Worth a read. Many have taken note of the growing solidarity in the science community in opposition to the OMB proposed rule. But this must be just the start. For an example, we can look to @sekahn.bsky.social, Justin Ryder & co who spoke up at ADA and were removed for it. 🧵

The concept behind this post is absolutely correct. We shouldn’t just focus on saving science, we should grow it. Every dollar toward research grows the economy too. Let’s innovate and make discoveries.

Read this post! Oct. 1, 2026 will be the death of research in the US. This plan will allow the administration to make all grant funding political. Any grant can be cancelled or blocked for not supporting administration priorities. The science doesn’t matter. Now is the time to be loud about this.

@markhisted.org wrote an informative commentary about the damage being done to NIH and research. Every concerned scientist and citizen should read this and speak up to help stop it. Talk to your colleagues about it. Call your representatives. US research is being destroyed. We used to be the best.

Our digest this week is focused on the NIH budget in congress. There are lots of details to understand that we try to summarize. theprincipledinvestigator.substack.com/p/the-princi...

There is a lot of talk lately about multi-year funding (MYF) at NIH. This is mostly a paperwork issue, but it can have a dramatic impact on the number of grants that get funded. I was curious how this would impact grant numbers over time, so I did some simple modeling. 1/n

This is an important discussion about how NIH is being destroyed from the inside. Please contact your senator and representatives and let them know what is happening.

Here is the Principled Investigator post for this week. We also plan to have a couple extra posts this week on particularly important topics, so stay tuned. theprincipledinvestigator.substack.com/p/the-princi...

@principledinvestig.bsky.social has a new post this week with lots of good information about the destruction going on at NIH, lost datasets, impacts to healthcare, and more. It's worth a read. theprincipledinvestigator.substack.com/p/the-princi...

If you are overwhelmed by all of the attacks on science in this country and have trouble following it all, below is a new resource to digest it all. They will have weekly posts with key information. Subscribe and share it. It is run by scientists from across the country.

I have been thinking about "this is what NSF has meant to me" style posts and I want to talk a little about two sisters: one who had a chance to make a career in a country that had NSF/NIH and one who didn't.

Well, the AACR GENIE cBioPortal site is down to make sure it complies with the new regulations. Let’s hope it’s temporary.

Those trying to understand the tariffs as economic policy are dangerously naive. No, the tariffs are a tool to collapse our democracy. A means to compel loyalty from every business that will need to petition Trump for relief. 1/ A 🧵 to explain his plan and how we fight back.

Another “Continuing Crisis” post, this one covering some larger principles and explaining why I’m doing these in general:

I am not going to call this a Bluetorial, because I do not want to sully that term (which, at least I, find joyful). Let’s call it a Orwellial.

Did you know - the medicine that President Trump takes each day to lower his risk of having a heart attack is a direct result of NIH funding? Let me explain -

I think people both within science and outside science don’t fully appreciate the miracle that were the Covid-19 vaccines. How much courage it took to get the sequence out, how much work had already gone into figuring out the best viral antigen and how best to present it. 1/

Once upon a time, some villagers came across a large, ornate wooden box in the local woods. On the side of the box was a message: “Whatever money you put in this box will, in future, grow to become 2.5 times larger.” 1/

A really important email from my friend Senator @chrismurphyct.bsky.social . As he says "this is a 5 alarm fire." America is under attack right now.

Science (and science policy, and conservation) friends, I need your help! We are collecting *specific, clear* examples of harms caused by the Trump administration's attacks on science, to be included in an open letter. Can be links to news stories/social media posts. 🧪🦑🌎 #SciComm #SciPol

Over on LinkedIn, the head of the Executive Secretariat of the NIH -- a central part of NIH leadership 🧪🩺-- resigned with a lettter worth reading www.linkedin.com/posts/nathan...

Short update on NIH The situation is very confusing, a not just to me. Folks who were told the were to be terminated did not receive any communication for a day and a half, people who were “on the list” have not received anything as of yet. Some folks who had been terminated have be reinstated 1/2

Captures it perfectly.

