quick reminder to come see @grocklin.bsky.social tonight at @mit.edu!

Join us in Room 181, Building 68 @mit.edu on October 22nd 2025 @ 7pm EDT to see @grocklin.bsky.social present a mind blowing amount of data and learn what becomes possible at this scale "Predicting protein folding stability and aggregation propensity using large-scale experiments" bpdmc.org

Announcing such a major change to NSF GRFP this late in the cycle is incredibly cruel. 2nd yr students (mine included) have been working so hard on their proposals despite ongoing uncertainty. They are driven and passionate about being outstanding scientists and helping those coming up behind them.

Cecilia Payne-Gaposchkin ✨ figured out what stars are made of ✨ when she was just 25. 🔭🧪 Her PhD thesis basically established the Harvard astro department — at a time when Harvard didn't officially allow woman students. I wrote this little profile to mark the 100th anniversary of her thesis:

Vought and his “no more NIH money out the door” footnote is a power struggle. Between R’s getting antsy about hard votes and Senate signaling support for science funding, Vought had to signal his dominance in some way. Now is the real test: are R’s more afraid of Trump et al. or their constituents?

The NIH can’t award ANY grants to outside researchers under new WH restriction, reports @wsj.com. The pause came in the form of a footnote from OMB Director Vought, in a document that doles out federal funds to the NIH. Prelude to rescissions, especially after his comments over the weekend?

One might think, oh the fiscal year is only two months. But many of our grants are already delayed by weeks to months and we are on borrowed time as is. This is devastating and heralds darker times ahead.

PO just confirmed that our 5th percentile R01 is not getting funded. Past NCI Payline at 4 percent. Cant believe it.

NCI's payline will be the 4th percentile. The Trump administration has effectively killed Cancer Research in the US www.cancer.gov/grants-train...

A motivating quote from @carolynbertozzi.bskyverified.social: “…You are discovering knowledge and gifting that to humanity for all of posterity. Once you learn something no one can take that away. It is not an object. It is an intellectual currency that will be shared throughout the generations…”

#MorganLabatND is hiring a research technician!! We are looking for an aspiring biochemistry researcher that shares our community values, is curious about the world around them, and brings a unique perspective to our team. (1/2) jobs.smartrecruiters.com/UniversityOf...

Chicago!

Although 500 new NSF GRFPs were added in June, the total number of fellowships in 2025 remains ~500 fewer than in 2024. Some fields—like CS and Physics—still saw net increases in total awards. But others, including Life Sciences & Psychology, have taken hits of 50% or more compared to last year.

Excited to share this preprint from my lab. We report a potent and site-specific inhibition of translation initiation by 2’O methylation. It’s been a though year, but these discoveries keep us excited and motivated! #RNAsky #RNAbiology

We are excited to share our new preprint, “An improved model for prediction of de novo designed proteins with diverse geometries”. (1/9) www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

Keep in mind: these are AWARDED grants, with Notice of Awards. The federal government is not honoring existing contracts with this university, refusing to reimburse for costs charge on awarded grants.

Funding freeze at Northwestern from Emma Mairson at grant-watch.us. Data from USAspending. Normally, ~$70 M per month. Now, bupkis. Northwestern is keeping research moving and must be spending ~$40 M per month. Clearly not sustainable for too long.

Note that this (exceptional) visualization does not appear to account for the Harvard, Brown, Northwestern terminations. This is a major underestimate

Do you love flow cytometry, cell sorting and other quantitative, biophysical approaches for measuring cells and their biomolecules? Join our team at Notre Dame! www.linkedin.com/posts/ndbic_...

our lab is blessed to have 3 new postdoctoral fellow positions. we would welcome scientists interested in...

The notion that private institutions need to toe the party line is so fundamentally un-American it is almost unbelievable

I appreciate the offers from other scientists to help Harvard (students, labs, etc) through this attack, but what would be most helpful is for you to use your position to contact your elected representatives and make it clear this fight isn't just Harvard, it will affect you, and their districts too

Good cover @economist.com

The Ivy League should be preparing mutual defense agreements that would allow students to transfer, even just nominally, to any other Ivy. Then the Big10 should do the same. We succeed together, we fail apart.

