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Reposted by Scott_Boyd_Lab_Stanford

Hensley Lab @scottehensley.bsky.social · Jun 3

Anyone that has been around a lab knows that the trainees really drive the research, while most professors just sort of guide the ship. Most innovation comes from our trainees.

Old professors like me will be able to survive these cuts, but our young scientists and our future will be destroyed.

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Max Kozlov @maxkozlov.bsky.social · Jun 2

Researcher Amita Gupta has spent more than a decade planning and running a $70-million trial to study a new tuberculosis drug, enrolling ~6,000 participants in 13 countries. It might all have been for nothing.

That's because a new NIH policy has abruptly cut off billions to trials abroad. 🧪

NIH grant cuts will axe clinical trials abroad — and could leave thousands without care

US agency’s new policy could abruptly end studies of infectious diseases and cancer, leaving researchers scrambling for funds.

www.nature.com

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Hensley Lab @scottehensley.bsky.social · May 21

Check out this news story that @nature.com wrote describing our recent preprint where we tested our H5 mRNA vaccine in calves.

The data look good and we are currently testing the vaccine in lactating cattle...more to come!

Nature @nature.com · May 20

As bird flu sweeps across US poultry and cattle farms, researchers are racing to find ways to contain the outbreaks before they ignite a human pandemic. Now, a team of scientists has developed a fresh approach: the first mRNA bird-flu vaccine for cattle.

https://go.nature.com/4kbOvTe

Bird flu vaccine for cattle aces early test

Vaccines for livestock could reduce the risk of human outbreaks, but hurdles remain.

go.nature.com

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Scott_Boyd_Lab_Stanford @scottboydlab.bsky.social · May 17

Wonderfully good video about the beauty of science and humanitarian motivation working together to defeat diseases and save people. youtube.com/watch?v=ybVZ... 🧪 #NIH #CDC #WHO #BMGF #NIAID

Defeating a Virus That Killed Half a Billion People – The Plea

YouTube video by Neil Halloran

youtube.com

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E John Wherry @ejohnwherry.bsky.social · May 12

So this is not a problem?...But we can't even buy an NIH researcher a cup of coffee because of conflicts of interest!? The hypocrisy is insane. Investigations into universities, but at the White House all gifts and straight up crypto-bribes are fine. WTF www.nytimes.com/2025/05/11/u...

Trump Is Poised to Accept a Luxury 747 From Qatar for Use as Air Force One

www.nytimes.com

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Waggoner Lab @labwaggoner.bsky.social · May 8

Brain tissue artificially expanded to show how neurons wire together @nature.com
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
www.nature.com/articles/d41...

Light-microscopy-based connectomic reconstruction of mammalian brain tissue - Nature

A technique called LICONN (light-microscopy-based connectomics) allows mapping of brain tissue at synapse level and simultaneous measurement of molecular information, thus enabling quantification of c...

www.nature.com

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Stephen Jacob Smith @stephenjacobsmith.com · Apr 21

“This image from video posted on the Children's Health Defense [RFK Jr.’s anti-vax nonprofit] website on March 31 shows Dr. Ben Edwards with a measles rash on his face, while working in a makeshift clinic in Seminole, Texas.” www.cnn.com/2025/04/19/h...

Video shows doctor with measles treating kids. RFK Jr. later praised him as an ‘extraordinary’ healer | CNN

A Texas doctor who has been treating children in a measles outbreak was shown on video with a measles rash on his face in a clinic a week before Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. met him and prai...

www.cnn.com

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Needhi Bhalla 💅🏽 @needhibhalla.bsky.social · Apr 12

The Senate Committee on Appropriations is holding a hearing on Biomedical Research: Keeping America’s Edge in Innovation on April 30 at 10:30am ET, chaired by Senator Susan Collins 🧪

www.appropriations.senate.gov/hearings/bio...

