MCDuncanLab

Associate Professor at the University of Michigan. I frequently post photos of my cat and garden, and helpful tips for running a lab.

Science: Cell Biology, Membrane Traffic, Clathrin, Golgi
Interests: Gardening, Education, Biking, Environment, Art

Public Key

npub14k3sv7gtyhujmep00nkx86m4h6yv2rsna740rasupl93h00d2fvq26yep4

NIP-05 Address

mcduncanlab_at_mstdn.social@momostr.pink

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nprofile1qqs2mgcx0y9jt7fdushhemrrad6mazx9pcf7l2h37cwqljcmhhk4ykqpz3mhxue69uhhyetvv9ujuerpd46hxtnfduqs6amnwvaz7tmwdaejumr0dsjwutmn

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nos.lol

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Last Notes

2026-10-14 00:22:06 UTC

Mid October and we’re still getting peppers, beans, and eggplants.
The beans are probably done for with a frost later this week but the eggplant and peppers can be covered. Gotta pick who gets to over winter inside soon.
Fall mushrooms are going strong.
#gardening
https://media.mstdn.social/media_attachments/files/117/436/396/542/374/970/original/78d73894a2fc5e72.png

2026-10-11 15:10:35 UTC

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Gosh that hits home so hard. Having just traveled with my 77 yo mom who is still healthy and thinking how little time we have left. She had me when she was 23 my brother one year later.
A 46 yo parent, will have kids just barely in their 30s when they hit 77. I wasn’t in a place where I could pay to ditch off for two weeks with mom in my early 30s.
Maybe if you grow up with older parents you come to that realization earlier than me, I do hope so.

2026-10-11 14:37:43 UTC

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Also, I’m now a bit glad that I’m not grieving for the horrible situation my kids are inheriting. Although I still worry about old infirm me in the future with no kids, maybe AI will take good care of me?

2026-10-11 14:35:11 UTC

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Me eager to focus on tenure and worried about what getting pregnant would mean since my new husband still lived a 3hr flight away. Happily did not push back.
But see she was looking at me not my chart. I look young but I was 37 I should have pushed back with my age.
Meditation series convinced me that my regret is grief for a future I thought I would have. But that future never really existed so I’m seeing only one rose colored option not the 100s of less desired possible ones.

2026-10-11 14:30:47 UTC

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Double whammy there! Regret plus fear for the future.
I did a meditation series on regret to help me overcome obsessing about a single split decision that I blame for not having kids.
Shortly after I got married, I asked my doctor about having kids. She brushed it off saying I was young I shouldn’t start worrying about that right now I was young and healthy.

2026-10-11 12:35:52 UTC

Mushroom haul from yesterday. Lions mane from indoor bags, shiitake and chestnut from outdoor logs.
#mushtodon
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2026-10-11 12:13:16 UTC

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Future dread is the worst. It just gnaws and there’s little you can do except distract yourself.
If it makes you feel any better, a house and a retirement account doesn’t make it go away— particularly thinking about climate change and war or politics wiping out everything.
From your feed,, it seems like you’d be much better off than most if it all goes to hell.

2026-10-10 14:15:49 UTC

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Do you have untreated sleep apnea?

2026-10-08 22:48:35 UTC

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For calculating in lab, I use excel.
I also cross reference to prior calculations, like last time I used 10 microliters why is it 10 ml this time.
@npub1eey…339h

2026-10-08 22:45:33 UTC

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My parents
A) gave me Euclid to catch up on geometry and
b) bought me a typewriter
I have many many self taught work arounds for dsy lexica/calcula which for me are tied.
@npub1eey…339h

2026-10-08 22:41:41 UTC

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So in the early 80s when the only term available was dyslexia and I didn’t quite align because I read well for my age but spelling and poor performance in arithmetic were notable enough that I went to special ed/resource room. Eg learning disabled enough for the 80s.
After two years they told my parents
A) girls didn’t need to be good at math
B) if I could type my bad penmanship wouldn’t be a problem.
@npub1eey…339h

2026-10-08 20:20:55 UTC

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I never cease to be amazed that most bio labs don't have exact recipes for media and ask people to do calculations. (and also don't require that people write down what they added so that you can track down problems)
I know this doesn't help if you misread your own directions.
@npub1eey…339h

2026-09-12 20:27:17 UTC

Oof traveling internationally and lost my scrunchy hair tie, my back up hair tie appears to be a dock that I mistook for a hair tie.
And the bonus that my hotel has a bidet is totally counteracted by the fact that it’s a traditional European bidet which seems barbaric compared to a Japanese bidet or even an Indian one.

