Brandon Fricker
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brandonfricker.bsky.social
Brandon Fricker
@brandonfricker.bsky.social
240 followers 660 following 44 posts
Neuroscientist. Postdoc in Dr. Carolyn Elya’s lab at Harvard. Studying a behavior manipulating parasitic fungus. Previously working on sociality in spiny mice in Dr. Aubrey Kelly’s lab. I love bees. And cats.
Posts Replies Media Videos
brandonfricker.bsky.social
The Rocky Mountain Labs does some incredibly important research.
npr.org NPR @npr.org · May 26
Science is an economic driver in Hamilton, Mont., thanks to Rocky Mountain Laboratories, a federal research lab. Now, layoffs and funding cuts are having an impact in this town far from Washington.
A small Montana town grapples with the fallouts from federal worker cuts
Science is an economic driver in Hamilton, Mont., thanks to Rocky Mountain Laboratories, a federal research lab. Now, layoffs and funding cuts are having an impact in this town far from Washington.
www.npr.org
May 26, 2025 at 5:21 PM
Reposted by Brandon Fricker
emmavigeland.bsky.social
A genuinely moving act of democratic representation. Chris Van Hollen showed up for his constituent. This is how you make the positive case for democracy.

Chuck Schumer looks more incapable every day.
vanhollen.senate.gov Senator Chris Van Hollen @vanhollen.senate.gov · Apr 18
I said my main goal of this trip was to meet with Kilmar. Tonight I had that chance. I have called his wife, Jennifer, to pass along his message of love. I look forward to providing a full update upon my return.
Photo of Senator Chris Van Hollen with Kilmar Abrego Garcia.
April 18, 2025 at 2:21 AM
brandonfricker.bsky.social
podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/t...
The Emergency Is Here
Podcast Episode · The Ezra Klein Show · 04/17/2025 · 1h 12m
podcasts.apple.com
April 17, 2025 at 3:35 PM
Reposted by Brandon Fricker
marklawrenceauthor.bsky.social
To celebrate the completion of The Library Trilogy with THE BOOK THAT HELD HER HEART, I'm giving away the full set of signed Locked Library special editions.

To enter just repost.

Contest held across my socials - enter elsewhere too to increase chances.

Winner chosen randomly from all entries.
April 17, 2025 at 1:23 PM
Reposted by Brandon Fricker
standupforscience.bsky.social
📣 GET IN, DORKS!
We are going protesting...AGAIN! 📣

This time we are standing up for our core value of academic freedom and asking university leadership to STAND UP WITH US against Trump's attack on higher ed ✊

#StandUpWithUS

Register/find an event: actionnetwork.org/event_campai...
NATIONWIDE CAMPUS ACTION STAND UP WITH US because science, higher ed, and democracy are for everyone. Where: YOUR COLLEGE CAMPUS When: YOUR LAST DAY OF CLASSES StandUpForScience2025.org It’s time for a Summer Send-Off Stand Up, Fight Back - TOGETHER!
April 8, 2025 at 10:09 PM
Reposted by Brandon Fricker
karaswisher.bsky.social
Finally Harvard lives up to its motto: Veritas view.hu.harvard.edu?qs=351b45ebf...
view.hu.harvard.edu
April 14, 2025 at 5:54 PM
Reposted by Brandon Fricker
joekatz45.bsky.social
T-30 minutes from the start at #HandsOff Boston and Massachusetts is showing UP
April 5, 2025 at 2:32 PM
brandonfricker.bsky.social
👆
emmavigeland.bsky.social Emma Vigeland @emmavigeland.bsky.social · Apr 3
*screams into a pillow*

Maybe you guys shouldn't have given the President this exact power via the continuing resolution LITERALLY THREE WEEKS AGO. @schumer.senate.gov, you complete clown.
sahilkapur.bsky.social Sahil Kapur @sahilkapur.bsky.social · Apr 3
Senators Chuck Grassley (R) and Maria Cantwell (D) just introduced a bill to reassert Congress’s power over tariffs.

—President must notify Congress on new tariffs within 48 hours of imposition.

—Congress must approve them within 60 days or they expire.

www.cantwell.senate.gov/imo/media/do...
April 4, 2025 at 10:56 PM
Reposted by Brandon Fricker
cdelawalla.bsky.social
We have been working hard behind the scenes, y'all.

Get your signs ready!
April 4, 2025 at 11:25 AM
Reposted by Brandon Fricker
cdelawalla.bsky.social
Hi hello good morning.

