Bhattacharya’s legacy The US had a “world-class Ebola lab in Frederick, Maryland, with the NIH,” designed to develop vaccines & treatments. The lab would normally be swinging into action. “But that lab was shuttered last year, with staff laid off abruptly”😢 www.theguardian.com/world/2026/m...

So our anti-HIV CAR makes it to the NYT. LV from Miltenyi, funded by CIRM @cirmnews.bsky.social - article should also highlight Dr Abedi’s team @ucdavismedschool.bsky.social @ucdavis.bsky.social where patients are being treated. #HIVcure #HIV #ASGCT26 www.nytimes.com/2026/05/11/h...

Carl June showing the impact of anti-FAP CAR-T cells in pancreatic cancer #AACR26 @upenn.edu #PanCan #CARTcell #immunotherapy Target the tumor stroma!

Amazing prostate cancer organoid system development: Romero and Sawyers #AACR26 #MSKCC

Thank you again @michaeldgreen.phd for speaking out. I don't know what bothers me more: Director Bhattacharya's callousness that damaging the careers of talented young scientists is "the cost of doing business" for his politics or His ignorance and lack of imagination about experimental design.

Ex vivo expanded allogeneic Vδ2 T cells specifically reduce reservoirs of HIV-1 following latency reversal #gdTcells @insight.jci.org

M Spencer Chapman showing Clonal hematopoiesis in old age with really deep and broad sequencing of somatic mutations #tandem26 @sangerinstitute.bsky.social post HSCT mapping shows clonal evolution and expansion -older donors have 10 fold less founding stem cell clones

Hopkins has a terrific book on student surveillance: www.press.jhu.edu/books/title/... @hopkinspress.bsky.social

Thinking of how many Swedish doctors and researchers lionized this dipshit

Glimmers of hope to change the system and make curative therapy more broadly available #tandem26 great session on access with Drs Urbanio-Ispizua (Barcelona) Maziarz (Portland) thanks to Sumi, David, Anna and Jeff for the session as well

Dr M Walters presents BMT CTN Haplo Sickle Cell (Peds Arm). Good news, when it works it works. However Chronic GvHD remains a serious issue (30% at 2 years) as do high levels of infection, and even a few graft failures. #Tandem26 IMO- not ready to globalize,more refinement (or gene therapy) needed.

Watch this video if you want to cry over overwhelming decency rather than over rage about what some are trying to turn our country into.

#ash25 Another potentially practice changing study presented by myeloma superstar Marivi Mateos - Ph3 of Tec-Dara in RR MM #mmsm 1/n

Thanks to Orlando and the wonderful staff @ash.hematology.org #cscevents #OCCC #orangecountyconventioncenter - I lost my iPhone there-within 12 hours it was at the lost and found office after multiple hand-offs. This kind of service makes it a place you want to return to. Thank you! #ASH25

Mid-blowing data #ASH25 from MJ Friedrich -recreating a thymic environment in the liver via LNPs generated young T cell phenotype and this correlates to better response to checkpoint blockade in mouse tumor models and better vaccine responses @technologyreview.com @broadinstitute.org

Michelle Weeks presenting a Master Class in DNA sequencing at #ASH25 of over 4,000 #sicklecelldisease cases showing clonal hematopoiesis starts at infancy and increases to 7.1% by age 11 @danafarber.bsky.social drivers include TP53, ATM, PPMID, CHEK2 @ascaa.bsky.social @conquerscd.bsky.social

At one point or another, we're all going to need to see a doctor. But our health care system remains unaffordable, inaccessible, and deeply dysfunctional. It is unacceptable. That’s why a strong majority of Americans agree: We need Medicare for All.

Are you using the right tumor micro environment model? Cancer is a disease of aging @sitcancer.bsky.social #SITC25 great session at the annual meeting on the aged immune system and the tumor micro environment moderated by Drs DA and A Weeraratna.

Great session exploring neuro-immunology in cancer immunotherapy #SITC25. Clearly we have much to learn about this little studied part of tumor biology. U Von Adrian demonstrated how afferent neurons organize and activate MDSCs at the tumor site @sitcancer.bsky.social

Excited to present our work at SITC this weekend! Join us on Saturday for Ryma Toumi's poster #796: Engineering T cells to reprogram inhibitory macrophages #SITC2025 #CancerResearch

Hill Day @sitcancer.bsky.social sharing our support for the NIH and immunotherapy for cancer w Dr Robyn Gartrell and Andrew Donlon from Rep McClain Delaney’s House Office. Thanks also to staffers from Sen Van Hollen and Alsobrooks office for hosting us as well.

