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Nick Silva

@nicholasjsilva.bsky.social

660 followers 690 following 46 posts

Assistant Professor at San Francisco State University (SFSU). Neuroscientist & glia lover. UCSF, Umich, & SFSU alum. 🐟🧠🏳️‍🌈 nicholassilvalab.org

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Nick Silva @nicholasjsilva.bsky.social · Dec 5

Excited to share my 2nd first author work from @annamolofskylab.bsky.social. We show that microglial cathepsin B promotes neuronal efferocytosis in 🐟&🐁 🧠 Possible w/ amazing lab members, Dr. Anderson, Dr. Escoubas, Sunny Mula, & Dr. Nakajo. 🙏🏽 More later.

bioRxivpreprint @biorxivpreprint.bsky.social · Dec 5

Microglial cathepsin B promotes neuronal efferocytosis during brain development https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2024.12.03.626596v1

Half of all newborn neurons in the developing brain are removed via efferocytosis - the phagocytic c

www.biorxiv.org

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Reposted by Nick Silva

Allen Institute @alleninstitute.org · 1d

Congrats to Mary Brunkow from @isbscience.org on winning the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine! Brunkow was honored with collaborators Ramsdell and Sakaguchi for their groundbreaking work on immune system regulation.

A proud moment for science and Seattle!

🔗 www.nytimes.com/2025/10/06/h...

Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine Is Awarded for Work on Immune Systems

www.nytimes.com

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Reposted by Nick Silva

UC Davis Center for Neuroscience @ucdaviscns.bsky.social · 20d

Celebrating #PostdocAppreciationWeek2025 🎉Meet Amanda Iglesias, Ph.D., postdoc in the Fioravante Lab at CNS. She investigates the neural circuits underlying motivated behavior and reward-related psychopathologies. Learn more about research in the Fioravante Lab: www.fioravantelab.ucdavis.edu

UC Davis Center for Neuroscience postdoc spotlight: Dr. Amanda Iglesias, studying neural circuits of motivation and reward-related psychopathologies.

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Reposted by Nick Silva

Jeremy Berg @jeremymberg.bsky.social · Aug 23

I just sent this email to Director Bhattacharya and am sending him a hard copy by registered mail.

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August 22, 2025

Dear Director Bhattacharya:

I write to you regarding your plans after the Supreme Court ruling yesterday. As you know, the Supreme Court did allow a stay on the required grant reinstatements based on a controversial jurisdictional issue but also found that the grant termination processes used were likely illegal.

I know you are deeply concerned about public trust in NIH. I hope that you understand that proceeding to fail to reinstate or to re-terminate grants that had been found to have been illegally terminated will not increase the public trust in NIH. This would also be substantially damaging to science.

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Reposted by Nick Silva

Jeremy Berg @jeremymberg.bsky.social · Aug 22

SCOTUSBlog story about NIH Grant Termination case

www.scotusblog.com/2025/08/supr...

Supreme Court allows Trump administration to terminate $783 million in NIH grants linked to DEI initiatives

By a vote of 5-4, the Supreme Court on Thursday agreed to allow the National Institutes of Health, the largest public funding source for biomedical research in the world, to […]

www.scotusblog.com

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Reposted by Nick Silva

Alex Long @alexandralong.bsky.social · Jul 10

Really important article in the NY Times today about cuts to NIH diversity grants, featuring a profile of Ashley Albright @aralbright.bsky.social who is an amazing and super inspiring cell biology postdoc whose K99 was prematurely terminated.

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

“If you cut out these diversity measures, you're going to make science full of people that are very elite…Full of people who have grown up with a large amount of privilege, who were able to work in a lab in high school because their dad was a prof at Cornell.” 🧪

www.nytimes.com/2025/07/10/u...

How Trump’s D.E.I. Cuts Are Hurting Rural White Americans Too

www.nytimes.com

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Reposted by Nick Silva

Pailin Chiaranunt @phagocyticpai.bsky.social · May 23

We're now appreciating how the immune and nervous systems communicate across body & brain, and there's still more to explore!

