This policy comes as they 1) install cronies as Institute Directors - eg, JD Vance's old roommate is NIEHS Director 2) reject Council slates & 3) ignore scientific program staff.

In sun, politicos (rather than scientists trained in the appropriate field) can skip applications with no justification

And if you are at #SfN2025 and interested in neuroHIV, microglia and Sigma-1, also come to poster I2 Tuesday afternoon. Tofumni Oteju from the GaskillLab will discuss how cocaine modulates antiviral and unfolded protein response to enhance HIV infection in iPSC-microglia via Sigma-1

At #SfN2025? Interested in neuroHIV, dopamine and stimulants? On Tuesday morning at poster H5, Yash Agarwal from the Gaskill Lab will present data on Dopaminergic modulation of neuroimmune responses in HIV-infected, iPSC-derived cortical and midbrain organoids exposed to stimulants.

So proud of AlexisBrantly who did a fantastic job today defending her thesis focused on "Establishing a model of HIV infection in macrophages to assess HIV / HBV co-infection driven liver disease". Keep an eye here for great data coming out soon about HIV / HBV coinfection.

High-throughput High Content Quantification of HIV-1 Viral Infectious Output Infection with human immunodeficiency virus (HIV-1) remains a global health issue and still drives the development of significant pathology and various comorbidities. Antiretroviral therapy (ART) can ...

Thrilled that our new pre-print "High-throughput High Content Quantification of HIV-1 Viral Infectious Output" is now up on bioRxiv (biorxiv.org/content/10.1...). Initiated by Dr. Teresa Lupone, this work was ably expanded and completed by Alexis Brantly.

Amazing job by Yash Agarwal presenting his research on HIV infection of human iPSC derived cortical and midbrain organoids. Yash has ably led the work in the Gaskill Lab developing and exploiting this novel model to study dopamine and substance use mediated changes in HIV infection.

NIH Workers Demand Changes In New ‘Bethesda Declaration’ The public letter to NIH Director Jay Bhattacharya was signed by hundreds of agency personnel.

BREAKING: Over 300 NIH workers have signed The Bethesda Declaration and delivered it to Director Bhattacharya accusing him and the admin of putting “political momentum over human safety and faithful stewardship of public resources” and demanding changes.

www.importantcontext.news/p/nih-worker...

Fantastic early career poster session at the Society for Neuroimmune Pharmacology (#SNIP2025) in Omaha last night. Lots of interest in our work on dopaminergic immunology (Marzieh Daniali), cocaine & HIV (Tofunmi Oteju) and human brain organoids (Yash Agarwal).

Very impressed with Tofunmi Oteju, who gave an outstanding talk at the 2025 Society for Neuroimmune Pharmacology (#SNIP2025) in Omaha today. She discussed her research on the role of Sigma-1 and how it leverages the unfolded protein response to drive increased HIV infection of microglia.

Microenvironmental Conditions and Serum Availability Alter Primary Human Macrophage NF-κB Inflammatory Response and Function Serum availability alters human macrophage NF-κB dynamics and inflammatory functions including cytokine secretion and phagocytic capacity in response to ma

Thrilled to announce our recent paper in JLB "Microenvironmental Conditions and Serum Availability Alter Primary Human Macrophage NF-κB Inflammatory Response and Function." Led by @BreanaChanner come check it out here tinyurl.com/5t3pjp8t

🚨New Postdoc Opportunity

We have an opening for a postdoc jointly mentored by
Justin Baker and me for work on digital therapeutics and passive sensing using smartphones and wearables (smartwatches + smart rings). More info 👉: webbslab.com/job-postings

Please RT & share!

They’re using the hostages to try and justify their anti-democratic movement.

Not in our name

3rd great day at ASPET 2025. Fantastic hike at Multnomah falls, lunch at the food trucks and an afternoon of excellent science capped with another Gaskill lab poster by Marzieh Daniali, and the Catecholamine Society dinner, where Tofunmi Oteju received a Daniel T. O'Connor travel award.

Awesome day at #aspet2025 for the Gaskill lab. Spoke dopaminergic immunology in HIV-associated inflammation in a symposium on "How the Immune System Tunes Monoamine Signaling", then Breana Channer and Tofunmi Oteju
presented their fantastic data at the evening poster session.

Great start to #aspet2025 today in Portland. A walk around the city, an excellent sushi burrito for lunch at the Midtown Beer Garden and an evening with great posters, good people and ... lots of gnomes?

The CDC Has Been Gutted Thousands of CDC employees who worked on things like preventing HIV and lead poisoning have been told they were subject to a reduction in force. Experts say people will die.