2026-08-30 12:45:02 UTC

Friday’s garden harvest. Expecting a lot more mushrooms today.
We’ve done a terrible job finding bitter gourd before they fully mature. That’s the orange fruit at the back.
Me with one of the shiitake logs.
https://media.mstdn.social/media_attachments/files/117/184/501/579/180/246/original/ead070936bdb8eb5.png
https://media.mstdn.social/media_attachments/files/117/184/518/585/902/686/original/cf2f95aafd64fa2c.png

2026-08-29 15:49:14 UTC

what do people with large moveable planters do with them over the winter to prevent weathering? (midwest winters)
My concern is what to do to protect the planter and what to do with the soil. Overwintering plants is not practical.
It’s for eight 25gal wood planters that summer on a deck.
#gardening

2026-08-21 23:37:56 UTC

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We got just enough rain to make it unpleasant to sit outside.

2026-08-21 19:17:46 UTC

Hi Sciencers.
We're looking at desmosome components in stem cells and the desmosome proteins don't always co-localize. Dsp forms bright foci along cell-cell interfaces but only near the apical surface. Dsc and dsg are found along cell-cell interfaces uniformly from apical to basal.
Is this weird?
I know in MDCK cells, they colocalize all along the apical-basolateral interface, I've not seen this apical restriction of Dsp reported previously.
But I'm no expert, would love ideas here.
https://media.mstdn.social/media_attachments/files/117/135/095/336/418/968/original/7b0014908cd53134.png
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2026-08-12 17:01:17 UTC

Peak salad season.
Today's salad-
cherry tomatoes
steamed greens beans
steamed beets
shishitos
mustard greens
kale
chard
beet greens all from the garden
onion, mushrooms, sunflower seeds, dried cranberries, olive oil, salt-not from our garden.
Mustard is the green that keeps giving. Bought in 2020 and still getting enough volunteers in early spring and throughout the summer to supplement any lettuce or other greens we actually plant. Really important in the hot summer when lettuce is rare.

2026-08-12 10:56:26 UTC

We have to upgrade a computer to the newest window. The computer is attached to an 17 yo plate reader. The software for the plate reader won’t work on the latest windows *and* the upgraded software requires a yearly 1k license fee.
Can a virtual environment for windows work?

2026-08-10 14:31:56 UTC

I want to try to cook something nice without going to the grocery store <1hr cook time. We have ~1/2 lb of home grown shitake mushrooms as well as the standard summer veggies (yellow and green squash, pattypans, eggplants in volumes sufficient for an entree, tomatoes, green sweet and hot peppers, various greens kale, chard mustard, not many beans), we also have Italian sausage, frozen chicken, frozen stew pork, stock and cream.
Ideas?!
#cooking #gardening
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2026-07-31 23:53:07 UTC

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Tangential. When I was trying to be a positive influence in my brother's kids lives...the best chance of my genes surviving, and the best chance of anyone caring about me in my dotage...I bought a book about a female scientist for my niece. When wrapping it, I realized it was written by a PhD cohort classmate.

2026-07-26 18:08:31 UTC

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That’s lousy. Did you need them to get into the house? Are they still in the front door?

2026-07-25 22:31:26 UTC

Daily harvest.
Caprese salad for dinner with some tomato harvested earlier in the week.
https://media.mstdn.social/media_attachments/files/116/982/977/972/937/643/original/864307806867830b.png

2026-07-21 17:08:19 UTC

Ghaa- excel+stupid ordering system+stupid 0 at the beginning of my new account #.
Our university finance system runs on short codes. They stupidly allow short codes that start with a 0, our ordering system does not recognize a short code lacking the initial 0 (eg 5678 is not recognized as 05678). And of course excel, where we keep our codes strip the zeros.
Yes I did figure out issue immediately and add the ' to keep the zero in excel, but why do they set it up like this??

