Matt Might
@matt.might.net
120 followers 38 following 7 posts
A private citizen
Posts Media Videos Starter Packs
Reposted by Matt Might
erinrgreen.bsky.social
Job alert ‼️ UChicago Micro is hiring! Open to tenured/tenure track faculty at all levels in any area of microbiology. Come join our amazing and growing department. apply.interfolio.com/174404
matt.might.net
Ok. Didn’t know that was a thing. But I don’t judge.
Reposted by Matt Might
emexastris.bsky.social
Are you from one of these states? Then we need your help to save American science!

The Senate Appropriations Committee will be marking up the President's Budget Request for science on Wednesday. People have been saying the proposed cuts "decimated" US science, but that's wrong: they are apocalyptic
A map of the US with the states the republican senators are from marked in red and states the democratic senators are from marked in blue:
Senator Susan Collins (Republican - Maine)
Senator Mitch McConnell(Republican - Kentucky)
Senator Lisa Murkowski(Republican - Alaska)
Senator Lindsey Graham(Republican - South Carolina)
Senator Jerry Moran(Republican - Kansas)
Senator John Hoeven(Republican - North Dakota)
Senator John Boozman(Republican - Arkansas)
Senator Shelley Moore Capito(Republican - West Virginia)
Senator John Kennedy(Republican - Louisiana)
Senator Cindy Hyde-Smith(Republican - Mississippi)
Senator Bill Hagerty(Republican - Tennessee)
Senator Katie Britt(Republican - Alabama)
Senator Markwayne Mullin(Republican - Oklahoma)
Senator Deb Fischer(Republican - Nebraska)
Senator Mike Rounds(Republican - South Dakota)
Patty Murray(Democrat - Washington)
Richard Durbin(Democrat - Illinois)
Jack Reed(Democrat - Rhode Island)
Jeanne Shaheen(Democrat - New Hampshire)
Jeff Merkley(Democrat - Oregon)
Christopher Coons(Democrat - Delaware)
Brian Schatz(Democrat - Hawaii)
Tammy Baldwin(Democrat - Wisconsin)
Chris Murphy(Democrat - Connecticut)
Chris Van Hollen(Democrat - Maryland)
Martin Heinrich(Democrat - New Mexico)
Gary Peters(Democrat - Michigan)
Kirsten Gillibrand(Democrat - New York)
Jon Ossoff(Democrat - Georgia)
Reposted by Matt Might
merz.bsky.social
Today is the last day to submit public comments on Schedule F, which is essentially designed to politicize the Civil Service. Here is the letter that I just submitted:
7 June 2025

Re: O+ice of Personnel Management

• 5 CFR Parts 210, 212, 213, 302, 432, 451, and 752

• Docket ID: OPM-2025-0004

• RIN 3206-AO80

• https://www.federalregister.gov/documents/2025/05/23/2025-09356/improvingperformance-accountability-and-responsiveness-in-the-civil-service

To Whom It May Concern:

I strongly oppose renewal of Schedule F. Civil service protections exist precisely for the reason that faithful execution of federal policy requires production of unbiased findings of fact and application of expertise. In a multitude of cases this is statutorily mandated. Civil service protections help to ensure that the executive branch does not itself become an unconstitutional engine of legislation through political hiring, promotion, and firing decisions. At-will employees are inevitably subject to real or perceived pressures from current or incoming administrations, and will act accordingly, rather than on behalf of the American people and the statutory requirements imposed by Congress. This will distort and even invert the allocation and separation of powers defined in Articles I and II of the Constitution.

Insulation from short-term political whims is of special importance when the executive is charged with interpreting and executing Congress’s intent on technical issues. These include but are not limited to assessment of applications and proposals for grants and contracts, in areas touching or centered on science, engineering, technology, and medicine. Congress has made clear that merit assessment by domain experts is core to the integrity, e+iciency, and excellence of the American scientific and medical enterprise. This is true in agencies that include but are not limited to: the National Institutes of Health; the National Science Foundation; the National Aeronautics and Space Administration; The Environmental Protection Agency; the National Park Service; the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration and National Weather Service; the National Forest Service; the Bureau of Land Management; the National Transportation Safety Board; and many others.