This is fascism. Nazi Germany did this to support their messaging of a superior Aryan race.

Hope this helps!
maxkozlov.bsky.social Max Kozlov @maxkozlov.bsky.social · Apr 3
NEW: After cancelling nearly all projects on trans health, the Trump admin has now directed the NIH to study the negative consequences of transitioning.

This will create “a distorted research ecosystem where only politically favorable findings are permitted to exist”, researcher Harry Barbee says.
Exclusive: Trump White House directs NIH to study ‘regret’ after transgender people transition
After cancelling nearly all NIH projects studying transgender health, Trump’s team instructs the US biomedical agency to study negative consequences of transitioning.
www.nature.com
April 4, 2025 at 12:56 PM
Reposted by Brandon Fricker
benwikler.bsky.social
Two button meme. Button 1: Don't cause a recession for no reason Button 2: Cause a recession for no reason
April 3, 2025 at 5:47 PM
Reposted by Brandon Fricker
endoeartha.bsky.social
My speech for the Philly #StandUpForScience Protest.

Everything I do is for my community 💜✨
Hello Philadelphia! I’m Dr. Eartha Mae Guthman. I’m a Philadelphian, a trans woman, a neuroscientist, and a proud card carrying union member with UAW. I first worked in a lab 15 years ago. I fell in love then and there with the scientific method, and I've worked as a scientist ever since. Today, I want to talk to you about how this administration’s attacks on trans people and trans health research harm us all. When I began transitioning seven years ago, I was terrified! For my safety. For my scientific career. Would my colleagues find me credible? Would they see a scientist who happened to be trans, or would they only see me through the lens of my transness? I decided then, regardless of the outcome, I would dedicate my life to improving healthcare for trans people. For the past seven years I’ve worked towards this goal. I’ve spent holidays inventing new tools to study the brain and behavior. I’ve spent weeks going to work after dark, sitting with my mice to run overnight experiments, and then coming home, crossing the Delaware with the sunrise. I’ve been fortunate to have achieved success in my work: I’ve published over a dozen papers, including guides on how to develop animal models for hormone therapy; I’ve been awarded highly competitive NSF and NIH grants; I’ve been appointed a fellow at the Center for Applied Transgender Studies and at other academic organizations. And, about a year ago, I received the best news of my career: I had been awarded a prestigious NIH grant to not only fund my research at Princeton, but to provide me funding to start my own lab. In my lab, I want to ask questions about how hormones impact the brain to influence mood, the body, and behavior. I want to apply this research to design better hormone therapies– yes, for gender affirming care, but also for birth control, menopause, endometriosis, PCOS, the list goes on! My goal, set so many years ago, was within my grasp. I had put in the work and sacrifice, taken the risks, and it had all seemed worth it. But my dream grows less likely by the day because of Republican efforts to reverse decades of acceptance for various minorities. Through anti-DEI and anti-trans executive orders and laws, the administration seeks to restore hierarchies centered around race and gender, resegregating America. A textbook example of fascism and fascist takeover of institutions. Trump’s anti-DEI and anti-trans executive orders censor me and those like me. At the State of the Union on Tuesday, Trump complained that NIH wasted money on “transgender mice”, directly attacking the work my colleagues and I do. Wednesday, a White House press release called trans health research “fraud” and “waste”. Yesterday, Nature reported that the administration has bypassed congressional control of the budget to terminate ongoing grants related to trans healthcare. They report that the NIH will terminate hundreds of already awarded, active research grants if they support DEI or trans people in any way. I don't know how or if I’ll get paid next month, and I don't know if I’ll actually get the funds that congress has already awarded me to start my lab. I don't know what's going to happen to my career, and I'm really fucking furious. I've dedicated my entire adult life to this work. But to Trump and his supporters, I am not a scientist who should be judged for the work I do, who happens to be trans. To them, I am trans, and therefore cannot contribute to science because I’m inherently biased and unfit. But I'm here speaking to you now because this moment is about more than just me. Under the guise of this anti-trans and anti-DEI moral panic, Republicans are weaponizing the state to attack all science. Their actions prevent us from making life-saving discoveries across all fields. They see science as a tool to control people and carve their desired reality into our bodies and minds, not as a way to understand our beautifully complex world. But we can stop them. Because we are many, and they are so, very, very few. Right now we need to give our legislators hell until they start standing up for us. Push universities to establish contingency funds for researchers whose active funding is terminated. And keep showing up, keep protesting. Keep standing up to cruel bullies and fascists. Don’t comply with unjust orders or demands, fight back! Fight for a world where the next scientist like me is seen for her contributions to science and human health, not seen only as trans. And lastly, fight for a world that loves and values trans people.
March 7, 2025 at 7:16 PM
brandonfricker.bsky.social
I can confirm that this is the worst timeline.
February 27, 2025 at 3:17 AM
Reposted by Brandon Fricker
cdelawalla.bsky.social
🚨ATTENTION ALL SHOPPERS🚨

We will be finalizing rally locations on MONDAY, FEB 24th!!!!!
IF YOU WANT A RALLY NEAR YOU, SIGN UP TO LEAD IT.

