Caleb Watney of IFP talking about why academia and science sucks. Broken record here, but we can’t have this discussion without talking about agendas and conflicts of interest. IFP is funded by tech and rightwing billionaires who want to privatize science. 1/

🧠 From NIH-funded discovery → game-changing brain implants → NEW science that was impossible before. This loop = cures, jobs & American tech leadership 🇺🇸 Join me MONDAY 12/8, 1pm ET: "Next-Gen Neural Interfaces → Next Scientific Revolution” 🚀 #NeuroTech #BCI #NIH #BrainTech #TaxpayerWin

Is it worth rebutting this complaining mischaracterization of how NIH review works? The peer review NIH does is incredibly valuable and constructive. Compare the NIH BRAIN initiative to the European Brain initiative — which added peer review after an open letter of serious complaints.

📰 New paper from the University of Pittsburgh Neural Engineering Cross-Translation (UP NExT) program: our team mapped how micromotion-driven strain around Utah arrays predicts real world long-term performance in humans and NHPs. JNE 2025. #Pitt

🇺🇲 Taxpayers fund research discussed at SfN 2025 & Bloodfest VI, advancing neurovascular & glial science, neural engineering, and next-gen brain tech. This work trains scientists, improves health outcomes, and keeps the U.S. #1 in biomedical innovation. #UPNExT #SfN25 #NeuralEngineering #UCSD

Honored to be appointed the Ernest E. Roth Professor at Pitt. Grateful for the trainees, collaborators, and colleagues advancing neural engineering and glial biology. Thank you to the Dean for supporting our UP NExT vision, engineering fundamental neuroscience discovery to improve lives.

Check out University of Pittsburgh Neural Engineering Cross-Translation (UP NExT) program at #SfN25

🚀 Discover cutting-edge neural engineering & glial biology at #SFN! Our lab (UP NExT) presents 8 posters linking neurons & non-neuronal cells to circuit stability & recovery using #electrophysiology, #TwoPhotonImaging, #microstimulation, #ultrasound #neuromodulation & single-cell transcriptomics.

NIH posted 14 executive leadership jobs with only 2-week windows. SES roles normally stay open 30–45 days for real competition. Two weeks is far below standard practice and often signals a preselected candidate or rushed appointment. Taxpayers deserve transparency. www.instagram.com/reel/DQ-xWIe...

New from University of Pittsburgh Neural Engineering Cross-Translation (UP NExT): PV interneurons don’t just control brain rhythms, they fine-tune blood flow too. 2P imaging + optogenetics, we found depth-specific vasoconstriction & dilation shaping both sensory-evoked & resting-state hemodynamics.

The University of Pittsburgh Neural Engineering Cross-Translation (UP NExT) Program is helping Americans & taxpayers by using Utah arrays to study brain signals. Insights from this work guide better use today and smarter designs for next-gen devices to restore movement & touch. #NIH #TaxpayerImpact

Basic science is the rebar in brain tech. From 2019-2022, NIH’s RFA-NS-20-006 funded the why behind implants that last 10 yrs, not 10 wks. It ended in 2022, not because it failed, but because Academia/ DC grades on headlines, not foundations. Demos dazzle. Basic science delivers. #BuildToLast

👁️ UPMC Vision Institute is restoring sight! The PRIMA wireless retinal implant + camera glasses helped patients with advanced macular degeneration regain functional vision. Over 80% saw measurable improvement. #VisionRestoration #Neuroprosthetics #UPMC #Pitt www.nejm.org/doi/full/10....

Pitt’s UP NExT (NIH-funded) just turned pain-relief SCS into a sensory neuroprosthesis for amputees. Restored phantom foot feel Cut knee co-contraction Normalized pelvic motion, even OFF stim #Veterans walk safer, cheaper. NIH: UH3NS100541 #NeuralEngineering #Pitt

🧠🇺🇸 BREAKTHROUGH: 87.5% seizure reduction via personalized thalamic DBS, but only when matched to the patient’s brain network. UP NExT, NIH $$ → real results. No waste. American tech. Taxpayer ROI. www.nature.com/articles/s41... #Epilepsy #MAGA #NIH #NeuralEngineering #Pitt #Pittsburgh

The University of Pittsburgh Neural Engineering (UP NExT) Program made history, restoring touch through brain-computer interfaces. Nathan (longest BCI user) & Angie (newest) can feel again via electrodes in the brain. NIH-funded science turning thought into movement, and contact into connection. 🧠🤝

🚨 Pharma CAN’T replace NIH, here’s why it screws MAGA: NIH = public cures (cancer, rural opioids, mRNA vax) Pharma = profit pills (bury breakthroughs, hide flops) Trump’s NIH freeze? Hands future to Big Pharma + China. 68K red-state jobs gone → 100K+ lost forever. 🇺🇸 America First = NIH strong.

