1st McKinley Lab grad student’s 1st preprint!
@claireang.bsky.social studied how the uterus safely excises massive amounts of tissue during menstruation and pregnancy.
Come for her GORGEOUS images, stay for her incredible discoveries.
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...
w/ @akelleher1017.bsky.social
Warm congratulations to The Brain Prize winners 2026, Professor David Ginty and Professor Patrik Ernfors, for their pioneering work on how the nervous system detects and processes touch and pain.
Karolinska Institutet
HHMI
#Neuroscience #BrainPrize2026
idk that seems to be the understatement of the week. this is actually happening, postdocs and RAs are being let go, and projects falter. 'could face funding gaps'? this is actually happening at a large scale. 'Worry' doesnt reflect the existential crisis that many of my colleagues are in.
Congrats to Wendy Valencia-Montoya on a superstar PhD co-advised by Naomi Pierce. By seamlessly integrating molecular biology with ecology + evolution, Wendy truly transformed how our lab approaches science - can’t think of better compliment than that! @harvardmcb.bsky.social @harvardoeb.bsky.social
In our new poll with the Boston Globe of NIH funded scientists in Mass ...
- 72% say they have delayed or cancelled projects
- 66% reduced research scope
- 56% paused experiments or students.
www.bostonglobe.com/2026/02/09/m...
Faculty voiced cautious support for a proposal that would cap undergraduate A grades at roughly 20% and introduce an internal ranking system, saying the policy would curb longstanding grade inflation.
Abigail S. Gerstein and Amann S. Mahajan report.
www.thecrimson.com/article/2026...
A thoughtful and impressive proposal to recalibrate grading at Harvard. (Sometimes committees work!) I'm going to support this.
www.thecrimson.com/article/2026...
Apropos of nothing: after West Point and the Naval Academy, the civilian university with the most US Medal of Honor recipients is Harvard University.
Welcome to the Institute, Stern Lab! @hhmi-science.bsky.social Investigator David Stern studies how insects hijack plant development. His lab’s discoveries could reshape how we think about pest control and food security. He & his team arrived from HHMI’s Janelia Research Campus.
bit.ly/4np96Fb
No delay on grants? ha ha ha ha ha ha
(Should have received word on a noncompeting R01 renewal in June-July 2025. I have heard nothing from NIH on it yet. It's all madness and chaos.)
We need more of this. Glad there's still people like this in Congress.
This guy is an American hero. All of us need to listen and act.
Neil H. Shubin has been elected as the next NAS President! A leading evolutionary biologist and science communicator, Shubin will succeed Marcia McNutt on July 1. The Academy also named Cherry Murray as International Secretary and elected new councilors. Read more: www.nasonline.org/news/2026_pr...
Less than a day after the extortion demand was reportedly at $0, now it swings back up to $1B. Never imagined the US government could act like this.
www.thecrimson.com/article/2026...
And at each step, the NYT reported we were "close to a deal".
Even the NYT can't keep up with this chaos. In NYT's own reporting, the original demand wasn't $200M, it was $500M. Then it was $500M for a trade school or AI school or something. Then it had to have some cash so it was $300M+$200M. Then it was $200M.
www.nytimes.com/2026/02/02/u...
Does "NIAID leadership" here still include an external expert Advisory Council, or is NIH doing away with Council?
I have been watching this Livestream.
Lots of interesting topics with loads of misinformation, poor policy development, and evidence of selection bias.
Here is a minor, insignificant point that still drove me nuts.
1/14
Pseudogenes now, sadly, since the Fall
Every time someone uncritically repeats this meme about tens of thousands of undiscovered functional noncoding RNA genes in the human genome, an angel loses its wings.
