My NIH diversity supplement was reinstated! 🥳 This is not the time to keep quiet or feel defeated by this administration. This is the time to raise hell 🔥 and be heard ✊🏽

#GRCPsychedelics 🔥🔥🔥🔥poster session and our first ever Honorary Best PI poster award to @zenbrainest.bsky.social 🤣🤣🤣

Touching words from Dr. Markus Heilig today at the @rsaofficial.bsky.social closing ceremony, reminding us, especially young researchers, to not lose hope. Attending this conference and seeing my colleagues persist despite hardship has been a beacon of light in a dark year. #standupforscience

NIH researchers were working on treatments, health equity, and saving lives—but their work was cut for being ideologically inconvenient. Now a federal judge says: illegal. Recently, NIHers risked everything to speak out. Stand with them here ➡️zurl.co/rqq7T zurl.co/0GTNE

🧵 You might have seen a post urging you to donate to Harvard, a wealthy university that needs no financial reward for doing the bare minimum. Instead, I'd like to tell you about some organizations that are working to protect academic freedom and at-risk scholars and deserve your support 1

Round 2, Pittsburgh-- let's make it a good one! ✊️ Thanks again to the wonderful organizers at @standupforscience.bsky.social and @50501movement.bsky.social for their hard work in making things happen. 💕 #StandUpforScience #StandUpforScience2025 #MutualAid

Yesterday, my first undergraduate mentee successfully defended her honors thesis. So incredibly proud of her hard work and growth over the last ~2 years in the @spfarris.bsky.social lab! Look out, world, here comes Remy Frawley, B.S.!

Continued my annual service tradition of judging the Senior Biology Division of the Pittsburgh Regional Science and Engineering Fair! 3 years and counting, and the high school students continue to blow me away with their work. #thekidsarealright #sciencerules

The thing that has been keeping me going through labwork today is listening to Senator Booker's speech. Almost 23 hours and counting. History is being made right now, and for the first time in the past ~70 days, I finally feel an iota of hope saying that.

In a landmark commentary last year, 24 scientists from around the globe—all of whom either identify as trans or have trans family members—called for recognition and support from the research community. #TransDayOfVisibility scim.ag/4l8LK5O

Jay Bhattacharya said in his confirmation hearing that he plans to restore NIH to its former glory & repair public distrust of science. Would love to hear how rescinding the NIH policy on scientific integrity accomplishes that goal. grants.nih.gov/grants/guide...

🧵: I am getting texts on what scientists should do in this perilous and scary moment. My advice: your biggest power is to organize through your professional societies. A few ideas -

Dear scientists, We've heard from many of you: "What can I do to act, to help stop the authoritarian takeover? I feel helpless." One thing you can do is to get every scientist you know onto bluesky. Get them off Twitter. Talk to yr colleagues. Make it a point. Send this: bsky.app/starter-pac...

This is an amazing effort and staggering map.

I just created a Sci-Commers Starter Pack! Science Communication is CRITICAL right now, and there is more than one way to do it! Get some inspiration (+ fun!) from a variety of different sci-commers from various backgrounds (although there may be a bit of a marine bias here 💙). go.bsky.app/NMCFMcj

Trusted my newer undergrad with cryosectioning some precious tissue from my AAV infusions today, and his slices came out absolutely beautifully. So proud of him! We love to see trainees gaining proficiency and the joy they show when they notice it 🙌🏻💕

14 pages of terminated NIH grants--everyone should read through the list. The sweep is VERY broad, including "The Impact of the Herpes Zoster Vaccine on Herpes Zoster Ophthalmicus" & "Mitochondrial-based Determinants of Sex Differences in Acute Kidney Injury"🧪 1/n taggs.hhs.gov/Content/Data...

I am very grateful to all the science and public health journalists who are continuing to tirelessly report on everything that's happening to science, research, domestic and global health right now. Thanks for amplifying our voices, our stories and the far reaching impact on the public.

Still can’t believe we’re only 2 months into this hellscape. A new heartache, every day.

With 23AndMe going belly up, anybody who used them may have their genetic data sold to the highest bidder, to do with as they please. There is a way out - the linked article shows how you can delete your data from their database. DO IT NOW! archive.is/iNFaf

What an honor to see Nobel laureate Drew Weissman speak at my institution about his work on mRNA-lipid nanoparticle (LNP) therapeutics, and yet what a heartbreak to hear at the beginning of his talk that just yesterday did he receive a grant termination notice due to studying vaccines.