Hardworking taxpayers fund the science that doubles life expectancy & cures disease, but trust is crumbling. Scientists must step out of the lab to rebuild it. Advocacy & outreach aren’t extras, they’re essential to protect your health, wallet & future. #ScienceTrust #Innovation

Taxpayer funding fuels breakthroughs! 💡 Univ of Pittsburgh Neural Engineering Cross-Translation program's (NExT’s) SpIC3D creates a 3D spinal cord map for safer therapies, faster research, and fewer animals, maximizing every $. 🔗 www.cell.com/cell-reports... #UPNExT #NIH #SpinalCord #MedicalImaging

Strong showing from @PittBioE’s UP NExT program at #SfN2025 in San Diego! Trainees & faculty are advancing neural engineering across scales, from glial modulation & ICMS to neurovascular imaging & computational models. See how Pitt is redefining neural engineering. #Neurotech

Fears of political favoritism? We’ve seen months of actual political favoritism. www.science.org/content/arti...

Pittsburgh's on Nat Geo's Best of the World 2026! From steel to tech powerhouse: Carnegie Int'l (AI curation), Warhol Museum ($60M tech upgrade), Arts Landing AR park, & NFL Draft.Hiring AI/Biomed/Robotics talent! CMU #1 in AI, U Pitt biomed leader. Low COL, riverside vibes. Join us.

The NIH institute director firing last Friday is very bad. I made a video explainer about why. Stay for last post, w link to @science.org story from @jocelynkaiser.bsky.social 1/4 🧪

Exciting new opportunity at the University of Pittsburgh Neural Engineering Cross-Translation (UP NExT) program @mcapo.bsky.social

The 2025 shutdown slams farmers, veterans, small biz, & taxpayers: $10B aid frozen, ACA premiums may double, kids lose WIC. Illegal RIF layoffs & trade stalls weaken us vs. China. Congress, pass a funding bill to keep healthcare affordable, reverse RIFs, & boost U.S. strength!

Seeing a lot of celebration of this as a win. But at NIH we have seen this exact play before. It looks like it is the Vought strategy -and to stop the lawless firings we have to see the bigger picture. A 🧵:

🚨 Shutdown day 11: Hardworking taxpayers are slammed, 4,200+ federal workers face RIFs & premiums could soar to $1,904/yr. Congress, override RIFs & extend subsidies to ease the burden on taxpayers who keep America running. Act by Nov 1! Tell your reps. #OverrideRIF #TaxpayerRelief

NIH cuts save $9-10B short-term, but they’re killing 202K jobs & $46B in red-state economies (TX, FL, OH). $8T healthcare disaster loom, no cancer/Alzheimer’s cures, pricier drugs. Scientists fleeing to China? Bad deal. Fight for NIH! www.the-scientist.com/nih-leadersh... #AmericaFirst

🚨 Patriots, the "Compact for Academic Excellence" claims to fix colleges but stomps on 1st Amendment rights. It threatens YOUR jobs by diverting tax $$ to elites. FIRE calls it "McCarthyism 2.0." Fight for free speech & heartland jobs! #AmericaFirst www.thefire.org/news/fire-st...

🚨 Patriots, the "Compact for Academic Excellence" betrays hard working families! It diverts YOUR tax dollars to elite universities, starving heartland schools and risking 200K+ jobs in R&D and local businesses. Demand fair funding for YOUR community! 🇺🇸 #AmericaFirst

🚨 The gov shutdown is costing taxpayers $400M/day, killing jobs, stalling NIH/NSF innovation, & letting China gain on us. 🇺🇸 needs action, not gridlock! 🙏Thank you, federal workers, for your service. Let’s end this now! #MAGA #GovernmentShutdown #AmericanStrength

🎉 Exciting news! Nearly half of Pitt Bioengineering UP NExT PhD trainees earned NIH F31 Fellowships this year—showing the strength of our neural engineering training. #UPNExT #NIHF31 #NeuralEngineering news.engineering.pitt.edu/four-bioengi...

Please share with anyone who cares about NSF support for graduate students and take 30 seconds to sign and leave a comment. The deadline for the 2025 Graduate Research Fellowship Program is about one month away and literally no one can apply. #NSFGRFP jasonjwilliamsny.github.io/grfp2025/

Trump praises COVID & polio vaccines as "amazing," calls Florida's move to end student vaccine mandates a "tough stance." Urges caution on skipping shots that "pure and simple work." #Vaccines #Florida #PublicHealth www.foxnews.com/politics/tru...

