Just to simplify what we think happens: Blue light hits pigments in the retina of migratory birds that become 'little magnets' that respond to magnetic fields as light & dark patterns on their visual field. In gamer terms, it's a 'compass on their HUD', merged in with visual data.

“Malign Foreign Talent Recruitment Program Prohibition: Effective January 25, 2026, individuals who are a current party to a Malign Foreign Talent Recruitment Program (MFTRP) are not eligible to serve as a senior/key person on an NIH grant or cooperative agreement.” grants.nih.gov/grants/guide...

Ahlqvist's machine learning-based #diabetes classification predicts onset of diabetic end-stage kidney disease at an early stage of diabetes, allowing clinicians to tailor intervention and prevention strategies to individual clusters link.springer.com/article/10.1... 🔓

Confirmation of the new triage line at 65-70% of proposals. Introduction of a new “competitive but ND” class to permit exception pay pickups.

Excited to share our latest work out today in @cp-molcell.bsky.social, revealing a molecular link between succinate dehydrogenase and purine synthesis, connecting two fundamental metabolic pathways. Huge congratulations to the first author, Mushtaq Nengroo! www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti... !

redquack cran.r-project.org/web/packages... #Rstats pkg to transfer REDCap data to a database, specifically optimized for DuckDB

Exposure to sugar early in life: a natural experiment among >63,000 @uk_biobank participants: rationing of sugar was associated with less cardiovascular risk in adulthood www.bmj.com/content/391/...

The benefit of Ozempic (semaglutide) for protection from major adverse cardiovascular events (MACE) is independent of weight loss magnitude and baseline adiposity, likely related to the GLP-1 anti-inflammatory effect thelancet.com/journals/lan...

Sweetening the diet with artificial sweeteners reveals in a clinical trial that prolonged consumption of S&SEs in a healthy diet is a safe strategy for #obesity management #weightloss #microbiota www.nature.com/articles/s42...

🧵1/ Excited to share our new paper introducing a new #singlecell assay: scTF-seq, a high-throughput single-cell approach to explore how transcription factor (TF) dose shapes cell identity and reprogramming outcomes. 🔗 www.nature.com/articles/s41... Big congrats to the entire team @EPFL & @SIAT_China

A new study from Duke, led by Jonathan Campbell, PhD, reveals that pancreatic alpha cells do more than produce glucagon — they also generate GLP-1, a hormone that boosts insulin and regulates blood sugar. 🔗 Read more: https://medschool.duke.edu/news/alpha-cells-moonlight-secret-glp-1-factories

Reminder starting in October NIH NOFOs won’t be posted in the Guide for grants and contracts. Tips on how to search for opportunities & set up a subscription for custom searches here: grants.nih.gov/news-events/...

Baylor @bcmhouston.bsky.social and associated institutions awarded grant to establish the Houston #Nutrition and #Obesity #Research Center @markhermanmd.bsky.social www.bcm.edu/news/baylor-...

Apparently, chimpanzees consume equivalent of 1-2 standard alcoholic drinks per day in the wild via fermented fruit!! (h/t Nick Villarino) www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

RESEARCH | 🧪 @jessicab-felix.bsky.social , S Hartig et al @bcmfromthelabs.bsky.social N-acetylaspartate from fat cells regulates postprandial body temperature

Thrilled to share the second half of my PhD work here! We show how data on expression quantitative trait loci (eQTL) relates to the structure of gene regulatory networks (GRN). Much of the GRN / eQTL picture is unmapped, but what we do have says a lot… (1/) doi.org/10.1101/2025...

Our review on the peculiar properties of mitochondrial carriers of the SLC25 family out: portlandpress.com/biochemj/art...

An underrated form of social media is European travel bloggers coming inexplicably to Houston and then attempting to walk across 12 lane highways only to discover that there are no sidewalks or any other ways to get to any destination on foot once you get outside the city center.

New #DiabetesBio Featuring! 1. Adipose fibrosis 2. GCKR & PNPLA3 in liver metabolism 3. Spotlight on Dr. Barbara Kahn (2025 Renold Award) 🎙️Libsyn: shorturl.at/DPEs3 ▶️ YouTube: shorturl.at/K40c1 🎧 Spotify: shorturl.at/slyKl 🍏 Apple Podcasts: shorturl.at/wT3j0

In 15 patients with primary aldosteronism, baxdrostat (a second-generation, nonimidazole aldosterone synthase inhibitor) resolved or reduced the severity of hypertension, excessive aldosterone production, and hypokalemia. Full SPARK study results: nej.md/40Js1kz #ENDO2025

#gastrosky #medsky #immunology

Understanding the predictors of metabolic dysfunction-associated steatotic liver disease— ASCI member Peter Crawford & team suggest ketogenesis serves a protective role in MASLD-MASH progression via processes other than fat oxidation: buff.ly/f26w63M

Great nod to the photography work of Bernd and Hilla Becher

In the ACHIEVE-1 phase 3 trial, the oral small-molecule GLP-1 receptor agonist orforglipron significantly reduced the glycated hemoglobin level over a period of 40 weeks in adults with early type 2 diabetes. Full trial results: nej.md/4ngEZ36 #ADASciSessions

Thousands gather at Houston City Hall for No Kings protest as nationwide movement takes center stage www.houstonchronicle.com/news/houston...

