You’re at the bar having that first drink of the night 🍻 the excited, energized feeling you may have is the “stimulant response” to alcohol - a risk factor for alcohol use disorder. We researched an understudied cell-type’s role in this response #neuroskyence www.biorxiv.org/cgi/content/...

Comments are now open. You can comment here: www.regulations.gov/search?filte... Note that even if the administration goes ahead with this abomination, the comments are essential to aid subsequent litigation! 2/2

🚨🧪🧵URGENT INPUT NEEDED: NIH asks input for next strategic plan-including emphasis on non-animal models (NAMs) to replace animals. Per NIH insider, anti-animal responses now outnumber scientists 200-700x. Please please provide input. Deadline: May 26, 11:59 PM ET. grants.nih.gov/news-events/...

FINALLY HR has the posting up for a postdoc opening in my lab ! Particularly interested in folks with electrophysiology, photometry, or behavioral experience. www.gwu.jobs/postings/125...

Sharing this screen grab from a friend at NIH (with permission). This is a checklist program officers have to complete before a grant can be awarded. The first question: "Is this grant All Clean/Clear in the NIH Text analysis Tool?" 🧵1/3

My daughter has a capstone project (for 8th grade) on mocktails and how they have impacted drinking culture. She put together a survey for this project, if you are so inclined to take it, feel free: docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1F...

Back in the lab and reflecting on all of the amazing science at last week’s Alcohol and the Nervous System GRS and GRC! So excited to co-chair the 2028 GRS with @katiegbry.bsky.social!

I am SO incredibly excited to announce the launch of a global list of Inspiring Black Scientists. You can use this list to nominate and connect with researchers. Please share and join us in highlighting these outstanding scientists for #BlackHistoryMonth and beyond! www.wiley.com/en-us/resear...

Notice of Temporary Extension of Eligibility for the NIH Pathway to Independence Award (K99/R00): for Individuals whose final due date was September-November 2025 and January-March 2026. As always, reach out to your PO/IC contact to discuss. grants.nih.gov/grants/guide...

Thrilled to share our new paper, out now in @natneuro.nature.com, uncovering how estradiol, the most potent estrogen, modulates reinforcement learning and reward prediction errors across biological levels. www.nature.com/articles/s41... #blueprint 1/7

A substantial part (but not all) of this increased investment is multi-year funded grants. My current estimate is that multi-year funding has been used in lieu of ~2400 annually funded grants that could have been made. 2/2

We are looking forward to the 2026 #Alcohol GRC in Ventura, CA! The main meeting starts Feb 22, 2026 (GRS Feb 21-22). For both, we will be selecting additional invited talks from the submitted abstracts. For consideration, submit your abstract by Oct 10! #alcoholGRC2026 #alcoholGRS2026

Excited to share a new lab preprint. This paper is entirely due to the efforts of @oliviaortelli.bsky.social, an incredibly talented PhD student (who is starting to look for a postdoc!). She combined her love of the Hank Sampson operant sipper tube drinking model... www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

(1/3) Excited to introduce our new GRAB sensors for a series of steroid hormones! These tools enable real-time detection of steroid hormone dynamics in vivo🐭🧠. Happy to share these sensors and welcome any feedback! Please contact [email protected] for information.

Public comments have been opened back up! Research with animals is critical for providing evidence-based knowledge in the pursuit of human health. Broadly reducing research projects with animals threatens public health and will greatly stall the development of new therapeutics for diseases!

Check out our new paper on the behavioral engagement of cHAPs on a 5-Choice Serial Reaction Time Task. Congrats, Phillip and team! pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/40492535/

When everything is "normal", writing and administering an NIH T32 program is crazy. Despite being an immense amount of work (probably the single most effort-demanding grant one can direct), it comes with no salary for the PI...

Does anyone know what's up with this message on NIAAA's website? "Due to HHS and NIH restructuring, this website will be maintained, but no new content will be added." I don't see that message on other institute pages...

and still no updated postings/notices for the NRSA parent F31 and F32 award mechanisms 🫠

Keeping an eye on this. What Katie shared on Friday has an estimated post date of 5/10, but has not been posted yet. There are currently NO F31 active opportunities to apply to, and very few F32. I don’t think a delay between expiration dates like this has ever happened before? What’s going on?

Looks like there is a new announcement forecasted for this weekend so hopefuly this is just a temp thing???https://grants.gov/search-results-detail/358830

And it doesn’t look like a replacement has been announced? What’s going on?

