Wow. Harvard nuking its PhD programs - Science PhD admissions reduced by more than 75% - Arts & Humanities reduced by about 60% - Social Sciences by 50–70% - History by 60% - Biology by 75% - The German department will lose all PhD seats - Sociology from six PhD students to zero

The first locally acquired case of chikungunya in the US since 2019 has been reported on Long Island

ICYMI: Our Sept Fellows Spotlight features Dr. David Martinez @davidmartinez.bsky.social (@yaleschoolofmed.bsky.social) and his work on #InfectiousDisease, #DengueVirus & #COVIDVaccines. Learn more + apply to be a #KSFellow! 🔗 keypoint.keystonesymposia.org/home/septemb... #KeystoneSymposia

Dear #microbiology and #immunology community- I took a break from social media after I deleted my Twitter account, but am back here. Please help me rebuild my community by following me and amplifying this message- I will follow you back. Thank you and I look forward to our many interactions!

UChicago Microbiology is searching for tenured or tenure-track faculty working in host-pathogens interactions, viral and bacterial pathogenesis, and emerging infectious diseases. Come join our vibrant Department! microbiology.uchicago.edu Apply here apply.interfolio.com/174404

Happy to announce the publication using advanced models to understand how T cells mediate efficient immunoediting in early sarcomas. This was a collaboration between Julie Cheung and Brian Hunt in the lab Thanks to Cancer Cell for publishing our work. www.cell.com/cancer-cell/...

NEW: In an unprecedented move, the NIH will soon disinvite dozens of scientists about to take positions on advisory councils that make final decisions on grant funding. NIH staff were told to select others aligned with the Trump administration and told to expect placements by political appointees.

"No vaccine was tested more extensively than the RNA vaccines, and no vaccine was given to more people than the mRNA vaccines, & they were found to be incredibly safe...and effective. They saved 20 million lives, & they stopped a pandemic that was shutting down the world." -Drew Weissman

The problem with believing vaccines are dangerous is that by the time you realize you’re wrong, it’s too late and someone you love dies of a preventable disease. Florida is about to find this out the hard way.

RFK Jr. rolled out that old chestnut again about how healthy Americans were in the 60’s, so here’s a fact check. In 1965: -42% of American adults smoked; it’s 11% now. -The infant morality rate was 24.7/1000; it’s 5.6/1000 now. -Overall life expectancy was 70 years; it's about 77 years now.

A bizarre dogma has emerged among the anti-mRNA crowd that the only data we have on vaccines is from the original trial papers, rather than the HUGE volume of studies that came out subsequently...

🚨New Paper in Cell 🧵🔎 Happy to share our work led by the @camilahcoelho.bsky.social, on mAbs against mpox. We were very excited (and lucky!) to contribute to this collab. effort. 🦠“Human monoclonal antibodies targeting A35 protect from death caused by mpox”🦠 doi.org/10.1016/j.cell.2025.08.004

🚨 New Publication!!! I’m thrilled to share our latest study, “Clonotype-Enriched Somatic Hypermutations Drive Affinity Maturation of a Public Human Antibody Targeting an Occluded Sarbecovirus Epitope”. www.cell.com/cell-reports... [1/4]

Nature: Cancelling mRNA studies is the highest irresponsibility go.nature.com/3HDx4wD cc Jay Bhattacharya

America Is Abandoning One of the Greatest Medical Breakthroughs www.nytimes.com/2025/08/18/o...

To have this paper appear the same day that RFK Jr is canceling all mRNA vaccine funding is further indication that irony is not dead, even though we might all be soon.

A 33-year-old ex-Marine police officer was shot at the CDC by someone who believed he was hurt by the Covid vaccine. The policeman was a father of two with another baby on the way ---> www.nytimes.com/2025/08/09/u...

So proud of Celeste Robles @celeste-robles.bsky.social for being selected as a 2025 Gilliam Fellow! Thrilled to be joining the Gilliam community @hhmi.org www.hhmi.org/programs/gil...

Beaming with pride that Jordan Polster, a student in my lab at Yale, was selected for the #Gilliam #Fellowship from @hhmi.org I look forward to mentoring Jordan and participating in the various mentorship workshops. Jordan - congrats! And I can’t wait to see your research advance!

Congratulations 2025 Gilliam Fellows and Advisors! 🎉 The Gilliam Fellows Program launches promising PhD students into impactful scientific research careers while fostering inclusive training environments. Through this program, HHMI supports both graduate students and their faculty thesis advisors.

BIG NEWS: “Senate appropriators on Thursday approved an FY26 Labor-HHS bill that included a slight bump in funding for the NIH, with a strong 26–3 bipartisan vote.” Thank you to members of the Senate Appropriations Committee on both sides of the aisle! www.axios.com/pro/health-c...

