Emma J Chory

Assistant professor @Duke, guerilla knitter, pipettor of small volumes of liquid. Biologist masquerading as engineer, or the other way around.

[Emma J Chory @chorye]

Evolution navigated billions of challenges to get to us to where we are today. Directed evolution compresses this to 1D axis.

Imagine if you could sample 200 dimensions at once, with data to boot 📈

First @chorylab PACE preprint on our new system to tackle this: TurboPRANCE👇

[Ryan Boileau @bffswithbiology]

Aaaand it’s online ahhhhh!!! 🥳🥳 So excited!!

The first glimpse of my postdoc work with @chorye @dukecagt. Here, @stefanmgolas and I developed TurboPRANCE, an open-source robotics platform for rapid and scaled phage-assisted continuous evolutions. 🧪Tweetorial party!👇1/n

[Emma J Chory @chorye]

Are there any updates on the similar rockstar predoctoral-to-postdoctoral award (F99/K00)? This opportunity has been “forecasted” since 2025. As only one student can apply per university per year, this delay has squandered opportunities to retain countless of our most promising trainees https://t.co/mdDZah0BUV

[Emma J Chory @chorye]

This is a horrifically dumb take even for @BiotechMongoose.

Even when the odds are long, and not in your favor, these awards matter. They give young scientists ambitious, almost impossible goals to aim for. Their impact is not only on the few people who win, but on everyone who stretches toward that standard, pushing science forward. When these opportunities disappear, so do the aspirations they inspire.

[Biotech "2020 2: This Time With Feeling" Mongoose @BiotechMongoose]

Counterpoint: it, like virtually all the early-independence awards, is biased toward the well-connected and the exceptionally lucky, and more importantly, the people it goes to weren't going to leave biosci because they were already virtually all anointed.

[Emma J Chory @chorye]

This is a horrifically dumb take, even for you.

Even when the odds are long, and not in your favor, these awards matter. They give young scientists ambitious, almost impossible goals to aim for. Their impact is not only on the few people who win, but on everyone who stretches toward that standard, because thats what moves science forward.

When these opportunities disappear, so do the aspirations they inspire.

[Emma J Chory @chorye]

@DrYatesB The F99/K00 was forecasted in Jan 2025.... still nothing.

[Emma J Chory @chorye]

This one is hard to see.

The NIH Early Independence Award, one of the most competitive grants in the country for young scientists, will not go forward in FY2026. NIH says this is due to “administrative changes to funding opportunity processing and delays in approvals.”

[Emma J Chory @chorye]

@artemiks @SethSHowes @YimbyGeorge It's the cost per sequencing chip. also this is a fairly high estimate if you get good quality pore loading. the chips can be reused.

[Emma J Chory @chorye]

@onurakpolat @SethSHowes @YimbyGeorge Reagents. you can build your own GPU to do this at best buy.

[Emma J Chory @chorye]

@SethSHowes @YimbyGeorge Pretty sure it's only $28k if you buy the computer from nanopore, but we built our own GPU at cost. I think everything was less than $1000 + sequencer.

[Emma J Chory @chorye]

@DrYatesB Unfortunately the notification that it wouldn't be happening was posted after the forecast. Hopefully a sign it could come back in 2027.

[Patrick Hsu @pdhsu]

very sad! the DP5 grant launched my academic career

[Emma J Chory @chorye]

This is what the future of American science looks like, and frankly, it is bleak.

https://t.co/rhL6W4eIyv

[Emma J Chory @chorye]

Meanwhile, this administration and their talking heads keep spewing empty phrases about investing in science and supporting the next generation. Grants are still "delayed," if they come at all. Labs are still laying people off. And programs like this are being ended through quiet website notices and footnotes that most people will never see, while whole careers evaporate.

[Kevin K. Yang 楊凱筌 @KevinKaichuang]

Screen 1M random protein sequences to discover that biology-like folds are accessible from random sequences with surprising frequency

@KlaraH_lab

[Katie Galloway @GallowayLabMIT]

So you want to engineer your hiPSCs, but targeting DNA payloads requires multiple slow, inefficient steps for each construct. What if we could accomplish multi-site integration seamlessly? Come hear about STRAIGHT-IN Dual now out at Nature Biomedical Engineering! 🧵

Link at end!

[Emma J Chory @chorye]

More excited to read this paper than a kid on Christmas morning. Huge congrats @GallowayLabMIT !!! Christmas has finally come.

https://t.co/BvoGWHAKGt

[Emma J Chory @chorye]

More info about Mice Against Ticks here: https://t.co/g53aa1UHXD

[Emma J Chory @chorye]

Another important step in the fight toward eliminating Lyme disease. 🐭🕷️ This paper from my postdoc lab shows progress toward engineering mice so they can no longer transmit the bacteria that cause Lyme disease. By targeting the animal reservoir, this approach could help break the cycle that keeps Lyme circulating in the wild.

Paper here: https://t.co/50SPg1aZkL

Great to see this work out in @NatureComms. Congrats to @JoannaBuchthal, @kesvelt and the rest of the Mice Against Ticks team.

[David R. Liu @davidrliu]

The 2026 Breakthrough Prize ceremony (“the Oscars for science”) celebrated the achievements of many remarkable scientists and their students and collaborators last weekend. Here’s the video of the show: https://t.co/eCHUnDqrYX. And here’s the segment in which Anne Hathaway and Alex Honnold (who climbed El Capitan free solo) presented the story of baby K.J.’s base editing treatment and introduced Kiran Musunuru, Rebecca Ahrens-Nicklas, Peter Marks, baby K.J. and his wonderful family, and myself: https://t.co/eCHUnDqrYX