That's insane. Your music is heart-stoppingly gorgeous and it's hard to imagine how anyone could think otherwise.
on Holocaust Remembrance Day
We are thrilled to announce Francis S. Collins, former director of the NIH, as the 2026 NAS Public Welfare Medalist for his pioneering research in human genetics and critical contributions to public welfare as the leader of the Human Genome Project! www.nasonline.org/news/francis... #NASaward
Color photograph of Joan Steitz (Joan Argetsinger Steitz), the distinguished American molecular biologist and biochemist renowned for her groundbreaking discoveries in RNA biology, including the identification of small nuclear ribonucleoproteins (snRNPs) essential to RNA splicing. She is pictured in a close-up portrait within a laboratory or research setting, smiling warmly and directly at the camera with an engaging, approachable expression that conveys enthusiasm and expertise. Steitz has gray hair pulled back, striking blue eyes, and is wearing large, elaborate dangling earrings adorned with purple gemstones and metallic accents. She is dressed in a rich purple blouse. The softly blurred background includes scientific elements such as lab benches, equipment, monitors, charts, and partial signage, evoking the environment of her long career at Yale University where she served as Sterling Professor of Molecular Biophysics and Biochemistry. #JoanSteitz #MolecularBiology #WomenInScience #Biochemistry #RNA
Biochemist/molecular biologist Joan Steitz was born #OTD in 1941.
She (& team) figured out how our cells read/use genetic instructions to make proteins. A key person who helped crack the code on RNA—the molecule that acts like a messenger between DNA & and the proteins our bodies need. #WomenInSTEM
I console myself by imagining that it does work, and that if I didn't press the button, it would find a way to be asking me even more frequently.
Vibrant color portrait of Jane S. Richardson, the visionary biophysicist and artist who revolutionized structural biology with her invention of ribbon diagrams. She gazes warmly at the camera with a bright, knowing smile that radiates quiet brilliance and decades of curiosity. Her silver-blonde hair woven with gentle waves. Large, elegant dangling earrings catch the light, and she wears a richly patterned brown blouse embroidered with intricate turquoise paisley motifs and delicate beadwork that echoes the molecular elegance she has spent her life depicting. Behind her floats a luminous, dreamlike backdrop of glowing molecular structures--interlocking hexagonal and ribbon-like forms in electric blues, teals, and greens--blending science and art in a single, living canvas.
Hand-drawn and hand-colored (by Jane Richardson) scientific artwork known as a Richardson ribbon diagram (or “ribbon model”), one of the iconic visual inventions of Jane Richardson that transformed the way we see and understand protein structures. A graceful, three-dimensional tangle of protein backbone ribbons twists and spirals through space, rendered in soft pencil lines and luminous watercolor hues. Smooth golden-brown coils represent α-helices that curl like elegant ribbons, while broad teal-green arrows trace the flat, pleated strands of β-sheets slicing through the molecule with directional purpose. Thin, looping golden threads connect the secondary structures, creating a delicate, almost dance-like choreography of biology’s hidden architecture. The entire form is framed by a simple olive-green mat and dark border, giving the drawing the quiet dignity of both fine art and precise scientific illustration—a timeless bridge between molecular reality and human imagination.
Jane Richardson was born #OTD in 1941
+ Developed the Richardson (ribbon) diagram to represent proteins' 3D structure (becoming a standard representation for protein structures)
+ MacArthur Fellow, 1985
+ Elected, Nat'l Academy of Sciences, 1991
+ President, Biophysical Society, 2012
#WomenInSTEM
Congratulations to Cynthia Dwork, Harvard CS Professor and Harvard Stats Affiliate for being award the 2026 Japan Prize. In statistics her most celebrated work is on founding differential privacy.
www.japanprize.jp/en/prize_pas...
🚨 New from me: Grant review at more than half of NIH's institutes could be frozen by the end of the year.
That's because crucial NIH grant-review panels are slated to be empty at those institutes by Jan 2027.
A wonky bureaucratic problem with big implications.
A short 🧵
Join us in congratulating Philip J. Kranzusch (@kranzuschlab.bsky.social) of @danafarber.bsky.social and @harvardmed.bsky.social, winner of the 2026 NAS Award in Molecular Biology for his groundbreaking work advancing understanding of innate immunity! www.nasonline.org/award/nas-aw... #NASaward