2026-07-21 12:15:30 UTC

Spring veggies give way to summertime. Saturday we harvested the last radishes and the first okra. Yesterday was the first full sized tomato.
Greens are shifting from lettuce to kale chard celery and mustards like mizuna and mibuna.
#gardening
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2026-07-18 20:16:34 UTC

When we moved into our house ~12 years ago there was an abandoned fenced garden in the back of the lot. When we started using it we noticed that there was garlic planted.
We occasionally ate the scapes but always forgot to harvest the garlic before it fell apart in the ground.
Finally this year I harvested it. Mostly small bulbs because they were crowded due to being fully bulbs that just were left in the ground for >10 yrs.
Hope the mice don’t get em while curing in the garage,
https://media.mstdn.social/media_attachments/files/116/942/816/864/174/055/original/f62f3cacd336efe9.png

2026-07-18 14:25:30 UTC

Hey SE Michigan gardenera, what are you planting now? We’re clearing out some lettuce and other early harvest veggies from pots/planters. Seems like it’s too early/hot for peas and radishes.
The only thing I can think of is methi/fengugreek and amaranth, which we have been planting every two weeks already.
#gardening
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2026-07-14 17:40:19 UTC

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Not sure if it works for corn, but we have motion sensing blinky lights that are keeping the racoons off our deck.
I'm pretty sure that they work because I shut them off when the cat is outside so she doesn't get scared. The one time I've seen a racoon since we got them, the lights were off-although there was also a dead mouse the cat left that the racoon was eating so might just be coincidence.

2026-07-08 22:23:45 UTC

Is this a virus? These are ridged gourd leaves that get full sun.
#gardening
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2026-07-02 15:43:25 UTC

Heat shields activated.
The deck gets full sun for most of the day. When it's hot and the plants are still tender they need shade.
#gardening
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2026-06-29 14:11:05 UTC

Somebody lost a treasured item.
From Bsky:
Lost a very special Coraline Cat at the Kneecap Crystal Palace gig in London on Saturday night.
Incredibly long shot but means a lot.
Any and all help very welcome.
Pictured visiting Big Ben and at the gig.
https://media.mstdn.social/media_attachments/files/116/833/780/056/141/586/original/51099724f5c73295.png
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2026-06-22 20:12:57 UTC

UM picked the most moronic system for 2 factor authentication.
You enter your password on the online system and then it takes you to a screen with a teeeny tiny number. You device then pops up a screen with are you verifying? Then a screen with three teeny tiny numbers you pick the right one. It validates your face.
So. You must physically get your phone, see well enough to make out the numbers, accurately hit the little number on your screen, and have your camera recognize you.
https://media.mstdn.social/media_attachments/files/116/795/580/317/634/523/original/337b9201e696f04a.png
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2026-06-19 12:42:46 UTC

Wordle that it totally not a word.

2026-06-10 05:47:23 UTC

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I agree that the impact on humans through blood donation may be overstated.
The idea of long COVID as an autoimmune disease is intriguing and could offer potential treatment avenues.

2026-06-09 22:22:59 UTC

Hi Sciencers,
We want to purify our own Cas9-maybe an improved version. What're ppl using these days?

2026-06-07 01:22:38 UTC

Anyone growing amaranth in Michigan? We’re thinking about doing it in containers but could do it in the ground. Growing it for greens not seeds.
Any tips?
#gardening

2026-06-04 14:33:52 UTC

Grant uploaded. Waiting for verifications.
I'm hoping this submission is moot, because it looks like my prior submission is actually going to get funded❤️ 🤯 🎉 !

2026-06-03 12:12:43 UTC

Hi Friends,
If you are a US citizen, please take a moment to learn about the new Office of Management and Budget proposal for massive changes to the use of federal funds.
https://elizabethginexi.substack.com/p/this-new-omb-rule-is-bigger-than
(sorry its substack)
A lot of scientists are concerned about what its going to do to science, but it turns out it's much bigger impacting medicaid, transportation, education and more.
There's a comment period and it would be great to have a big push back from all sectors.

