🧪 NIH Postbac Opportunity Popping in to say I got funding to hire a postbac to work with me! This position is ideal for a recent undergrad or masters student who wants 1-2 years of research experience before grad/med school. See ad below for details. Share or tag students who might be interested.

I've been taking a break from social media lately to focus on taking care of my newborn daughter, who just turned two months yesterday! She's doing great so far, and I'm enjoying being a new dad. But, I decided to hop onto Bluesky briefly to quickly share a few work-related updates.

New: 150 unionized ProPublica workers are on strike TODAY over AI, layoff protections, wages, and more. They're asking readers to not visit ProPublica or engage with content on other platforms. It's the first work stoppage of its kind at the newsroom. www.theverge.com/news/908401/...

The recent presidential budget request has a 40% increase in military spending and 10% cut to non-military spending, including a 25% cut to the NIH. It seems worth pointing out that NIH (and other R&D) boosts the economy by 250%, whereas military spending (except R&D) shrinks the economy by 10%.

A 25% increase to the NIH budget is actually not that ridiculous. Adjusted for inflation, NIH funding has consistently been below its peak in 2003, so we have a lot of lost investment time to make up for it. Source: www.congress.gov/crs-product/...

Powerful speeches this morning from @michaeldgreen.phd and many others at today's #nokings edition of #nihvigils. Shoutout to @27unihted.bsky.social, @nihvigils.bsky.social, and all the great organizers who made the event possible.

A new paper suggests that grant terminations from the NIH over the past year may have further punctured the so-called "leaky pipeline" because women were more impacted by grant terminations than men www.statnews.com/2026/03/23/n...

Tomorrow, Director Bhattacharya is hosting the inaugural "Scientific Freedom" Lecture with Matt Ridley sharing his perspectives on the search for the origin of Covid-19 (and hawking his book on the subject published in 2022). 1/3

@statnews.com conducted a national survey of NIH-funded researchers and found that, a year after Trump's return, many scientists are reeling, with some closing labs entirely. ‘This is like the Titanic,' one respondent told me. For full details, see our special report www.statnews.com/2026/03/19/n...

I literally just sent out a manuscript draft yesterday and my mind was still doing this today. #scientistproblems

I had a great conversation today with Amy Juravich at WOSU-NPR and @annadarling.bsky.social, a graduate student at OSU, about the state of science.

A heads down approach will not save science. We need to speak up, live our values, and demand integrity. www.statnews.com/2026/03/12/n...

That moment when you find the content you didn't know you were looking for. If you've ever submitted (or reviewed) an NIH grant, this satire is for you.

Was distracted by a few other developments earlier this week, but I'm resharing my yearly reminder to be careful out there because "spring forward" is dangerous and makes little sense.

A must read/listen to interview about what it's like to be an early career researcher in this day and age. Thanks @michaeldgreen.phd for continuing to speak up!

Great new piece by @melodyschreiber.com in The Guardian about NIH/CDC Director Bhattacharya . In it, I talk about asking Bhattacharya in January about a recent issue affecting the affordability of healthcare for thousands of early career researchers on the NIH campuses.

Don't panic, Organize! It was great to be able to represent @nihfellowsunited.bsky.social today at the Take Back Our Science Rally in DC to speak out against the attacks on our union and for scientist workers rights!

I will be speaking on behalf of @nihfellowsunited.bsky.social today at the DC @standupforscience.bsky.social National Day of Action. Come hear about the attacks on our union this week and how we're standing up for science and scientist workers! #march7 #standupforscience

If you block junior scientists from ensuring that they can afford to live (or start families!) in the exorbitantly expensive areas around their workplaces, only family-subsidized solitary rich kids will be able to pursue careers in research - amidst exponential inflation, increasingly few people.

I agree!

Shame on the NIH for stripping fellows of collective bargaining rights! "The fellows at the NIH deserve the same voice, protections, and dignity on the job that academic workers across the country are fighting for every day." Read @proftwolf.bsky.social & @rweingarten.bsky.social's statement⬇️

The number of people employed at the NIH is at its lowest level in at least two decades. Hear from six scientists run out by Trump and the work they left behind on cancer research, tick-borne diseases, and more. Me + @k-hought.bsky.social @kffhealthnews.org for @cnn.com www.cnn.com/2026/03/05/h...

NIH leadership wants to strip worker's rights from the majority of scientists on its campuses. But, the NIH does not get to say whether we are a union or not. We do, and we are no strangers to having to fight for our union. Time for a short history lesson. 1/n Disclaimer: all views are my own.

NIH HR deleted our CBA off the website. Luckily for us, even if the agency says there is no CBA in ba sing se, the union still exists.

