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Reposted by Loren Looger lab

Homeworld Collective @homeworld.bsky.social · Aug 21

On the latest ep of the Climate Biotech Podcast, hear how synthetic biology legend @loogerl.bsky.social is turning his protein engineering expertise to developing tools to study methane monooxygenase, an enzyme that could unlock methane removal.

Listen in: podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/t...

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Loren Looger lab @loogerl.bsky.social · Aug 20

My absolute privilege to be interviewed by @homeworld.bsky.social‬: www.linkedin.com/feed/update/.... we talk methane, brains, tools, Alabama, you know - all the things. this is a fun and insightful podcast series. and HW is really getting it done in the granting/research space! check them out!

On the most recent episode of the Climate Biotech Podcast, we are joined by Loren Looger, Professor of Neurosciences at UC San Diego and Investigator at Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI). | Homew...

On the most recent episode of the Climate Biotech Podcast, we are joined by Loren Looger, Professor of Neurosciences at UC San Diego and Investigator at Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI). Loren i...

www.linkedin.com

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Loren Looger lab @loogerl.bsky.social · Aug 4

what do ppl think is going to happen to this 6 NIH grant app maximum? will it stick? how are people interpreting the whole co-PI vs MPI thing?

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Reposted by Loren Looger lab

Homeworld Collective @homeworld.bsky.social · Jul 29

Thanks to Garden Grant co-funders
@sparkclimate.bsky.social sky.social and @granthamcsf.bsky.social, and to Quadrature Climate Foundation for making this possible through programmatic and regranting support.

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Loren Looger lab @loogerl.bsky.social · Jul 29

so proud of this team!!! they're changing the way grants are sought, written, and funded. and such critical work - greenhouse gases this cycle, focused on methane. they funded us (+ Michael Konopka, USNA) to study methane monooxygenase (pMMO), potentially the key to remediating methane pollution.

Homeworld Collective @homeworld.bsky.social · Jul 29

We're excited to share that we're deploying ~$1.4M to 11 groundbreaking teams through our Greenhouse Gas Removal Garden Grants! Funded projects span from methane-eating microbes on tree surfaces to bio-enhanced rock weathering.

See the full announcement: www.homeworld.bio/blog/announc...

Announcing Our Greenhouse Gas Removal Garden Grant Awardees

Meet the 11 teams selected for Homeworld Collective’s Greenhouse Gas Removal Garden Grants, a $1.4M initiative accelerating breakthrough research in biological greenhouse gas removal through a novel p...

www.homeworld.bio

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Loren Looger lab @loogerl.bsky.social · May 1

ok rumors were true all along: www.nature.com/articles/d41...

steady slide into fascism.

what are ppl hearing about US-based researchers with foreign citizenship? I am hearing rumors that they are being targeted now. Sounds laughable but all too real in this hellhole

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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Loren Looger lab @loogerl.bsky.social · Apr 15

GABA imaging classifies amacrine cell types in mouse retina! Aki and
@keisukeyonehara.bsky.social
are amazing! future goals include Gly imaging, 2-color Glu/GABA, more complete scRNA-seq/MERFISH mapped onto functional classes.

Super-fun collaboration! @janeliagenie.bsky.social

Keisuke Yonehara @keisukeyonehara.bsky.social · Apr 15

Our two-photon GABA imaging from mouse retina has been published! Akihiro Matsumoto in my lab spearheaded this project. I want to thank @loogerl.bsky.social for molecular clustering and @janeliagenie.bsky.social for the fantastic iGABASnFR2 sensor!
www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Functionally distinct GABAergic amacrine cell types regulate spatiotemporal encoding in the mouse retina - Nature Neuroscience

GABA is the primary inhibitory neurotransmitter in the central nervous system. Using two-photon GABA imaging, Matsumoto et al. reveal over 40 GABA neuron types in the mouse retina, each uniquely filte...

www.nature.com

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Loren Looger lab @loogerl.bsky.social · Mar 25

ouch, I'm so sorry. but yes, consistent with I'm hearing. Most disconcertingly, it wasn't even CURRENT intl collabs; PREVIOUS intl collabs seemed enough to kill it. Very chilling.

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Loren Looger lab @loogerl.bsky.social · Mar 23

I don't know yet but will ask

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Loren Looger lab @loogerl.bsky.social · Mar 23

hey, what are ppl hearing about NIH/NSF grants with international collaborators? A colleague has their NIH grant withheld bc it had intl collabs. are other ppl hearing this? any place to find info on this? thanks!

