Congrats to Andrew Butts in the @thecaronlab.bsky.social lab for both defending his PhD and for fully taking advantage of #mayfourth! #starwars 🧠 🧪

It’s snowed more in April than Jan here! 😑

It’s #earthday! Sad to see some of the most pristine parts of the US under threat for short term gains and political reasons. This pic I took in my fav part of the US on the Utah/AZ border.

I’m also seeing the consequences of the new “no paylines” mandate and it’s not good. POs have a lot more power but they’re also being influenced by leadership mandates that deprioritize the demographics you would expect and certainly not lifting up ECRs.

So much winning! RFK has a lot to answer for. www.nytimes.com/2026/04/16/w...

Neuroscientists across the United States shared with @thetransmitter.bsky.social what they hope the new director of the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke prioritizes during their tenure. #neuroskyence By @helenak.bsky.social www.thetransmitter.org/policy/what-...

My fav words “accepted in principle"! Thanks reviewer 4 for being so positive! "The new experiments are not only responsive to my critique, but to the points made by the other 3 reviewers. The paper will be of interest to a broad readership, from cell biologists to Alzheimer's researchers."

It’s brutal in academia right now. A lot is out of our control, but it doesn’t cost anything to remember that there are humans behind papers and grants…reviewers, program officials and funders can be more empathetic in the face of unprecedented chaos in the US scientific enterprise.

NIH Notice of Awards are like stumbling on to a pot of gold under the rainbow...so stoked for @alicia-walker.bsky.social finally getting her F31 NoA!! Only a year after she submitted it....

Came back to the US, to find out there was a measles exposure in my lab’s building. In this day and age 😑

Whelp. NIH just got rid of continuous submission completely. Because it’s “too much work” for them 😩. This is baffling. It doesn’t take months to assign a grant to a study section.

Last night in Korea! Head to the famous Myeongdong Night Market.. Wife opts for a Korean facial. I opt for chicken and beer FTW!

Some Sites and Eats of Hokkaido, Japan 😍

Hello Hokkaido!

Celebrating the end of study section, submitting 2 huge papers and a beast of a grant this week! Heading to Japan tomorrow for the Neurowinter plasticity meeting! neurowintersummit.org

@saveamericamvmt.bsky.social @standupforscience.bsky.social and @27unihted.bsky.social are co-sponsoring an event covering this lecture with the first NIH Freedom From Science lecture with scientists who have actually worked to find evidence and unravel the origin of COVID-19 #NIHFFS 2/3

Study section done for the day so got outside for a hike in the yard. Not ready for this heat 🥵 70s up here in March is nuts.

This is what biomedical science is up against. gift link. www.nytimes.com/2026/03/13/u...

The Huganir lab is having a virtual “reunion” right now. 51 participants and counting! 🙌🏼

OMB hasn’t released the NIH budget $$ as mandated by congress. Crazy stupid stuff. What’s their end game here?!

Oh, hello winter! ❄️

Epic hockey game! This was a touching moment at the end 🥺

The backyard finally feels like winter 😍

Safe to say that SLC has barely had a winter. But man this storm is a doozy!

“The world’s largest public funder of biomedical research is in limbo.” www.nbcnews.com/health/healt...

We are holding our annual Rising Stars in Genetics and Genomics Postdoc Symposium on September 24-25, 2026! Please nominate postdocs who are conducting cutting edge, creative work, and are likely to be a leader in their field. Please nominate by April 30, 2026: forms.gle/85NZaxFezUk8... (1/2)

Controversial take: journals should not have a “confidential comments” section for their reviews. I see no reason to not include everything to the authors. I never use that box! It’s just not productive peer review. Sure, if you are worried about fraud or something..just message the editor directly.

Go Canada! 🏈

It was such an amazing visit at Utah Neuroscience! I learn from such a diverse crowd of neuroscientists doing super cutting edge works in many fields - and their trainees who are engaging and thoughtful. Campus view is unbelievable! Thank you @jasonsynaptic.bsky.social for having me!

Had a blast hosting @xinjin.bsky.social for our department seminar this week! A true rising star in the field!

Feeling old watching the Grammys..don’t know most of these artists but damn, Post Malone killed that Black Sabbath/Ozzy Osborne tribute 🙌🏼 And how come Slash still looks exactly the same?!

Another cool example of how retroviral elements have influenced the evolution of the brain..in this case resulting in a chimp specific change in gene expression in the brain. Nice story and summary by Siddhant!

Just got to Big Sky MT for the winter conference on brain research! Trying to ignore the world burning for the next few days.

US Government tyranny is here. Where are all the 2nd amendment enthusiasts?! Will there be a spine in congress? It’s all just 🔥

Celebrating double grant success in the house!! Well..at least scores < 10%ile.

This week has been a roller coaster..but I’ll take the wins! 🙏🏼🙏🏼 Won’t entirely celebrate until I see a NoA as the A0 R01 score was 10% and it didn’t get funded.

NIH budget bill out today. It’s the result of heavy negotiations in Congress over past month+. 🧪 Big pic: NIH budget now is abt more than funding. It’s abt restraining the technical ways NIH is being broken by Proj 2025. And the restraints in the bill are tepid 🤷‍♂️ Also: watch ICE/DHS budget. 🧵1/

Good points by Mark here. We should all still be concerned about how the NIH will be run moving forward and how funding decisions will be made..even if the total budget is not cut in ‘26.

The conference (agreement between House and Senate) appropriations bill that includes HHS and NIH was released this morning. www.appropriations.senate.gov/news/majorit... 1/5

Everyday I say “you can’t make this shit up” with this presidency. This might be the cake though…going to war over Greenland because Norway refused to “give” Trump a Nobel Peace Prize 😱🫩. Yes, this is apparently real folks. Just embarrassing. Irony is dead.

First ODI series win in India for NZ! 🙌🏼😄 @roylab-ucsd.bsky.social @harmitmalik.bsky.social

Yesterday my 7th PhD student, Mitali Tyagi, defended her thesis! A joy of being a PI is seeing students flourish into independent scientists. I was lucky to have Mitali in the lab! Her beautiful work on tau transmission will hopefully come out soon. She’s now off to do a postdoc with David Holtzman.

Beautiful day on the slopes..with stimulating science convos on the lifts! #alta @jim-heys.bsky.social Andre Fenton

Study section done. Now can enjoy the PC learning and memory meeting! Looking forward to some stimulating science chats on the ski lift as well this weekend.

Celebrating the 50th anniversary of the Park City learning and memory meeting! Not many neuroscience meetings that are this old or have been ongoing continuously for so long. Jim McGaugh starting this special session with how the meeting got its start.

Our Perspective article on the emerging role of retroelements in brain function and disease is now out in this week's edition of @cp-neuron.bsky.social! @alexwhiteley.bsky.social www.cell.com/neuron/fullt...

Ugh..the NIH sciencv software to update your bio sketch is so awful! 😑

My wife “Time to saddle up and ride with the Patriots!” 🤮

Noooo 😭

This game is killing me!