Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

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Mychal Threets @mychal3ts.bsky.social · 9d

Reading Rainbow emphasis is encouraging kids to read. The focus is not on teaching them to read. The mission is reading should be fun!

We are all readers, worthy of literacy. LeVar Burton said “but you don’t have to take my word for it” because he wanted us to look to the books. That’s the beauty 💚

The Author Village @theauthorvillage.bsky.social · 9d

Reading Rainbow Is Back With a New Host -- @mychal3ts.bsky.social -- And The Same Mission

www.nytimes.com/2025/10/04/s...

‘Reading Rainbow’ Comes Back With a New Host, but the Same Mission

www.nytimes.com

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Ryan Hernandez @rdhernand.bsky.social · 5d

There are unprecedented challenges for science, calling for bold action and collective effort. Training the next generation of scientific leaders has never been more important. Join us as we grow National PROPEL to answer this call. Learn more: propelscholars.org @propelscholars.bsky.social 🧪🧬🖥️🧵

Building a community of PROPEL-affiliated programs at UCSF, U. Utah, UCSC, MUSC, U. Iowa, UW/Fred Hutch, OHSU, and Stanford!

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Shabaana Khader @khadershabaana.bsky.social · 9d

Dear #microbiology and #immunology community- I took a break from social media after I deleted my Twitter account, but am back here. Please help me rebuild my community by following me and amplifying this message- I will follow you back. Thank you and I look forward to our many interactions!

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Nik Joshi @joshilabyale.bsky.social · 11d

Happy to announce the publication using advanced models to understand how T cells mediate efficient immunoediting in early sarcomas.

This was a collaboration between Julie Cheung and Brian Hunt
in the lab

Thanks to Cancer Cell for publishing our work.

www.cell.com/cancer-cell/...

Distinct T cell functions enable efficient immunoediting and prevent tumor emergence of developing sarcomas

Cheung et al. describe efficient T cell control of nascent neoantigen+ and nearby neoantigen-negative sarcoma cells, underlying a ∼50% reduction in tumor penetrance. This otherwise imperceptible immun...

www.cell.com

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Gabriele Pollara @gpollara.bsky.social · 11d

Great job @sarasuliman.bsky.social on discussing the evolution of Mycobacterium tuberculosis in human populations over time

#TBSky #IDSky #MedSky 🧪 #genetics

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

The evolution of Mycobacterium tuberculosis as humans migrated out of Africa - Nature Reviews Genetics

Sara Suliman describes a seminal 2013 publication by Comas et al. that investigated the origins of the tuberculosis-causing bacteria and its coevolution with diverse human populations.

www.nature.com

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Needhi Bhalla 💅🏽 @needhibhalla.bsky.social · 18d

I often emphasize that there are rarely "silver bullets" that magically solve problems but vaccines are one of the closest things we have and it's mind-boggling and enraging to watch this "debate" unfold during my lifetime

Otto English @ottoenglish.bsky.social · 19d

The polio immunisation program started in the USA in 1955.

Look what happened next.

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Edward Nirenberg @enirenberg.bsky.social · 25d

Here's the upshot on hepatitis B vaccination at birth:
- it's extremely safe
- the earlier it's given, the better it protects against transmission from mother-to-child
- screening fails to capture many cases and is not done at all in many cases
- perinatal HBV infection is catastrophic

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Gregg Gonsalves @gregggonsalves.bsky.social · Sep 6

Come join us! We start at 11AM on Tuesday September 16th and end at 11AM on Wednesday September 17th. We have researchers from around the world talking about how their work has revolutionized health and saved millions of lives from HIV/AIDS. end/

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Mark Peifer (He, him) @peiferlabunc.bsky.social · Aug 4

While many institutions are capitulating to Trump, my favorite scientific societies are fighting back. Aug 1 @ascbiology.bsky.social, @asm.org, @asbmb.bsky.social, & @faseborg.bsky.social jointly filed an expanded amicus brief with the Supreme Court in American Public Health Association v. NIH 1/n

Leading Scientific Societies File Amicus Brief With U.S. Supreme Court in Support of NIH Grant Recipients

Washington, DC – August 4, 2025 – On Friday, August 1, the American Society for Microbiology (ASM), the American Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology (ASBMB), the American Society for Cell Biology (ASCB), and the Federation of American Societies for Experimental Biology (FASEB) jointly filed an expanded amicus brief with the Supreme Court of the United States in American Public Health Association v. NIH. As some of the nation’s largest and most respected scientific societies, the amici submit this brief to emphasize the urgent need to safeguard federal research investments, protect early-career scientists, and uphold the integrity of the nation’s science ecosystem.