If you are a researcher whose federal funding has been terminated, the Spencer Foundation is offering rapid response grants to close the gaps. Application deadline is June 13: (h/t to @agu.org's Planetary Sciences Section newsletter for the info!) www.spencer.org/research-gra...

Donald Trump and Elon Musk have left Houston, Tampa, New York and other major cities without head meteorologists just ahead of what will be another busy hurricane season This is straight-up life-threatening malpractice (h/t @lisamjarvis.bsky.social ) www.cnn.com/2025/05/02/w...

Powerhouse episode of #DiabetesBio is out! Catch up w/ #MikeRickels of #DiabetesCareOnAir, hear from 2025 Banting Medalist #SteveKahn, and get the scoop from #ADA Sessions Chair #MarkAtkinson. Plus, 75 years of NIDDK shorturl.at/uUOjv YT shorturl.at/Q3cE6 🍎 shorturl.at/Mrz3L 🎧 shorturl.at/iExmL

impact update: apparently, a couple of Houston bakeries/dessert shops are DMing each other about the crazy prices they're seeing after reading this. It's a more widespread problem than we think!

NIDDK is celebrating its 75th anniversary this year by releasing a collection of articles highlighting the advances made. I am happy that I could contribute to one on advances in cell replacement therapy. Check it out! diabetesjournals.org/diabetes/art...

The most famous heuristic in mapping gwas snps to genes is "it's usually the closest gene". But only slightly less well-known is this: consider the colocalized phenotypes. That is, a genetic variant seldom disrupts exactly one phenotype. What else does tugging on that thread do?

8 Resources to study Transcription factor binding, enhancers and histone modification distribution  1. ENCODE www.encodeproject.org/

After 21 years at my dream job, I’m very sad to announce my early retirement from the National Institutes of Health. My life’s work has been to scientifically study how our food environment affects what we eat, and how what we eat affects our physiology.

Our work on metabolic reaction fluxes as amplifiers and buffers of risk alleles for coronary artery disease is finally out in @molsystbiol.org ! www.embopress.org/doi/full/10.... A short thread on our key findings 🧵👇

Now HERE'S an interesting study. Gets at a burning diet q: Can macronutrient ratios affect energy expenditure? Til now, the answer from research has been "yes, but only a little." Here's a study where *decreasing* protein ups energy expenditure a whopping 20%. www.nature.com/articles/s42...

And now back to our regularly scheduled "Data and Concern" segment...

What are good #biomarkers of #aging? Exciting data on plasma proteomics, epigenetic clocks and other molecular parameters might supplement existing biomarkers of health, morbidity and mortality in the future. However, at the moment, good clinical data from large and heterogeneous... 1/3

Extending my grant update this morning. Here are data limited to new and competitive renewal applications. The Pause is dead, Long live the Pause...

Confirmed (by many sources) news about 50 NIH Study Sections being allowed to announce meetings in the Federal Register. As usual, MANY more questions than answers... 1/2

My son's life was saved by medical research. Trump wants to slash it. | Opinion www.houstonchronicle.com/opinion/lett...

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.

The NIH continues to be fully halted. 11/11 study sections canceled today, which includes the study section my grant was meant to be reviewed at. This is never ending and so damaging. www.csr.nih.gov/RevPanelsAnd...

Wondering if your study section cancelled? I update this sheet daily. As of today, 56/124 study sections that should have met since Jan 2, 2025 have "not met as scheduled." docs.google.com/spreadsheets...

My colleague @rnareylab.bsky.social wrote this editorial for her hometown area newspaper. Well done & more please! www.heraldbanner.com/opinion/colu...

I created a brief spreadsheet of reductions I've heard of so far. Any additions you know of (especially if you have the links/receipts) would be great: docs.google.com/spreadsheets...

Here are some data documenting the funding "pause" pulled from NIH Reporter. Current results (FY25) (Red) are compared with results from FY21 (first year of Biden Administration) and FY24. Note that data from Reporter lag behind release of NoAs by ~1 week. I will be tracking this going forward.

Good story up on funding lag from WESA, an NPR station in Pittsburgh. www.wesa.fm/health-scien... 1/2

Happy to share the final version of this work where we incorporated isotope labeled CO2 data into mass spectrometry based flux analysis, resulting in a flux model that depicts at the whole-body level functioning of energy metabolism in health and disease. www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...