Pls Repost: I am putting together an edition of “Methods in Molecular Biology” focused on early development, encompassing gastrulation. I am making a list of potential authors for chapters. If interested, please contact me - An excellent opportunity for trainees to co-author with their advisors.

IMPORTANT IMPORTANT IMPORTANT IMPORTANT Please watch the workshop video and COMMENT by 5:00 Monday 7/14 This is the source of the "no more model organism only grants in NIH-funded research" decree.

Public comments have been opened back up! Research with animals is critical for providing evidence-based knowledge in the pursuit of human health. Broadly reducing research projects with animals threatens public health and will greatly stall the development of new therapeutics for diseases!

"There have been many funding cuts to cancer research, and it's playing out many ways. Here are a few stories from people I know. I spend time in cancer circles. I am an recliner advocate nowadays. Brooke is 24 years old, has a baby and a toddler, and has stage 4 B-cell lymphoma..."

UAB Neurobiology is hiring up to 4 new tenure-track faculty as part of 3 new open-rank searches. Come join our vibrant, supportive, and growing neuroscience community! uab.peopleadmin.com/postings/23916 uab.peopleadmin.com/postings/23944 uab.peopleadmin.com/postings/24010

We get news of an apparent breakthrough in pancreatic cancer — usually a death sentence, one of the cancers with the worst outcomes — and Trump and Musk are blowing up NIH and with it future cancer cures. The American people didn’t vote for this. Not even close to 49.8% did.

THIS IS HUGE! A cancer vaccine developed by Yale University and DFCI shows MAJOR promise. Results of an early-phase trial reveal ALL patients with ADVANCED stage kidney cancer had successful anti-cancer immune responses AND have remained CANCER-FREE approximately THREE years after treatment. 🧪🧵⬇️

One of the remarkable things about #NIH is how rigorously its grants, research, and employees are reviewed. NIH science and scientists are held to a high standard by external reviewers — via study sections and councils, or BSC/site visit reviewers. And the reviews have teeth. 🧪

Guardian story about Federal Register issue is up. www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025...

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

The City of Boston is leading 40+ mayors, cities, and counties in an amicus brief against the Trump Administration's drastic and illegal cuts to federal research funding—cuts that will lead to immediate job losses nationwide.

Reaching out to all Americans through the media to explain how decreasing funding of the NIH will have irreversible harm for developing therapies for all diseases. Please spread the word to your families and friends and contact your congressional representatives. www.nbcnews.com/science/scie...

This is incredibly stressful to our Alzheimer's community (families and researchers). There are Alzheimer Disease Research Centers that are in limbo now - no council meetings means no notice of awards, means all the research we are doing to slow or prevent this disease is paused indefinitely.

The court ordered that NIH grant funding be unfrozen, so The Regime found a way around it. For NIH grants to be funded, a review panel must rank them. In order for a review panel to meet, they must post it on the Federal Register. Submissions to the Federal Register are now on hold “indefinitely”.

Important article. This center was taking new approaches to studying Alzheimer’s and other dementias. Everyone who knows someone with dementia is being hurt by Trump’s cuts to medical research. 🧪

Scientists studying neuroscience, diabetes, autism and bird flu became emotional as they spoke to the Guardian about the possibility of losing their life’s work.

The MMR vaccine is 97% effective at preventing measles infection. But infants under 12 months old are not eligible for the vaccine, leaving them vulnerable. When measles spreads due to low vaccination rates, it puts our youngest—and most defenseless—children at the greatest risk.

If anyone has been in touch with press covering the NIH situation broadly (firings, funding freeze etc), please encourage them to cover the sinister way in which HHS is preventing grant review and funding from happening, by blocking posting to the Federal Register.

