We had a blast celebrating the season, birthdays, and another year of science in an appropriate fashion by playing “Publish or Perish”! I also loved my present, I think the lab knows a thing or two…Happy Holidays from our lab!

The graduate students in the lab Houda Mesnaoui and Jordan Jarvis gathering crowds at the @ascbiology.bsky.social #CellBio2025!

Congratulations to the PhD Students in the lab Houda Mesnaoui and Jordan Jarvis for obtaining not one, but TWO MUSC awards each: a T32 Research Enhancement Initiative Award and an Emerging Scholars Travel Award to participate in the upcoming @ascbiology.bsky.social Cell Bio meeting. Well done both!

@sciencealyssa.bsky.social, @kourtidislab.bsky.social & co investigate the PIWI-piRNA pathway in #coloncancer using a nuanced bioinformatic and cell-based approach, linking the downregulation of PIWIL2 to disease progression, transposable element activation and DNA damage. doi.org/10.1242/bio....

Big day for the lab today! Our DMD/PhD student Christina Kingsley and the PhD student Jordan Jarvis won 1st place poster and 1st place oral presentation Awards, respectively, during the MUSC College of Graduate Studies #ResearchDay! Congratulations to both!

I had a blast riding alongside more than 1500 bike riders for #lowvelo and #Hollings Cancer Center @muschealth.bsky.social to help raise money for life-saving #cancer #research! The fundraising continues, help me reach our goal! To learn more and donate: fundraise.musc.edu/fundraiser/6...

Happy Halloween from our lab!

The big day is here! We ride again on November 1st across #Charlestonsc to support the vital mission of Hollings Cancer Center at MUSC to discover new cures and fight #cancer. 100% of donated funds go directly to life-saving cancer #research. Learn more and donate: fundraise.musc.edu/fundraiser/6...

Excited to share our most recent publication, where we delve into the roles of the #PIWI - #piRNA pathway in #transposon regulation, in #epithelial #homeostasis and #cancer. Fabulous work by the recently graduated student in the lab @sciencealyssa.bsky.social journals.biologists.com/bio/article/...

It has been a little while since I have posted here on BlueSky but a huge thank you to the Kourtidis Lab team for making my defense so special! It is an honor!

Huge congratulations to Alyssa Risner @sciencealyssa.bsky.social for doing a phenomenal job and successfully defending her Thesis! Very proud of her for her hard work and outstanding contributions, but also for her being a true team player. Well done Dr. Risner, best of luck in the new life ahead!

Very insightful by Martin Schwartz, as always: Why would anyone want to be a scientist?

Very happy to share our latest work revealing that localization of the #RNAi machinery at #adherens junctions is a universal feature of #epithelial cells and tissues. Great work and team effort by Joyce Nair-Menon, the lab and collaborators! @sciencealyssa.bsky.social www.nature.com/articles/s41...

🧪Phuong Le, Jeanne Quinn, @jfhorner.bsky.social @carajgottardi.bsky.social & co show that the adhesion protein α-catenin has a key modification that allows dividing cells to stay better connected to their neighbours, helping the tissue stick together during mechanical stress. doi.org/10.1242/bio....

The NTDscope is a portable brightfield, darkfield, and fluorescence microscope used for the diagnosis of neglected tropical diseases (NTDs). Check out our latest preprint: www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1...

A pie graph worth keeping in mind as the NIH budget plummets jamanetwork.com/journals/jam... for 356 new FDA drugs approved

"When a complex system is far from equilibrium, small islands of coherence in a sea of chaos have the capacity to shift the entire system to a higher order." Iya Prigogine, Noble prize-winning chemist

me, as a senior PI: US science as we know it may be ending? Review these cool manuscripts? Serve on these grant review panels? Yes! All in! Going down in a blaze of glory!

😂

As scientist I am going through difficult times (this is understatement of the year for me!!). Past one and half months have been horrible, however I am trying to pick myself up and super excited to share my postdoc work with the community! #cellmigration www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

Francis Collins, the NIH Director for 12 years, led the Human Genome Project and other NIH efforts for 32 years, resigned today. Key words from his resignation letter www.nytimes.com/2025/03/01/u...

I wrote a book The Creative Destruction of Medicine (2013, title adopted after Schumpeter). This title of the book for what we are now seeing in the U.S. is just The Destruction of Medicine.

