Check this out! So nice!

Attending a grant writing seminar at the University. Its quite interesting how there is no mention of luck as an imperative in grant funding.

Lab goals

I'm so excited to be hiring my first postdoc! If you love retinal biology and developing new therapeutics to cure blindness, please apply! Thank you to the @brightfocus.bsky.social for supporting my research and enabling me to grow my research team! external-careers.jobs.unsw.edu.au/cw/en/job/53...

A tree fell on my fence few months ago. Neither my spouse nor I are handy, and we left it in its unkempt state. My neighbor took it up on himself to buy the materials, and fix it (after he checked with us). Welcome to Iowa! People are way too nice here.

Attended the post-doc to PI panel organized by the University of Iowa post-doc association. Always fun to discuss career trajectories with PIs new to Iowa, including the awesome @kmulfaul.bsky.social

One of those weeks where I am happy to bury myself in the science and tune the world out. Happy science-ing to all who can relate!

New paper from the lab! In collaboration with Patrice Tankam lab at Indiana University, we evaluated changes in the Descemet's membrane thickness in the double mutant FECD mice. Congrats to the co-first authors Hadiya Pattan and Subashree Murugan! iovs.arvojournals.org/article.aspx...

Great talk by @wisemanlab.bsky.social at Anatomy and Cell Biology seminar at the University of Iowa yesterday! Lots of great science, and lots of laughs! Wish I took a better picture to share here!

UPDATE: At least two children, ages 8 and 10, were shot and killed and at least 17 more people, including 14 children, were wounded during a back-to-school mass at Annunciation Catholic School in Minneapolis. Schools & churches should be sanctuaries of safety for children, not where they go to die.

Two children were killed and seventeen people were injured in a shooting at Annunciation Catholic School. A Cracker Barrel logo change received far more scrutiny and attention than any fight against the epidemic of gun violence in this country. Our priorities remain idiotic.

The UI Department of Biology invites applications for a tenure-track assistant professor position in genetics, beginning in the academic year 2026. Review of applicants will begin on November 1, 2025. For more information about the position and to apply, please visit: jobs.uiowa.edu/faculty/view...

The NIH was healthiest when pay lines were in the 20th percentile range. We are headed into an environment where pay lines are in the 5% range. In my entire career, I’ve only had 3 grants that scored better than 5%. And my lab is considered a successful one. This is going to destroy science.

While I’m a big fan of new technologies that help us study human biology…there’s still no replacement for animal research! See my article in Gen News. www.genengnews.com/topics/trans...

"Indiana University-Bloomington should not be turned into a trade school with Division One football and basketball." The situation in Indiana is a red flag for all of higher ed. And I'm grateful to the @chicagotribune.com editorial board for taking a stand. www.chicagotribune.com/2025/07/07/e...

NIH BREAKING NEWS NIH BREAKING NEWS Hearing from multiple sources that an email went out late yesterday afternoon Effective immediately: Please do not terminate any additional grant projects. Please pull back all grant projects that are in the cue to be terminated.

those small moments of optimism! The @gladfelterlab.bsky.social and Duke had a member of Thom Tillis's team visit the lab to talk about the bill, see the work we do, and meet the scientists behind it (on May 23rd oddly enough, the date on this letter). Would strongly recommend!

I spoke with Jade Hindmon, host of @kpbssandiego.bsky.social Midday Edition, about the consequences of the current administration’s cuts to science funding. Please share to help spread the word and raise awareness. www.kpbs.org/podcasts/kpb...

Now that it is official, I am pleased to announce that the Shyam lab will relocate to the Department of Anatomy and Cell Biology at the University of Iowa, effective August 2025. I cannot remember ever being this excited about a new chapter in my professional life!

First R01 application went from "Not discussed" to an amazing score in the resubmission! I am still in shock, but sharing this to offer hope to anyone who might have received the dreaded ND this application cycle. Your amazing score is just one submission away! Keep doing your awesome science!

Here is a link you can blast out to all of your networks to ask them to consider signing on in support of our NIH heroes. actionnetwork.org/forms/add-na... We are at 5000 folks who have signed on. But we can do better Only for people who have ever been sick or knows someone who has been.

"I have a message for America's scientists: I want to tell you how much I appreciate your work, how much I value and treasure your work, how much support you have within the Congress...we are aware of the deep damage that is being done to your profession and we are determined to make it stop" 🧪

Join us for a SIG session @arvoinfo.bsky.social on June 10th, 9-10:30 pm EDT. Topics include budgeting, hiring personnel, having difficult conversations, and team management. Registration is free for all ARVO members. www.arvo.org/education/sp...

Sooooo… ICE now has a bigger budget than the NIH which funds almost all of the biomedical research in America. This is precisely where the priorities of this administration lie.

