David Margolis
@margolislab.bsky.social
870 followers 580 following 54 posts
Neuroscience lab at Rutgers
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margolislab.bsky.social
A big step in the work of postdoc Arlene George. Nice work Arlene!!
biorxiv-neursci.bsky.social
Neuropathic pain drives time-dependent reorganization of corticostriatal circuits https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.10.07.680927v1
Reposted by David Margolis
drdind.bsky.social
The Nobel Prizes, 5 of 6 having so far gone to US based scientists, are a reminder of why we must stand up for science against this horrid administration. Here are some great Scientist Activists to follow.

go.bsky.app/14W5Rdk
margolislab.bsky.social
👀“experience of a punished outcome generates a BLA representation that is selectively replayed when animals subsequently abort choice of the large/risky reward option.”
⚡️“… risk leads to the incorporation of newly encoding BLA neurons into the pre-choice representation”
margolislab.bsky.social
A big step in the work of postdoc Arlene George. Nice work Arlene!!
biorxiv-neursci.bsky.social
Neuropathic pain drives time-dependent reorganization of corticostriatal circuits https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.10.07.680927v1
Reposted by David Margolis
biorxiv-neursci.bsky.social
Controlled Delivery of a Neurotrophic Factor in the Adult Mouse Brain Using Engineered Microglia https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.10.06.680702v1
Reposted by David Margolis
gregggonsalves.bsky.social
So many academics are on HB-1 visas. This is another attack by #RussellVought on universities and scientific research. Stop telling me anything this administration does is in good faith or with any sort of policy goal except destruction.
justinwolfers.bsky.social
Critical part of the President's new $100,000 charge for H1-B visas: The Administration can also offer a $100,000 discount to any person, company, or industry that it wants. Replacing rules with arbitrary discretion.

Want visas? You know who to call and who to flatter.
Reposted by David Margolis
antihebbiann.bsky.social
And we are live!

Excited to announce the 2025 Multi-Agent Behavior Challenge on cross-lab supervised action recognition in mice 🐁🐀🖱️

Running on Kaggle until December 15th, with a $50,000 prize pool going to the top five submissions!

www.kaggle.com/competitions...
https://www.kaggle.com/competitions/MABe-mouse-behavior-detection
Reposted by David Margolis
Reposted by David Margolis
phoebebarnard.bsky.social
Whether or not you are a US scientist, you’ll know that this US administration’s reckless ideology endangers the entire globe - the trajectory of human civilization and all life on Earth. Scientists please sign.
agu.org
The EPA’s endangerment finding is under threat. This peer-reviewed climate science is essential to protecting public health & regulating greenhouse gases.

Scientists: add your name to AGU’s letter defending the science before 15 Sept.

Sign on ➡️ buff.ly/yuUbZo4

#ClimateScience #ScienceIsEssential
Sign on to Defend EPA Peer-Reviewed Climate Science | WorkForms
From requests, feedback to data collection and more. Turn your insights into action with customizable WorkForms.
lite.spr.ly
margolislab.bsky.social
Glorious whiskers too
pjvphotography.bsky.social
"Pat, why do you carry that ridiculous 600mm lens on long hikes?"

Buddy, I can see mountains reflected in the eyes of a trailside pika.
A pika sits on a mossy rock. Tighter crop of the same pika, focusing on its head. An even tighter crop, focusing more on the pika's eye. An extremely tight crop of the pika's eye, emphasizing their reflection of an early morning mountain scene.
Reposted by David Margolis
claireocallaghan.bsky.social
Adaptive learning is coordinated across behaviour, time and neurobiology (from synapses and dendrites, to astrocytes and the systems level).

If you’ve ever wondered how noradrenaline helps shape these multiscale learning processes, you might like this: www.cell.com/trends/cogni...
Reposted by David Margolis
davidcorn.bsky.social
The biggest violent crime spree in Washington, DC, happened on January 6, 2021, and Trump pardoned hundreds of violent felons who were part of that.
juddlegum.bsky.social
TRUMP: Violent crime in DC is spiraling out of control so I'm deploying the National Guard

REALITY:
Reposted by David Margolis
marklemley.bsky.social
All scientific grant funding must now be approved by a political appointee and "demonstrably advance the President's policy priorities."

I wonder where innovation will happen in the future? It won't be in the US

arstechnica.com/science/2025...
New executive order puts all grants under political control
All new funding on hold until Trump administration can cancel any previously funded grants.
arstechnica.com
Reposted by David Margolis
ejkdc.bsky.social
I really worry about the world the next generation or the one after it will be growing up to live in.
marklemley.bsky.social
All scientific grant funding must now be approved by a political appointee and "demonstrably advance the President's policy priorities."

I wonder where innovation will happen in the future? It won't be in the US

arstechnica.com/science/2025...
New executive order puts all grants under political control
All new funding on hold until Trump administration can cancel any previously funded grants.
arstechnica.com
Reposted by David Margolis
misicbata.bsky.social
Integrating and interpreting brain maps | doi.org/10.1016/j.ti...

Imaging and recording technologies make it possible to map multiple biological features of the brain. How can these features be conceptually integrated into a coherent understanding of brain structure and function? ⤵️
Reposted by David Margolis
peiferlabunc.bsky.social
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…
Reposted by David Margolis
elizabethjacobs.bsky.social
It was an incredible relief last night that this particular nightmare only lasted about five hours or 0.0189 Scaramuccis.

That said, if Russ Vought can insert a footnote somewhere else that kills NIH funding, he will attempt it again. Project 2025 demands it.
Screenshot from WSJ that says Trump Administration Puts New Chokehold on Billions in Health-Research Funding
The National Institutes of Health can't award grants to outside researchers under a new... Screenshot from WSJ that says 

Trump Administration Scraps Effort to Pause
Health-Research
Funding
White House officials intervened to force budget office to reconsider health-research funding pause
By Liz Essley Whyte Follow, Nidhi Subbaraman
margolislab.bsky.social
James Joyce
lollardfish.bsky.social
What was your favorite early clas NOT in your eventual major. Mine was Ethnomusicology: an introduction to folk music.
anthrodiva.bsky.social
I invariably get, "Ooh anthro that was my favorite class/cool professor" from people I meet. I tend to think soms of it is our outré material, being willing to talk "taboo" subjects in a cross-cultural context.

Ironically MY favorite class was probably Geology 101...
Reposted by David Margolis
rosalafersousa.bsky.social
‼️🚨‼️ Russel Vought just locked up the entirety of the remaining extramural NIH budget for this fiscal year, and part of intramural. $15 billion. ~a third of the NIH budget. THIS IS AN ALL-OUT ASSAULT.

All $$ is iced except intramural salaries, admin expenses, and clinical center. NO MORE GRANTS.

🧪
prasad.bsky.social
“[Vought’s] footnote stipulated that the agency’s funding for the remainder of the fiscal year could only go to staff salaries and expenses, not to new grants or certain grants that are up for renewal. Most NIH-funded research is done by outside scientists at labs across the country.”

no words
Reposted by David Margolis
katherine-brown.bsky.social
This is a useful summary of how some major publishers are responding to the new NIH policy. We've just updated our policies at @biologists.bsky.social: @dev-journal.bsky.social @jcellsci.bsky.social and @jexpbiol.bsky.social will allow authors to deposit the accepted version with zero embargo.
Reposted by David Margolis
gershbrain.bsky.social
This is unfortunate:
www.nytimes.com/2025/07/28/u...
I wrote to the president of Harvard. I hope other faculty will speak their conscience, even if it means more struggle ahead.