2026-06-01 14:39:58 UTC

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Funnily that idea crossed my mind.
Hubs confesses to leaving it there. This information raises the question of why he had a potato in his study.
Yes, it is near the cold pantry where we store potatoes, but what he was getting a single potato and was like, I'll go read a book and then forgot about the potato?

2026-06-01 12:50:44 UTC

Working in hub’s study and I noticed this potato. I have so many questions.
https://media.mstdn.social/media_attachments/files/116/674/925/651/590/504/original/dbcf495aa42bd322.png

2026-05-30 22:38:27 UTC

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Not with a grant due this week.

2026-05-30 21:41:50 UTC

Ghaaaa--you can install endnote on the work computer through our enterprise management portal but you can't link it to word. For that you need elevated privileges, like why tempt me that I can load it if I can't use it.
Guess I'm heading into work tomorrow to add new references to the grant.
Time to work on shade cages for the plants.

2026-05-29 20:07:22 UTC

Hey USains,
Do you think that experts in the field or executive branch appointees should be making the decisions on federal grants?
Do you think that the president should be able to cancel funded grants mid-stream for no good reason?
If you have opinions, please comment on the new regulations that would do just that:
https://www.regulations.gov/document/OMB-2026-0034-0001/comment

2026-05-27 17:33:35 UTC

How many people wonder if some of what we're seeing from federal agencies just outright failing to accomplish their goals is strategic inefficiency (weaponized incompetence)?

2026-05-24 12:46:02 UTC

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Chocolate eclairs may have gone out of style in the us, but maybe it’s just that I moved from the west coast where every corner has a boutique cafe to the Midwest where all we have are chains.

2026-05-23 20:35:46 UTC

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With the school closed, Dad will never coach soccer again, our new school is too far for him to pop over for practices. Although for decades when we talk about someone from our hometown, he will swear he coached that kid. In two years, dad will go on sabbatical in Southern California where he will meet my first step mom. A woman who deserved far more kindness and respect than my dad or the rest of our family gave her.

2026-05-23 20:35:09 UTC

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My elementary school closes for good, something that had been planned for years, but with the cancelled school year, the school remains just like we left it. Years later my friends and I will break into the school and sort through the clay dinosaurs we’d made in art class and try to remember which one was ours.
The school will eventually be torn down to make low cost apartments for college students.

2026-05-23 20:33:25 UTC

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We wear stuffy masks outside for weeks. They stink like rubber and fresh paint. The gritty ash and tight bands leave red welts on my nose and cheeks. The whiteish ash gets everywhere. For years, people will find piles of it under decks or behind woodpiles.

2026-05-23 20:33:08 UTC

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The next day dawns to a different world. Everything is covered in a fine layer of ash. Radio and TV news casters broadcast instructions to deal with the ash-wash it off, wait that turns it into a cement that won’t come off, brush it off, it just billows back. The school year is cancelled, my sister will never go on her camping trip. For reasons that still remain mysterious, she is not allowed to join scouts the following year and I am never allowed to join.

2026-05-23 20:30:15 UTC

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Home. Mom fusses over us, Dad heads out to pick up my sister who is trapped at someone’s house where she was preparing to go on her first girl scout camping trip. I take a bath, and get in my PJs, which everyone laughs at because it’s only 1pm.

2026-05-23 20:30:04 UTC

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Left onto our street past the ‘field’ a vacant lot owned by some neighbors who kept it as a community park where on 4th of July after gorging on potluck food, the big kids would light their illegal fireworks, purchased from the Indian reservations up north of town, and entertain us all.

2026-05-23 20:28:48 UTC

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Turn right and we’re going past greenhouses, where in 10 years I’ll work my first job. They glow dimly through the ash. Right again past the coliseum, where we’d watch basketball games and later my sister and I would go for our graduations.

2026-05-23 20:28:01 UTC

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We inch along the highway, hoping that we see any car stopped ahead of us, that we stay on the highway. Slowly, dim street lights emerge from the dark as we near the turn off for the back way home, fewer stop lights, fewer chances of rear ending someone. In darkness, we surely pass the strange three wheeled merry-go-round machine that tests radial tires for wear, and the barn that holds the cows with the windows on their sides so the veterinary students can learn anatomy, but we don’t see them.

