Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

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Elizabeth Jacobs, PhD @elizabethjacobs.bsky.social · 17d

Many studies have shown that there is no relationship between MMR vaccine and the development of autism. Here are two of the best.

This one followed every single child born in Denmark from 1991 through 1998 (n=537,303). There was no association.

A Population-Based Study of Measles, Mumps, and Rubella Vaccination and Autism | NEJM

It has been suggested that vaccination against measles, mumps, and rubella (MMR) is a cause of autism. We conducted a retrospective cohort study of all children born in Denmark from January 1991 th...

www.nejm.org

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Justin Wolfers @justinwolfers.bsky.social · 17d

Serious scholars have examined what happens when we change the number of H1-B visas issued.

Cities that get more H1-B immigrants subsequently see the wages of natives *rise* substantially.

Skilled immigrants bring new ideas, fill labor shortages and make us all more productive.

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Muir Lab @muirlab.bsky.social · 29d

Super excited to share our new preprint from @cssheehan.bsky.social on how the tumor microenvironment causes drug resistance in pancreatic cancer: www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

Tumor nutrient stress gives rise to a drug tolerant cell state in pancreatic cancer

Cytotoxic chemotherapy remains the standard-of-care treatment for patients with pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC). However, chemotherapy only has modest effects at improving patient survival due...

www.biorxiv.org

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Dan Wahl @danwahlmd.bsky.social · Sep 6

New discovery from our team defining how human brain cancers rewire the metabolism of the normal brain published this week @nature.com and led by stellar postdoc Drew Scott (comentored by @lyssiotislab.bsky.social and currently on job market with a K99/R00). www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Rewiring of cortical glucose metabolism fuels human brain cancer growth - Nature

The cortex fuels essential physiological processes with glucose-derived carbon, while gliomas fuel their aggressiveness by rerouting glucose carbon pathways and scavenging alternative carbon sources s...

www.nature.com

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Jennifer Landino @jenelandino.bsky.social · Aug 27

Dartmouth is hiring! Come be my colleague. Biochemistry and Cell Biology is accepting applications for a tenure-track Assistant Professor position. Join us in New Hampshire for great science, nice people, and beautiful scenery ⛰️ apply.interfolio.com/171438

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Lydia Jennings, PhD @1nativesoilnerd.bsky.social · Aug 15

The paper highlights actionable steps to help improve these double standards, including more RESEARCH RELATED LANGUAGE in P &T letters for Black, Hispanic and Indigenous women to improve their outcomes.

Underrepresented minority faculty in the USA face a double standard in promotion and tenure decisions - Nature Human Behaviour

Masters-Waage et al. report that underrepresented minority (URM) faculty in the USA face barriers in the promotion and tenure process, receiving more negative votes and fewer unanimous positive decisi...

www.nature.com

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Judd Legum @juddlegum.bsky.social · Jul 16

1. We interrupt this programming for some LEGITIMATELY GOOD NEWS

Violent crime in Baltimore has PLUMMETED to historic lows

How did the city do it?

Baltimore adopted a comprehensive set of "woke" policies, treating violence as a public health issue

The secret to Baltimore's extraordinary year

This April, Baltimore saw five homicides.

popular.info

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Max Kozlov @maxkozlov.bsky.social · Jul 2

I previously reported that DOGE has been intimately involved in grant cut decisions at NIH.

Indeed: Brad Smith, a leading DOGE figure, sent acting director Memoli a list of 18 notices of funding opportunities to take down. 25 minutes later, Memoli recommended all 18 be taken down.

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Max Kozlov @maxkozlov.bsky.social · Jun 25

Just in: NIH staff have been instructed to REINSTATE these ~900 grants to comply with the court order, per sources. This comes after staff were also directed to cease any further terminations.

You can see the lists grants to be reinstated in my post below.

Max Kozlov @maxkozlov.bsky.social · Jun 18

The judge intends to limit his order to universities in the plaintiff states (CA, MD, WA, AZ, CO, DE, HI, MA, MN, NV, NJ, NM, NY, OR, RI, WI), members of the plaintiff orgs (APHA, UAW), and the researchers named directly, he said today.

His written opinion will come in the coming days.

Max Kozlov @maxkozlov.bsky.social · Jun 16

🚨 BREAKING: Nearly 4 months the NIH cut its first grants, a judge has ruled that the directives and process that led to cuts are arbitrary and capricious.

"The explanations are bereft of reasoning — virtually in their entirety... unsupported by [facts]."

Each of them are VOID and ILLEGAL, he says.

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Marisa Kabas @marisakabas.bsky.social · Jun 22

EXCLUSIVE — The Onion has a full-page ad in today’s NYT featuring part of an editorial calling out congressional fecklessness towards Trump. They also sent a copy of their latest issue to every lawmaker.

My report, with an excerpt from the full editorial: www.thehandbasket.co/p/exclusive-...

The Onion NYT ad. The headline of the editorial says “CONGRESS, NOW MORE THAN EVER OUR NATION NEEDS YOUR COWARDICE”

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Arghavan Salles, MD, PhD @arghavansallesmd.medsky.social · Jun 6

Holy smokes! Our article is on the cover of The Lancet!!!!!!!!!! Nbd 💅

The cover of The Lancet with this quote from our commentary: "If we in academic medicine give in to the campaigns against diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibility, the consequences will include resegregation and fewer opportunities for marginalised groups."

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Mike Feigin 🥯 @mikefeigin.bsky.social · Jun 5

Here is the official posting for a faculty job in Pharmacology and Therapeutics at Roswell Park Comprehensive Cancer Center! Feel free to DM or email with questions.
roswellpark.wd5.myworkdayjobs.com/en-US/Ext-RP...