We are hearing that Andy Singleton, director of a new and promising Alzheimer's research center at NIH, just announced his resignation. This will disrupt innovative new Alzheimer's work to go beyond the "amyloid hypothesis." Bad news for anyone who's been touched by this disease. 🧪

the richest man in the world has decided that your kids don't deserve special education programs

I'm #standingupforscience because when I was diagnosed with stage 3 melanoma in 2018, I was terrified. The survival statistics for my type of melanoma was around 20%. But these statistics did not include the lives saved from the recent NCI and CRI funded studies of immunotherapy drugs. 1/6

Talk to your neighbors. Talk to your family. Talk to your friends. Tell everyone what is happening and why science matters (this is not a USA-only post, because we know this is happening everywhere)

Please help NIH: speak to the press, speak to your local TV, tell everyone you know: Trump and Musk are killing cancer research. They’re chasing science out of the US, making the US poorer. Thank you for what you’re doing. /end

Hey neuroscientists: were you, your lab or any of your ongoing projects caught up in any of the latest NIH firings? You can find me on Signal at avaskham.54 if you want to chat. 🧪 #neuroskyence

The value NIH research provides far exceeds that of trying to get a rocket to Mars. The NIH staff cuts are unconscionable.

The damage today (actually yesterday) to the intramural program appears to especially bad. It also appears (although I need more confirmation) that most or all of the tenure track investigators in their first 2 years in several, and perhaps all, institutes were terminated. 7/n

Thanks to all of the NIHers and their friends who reached out to me. I am still here (DM me or Signal jeremymberg.78) I still have a very incomplete picture but based on what I have been told, the damage to NIH and to many wonderful people who work(ed) there is/was impossible for me to imagine 1/n

Got word that several NIH employees in a group working on cancer clinical trials got terminated via email this evening. “The [cancer research] trials will literally not be able to function without us.” Trump and Musk are killing cancer research. 🧪

The measles outbreak in Texas is reminding me of the public letter Roald Dahl wrote about losing his daughter to measles in 1962, just before the vaccine was publicly available.

Apparently 70 nurses from the Clinical Center 2/2

Some of the positions of folks at NIH who were terminated (mostly by virtue of timing) At least 1 institute deputy director At least 1 institute director of extramural activities At least 1 program officer (and I am sure many more) At least 1 SRO (and I am sure many more) 1/2

Roughly 9% of NIH employees fired yesterday - rumors are IC directors may be next. Please call your senators and representatives!

A number of people who run those resources were contractors. In December, some of them were transitioned into Federal employee status to protect them. Unfortunately, this means they were probably on the list of employees with probationary status. I am trying to find out what actually happened.

Termination notices going out this afternoon to more than 300 employees of the National Cancer Institute. Access likely ends today. Four weeks paid leave and that’s it. Strong power move for Team Cancer.

We begin the New Year with two preprints on hypothalamic development. The first, part of a long-term collaboration with Marysia Placzek’s group, investigates the organization of the developing forebrain, and show that current models are (mostly) incorrect./1 www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

This story is published back-to-back with @sthyme.bsky.social lab, who deleted 45 microexons (only two in common with us) and assessed larval brain activity, morphology and behavior. They also found that most individual mutants had minimal or no phenotypes: elifesciences.org/reviewed-pre.... 9/9

We feel lucky to have had such a great PhD mentor. @lizkellogg.bsky.social @flosopher.bsky.social

Congratulations to all, especially David and Victor. My Ph.D advisor and my current colleague.

Hey #ACNP2024 attendees, UAB Neurobiology is looking to recruit 4 faculty in the areas of addiction neuroscience, iPSC/organoids, and neurodevelopmental disorders. All searches are open rank. Specific ads are forthcoming, but you can also apply at this link! uab.peopleadmin.com/postings/18636

Hi all! I've created a started pack for academic professional development. Looking to build a community of folks supporting researchers, scholars, and educators (broadly defined) by sharing skills, tools, and resources. Please share and reply to nominate yourself or others! go.bsky.app/vGDioH

The busiest year of my life - moving 3 kids < 5 and a lab - has come to an exciting close,  personally and professionally. We moved into our new home two days before Christmas and just finished a new #zebrafish paper www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

Winners of the UMass Chan BMB door decorating contest!! Congratulations to the Thyme Lab, especially @annamoyer.bsky.social. I am already looking forward to next year.