Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

Lauren Ferrante @lferrantemd.bsky.social · Apr 3

Huge thanks to our entire interprofessional ICU team for all of their hard work making the STEPS-ICU mobility program a success over the past 10 years! It takes a team to sustain a culture of ICU mobility!

@yalepccsm.bsky.social
@icurehab.bsky.social
#medsky
#ICUsky #CriticalCareSky
#Rehabsky

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Lauren Ferrante @lferrantemd.bsky.social · Apr 1

Just learned the names of some of the phenomenal NIH scientists and leaders who were abruptly fired or put on leave today and I am in shock.

NPR @npr.org · Apr 1

Staffers began receiving termination notices this morning as part of a major restructuring at HHS. Some senior leadership are on their way out too.

Widespread firings start at federal health agencies including many in leadership

Staffers began receiving termination notices this morning as part of a major restructuring at HHS. Some senior leadership are on their way out too.

www.npr.org

Lauren Ferrante @lferrantemd.bsky.social · Mar 13

We were thrilled to host @carolhodgson.bsky.social at @yalepccsm.bsky.social this week! Great discussions about science, a fun dinner, & we even made time for a Yale walking tour #critcaresky #academicsky

(From left): Margaret Pisani, Carol Hodgson, Lauren Ferrante, Deena Costa, Melissa Knauert out for Dr. Hodgson’s visiting professor dinner

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Lauren Ferrante @lferrantemd.bsky.social · Mar 11

This is horrific - and heartbreaking for all of the trainees on these grants.

Jeremy Berg @jeremymberg.bsky.social · Mar 11

I have confirmation from several sources now that all T32s, many F30s and F31s, and most or all Center awards (P30, P50) have been terminated at Columbia.

This is quite damaging to research and to individuals.

This is pure terrorism and cannot be legal. But litigation will take time...

Lauren Ferrante @lferrantemd.bsky.social · Feb 25

Packed house at our ICU delirium session on the last afternoon of #SCCM2025 - happening now in W315. Join us! #critcaresky @johndevlinpharmd.bsky.social @snigdhajain.bsky.social

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Lauren Ferrante @lferrantemd.bsky.social · Feb 25

Kicking off the GeriCC track at #SCCM2025 with an amazing plenary by Terry Fulmer from the John A. Hartford Foundation on Age-Friendly Health Systems! SCCM attendees: Join us for a great day of programming today in W315 (& later on Congress Digital) #medsky #icusky @amergeriatrics.bsky.social

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Jack Iwashyna @iwashyna.bsky.social · Feb 24

"These common values must now propel everyone in the scientific community to work together as never before to stand up for science. Although the individual messages ... might seem inadequate on their own, it is their collective power that matters"

www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

Come together, right now

The chaos, conflicting information, firings, and hurtful rhetoric of the Trump administration’s approach to science over the past month are causing anxiety, grief, and concern for the scientific commu...

www.science.org

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Lauren Ferrante @lferrantemd.bsky.social · Feb 23

Attending #SCCM2025? Join us for an entire track of fantastic #GeriCC programming on Tuesday Feb 25, beginning with a Thought Leader plenary by Terry Fulmer from the John A. Hartford Foundation! #medsky #academicsky #critcaresky #ICM #ICU @amergeriatrics.bsky.social

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Jeremy Berg @jeremymberg.bsky.social · Feb 21

New York Times article now up on Federal Register stuff.

www.nytimes.com/2025/02/21/s...

1/n

Trump Administration Stalls Scientific Research Despite Court Ruling (Gift Article)

Using an arcane law, officials have effectively delayed funding from the National Institutes of Health, leaving medical studies in jeopardy.

www.nytimes.com

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Thanh Neville, MD, MSHS @thanhneville.medsky.social · Jan 28

Many of you may not be familiar with #NIH grants. Here are some facts to help you understand the magnitude of this disaster.
1) NIH grants are extremely difficult to get & not "free money". Researchers must have preliminary data & write detailed proposals. Mine was >200pages & took years to put

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Liz Goldberg, MD, ScM @lizgoldbergmd.bsky.social · Feb 20

The funding freeze is NOT over.

Biomedical grants can't get reviewed or funded because of a "loophole" the current administration is exploiting.

The NIH timeline for reviewing and funding was already LONG, now this process is frozen indefinitely.

