Australia’s medical and scientific research sectors save lives and are vital to our economy. The government has to step up and lean in to their potential. It’s small-minded and short-sighted to force them to wither on the vine, when we have money put aside for this purpose in the Future Fund.

“This feels like yet another attack on our research community that is already under siege” Senator @davidpocock.bsky.social has issued a media release about the ARC's proposed restructure and job cuts 👇

An abismal 8% success rate for this year’s #NHMRC #IdeasGrant scheme. Must be an all time low. Congratulations to those successful, you really earned it! Commiserations to the NINETY TWO percent of applicants who didn’t get it… #australianresearch #discoveriesneeddollars 🥼🧪🔬🧫 🇦🇺

When a larval zebrafish twitches its tail, the vascular endothelium lights up with a calcium signal, mediated by Piezo1. We used to think mechanosensing in endothelial cells was about sensing blood flow, but at least in this case it's about sensing body motion.

The Medical Research Future Fund (MRFF) funds medical research in Australia. Only half the funds have been released. If you're an Australian and able to vote please use the form below to email your local MP to release the full amount of the MRFF aamri.org.au/mrff/

Australia’s first Centre of Research Excellence in #Lymphoedema and Lymphatic Regeneration has launched, led by Prof @benjhogan.bsky.social and Prof Natasha Harvey, it's been dubbed a global “paradigm shift” and a major step forward. Read more: www.petermac.org/about-us/new...

Hundreds of millions in MRFF funds are sitting idle while labs close and researchers leave. The money is there – release the full MRFF. www.aamri.org.au/mrff #releasethefullmrff

And we’re off! Excited to be in Tokyo for a weekend of vascular biology kicked off by the Presidents of the Japanese, Korean and Australian vascular biology societies….

“It’s time to remove the arbitrary funding cap on MRFF disbursements so it can deliver what is has been designed & legislated to do: support medical research & innovation" - says Academy President Prof. Chennupati Jagadish, AC commenting on a story in Nine Newspapers lnkd.in/geu3QVba

Thanks for sharing our work @bladoux.bsky.social (you just made the lead author @marcoenriquez18.bsky.social very happy 😊)

Australia: SERD panel wants Australia to have narrow, long-term research focus (free to read): www.researchprofessionalnews.com/rr-news-aust...

Excellent work by @juliaeckert.bsky.social- now online!

The Institute for Molecular Bioscience is seeking an exceptional academic leader to be the new Director of the Centre for Chemistry and Drug Discovery and lead our centre consisting of 10 group leaders, 40 staff and approximately 50 HDR students. Come and join us in sunny Brisbane!

Reminder Australia’s Global R&D Ranking (Gross R&D expenditure as % of GDP) is 23 at 1.66% (2023). Closest nations are Portugal 1.7%, Estonia 1.78%, Czech 1.96%, Slovenia 2.11%. Leaders=Israel 6.02%, Korea 5.21%. UK 2.9% and US 3.59%. Imagine 3%….. @albomp.bsky.social @jimchalmers.bsky.social

The latest figures show R&D investment isn’t even keeping up with inflation, let alone fuelling productivity.

Every "meet the speaker" event

SAVE THE DATE!! #2026SDB 🧪🧬🔬🧫🎉 (Never been to Vegas 😂 Exciting!!)

Karolinska is looking for 20 (!!) assistant professors and offering 6 year appointments with ~1M USD startup packages. ki.se/en/about-ki/...

Studies of the regenerative powers of worms, zebrafish and lizards suggest ways to improve recovery in people https://go.nature.com/40aM9M8

It was again a great Lymphatic Forum, this time in Chicago. From basic lymphatic endothelial cell biology to clinical trials on lymphatic diseases. Looking forward to the 2027 one.

With nearly all of Harvard Chan School’s direct federal grants terminated, we are relying on philanthropy to power our research and support our educational programs. Every gift, regardless of size, advances our vision of health, dignity, and justice for every human. Support our work: hsph.me/whygive

KJ Muldoon, a 9½-month-old boy with a rare condition, made medical history by receiving the first custom gene-editing treatment. The technique used has the potential to help people with thousands of other uncommon genetic diseases. Read more: nyti.ms/44H77pg

Beautiful work! Congratulations to the team

NIH-funded basic research allowed me to discover two molecules (COX-2 and S1PR1) that became drug targets - COX-2 inhibitors and S1PR modulators - more than 7 million prescriptions for Celebrex taken for pain; >350k people have taken Fingolimod/Ozanimod for MS and IBD/UC-basic research is essential!

Australia completely lacks a dedicated training program for clinician scientists. With the vision and support of VMIAL @petermaccc.bsky.social is extremely proud to announce the first clinician-scientist fellowship. If you meet the eligibility criteria PLEASE APPLY! www.nature.com/naturecareer...

