Joy A. Franco, PhD

Sensory neurobiologist & Bioengineer | Racing CX, XC, & Gravel for funsies | Raising money for cancer research through PMC donate before Oct 1 at link below

[Joy A. Franco, PhD @engineering_joy]

I went back to community college at 26 knowing I wanted to pursue a PhD because I refused to accept that I was too old to pursue my dreams. I started my MS at 30 and my PhD at 32. Je ne regrette rien.

[Joy A. Franco, PhD @engineering_joy]

Last weekend I had the privilege of representing my country at the UCI Gravel World Championships. A proper race deserves a proper report. Tried to do just that. Long winded and still somehow not even close to capturing all of the feels following this incredible experience.

https://t.co/lh5PqOkKKg

[Marine Biological Laboratory (MBL) @MBLScience]

APPLY NOW
The Grass Foundation is now accepting applications for the 2026 Grass Fellowship. Grass Fellowships support investigator-designed, independent research projects by scientists early in their career. Find out more https://t.co/7jGvRJcpIS

[Joy A. Franco, PhD @engineering_joy]

Making one final push to close the PMC donation gap before leaving for gravel worlds. See my bio for details 🫶❣️🫶

[Joy A. Franco, PhD @engineering_joy]

💯 this ❣️

I recently gave a department seminar and a few weeks later a prof in the dept complimented me on it. It was a brief exchange that lit up my tired little heart & motivated me to keep my head up in spite of everything else going on.

A small act of kindness >>>>

[Arjun Raj @arjunrajlab]

Of all the different metrics of scientific success, a kind word from a colleague you respect often means the most.

[Joy A. Franco, PhD @engineering_joy]

@mbeisen LB

[Joy A. Franco, PhD @engineering_joy]

@OdedRechavi I recently led a « social issues journal club » for lab on citation gaps & how to overcome them. Finding papers from labs other than usual suspects was a clear bottleneck. We workshopped ways to find new papers & came up with a lot of helpful ideas. Super useful exercise.

[Joy A. Franco, PhD @engineering_joy]

Great opportunity here to have a great mentor and work on a very 🔥 emerging topic with some truly awesome tools.

[Colón-Ramos Lab @Colon_Ramos_lab]

📢We are looking for a Postdoctoral Associate in Neuronal Metabolism to join our team! See flyer for info:

[Joy A. Franco, PhD @engineering_joy]

#NewKitDay is perfectly timed with t-2 wks till Gravel World Championships in the Netherlands 😻

Want to support my journey? Donate to my PMC fundraiser before October 1 at this link: https://t.co/Om1CSTSXPt

[Joy A. Franco, PhD @engineering_joy]

@jpflores_31 Publish where you think you’ll reach your target audience and ALWAYS post a preprint before publication, and post a revised version of the manuscript once the final version is about to go live.

[Joy A. Franco, PhD @engineering_joy]

@OdedRechavi Just saw this very cool preprint on the evo devo of C. elegans 😻 https://t.co/1KFulVv8cI

[Michael Baym @baym]

This is a life-changing five year full fellowship for graduate students across the sciences and engineering. If you’re eligible, it’s worth looking into

[Joy A. Franco, PhD @engineering_joy]

Good luck out there and definitely feel free to reach out when in doubt. (6/6)

[Joy A. Franco, PhD @engineering_joy]

Tip #3: Zoom out. If space allows, describe how the work that YOU did independently contributes to the greater mission of the lab. (4/6)

[Joy A. Franco, PhD @engineering_joy]

Lastly: Plan ahead & leave time to get feedback (give people at least one week & yourself at least a couple of days to integrate the critiques). It ALWAYS helps to get at least one outside perspective to help identify the gaps. Even at our best we can overlook simple needs (5/6)

[Joy A. Franco, PhD @engineering_joy]

Tip #2: invest time in finding powerful action verbs. Bloom's Taxonomy of Measurable Verbs is a great resource for finding just the word that can succinctly and clearly communicate your meaning https://t.co/cGpE790YRa (3/6)

[Joy A. Franco, PhD @engineering_joy]

Tips for student researchers applying for awards: many apps will ask you to describe your research experience. Being able to clearly articulate YOUR role in the research is critical for success, but often there's little guidance on how this is best communicated (1/6)

[Joy A. Franco, PhD @engineering_joy]

Tip #1: Reference "contributor role taxonomy." This guide breaks research down into it's different components and will help you identify where you contributed and learn how this component is commonly described in STEM (e.g., "data curation") https://t.co/gk64gGaoIW (2/6)

[Joy A. Franco, PhD @engineering_joy]

Looking for mito genome help: can anyone provide a link to the full sequence for the CBA/J mitochondrial genome? I can find the one for C57's but I do need it to be mouse strain specific and I'm struggling to find an entry for CBA/J mice.

[Jie Yan @JieYan_NUS]

@MBIsg @ChaoyuF
Mechanical forces shape cell fate, proliferation, and migration. But how do adhesion GPCRs (aGPCRs) turn physical cues into biochemical signals?

[Joy A. Franco, PhD @engineering_joy]

A truly beautiful preprint and scientific story. They set a high bar.

Absolutely worth a download to at least checkout the incredible mastery of microscopy.

[Christophe Leterrier @christlet]

Our new preprint is up! This is the main postdoc work of Theresa Wiesner, focusing on exocytosis along the axon shaft and its regulation by the submembrane actin-spectrin scaffold: https://t.co/mL4ChJ2y0f
Read the thread below for a summary of our findings 🧵1/11