The mood was defiant at many of the rallies, where chants of “Scientists will not be silenced”, “Facts over fear” and “What do we want? Peer review! When do we want it? Now!” were heard. https://go.nature.com/3F8T6FX

The fastest creature on Earth - a peregrine falcon - flying around the Cathedral of Learning while supporting #standupforscience2025 in #pittsburgh (a pair nests up there). The survival of the peregrine is 1 of the great conservation stories. #science #nature @standupforscience.bsky.social

Scientific research is the lifeblood of Pittsburgh. My heart is full with all the support shown in my city today, including from the incredible @summerlee.bsky.social! We the people #StandUpforScience

Ready to #standupforscience on Friday in Pittsburgh! @standupforscience.bsky.social

We have 8 days and we need to raise at LEAST $60,000 for a successful #StandUpforScience2025 These funds will go to: the DC rally, covering costs of local rally sites (e.g., insurance!), and setting up @standupforscience.bsky.social for March 8th and beyond! Our work only begins on March 7th!

I recently watched one of my undergrads image his Iba1-stained microglia from his first IHC. The other day, he asked me if he would still be able to work in lab this summer with the IDC cuts. Watching the fear and uncertainty trickle down to students is an extra layer of heartbreak.

📣 Want to DONATE to help us Stand Up for Science on March 7th? Make a tax-deductible donation using the QR code below!

Science doesn't care who you are or what you believe; It is the pursuit of truth for the good of humanity, and it is being threatened by catastrophic funding cuts. Now is the time to show your support. standupforscience2025.org

A very powerful session at the Bridging Connections in Addiction Research (BCAR) retreat at Pitt today. A panel of substance use counselors and members of the community discussing how we can work to translate research into real action and vice versa.

Calling all teachers, doctors and others who host spaces the public filters through: ***FREE*** BRAIN initiative calendars! With a gorgeous image by @crozell.bsky.social and team on the cover. Hang one and contribute to #SciOutreach. catalog.ninds.nih.gov/publications...

✨ This Christmas, let’s commit to building academic spaces rooted in support, respect, and care. Change begins with each of us, and together, we can create a brighter, safer future. 🌟 #MeTooPhD #EndAcademicAbuse #HigherEd #EduSky

I'm not a psychiatrist, but I get to play one on TV. 😉 PBS did apologize this morning for missing this in fact checking. Great to see medications for AUD and drinking reductions as a viable goal spotlighted in primetime news media!

Just a cool cat doing some cell culture 😺👩‍🔬🧫 We grad students made it an official Farris and Homanics Labs pajama day!

Women’s Lunch #ACNP2024 General strategies for addressing micro/macroaggressions in the moment

Drug use researchers (esp. those in neuro/pharmacology) - please stop using the word "abuse" (e.g., drug abuse) and other stigmatizing terms This isn't an arbitrary suggestion, there's legitimate empirical evidence showing that words like this do harm www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

"How many PhDs do we sacrifice at the altar of Science?" - @spfarris.bsky.social

Women are under-represented at senior levels in #academia globally, & across all #science 🧪 disciplines, as shown by these "scissor-shaped curves" ✂️ So how can we ever achieve #gender #equality? We discuss various strategies in this #Cell Commentary #WomeninSTEM www.cell.com/cell/fulltex... 🧵 1/

I get to chat with a classroom who wanted someone that is a: marine biologist, animal scientist, AND neuroscientist 🥰. I'm super excited! So, here's a shark brain!

Making figures? Here is the free NIH resource - without any copyright restrictions #neuroskyence

The U.S., Australia and U.K. have issued warnings for travelers in Vang Vieng after several tourists died in a suspected methanol poisoning outbreak.

Given the current political reality and the expansion of attacks on science, it is time for scientists to be more effective, forceful, and vociferous as their own political advocates. www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

Graduate workers at the University of Pittsburgh voted overwhelmingly to unionize. Over 97% of Graduate Teaching Assistants, Teaching Fellows, Graduate Student Researchers, and Graduate Student Assistants voted to join the @steelworkers.bsky.social Tally: 1033 YES - 28 NO

You've got to be kidding me.

Congratulations to all Pitt graduate and professional students for voting a resounding YES (over 97%!) to union representation under United Steelworkers! 🛠✊️💙💛 It feels amazing to be a part of this effort in a city that was critical in the original labor rights/union movement. #H2P

A lovely evening with the Center for the Neural Basis of Cognition at Pitt and Carnegie Mellon hosting Dr. John Ngai, director of the BRAIN Initiative! 🧠🔬🧪

There is so much to mourn today. I've been reminding myself though there is always hope: In community, solidarity, and kindness we share in the face of hate. We will never go back and will never stop fighting. There will never be a world without trans people. 💙🩷🤍🩷💙 #TransgenderDayofRemembrance