Deaths from heart disease down 75%, that’s NIH. Deaths from stroke down 75%, that’s NIH. HIV/AIDS no longer a death sentence, that’s NIH. 99% of FDA approved drugs in the last decade, that’s NIH. Please show this video to anyone who doesn’t understand why the NIH is so important.

Excited to share the Research Spotlight by DeNovix!

New manuscript from the lab. We discovered FECD-like features when proteasomes are dysfunctional in the corneal endothelial cells. www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

We have lost a grant that is used to study the very real, and not imagined, health care disparities that exist across our state. Including the impacts of air pollution that reduce life expectancy by 10 years on the west side of SLC. #shameful #academicsky #MedicalSky www.sltrib.com/news/educati...

My lab studies mechanisms of pediatric glaucoma and the development of tissues affected (Schlemm's canal and trabecular meshwork). I am getting creative with fundraising because, well... So if you know someone who might be interested in funding our work: joinus.cuimc.columbia.edu/index.cfm?fu...

Some good-ish news from NIH “Federal Register notices for study sections run by CSR (but not those by ICs) will start being permitted again” As far as I know, the timing for this is not clear, but I will be checking the Federal Register.

Its amazing to see deserving people get their NoA! Mark and Sara are among the best! Congrats! I cannot wait to see the discoveries as a result of this award!

New York Times article now up on Federal Register stuff. www.nytimes.com/2025/02/21/s... 1/n

Said “yes” to a last minute urgent request from an SRO to review grants. All gratitude to the NIH staff who’ve kept going, doing their jobs with due diligence in the middle of the chaos. Thank you!

✅ Urge people in other social media platforms (not X) to not tune out and speak up. ✅ Email senators, NC Governor and Congress Representatives and ask them to protect NIH. ✅ Email senators, NC Governor and Congress Representatives (again) and ask them to speak up against the government take over

I believe @jeremymberg.bsky.social asked for examples of university responses to the EOs. Here’s a good one from @utah.edu VPR We need all our leaders to advocate for all of us affected by these senseless pauses and chaos! vimeo.com/1053073307/9...

Let’s remember that when we rail against “NSF” we mean “NSF’s most senior leadership” and not “Program Officers that are miserable with what is happening”.

Calling on my colleagues to be active in registering a protest on the withholding of federal research funding with their state representatives. Thank you for the template, Lisa. 🧪

Now would be a good time for university press and communications departments to roll up their sleeves and write and release stories about the breadth and impact of the grant funded science happening at their institutions.

Reiterating my call to fellow federally-funded scientists: Call your reps, tell them how this hurts science and everything good that comes from science (Also non-scientists, and scientists without federal funding! But the more of us who can directly speak to the impacts of these freezes the better)

Per an NIH source: “Discussions with colleagues have suggested that if the universities all come together and raise hell about the delays to funding caused by not holding meetings, that might move the needle. From every state. There are well-funded universities in red states that will be impacted.”

What a time to be a scientist! I feel like a complete fool now. Days like these I wish I had the ability to binge drink.

@mcuban.bsky.social I would be happy to travel anywhere to meet with you and someone, like the Associate Senior Vice Chancellor for Science Strategy and Planning at the University of Pittsburgh @jeremymberg.bsky.social who also headed up the NIH NIGMS to chat with you about NIH related topics.

Please follow Paloma for amazing science! Also, she one of the nicest scientists you will follow :)

"The economy is bad" never meant the economy is bad. It meant "I don't feel as financially secure as I want to be, and it's probably because the government is helping someone else to get ahead instead of me."

Another epiphany - the hardest part of this job is to stay humane when I rarely see anyone kind or empathetic. I am trying my best to cherish the good people I meet, and emulate them. Two years into the job this month, I am turning into a slightly bitter wise owl 🦉

Realizing that if I am irritable for more than 20 days in a row, it has nothing to do with my hormones. Its just the shitty people around me!

Reading my student evals from Fall 2024. A student is quite upset that I did not accept the answer "lacrimal gland" as an avenue for "aqueous humor drainage." They wrote an entire paragraph on my lack of understanding of clinical concepts. 😐

Maintaining some sense of sanity between all the different tasks - in part due to my to-do-list tracker that may now be more famous than any paper I’ll ever publish 😅 vanderheijdenlab.com/resources/

Very happy to share these photos from the winter commencement at Indiana University! @subashree.bsky.social officially graduated with her Ph.D. in Vision Science. To say that I am proud of her would be an understatement! Wish you all the very best in your future endeavors, Subashree!

Anyone who has studied the history of the 1930’s is incredibly uncomfortable right now. It’s like all the pseudoscience, authoritarianism, and concentrated power is being completely recapitulated. The 1930’s were a lesson in what not to do, right after a global pandemic.