Make no mistake. This is an all-out attack on health in America. Not only is the EIS vital to controlling infectious disease; it was where a remarkably high fraction of our public health leaders received formative training and experience. www.statnews.com/2025/02/14/t...

The new policy to comply with the temporary restraining orders (TROs) was issued today, February 12. The first TRO, however, was issued on January 31. The NIH memo reveals that the agency has been in violation of these orders for almost two weeks.

Some good news: we were finally able to submit a no cost extension for one of my grants…

Threats to the NIH and our research infrastructure hit me twice- once as a scientist, and again as a patient whose next option will be a clinical trial. Remember that there are real people’s lives at stake.

Top 10 ways American Science can survive the 15% indirect cap: 1. Breed special transgenic mice that can run for days in tiny hamster wheel turbines to keep lights on. 2. Get athletic program staff to donate 1% of their salaries to the research thus raising 100 billion dollars a year.

My editorial on the indirect cuts. This is an opportunity for campuses to come together to make the case for higher education. Leaders need to step up and ask for support and lead. www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

“…since the courts ordered a full resumption in grant funding, the agency approved a handful of grants accounting for 2.2% of its typical volume. An NIH official says a small number of grants are being approved by NIH leadership, but nearly all grants remain frozen.”

STAT story www.statnews.com/2025/02/11/j...

Following @peiferlabunc.bsky.social lead (and borrowing some of his language 😉), I sent a letter to our local newspaper, which was published today. Thanks for the inspiration Mark! www.toledoblade.com/opinion/lett...

Petition to Reverse the NIH Indirect Cost Cap initiated by Tom Maniatis. Please amplify Sign the Petition: chng.it/kK2HMP5pGk "Share with Leadership & Faculty. Reach out to professional societies, biotech and pharma leaders, and philanthropic organizations to raise awareness and mobilize support."

Senate Appropriations Chair Susan Collins slams the Trump admin’s NIH cuts as “poorly conceived” and says she has called RFK to “to express my strong opposition to these arbitrary cuts in funding for vital research.” She says he promised to “re-examine this initiative” if confirmed as HHS secretary.

How to get 146% return on investment? The NIH. That's just the economic benefit. Biomedical research promotes human health.

BREAKING: A federal judge has determined that the Trump administration is violating his order lifting the blanket spending freeze on federal grant programs. He is orderin gthe administration to immediately unfreeze funds, including for NIH and the IRA. storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.us...

BREAKING: 22 states sue NIH over Trump administration's new 15% cap on overhead for federal research grants. Suit filed federal court in Boston contends lifesaving research 'will grind to a halt' under the policy. Doc: storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.us...

Good story about indirect costs from Bruce Lee at Forbes. www.forbes.com/sites/brucel...

Whenever you hear someone sneer about scientific research that seems useless to them — “they’re studying the spit of lizards?!” — remind them that’s exactly how we got Ozempic. globalnews.ca/news/9793403...

I am not a lawyer, but Stuart is (Ph.D., education policy, Univ of Arkansas; a J.D. with honors from Harvard Law School, editor of the Harvard Law Review; and bachelor’s and master’s degrees in music performance from the University of Georgia. about.me/stuartbuck 1/2

Here's a very important update from the AAMC (Association of American Medical Colleges) on the proposed cuts to NIH Indirect costs: "Every year since 2017, the annual spending bill that funds NIH has included language prohibiting the Administration from making changes to F&A cost rates" 1/2 🧪

Here is a sample follow-up email I just wrote that might be useful for researchers contacting their legislators about the removal of the no cost extension form from eRA commons. Use/share/adapt freely. My gut says this one is a winnable fight, and house offices are picking up the phones for me.

I am in year 2 of a 5yr NIH R01 grant that aims to bring the @3wishesprogram.bsky.social to #LA's underserved patients. It took me 3 years (4 tries) to get this grant. I have research coordinators & investigators whose salaries depend on the grant. I am so angry right now. #medsky

The National Institutes of Health has clarified the restrictions on travel, purchasing, and meetings that President Donald Trump’s new administration imposed on NIH staff last week, easing some concerns about measures that set off chaos within the agency. scim.ag/3WD2g3j