosis was once a devastating diagnosis for ~40K Americans. An incredible new film co-produced by @tangledbankhhmi.bsky.social, @usatoday.com, & Des Moines Register looks at #HHMIInvestigator Emeriti Mike Welsh's pursuit of a groundbreaking treatment & the lives it saved: bit.ly/4cCkvOI.

The kind of stable, sustained support that can transform a career: Our #FreemanHrabowski Scholars Program offers early career faculty up to $10M over 10 years, plus salary & benefits. Postdoc? This year's competition has a program for you, too. Applications open 11/3! bit.ly/4tFKifj

Stunning new landmark study from #HHMIInvestigator David Reich & team @harvardmed.bsky.social lets us watch human evolution in real time across 10,000 years, & what ~16,000 ancient genomes reveal is striking: Natural selection didn't stop when civilization began — it sped up: bit.ly/4ep7uJI.

What if injectable “mini livers” could help sustain people w/liver failure? New research from #HHMIInvestigator Sangeeta Bhatia’s lab @mit.edu showed success in an animal model — pointing to potential new therapies for 1000s of people who may not receive or be eligible for transplants bit.ly/3NGwMIp

30 seconds of life as a #GilliamFellow, thanks to the 19 cohort members who attended our March Science Meeting alongside ~70 additional HHMI scientists. Potential applicant? Imagine yourself here, and mark Sept. 1 on your calendar to apply!

Mapping how neurons connect across the brain is one of neuroscience’s biggest challenges. MouseLight (a Janelia Research Campus project) is building a dataset of fully traced neurons — available to researchers everywhere, & helping to reveal how brain circuits work & what goes wrong in disease.

Get lost in the unexpected beauty of a developing zebrafish eye. These incredible 3D images are possible thanks to #HHMIInvestigator & Janelia Sr. Fellow Eric Betzig, who developed a microscopy technique combining two imaging approaches — including one used by astronomers.

Second- or third-year PhD student in biological or biomedical sciences? Get ready — applications for our #GilliamFellows Program open Sept. 1! Robust research support, incredible scientific community, & tailored professional development that can transform a PhD journey. 🧪 bit.ly/4bjdTmr

No rabbits, no top hats — just #GilliamFellow Axel Vera leveling up on the standard poster session with a little sleight of hand. We guarantee you've never heard an anti-CRISPR (used to help control & improve precision gene editing) explainer like this before, & it's ... magic 🪄.

A sophisticated poem for our Valentine's crushes, zebrafish & fruit flies — two small-but-mighty model organisms critical to basic science. Fast to reproduce, genetically similar to humans, & key to potential breakthroughs in understanding development & disease. What's not to love?! 💘

🎶 Sound on! How does a young zebra finch's song connect to treating Parkinson's? #FreemanHrabowski Scholar Vikram Gadagkar & co have ID'd a dopamine-based neural signal in finches that could offer insights into motor learning in humans — esp. those w/conditions like Parkinson’s hhmi.news/4tndfNg

NYE fireworks < neurons expressing iGluSnFR3! Developed at our Janelia Research Campus, iGluSnFR3 is a fluorescent sensor designed to rapidly detect & image glutamate — our brains' main chemical messenger — allowing researchers to observe (dazzling) neural communication as it happens. 🎆

"Watching my students who didn’t really know if they wanted to do research turn around & fall in love with research … that’s been the most meaningful." — HHMI Postdoc Scientist Brea Manuel, '25 program mentor. 🧪 Rising junior or senior? *Applications close 11:59pm EST Dec. 22* ⏰❗bit.ly/CechFellows

“I feel being part of their life, being part of their career, is just priceless.” — HHMI Investigator Xin Chen, '25 Summer Undergraduate Research Program mentor 🧪 Rising junior or senior? Applications close 11:59pm Dec. 22! Explore a career in biological or biomedical research: bit.ly/CechFellows

"Having this experience … allowed me to explore my interests, goals, & work towards what I want to do in the future.” — Ariana Rodriguez, Summer Undergraduate Research Program alum 🧪 Rising junior or senior? Apply by Dec. 22 — no lab experience required! bit.ly/CechFellows

(2/2): Visualization of these structures will help researchers better understand how DNA is packaged inside cells, & how disruptions may lead to diseases like cancer and neurodegenerative conditions. “I’m certain we’re only at the tip of the iceberg,” says Rosen.

A perfect model for coming together this season: mouse skeletal muscles undergoing fusion, obviously. In this mesmerizing confocal microscopy video, nuclei are labeled in green & cell bodies are labeled in red. Credit: Yue Lu, Elizabeth Chen Lab, University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center

"My advice to other undergraduates: Just go for it!" — Lalitha Ravipati, alum, Summer Undergraduate Research Program Rising junior or senior who's interested in working alongside some of the nation's top scientists this summer? Apply now: bit.ly/CechFellows 🧪

A new class of simplified computational models developed by @hhmijanelia.bsky.social researchers could help shed light on how we see. Read more: hhmi.news/3Gs5aDa 👀