The four leading life science organizations originally filed an amicus brief in the case on May 2, urging the court to find recent executive actions that led to the termination of NIH grants supporting early-career scientists—such as the Maximizing Opportunities for Scientific and Academic Independent Careers (MOSAIC) program—unlawful and to compel NIH to restore funding swiftly. MOSAIC grants support scientists from a wide range of backgrounds in transitioning to research careers. Today’s updated filing focuses specifically on the immediate and irreparable harm caused by the grant terminations and asks the Court to deny the government’s request for a stay pending approval.

The updated brief includes new evidence and perspectives drawn from peer-reviewed articles and commentary published in recent months, which underscore the devastating consequences these grant cancellations have already had across the scientific community. Together, ASBMB, ASCB, ASM, and FASEB represent more than 150,000 biological and biomedical researchers whose work drives innovation, improves public health, and fuels the U.S. economy. Their members have long supported and participated in programs like MOSAIC, w…

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Max Kozlov @maxkozlov.bsky.social · Jul 31

The NIH budget will INCREASE by $400 million — not slashed by 40%, as Trump proposed — according to a proposal by Senate appropriators, says Sen Murray.

"Some have asked if there will even be an NIH by [2029]. The commmittee's resounding message is yes—Congress has your back", she says.

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adelaide tovar @adel-aide.bsky.social · Jul 31

If you can swing the dues, I recommend joining APHA and then fill out the form. This is the path I took for the first round of this suit

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Jeremy Berg @jeremymberg.bsky.social · Jul 30

“The court has asked for a final list of delayed or withdrawn applications to be submitted as early as August 4th, and we are hoping to provide as complete a list of impacted grant applications as possible.

2/n

Microsoft Forms

www.aclu.org

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Jeremy Berg @jeremymberg.bsky.social · Jul 30

Court accepting updated list of plaintiffs/grantees impacted! MUST BE SUBMITTED BY AUGUST 1st 5pm EST! Please disseminate!!!

Message from ACLU team below:

1/n

Microsoft Forms

www.aclu.org

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Waggoner Lab @labwaggoner.bsky.social · Jul 30

Years-long HIV-1 immunity can be generated in rhesus macaques from a one-time AAV vector (encoding HIV specific broadly neutralizing antibodies) administration at birth @nature.com @mamartins83.bsky.social www.nature.com/articles/s41...

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Mauricio Martins @mamartins83.bsky.social · Jul 30

Our study also showed that, compared to adult and juvenile macaques, neonates were more likely to benefit from AAV-vectored delivery of HIV-1 bNAbs because of their tolerance-prone immune systems.

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Mauricio Martins @mamartins83.bsky.social · Jul 30

I’m happy to share the latest paper from my lab published in Nature today.
nature.com/articles/s41...
We show in rhesus macaques that a single dose of AAV/bNAb vectors at birth was safe and resulted in bNAb levels in plasma that lasted for up to 4 years without redosing.

Determinants of successful AAV-vectored delivery of HIV-1 bNAbs in early life - Nature

A single dose of an adeno-associated virus vector encoding an HIV-1 broadly neutralizing antibody given shortly after birth results in persistent antibody expression and protection from infection in r...

nature.com

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Rachel Rutishauser @rrutishauser.bsky.social · Jul 30

Congratulations, Mauricio!!!

Mauricio Martins @mamartins83.bsky.social · Jul 30

I’m happy to share the latest paper from my lab published in Nature today.
nature.com/articles/s41...
We show in rhesus macaques that a single dose of AAV/bNAb vectors at birth was safe and resulted in bNAb levels in plasma that lasted for up to 4 years without redosing.

