Stowers Institute

#WhatIf: Big Questions. Curiosity-driven Science.

[Stowers Institute @ScienceStowers]

🔬 NEW research from the @Gibson_Lab, published in @ScienceAdvances, reveals surprising similarities between sea anemones and humans in proteins essential for producing eggs and sperm.

🌊 The findings open new possibilities for studying meiosis and fertility.

🔗 https://t.co/T897emn2dF

[Stowers Institute @ScienceStowers]

🧠Stowers Institute Investigator @HalfmannLab, Ph.D., recently joined @KCTV5 to discuss his lab's role in a $28.6 million national research effort using #AI to better understand protein changes associated with #neurodegenerative diseases, including Alzheimer's and #ALS.

During the interview, Halfmann shared what motivates his team and why this #research carries such a sense of urgency.

Hear from Halfmann and watch the full interview here: https://t.co/z0F6ulccms

[Stowers Institute @ScienceStowers]

Big questions. Big banners. 🔬

Our #WhatIf storytelling series is going up around the Stowers Institute!

Take a behind-the-scenes look at the installation and explore the science inspiring the questions.

🔗 https://t.co/MODDGtIEke

[Stowers Institute @ScienceStowers]

🔬 Stowers President & Chief Scientific Officer @Planaria1, Ph.D., has launched a Substack!

Explore his reflections on scientific discovery, curiosity-driven research, and the human side of science.

📖 Read his first essay, A Quiet Engine: https://t.co/RLkktesZly

[Stowers Institute @ScienceStowers]

🔬 Happening this week at the Institute!

We're welcoming scientists to #KansasCity for the #SRCKC26 on Ribosome Heterogeneity and Translational Control!

Three days of scientific exchange, new ideas, and opportunities for collaboration. 🧬

[Stowers Institute @ScienceStowers]

This week's #MicroscopyMonday shows digital collage of bacteroids, a special form of bacteria that lives inside alfalfa roots. 🔬🌱 @ErikaPinto96 (@SivaSankariIMS Lab)

[Stowers Institute @ScienceStowers]

⏰ Tomorrow is the last day to register!

Don't miss your chance to join researchers from around the world at the 2026 Stowers Research Conference: Ribosome Heterogeneity and Translational Control from Cells to Organisms! 🔬

Join us October 21–23 in Kansas City for cutting-edge science, engaging discussions, networking, and opportunities for collaboration. #SRCKC26

📅 Registration deadline: October 16

🔗 Register today: https://t.co/Fx3YCVrFfT

[Stowers Institute @ScienceStowers]

NEW research from the @Gibson_Lab 🔬

Cell division does more than make new cells—it helps reshape tissues.

Led by first author @SPRamanathan, researchers discovered how dividing cells trigger their neighbors to rearrange, helping growing tissues stay organized.

Published in @CurrentBiology: https://t.co/fjXf9lJlRs

[Stowers Institute @ScienceStowers]

A little Latin jazz to end the week! 🎶🎺

We welcomed the @kclatinjazz to the Institute on Friday for another lively performance in our Experiments in Sound concert series!

[Stowers Institute @ScienceStowers]

At the Stowers Graduate School, students have the freedom to explore ambitious scientific questions and build a foundation for what comes next.

Hear how that experience helped shape alum Augusto Ortega Granillo’s scientific journey. 👇

[Stowers Grad School @StowersGrad]

Where can your scientific curiosity take you? 🔬

At #StowersGrad, students have the freedom to pursue ambitious questions and grow as independent scientists.

Hear from alum Augusto Ortega Granillo, #PhD, about how that freedom shaped his journey.

🔗 https://t.co/6KZRw0bMIq

[Stowers Institute @ScienceStowers]

#WhatIf we didn't have to age? 🧬

It's a big question driving Investigator Randal Halfmann's #research at the Stowers Institute, where he's studying how changes in proteins contribute to diseases associated with #aging, including #Alzherimers, Parkinson’s, #ALS, and Huntington's disease.

Today, Halfmann joins a national research collaboration supported by up to $28.6 million in funding. The project brings together scientists from leading institutions across the country to train #AI to better understand and predict protein changes linked to #neurodegenerative diseases.