This is especially important: “We call upon our fellow institutions of higher education in the United States to declare their willingness to facilitate the immediate co-enrollment of Harvard’s international students, including formal acceptance of transfer for immigration purposes.”

Three things made the US a rich and powerful nation: the rule of law, its science & innovation system, and openness to foreign talent. Remarkable how Trump has taken a sledgehammer to all three. No enemy of this country could do more.

Yesterday, the NIH R35 “Outstanding Investigator” grant to fund scientists in my lab studying antibiotic resistance was terminated for reasons not related to the content of the science, or any actions taken by me or members of my lab

“However, the NIH General Counsel’s office was very clear that this was not possible. The statutory authority for NIH is to support research and NIH does not have a say in how this is accomplished (as long as it is legal).” /fin

Should say "How the federal government became so deppendent on academic research labs"

Sources have shared 2 important pieces of information about NIH grant payments (although I am trying to get further confirmation). Hang on... (1) ALL payments to Columbia, Brown, Northwestern, Cornell, Weill-Cornell, Harvard are frozen. 1/3

Conserved energetic changes drive function in an ancient protein fold https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.04.02.646877v1

STILL no New or Competing Renewal awards from NIGMS. Only NIGMS seems to not be making these awards.

Rumeysa Ozturk must not be deported. You can't kidnap someone off the street for their political views — this isn't Moscow. She has every right to speak her mind. I've contacted the Administration. I want answers.

Can Secretary Rubio give us a full list of the political views the administration will allow immigrants to espouse and which ones he will decide to "yank" their visas over? Be specific, please. www.state.gov/secretary-of...

Small proteins can be more complex than they look! We know proteins fluctuate between different conformations- but by how much? How does it vary from protein to protein? Can highly stable domains have low stability segments? @ajrferrari.bsky.social experimentally tested >5,000 domains to find out!

Large-scale discovery, analysis, and design of protein energy landscapes https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.03.20.644235v1

NIGMS seems to be the only institute at NIH that has issued zero new or competitive renewal grants sine 2/6/2025. zero. Its crazy and scary.

Protein dynamics was the first research to enchant me >10yrs ago, but I left in PhD bc I couldn't find big experimental data to evaluate models. Today w @ginaelnesr.bsky.social, I'm thrilled to share the big dynamics data I've been dreaming of, and the mdl we trained w them: Dyna-1. 📝: rb.gy/de5axp

Protein function often depends on protein dynamics. To design proteins that function like natural ones, how do we predict their dynamics? @hkws.bsky.social and I are thrilled to share the first big, experimental datasets on protein dynamics and our new model: Dyna-1! 🧵

I am livid that my student who submitted a diversity F31 and received an outstanding score, near the top of the fundable range, was told to submit again. Refusing to fund F31s from URMs while funding regular F31s from white/privileged students with worse scores is blatant discrimination.

Scientists have just cured pancreatic cancer in some patients with personalized mRNA vaccines. Pancreatic cancer. And this Trump administration wants to throw it all away. They’re throwing away a cure for cancer.

I now have multiple sources that say at least one round of NATIONAL ADVISORY COUNCIL MEETINGS will now be announced in the Federal Register.

I have heard from a reliable source that the NIGMS council is rescheduled for sometime In April even though it isn’t posted yet. Not sure about other councils

Looks like NIH Councils are going to resume meeting in April/May

It feels like the resumption of study section posting on the federal registrar, while continuing to block advisory council, was an attempt to quell the news cycle while still keeping funds frozen.

There is a reason why Elon and Russ Vought want Congress to pass Speaker Johnson's slush fund CR. We should not let Elon and Trump pick winners and losers or defund programs they either don't like or don't understand. They will hurt blue AND red states. VOTE NO.

A million times this

Wow. "NIH" canceled my co-mentored (with Dave Sulzer) PhD student's F31 funding. His work is on understanding the genetics and neuroscience of language learning disorders. F31 provides no indirect $ to Columbia, just pays his salary. Not that it should matter, but he's an American citizen. W.T.F.