Our science at SITC -2 abstracts in the top 150 #Miltenyi #SITC25 #SITC2025 MSLN armored CAR-T (208), PSMA armored CAR-T (228) Spatial proteomics of post Tx sarcoma (243) CD5 CAR-NK (252) BCMA bi-paratopic CAR-T (292) CD276 CAR-T fitness (295) hypoxia expanded NK cells (390) @sitcancer.bsky.social

Leroy Hood holds forth on the future of genomics and phenomics. Just as we only now have incorporated epigenomics into human biology- there is likely still missing major data sets to allow new advances to come. i e. one proteins can be modified 400 different ways. @systemsbiology.bsky.social

The CAR-T therapy team at Taichung medical center in Taiwan - amazing world class work. This includes new CARs from #Miltenyi, Novartis Tcharge for autoimmune disease and a robust regenerative medicine program

#UNGA80 #ECSA East, Central, Southern Africa Session at the UN General Assembly Mtg #ScienceDiplomacy chair Prof Ntobeko Ntusi looking to bridge divides through shared knowledge and establishing regional centers of excellence. We are here to advocate for global health for the UN Pact for the Future

Having visited private and public institutes (view is the medical school at Albert Einstein SOM in São Paulo)- I am inspired by the new approaches for cell and gene therapy. Most of the world has looked at what our “market” has produced and is creating affordable alternatives

No one, at this point, is stupid and venal enough to take the administration up on this - right?

Dr Hanahan wins the Pezcoller! #AACR25 @theaacr.bsky.social and published today the IL-1 signature of tumors induces systemic immunosuppression_ and is reversed by anti- IL-RAP antibody.

Wonderful overview today by Ken Anderson @theaacr.bsky.social #AACR25 of the advances in MM- adding CARs to degraders (imids) and blockers (bortezomib) both of which also have immune activity has completely changed the outlook for patients- and that’s why we are here

We owe him much for his leadership at CBER during a period of remarkable therapeutic advances. The havoc caused by this administration will have a devastating impact for years. www.washingtonpost.com/politics/202...

At 9 yrs old, my granddaughter was diagnosed with DIPG. It is terminal, usually within 9 months. Because of Dr. Vitanza at Seattle Children’s and clinical trials, we had her mostly symptom free for about 32 months. Make these cuts make sense! I am outraged!

Engaging talk by Jen Adair @fredhutch.bsky.social Tandem2025 @astct.bsky.social on efforts to make cell and gene therapy available in low and middle income countries. Academic centers need to step up. Great to see my friend @cgtgaithersburg.bsky.social in the Global Gene Therapy Initiative

Dr S Davies from cincinnatichildren’s presents a challenge-using a new vector system and reduced intensity conditioning to keep #sicklecell therapy low cost by keeping the process in academic medical centers & not a strictly high-priced pharma product @ascaa.bsky.social @astct.bsky.social #Tandem25

Dr M Bleakly from @fredhutch.bsky.social delivering a master class on using minor antigens to create anti-leukemia T cells in the context of HSCT @astct.bsky.social #Tandem25 incredible analysis of hematologic restricted targets

Dr N Shah from MCW presenting Tandem CD20-19 CAR-T using fresh in/fresh out manufacturing allowing many patients to receive this therapy who otherwise would not qualify @astct.bsky.social #Tandem25

Defend the NIH. timmermanreport.com/2025/02/defe...

Stand Up for Science rallies will be held in DC and state capitals on March 7th. Share with friends. Sign-up here to get email updates with details: www.eventbrite.com/e/stand-up-f...

Michael Holmes presents wall shaking data showing in vivo gene therapy using #Tessera gene writers to cure sickle cell disease and create CARs directly in vivo in model systems #Tandem25

Andy Sharenberg #UmojaBio presents the direct in vivo platform to create CAR-T #Tandem2025

@lulii4.bsky.social love the 4

So-when is the March for Science? I only see references to the previous one. We can’t let NIH be run by political appointees. This is proposed at the institute level and will likely go much further. The war on DEI, the intimidation of our colleagues who are visa holders…we know why we should march

Some thoughts on the confusion and anxiety created by the current freeze on communications, hiring, grant reviews, travel, etc at NIH (gift link):

Damn. Trump hits NIH with ‘devastating’ freezes on meetings, travel, communications, and hiring. All study sections are halted. www.science.org/content/arti...

Our federal colleagues’ (NIH) communications are being actively monitored by the government. They have been told to inform on one another if there is any DEI activity. If you are a fed- go get a personal device now. You should have been using your own already.

Treatment-free remission in CML offers hope for sustainable recovery, aiming to make it a common pathway towards potential cures. by Hughes TP, Yong AS and Ross DM in Blood #MedSky 📖 read the article:

www.nature.com/articles/s41.... The new Brainchild publication for B7H3 CAR-T cell therapy for pediatric brain tumors. Surprising and encouraging that CNS tumors may be the next breakthrough in the field #seattlechildrens #UWpediatrics #DIPG #CARTcell #BTCCCR #immunotherapy

Nancy Goodman, founder and CEO of Kids v Cancer, told Newsweek the funding would go to critical research for pediatric cancer.

The durability of cure for ADA-SCID with lentiviral vectors is amazing. Rarity, a public benefit corp., has been formed to carry this therapy forward where previous models have failed #ASH24 Dr M Masiuk presented the plot below-one of many showing the durability of correction #kohnlab #rarity #CIRM

Dr I Odame sharing a vision to make high impact changes on sickle cell disease care in Africa that will scale #ASH24 Hydroxyurea access must be the cornerstone #CONSA #sicklecell