New Paper: Univ of Pittsburgh Cross-Translational (UP NExT) Prog: Kids with a hemispherectomy show uneven eye movements: slower toward the removed side, faster the opposite way, with quick “catch-up” saccades, regardless of which hemisphere was removed and not due to general vision or motor issues.

House & Senate reject Trump's ~40% NIH ($27.5B) & 57% NSF ($3.9B) cuts, backing $48-48.7B NIH, $7-9B NSF. 🇺🇸 wins: counters China’s $172B annual S&T surge (7,100 trials vs. US 6,000), boosts heartland jobs & drives medical breakthroughs. #AmericaFirst #NIH #NSF #Innovation

🚨🇺🇸 RED ALERT: Chinese gov’s dumping $47B+ into brain-computer interfaces to CRUSH US tech by 2030, while we’re stuck at $0.2B from DARPA/NIH/NSF! They’re stealing OUR jobs & security! DEMAND $20B/yr NOW to back USA Neurotech! www.wired.com/story/china-... #AmericaFirst #TechWar #NIH #NSF #DARPA

Patriots! NIH cuts kill cures for cancer, HIV, opioid research, hitting red states like hardest with lost job & lost cures for you kids. Longer, costly waits for care. Rural families pay the price. This ain't America First. it's hurting real Americans! Demand better! #NIHcuts

Golden fuses K-pop precision + Western pop structure. Like integrative scientists, hybrid talent drives breakthroughs. Reward synthesis, don’t punish it. #NIH #NSF #Innovation #Multidisciplinarity

SCOTUS letting NIH pause $783M in grants screws taxpayers! $1.4B of OUR money already spent is wasted if stopped. Kills 🇺🇸 scientist & supplier jobs, lets China beat us in medical breakthroughs. This isn’t draining the swamp, it’s draining our wallets! #AmericaFirst www.npr.org/2025/08/21/g...

Trump's AI Action Plan pushes U.S. leadership, but cutting science funding (57% NSF, $18B NIH) threatens the AI we love; self-driving cars, ChatGPT, face recognition. Neuroscience fuels these tools! Let’s keep America #1 in AI. #MAGA #TechForAmerica

PITT NExT collab: Nature Electronics: ROSE Probes – 3D neural probes from Rolling-of-Soft-Electronics. ✅ Custom 3D geometries ✅ Flexible polyimide reduces brain strain ✅ 5-week stable recordings in rodents ✅ High-fidelity 3D spike mapping in rodents & NHPs

Maintaining trust in ethics & research means more than disclosure, it requires accountability. As a leader in the field, Pitt NExT Initiative is committed to setting high standards & advancing best practices for managing conflicts of interest. #Ethics #HigherEd #ResearchIntegrity

Cutting NIH funding now is a bad move. It drives biomedical breakthroughs, supports jobs, and keeps the U.S. competitive. China’s racing ahead in brain-computer tech. Slashing $18B could cost us leadership and health progress. share.google/YKsMLlLCQ356... #NIH #ResearchMatters

Thrilled to be promoted to full professor! Grateful to my students, colleagues, & peers in review. Your challenges & support sharpened our science for impact. What a 10-yr journey it's been since starting my lab in 2015! #AcademicTwitter #Science

Big win for American health & jobs! Senate panel boosts NIH budget by $400M, rejecting 40% cut. NIH research saves lives, fuels innovation, & returns $2.20 per $1 spent. MAGA taxpayers, this is YOUR win! Call your reps & keep pushing for science! #NIHFunding #AmericaFirst

“In an interview after the hearing, Britt told STAT, “I think about what it would be like if my child had a rare disease or was looking for a diagnosis. I would want every single tool in my toolbox available to help my baby, to help my kid… And in my mind, that’s exactly what NIH research is doing.”

Basic science is declining, hurting American jobs, security & our kids’ future. This started pre-Trump. Cuts now will tank biomedical, manufacturing & defense tech. Tell Congress: Fund science to keep America #1! #AmericaFirst #Jobs

Maximizing taxpayer-funded research means capping journal fees, but we must avoid delays & support early-career scientists. Share ideas for equitable, cost-effective publishing with NIH by 9/15/25: osp.od.nih.gov/comment-form... #OpenAccess #SciencePolicy #NIH

Transparency wins! OMB’s Russell Vought tried to pause $15B in NIH research funding on 7/29/25, but WSJ’s reporting & public outcry forced a reversal in hours. Taxpayers win with protected health research & jobs. Speak up, share info, ignore the naysayers! #ScienceMatters #TaxpayerWin #NIH