Jenna Christensen
@christensenlab.bsky.social
PI of the Christensen Lab at Northwestern University, Molecular Biosciences Department. Studying intracellular transport diversity across fungi and other organisms - thechristensenlab.com
Hooray @sadiewignall.bsky.social !!!!!!!
American Society for Cell Biology@ascbiology.bsky.social · 2d agoCongratulations to the 2026 ASCB Fellows! ASCB is proud to recognize 15 scientists whose careers have advanced cell biology through outstanding research, leadership, mentorship & service. Meet the 2026 Fellows: https://www.ascb.org/society-news/fifteen-visionary-scientists-named-2026-ascb-fellows/
Our latest review is out. We take a deep dive into the human mutations in microtubule motors that drive devastating neurodevelopmental and neurodegenerative diseases. Taking in motor protein biophysics, animal models of disease as well as patient phenotypes. onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10....
OMB must answer substantive comments. It can batch and dismiss form letters. So make yours impossible to average away: "[200.340] I'm in year 3 of a 5-year PhD funded by an R01. This rule means my advisor's grant can end before I defend." One section. One fact. One consequence.
Make some noise about this 🧪 www.npr.org/2026/06/03/n...
President Trump seeks control of science funding
The White House Office of Management and Budget is moving to take more control of billions of dollars in federal grants. Critics say the proposed change would jeopardize the integrity of U.S. science.
npr.org
Really happy to share our latest work on the dynactin complex. We were so surprised to find that overexpression of dynactin p50 causes part of the dynactin complex to form clusters that contain our recently discovered dynactin assembly factor VezA/vezatin. www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...
Aga Kendrick and I are co-chairing a session, “Intracellular Transport Logistics across Scales” at #CellBio2026, December 12-16, in San Diego this year! 🔬🌞 Abstract deadline for talks is JUNE 9. To be considered for our session, select “Cytoskeleton and Motility” as a topic area. See you there!
Congratulations to IBiS Preceptor Dr. Keara Lane for receiving a prestigious NSF CAREER award! news.northwestern.edu/stories/2026...
Promising young researchers receive NSF CAREER awards
Grants recognize individuals who exemplify the role of teacher-scholar
news.northwestern.edu
Happy to share that the bulk of my PhD work is now on bioRxiv! We followed SsdA, the A. nidulans ortholog of yeast RNA-binding protein Ssd1, and found it forms motile mRNP puncta in hyphae. [1/7] www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...
Federal Policy Changes and Career Stability Among NIH K-Award Recipients Among NIH K-award recipients, 96% perceived recent federal policy changes as negatively affecting research career stability; 18% report being much less likely to continue research vs 1 year ago jamanetwork.com/journals/jam...
Federal Policy Changes and Career Stability Among NIH K-Award Recipients
This cross-sectional study uses survey data to evaluate how National Institutes of Health (NIH) K awardees perceive the effects of federal policy on research career stability and intentions to pursue ...
jamanetwork.com
From MBoC… Cells move cargo in clever ways. John Salogiannis (University of Vermont) reveals how the protein AcbdA helps peroxisomes hitchhike on early endosomes—connecting intracellular transport with fatty acid metabolism. www.molbiolcell.org/doi/full/10....
The Leading Edge Fellows gathered this week to celebrate Zara Weinberg, a beloved member of our community. Our 7th cohort of Leading Edge Fellows (2026) will be named in her honor. The Zara Weinberg Leading Edge Cohort application is now open! Due Feb 2. www.leadingedgesymposium.org/apply/
Zara Weinberg passed away earlier this week. She joined my lab earlier this year when her postdoc lab formally closed. She was a brilliant scientist, supportive mentor, dear friend, avid music fan, rabid believer in public transit, open science champion, and above all just an amazing human.
🚨 SCOTUS just issued a decision in the NIH grant termination cases. And it's awful. In plain English, the likely result of this is that SCOTUS just re-terminated ~900 NIH grants worth over $1.9 billion in unspent funds This is an atrocious decision by Justice Barrett & the right wing of the Court.
Steve Vladeck@stevevladeck.bsky.social · 12mo agoSplitting 5-4 (with Chief Justice Roberts joining the three Democratic appointees in dissent), #SCOTUS grants *partial* stay to Trump administration in NIH funding case; holds that challenges to grant terminations (but *not* the underlying guidance) need to be filed in the Court of Federal Claims:
I NEED to tell you the story of Tae Heung “William” Kim. He's a graduate student at Texas A&M where he's working on a vaccine for Lyme disease. He's a *legal permanent resident* of the United States. And he's been in ICE detention for 12 days & counting, transferred Tuesday to South Texas.
