Zack Hilt
@zackhilt.bsky.social
Studying host-pathogen interactions to perinatal infections at University of Toledo.
49ers fan and running nerd.
“The Empire cannot win.”
49ers fan and running nerd.
“The Empire cannot win.”
Reposted by Zack Hilt
Global greenhouse emissions will soon flatten or decline—a historic moment driven by China’s surge in renewable energy. https://scim.ag/3M3fQdP
Global carbon emissions will soon flatten or decline
With China’s surge in renewable energy, greenhouse gases are reaching a turning point
scim.ag
November 25, 2025 at 11:30 PM
Global greenhouse emissions will soon flatten or decline—a historic moment driven by China’s surge in renewable energy. https://scim.ag/3M3fQdP
Reposted by Zack Hilt
Google at its peak was basically the best information retrieval system in human history and they and every competitor decided going from there to “you didn’t want answers you wanted half-assed auto-complete 80%-wrong hallucinations” in a few years was the right idea
November 25, 2025 at 1:57 AM
Google at its peak was basically the best information retrieval system in human history and they and every competitor decided going from there to “you didn’t want answers you wanted half-assed auto-complete 80%-wrong hallucinations” in a few years was the right idea
Reposted by Zack Hilt
Neonatal Platelets Differentiate Monocytes to a Myeloid Derived Suppressor Cell Phenotype https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.11.21.689809v1
November 24, 2025 at 11:21 PM
Neonatal Platelets Differentiate Monocytes to a Myeloid Derived Suppressor Cell Phenotype https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.11.21.689809v1
Reposted by Zack Hilt
In which I fruitlessly beg NIH grant-seeking folks to focus on what is actually important. drugmonkey.wordpress.com/2025/11/21/i...
In which I fruitlessly beg NIH grant-seeking folks to focus on what is actually important.
A new webpage on the NIH site called “Implementing a Unified NIH Funding Strategy to Guide Consistent and Clearer Award Decisions” is causing a small kerfuffle on the socials. As per us…
drugmonkey.wordpress.com
November 22, 2025 at 12:26 AM
In which I fruitlessly beg NIH grant-seeking folks to focus on what is actually important. drugmonkey.wordpress.com/2025/11/21/i...
Reposted by Zack Hilt
I really hate it when scientists keep saying that “we need to rebuild trust in science,” because it implies that scientists are to blame for the mistrust rather than the millions of dollars of dark money that have funded political attacks on science in order to advance a far right agenda.
November 19, 2025 at 9:48 PM
I really hate it when scientists keep saying that “we need to rebuild trust in science,” because it implies that scientists are to blame for the mistrust rather than the millions of dollars of dark money that have funded political attacks on science in order to advance a far right agenda.
Reposted by Zack Hilt
Good News: NFL legend Jerry Rice and his wife have paid off $667,000 in unpaid school lunch debts across multiple schools around the country.
Such a beautiful gift to those communities. What an amazing couple.
If we have trillions for the DoD budget, school lunches and snacks ought to be free.
Such a beautiful gift to those communities. What an amazing couple.
If we have trillions for the DoD budget, school lunches and snacks ought to be free.
November 16, 2025 at 6:47 PM
Good News: NFL legend Jerry Rice and his wife have paid off $667,000 in unpaid school lunch debts across multiple schools around the country.
Such a beautiful gift to those communities. What an amazing couple.
If we have trillions for the DoD budget, school lunches and snacks ought to be free.
Such a beautiful gift to those communities. What an amazing couple.
If we have trillions for the DoD budget, school lunches and snacks ought to be free.
Reposted by Zack Hilt
Dr. Pepper is now running commercials showing how the winners of the championship week Tuition Toss are thriving in life because of their winnings. i am producing a follow-up where the losers are like "yeah I lost by 2 points in the 2011 Pac-12 Tuition Toss and i'm still paying off my student loans"
November 16, 2025 at 1:19 AM
Dr. Pepper is now running commercials showing how the winners of the championship week Tuition Toss are thriving in life because of their winnings. i am producing a follow-up where the losers are like "yeah I lost by 2 points in the 2011 Pac-12 Tuition Toss and i'm still paying off my student loans"
Stop publishing in these Journals. Support society journals and open access journals. Part of this is a choice.