Be the change you want to see in the world ❤️
standupforscience.bsky.social Stand Up for Science! @standupforscience.bsky.social · Feb 20
🚨🚨🚨 STILL LOOKING FOR VOLUNTEERS!

We'd love to have Stand Up for Science represented in all 50 states—and are so close! Please volunteer to organize your capitol or major city's protest if you're able!

Link to volunteer form: airtable.com/app4h5wUssMG...
February 21, 2025 at 4:06 PM
Reposted by Brandon Fricker
standupforscience.bsky.social
HEY BOSTON! 📣☀️

MARCH 7TH, MASSACHUSETTS STATE CAPITOL!

Join us to #standupforscience2025 and make your voice heard!

SEE YOU THERE!

www.standupforscience2025.org #standupforscience20225
Flyer for Massachusetts stand up for science, at the Massachusetts state capitol in Boston on March 7th from 12-4 PM. More info at standupforscience2025.org
February 21, 2025 at 6:50 PM
Reposted by Brandon Fricker
heatherurry.bsky.social
Stand up for science in Boston, March 7, 2025, 12-4pm
Boston, MA
Location: Massachusetts State House 24 Beacon St, Boston, MA, United States Address: 24 Beacon St., Boston, MA, 02133 Time: 12-4 PM Important information: Please do not fully block the sidewalk, st…
standupforscience2025.org
February 21, 2025 at 9:00 PM
Reposted by Brandon Fricker
lovettbr.bsky.social
I’m on the market! 🎉

What do I do?
-I develop research questions and applied biotechnology to understand and disrupt insect symbioses.
-I coordinate international teams to tackle interdisciplinary global challenges.
-I train mycologists, entomologists and insect pathologists.
a cartoon character is standing in front of a table with the word science written on it
ALT: a cartoon character is standing in front of a table with the word science written on it
media.tenor.com
February 19, 2025 at 4:28 PM
Reposted by Brandon Fricker
dacolon.bsky.social
Sharing our most recent paper, in which we find that electrical synapses in C. elegans drive action selection by "filtering" sensory information. C. elegans can learn temp, move across the temp. gradient and then track that temp. How? Configuration electrical synapses www.cell.com/cell/fulltex... 1/
Configuration of electrical synapses filters sensory information to drive behavioral choices
Sensory information can be differentially processed, enabling similar sensory stimuli to elicit different, context-specific behavioral strategies. This study uncovers a conserved configuration of elec...
www.cell.com
January 19, 2025 at 5:24 PM
brandonfricker.bsky.social
It is noon. I am tired.
December 25, 2024 at 5:04 PM
Reposted by Brandon Fricker
annmclemens.bsky.social
In our paper @currentbiology.bsky.social we uncover the tactile & afferent mechanisms of the rat pup transport response.

Teamwork ✋ Zheyi, Connor, Arturo, Marta, Yu, Michael @sidb-edinburgh.bsky.social @edinunineuro.bsky.social @mblscience.bsky.social

Read the dispatch too!

tinyurl.com/4ez3k9uw
December 5, 2024 at 10:20 AM
brandonfricker.bsky.social
Is there a Fiji plugin that will both stitch tiles and stack the results…?
December 4, 2024 at 6:27 AM
brandonfricker.bsky.social
There should be more mushroom-themed dishes at Thanksgiving.
November 28, 2024 at 5:35 PM
brandonfricker.bsky.social
Brought the girls to my parent’s house for the holiday. Cautiously exploring their new kingdom.
Two cats by a doorway. They are cute.
November 27, 2024 at 6:32 PM
brandonfricker.bsky.social
My southern-born cat Amity, adjusting to the Boston weather.
A cute cat in her cat bed
November 15, 2024 at 2:32 PM
Reposted by Brandon Fricker
chrislhayes.bsky.social
Walking around my house, looking at my phone muttering “don’t love that” over and over
November 13, 2024 at 9:42 PM