Had a fun time co-writing this with some amazing immunologists and neuroscientists @nickmroz.bsky.social @arimolofskylab.bsky.social @annamolofskylab.bsky.social 😎🧠

Cross-regulation between the nervous system and type 2 immunity

The nervous and type 2 immune systems regulate each other via cytokines and neurotransmitters, suggesting previously unidentified therapeutic avenues.

www.science.org

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Reposted by Nick Silva

Katie Wilkinson @drkwilkinson.bsky.social · Aug 21

Calling all @apsphysiology.bsky.social members: let’s help raise some money to support ABRCMS student presentation awards! Goal is $1200/discipline to support 12 awards by Sept 30th! 🧪 abrcms.org/donate/stude...

ABRCMS Fundraising - Student Presentation Awards - ABRCMS

Judges – Help Us Raise Funds for Student Presentation Awards Thank you for your service as a judge at ABRCMS. Your dedication has helped shape the future of countless student scientists, and we’re dee...

abrcms.org

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Reposted by Nick Silva

Patrick Murphy @pjmurphy249.bsky.social · Jul 8

Please RT: Published today, a super fun collaboration w/ @fanjumeng.bsky.social and Marnie Halpern's lab to establish methods for transgene mapping in zebrafish - TransTag enables simple and efficient transgene mapping in zebrafish via tagmentation: Cell Reports Methods www.cell.com/cell-reports...

TransTag enables simple and efficient transgene mapping in zebrafish via tagmentation

Meng et al. develop a method called TransTag for simple and efficient mapping of Tol2-based transgenes in zebrafish. TransTag robustly identifies transgene insertion sites and offers an alignment-free...

www.cell.com

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Reposted by Nick Silva

Chrystal Starbird @drstarbird.bsky.social · Jun 27

MOSAIC scholars: Sharing again in case anyone missed this. Less than an hour left in this deadline 👇🏾

Grace Lindsay @neurograce.bsky.social · Jun 26

APHA is gathering grants by TOMORROW NOON for Phase 2 of their lawsuit vs. NIH which regards NIH **applications** that were unfairly pulled from review, mishandled, or delayed from being awarded due to DEI issues.

To add your grant to this lawsuit, become an APHA member & submit this survey:

Microsoft Forms

forms.office.com

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Nick Silva @nicholasjsilva.bsky.social · Jun 27

Thanks for sharing! 🫶🏽

Reposted by Nick Silva

Bill Grueskin @bgrueskin.bsky.social · Jun 26

Trump, who said last year that he had “saved” historically Black colleges, has canceled $140 million in grants to them since March.

Agencies told HBCUs “to change the language in grant applications that explicitly focus on Black people — or lose federal funding.”

www.chronicle.com/article/hbcu...

HBCUs Reel as Trump Cuts Black-Focused Grants: ‘This Is Our Existence’

HBCUs’ mission-driven effort to serve Black communities could now result in severe budget cuts under Trump’s crusade against DEI. It’s all a big misunderstanding, advocates say.

www.chronicle.com

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Nick Silva @nicholasjsilva.bsky.social · Jun 26

Thank you, Kevin for all your contributions over the years with #ZebrafishRock and the community has a whole! 👏🏽

Reposted by Nick Silva

Ardem Patapoutian @ardemp.bskyverified.social · Jun 25

So important! Please contact your Republican senators, especially Sen. Susan Collins (R-ME), Sen. Shelley Moore Capito (R-WV), Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-LA), Sen. Katie Britt (R-AL), and Sen. Dave McCormick (R-PA). 🙏 amplify!

Ferric Fang, MD @fangferric.bsky.social · Jun 24

As Robert Kuttner writes, the NIH will need support from Republican Senators to avoid draconian cuts to its FY2026 budget.

prospect.org/politics/202...

Will the Senate Save NIH?

Rescuing biomedical research is every bit as important as saving Medicaid.

prospect.org

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Reposted by Nick Silva

Molly Gale (Gale-Hammell Lab) @mollygale.bsky.social · Jun 16

🧬🌽 Happy Transposon Day! 🌽🧬

Today we celebrate the birthday of Barbara McClintock - scientist extraordinaire and discoverer of jumping genes. Still the only woman to have an unshared Nobel Prize in the biomedical sciences #TransposonDay2025

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Katie Wilkinson @drkwilkinson.bsky.social · Jun 13

Many w current R16s are also waiting on renewals and those planning on submitting for the May deadline had it cancelled last minute. These are the R01 like grants for unis w >$6M NIH funding that serve >25% Pell students. Lots of fear this mechanism would be permanently cancelled

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Carl T. Bergstrom @carlbergstrom.com · Jun 13

I’ve warned that this was only a matter of time, but it’s still shocking to see in person.