Bluetorial: The rationale for the “NIH” indirect cost “plan” is based on misunderstood (unintentional or intentional) accounting and math The value of real government transparency

BREAKING On Monday, Popular Information broke the news that the NIH had frozen virtually all grant funding in violation of 2 federal court orders On Wednesday, NIH leadership distributed a memo, acknowledging that its funding freeze was illegal and directing staff to resume issuing grants.

Federal judge expands block on NIH indirect cost rate cut to institutions nationwide after additional lawsuits www.cnn.com/2025/02/11/p...

NEW: Federal judge in Massachusetts enters Emergency Temporary Restraining Order blocking Trump Administration from cutting health research grant money, including 15% cap on overhead costs. www.documentcloud.org/documents/25...

Petition to Reverse the NIH Indirect Cost Cap initiated by Tom Maniatis. Please amplify Sign the Petition: chng.it/kK2HMP5pGk "Share with Leadership & Faculty. Reach out to professional societies, biotech and pharma leaders, and philanthropic organizations to raise awareness and mobilize support."

BREAKING: 22 states sue NIH over Trump administration's new 15% cap on overhead for federal research grants. Suit filed federal court in Boston contends lifesaving research 'will grind to a halt' under the policy. Doc: storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.us...

The indirect cost cut at NIH is difficult to describe to non-scientists. Isn’t it appropriate to say that it is infrastructure (IACUCs, IRBs, etc), like roads and bridges? It builds and maintains research infrastructure so that small foundations can support research. Any downside to this framing?

People sitting in these study sections - ask why these applications are being taken out? If provided no answer by the SRO, ask bluntly if these applicants are being taken out on the basis of their race. If no answer, refuse to move forward with the review until an answer is provided...

Just in case you thought that removing DEI criteria would mean that everyone is competing equally: NIH is removing grad students from underrepresented backgrounds from the applicant pool altogether. Their applications will not be considered. Other students, not from these backgrounds, will be.

Spoke to client whose 1.5 million grant from USAID was terminated on Monday. They were developing new HIV prevention approaches. Purely therapeutics/virology. All the money spent here in the US.

Well…let’s hope this is just temporary.

This week I want to share the new review article from @druppaluri.bsky.social about neoadjuvant immunotherapy in HNSCC. This review is a comprehensive summary of the field as we wait for the results of KEYNOTE-689. www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Congrats to MaryannZhao on leading this NatRevClinOnc review of #scRNASeq studies on #Tcell dynamics in #neoadjuvant ICI treated #HNSCC rdcu.be/d22hn

This week I want to highlight the Phase ½ trial of alisertib + pembro led by Faye Johnson. It highlights the challenges in translating lab studies into patients. 🧪🧵 aacrjournals.org/clincancerre...

Clinical Trial data shows the combination of alisertib & pembrolizumab is well tolerated & led to prolonged SD in some immunotherapy-resistant patients, suggesting that Aurora kinaseA inhibition can reverse immunotherapy resistance of retinoblastoma protein-neg HNSCC aacrjournals.org/clincancerre...

This week’s post is from the Brakenhoff lab, and examines the copy number quite subtype of head and neck cancer. This is a genomically and biologically distinct subtype of HNSCC that is a strong candidate for more personalized therapy. 🧪🧵 www.nature.com/articles/s41...

I'm going to post a head and neck cancer research paper each week. Here's the first. Scheff lab at Pitt found that morphine modulates the response to checkpoint inhibitors in HNSCC (MOC1 cells). Opiod antagonists may be a therapeutic way around this issue. jitc.bmj.com/content/12/1...

In the past, twitter was a good place to read about science, including head & neck cancer research. I hope Bluesky can get a head & neck cancer community. To help build that, I'm going to post/comment on at least 1 HNSCC research paper each week. If you do the same, we can make this place useful.