There is no other way to say this: Today is the day the CDC was essentially dissolved. What's left is a husk. People will die as a direct result.
www.wired.com/story/cdc-gu...

NIH has rescinded its scientific integrity policy. Hard to see this as anything other than clearing the way for shoddy research on things like vaccines. Regardless of the rationale, it's bad news for public health.

grants.nih.gov/grants/guide...

US map via scienceimpacts.org visualization of economic loss due to IDC cuts to 15% as part of Feb 7, 2025 executive order, with shading denoting intensity of cuts.

Working with an interdisciplinary team, we have developed a website to communicate how the White House's proposed cuts to health research would cause losses of $16B and 68,500 jobs.

Find out how your community may be impacted.

Explore more at SCIMaP: scienceimpacts.org

a 🧵

Vaccine critic’s apparent selection to head HHS autism study shocks experts The apparent choice of a major player in the anti-vaccine community to conduct an HHS study on autism has shocked vaccine experts.

Even in 2025, some things still shock. Like the apparent selection of a long-time vaccine opponent who was disciplined & fined for practicing medicine without a license to conduct a new HHS study into whether there's a link between vaccines and autism.
www.statnews.com/2025/03/26/r...

NSF grantees and awardees can learn from a *new report* how they might respond to grant changes like termination! 🔬 Like @davidimiller.bsky.social says, prepare now.

I helped edit this with the amazing @isaackamola.bsky.social at AAUP and other great colleagues. Posted w/ other CDAF resources here:

Saying ‘pandemic is over,’ NIH institute starts cutting COVID-19 research Grant terminations halt research on improving vaccinations and preventing future pandemics

Exclusive: Science has learned that grant termination letters went out last night to principal investigators of 29 awards made by NIAID, including nine grants that were part of a program hoping to deliver antiviral drugs to prevent future pandemics. scim.ag/4iVm7mY

Find Your Voting Locations | WISDEMS Voter Protection Team This searchable map shows you early voting and dropbox info for hundreds of villages, towns, and cities across Wisconsin. Enter the address you're registered at and your options will pop up!

Right now, there’s an important race happening that will shape the Wisconsin Supreme Court for the next 10 years. Judge Susan Crawford is ready to protect the fundamental rights and freedoms of all Wisconsinites.

Make a plan to vote early today — don’t wait until April 1st: wisdems.org/vote

Right Here & Right Now We are facing a generational disruption to science, research, and higher education. We must speak up in the face of attacks – right here & right now.

New post out on #substack

We are facing a generational disruption to science, research, and higher education. We must speak up in the face of attacks – right here & right now.

joshuasweitz.substack.com/p/right-here...

Dr. Channer-Ellis may be heading back to medical school in a few weeks, but she is killing it on the way out. Fantastic defense, just resubmitted her thesis work after minor revisions, travel awards to ASPET and AAI to present her dissertation data!!! Amazing!!!!

NIH Grants Fueled $95 Billion In FY 2024 Economic Activity, Finds New Report National Institutes of Health grants generated almost $95 billion in economic activity nationwide in FY 2024 according to a new report by United for Medical Research.

NIH is the best investment there is.

www.forbes.com/sites/michae...

We are not far away from your spouse’s cancer trial stopping, your parent’s Alzheimer’s clinical trial evaporating, your teen’s mental health intervention disappearing. It’s easy to attack universities, but the recent actions from the White House will stop cutting edge medical research very quickly.

Hundreds of research grants at Columbia canceled following Trump edict, administrator says The National Institutes of Health is terminating 232 grants for scientific research at Columbia University Irving Medical Center, according to an email an administrator sent to faculty.

I received one of the 232 NIH grant "terminations" sent to scientists at Columbia last night. My research focuses on improving maternal and child health in the US. Also affected: ongoing clinical trials, research training programs, and research centers that aim to improve the health of Americans.

Couldn't be prouder to congratulate Dr. Breana-Channer Ellis on her outstanding defense of her research dissertation "Evaluating TLR4 and Dopamine Mediated Inflammatory Responses in Human Macrophages Across Distinct Culture and Serum Conditions." Incredible job today!!!

Pentagon abruptly ends all funding for social science research More than 90 studies on threats such as climate change, extremism, and disinformation are halted

The U.S. Department of Defense is ending all of its funding for social science research, stopping 91 ongoing studies related to threats such as climate change, extremism, and disinformation. scim.ag/4hqu6HA

NIH to ax grants on vaccine hesitancy, mRNA vaccines Move reflects vaccine skepticism of health secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.

NIH to ax grants on vaccine hesitancy, mRNA vaccines. www.science.org/content/arti...