2026-05-23 20:27:28 UTC

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A fine dusting of ash starts to appear on the dashboard and dad tells us to pull our shirts up over our noses. Brian, my little brother, asks if we are going to die. Dad assures us we’ll be fine, we’ll be home soon.
He is lying, he’s seen what Mt. Vesuvius did to the people of Pompei and he can see us clutching each other in fear as the ash seals us for eternity. It'll be easier on us if we make it home first.

2026-05-23 20:26:32 UTC

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The cloud continues its march across the sky, blocking out the sun and dropping us into a pitch darkness deeper than the darkest night. The ash is falling heavily now, unable to see more than a few feet in front of the car, Dad slows to an achingly slow pace. We're still miles from home an hour at the pace we're going.

2026-05-23 20:25:56 UTC

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We speed past the tiny city of Troy its little cluster of main street stores lining the two-lane highway with no stoplights to slow our race. Into Moscow, where each red stoplight makes dad chew his lips watching the cloud creeping slowly overhead. We make it just to the west side of town when the ash starts falling, and the cloud begins to block out the noon-time sun. Dad has me roll up the window and shut the vent on my side of the car.

2026-05-23 20:25:01 UTC

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As we hurriedly pack up our things and trundle back to the car, Dad orders us around with an angry shortness, that I now know is his panicked mode. The cloud looms large, occupying at least ¼ of the western sky, as we speed down the bumpy dirt roads as fast as the old VW bus can take us. When we finally hit the paved roads and can jump to 55 the cloud spans half the sky a menacing black growing by the minute, and we're driving straight towards it.

2026-05-23 20:23:45 UTC

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The adults start talking with one another in the hushed tones one uses when trying not alarm children. Finally, a decision is made, we’re heading home.

2026-05-23 20:23:24 UTC

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Convinced that it was the volcano erupting, she drags her embarrassed husband home while the cloud was just an ominous bulge on the western horizon. We continue fishing, and the cloud continues to grow, inky black, unlike any cloud I’ve seen on my short time on the planet.

2026-05-23 20:21:59 UTC

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It was just a normal day fishing. Me, my dad, my brother, and Dad's kid-less colleagues.
At some point, one of the wives noticed a dark black cloud peeking between the hills to the west. As it grew, she became increasingly convinced it was an eruption from Mt. St. Helens, whose rumblings had been in the nightly news. This was of course clearly ridiculous Dad says, we are at least 400 miles away.

2026-05-23 20:21:18 UTC

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We hadn’t been out at my favorite shore of the little reservoir for more than a few hours, having left home just after 8:00am mass. We’d met up with some of Dad’s fellow Econ Professor colleagues and their wives, none of them the expert fisher people that my dad and I were.

2026-05-23 20:20:17 UTC

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We’d only moved to this out of the way corner of the Northwest from Evanston Illinois a few years earlier. Dad relished every opportunity to get back to the outdoor activities he’d loved as a kid before the arrival of my sister abruptly pushed him into adulthood. He was so proud when I’d taken to fishing like a pro, pulling in trout after trout from the forest-service-stocked reservoir just 40 minutes from home. And I was so proud to be his little fisher-woman.

2026-05-23 20:19:57 UTC

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My dad is still a bigger than life hero to me; the wisest, strongest, most skilled, and honorable person in the world. It would take three decades, a Black man becoming president, and me marrying a non-white man who my dad had hoped was just phase to fully shatter that illusion.
But this is 1980, I’m seven.

2026-05-23 20:19:21 UTC

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It’s a cool cloudy morning in western Idaho, just a few miles from the border with Washington state. I’m still the apple of my father’s eye. The favorite kid, who unlike my older sister loves all the hobbies my dad loves, fishing, hunting, working on the car, and unlike my younger brother, I can sit still long enough to do them.

2026-05-23 20:18:52 UTC

As requested, here's my story of the eruption of Mt. St. Helens. It's long.