Here AI generated content is being used to create a fake news ecosystem, disparaging a professor who has been critical of unscientific bullshit in the form of deextinction hype.

Vincent J Lynch 🐘🦣🦥 🦇🐋🐢🐍 @devoevomed.bsky.social · Jun 12

Four AI-generated "articles" have now disparaged me, "Colleagues and experts in the field have expressed concerns about the consistency and scientific integrity of his work"

gripeo.com/02/vincent-l...

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Reposted by Nick Silva

Christopher Webb @cwebbonline.com · Jun 12

Powerful statement by Sen. Alex Padilla.

Please notice that anytime senators or representatives try to conduct oversight, they’re blocked.

In this case, a sitting US senator was tackled to the ground and handcuffed—for asking a question.

Where the hell has Chuck Schumer been on this?

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Andrew Weinstein @andrewjweinstein.com · Jun 12

If they can do it to a United States senator, what do you think they’ll do to you?

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c0nc0rdance @c0nc0rdance.bsky.social · Jun 11

$160 billion in new spending on building jails, hiring more ICE 'agents' to carry out kidnappings & flying people to torture prisons.

For comparison, the 2024 NIH budget, which funds essentially all US medical research, was $47.1 billion.

Funding racism instead of research.

Hari Kunzru @harikunzru.bsky.social · Jun 10

The “big beautiful bill” has $160bn in new anti-immigrant measures including $8bn for ICE personnel, $15bn for deportations and $45bn to build detention facilities. Current total ICE budget is ~$8bn. They want to scale up this terror to an unimaginable level.

www.wola.org/analysis/160...

$160 Billion to Detain and Deport: Congress’s “Reconciliation” Bill is a Betrayal of Priorities and Will Harm the Most Vulnerable - WOLA

This piece focuses on the incredible scale of what the U.S. Congress is proposing to spend on enforcement and border security. The reconciliation bill’s mammoth dimensions are not getting the attentio...

www.wola.org

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Reposted by Nick Silva

lehtinenlab.bsky.social @lehtinenlab.bsky.social · May 28

Led by @scienceyael.bsky.social & out today in @natneuro.nature.com: the brain's fluid-secreting organ — the choroid plexus — can reshape neural development through a powerful, little-known process. & it can be hijacked by serotonergic drugs like LSD. 🧠👇 A thread
rdcu.be/eoaSY

Choroid plexus apocrine secretion shapes CSF proteome during mouse brain development

Nature Neuroscience - The choroid plexus (ChP) provides molecular cues for brain development. However, the underlying mechanisms are unclear. This study identifies an apocrine secretion mechanism...

rdcu.be

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Reposted by Nick Silva

Needhi Bhalla 💅🏽 @needhibhalla.bsky.social · May 20

No…next question.

There is a clear reason so few other countries have the research infrastructure our country does.

Can Scientific Research Survive Without Federal Funding?

Universities are offering temporary relief to researchers whose projects have been disrupted by federal funding cuts. But it won't help in the long term, and experts say industry and philanthropy are ...

www.insidehighered.com

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Nick Silva @nicholasjsilva.bsky.social · May 12

Nice, congrats! 🥳

Reposted by Nick Silva

Levi Todd @levi-todd.bsky.social · May 11

We recently wrote a review about neuroimmune interactions in retinal repair. We dive into the literature regarding immune influences in Muller glia reprogramming, cell transplantation, and axon regeneration. Hopefully its useful, free link: authors.elsevier.com/a/1k-FL4pAsj...

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Reposted by Nick Silva

The Anand Lab at San Francisco State University @theanandlab.bsky.social · May 8

Our very first thesis defense!
Anand Lab is proud to support this milestone in environmental microbiology and public health.
Friday, May 9 | 10 AM–12 PM | Thornton Hall (Blakeslee Room) + Zoom
#AnandLab #ThesisDefense #OneHealth #AMR @sfstatebio.bsky.social @archanand.bsky.social #Metagenomics

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Reposted by Nick Silva

Amy Gleichman @amygleichman.bsky.social · May 1

Thrilled to announce that my lab is now open at Ohio State! We study astrocytes as gene therapy targets for brain repair after ischemic stroke and in vascular dementia, developing new viral tools along the way. If you're interesting in joining or collaborating, please reach out!
gleichmanlab.com

The Gleichman lab

gleichmanlab.com

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