Associate Professor @UCSD| HHMI Freeman Hrabowski Scholar| Research on rhomboid proteins|First Gen & Black in STEM| Proud mom|co-founder of @bummp_ucsd

La Jolla, CA
Joined April 2010
Transformative opportunity for early career faculty @hhmi_science #FreemanHrabowski Scholars competition opens 11/3/2026 but you can get started NOW: view application components, establish eligibility, and unlock example applications and other resources hhmi.org/programs/freeman-hr…
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Transformative opportunity for postdocs @hhmi_science the #HannaGray Fellows competition opens 11/3/2026 but you can get started NOW: view the application components, register to establish eligibility, and unlock example applications and other resources hhmi.org/programs/hanna-h-gr…
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T MINUS TWO MONTHS November 3, 2026 opening day of competition for the next cohort of #FreemanHrabowski Scholars and #HannaGray Fellows @hhmi_science
📢🎉@hhmi_science competition for the next cohorts of #HannaGray Fellows and #FreemanHrabowski Scholars opening 11/3/2026. Senior postdocs and faculty within 7 years of appointment. Up to $10M over 10 yrs, + salary & benefits. Spread the word and consider applying! bit.ly/4vhC0LA
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Sonya Neal retweeted
whoa Membrane protein solubilization and structure determination using de novo–designed proteins science.org/doi/10.1126/scie…
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Sonya Neal retweeted
By all means, if you're deciding, take the time you need. But if you're deciding between two places, and there are three others you've ruled out, let those three know as soon as possible, not once you've picked a school You could make a huge difference to someone else's life
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Grateful for an incredible time at #Cardiometabolism in Keystone 🇺🇸
Honored to present our work on DRP1, mitochondrial dynamics, lipid droplets & muscle oxygenation in PAD. @KeystoneSymp @czi @officialbiohub @BWFUND @VUBasicSciences
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Replying to @hhmi_science
@HHMINEWS Summer Undergraduate Research Experience - #CechFellows named in honor of Prof Tom Cech Deadline to apply: 12/22/2025 Spend 9 weeks in a paid, mentored biomedical research experience in an HHMI lab. See you next summer!!! hhmi.org/programs/cech-fello…
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Sonya Neal retweeted
Congratulations to ASBMB member Eric Jordahl, who has been named a 2025 Gilliam Fellow by the Howard Hughes Medical Institute. Jordahl is a #PhD candidate in the @Neal_Lab at @UCSanDiego & will receive three years of funding to support his thesis research. asbmb.org/asbmb-today/people…
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BIG ANNOUNCEMENT📣: I haven’t been this excited to be part of something new in 15 years… Thrilled to reveal the passion project I’ve been working on for the past year and a half!🙀🥳 It started from my frustration with the depressing effect that the current publishing system has on the well-being of myself, my team, and pretty much every scientist I know (maybe you’ve noticed from my stupid jokes… :) I was exhausted of dealing with the huge delays, reviewers that can be abusive, and how arbitrary it all is. Unfortunately, the most important factors are often WHO your reviewers are and who YOU are... It’s clear we need alternatives or at least ways to improve the situation. So, together with a really special and talented team we worked to develop this idea into “qed” a platform where you can get CONSTRUCTIVE feedback on your own work or CRITICALLY assess other people’s papers. It can be a real difference maker if many of you join us (thousands have tried it already, but today we release a NEW and much stronger version ;) Let’s harness qed to put the power back in the scientists’ hands, to do, to read & to publish science on our own terms. I’m dying for you to TRY IT, and it’s very simple - just drop a paper (the link to the website is in the replies👇) - it’s completely secure, private, and free, and you get results fast. Please show your support, SHARE, tell your friends, and let’s be the revolution 🫵!
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New @UCSanDiego BioSci @NobelPrize Winner Announced! The Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine has been awarded to BioSci alumnus Fred Ramsdell, a graduate in biochemistry/cell biology. He is being honored for transformative research on the immune system. go.ucsd.edu/3KFy18P
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feeling very thankful for the opportunity to present my work at our annual phd program retreat at @UCLAArrowhead and to have received the award for best student speaker 🐟🐟 thank you to all who came out to listen and to my lab and mentor for all of their support!
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I received an Alstrosmeria award in plant biology at the annual retreat for UCSD School of Biological Sciences. Thanks my mentor, lab members, and collaborators for their supports.
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BioSci's Eric Jordahl and Sonya Neal have been named recipients of the 2025 HHMI Gilliam Fellows Program, which supports promising PhD students. The program will support research on the underlying mechanisms of pancreatic cancer. go.ucsd.edu/4gkrBrB
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Applying to the NSF-GRFP (or another fellowship) on a tight deadline? We built a 7-week guide + timeline to get you from draft to submission. It’s not too late — you’ve got this! ✨ 🔗 cientificolatino.com/apply-i… #NSFGRFP #GradSchool #Fellowship
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Check out Part 1 of my interview, discussing my recent publication co-authored with the incomparable @MrBlkfx1, which explores the syndemic relationship between non-communicable diseases and AMR infections.
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Congratulations 2025 Gilliam Fellows and Advisors, including UC San Diego Biological Sciences graduate student @eric_jordahl and advisor Associate Professor Sonya Neal! hhmi.org/programs/gilliam-fe…
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I am so humbled and excited to be selected as a 2025 HHMI Gilliam Fellow! Thank you to all of the mentors I have worked with to get me to this point, especially my advisor @Neal_Lab for her guidance. I am so excited to join the HHMI community! hhmi.org/programs/gilliam-fe…
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My lab’s 5-year NIH R01 grant, awarded to study gene therapy for hearing loss, was abruptly terminated. I want to share how this action has been incredibly harmful and disruptive, not just to my lab, but to the scientific process itself. 1/15
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PhD program applicants: if your PhD program is not direct admit into a specific lab, I recommend at least waiting until the interview phase to contact PIs. I also do not recommend applying to programs if there are only 1-2 labs you may want to join. There should be several.
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