Juan Hernández-Bird

Extra cheesy Microbiologist🔬 PhD Candidate. Isberg Lab - Tufts. Boston, MA 🇵🇷 He/Him

[Juan Hernández-Bird @JHernBird]

Every PI: “You should prepare and practice your presentation weeks in advance”

Also every PI: “I’m flying out to the conference tomorrow, send me data, I’m putting my slides together on the plane”.

[bioRxiv Microbiology @biorxiv_micrbio]

Resistance and heteroresistance as a consequence of colistin therapy during Acinetobacter baumannii murine pneumonia https://t.co/jNopA2GOHJ #biorxiv_micrbio

[Roger Federer @rogerfederer]

Vamos, @RafaelNadal!

As you get ready to graduate from tennis, I’ve got a few things to share before I maybe get emotional.

Let’s start with the obvious: you beat me—a lot. More than I managed to beat you. You challenged me in ways no one else could. On clay, it felt like I was stepping into your backyard, and you made me work harder than I ever thought I could just to hold my ground. You made me reimagine my game—even going so far as to change the size of my racquet head, hoping for any edge.

I’m not a very superstitious person, but you took it to the next level. Your whole process. All those rituals. Assembling your water bottles like toy soldiers in formation, fixing your hair, adjusting your underwear... All of it with the highest intensity. Secretly, I kind of loved the whole thing. Because it was so unique—it was so you.

And you know what, Rafa, you made me enjoy the game even more. 

OK, maybe not at first. After the 2004 Australian Open, I achieved the #1 ranking for the first time. I thought I was on top of the world. And I was—until two months later, when you walked on the court in Miami in your red sleeveless shirt, showing off those biceps, and you beat me convincingly. All that buzz I’d been hearing about you—about this amazing young player from Mallorca, a generational talent, probably going to win a major someday—it wasn’t just hype.

We were both at the start of our journey and it’s one we ended up taking together. Twenty years later, Rafa, I have to say: What an incredible run you’ve had. Including 14 French Opens—historic! You made Spain proud... you made the whole tennis world proud.

I keep thinking about the memories we’ve shared. Promoting the sport together. Playing that match on half-grass, half-clay. Breaking the all-time attendance record by playing in front of more than 50,000 fans in Cape Town, South Africa. Always cracking each other up. Wearing each other out on the court and then, sometimes, almost literally having to hold each other up during trophy ceremonies.

I’m still grateful you invited me to Mallorca to help launch the Rafa Nadal Academy in 2016. Actually, I kind of invited myself. I knew you were too polite to insist on me being there, but I didn’t want to miss it. You have always been a role model for kids around the world, and Mirka and I are so glad that our children have all trained at your academies. They had a blast and learned so much—like thousands of other young players. Although I always worried my kids would come home playing tennis as lefties.

And then there was London—the Laver Cup in 2022. My final match. It meant everything to me that you were there by my side—not as my rival but as my doubles partner. Sharing the court with you that night, and sharing those tears, will forever be one of the most special moments of my career.

Rafa, I know you’re focused on the last stretch of your epic career. We will talk when it’s done. For now, I just want to congratulate your family and team, who all played a massive role in your success. And I want you to know that your old friend is always cheering for you, and will be cheering just as loud for everything you do next.

Rafa that!

Best always, your fan, 

Roger

[Prof. Akiko Iwasaki @VirusesImmunity]

Happy to share our latest work by @YYexin et al. on antibody-mediated control of endogenous retroviruses in mice. In the process, we found “natural antibodies” with broad reactivity against enveloped viruses. Here is how “panviral” antibodies work 🧵(1/)

https://t.co/kU8NBK5KF9

[Juan Hernández-Bird @JHernBird]

I’ve never been a fan of watching sports on TV but I’ll sit through a Futbol match with my Dad if it’s on.

Well, I really need to make sure there aren’t two international tournaments going on next time I visit…

[Juan Hernández-Bird @JHernBird]

Can someone invent an “Everywhere” bagel? It’s just an Everything bagel where they season both sides.

[ይሰሃቅ @yisak_w]

Excited to share our recent pre-print! The Vibrio cholerae encoded Nezha anti-phage system (SIR2-HerA) restricts virulent vibriophages ICP1, ICP2, and ICP3 by depleting NAD+ (Abi💀). However, an ICP1 isolate can overcome this by encoding putative NAD+ regenerating proteins! ⚡️

[bioRxiv Microbiology @biorxiv_micrbio]

Massively parallel combination screen reveals small molecule sensitization of antibiotic-resistant Gram-negative ESKAPE pathogens https://t.co/g0vBuilpCA #biorxiv_micrbio

[Juan Hernández-Bird @JHernBird]

Is Wordle just rebranded Hangman? 🤯

[Juan Hernández-Bird @JHernBird]

I hear that labs that do microscopy with their ex-vivo zebrafish models are pretty “cell-fish”

[Erin Green @erin_r_green]

My lab at @UChicago_Micro is hiring! We are looking for a research tech to work with us studying mechanisms of bacterial stress response and pathogenesis. Would be a great opportunity for recent college grads looking for research experience. Please spread the word! Links below

[Pete Gwynne @petedoesscience]

Paper out at mSystems: in which we did computational modeling to predict essential enzymes in B. burgdorferi. We validated with a few small molecules that had weak antibacterial effects - next we'll try to turn some of those into proper drugs.

https://t.co/A7zfayCI6n

[Juan Hernández-Bird @JHernBird]

Imagine like skimming a few social media posts and deciding it’s enough for you to share your opinion on a conflict that is decades older than you

[Kelvin Anggara @vixklen]

Out today in @ScienceMagazine: Seeing glycans attached to proteins and lipids - at the *single molecule level*! 🎉🎉🎉

https://t.co/H2110fWY6m
#ScienceResearch #glycotime #teammassspec

My 1st #tweetorial🧵(1/n) 👇👇👇

[George O'Toole (he/him/his) @GeiselBiofilm]

Please share: 3 microbiology faculty positions at Texas State University in the general areas of: 1) Microbial Functional Genomics, 2) Microbial Ecology, and 3) Molecular Microbiology. https://t.co/hOAmXEks9n

[Avinash Shenoy @avi_cmbi]

David Holden's hand-written notes when he designed signature tagged mutagenesis, which revolutionised molecular genetics #stm @CBRB_Imperial @ImperialInfect

[Ralph Isberg @IsbergRalph]

What I can’t convey to students was that in 1996, nobody thought about doing large scale “dropout genetics,” which is standard CRISPR, RNAi, TnSeq strategy. This was new and when I heard about it, I thought “I would never have conceived of this”

[Juan Hernández-Bird @JHernBird]

Meta (Facebook) growing their social monopoly with Threads probably became way easier now that Musk ruined an X (again)