Parent F31 and F32 announcements were updated to expire yesterday

Me to my brain organoid in an operant chamber after animal research is defunded

ACTION ITEM-----ACTION ITEM Implementation of Schedule F This is what a lot of us have been worried about. This allows for many civil service positions to replaced with political appointees. This could include NIH institute directors and even POs. BUT THERE IS A COMMENT PERIOD... 1/n

This is insane. $40 billion cut to HHS. 40% of NIH budget will be gone, 27 institutes will shrink down to 8. 44% of CDC budget will disappear, all work on chronic diseases will cease. Head Start will be eliminated. SO PEOPLE WILL DIE because we want to give billionaires their tax cuts.

HOW DARE THEY COME FOR MY KERRYGOLD?!?!?!

Hi everyone, we are petitioning them to reconsider, if you are willing to co-sign our rebuttal because you or your trainees are personally interested in attending such a workshop, please add your name and professional affiliation to the end of the following document! docs.google.com/document/d/1...

The House Continuing Resolution budget “adjustments” for NIH are drastic. Here are some examples:

Was notified this morning that the study section for which I was a reviewer, AA-4, has been dissolved and the SRO is now without a job. What resources are there for NIH employees to help with finding new employment?

Glad to see this post getting some traction, because the Federal Register is the WHOLE ballgame, folks. To drive this point home, a recent EO declares that all posts to FR now must be approved by the White House. www.whitehouse.gov/presidential...

I've been stalking NIH Reporter to see if any new R01s fund at the 15% F&A rate, but... no new full R01s have funded since 2/10/2025, not a single R01 - across all of NIH - since 2/08. Only 18 grants have been newly funded - I am happy for the F31/F32/F30, R35, K99 trainees who have received $$.

Dear science community, an amazing grad student with @drjrink.bsky.social and I lost her belongings in an apartment fire this morning. She and her dog are safe but needs your help. Please consider donating www.gofundme.com/f/kathy-need...

Get in dorks, we're going protesting! STAND UP FOR SCIENCE WITH US ON MARCH 7TH, 2025 WASHINGTON DC AND EVERY STATE CAPITOL Because science is for everyone! Find us at www.standupforscience2025.org #standupforscience2025 #scienceforall #sciencenotsilence

Get in Dorks, we are going protesting. STAND UP FOR SCIENCE. MARCH 7th 12-4pm. DC AND YOUR STATE CAPITALS. More information to come.

Oh. My. God. grants.nih.gov/grants/guide...

Federal restrictions & funding freezes threaten vital research and halts scientific progress that benefits all Americans. Join fellow #NeuroAdvocates in urging Congress to protect congressionally approved funding & ensure uninterrupted support for the scientific workforce. 👇 #NeuroSky

Schroedinger's funding freeze

Academic Skyers: I am compiling a list of policies and statements from various universities about how they are handling the "pause" in terms of stopping expenditures (or not). Please respond to this post with your institution and materials. THANK YOU!

Federal grants to universities are almost entirely on a Letter of Credit basis. Most universities will submit weekly or biweekly drawdowns from the Payment Management System to reimburse recent expenditures. Without those reimbursements universities will be burning through cash unsustainably.

My first attempt at a Christmas Beef Wellington (belated due to husband being sick over the holidays). Overall went much better than anticipated! And the red wine sauce made with the beef trimmings (not pictured) was the real winner - SO flavorful

Calling all teachers, doctors and others who host spaces the public filters through: ***FREE*** BRAIN initiative calendars! With a gorgeous image by @crozell.bsky.social and team on the cover. Hang one and contribute to #SciOutreach. catalog.ninds.nih.gov/publications...

In preparation for the holidays, I made Mexican hot chocolate cookies featuring a molten marshmallow middle 🍪

Undergrads interested in biomedical research - come work at Drexel next summer! The SURF program is accepting applications for a 💰paid💰, 10-week research fellowship. Apply and learn more here: drexel.edu/medicine/res... Deadline is Jan 10!

This weeks baking is s’mores brownies 🍫

Made a little feast for the two of us which included me making/eating cranberry sauce that is ✨not✨ from a can for the first time - super easy and very delicious, will make again. Happy Thanksgiving! 🦃

First recording experiment in rats is underway 💃💃

Choosing to interpret this as extreme enthusiasm for our work - if you weren't lucky enough to be among the **10 reviewers**, please check out Mark's work on EcoHIV effects on cocaine CPP incubation on biorxiv! www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...