A deep learning model that can decode the language of disordered proteins in such diseases needs rigorously obtained data at scale — something that has yet to exist.

The Halfmann Lab will provide what has been missing: more than 10 billion measurements of aggregation, taken one living cell at a time, across 50,000 proteins.

The goal? To better understand what goes wrong in these diseases and help lay the groundwork for future treatments.

Go behind the science and meet the curiosity-driven researcher in Episode 1 of our #WhatIf storytelling series.

Learn more about Randal’s award at https://t.co/aUWD4B7Ix2

🎥 Watch Randal's full story: https://t.co/9eJhznFKrN

[Stowers Institute @ScienceStowers]

Can #AI predict the protein changes behind #Alzheimers and #ALS? 🧬

Investigator Randal Halfmann, Ph.D. (@HalfmannLab), will receive ~$4.1M from @ARPA_H to help find out, as part of a $28.6M national effort led by @UCBerkeley's Innovative Genomics Institute.

🔗 https://t.co/v9fELArUus

[Stowers Institute @ScienceStowers]

We're proud that Stowers Investigator Randal Halfmann, Ph.D., and his lab are part of this exciting #research initiative! 🧬

Through the ARPA-H-funded NATIVE-ID collaboration, the @HalfmannLab will help advance our understanding of harmful protein aggregation linked to #neurodegenerative diseases. 🧠 Learn more from @ARPA_H below⬇️

[ARPA-H @ARPA_H]

Proteins are the tiny molecule machines that keep our cells working.

When they misfold, cell function is disrupted which can lead to devastating disease.

ARPA-H’s BIOGAMI teams are targeting that early window by decoding how proteins misfold and finding ways to steer them back on course.

Earlier intervention could open new paths for Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s, ALS, and more.

Learn more about the teams pushing this work forward ➡️ https://t.co/scSO4UUYMn

[Stowers Institute @ScienceStowers]

#WhatIf we didn’t have to age? What if we don’t have to get #cancer? What if #nature holds the answers? 🔬

Introducing #WhatIf, a new storytelling series from the Stowers Institute exploring biology’s biggest questions about life and human #health.

Meet the scientists whose curiosity drives them to ask these questions and follow wherever the #biology leads.

🎥 Our first three episodes are here! Watch now and discover what happens when we dare to ask, “What if...?”

🔗 Explore the series: https://t.co/uhRaZEGtDL

[Stowers Institute @ScienceStowers]

Taking big questions to new heights! 👀

Our new #WhatIf banners are officially up around the neighborhood!

Go behind the scenes (and up in the air!) for a unique look at how they got there.

Discover the questions driving our scientists: https://t.co/Asn9RNIfP5

[Stowers Institute @ScienceStowers]

Thank you to Judith Frydman (@Stanford) for joining us for a great #StowersSeminarSeries hosted by @BazziniLab.

[Stowers Institute @ScienceStowers]

We have some BIG questions. 👀

So naturally, we put one on the side of our parking garage.

Our #Whatlf series launches this week, stay tuned: https://t.co/cYZANHkF4c

[Stowers Institute @ScienceStowers]

Discover the newest tools transforming translational biology—from advanced ribosome profiling and proteomics to innovative imaging and functional genomics. 🧬

Join us at the 2026 Stowers Research Conference, #SRKC26.

Register now: https://t.co/l5udkSaWDs

[Stowers Institute @ScienceStowers]

Congratulations to this year’s laureates on this remarkable recognition! 👏🔬

[The Nobel Prize @NobelPrize]

BREAKING NEWS
The 2026 #NobelPrize in Physiology or Medicine has been awarded to Karl Deisseroth, Peter Hegemann and Georg Nagel “for their discoveries concerning light-gated ion channels and optogenetics.”

[Stowers Institute @ScienceStowers]

This #MicroscopyMonday shows the early formation of a small colony of corals from the Hawaiian Montipora capitata coral. #Coral polyps have autofluorescence by the expression of the Green Fluorescent Protein. 🪸 (@Gibson_Lab)