Take a deep breath.

I am reviewing a simply amazing paper from a relatively young US-based lab, which is in danger of shutting its doors later this year. My emotions are all over the place. The fact that this does not uniquely identify the lab I’m referring to just deepens the tragedy of this moment in US science.

How is immunological research transforming the fight against chronic disease? Join us on March 18 for a Congressional Briefing on the new era of autoimmune therapies. Learn how we’re closing the gap for 31M+ Americans living with autoimmunity: https://ow.ly/RJUn50YrwL8. #AAIadvocacy

1. #Measles update: The total confirmed cases so far this year has risen to 1362 as of 3/12. Key context: The 2026 total to date is 60% of the 2025 total for the entire year. #CDC reports that among cases with known vax status, 92% weren't vaxed. There've been 14 new outbreaks this year.

1. Time for a #flu & #measles update. Six more kids have died from flu, bringing the year-to-date total to 66. Sadly there will be more deaths reported but hopefully this year doesn't approach last year's dreadful pediatric death toll. #CDC estimates ~90% of these kids weren't vaccinated.

1. #CDC posted new #flu data today. A 🧵 Another pediatric death was reported in the 2024-25 flu season, making it the deadliest flu season for kids since CDC started collecting this data point 20 years ago. 2024-25 has surpassed the 2009 H1N1 pandemic. 9 kids have died from flu so far this year.

Proud to share our work now out in Cell. We hope what we learned about IgA immune responses to rotavirus can be translated into better vaccines. Congratulations Dr. Kei Haniuda, an amazing PDF. TY @uoftmedicine.bsky.social for covering. temertymedicine.utoronto.ca/news

We're hiring for tenure-track faculty! Please apply if you have interests in immune responses to microbes and/or cancer, immune regulation, microbial infections (bacteria, viruses, parasites, fungi), the microbiota, and/or interests that span these disciplines. arizona.csod.com/ux/ats/caree...

“Thousands of very competitive projects in areas like cancer, diabetes, aging, neurological disorders and public health improvements most like went unfunded in 2025. Similarly, at the National Science Foundation, the roughly 3,000 fewer new grants encompassed reductions to every area of science”

A bad thing is unfolding at NIH this week: It looks like the Trump administration is trying to replace key civil servant scientific leaders, the Institute Directors, with political hires. These directors control the NIH budget, tens of billions. A bit of a video explainer here: 1/ 🧪

Congratulations to Karel Svoboda and @jshendure.bsky.social on their election to the National Academy of Medicine (@nam.edu)! Election to the Academy is one of the highest honors in health and medicine. #NAMmtg More on their journeys to this achievement: alleninstitute.org/news/karel-s...

Super excited about first Shendure/Baker Lab collaboration & preprint on a multiplex sequencing-based strategy for screening de novo proteome editors in mammalian cells. Kudos to the brilliant Chase Suiter (not here) & @greenahn.bsky.social on the work! Preprint here: www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

Nobel Prize given for showing the importance of investing in science for innovation and long-term economic growth. Basically the opposite of what the US is doing. 😭

Asthma is a chronic disease characterized by acute, intermittent, recurrent episodes of airway inflammation. A decade of work developing the tools, techniques and collaborations needed to figure out how CD4+ T cells in the lungs propagate disease can be found here: www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

More coming on what this means but this was one of those stories that took almost a decade to come together but was well worth the time. Also check out a companion piece on @biorxiv by Patrick Brennan!

This moment from our latest episode with science writer @edyong209.bsky.social is 🔥 We asked Ed — how do we talk up the benefits of science in the face of government cuts? He told us that's the wrong approach. 🧪 Listen wherever, or watch on Spotify 👇 open.spotify.com/episode/7Evh...

Neat study—following 320 healthcare workers for almost a year, with 152 of them being infected, the authors examined whether or not COVID-19 associates with more upper respiratory tract infections (URTIs). It didn't (yay!). But, having a kid <5 associated with a 74% increase in the risk of URTIs.

Excited to be here! Have to admit John Denver was running through my head as we wound our way through the country roads of West Virginia.

If you read 1 thing today, please make it this: my so-talented colleague @ericboodman.bsky.social explains why babies in the US are vaccinated at birth against hep B — and what the human costs of changing that policy would be. www.statnews.com/2025/09/11/n...

In a post on Truth Social, the president suggested that the CDC was being “ripped apart” over a question that was answered long ago — whether Covid vaccines work. (Gift article) www.nytimes.com/2025/09/02/h...

Yesterday the president demanded that evidence about Covid vaccines be shown to the public. Today @apoorvanyt.bsky.social & I run through some of the studies made public over the past 4+ years that show that the vaccines work. Gift link: nyti.ms/46k17Tq

Enormous thanks to @immunologyking.bsky.social and @maurogaya.bsky.social for organizing a vibrant, invigorating #EMBObarriertissues workshop. A poignant reminder of how critical immunological studies are for ameliorating human disease. And a lot of fun people. 🐟 #wickelfisch

I only heard tonight that Mike is no longer with us. All credit to him in setting me on this path as an immunologist. The description of his teaching brings back such warm memories. I recognize so many of the scientists on his collage. What a gift to the world he was. www.cell.com/immunity/ful...