When Nature Communications or Science Advances becomes the preferred choice to publish something over Journal of Immunology we have completely lost the plot in our field.
When Nature Communications or Science Advances becomes the preferred choice to publish something over Journal of Immunology we have completely lost the plot in our field.
A staggering statistic: "North American researchers were charged over US$2.27 billion by just two for-profit publishers. The Canadian research councils and the US National Science Foundation were allocated US$9.3 billion in that year." What are we doing?
We wrote the Strain on scientific publishing to highlight the problems of time & trust. With a fantastic group of co-authors, we present The Drain of Scientific Publishing:
a 🧵 1/n
Drain: arxiv.org/abs/2511.04820
Strain: direct.mit.edu/qss/article/...
Oligopoly: direct.mit.edu/qss/article/...
a 🧵 1/n
Drain: arxiv.org/abs/2511.04820
Strain: direct.mit.edu/qss/article/...
Oligopoly: direct.mit.edu/qss/article/...
November 14, 2025 at 2:54 AM
Stop publishing in these Journals. Support society journals and open access journals. Part of this is a choice.
When Nature Communications or Science Advances becomes the preferred choice to publish something over Journal of Immunology we have completely lost the plot in our field.
When Nature Communications or Science Advances becomes the preferred choice to publish something over Journal of Immunology we have completely lost the plot in our field.
Reposted by Zack Hilt
Who is Jenna Norton? Jenna is a friend + program officer who chose to speak, in her personal capacity, about the destruction going on at NIH. She was just placed on administrative leave; no reason was provided. Free speech? Not in this country anymore www.instagram.com/reel/DRA3e8-...
undefined on Instagram: "jmnortonI guess I hit a nerve because they just put me on “non disciplinary” admin leave. But let me be clear: this is retaliation …"
jmnortonI guess I hit a nerve because they just put me on “non disciplinary” admin leave. But let me be clear: this is retaliation for asserting my right to free speech guaranteed nder Pickering vs Board of Education.
www.instagram.com
November 13, 2025 at 11:10 PM
Who is Jenna Norton? Jenna is a friend + program officer who chose to speak, in her personal capacity, about the destruction going on at NIH. She was just placed on administrative leave; no reason was provided. Free speech? Not in this country anymore www.instagram.com/reel/DRA3e8-...
Reposted by Zack Hilt
Reposted by Zack Hilt
A reminder - last March, republicans promised to restore $1.1B in funding to DC in exchange for funding the government, and Mike Johnson never took it up in the House.
a cartoon girl in a blue dress is kneeling in a field holding a bag
ALT: a cartoon girl in a blue dress is kneeling in a field holding a bag
media.tenor.com
November 10, 2025 at 2:07 AM
A reminder - last March, republicans promised to restore $1.1B in funding to DC in exchange for funding the government, and Mike Johnson never took it up in the House.
Reposted by Zack Hilt
So, NIH seems to have opened some high-level, director-of-institute type positions today, with a window of only two weeks. During a shutdown. Hm.
hr.nih.gov
November 7, 2025 at 9:07 PM
So, NIH seems to have opened some high-level, director-of-institute type positions today, with a window of only two weeks. During a shutdown. Hm.
Reposted by Zack Hilt
A good summary of why Cornell's capitulation to authoritarian extortion is an affront to democracy and academic freedom. aaup-cornell.org/2025/11/07/s...
November 8, 2025 at 2:33 PM
A good summary of why Cornell's capitulation to authoritarian extortion is an affront to democracy and academic freedom. aaup-cornell.org/2025/11/07/s...
Reposted by Zack Hilt
Cornell, like other capitulators, shamefully justifies this by saying it preserves *our* independence. Even if that were true, it is pure moral cowardice to take the every-institution-for-itself approach when extortionist is rampaging through our academic community.