1/

Jeremy Berg @jeremymberg.bsky.social · Feb 20

Nature Story "Revealed: NIH research grants still frozen despite lawsuits challenging Trump order"

(with non-paywalled link)

archive.ph/7h6Im

archive.ph

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Jack Iwashyna @iwashyna.bsky.social · Feb 20

Over on LinkedIn, the head of the Executive Secretariat of the NIH -- a central part of NIH leadership 🧪🩺-- resigned with a lettter worth reading

www.linkedin.com/posts/nathan...

February 18, 2024
TO:
Dr. Matthew Memoli, Acting Director, NIH
CC:
John Burklow, Chief of Staff, NIH
Julie Berko, Director, OHR, NIH
FROM:
Nathaniel James Brought, Director, ES, NIH
SUBJECT: Resignation
Dear Dr. Memoli,
On July 3, 2001, I stepped off a bus on Marine Corps Recruit Training Depot Perris Island. Scared out of my mind, I stood on a pair of freshly painted yellow footprints, raised my right hand, and recited the oath of enlistment:
I, Nathaniel James Brought, do solemnly swear that I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic; that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same; and that I will obey the orders of the President of the United States and the orders of the officers appointed over me, according to regulations and the Uniform Code of Military Justice. So help me God.
For the last 23 years, 7 months, and 15 days, I like to believe I have faithfully carried out the duties of each office to which I've been appointed in my military and civilian service to this nation. That Service has taken me from the Marine Corps to 3 different federal departments, spanned 3 continents, included service in one war zone, and has included:
• For the Marine Corps and the National Security Agency, I worked on intelligence operations at the highest classification levels using bleeding edge intelligence tools to ensure America's special operators put boots-to-asses on America's enemies overseas (including commendations crediting my work for the kill or capture of dozens of terrorists), ensuring America's policy makers were able to track the movement of dangerous dual

nuclear technology across international borders, and monitored the flow of terrorist financing across the international banking system.
• Utilized information from all-source intelligence to ensure the continued security of America's homeland from international and domestic threats.
• Worked with some of the finest lawyers in the world to ensure America's security operations were effective, while upholding the rights of all those who interacted with them.
• Ensuring that America's rural communities had access to programs like rural development loans, farm aid, and that America's children wouldn't be hungry as they sat in their classrooms and tried to learn.
• Most recently, and frankly most dear to my heart, working with each of you here at the National Institutes of Health to advance the future of science and medicine. Not for Americans. Not for any one group of people. But for ALL of humanity.
I am unbelievably proud to be able to say that there are Americans who are alive, and terrorists who are not, because of the work I've done to serve this nation. I am proud to say that my service to this country has allowed me to ensure that my children have never faced the struggles of poverty that I grew up with. That service didn't begin because of some great altruistic impulse or drive. I didn't grow up saying "I want to do the great work that needs to be done to weave the fabric of America and ensure her people are not only safe, but healthy." Frankly, that service began because I was poor, and I was inspired. I grew up as a free lunch kid who lived in project housing. It was my fellow Americans who made sure I wasn't hungry in class and that I had enough food to excel academically the way I did. It was Americans who had more than we did that made sure I had good schools to attend where I could learn things that expanded my mind.
As I approached the end of high school, I dreamed of going to college and figuring out how to make a living that would allow me to do more tha…

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Lauren Ferrante @lferrantemd.bsky.social · Feb 20

To clarify, I’m one of the standing reviewers on this NIH study section. After countless hours by applicants who wrote the grants & countless hours spent by those of us reviewing, w/ reviews & a discussion order posted (!), the meeting is cancelled 36 hours in advance. See the above article for why

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Jeremy Berg @jeremymberg.bsky.social · Feb 19

Thanks for the info from reviewers...

All 8 CSR study section meeting scheduled today have been cancelled (due to the Federal Register announcement issue).

Some reviewers are finding out that their meetings are cancelled when they are notified by the travel agency that their tickets are cancelled.

a man is playing basketball in a gym with a sign that says `` you just got shut down '' .

ALT: a man is playing basketball in a gym with a sign that says `` you just got shut down '' .

media.tenor.com

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Lauren Ferrante @lferrantemd.bsky.social · Feb 19

This. My study section (at CSR, not institute-specific) meeting, scheduled for Thursday and Friday, was abruptly cancelled (“postponed”) yesterday afternoon.

Gregg Gonsalves @gregggonsalves.bsky.social · Feb 19

New fuckery from #RFKJr., #Trump, #Musk, #Vought and their minions. www.thetransmitter.org/funding/fede...

