Congrats, Ciaran!

Very grateful to MP Dr. Helena Jaczek for meeting with CAN representatives yesterday - Dr. Jaczek is a long time champion for science and health research in Canada and understands that scientific research in one of Canada's most strategic investments. Thank you for the insightful discussion!

CIHR Project Grant Cycle Restructuring Dear colleagues, Below you will find a draft letter regarding the proposed transition to a single annual CIHR Project Grant competition, and to invite you to sign on if you are in agreement with its c...

With the rumblings around CIHR wanting to move to one cycle per year not going away, in consultation with a diverse stakeholder group, we have put together a letter for CIHR leadership. Please consider signing this letter and share/RT: docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1F... @cannabrain.bsky.social

Nanobinders for Synaptotagmin 1 enable the analysis of synaptic vesicle dynamics in rodent and human models. Synaptic neurotransmission is a critical hallmark of brain activity and one of the first processes to be affected in neural diseases. Monitoring this process, and in particular synaptic vesicle recycl...

Excited for our latest work! We developed nanobinders for the luminal domain of Synaptotagmin 1 (calcium sensor for synaptic vesicles). Thanks among others to @verstrekenlab.bsky.social @opazo.bsky.social @meunierlab.bsky.social @volkerhaucke-lab.bsky.social www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

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Get ready to meet candidates by reading the CAN election one-pager! We encourage you to print it out and give it to candidates you meet, to emphasize the importance of science and research for all Canadians. #VoteScience #ResearchersVote #ElbowsUp
can-acn.org/can-election...

Congrats..very well deserved.

National Letter Open Letter from Canadian Researchers to the Federal party leaders Click here to sign this letter See who has signed - version française se trouve à page 3 - Dear Party Leaders We, the undersigne...

Dear Canadian researchers, faculty, RAs, PDFs and grad students, this letter is for the federal party leaders asking them to defend and expand Canadian research sovereignty with a historic investment in science, please sign and share
docs.google.com/document/d/1...

Totally. We’re so far behind that even doubling the investment would just be the beginning. Canada has everything it needs to shift from a resource-based economy to a knowledge-driven one. The potential is there, but sadly, a lot of our politicians just don’t see the bigger picture.

Here's a brilliant idea for making Canada the envy of the world. Double our science budget. Fund research and innovation. Fund Canadian scientists..and bring the brightest to Canada.

Sending my best wishes and prayers to your dad, Naguib.

🧠 Brain health affects every Canadian—so why isn’t it a national priority?
In a new op-ed, CBRS Executive Director Dr. Jennie Young @brainstrategist.bsky.social makes the case for why brain research must be on the election agenda.
#Vote4BrainHealth #CdnPoli #BrainHealth

Join us—raise your voice and #VoteForBrainHealth! 🧠🍁 Brain health must be a national priority. Read more and help put brain research on the ballot! ⬇️

1 in 5 Canadians live with a brain condition—yet brain health is missing from the national conversation 🧠. This election, let’s make brain health a priority! Join the call to action: www.vote4brainhealth.ca #VoteForBrainHealth #cdnpoli 🧪🔬

A person in a mask holding a painting that says “hands off my transgenic mice”

At @standupforscience.bsky.social and the signs are statistically significantly excellent

There are literally hundreds, if not thousands, of graduate school and postdoctoral opportunities available across all disciplines in 🇨🇦. With decent grant funding and outstanding research facilities as well as recognition of EDI and gender issues. Americans, look past your backyard.

I have openings for prospective graduate students in my group.

My group in Canada is recruiting graduate students. I will post a formal ad soon, but prospective students are welcome to write to me.

Statement by Francis Collins, MD. PhD March 1, 2025 Yesterday I notified NIH Acting Director Matt Memoli, MD of my retirement from the federal government. effective February 28, 2025. The National Institutes of Health is the world's foremost medical research institution. It has been rightfully called the "crown jewel" of the federal government for decades. It has been the greatest honor of my life to be part of this institution in various roles over the last four decades. In the 1980s, NIH supported my work at the University of Michigan through a peer-reviewed grant. That led to the identification of the gene for cystic fibrosis. Thirty years later that has led to an almost miraculous treatment that allows most kids with cystic fibrosis to look forward to an almost normal life span. I was recruited to NIH in 1993 to lead the Human Genome Project - an extraordinarily bold initiative to read out the three billion letters of the human DNA instruction book. Funded by the U.S. Congress, the project completed its work -- two years ahead of schedule, and $400 million under budget. The success of the project, and the commitment to share all of the data rapidly and freely, has revolutionized every aspect of human biomedical research and medical practice. Subsequently I was honored to be asked to serve as the Director of the National Institutes of Health. I had the chance to serve three Presidents - Barack Obama, Donald Trump, and Joseph Biden. I also had the opportunity to work regularly with members of Congress in both parties. I loved those interactions and relationships. Throughout that time, investment