Over many decades, Congress has made clear time and again that the national interest requires the investiture of long-term planning and expertise, over timespans extending beyond a single presidential administration or political party. Continuity of expertise and institutional memory are statutorily mandated and not negotiable.

Schedule F makes a mockery of these requirements, and will inevitably result in the loss of this essential impartiality and continuity. It also opens the door to unethical patronage and other abuses. Thus, the end results of Schedule F will damage the Constitutional separation of powers and harm the national interest. Schedule F will lead to the loss of this continuity and impartiality, threatening the nation’s economic power, health, defense, and scientific leadership, and ceding the global lead in these areas to competitor states that will continue to emphasize long-term planning and technical excellence.

Schedule F is harmful to the national interest in the ways outlined above and others. Schedule F must be eliminated, not renewed.

Sincerely, and with all due respect,

Alexey Merz, Ph.D.
Reposted by Matt Might
bwjones.bsky.social
If universities do not unite on this, we will all fall. The entire country will suffer.

They will not stop at Harvard and Columbia. They are coming for ALL of higher education. Every single center of higher education will be targeted.

This is what authoritarians do. Again, and again, and again.
davidimiller.bsky.social
CNN story updated with specifics:

"the administration is specifically considering a full termination of federal grant funding for the University of California and California State University systems.

A White House official said Friday afternoon that no final decision had been made on the cuts."
Trump preparing large-scale cancellation of federal funding for California, sources say | CNN Politics
The Trump administration is preparing to cancel a large swath of federal funding to California, an effort which could begin as soon as Friday, according to multiple sources.
www.cnn.com
Reposted by Matt Might
carlbergstrom.com
From hundreds of terminated grants in biomedicine to selective prosecutions to organizational overhauls at the nation's science funding agencies, today's news reports salvo after salvo from a Republican administration dead set on destroying higher education—and with it, US leadership in technology.
Reposted by Matt Might
mollyfranke.bsky.social
All 4 of my NIH research grants are terminated. These were grants on MDR-TB treatment & strategies for supporting adolescents living w/ HIV. This is a massive waste of resources. I am heartbroken for my Harvard team, my partners in Peru, the next generation of scientists & our country. Shame.
Reposted by Matt Might
bradheath.bsky.social
FROM @reuters.com: The Trump administration has said addressing autism is one of its top health priorities. Records show it has also halted about a quarter of NIH's research funding related to autism.

www.reuters.com/business/hea...
Reposted by Matt Might
lynnjolicoeur.bsky.social
"I'm still in shock. I know that there have been political issues around Harvard in recent weeks, but antibiotic resistance isn't one of them." My conversation with Harvard microbiologist @baym.lol, one of many researchers there who just lost millions in fed. grants. www.wbur.org/news/2025/05...
Antibiotic research at Harvard lab threatened by federal funding cuts
Microbiologist Michael Baym studies antibiotic resistance at Harvard Medical School. He lost millions in federal funding this week.
www.wbur.org
Reposted by Matt Might
jayrosen.bsky.social
"The future of biomedical research [amounts to] a race to see whether the biomedical research community can mobilize politically, access that vast but latent political power, before the White House can do enough sustained damage to make the whole question moot." talkingpointsmemo.com/edblog/a-pat...
A Path Forward to Save American Bio-Medical Research
Over the past four months, I’ve spoken to dozens of biomedical researchers...
talkingpointsmemo.com
matt.might.net
A scientific Boston massacre.
Reposted by Matt Might
nejm.org
NEJM.org @nejm.org · May 15
A lipid nanoparticle–delivered base-editing therapy was custom designed for an infant with a ureacycle disorder. The affected infant was treated at approximately 7 and 8 months of age. Read the Brief Report: nej.md/42XF03F

#ASGCT2025 #MedSky @asgct.bsky.social
Patient-Specific In Vivo Gene Editing to Treat a Rare Genetic Disease | NEJM
Base editors can correct disease-causing genetic variants. After a neonate had received a diagnosis of severe carbamoyl-phosphate synthetase 1 deficiency, a disease with an estimated 50% mortality ...
nej.md
Reposted by Matt Might
standupforscience.bsky.social
At the end of this summer, the future of U.S. science and research will be decided.

