Rachel Porter

the fungus among us

[Rockefeller U. Press @RockUPress]

Last October, cell biology lost one of its brightest stars, Bill Weis. Bill was a masterful biochemist and structural biologist who made landmark contributions to a remarkable number of fields. An obituary from @peiferlabunc & Alexander Dunn in @JCellBiol: https://t.co/WwIm1qhtme

[Jen Herman 🌪️ @JukeBaRosh]

The one & only Ry Young will be giving the Stetten lecture Wed (11/8) @nigms if you want to tune-in & learn about phage lysis

[Rachel Porter @Mrsbenwyatt]

@Wuerfsmurf Thank you 😊😊😊(But be warned, it’s lengthy 😂)

[Rachel Porter @Mrsbenwyatt]

Hello friends, I’m excited to announce that my first first-author paper is out! It describes a project I worked on with my friends and colleagues at UL Slovenia studying plastic degradation by two fungi!

https://t.co/0jSICK5Pil

[Rachel Porter @Mrsbenwyatt]

…suggesting that HC rich environments (butter, olive trees, and more!) are a great place to start screening for more plastic degraders.
Hopefully further work will identify the enzymes involved and provide a starting point for enzymatic recycling approaches for PP! ♻️

[Rachel Porter @Mrsbenwyatt]

TLDR: We found two poorly characterized fungi can degrade pure polypropylene (which has never been shown in fungi before!) using distinct mechanisms. Interestingly, these strains are similar to related strains which are generally found in hydrocarbon rich environments…

[Rachel Porter @Mrsbenwyatt]

I liked this several days ago and it haunted me that I didn’t do more.

[Katrina Velle @KatrinaVelle]

Happy (or not?) #MicroscopyMonday!
I made a chart out of all the amoeba faces I've found to put on the lab fridge. Unfortunately, happy faces are not an observable phenotype for Naegleria.

[Barack Obama @BarackObama]

Here’s the advice I shared with Malia about what progress looks like – and the work we can do right now to make a difference.

[Fermat's Library @fermatslibrary]

If you put a spherical loaf of bread through a bread slicer, then each slice comes out with equal crust

[Bone00afide.bsky.social 🇮🇱 @bone00afide]

Approximately 19 kids under the age of 18 have gender affirming surgery every year in America. More than twice that number of kids will get shot JUST TODAY in America.

If they’re telling you we need to address trans healthcare and ignore gun violence, you’re being fed a lie.

[Hozier Updates 🌼 @UpdatesHozier]

🌷l The content we need 🥺🖤

© atalantalove

[Twist Bioscience @TwistBioscience]

Met Gala as things seen around the lab…

First up: Liu Wen as mold colonies

[Oded Rechavi @OdedRechavi]

How your email finds me

[Jen Heemstra @jenheemstra]

Whether it’s a manuscript, proposal, or experiment, almost nothing in research can ever be perfect, and that’s okay.

Perfection is not the goal. Imperfection that yields progress is what winning looks like.

[Dr Meming @Dr_Meming]

When people ask how my research is going