🚨New preprint alert🚨 We used closed-loop optogenetics to causally test the importance of inhibitory spike timing in network function and found that manipulating PV+ cell theta phase locking in the dentate gyrus can shift seizure susceptibility (both ways!)

Excited to share that my PhD work has been published! www.nature.com/articles/s41... 🧠🧪

Another piece on the NIH responding to the deluge of AI-written grants www.404media.co/nih-capping-... #nih #artificialintelligence

I am not going to call this a Bluetorial, because I do not want to sully that term (which, at least I, find joyful). Let’s call it a Orwellial.

Ffs

If the block on the Federal Register isn’t removed in the next few months, I fear a majority of labs will close within a year. This small procedural wrench has the power to kill US science indefinitely, losing an entire generation of discovery and innovation.

@nature.com “Are the Trump team’s actions affecting your research? Tell Nature” www.nature.com/articles/d41... via Signal: Max Kozlov: mkozlov.01; Dan Garisto: dgaristo.72; Heidi Ledford: hledford.01; Jeff Tollefson: jtollefson.11; Alexandra Witze: alexwitze.01; General Nature: naturenews.61 🧪

ATTENTION (PARTICULARLY NIHers) If anyone has information about the numbers and types of folks in your institute, center, office, or whatever who were were terminated, please share them with me by DM or on Signal (jeremymberg.78). I am putting together an inventory.

I thought it would be cathartic to start a list of bad advice for writing grants. I'll start. Make sure to cram as much information in your grant as possible. The more you can say, the better your score.

A lot is happening in US science. Bluesky is the best place to stay up the rolling political crisis in America that is crushing US science. It's also a good place to learn what we all can do. We have a starter pack for this. Please send your colleagues here too. 🧪 go.bsky.app/2K6jTi5

also this same org has this super useful infographic, breaking down the difference between direct and indirect (also called Facilities and Administration) costs and what F&A costs can and cannot be used for at a research university or institute

It's bleak out there. But it's my birthday week and I'm treating myself to Eagles Super Bowl content (still!) and the 2nd House in the Cerulean Sea book (delightful!) if anyone needs self-care ideas

🦅🦅🦅

The. Most. Philly. Thing. Ever. Everybody in the world thinks they are going to grind clock… and PHI goes deep for the TD. Grease the light poles. 🎉

BABY COOPER!!!!!

Le sigh

Wow, first OPI the NFL has called all season and it’s to stop the Eagles from converting on a fourth down.

I have learned from several sources that NIH staff tried to find out how to transfer F31-diversity applications to other program announcements for funding but were not able to do this. I don't know whether this was technical (regulations) or ideological. 1/n

On this ridiculous shit show of a week, congratulations to everyone who managed to get their NIH grant proposal submitted on deadline! Well done. Make it rain.

PLEASE SHARE 💜 With uncertainty in federal research funding & hiring, we are offering *FREE* resume/CV reviews for early-career scientists in the US who have rescinded job offers or who risk layoffs. If you feel this support would benefit you, submit resume/CV here: forms.gle/CCbbu2X5GJwH...

Hi all, I am in contact with a reporter at Science magazine who would like to talk with a trainee or mentor who successfully applied for an equity/DEI-related NIH training grant or a training supplement but have not received the Notice of Award and probably won't get the grant.

This a funding myth. There are no untapped wells of charity money that can support the kind of research biomedical scientists need to perform today. Most foundation grants are in 25 to 75K/year range, many are on the order of 1-3 years, and in spite of this, are highly competitive.

PSA for those you polishing your Feb grants: If you draft something in Google docs, make sure you check that Format > Paragraph > Spacing > Line Spacing is set to "Single" not "Multiple". I've seen this on 2 grants this week and saved those clients considerable space

One of the lessons of the mid-late last century is that consistent systems will beat smart people every day of the week.

Our (minimal) institutional messaging on NIH grants included a reminder not to FAFO with respect to managing your grant. I read it as “get your progress report in on time. And do whatever NIH officials may request promptly”.

Academic Skyers: I am compiling a list of policies and statements from various universities about how they are handling the "pause" in terms of stopping expenditures (or not). Please respond to this post with your institution and materials. THANK YOU!

Barkley’s excitement for Shipley 🥹

Mentors and advisors, a very impactful thing you can do right now is to assure your mentees from all backgrounds that you will continue to support them because their worth is not contingent on any program or funding mechanism 💕

And the funding announcement for diversity supplements now has been updated to expire today. Supplements are so important to the careers of junior scientists. This is crushing for post docs and early career faculty grants.nih.gov/grants/guide...

I've worked on multiple grants this week where the "narrative" section of the Aims page is a mess, but the authors lay out their case beautifully in the Significance section of the Research Strategy. What's up with that??? 🧠 🧪 #academicsky

Gentle reminder that if you truly value diversity in the workforce, top down executive orders may/will change implementation but it shouldn’t change your dedication to building the best possible team/group/cohort/generation of researchers

New paper now out in collab w/ Jess Ables led by MD/PhD student @chinonwakama.bsky.social! We characterized the impact of metabolic dysfunction on decision-making behavior & cognitive heuristics that interact w/ energy balance & environmental demand. 🐭🧠 @sinaibrain.bsky.social tinyurl.com/38m4ybt9

Interested in how neural communication breaks down in a model of Alzheimer's pathology? In a new preprint, we found desynchronization in medial entorhinal–hippocampal circuits that coincided with the onset of spatial memory deficits in 3xTg mice. (1/6) www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

Yep, this is one of the consequences of all external PHS related communications being halted till at least Feb 1 bsky.app/profile/bita...

Currently, only until Feb 1 per CNN www.cnn.com/2025/01/21/h... and science magazine www.science.org/content/arti...

Uh, so this is bad

That game took too much out of me ahead of Ravens Bills. I need a Gatorade or something.

*watching the Eagles is stressful meme*

The scores did show substantial variability. In my experience, there are a few proposals per study section that really stand out but there is a large group where the merit is similar depending on one's taste and the notion that scores (including below/above paylines) are robust is nonsense. 2/n

Yes, I am sure it did. Grant reviews and scores are quite stochastic, depending on who the primary reviewers are and other factors. NIH has never intentionally double reviewed applications but there are quite a few examples where sets of applications were reviewed twice. 1/n

What do we think about R01s that have four Specific Aims? #neuroscience #academicsky 🧪

These GB injuries feel like the 2022 NFC championship game against the 49ers. You just feel bad as an Eagles fan…

JAKE ☠️

That was right to Baun 🦅 🏈

Damn it

Things are going too well for the Eagles. I’m suspicious.

One point that Mike didn’t touch upon that I think is common: significance is broad, generic, or more based on the entire field and is not written as “significance of proposed experiments” eg leading “work will lead to new therapies” but proposal is not about this in anyway. 1/

I think this is what a lot of non-creative people don't get about art. That it's *not* a process that can be optimised for maximum efficiency - the milling around and trying things and scrapping them and building on the core of a good idea those less good ideas had *is* the process.