The NIH budget will INCREASE by $400 million — not slashed by 40%, as Trump proposed — according to a proposal by Senate appropriators, says Sen Murray. "Some have asked if there will even be an NIH by [2029]. The commmittee's resounding message is yes—Congress has your back", she says.

In preparation of today's mark-up of the NIH appropriations bill in the Senate and other activities, I sent this note to Senator Susan Collins' office. 1/2

Extra kudos and thanks to all the staff at NIH and NSF and other federal funding agencies for working extra hard in very small windows of opportunity to get grants reviewed and funds released before the attention-addled federal policies change again (on an hourly basis).

Breaking News: Brown University was said to have reached a deal with the Trump administration to restore federal funding. nyti.ms/459nQzY

Reviewer #3 feedback.

holy shit lmao

New paper! Combining epidemiology and experiments uncovers surprising drug-host-microbiome-pathogen interactions. Congrats @amankumar25.bsky.social, Robyn Tamblyn, and the rest of the team. www.nature.com/articles/s41...

🎉 Over the moon to share the first paper from my lab!! We discovered an unexpected role for the cytokine OSM in lung epithelial homeostasis and repair. 🧵 1/n www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

Miss Rachel continues to have more of a moral backbone than 99% of public figures

Very depressing to hear that. How can this be happening at NIH? It defies belief.

Lunch outing with the lab to celebrate Jordan’s brilliant qualifying exam (she passed with flying colors)! And, also celebrated a 1%ile score on the lab’s R01 on mucosal vaccines for respiratory viruses. Fingers crossed for the NOA!

“The 1793 yellow fever epidemic in Philadelphia was one of the most severe in American history, killing around 5,000 people, or 10% of the city's population. The outbreak began in August near the Delaware waterfront and spread rapidly throughout the summer and fall.” The rich fled to the countryside

🙌🏼 praise be for the judicial branch putting the brakes on the illegal actions of this current administration. Judge Rules N.I.H. Grant Cuts Illegal, Orders Funds Restored www.nytimes.com/live/2025/06...

Real vaccine science, check it out

A paper from our pancoronavirus vaccine P01 grant group is now out in Science Translational Medicine. Here we show that non-stabilized spike delivered as mRNA is sufficient to elicit broadly neutralizing antibodies in monkeys. @alexschaefer.bsky.social www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

Kennedy’s ACIP 2.0 is as expected. Headlined by charlatans that have nothing to lose and will rubber stamp ludicrous policies. I strongly urge my fellow healthcare providers to speak up and be unafraid. We must ensure there is accountability through collective action.

The process for ACIP membership usually takes years of vetting, particularly for conflicts of interest. Have these people undergone the same level of scrutiny? I'm pretty sure Malone has made money from saying falsely that mRNA vaccines are unsafe.

RFK Jr.’s attack on vaccine experts endangers every American www.statnews.com/2025/06/10/a... via @statnews.com "Kennedy is not fit for the office he holds." "Congress must act. The medical and public health community must speak out. And the public should demand better."

Jay Bhattacharya is decimating health research Here in my state, his cuts are MASSIVE ($566 million in lost funding NC is #2 in terminated grants The impact will be horrific Bhattacharya took $129 million from Duke’s HIV vaccine development efforts; see www.dukechronicle.com/article/2025...

~40% cuts to NIH research awards. ~35% cuts to training programs. ~27% cut to internal research. ~30% fewer grants awarded overall. The Common Fund will be cut in half. American science has never faced a threat like this. www.statnews.com/2025/06/06/n... via @statnews.com

Remember the day when the cyber truck was unveiled by Elon Musk trying to channel his best Steve Jobs? When he took a hammer to the ‘bulletproof windows’ which were not? Today is better.

Losing the US contribution to GAVI is predicted to lead to 1.2 million additional preventable child deaths globally. From our new piece about measles: www.nature.com/articles/s41...

I grew up in the US in the 1980s, so exceptionalism is a defining trait. My default setting is USA #1. I can’t accept that making America great again means voluntarily stepping off the podium and relinquishing our medals. It’s the least American thing we could ever do.

RFK has always a history of making his own reality which requires making stuff up to support his fantasy-reality

🚨 In a stunningly short-sighted move, HHS just canceled its contract with Moderna to test mRNA vaccines for #H5N1 and other pandemic threats. When the next big outbreak hits, what’s the plan—bleach again? This will come back to bite us. Hard. #BirdFlu #PublicHealth #PandemicPreparedness

New paper about ACE2 using Merbecovirus. Hot stuff. So hot but you can't Letko. @fviromics.bsky.social and Nick Catanzaro. www.nature.com/articles/s41... #ACE2 #emergingviruses #bats #batman #MERS #HKU5

Definitely fool’s gold. Pun intended.

Our study screening the majority of all published Merbecovirus RBD’s for cell entry phenotypes is now published in Nature Communications! (1/5) shorturl.at/gYz4E