Determinants of successful AAV-vectored delivery of HIV-1 bNAbs in early life - Nature

A single dose of an adeno-associated virus vector encoding an HIV-1 broadly neutralizing antibody given shortly after birth results in persistent antibody expression and protection from infection in r...

nature.com

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anil oza @aniloza.bsky.social · Jul 29

By entirely funding more awards up front, the NIH is on track to fund just 1 in 25 applications

Such a payline “would chase a lot of people out of science” former NCI director Ned Sharpless told us 🧪🔬

www.statnews.com/2025/07/29/n...

NIH is shrinking the number of research projects it funds due to a new Trump policy

NIH plans to shrink the share of grant applications it will award for the remainder of the fiscal year, in some cases by more than half.

www.statnews.com

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Don Moynihan @donmoyn.bsky.social · Jul 28

New, from an anonymous NIH insider: Trump is being pushed to spend more NIH money. The White House is ordering NIH to do multi-year budgets for awards. This budget trick means fewer awards, fewer labs funded, and lower paylines for researchers. 🧵
donmoynihan.substack.com/p/alert-the-...

Alert: The Trump administration is quietly slashing new NIH grant awards, and it's not via the budget

NIH’s sudden move to multiyear grant funding is forcing shocking cuts in the number of grants funded. This is an effective budget cut. It's bad, folks.

donmoynihan.substack.com

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Paul Thomas @pgtimmune.bsky.social · Jul 14

How much of the TCR repertoire can we make sense of? Can your TCR and GEX data be put in the context of other conditions/tissues? How many varieties of T cells are in the repertoire zoo? All these questions (& more) addressed in our latest preprint: MetaCoNGA www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1... . a 🧵

Diverse modes of T cell receptor sequence convergence define unique functional and cellular phenotypes

Single-cell techniques allow concurrent study of gene activity and T cell receptor (TCR) sequences, identifying connections between TCR structure and cell traits. Expanding on our CoNGA software, we p...

www.biorxiv.org

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Jeremy Berg @jeremymberg.bsky.social · Jul 12

IMPORTANT IMPORTANT IMPORTANT IMPORTANT

Please watch the workshop video and COMMENT by 5:00 Monday 7/14

This is the source of the "no more model organism only grants in NIH-funded research" decree.

@LaBonneLaB @labonnelab.bsky.social · Jul 11

Dear all, PLEASE add comments on the importance of model organism research at this link:

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Needhi Bhalla 💅🏽 @needhibhalla.bsky.social · Jul 10

🧪 After the workshop on 7/7, the FDA and NIH are asking for public comments on implementing novel methodologies and other strategies to reduce the use of animal testing by 7/14:

www.fda.gov/news-events/...

FDA-NIH Workshop: Reducing Animal Testing

The FDA is hosting a workshop on reducing animal testing. The workshop is open to current FDA and NIH employees.

www.fda.gov

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Jeremy Berg @jeremymberg.bsky.social · Jul 10

Alexandria Declaration coming out from courageous NSF staff.

www.importantcontext.news/p/national-s...

I knew this was it in the works, but did not know the timing. Stay tuned...

National Science Foundation Workers to Issue “Alexandria Declaration” Decrying “Catastrophic Changes” Under Trump Administration

The new declaration echoes similar efforts from NIH and EPA.

www.importantcontext.news

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The Atlantic @theatlantic.com · Jul 5

As a doctor in a hospital that serves the urban poor, Lindsay Ryan's patients already face such a gantlet of obstacles that modest barriers to accessing government programs can effectively screen them out.

The Reality My Medicaid Patients Face

With work requirements in place, many will be removed from Medicaid even though they should qualify.

bit.ly

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Waggoner Lab @labwaggoner.bsky.social · Jun 25

Are you an immunologist working towards your first R01?

Please join @aai.org and take advantage of programs like our Grant Review for Immunologists Program www.aai.org/Careers/GRIP

We pair early career principal investigators with established mentors. Send me a chat for more info

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