NIH grants have been under political scrutiny since early 2025. But what does the screening process actually look like? What is being flagged? I spent a month digging into leaked docs and emails. We've published the 235-word list that are being flagged by an internal AI tool. And so much more. 🧵

I assigned random gender/ethnicity labels to scientific abstracts from the literature and then asked Claude to do a thematic analysis. Claude identified a clinical versus computational split for female/male authors and a DEI focus for Black/URM authors. All in completely random data.

I just repeated the analysis for grants in fiscal year 2026. I found 98 grants with title changes upon administrative (non-competitive) renewal. Here is the removed word cloud for fiscal year 2026. 4/5

Happy to share a preprint here (bit.ly/4c6yECo) - years in the making that asks a deceptively simple question: when it comes to reading #MPN disease from peripheral blood, do #platelets or white blood cells tell us more? Details: bit.ly/4caanLT Thanks for your read! #MPN #platelet #WBC #RNAseq

Can anyone do some curve fitting to find the exponential we need to fit to find the formula for the rise of the US 1%’s wealth and then maybe their delta over the bottom 50%?

I defended my PhD 10 years ago today. That was the least remarkable thing that happened that day. Sharing something I wrote about it last year. Since then "the horrors persist but so do we." And with dignity.

OMB has posted the full-year apportionments for NIH. openomb.org/file/11511545 I believe this means that NIH now has the spending authority to fund grants! There may be nuances and I will be tracking these as best I can.

Action Item...Action Item...Action Item Time to comment on the Framework for the NIH-Wide Strategic Plan grants.nih.gov/grants/guide... Comments due by May 16, 2026

we are losing so much talent, progress, and hope for no good reason www.vox.com/future-perfe...

Current NIH leadership want you to think they are using rigorous, consistent & scientific processes to screen studies to align them with agency priorities. But the process that they have put down on paper is a sham. It’s important to know NIH is not following its own guidance. Here’s why: 🧵1/

Pls re-post: My department @oxfordbiochemistry.bsky.social are recruiting for several new faculty positions (links below). Broad search in molecular biology/biochemistry, across prokaryotes and eukaryotes. Interested in understanding life at the molecular level, this job might be for you! 1/n

WHERE OH WHERE would we be without "deranged activists"!!! (ha ha i see now trademarked 🤣)

All in all, this update reveals a number of issues to be concerned about: (1) Slow pace of grant making, particularly for new and competitive renewal grants (2) OMB apportionment delays as a possible cause (3) Slow pace of institutional training grants (4) Increased use of multiyear funding 9/9

Made a short video as a response. 3 questions remain for me. 1) What is the definition of a "DEl activity," and how is it being communicated to NIH staff so they can determine whether a grant qualifies? (Continued below)

Thanks, @maxkozlov.bsky.social . I will go further. This deranged activist was also known for criticizing NIH Director Francis Collins during the Obama administration when he felt that Collins was making decisions not aligned with the best interests of the NIH. www.science.org/doi/10.1126/... 1/3

Congress rejected massive cuts to US science budgets for 2026, but much of the money still isn’t flowing to researchers. The culprit? The White House Office of Management and Budget (OMB) is quietly slow-walking the release of funds. 🧵👇

these $$$ could have funded biomedical research, including some of the 1000+ NIH grant proposals that were found to be highly meritorious in peer review the payoff for that investment would be immediate ($2.63 per USD) and sustained (education, training, discoveries, careers)

NEW: The House passed a bill to end the partial government shutdown Tuesday afternoon, cleared by a bipartisan vote under the insistence of President Donald Trump. https://to.pbs.org/4qgEm9M

Update: "Senate Democrats have struck a deal with Republicans and the White House to pass five [bills and] a stopgap measure to fund the DHS for two weeks while they continue negotiating guardrails to rein in immigration agents." #ICE #DHS www.nytimes.com/live/2026/01...

Friends, it’s time to let that imposter syndrome go. Former Harvard president and former secretary of the treasury Larry Summers can’t even write a coherent email. Plus, his bestie was a pedophile sex trafficker. And the sex trafficker’s other bestie is president. You deserve that promotion!

NIH Study Section Watch Day 1: No communication about rescheduling.

Odd or jarring as it might be for some in my professional community, this brilliant @pbs.org documntary echoes aspects of my bkgrnd. Science was the path for me & that was entirely fortuitous. Hope many of you find a chance to watch this & think on how (& to whom) we open doors of opportunity!

This may be the most important paper ever published about NIH funded research. www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

NIH's updated multi-year payout policy (funding all years of a grant upfront vs. annually) could dramatically reduce new R01s available. While total awards are "catching up," the impact on new investigators remains concerning. With budget negotiations underway, now's the time to contact your reps!