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Reposted by Loren Looger lab

David Ho @davidho.bsky.social · Feb 27

I think about this map a lot.

www.bloomberg.com/graphics/201...

This is a cartogram map of the United States depicting land use by different categories. The map distorts state shapes to represent proportional land usage. Key land use types include cow pasture/range (covering much of the central U.S.), private and federal timberland in the Pacific Northwest, corporate timberland in the Southeast, and urban housing/commercial areas in the Northeast. Other categories include agriculture (livestock feed, wheat exports, ethanol/biodiesel, cotton), protected lands (national parks, federal wilderness, state parks), and infrastructure (railroads, airports, highways). Additional specialized land uses include wildfires, golf courses, Christmas tree farms, and maple syrup production.

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Reposted by Loren Looger lab

Go Green @ecowarriorss.bsky.social · Feb 27

Critical ocean current AMOC weakest in 1,600 years and even without an imminent collapse its weakening will have a devastating impact on billions
Prof Niklas Boers
"in the short term, it doesn’t really matter if we have a strong weakening, say 80%, or a collapse.”
www.theguardian.com/environment/...

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Reposted by Loren Looger lab

Annika Barber @annikabarber.bsky.social · Feb 24

Wondering if your study section cancelled? I update this sheet daily. As of today, 56/124 study sections that should have met since Jan 2, 2025 have "not met as scheduled." docs.google.com/spreadsheets...

2025 Study section tracking

docs.google.com

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Loren Looger lab @loogerl.bsky.social · Feb 24

does anyone have a gut feeling on when NIH/NSF grant reviews will resume? do ppl think they will? what are ppl doing - focusing on foundations and international opps right now? going into cost-saving mode? dos anyone have any advice for navigating this brave new world?

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Loren Looger lab @loogerl.bsky.social · Feb 6

I am becoming increasingly informed about various non-science-related careers

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Loren Looger lab @loogerl.bsky.social · Feb 5

as of today, we're still allowed to spend $. uni admin advocating "wait and see" approach

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Loren Looger lab @loogerl.bsky.social · Feb 5

holy shit this seems real, posted by many ppl. It seems that @hhmi.bsky.social just killed its IE3 program. Does that kill Gilliam Fellows? lab member just applied. Freeman Hrabowski Scholars? is it all gone? I don't understand why @hhmi.bsky.social would be doing this; I look fwd to their statement

Viji @vijisathy.bsky.social · Feb 5

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Loren Looger lab @loogerl.bsky.social · Jan 28

“unis will freeze all non personnel spending at 5pm today, place orders in ASAP."

"Note that some university policies require orders to be delivered by the deadline to be covered, in which case a bulk order this afternoon might not do any good unless shipping is remarkably fast."

god help us all

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Loren Looger lab @loogerl.bsky.social · Jan 28

"cold dead hands" lol

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Loren Looger lab @loogerl.bsky.social · Jan 27

does anyone have any ideas how we're going to survive this? $ from state, companies, foundations? What can we do to support each other during this shit time? how can we fight back? it all feels so hopeless right now, I'm srsly looking into alternative careers.

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Loren Looger lab @loogerl.bsky.social · Jan 15

Another epic announcement from the Homeworld team! Come look at Problem Statements, make a plan, and solve the world's most serious problem: greenhouse gas-driven warming and climate change. The grant process is easy, and creativity is encouraged! Spread the word!

Homeworld Collective @homeworld.bsky.social · Jan 15

🌱 Garden Grants is back — this round focused on GHGR.

Homeworld Collective is excited to launch our second Garden Grants program, offering $50k-$150k grants (up to $1M total) to de-risk innovative ideas intersecting biotechnology and GHGR.

📌 Learn more: www.homeworld.bio/grants-green...

Garden Grants GHGR — Homeworld Collective

Garden Grants: Funding to grow climate biotech

www.homeworld.bio

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Loren Looger lab @loogerl.bsky.social · Dec 23

to clarify, you mean measure and modify specific RNAs, DNAs? in your mind, what would be the most transformative tools in this area?

sorry copied from Twitter lol

Loren Looger lab @loogerl.bsky.social · Dec 23

wow, awesome!

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Loren Looger lab @loogerl.bsky.social · Dec 22

well yes and no. I've interacted extensively with those POs and they definitely want hypotheses, despite wording of NOFOs. And absolutely no one wants to fund making existing tools better. they prefer sth shiny, new, & useless to a 2.0 version of a useful tool.

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Loren Looger lab @loogerl.bsky.social · Dec 22

sure, but BRAIN is gutted. maybe it will revive, but honestly seems unlikely.