2026-05-23 12:31:10 UTC

A thought inspired by the anniversary of mt st helens eruption. I was 8 and fishing with my dad in eastern Washington. I have a harrowing story of how we got home.
I wrote about it several times in school assignments.
I've often thought about the English teachers in my home town. Starting in 1980's they'd see dozens or more essays with personal accounts of Mt. St Helens eruptions, and each year the observer would be younger and younger. Until one year there would be no more on that topic.

2026-05-20 20:03:57 UTC

@npub19en…0cut has
a very good response to the storm over whether arxiv's proposal to ban all authors on a paper from future submissions if AI hallucinations are found in a paper.
https://drugmonkey.wordpress.com/2026/05/20/thoughts-on-each-author-taking-full-responsibility/

2026-05-18 17:46:37 UTC

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When I first started gardening my garden consisted entirely of reused lab chemical buckets.
I use them mainly now to grow mushrooms, because hubs has banned ugly pots from the deck.
I'm interested in the hydroponics approach. Do you have any good resources?

2026-05-16 21:11:41 UTC

My overwintered peppers have some volunteer tomatoes, a consequence of hubs insisting that all rinse water gets poured in the plants.
I cut some of the suckers off and am trying to root them.
I have no idea what they might be. Hoping to get some of my favorites out. I didn’t start seeds this year and am worried that the seedlings I bought will have disappointing fruit.
#gardening
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2026-05-16 12:30:28 UTC

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Of course as typical for genX, just as we’re reaching the age for a happiness pivot the world has to hand us a flaming turdball.
Graduated college? Here’s a dot com recession.
Secure job? Here’s a housing bubble recession.
Settling into late mid-life? Here’s a giant turdball of politically initiated recession, and loss of freedoms, oh and your government is committing war crimes. Cheers!

2026-05-16 12:23:03 UTC

Ok we officially have a raccoon problem.
My glorious deck garden has become their playground. Every couple of nights they come up and dig through all of the planters.
This has not happened in past years, not sure if we have a particularly enterprising raccoon or what.
What’s worked for other people to repel raccoons? (It could be a possum)
#gardening

2026-05-15 00:50:54 UTC

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Same for our class. Some of the best final projects were from students who worked so hard to stay on track all semester, many of the students who were doing fine heading into the final project just disappointed.

2026-05-13 01:07:02 UTC

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Wonderful!

2026-05-12 19:03:56 UTC

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And volunteering at foodbanks can be a lot of fun.
We've done it with groups of grad students as a fun activity. One time we rebagged frozen veggies from a massive bin into smaller portions to distribute to community kitchens, another time we inspected donated fresh fruits for things that were not usable.
In the Ann Arbor area, https://www.foodgatherers.org/ is a great place to volunteer.

2026-05-11 18:46:05 UTC

@npub13t8…2ksn Look at what was in my feed.
I wonder if the tip is to not push rocks up the hill.
https://media.mstdn.social/media_attachments/files/116/557/420/470/788/436/original/cbdda8a037dc6458.png

2026-05-11 18:24:23 UTC

Whoa! I got behind on my seed starting so took my bitter gourd and snake gourd seeds into work and popped them in the 37C over the weekend after an overnight soak.
Snake gourds all have 1inch roots, going to take them home and pot them. The Indian bitter gourdes ~50% have 0.5-1cm roots, probably going to take them home. The chinese bitter gourdes have done nothing, they get another day or two.

2026-05-10 13:10:52 UTC

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What is so exciting about PROTACs is they can be designed to destroy almost protein, so their usefulness isn’t limited to cancer therapies, there are PROTACs in the works for neurodegenerative diseases and autoimmunity.
It’s really an amazing time to be in bioscience (there’s bad stuff happening to the scientific enterprise esp in the US but I’ll leave this thread mainly positive)
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2026-05-10 12:59:40 UTC

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And this is where it intersects with another line of research. In the early 2000s, Kathleen Sakamoto, Craig Crews and Ray Deshaies described the first attempt to hijack the cells quality control system to target a protein they chose.
The process worked in principle, but they needed to find a better way to bring the quality control system to the protein they wanted to destroy.
4/🧵
https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC37474/