Biomedical Research: Keeping America’s Edge in Innovation | United States Senate Committee on Appropriations

United States Senate Committee on Appropriations

www.appropriations.senate.gov

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Sera Markoff @profsera.bsky.social · Apr 13

I can’t exaggerate how badly this will affect our field, also internationally since many missions are jointly funded with eg ESA and JAXA. We are basically pinning our hopes on congressfolk to fight for all the regions that will lose jobs, since the science isn’t winning any arguments. 😢🔭🧪

Dr. Jessie Christiansen @aussiastronomer.bsky.social · Apr 11

First the rumour was a 20% budget cut. Then, 50%. Now the president's NASA budget is out and it's a 68% cut to astrophysics ($1.5B to $487M).

Even if this gets reversed in four years, we will *never* recover the missions, partners, people who will be gone.

www.washingtonpost.com/science/2025...

Massive cuts to NASA science proposed in early White House budget plan

The preliminary version of President Donald Trump’s budget proposal to Congress, known as a “passback,” would cut the agency’s science budget funding nearly in half.

www.washingtonpost.com

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Altmetric @altmetric.com · Mar 27

THREAD

The numbers are in. @bsky.app research sharing volumes vs X Formerly Twitter

In March 2024, on most days, Bluesky hosts more posts linked to research published in 2025 than X.

By quite a lot.

Release the Kraken...

#AcademicSky #HigherEd #Altmetrics
1/11

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Eric Topol @erictopol.bsky.social · Mar 10

Multiple sclerosis requires Epstein-Barr virus infection as an underpinning, exhibits self-directed antibodies to EBNA1, the virus's nuclear antigen, representing molecular mimicry. This combines with/ genetic risk factors (Figure, compared w/healthy controls)
@pnas.org
www.pnas.org/doi/epub/10....

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Scott_Boyd_Lab_Stanford @scottboydlab.bsky.social · Feb 27

Many outstanding medical researchers at NIH threatened by non-renewal of contracts:
www.science.org/content/arti...

They give the US new discoveries & the economic benefits of doing the risky first steps toward innovative cures.

Harming medical research is a self-inflicted national injury.

NIH ban on renewing senior scientists adds to assaults on its in-house research

Policy follows firings of tenure-track scientists and suspension of training programs

www.science.org

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tibshirani.bsky.social @tibshirani.bsky.social · Feb 24

I am happy to announce our new paper "Univariate-guided sparse regression". It's a new lasso that leverages the signs and magnitude of univariate coefficients .
Sparser and more interpretable than the lasso. We're excited! arxiv.org/abs/2501.18360
R: github.com/trevorhastie...

Univariate-Guided Sparse Regression

In this paper, we introduce ``UniLasso'' -- a novel statistical method for sparse regression. This two-stage approach preserves the signs of the univariate coefficients and leverages their magnitude. ...

arxiv.org

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Marion Pepper @marionpepper.bsky.social · Feb 24

This is heartbreaking. But not an unfamiliar feeling for my science colleagues and my own lab who burnt the midnight oil 24/7 studying COVID immunity to understand how to protect American lives during the pandemic. Nonsensical, performative betrayal. No one will actually benefit and people will die.

Senator Patty Murray @murray.senate.gov · Feb 23

Gregg is a former Marine and Forest Service ranger. He's saved the lives of hikers dangling off a cliff or going through cardiac arrest, and he's bravely fought forest fires to save small rural towns.

100% of his salary is paid by WA state.

Elon fired him. Share his story.

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ᐯIᑕTOᖇ ᑎIᘔET, ᗰᗪ @nizet.bsky.social · Feb 23

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Eric Topol @erictopol.bsky.social · Feb 22

This week was the 1st publication using our immune cell sequencing to accurately make medical diagnoses. It has enormous implications, as I've reviewed here erictopol.substack.com/p/the-first-... @scottboydlab.bsky.social @science.org @anshulkundaje.bsky.social @maximzaslavsky.bsky.social

The First Diagnostic Immunome

A Big Step Forward By Sequencing B and T Cell Receptors Plus A.I.

erictopol.substack.com

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Scott_Boyd_Lab_Stanford @scottboydlab.bsky.social · Feb 22

In the meantime, there is a link to the pdf on our lab website:
med.stanford.edu/scottboydlab...

We appreciate the interest shown toward this work: www.nature.com/articles/d41... ; www.statnews.com/2025/02/20/m... ; med.stanford.edu/news/all-new... ; @erictopol.bsky.social and others.

