Even for trans adults, care is hard to find: ‘I could not do it on my own’ State restrictions, Trump administration policies, and waning public support are further limiting adults' access to transgender care

Georgia has just 1 LGBTQ+ center, located in Savannah, GA. @theresagaff.bsky.social reports on how the pride center is supporting trans people as they navigate growing restrictions and public and political backlash:

www.statnews.com/2026/04/20/t...

First up: F grants

These support individual grad students and post-docs (and some college students).

# of new grants issued through April 15 in

FY2024 (the last “normal” year): 652
FY2025: 402
FY2026: 74

Even for trans adults, care is hard to find: ‘I could not do it on my own’ State restrictions, Trump administration policies, and waning public support are further limiting adults' access to transgender care

I recently visited Indigo in Savannah to see how he and others at Georgia's only LGBTQ+ center are pushing to expand affirming care, even as it contracts elsewhere. www.statnews.com/2026/04/20/t...

New: I've spent months getting to know Indigo, a 25yo trans guy who loves musicals & BTS. Even though gender-affirming care is completely legal for adults, he had to make appointments with four different surgeons over two years before he was able to get top surgery.

Introducing GPT-Rosalind for life sciences research OpenAI introduces GPT-Rosalind, a frontier reasoning model built to accelerate drug discovery, genomics analysis, protein reasoning, and scientific research workflows.

My BBQs (big, basic questions) about OpenAI's new life sciences research model GPT Rosalind are:

1) Does it do anything that's actually useful for scientists? 🧵

🧪⚗️ #realtimechem #chemsky #research #science

DOGGETT: Doesn't your budget propose another 12% cut for NIH?

VOUGHT: Most of what you said is untrue. NIH was not cut at all--

D: My Q is don't you propose another 12% cut?

VOUGHT: We propose a cut

D: Is it your feeling that we just can't afford to invest more in doing something about cancer?

As political pressure mounts, medical school accreditor drops requirement to teach about health equity The leading medical school accreditation body in the U.S. has removed language from its standards requiring schools to teach about health inequities

You can read more about the potential fallout of that decision in Dr. Blackstock's first opinion as well as this story, ft. @ariana-tl.bsky.social @ammahstarr.bsky.social & @jonathanmetzl.bsky.social

www.statnews.com/2026/03/27/m...

"Too often, we fail to address the conditions that determine whether care happens at all. Patients don’t experience illness in a vacuum," @ucheblackstockmd.bsky.social writes about LCME removing language on teaching health equity

You should come to this conference - I'm moderating a panel on the future of trans media.

translib.net

NSF awards record number of coveted PhD fellowships in surprise move Quantum science and AI research are big winners just a year after the US funding giant slashed its Graduate Research Fellowship Program awards in half.

Last year the GRFP was initially cut in half, to 1,000 awards, amid rumors of a massive cut. This year the agency is facing a similar, 55% cut from the White House and headwinds in awarding grants. Despite that, on Sunday, it offered a record 2,599 GRFP awards.

My story on the surprising news:

For Ben Sasse, Revolution Medicines’ pancreatic cancer trial felt like his best, only option Former Sen. Ben Sasse gives a glimpse of what it's like to be a participant in an tough but promising new drug for pancreatic cancer.

NEW: For Ben Sasse, Revolution Medicines’ pancreatic cancer trial felt like his best, only option.

www.statnews.com/2026/04/14/b...

New rules for CDC vaccine panel aim to address lawsuit, empower Kennedy’s allies www.statnews.com/2026/04/09/n... via @statnews.com @helenbranswell.bsky.social @aniloza.bsky.social

STAT Polk awardees

STAT Polk Awardees

So honored to receive a Polk award today with STAT colleagues @mmolteni.bsky.social @aniloza.bsky.social @angusrohan.bsky.social @jonathanwosen.bsky.social @isabellacueto.bsky.social @lizzylawrence.bsky.social @jaspar.bsky.social @rickberke.bsky.social Gideon Gil Laura Chang+Sarah Todd. What a team.

Take 2 by RFK in his bid to remake ACIP: the charter for the committee was edited to (among other changes)

-add RFK-aligned liaison orgs
-Change language on the requisite expertise of members (a subject of the aap lawsuit)

w/ @helenbranswell.bsky.social

www.statnews.com/2026/04/09/n...

Trump administration drops court fight to cap NIH payments for research overhead costs The Trump administration will not be asking the Supreme Court to take up its fight to slash NIH support for research indirect costs

New: Trump administration drops court fight to cap rate of reimbursement for “indirect costs” on NIH grants.