relieving human suffering, and contributing substantially to the U.S. economy. That consistent support made possible bold new projects in regenerative medicine, brain science, precision health, cancer, and solutions for opioid addiction, to name just a few. When the worst pandemic in more than a century arose in 2020, it was my job as Director of NIH to pull together partnerships with the FDA, academia, and the private sector to produce what only America's unparalleled biomedical sector could have: COVID vaccines in just 11 months, a staggering medical achievement that saved over three million lives in the U.S.alone. After a stint in the White House as the President's Acting Science Advisor, where I had the chance to organize a major initiative to eliminate hepatitis C in the United States, i returned to the intramural research program of the National Human Genome Research Institute in 2023. There I have been overseeing a research laboratory of a dozen highly talented and visionary scientists who are providing new insights into the causes and possible means of prevention of type 2 diabetes, as well as seeking a gene therapy cure for one of the world's rarest diseases - progeria, a premature aging disorder. NIH is the largest supporter of biomedical research in the world. It is the main piston of a biomedical discovery engine that is the envy of the globe. Yet it is not a household name. It should be. NIH supports everything from basic science to clinical trials, providing the foundation of many breakthroughs. When you hear about patients surviving stage 4 cancer because of immunotherapy, that was based on NIH research over many decades. When you hear about sickle cell disease being cured because of CRISPR

gene editing, that was built on many years of research supported by NIH. It has also been the largest supporter of global health research in the world, winning us many friends and colleagues from across the globe. I have loved being employed by this extraordinary, life-giving institution for 32 years. I will continue to devote my life in other ways to seeking knowledge and enhancing health, to healing disease and reducing suffering, and to doing what I can to bring together our fractured communities around the shared values of love, truth, goodness, and faith. As I depart NIH, I want to express my gratitude and love for the men and women with whom I have worked side-by-side for so many years. They are individuals of extraordinary intellect and integrity, selfless and hard-working, generous and compassionate. They personify excellence in every way, and they deserve the utmost respect and support of all Americans.

Francis Collins, longtime NIH director with bipartisan bona fides*, retires as of yesterday.

He returned to NIH in 2023 to focus on research in his own lab, in the NIH in-house intramural research campus.

His letter seems to imply he wasn’t ready to leave. NIH is being torn down. 1/🧪 #academicsky

Happy birthday! Such a lovely photo with your parents.

This is a five-alarm fire 🔥 for US science 🧪.
(We keep saying that, but it keeps being true 😭.)

Trump and Musk are blocking *ALL* NIH grants ‼️ by "exploiting a loophole in the process"—stopping study sections & council meetings.

Every biomedical researcher in the country should be screaming. 1/

Researchers are getting ready for the upcoming elections - Researchers are invited to join the CoRE meeting today at noon EST to develop a common message and strategy to make research an election priority - register on eventbrite: https://buff.ly/4gRz8g2

NO RETURN TO NORMAL A Message To My Fellow Parliamentarians

Here's my latest reflection on a lesson I learned from a woman who was in the second tower on 9/11.
When the world is turned upside down taking action is the only way to survive.
Our democracy is under threat but politicians are still living in 2024.
charlieangus.substack.com/p/no-return-...

In other news, pathogens everywhere welcomed the confirmation of RFK Jr as the health secretary

Any NIH veterinarians, @westernuwin.bsky.social is looking for an attending university veterinarian right now! Come support an active research faculty base!

Congrats, Mark!

ÅNGSTRÖM-RESOLUTION IMAGING OF CELL-SURFACE GLYCANS 🧬🎨🍬

The glycocalyx, our cells' sugar coat, holds secrets in immunology, cancer, viral infections, and more. Visualizing its molecular architecture was impossible… until now. #glycotime #microscopy

www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

In our most recent paper, now out in Nature Protocols, we provide a detailed recipe for how to do microsurgery of axons, one at a time, using a 2-photon Ti:Sa laser! With this approach you can elucidate the axonal mechanisms that regulate neurotransmitter release!

It will be too late before they realize the bitter fruits of their folly. We must be on guard.

Statement from Liisa Galea, Scientific Lead of the Women's Health Research Cluster - Women's Health Research Cluster We are so proud to have over 800 members across 32 countries in the Women’s Health Research Cluster. Our Vision is to achieve sex and gender health equity, and we strive for a future where women...

Here’s my statement as Lead for @whrcluster.bsky.social on the importance of studying women’s health- (& the importance of within & across sex & gender investigations) for our best chance at precision medicine womenshealthresearchcluster.com/learn/womens...