Publications

med.stanford.edu

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Scott_Boyd_Lab_Stanford @scottboydlab.bsky.social · Feb 21

We'll get this up on PubMed Central shortly.

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Scott_Boyd_Lab_Stanford @scottboydlab.bsky.social · Feb 21

Deep thanks to our many collaborators and all research participants. #immunology #science 🧪 @science.org @sarahhross.bsky.social

NIH funding was the lifeblood of this work, as it is for almost all biomedical discoveries and therapies in the U.S. @niaidnews.bsky.social

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Scott_Boyd_Lab_Stanford @scottboydlab.bsky.social · Feb 21

Attempting to read the language of B cell and T cell receptor sequences to diagnose immunological diseases:
Our new paper, led by the outstanding Maxim Zaslavsky @maximzaslavsky.bsky.social sky.bsky.social with help from me and Anshul Kundaje @anshulkundaje.bsky.social.
Link: buff.ly/3QvxSVf

A figure showing a model for using BCR and TCR sequences to classify immunological disorders.

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Scott_Boyd_Lab_Stanford @scottboydlab.bsky.social · Feb 15

Destructive, cruel and directly harmful to the health and security of America. The physical, real world of viruses and other pathogens doesn’t care about politics and won’t spare us.

Lewis Kamb @lewiskamb.bsky.social · Feb 14

CDC source:

“We just had word that all our fellows and post doc staff are laid off effective immediately. The famous Epidemic Intelligence Service, aka the Disease Detectives, is no more. That’s 1260 staff.

They are calling this ‘Phase 1’.”

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Mark Cuban @mcuban.bsky.social · Feb 14

This is so smart. @petebuttigieg.bsky.social , thoughts ?

And if you see this. A reminder. This is not Twitter. You can engage here and have thoughtful discussions !

We all look forward to reading your thoughts

Cheri Jacobus @cherijacobus.bsky.social · Feb 13

I keep saying Dems need to do a daily briefing on Capitol Hill and fill the void, fact check the WH. Hire Pete Buttigeig and give him a staff to do this.

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Fyodor Urnov @urnov.bsky.social · Feb 10

NIH-supported research saves lives: here are two "poster" human beings to prove it.
Emily Whitehead: cured of her leukemia by CAR-T developed at Penn.
Victoria Gray: major symptoms of her sickle cell disease resolved following CRISPR gene editing - path paved at Boston Childrens, UW, UC Berkeley.

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Kathleen Clark @kathleenclark.bsky.social · Feb 10

The 22 state AGs note that in 2017, Trump proposed a similar across-the-board rate cut, but Congress rejected it.
In 2018 & every year since, Congress has enacted an appropriations rider forbidding NIH from pursuing an across-the-board rate cut.

Case 1:25-cv-10338 Document 1 Filed 02/10/25 Page 4 of 59
6. In 2017, during his first administration, President Trump made a budget proposal
that would have reduced the indirect cost rate for research institutions to an across-the-board,
categorical rate of 10%. Congress unequivocally responded to ward off such a change to the
calculation of indirect cost rates. In 2018, Congress enacted an appropriations rider prohibiting
HHS or NIH from spending appropriated funds "to develop or implement a modified approach to" the reimbursement of "indirect costs" and "deviations from negotiated rates." Consolidated
Appropriations Act, 2018, Pub. L. No. 115-141, 132 Stat 348, § 226. That rider has remained
in effect through every appropriations law governing HHS to this day. See Further
Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2024, Pub. L. No. 118-47, § 224.
7. On February 7, 2025, NIH nonetheless issued a guidance document pronouncing
that all indirect cost rates for NIH grants would be reduced to 15%, in Notice Number NOT-
OD-25-068, Supplemental Guidance to the 2024 NIH Grants Policy Statement: Indirect Cost
Rates (the "Rate Change Notice"). This reduction applies not only to new grants but to existing
grants, and becomes effective on February 10, 2025, just one business day after the Rate
Change Notice issued.

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STAT @statnews.com · Feb 10

#BREAKING - 22 states sue to block Trump administration cuts to NIH research payments

22 states sue to block Trump administration cuts to NIH research payments

Attorneys general sued the Trump administration to block a NIH decision that would slash grant payments for research overhead

buff.ly

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