From weather alerts to cancer breakthroughs, science shapes every part of our lives.
We need everyone in this fight.

The Summer Fight for Science starts now. Are you in?

The fight starts here: bit.ly/4ddiuqU
Reposted by Matt Might
baym.lol
Yesterday, the NIH R35 “Outstanding Investigator” grant to fund scientists in my lab studying antibiotic resistance was terminated for reasons not related to the content of the science, or any actions taken by me or members of my lab
A screenshot of the termination notice showing "Outstanding Investigator Grants" A screenshot of the termination notice with "This award is terminated effective the date of this award, due to unsafe antisemitic actions that suggest the institution lacks concern for the safety and wellbeing of Jewish students." highlighted
Reposted by Matt Might
ampolter.bsky.social
I am thinking a lot today about how heavy things feel in my world of faculty doing scientific research. There's the immediate chaos and panic about our ability to pay people and continue our research. But there's also a deeper grief at watching everything get bulldozed for no reason
Reposted by Matt Might
labogden.bsky.social
I never imagined I would see something like this happen to federally funded research in the US. I am heartbroken for all the researchers whose grants have been terminated and devastated for all the patients whose current (and future) treatments are being impacted 🧪 💔
Reposted by Matt Might
Reposted by Matt Might
jeremymberg.bsky.social
Slow grant making continues. Here is a graph through May 1st.

2/n
A graph with clusters gray curves showing NIH grant making for fiscal years 2015-2024 with a red curve showing slower grant making in fiscal year 2025.
Reposted by Matt Might
jeremymberg.bsky.social
ACTION ITEM-----ACTION ITEM

Implementation of Schedule F

This is what a lot of us have been worried about.

This allows for many civil service positions to replaced with political appointees. This could include NIH institute directors and even POs.

BUT THERE IS A COMMENT PERIOD...

1/n
the word alert is in a purple circle
ALT: the word alert is in a purple circle
media.tenor.com
Reposted by Matt Might
jeremymberg.bsky.social
Many hundreds (perhaps up to 1000) of additional NIH grants appear to be have been terminated on Friday.

I have updated the data from the HHS TAGGS site (and converted it from a pdf to an Excel file) on the dashboard but many hundreds are still missing.

jeremymberg.github.io/jeremyberg.g...
NIH_since_1_20_25
jeremymberg.github.io
Reposted by Matt Might
rebeccafieldingmiller.com
Today I lost an NIH grant training clinicians to do research about intimate partner violence with perinatal women.

More women are murdered in the perinatal period than die of obstetric complications.

I didn't just lose a grant. We lost an entire cohort of people building careers to prevent that.
Reposted by Matt Might
scott-delaney.bsky.social
The crush of new grant cancellations hasn't let up.

If your grant was terminated (or your app was pulled) please use this Google Form👇 to submit details for tracking purposes.

Multiple advocacy efforts are moving forward, but we must must must know more about what grants were cancelled and why.
Cancelled NIH grant information submission form
Please use this form to submit information identifying specific NIH grants that have been cancelled for any reason after January 20, 2025. Data from this form will be used to update the Rescinded NIH...
forms.gle
Reposted by Matt Might
jeremymberg.bsky.social
ATTENTION

If you are someone (or know someone) who is enrolled in an NIH-funded clinical trial that has been disrupted by grant uncertainties or terminations, please DM me.

THANK YOU!
stan marsh from south park says see that 's what happened to me !
ALT: stan marsh from south park says see that 's what happened to me !
media.tenor.com