November 7, 2025 at 7:28 PM
Cornell, like other capitulators, shamefully justifies this by saying it preserves *our* independence. Even if that were true, it is pure moral cowardice to take the every-institution-for-itself approach when extortionist is rampaging through our academic community.
Reposted by Zack Hilt
Looks neat but the idea that fetal T cells are naive or quiescent has looooooooong been disproven. No need for red herrings on that one: www.cell.com/cell/fulltex...
Systemic immune activity occurs during human immune system maturation
Profiling of immune cells from consecutive developmental time points in second-trimester
fetuses and adults reveals that immune activation, immune tolerance, and hematopoiesis
occur in a systemic way ...
www.cell.com
November 6, 2025 at 4:11 PM
Looks neat but the idea that fetal T cells are naive or quiescent has looooooooong been disproven. No need for red herrings on that one: www.cell.com/cell/fulltex...
Reposted by Zack Hilt
Director Bhattacharya "Let's fund emerging investigators"
Yeah, who's the idiot running NIH who allowed 15% or few fewer early stage investigators be funded in FY2025 compared to FY2024?
(Estimate: The official numbers are not yet available (at least publicly)
Yeah, who's the idiot running NIH who allowed 15% or few fewer early stage investigators be funded in FY2025 compared to FY2024?
(Estimate: The official numbers are not yet available (at least publicly)
November 6, 2025 at 12:01 PM
Director Bhattacharya "Let's fund emerging investigators"
Yeah, who's the idiot running NIH who allowed 15% or few fewer early stage investigators be funded in FY2025 compared to FY2024?
(Estimate: The official numbers are not yet available (at least publicly)
Yeah, who's the idiot running NIH who allowed 15% or few fewer early stage investigators be funded in FY2025 compared to FY2024?
(Estimate: The official numbers are not yet available (at least publicly)
This paper is super cool and helps fundamentally answer a question that super fascinates me: what dictates Central Memory from Effector Memory responses?
Atomistic TCR-ligand interactions instruct memory T-cell differentiation https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.11.05.686789v1
November 7, 2025 at 12:19 AM
This paper is super cool and helps fundamentally answer a question that super fascinates me: what dictates Central Memory from Effector Memory responses?
Reposted by Zack Hilt
Harvard on brand: headlining an appearance in Nature without even telling us anything about the science
MCB Researchers Highlighted in Nature Publication Series 🧠 🧪🧬 #AcademicSky #higherEd
www.mcb.harvard.edu/department/n... @dulaclab.bsky.social @rachellegaudet.bsky.social @harvardbrainsci.bsky.social @nature.com @harriskaplan.bsky.social
www.mcb.harvard.edu/department/n... @dulaclab.bsky.social @rachellegaudet.bsky.social @harvardbrainsci.bsky.social @nature.com @harriskaplan.bsky.social
MCB Researchers Highlighted in Nature Publication Series - Harvard University - Department of Molecular & Cellular Biology
Researchers from the Brain Initiative Cell Census Network (BICCN) will release an extraordinary series of 16 manuscripts in Nature on November 5.. This collection, made possible by large […]
www.mcb.harvard.edu
November 6, 2025 at 1:38 AM
Harvard on brand: headlining an appearance in Nature without even telling us anything about the science
I recently recorded an Immunology Podcast called @audiommunity.org where I get to geek out on why Neonatal T cells are unique from Adult T cells. Please give them a listen and get the viewership up. Extra important to amplify the voice of real scientist and dampen all of the pseudoscience grifters.
The Tyranny of the FACS machine
In this episode Matt and Kevin welcome special guest Zach Hilt from the University of Toledo - we're talking neonatal Tregs!
audiommunity.org
November 6, 2025 at 5:00 PM
I recently recorded an Immunology Podcast called @audiommunity.org where I get to geek out on why Neonatal T cells are unique from Adult T cells. Please give them a listen and get the viewership up. Extra important to amplify the voice of real scientist and dampen all of the pseudoscience grifters.