Shoutout to @27unihted.bsky.social for all their advocacy on the SBIR/STTR program.

Great essay from @sciencewhizliz.bsky.social. Liz’s story resonates with me. I also grew up unvaccinated. I know my mom made the choice not to vaccinate me and my sisters out of love, misguided as it was. I got myself vaccinated when I turned 18. www.nytimes.com/2026/02/27/o...

Respectfully, senior scientists need to stop saying what worked for me will work for you. It is a bad take.

This is why it's not enough for Congress to just appropriate funds to scientific agencies. How the funds are or are not spent and when they are spent needs to be enforced. The administration is playing games with our taxpayer dollars, when they should be going towards scientific innovation.

I sat down with Dr. Jenna Norton, an NIH employee & my guest at the People’s State of the Union. She was put on leave by the Trump Admin after speaking truth to power. Dr. Norton told me Trump’s actions risked creating a super-bug that would endanger us all.

If you're at #bps2026 and like single-molecule methods, topoisomerases, or DNA topology, check out some of the cool talks and posters from the Neuman Lab today and tomorrow linktr.ee/neuman.lab.

In addition to the great science, I'm enjoying the views from the conference center at #bps2026.

Adding that there are many folks inside NIH whose names you will probably never know who are quietly doing tremendous work that is saving a lot of science. But they are not keeping their heads down either. They are just taking quieter risks.

Proud of our CDC colleagues at National Public Health Coalition. @firedbutfighting.bsky.social www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026... And all the current & former federal workers who are standing up and fighting for a better future for all of us. @27unihted.bsky.social @altnih4science.bsky.social

Interesting talk from @holdenthorp.bsky.social yesterday at #bps2026. I agree that doing science is an act of resistance, but I disagree that we can just keep our heads down. IMHO - Every scientist has a duty to communicate the value of science and the people who do it, either privately or publicly.

Really cool talk on the power of storytelling from @doctheagrif.bsky.social at #bps2026. I can't wait to try out her storytelling strategies and check out her stories!

That moment when you're listening to @jeremymberg.bsky.social talk at #bps2026 and a picture of you and your colleagues pops up. As always, thanks for all your support.

An interesting historical perspective on the MAHA movement by @sarasilverstein.bsky.social.

"New documents obtained by Rolling Stone reveal that the proposal was not vetted by, or homed within, a scientific center at the CDC. Instead, these documents show, it was routed straight from the director’s office to grant management officials who approved it, a process that took only 10 days. " 😮

Global minds drive American innovation. Driving away international scientists from NIST is cruel to the scientists and bad for American competitiveness.

After I wasn't allowed to go #bps2025 last year, I'm excited to finally be flying out today to go to #bps2026 in SF. I'm especially excited for this panel on Sunday with @jeremymberg.bsky.social ! www.biophysics.org/2026meeting/...

In short, fewer ESIs received their first R01, and they did not get younger. Who would’ve thought that just saying you care about early career researchers without meaningful policy changes to help them wouldn’t change outcomes!

“NIH” put out a memo about how they are making a “concerted effort” to support Early Stage Investigators (ESI). In the data presented, there is a decrease in funding rates from 26.1% in ‘24 to 18.9% in ‘25. Median age of ESIs stayed flat at 40. grants.nih.gov/news-events/...

"The source of young researchers – the next generation of scientists who are the fount of new ideas and innovation – is being throttled." Great story by @edpilkington.bsky.social on some of the problems early career researchers are facing in the United States.

Check out my latest piece in @hechingerreport.org ! First of many as an OpEd Project Public Voices Fellow

An exciting first step in using CAR-T cell therapy to treat autoimmune disorders!

As I sit here on Valentines day trying to finish up the revisions to my paper, this classic comic from @phdcomics.com hits close to home 🧪

Definitely a huge win for higher ed. I think it's important to point out that the suit that led to this outcome was brought by *UC faculty and unions* and not the UC system. The academic workers are fighting back, and we should support them.

"According to the RNA world hypothesis, life began when RNA molecules evolved the ability to make more copies of themselves. Now we have discovered an RNA molecule that is almost capable of this." Can someone update the game Spore with an RNA world level, please?

I listened to a cool talk from David Baker yesterday on the rationale design of proteins to address some of the world's problems. It's always fun to see how basic science research can sometimes unlock a whole new world of treatments and cures.

Scientist's way of saying 'I ❤️ you' "I found this paper/preprint that made me think of your project." "I checked the mice/cells/plates already." "I just sent you the edits you requested." "I have a slide/diagram that will work for that." "I had that problem with [lab equipment], I have a fix."