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Carl Zimmer @carlzimmer.com · Jun 4

“I would like to cure brain cancer. I think that's not particularly controversial.” Be that as it may, the NIH terminated that scientist's grant. Here's a huge survey of the 2,500 grants that NIH has killed or delayed...so far. Gift link: nyti.ms/43Jz1yJ

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Katie Mack @astrokatie.com · Jun 3

If you burn down a forest, you don't miss out on lumber for just that season. You have to replant all the trees, nurture them, and wait for them to grow.

The science and research budget cuts happening now are wanton, senseless arson. Recovery, if it ever happens, will take generations.

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Stand Up for Science! @standupforscience.bsky.social · Jun 1

HAPPY PRIDE 🏳️‍🌈

Under Trump, research using terms like “Trans,” “LGBTQ,” & “Gender identity” is being defunded. These terms reflect real people who deserve science that includes them.

Stand with us to protect LGBTQ+ science from political erasure.
grant-watch.us/nih-data.html
@rcmedphys.bsky.social

A word cloud made from flagged terms in terminated NIH grant proposals. The most prominent words in large font include “trans,” “diverse,” “diversity,” “minority,” “sex,” “expression,” “mental health,” “gender,” and “women.” Other visible terms include “LGBTQ,” “racial,” “underrepresented,” “disability,” “barriers,” “black,” “equity,” “health equity,” “vaccine,” “bias,” and “intersectionality.” The word cloud highlights terms related to identity, inclusion, and marginalized communities.

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Krista Koeller @kristalerista.bsky.social · Jun 1

We are everywhere. We are inevitable. Even if we are silenced and suppressed, we will always be.

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Tigist Tamir @phosphotig.bsky.social · May 28

Extra! Extra! Read all about it!Our study from the White Lab is online today! Thank you to all that made the story & my postdoc time phenomenal
Forest White
Roger Davis
Jess Spinelli
@mvhlab.bsky.social @alextoker.bsky.social
@mitkochinstitute.bsky.social
www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

a man holding a piece of paper in front of a sign that says extra extra read all about it

Alt: a man holding a piece of paper in front of a sign that says extra extra read all about it

media.tenor.com

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Erica Rodriguez, PhD @ericarodriguez.bsky.social · Apr 28

I & other MOSAIC scholars spoke on the impact of the termination of our awards with the cancellation of the MOSAIC program. I also want to emphasize that our awards were based on our scientific merit, in addition to our past & future service to broaden participation in research.🧪🧠👩‍🔬 shorturl.at/R8UYV

As a diversity grant dies, young scientists fear it will haunt their careers

The Trump administration defunded the National Institute of Health's MOSAIC grant program, which launched the careers of scientists from diverse backgrounds.

www.npr.org

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Sarah J. Jackson @sjjphd.bsky.social · Apr 25

Honored to be in the club with researchers whose work is deemed “not in alignment” w/ this administration’s “new priorities.” I know these grant losses hurt - esp to junior scholars and the staff employed them - and, I genuinely believe, we can be proud we were doing something they are scared of.

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Caleb Cheng @djcalebc.bsky.social · Apr 24

Beyond grateful to share that my main PhD thesis project, Targeting PIKfyve-driven lipid metabolism in pancreatic cancer (@lyssiotislab.bsky.social + Arul Chinnaiyan lab), has just been published in @nature.com!

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Arghavan Salles, MD, PhD @arghavansallesmd.medsky.social · Apr 24

It was even more recently than you think—just in December the National Academies published a report chastising the NIH for not giving enough attention to women’s health. They called for the creation of an institute and an additional $16B in funding.

Instead, we’re losing almost everything.

Rheum Cat @rheumcat.bsky.social · Apr 24

It was not that long ago that clinical trials enrolled mainly (or all) men, or that animal studies only used male mice. It was not that long ago that the NIH determined the need to focus research on women.

www.science.org/content/arti...

NIH guts its first and largest study centered on women

The Women’s Health Initiative has produced numerous influential findings

www.science.org

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Chrystal Starbird @drstarbird.bsky.social · Apr 22

I’m hearing that some MOSAIC fellows are not only losing their grants (and for some in the postdoc phase their livelihoods), but also that their LRPs are now being cancelled. To have this population of scientists be targeted in such a manner should be unacceptable to everyone 😤

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jp flores (he/him) @jpflores.rbind.io · Apr 15

Haven’t heard of the Atlas of Inspiring Hispanic/Latinx Scientists?

Check it out here!

(And keep an eye for two new Atlases we’re creating 👀👀👀)

www.fredhutch.org/en/about/abo...

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Helen De Cruz @helendecruz.net · Apr 10

I got a chemo drug today, taxol, named after its plant Taxus brevifolia, or the pacific yew tree. It was used by Native Americans for various medicinal purposes. western scientists in the 20th century isolated its chemical compound and in 1990 it was approved as a cancer drug in 1993 1/

A Pacific yew tree. It has needles for leaves and very red berries pictured here in the tree

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Erica Rodriguez, PhD @ericarodriguez.bsky.social · Apr 8

Finally an article focused on these grant losses that scientists from underrepresented backgrounds EARNED, including my own grant (MOSAIC K99/R00). Generations of scientists from these groups will disappear. Will those with less to lose and from more privileged backgrounds advocate for us?

The Transmitter @thetransmitter.bsky.social · Apr 8

Long-standing training grants for underrepresented minorities have been canceled under Trump’s NIH.

By @claudia-lopez.bsky.social

#neuroskyence

www.thetransmitter.org/funding/excl...

NIH nixes funds for pre- and postdoctoral training programs

Many of the axed grants support scientists from underrepresented communities.

www.thetransmitter.org

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