Reposted by Zack Hilt
Nature suggests you use their "Manuscript Adviser" bot to get advice before submitting
I uploaded the classic Watson & Crick paper about DNA structure, and the Adviser had this to say about one of the greatest paper endings of the century:
I uploaded the classic Watson & Crick paper about DNA structure, and the Adviser had this to say about one of the greatest paper endings of the century:
November 3, 2025 at 1:55 PM
Nature suggests you use their "Manuscript Adviser" bot to get advice before submitting
I uploaded the classic Watson & Crick paper about DNA structure, and the Adviser had this to say about one of the greatest paper endings of the century:
I uploaded the classic Watson & Crick paper about DNA structure, and the Adviser had this to say about one of the greatest paper endings of the century:
I rather the Niners forfeit than ever play a game at the Meadowlands Stadium ever again.
The 49ers fear rookie defensive end Mykel Williams sustained an ACL injury in today's win, but they are hoping for the best
Kyle Shanahan shares 49ers are worried Mykel Williams sustained ACL injury in win vs. Giants
San Francisco 49ers rookie defensive end Mykel Williams left Sunday's game with a knee injury the team fears could be a torn ACL.
www.nbcsportsbayarea.com
November 2, 2025 at 11:43 PM
I rather the Niners forfeit than ever play a game at the Meadowlands Stadium ever again.
Reposted by Zack Hilt
🧪hey all, a friend and colleague, @maddoxfornc.bsky.social, is running for Congress in North Carolina. He is a scientist, professor, and parent, perspectives that are especially important right now. I hope you will support his run for Congress. Find out more here: www.maddoxforcongress.com/about/
Meet Paul Maddox
Paul Maddox is a world-renowned cancer researcher, two-time entrepreneur, and native son of Western North Carolina–and now, a candidate for U.S. Congress. ....
www.maddoxforcongress.com
October 30, 2025 at 7:26 PM
🧪hey all, a friend and colleague, @maddoxfornc.bsky.social, is running for Congress in North Carolina. He is a scientist, professor, and parent, perspectives that are especially important right now. I hope you will support his run for Congress. Find out more here: www.maddoxforcongress.com/about/
Reposted by Zack Hilt
Nearly half of those who receive SNAP benefits are employed. Most who don’t work are older adults, have disabilities, or are busy providing care for others. The impending loss of SNAP benefits is exposing what happens when employers aren’t paying workers a living wage.
October 29, 2025 at 10:05 AM
Nearly half of those who receive SNAP benefits are employed. Most who don’t work are older adults, have disabilities, or are busy providing care for others. The impending loss of SNAP benefits is exposing what happens when employers aren’t paying workers a living wage.
Reposted by Zack Hilt
Reposted by Zack Hilt
Swearing in isn’t some ceremony. You aren’t a member of Congress until it happens. He knows that.
No phones, no staff, nothing.
I had to escort her into the Capitol on Wed bc Capitol police must treat her as a public visitor until she’s sworn in. And solo visitors aren’t allowed during shutdown!
No phones, no staff, nothing.
I had to escort her into the Capitol on Wed bc Capitol police must treat her as a public visitor until she’s sworn in. And solo visitors aren’t allowed during shutdown!
Johnson: "Grijalva should be working for her constituents right now. I don't know what she's doing. I keep seeing their political stunt videos. She should be in her office. She should be working or in the district for her constituents" (Grijalva is not in fact a Rep. b/c Johnson refuses to seat her)
October 17, 2025 at 4:16 AM
Swearing in isn’t some ceremony. You aren’t a member of Congress until it happens. He knows that.
No phones, no staff, nothing.
I had to escort her into the Capitol on Wed bc Capitol police must treat her as a public visitor until she’s sworn in. And solo visitors aren’t allowed during shutdown!
No phones, no staff, nothing.
I had to escort her into the Capitol on Wed bc Capitol police must treat her as a public visitor until she’s sworn in. And solo visitors aren’t allowed during shutdown!