Australia should be doing this now and at a grander scale. Let’s reverse the brain drain and properly support the scientists we have @markbutlermp.bsky.social @edhusicmp.bsky.social

Delighted to share the latest preprint from the lab led by Janith Seneviratne We reveal novel roles for #embryonic regulators DPPA2/4 in facilitating a H2AK119Ub primed #chromatin state when aberrantly up-regulated in non-small cell lung #cancers 🧬🔬 (1/6) www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

Two great new #Zebrafish preprints from the #WeinsteinLab using a new transgenic that reports epigenetic silencing and activation! Great to study epigenetic changes in vertebrates, and we even did an ENU screen. Excellent work by @mmarvel.bsky.social et al. 🧪 www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

Join us as a group leader!!! Only a week left to apply to become part of our talented, fun and enthusiastic cancer research faculty in Melbourne. 👇

New GWAS for intracranial aneurysms, the main cause of subarachnoid hemorrhage (associated with 50% mortality) 👉MVP, FinnGen & previous IA GWAS 👉15,438 cases & 1.2M controls 👉22 loci (5 novel) pointing to genes related to SMCs and pericytes [1/3]

Well deserved! Congratulations Brant!! 🙌

Special congrats to NIH Senior Investigator Brant Weinstein, Ph.D., who was named a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. Dr. Weinstein was honored for his contributions to vascular biology. Learn more at go.nih.gov/sl2B1ka. #zebrafish @izfs.bsky.social

Awesome stuff @chengflylab.bsky.social !! Huge congratulations 🙌

A group leader position is open at Peter Mac in Melbourne, Australia! Join us! Applications until May 5. 👇👇 www.nature.com/naturecareer...

Run a lab at an international cancer research centre in Melbourne, Australia! Applications open until May 9th…. 👇👇👇

Beautiful work! Congratulations Taija, Hans and team 🙌

Nature research paper: Dynamic cytoskeletal regulation of cell shape supports resilience of lymphatic endothelium https://go.nature.com/4hrHX0v

Join us @petermaccc.bsky.social !

And it is now out in its final form! congratulations again to all the authors and specially Savita for her very much needed involvement and energy to make this possible. www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

We are recruiting a group leader in laboratory research at Peter Mac Cancer Centre in Melbourne, Australia 🔬🦘💥 Work in a cutting edge research environment in a vibrant world city! We value research excellence, creativity and diversity. Join us! careers.petermac.org/job/MELBOURN...

Happy to announce that the final version of our paper on #endothelial cell #migration #mechanobiology, #angiogenesis, #hydrostaticpressure is out on @elife.bsky.social doi.org/10.7554/eLif... !! In our revised paper, we show that disrupted osmotic gradient and water inflow impair tip cell migration!

Read the Research Highlight here! www.riken.jp/en/news_pubs... @RIKEN BDR

Scientists are now organizing events, called Stand Up for Science, on 7 March in Washington, D.C., and state capitals. So far, they have attracted more than 100 volunteers from some 30 states who are hoping to rally support for research as a public good. scim.ag/4328LAD

In @elife.bsky.social: Vascular mural cells protect the adult brain from haemorrhage but do not control the blood-brain barrier in developing zebrafish doi.org/10.7554/eLif...

We have a postdoc position available in the lab! Come and work on lymphatic vascular development and regeneration. We use zebrafish, mouse, cells, tumour models and love imaging, genetics and genomics🔬 Come join us in Melbourne! www.seek.com.au/job/82157187...

Team led by Ludwig Lausanne's Matteo Massara & @johannajoyce.bsky.social finds that gut bacteria of genus Alistipes promote metastasis in a breast-to-brain model of metastasis and identifies a bacterially regulated metabolite the disrupts cancer-blood vessel interactions in the brain. bit.ly/4aIhiL8

Great opportunity to postdoc in cell biology in Australia 👇👇

🚨Postdoc vacancy alert! Interested to work on apoptosis/inflammation? Have some experience in biosensor-imaging and quantitative analysis of dynamic systems? 2 positions available for 2 years with potential of extension Apply now! 👉 uq.wd3.myworkdayjobs.com/uqcareers/jo...

Very happy to share our work on lymphatic endothelial cell specification, which was published in Nature Cardiovascular Research this week.

Where have I heard this before? 🤔 “Let’s cancel grant review panels as they don’t facilitate accountable peer review or education of the next generation” - Ah Yes! that’s the SHAMBOLIC MESS we have where submitting a grant is like buying a lottery ticket! If Trump says it’s a good idea it must be 🤦🏽