We mostly rely on Bayesian guesswork to predict how long antibodies will be produced for new vaccines/infections. Here, we find that some of the key programs are set *really* early. We hope early signatures can be used to predict and engineer durable vaccine immunity. www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

The ousting of Dr. Susan Monarez as CDC Director, followed within hours by the resignations of Dr. Deb Houry, Dr. Demetre Daskalakis, and Dr. Daniel Jernigan, mark a collapse of public health leadership with consequences that reach every American household.

Applications are now open! We are recruiting 20 Assistant Professors in a wide range of subject areas. We're looking for early-career researchers with strong scientific merits and future potential. 🔗 All positions: ki.se/en/about-ki/...

With deep gratitude, we thank Dr. Marc Jenkins for his decades of leadership, mentorship, and dedication to the Center for Immunology. The foundation he built will guide and inspire us for years to come.

If you believe that keeping your head down and being quiet will spare you from this fate, you are mistaken. This will be all of us.

#WeekendRead! #MomIsAlwaysMom! Koch, Shenoy et al show @science.org that, in the first 7 days of life, breast milk IgGs (not IgAs!) recognize microbiota & limit, via Fc receptors, Tfh cell and B cell intestinal expansion, protecting against #colitis & #allergy during weaning!

I have a first serious attempt to estimate the consequences of multi-year funding for July. For new R01s, the amount of additional expenditure was $135 M The number of additional R01s that could have been funded is 182 1/9

The "data" package Secretary Kennedy used to bolster his argument for discontinuing #BARDA funding for #mRNA research doesn't support his argument. @jakescottmd.bsky.social lays it out in a must read for @statnews.com. www.statnews.com/2025/08/13/r...

By entirely funding more awards up front, the NIH is on track to fund just 1 in 25 applications Such a payline “would chase a lot of people out of science” former NCI director Ned Sharpless told us 🧪🔬 www.statnews.com/2025/07/29/n...

No better time to call or email your members of Congress. Next year’s NIH budget is being debated in the Senate. A new nonpartisan campaign is making it easy to defend science and protect America’s innovation. Just follow this link to contact your representatives: www.protectscienceandinnovation.org

🎉 Over the moon to share the first paper from my lab!! We discovered an unexpected role for the cytokine OSM in lung epithelial homeostasis and repair. 🧵 1/n www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

This is how to have difficult conversations with vaccine sceptics

Much appreciated support from biotech execs and investors 🙏 www.statnews.com/2025/06/27/b...

Great Measles 2025 update in NEJM. It is unfortunate we need this but measles is on course to return to endemicity in the United States and Canada. A self inflicted predicament thanks to the spread and rise of anti-vaccine rhetoric. www.nejm.org/doi/full/10....

Assistant professors studying immunity to infectious disease - don’t miss this opportunity! The BWF PATH program supports innovative research on molecular and/or systemic mechanisms that influence outcomes of pathogen exposure. @bwfund.bsky.social Learn more & apply: www.bwfund.org/funding-oppo...

The cover of this week's @science.org www.science.org/content/arti...

Red states and blue states alike Equal opportunity damage to biomedical research and the US economy

Kudos to @maitreya.bsky.social lab alumnus Chris Large and all the authors!

I have witnessed the positive effect of the HPV vaccine as it debuted at the onset of my career in the 90's. The extreme cervical cancers we saw in early residency are almost a thing of the past. Horrific to think they could once again be de rigeur

We've worked on Hif deletion in CD4 #Tcells for an embarrassingly long time. We gave up and had to rederive the T conditional KO mice after we stumbled on a phenotype in # NK cells from these mice (1+ years after data acquisition) It's been long, slow and fascinating. In a nutshell...

POSTDOC ALERT: Applications now open for SeaBridge postdoc fellowship; opportunity to work on leading-edge biotech w/researchers at the Seattle Hub for Synthetic Biology. brotmanbaty.org/news/new-pos... @marionpepper.bsky.social @jshendure.bsky.social @coletrapnell.bsky.social

To put these top-line budget numbers in context, cuts of this magnitude would effectively mean no new grants in FY2026. The entire extramural budget would go to existing, continuing grants. An abject failure of American ambition. And a betrayal of our global leadership in health science innovation.

The end of US leadership in science, technology, and innovation. All in one little table. A tremendous gift to China, courtesy of the GOP. nsf-gov-resources.nsf.gov/files/00-NSF...

This is accurate. COVID-19 also predisposes to blood clots even in mild cases and pregnancy itself has a heightened risk of blood clots because of the massive estrogen levels involved. These risks are drastically reduced with vaccination. jamanetwork.com/journals/jam...

Please speak up now! This proposal will destroy science. NIH program officers are the unsung heroes of medical research. Their deep expertise and behind-the-scenes leadership have guided the field for decades, helping to drive the breakthroughs that improve and save lives every day.

⛔️ UPDATE: We obtained the full list of NIH terminations at Harvard. Lowlights: - 659 total grants at Harvard in the NIH-created list - $2.19 billion in total award value - $960 million in award remaining You can view them all using the "Harvard" tab on the airtable grant-watch.us/nih-data.html