Via @mmolteni.bsky.social

www.statnews.com/2026/04/08/t...

A decade ago, these drugs tore apart the FDA. Today, they might be some patients' best hope A mother's persistence helps revive an all-but-abandoned drug class and could aid her son and thousands of others with neuromuscular conditions.

decade ago, a new class of Duchenne drugs sparked a civil war in the FDA. There were anecdotes, boys and parents in dire need, but little data

Today those drugs are back. For a small subset of patients, they have led to among the best results experts have seen

www.statnews.com/2026/04/08/d...

A star scientist showed that better genetics lessons could reduce racism. It was the death knell for his career Brian Donovan had persuaded high school teachers and education researchers that prejudice might be ended by changing how genetics is taught.

Brian Donovan had persuaded high school teachers and education researchers that prejudice might be ended by changing how genetics is taught. www.statnews.com/2026/04/07/b...

A woman stands in front of a large window with multiple consoles of Mission Control behind her

Why yes we were in Mission Control when flight directors broadcast a message from Jim Lovell to the crew as they woke up on lunar flyby day

#ArtemisII 🧪🔭

thank you!! I really appreciated the paper you two wrote about presidentialist governance

Glad to be part of @aniloza.bsky.social reporting on why it's a problem to stop teaching future physicians about structural factors in health and health care

NASA once touted the diversity of Artemis II's astronauts. Now? Not so much The Artemis II mission crew contains four people -- including one woman and one Black man, both of whom will be the first on a lunar mission. But NASA hasn't been talking about these milestones much.

The #ArtemisII crew includes the first person of color, the first woman, and the first non-American to (hopefully) fly beyond Earth orbit. You won't hear much on this from NASA, which has rolled back DEI initiatives over the past year.

www.npr.org/2026/03/31/n...

Who's Telling the Stories of Older Americans? Meet Newmark's 2026 Aging Beat Cohort - Newmark J-School The Craig Newmark Graduate School of Journalism at CUNY has selected nine working journalists from across North America to participate in its second

Thrilled to be chosen as one of the journalists for CUNY’s Aging Beat fellowship in May!

Truly so excited to be in the company of such talented writers and to learn from some of the health journalism greats about such a critical topic.

www.journalism.cuny.edu/2026/03/newm...

Screenshot of a portrait of vannevar bush made into a slack emoji

of course!!

I have read Endless Frontier many times and that is … not what Bush said.

I hope you all have as much fun reading about the public torture of Vannevar Bush’s legacy at CPAC as I did being interviewed by @aniloza.bsky.social on the subject.

NIH director’s invocation of Vannevar Bush’s legacy to promote Trump science policies sparks pushback Jay Bhattacharya’s claim that the Trump administration is pursuing the vision articulated by scientific leader, Vannevar Bush, has provoked pushback — and outrage

Read below why Bhattacharya’s invocation of FDR’s science advisor spurred accusations that he’s “hijacking” Bush’s legacy in a way that @nataliebaviles.bsky.social said have him rolling in his grave

www.statnews.com/2026/04/01/j...

Screenshot of STAT’s newsletter, morning rounds. It reads, “Fact-checking Jay Bhattacharya on Vannevar Bush We’ll forgive you if you don’t remember the name Vannevar Bush off the top of your head. In 1945, he wrote a report for Congress that served as the guiding document for the longstanding social contract between researchers and the federal government. Nobody loves thinking about, talking about, or sending a custom Slack emoji of Bush more than STAT’s Anil Oza, who first wrote about him in our Polk award-winning series, American Science, Shattered. So when Anil heard that NIH Director Jay Bhattacharya invoked Bush and the “endless frontier” in a recent speech, his ears perked up.”

guilty as charged 🫡

NIH director’s invocation of Vannevar Bush’s legacy to promote Trump science policies sparks pushback Jay Bhattacharya’s claim that the Trump administration is pursuing the vision articulated by scientific leader, Vannevar Bush, has provoked pushback — and outrage

Jay Bhattacharya suggested he's pursuing a vision laid out long ago by Vannevar Bush, an architect of the U.S. scientific enterprise. Bush's biographer tells @aniloza.bsky.social that's not how he sees it: “Jay is hijacking Bush’s legacy for his own purposes.”

www.statnews.com/2026/04/01/j...

For #NSF and #NIH watchers, Grant Witness now has interactive data on numbers of grants and total funding obligations, broken down by institute and directorate, new awards and non-competitive renewals.

The stranglehold on new awards is still a disaster.

grant-witness.us/funding_curv...