As stressful as it is to run a laboratory in the US right now, my thoughts are often with the NIH staff living in the awful chaos trying to preserve the whole enterprise. I’m grateful for every moment they choose not to give up. These people are the only thing keeping it from entirely collapsing.
My second NCR was awarded, one day early. NIH staff must be working around the clock to push funding out. Let's thank our POs and SROs and all NIH staff for working selflessly to keep science progressing in this sh*tshow.
Jeremy Berg@jeremymberg.bsky.social · last yr.Here is the graph for non-competitive renewals. After slowing, the rate for FY2025 is picking up slightly but still lags behind that for FY2024. 3/n
Jenna Christensen, molecular biologist and Missouri native, writes: “The message that this sends to young people is clear – science is not a stable career.” Cuts to federal research risk losing the next generation of scientists.🧪🏠 @christensenlab.bsky.social www.mycouriertribune.com/cuts-to-scie...
Cuts to science funding jeopardize next generation of scientists - Courier-Tribune
My research advisor Tara Allen helped me apply for summer research programs funded by the National Science Foundation (NSF), where I got my first taste of scientific research by working full-time in a...
mycouriertribune.com
This perspective highlights why federal research opportunities (e.g. NSF REU internships, NSF GRFP fellowships and grant-supported technician positions) were fundamental for me to advance in the academic research ranks. Without them, I wouldn’t have been able to afford to become a scientist #saveNSF
Thiago Carvalho@cyrilpedia.bsky.social · last yr.'The myth of meritocracy in science collapses under the financial sacrifices expected at every career stage. From unpaid internships and self-funded conferences to underpaid graduate and postdoctoral positions, the hidden costs of ‘doing science’ are profound.' journals.plos.org/plosbiology/...
Every academic has an angel on one shoulder saying "wow this is a brilliant proposal" and a devil on the other saying "yea, no this is crap". The devil likes to be particularly loud...
This is exactly what I was describing yesterday. So much very questionable verbal guidance. If you get a verbal order that you believe is illegal or unethical, don’t act on it. Instead, summarize it by email back to the person who spoke it to you and ask for confirmation.
Jay, please stop gaslighting early career researchers.
Today I’m leading 152 House Democrats in challenging Trump's devastating cuts to life-saving NIH research grants. Congress—not Trump—controls federal spending. Trump must do his job, “faithfully execute” the laws and stop violating the Constitution to undercut public health.
BREAKING: A federal judge in Massachusetts (the Reagan-appointed William Young) has declared the Trump administration's cuts to NIH grants — ostensibly over Trump's EOs on gender ideology and DEI — are "illegal" and "void." He's ordering many grants restored.
The Trump administration’s freezing in April of $790 million in federal research funding for Northwestern University has left concerned lab directors without key grant money from the National Institutes of Health.
Worried Northwestern lab directors describe ‘bleak’ atmosphere in wake of Trump research funding freeze
The Trump administration’s freezing of $790 million in federal research funding for Northwestern University has left concerned lab directors without key grants and forced the university to spend mi…
chicagotribune.com
Proud to be a signatory on this letter in support of the courageous staff at the NIH who penned the Bethesda Declaration to decry the ongoing politicization and damage to the US biomedical research infrastructure which has been the envy of the world.
Jeremy Berg@jeremymberg.bsky.social · last yr.I wanted to show support for these brave public servants and to allow others, including the scientific community, to join me. In partnership with @standupforscience.bsky.social, we have a way for you to do that... www.standupforscience.net/bethesda-dec...
How is this supposed to happen when institutional training grants are being terminated and delayed, fewer individual fellowships are being funded and the directorate that funds STEM education is being dismantled? It is so disappointing to see this doublespeak from scientific leaders
Eos@eos.org · last yr.The fourth point in McNutt’s action plan is to build the U.S. domestic science workforce. That means seriously rethinking pathways for STEM students to enter industry roles, she said.
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.
My mom, who was diagnosed with lymphoma in 2000, passed away Friday at the age of 93. She took a chemo regimen called R-CHOP, which allowed her to celebrate 5 more birthdays and hold her great-grandchild. Thank you to scientists giving us those extra years with her. #ThanksNIH