Federal Register hold makes ‘end run’ around court pause on NIH funding freeze

www.thetransmitter.org

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Gregg Gonsalves @gregggonsalves.bsky.social · Feb 8

The United States by virtue of a bipartisan commitment to biomedical research created one of the most vibrant, productive research ecosytems in the world. People came from all over to study here, do research here. It was a monumental accomplishment by both parties. 1/

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KaminskiMed @kaminskimed.bsky.social · Feb 8

Nothing surprising. Cutting indirect rates to 15% was mentioned in project 2025. But mentioning specific institutions in the announcement, is very telling. And if you had any doubt - biomedical research in the US is under attack, as is the health of American waiting for new drugs and therapies

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Jack Iwashyna @iwashyna.bsky.social · Feb 8

Unbelievable speed of ATTEMPTS to dismantle science. They tried this 💩 in the first admin, proposing cuts to 10%, and it was resisted by Congress

Call your congresspeople, and remind them they have defended health research before, and they can do so again

Matt Warner 🩸 @bloodhealth.bsky.social · Feb 8

OMG. Unbelievable speed of dismantling science and discrediting scientists…

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Harlan M. Krumholz @hmkyale.bsky.social · Feb 8

Massive NIH cuts to research infrastructure threaten the foundation of U.S. research—putting our future at risk. We need innovation in funding, not dismantling our research engine. My take in @statnews: www.statnews.com/2025/02/08/n...

The NIH’s drastic cut to indirect cost rates is a critical threat to U.S. research infrastructure

The drastic reduction in indirect costs is not a path to innovation or cost savings — it’s a threat to U.S.’s position as global leader in medical research.

www.statnews.com

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Lauren Ferrante @lferrantemd.bsky.social · Feb 8

In the video above, @hmkyale.bsky.social does a great job explaining what indirects are and why they matter. Please share widely and call your congressperson to advocate for the future of science in our country.

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Lauren Ferrante @lferrantemd.bsky.social · Feb 8

The attacks on the NIH, and this cut on NIH indirect costs to support research at academic institutions, will gut U.S. biomedical research as we know it. We will lose a whole generation of early career scientists & the U.S. will lose its position as the world leader in biomedical research.

NIH caps "indirect research costs" at 15%, potentially surrendering decades of US dominance in medical research.

Dr. Harlan Krumholz: "We cannot afford to sacrifice the core infrastructure that enables all the discoveries."

open.substack.com

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Dave Levitan @davelevitan.bsky.social · Jan 28

Per an NIH source:

“Discussions with colleagues have suggested that if the universities all come together and raise hell about the delays to funding caused by not holding meetings, that might move the needle. From every state. There are well-funded universities in red states that will be impacted.”

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Megan Ranney MD MPH @meganranney.bsky.social · Jan 27

Our country is hailed worldwide for our technical and scientific ingenuity

But it is federal grants that serve as the engine of innovation.

Pausing scientific grantmaking — by NSF, NIH, and more — is NOT a recipe for American greatness.

Consider reminding your senators & reps of this fact.

Jonathan Lambert @jonlambert.bsky.social · Jan 27

The National Science Foundation cancelled over 60 grant review panels today, effectively grinding funding of new projects to a halt.

The so-far indefinite pause comes as NSF grapples with the impact Trump's executive orders will have on their grantmaking process.
www.npr.org/sections/sho...

National Science Foundation freezes grant review in response to Trump executive orders

The National Science Foundation has cancelled all grant review panels this week. It's unclear how long the pause could last.

www.npr.org

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Lauren Ferrante @lferrantemd.bsky.social · Jan 24

I’m still plugging away at grant reviews for an in-person NIH study section next month, with only a shred of hope that it will actually happen. This disruption to science has already been devastating for so many and it’s only been a few days. #MedSky #AcademicSky

Esther Choo @choo.bsky.social · Jan 22

My NIH study section that was to meet tomorrow was one of those canceled. This represents many months of work by the applicants and by the NIH staff and reviewers. Devastating is the correct word.

Jane Liebschutz, MD MPH (she/her) @liebschutz.bsky.social · Jan 22

All NIH study sections canceled indefinitely. This will halt science and devastate research budgets in universities.

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Esther Choo @choo.bsky.social · Jan 22

My NIH study section that was to meet tomorrow was one of those canceled. This represents many months of work by the applicants and by the NIH staff and reviewers. Devastating is the correct word.

Jane Liebschutz, MD MPH (she/her) @liebschutz.bsky.social · Jan 22

All NIH study sections canceled indefinitely. This will halt science and devastate research budgets in universities.

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