I am leading a workshop tonight for students in my department on how to apply for the NSF GRFP, but have not received answers from NSF to my questions about whether they are still funding applications in neuroscience and cognitive science, etc. If anyone has info please let me know. (continued)

This ad for us scientists and educators from the Big Ten Academic Alliance is nicely done! Share widely please - not just in reposts but also in speaking with members of your community. www.youtube.com/watch?v=sWmc...

@jengreitz.bsky.social l & my lab want to co-hire a computational biologist/biostatistician with project management expertise to help map the regulatory code of the human genome and discover genetic mechanisms of disease. Details below careersearch.stanford.edu/jobs/computa... Plz RT

Few examples: 1) understand where the payline is and what score compression looks like. I suspect a 1 will be required. Maybe 1 or 2 apps will be funded per SS. 2) be kind to ESI/NI and other discriminated groups 3) maybe drop the whole "this is an A1 but I'm going to pretend it's not" approach.

New article led by Tara McAllister & co-authored by Lelani Walker, @niiyokamigaabaw.bsky.social, myself, Bradley Moggridge, Serena Naepi, Brittany Kamai and @napaaqtuk.bsky.social www.nature.com/articles/d41...

First highlight... Senator Capito started of the discussion saying that the bill contains AN INCREASE for NIH. The details are not available, but the bill will be released ofter the hearing. This is not a done-deal, but it does show where the Senate is on a bipartisan basis.

STAT: Trump administration blocks NIH from awarding any research grants and contracts / OMB directive sets up a clash with Congress bit.ly/4lU5Lgw

Heard from #AHRQ that the entire grants staff has been let go! They are unable to issue funds for grants already funded, let alone fund new grants. This is outrageous and will make Americans poorer and sicker. Why? A brief thread about just some recent AHRQ-funded research: #MedSky #HealthPolicy

Funding policy for 2025 from NCI. Was just released: 4 percentile…maybe! www.cancer.gov/grants-train...

Join the 22,339 people who have joined to support our NIH colleagues. Let's get this to 50,000 RT

I urge others to similarly support our patriots at NIH who use their training and talents to improve human health and position the US as the world’s leader in biomedical discovery, innovation and technology development 🙏

The world needs more of this and less of most other things

Not only do we do cool science but we have a badass illustrator for our pubs

In case you hadn't noticed:

Yeah, about that letter "signed by three federal officials, placed on official letterhead, was sent from the email inbox of a senior federal official and was sent on April 11 as promised”? And then you told us to fuck ourselves? Yeah, that wasn't a real letter. We didn't mean it.

🙏 We need your help 🙏 The government continues to cancel grants at both NIH and NSF to censor science it doesn't like. We're tracking terminations to organize and advocate. Please report your terminated grants: NIH: forms.gle/J2znQ7y7YpeP... NSF: airtable.com/appGKlSVeXni... w/ @noamross.net

I'm the new VP of WVU's Graduate Women Advocating Science and I'm on a mission! We want to host a speaker who can tell us about activism in STEM for underrepresented voices. Know anyone? My following is on the micro scale so any reposts are deeply appreciated ❤️ #womeninSTEM #diversityinSTEM #SciComm

Yay Harvard!!!!!!! Well done! Other universities should do the same. www.nytimes.com/2025/04/14/u...

@Glaivy Batsuli (Stanford) & I are track chairs for the Basic Science (& possibly translational/laboratory) sessions for @THSNA 2026 www.thsna.org/web/ Know trainees or under-represented voices (including yourself!) we should consider? #thsna2026 #thrombosis #hemostasis DM or comment below!🙏

The UK Government Statistical Service is hiring a batch of stats folk. 15 Higher Statistical Officer 5 Senior Statistical Officer - National in Locations across UK. East Kilbride in Scotland. https://www.civilservicejobs.service.gov.uk/ #rstats #statistics #jobs #civilservice

publichealth.realclearjournals.org/perspectives... I am no policy expert but this is one article that is seemingly connected to Dr. Bhattaracharya - and if so, it is worth an open discussion (and possibly feedback to him!) Thoughts?

How I will remember April Fools' Day 2025. Reckless. My heart is out for these dedicated folks at NIH, FDA and CDC www.statnews.com/2025/04/01/h...

This is why they've spent decades selling the myth that wealth is a proxy for work-ethic. Because that myth makes it easy to treat poverty as proof that someone isn't deserving of sympathy or support.

People let go everywhere you turn at NIH today, carrying in empty boxes. Both the people in the elevator with me. Multiple IC directors. The HR people who are supposed to process all the early retirements. All of the people who respond to data calls that we are legally required to answer.

1. Another Friday afternoon massacre of sorts: NIH just rescinded its Scientific Integrity Policy. h/t @lizborkowski.bsky.social

Thanks for this! I just called and chose 0 to talk to an operator. She sounded so pleased to hear from me and said she had a log right there and they’re sharing the numbers with the CEO. She told me she felt proud to work there. 🥹 CALL!! ☎️ #MomSky