Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

Constance Bailey @constancebailey.bsky.social · Jun 22

New preprint on conserved BCG in myxobacteria from Cole Steven's lab!

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

www.biorxiv.org

Constance Bailey @constancebailey.bsky.social · Jun 16

The Extraordinary Benefit of Nature’s Chemistry to Health, Society, and the Economy | Journal of Natural Products pubs.acs.org/doi/full/10....

The Extraordinary Benefit of Nature’s Chemistry to Health, Society, and the Economy

The connection between humans and Nature’s chemistry is astonishing and built into the very fabric of our genetic code. In this Perspective, we focus on bioactive molecules from microbes, plants, and ...

pubs.acs.org

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Reposted by Constance Bailey

Carl Zimmer @carlzimmer.com · May 1

NIH is freezing funds for research abroad, threatening thousands of projects. 9/10
www.nature.com/articles/d41...

Exclusive: NIH to suspend funds for research abroad as it overhauls policy

Move by US biomedical agency threatens thousands of projects on infectious diseases, cancer and more.

www.nature.com

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Reposted by Constance Bailey

W. Carson Byrd @wcbyrdphd.bsky.social · May 2

Important story of NSF cuts by @carolynyjohnson.bsky.social, & important perspective from @alondra.bsky.social: ‘These accounts of how we are decimating with a thousand cuts the science & research ecosystem are devastating… It’s sort of cutting off the future.’ www.washingtonpost.com/science/2025...

Amid DOGE-induced turmoil, National Science Foundation in crisis

The $9 billion agency, which exists solely to fund researchers, projects and facilities outside its Alexandria, Virginia, headquarters, is hitting reverse on its mission.

www.washingtonpost.com

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Reposted by Constance Bailey

Max Kozlov @maxkozlov.bsky.social · May 2

Affected by the foreign subawards policy? Help run clinical trials abroad on a project with a subaward? I want to hear how this policy impacts you.

Send me a message on Signal at mkozlov .01 or email me at maxkozlov [at] protonmail [dot] com. You can stay anonymous.

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Reposted by Constance Bailey

Leighton Pritchard @widdowquinn.bsky.social · Apr 28

There's an open call for editors (5-year terms) at Applied and Environmental Microbiology, for those of you who might be interested:

journals.asm.org/journal/aem/...

journals.asm.org

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Constance Bailey @constancebailey.bsky.social · Apr 23

If anyone has concerns, the biosecurity bureaucracy of Australia should allay them!

Constance Bailey @constancebailey.bsky.social · Apr 23

I know conservation biologists have ethical concerns about Colossal Biosciences, etc., but one thing is for sure: DAFT and the OGTR are never ever going to let a GMO thylacine-like animal that is actually a GMO numbat or whatever wander the bush in Tassie.

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Reposted by Constance Bailey

boehninglab @boehninglab.com · Apr 11

This is chilling www.fda.gov/news-events/...

FDA Announces Plan to Phase Out Animal Testing Requirement for Monoclonal Antibodies and Other Drugs

FDA Plans to Phase Out Animal Testing Requirement

www.fda.gov

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Constance Bailey @constancebailey.bsky.social · Apr 11

I injured my thumb tripping on a run this morning, and it is kinda annoying typing, but I am really glad that I am not a PhD student/postdoc anymore because pipetting would be literally impossible.

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Reposted by Constance Bailey

Jordan Meier @doc-jlmeier.bsky.social · Apr 10

Great news: NIH postbac program is recruiting again! If your grad school plans were affected by program cutbacks or admissions freezes this year I highly encourage you to apply, this could be a perfect opportunity. Please repost.

www.training.nih.gov/research-tra...

www.training.nih.gov

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Reposted by Constance Bailey

Drug Monkey @drugmonkey.bsky.social · Apr 9

NSF will award ~1,000 instead of their usual ~2,000 Graduate Research Fellowships this year.

NSF slashes prestigious PhD fellowship awards by half www.nature.com/articles/d41...

NSF slashes prestigious PhD fellowship awards by half

US National Science Foundation announces lowest number of Graduate Research Fellowship Programme recipients in 15 years.

www.nature.com

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Constance Bailey @constancebailey.bsky.social · Apr 9

My biggest comment on paper I am reviewing today is going to be that their technical sales pitch jargon literally makes the paper hard to follow even though it's a pretty straightforward genetic circuit.

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Constance Bailey @constancebailey.bsky.social · Apr 9

Not to throw rocks at glass houses (because I definitely am guilty of this) but sometimes synthetic biology is so vibey. Sometimes people are just doing a pretty basic genetic experiment and dressing it up in technical futuristic jargon.

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Constance Bailey @constancebailey.bsky.social · Apr 6

General vibes right now

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Constance Bailey @constancebailey.bsky.social · Apr 4

www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Openness guides discovery - Nature Biotechnology

Nature Biotechnology - Openness guides discovery

www.nature.com

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Reposted by Constance Bailey

ProPublica @propublica.org · Apr 3

🧪 #ScienceSky and #AcademicSky: We’re trying to learn more about the real-life scope and impact of the Trump administration terminating NIH grants.

Here's how you can help our reporting 👇

Did You Work on a Terminated NIH Grant? ProPublica Wants to Hear From You.

The National Institutes of Health is canceling grants that are seen as conflicting with the Trump administration’s priorities. We want to hear from researchers who have been affected.

www.propublica.org

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Constance Bailey @constancebailey.bsky.social · Mar 31

I worry about all the focus on commercialision from the ARC here in Oz for the same reason

Sebastian S. Cocioba @atinygreencell.bsky.social · Mar 31

Gasp, private investors cant justify paying for basic research with no immediate path to commercialization. It's almost like innovation relies intrinsically on fundamental basic research and only way to do that at scale is with nation-scale subsidy. What a shocker 🙃

Needhi Bhalla 💅🏽 @needhibhalla.bsky.social · Mar 31

"Private investors in the life sciences tell C&EN that their coffers don't compare to a juggernaut like the NIH, with its nearly $48 billion budget. Even if they did, industry players say their role is to fund science with immediate applications"

cen.acs.org/pharmaceutic...

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Constance Bailey @constancebailey.bsky.social · Mar 31

This came to mind after hearing recent discussions on podcasts etc. about the rise of Chinese innovation with companies like Byd and Xaomi, Byd's accession while Tesla flounders and Elon Musk is DODGE-ing, etc. China has won biotech: thehill.com/opinion/tech....

thehill.com

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Reposted by Constance Bailey

ACS BIOL: Division of Biochemistry and Chemical Biology @acsbiol.bsky.social · Mar 29

Big ups to ACS for providing complimentary childcare at #ACSFall2025. Attending conferences is enough logistical work as-is. Not having worry about week-long arrangements for kiddos makes a huge difference, especially to early-career folks who are more likely to have young kids.

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Reposted by Constance Bailey

Christian Odendahl @codendahl.bsky.social · Mar 28

Nobel Prizes by country and year.

The dominance of Germany is striking every time. Before 1933, that is. And the utter dominance of America (and the UK) after 1945.

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Reposted by Constance Bailey

Dan Diamond @ddiamond.bsky.social · Mar 28

See this chart for one stark example: NIH funding has dramatically slowed down.

Grant awards are down *$3 billion* so far, compared to same time period last year

I asked the White House to explain.

“This is not a researcher entitlement program,” said an official, defending their new approach.

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Constance Bailey @constancebailey.bsky.social · Mar 29

Sounds like a grift

Reposted by Constance Bailey

Charlotte Clymer @charlotteclymer.bsky.social · Mar 27

Countries that have issued a travel advisory this year warning their citizens about visiting the United States:

Canada
Denmark
Finland
France
Germany
Ireland
Netherlands
New Zealand
United Kingdom

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Reposted by Constance Bailey

Eric Topol @erictopol.bsky.social · Mar 27

This doesn't look good, folks
www.nature.com/articles/d41...

75% of US scientists who answered Nature poll consider leaving

More than 1,600 readers answered our poll; many said they were looking for jobs in Europe and Canada.

www.nature.com

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