A new PI level unlocked! The first PhD student in my lab defended today. Congratulations Dr. Natasha Roman Ortiz!
Julie Ostrander
@jostrander.bsky.social
Associate Professor of Medicine at the University of Minnesota.
This has been such an exciting collaborative project with the lab of @mjsikora.bsky.social! Stay tuned… more to come!
Matt Sikora@mjsikora.bsky.social · last yr.We did a thing w @jostrander.bsky.social! Over the last few years, we took a new direction into #lobular breast cancer oncogenesis. We know loss of the gene CDH1 (E-cadherin) is central to ILC, and is among its earliest oncogenic events. But why? How does this push normal breast toward cancer? 1/n
Congrats to Dr. Maggie Musick on her 1st lead-author study in the lab! This #lobular project with @jostrander.bsky.social has been so much fun over the last few years. Blue-torial soon, after a grant gets out the door this week 🫠
bioRxiv Cancer Bio@biorxiv-cancer.bsky.social · last yr.CDH1 loss remodels gene expression and lineage identity in human mammary epithelial cells https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.06.20.660633v1
ASSIGNMENT: COMMENT ON SCHEDULE F 1 week left to comment about Schedule F, potentially making NIH institute and center director essentially political appointees. www.regulations.gov/commenton/OP... 1/n
Regulations.gov
regulations.gov
NIH has terminated at least 565 previously awarded training grants, fellowships, and early career awards so far this year, and they've awarded 1,100 fewer new ones. That's ~1,600 fewer grants supporting new scientists than we'd have had if just a few thousand more folks voted for Harris over Trump.
My daughter’s speech therapist went out of business because Medicaid reimbursement rates were too low. We do not have Medicaid. I’m going to keep posting this until people understand that when Medicaid gets cut *everyone* loses services.
please tell your letter-writers if you get the job/award!
My new piece in @rollingstone.com : “Our democracy is made up of reciprocal ties between and among all of us, and AmeriCorps strengthens these ties. We will all feel the loss of AmeriCorps...and our democracy will pay the price.” www.rollingstone.com/politics/pol...
The notice and COMMENT PERIOD OPENED TODAY AND CLOSES MAY 23. Anyone who would like to register an objection or comment should go to this page and click on the green “public comment” button at the top: www.federalregister.gov/documents/20... 6/n
Improving Performance, Accountability and Responsiveness in the Civil Service
The Office of Personnel Management (OPM) is proposing a rule to increase career employee accountability. Agency supervisors report great difficulty removing employees for poor performance or misconduc...
federalregister.gov
Please take a moment to read and sign this excellent letter. Over 3,500 signature so far!
We Are Higher Ed@wearehighered.bsky.social · last yr.Sen. Cory Booker urged us all to get in some good trouble. We're here to help with that. Sign our letter and find resources at wearehighered.org docs.google.com/document/d/1...
Analysis of Terminated NIH Grants with Word Clouds First, using the titles of grants not to Columbia... Gender and DEI predominate
Trump has cut the NIH budget by more than half in defiance of Congressionally mandated appropriations for the agency. No comparison historically, not even the Great Recession. This is clearly not legal and Congress needs to address it.
Review quality also maintained because rejection rate was similar among Fast & Fair vs conventional peer review...and Biology Open now publish all reviews, so readers can see for themselves
Nikolai Slavov@slavov-n.bsky.social · last yr.Can peer review be sped up ? All manuscripts from a pilot study received reviews & first decisions within 7 business days. The mean turnaround was 4.6 business days (n=20 manuscripts). Review quality was maintained according to the academic editors. www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
We are excited to be launching the next phase of our Fast & Fair peer review initiative: offering high-quality peer review within 7 working days. #fastandfairpeerreview Read the Editorial by EiC Daniel Gorelick @danielgorelick.bsky.social at: bit.ly/4kYD1mL
Providing every child access to a high quality education is the most important thing we can do to protect our future. An educated workforce drives the economy, scientific innovation and secures our countries place as a world leader. Eliminating the #doe will hurt all of us. #departmentofeducation
The general vibe we are getting across #NIH institutes is deeply bleak — that the agency is nearly, if not already dead. Top people are leaving or have left. Nearly everyone's looking for other jobs. People still care about what NIH was, but are growing resigned to its death. 1/
Still wrapping my head around 57% cut to CDMRP (cdmrp.health.mil) funding in CR. CDMRP funds some of the most innovative high-risk/high-reward research in biomedical science, and in it all, includes patient advocates. BEFORE the cut, the breast cancer program funded 3-5% of proposals. What now?
cdmrp.health.mil
@amyklobuchar.com please don't vote for this CR as it is!!
Julie Ostrander@jostrander.bsky.social · last yr.If anyone is wondering why the republican's CR is worse than a government shutdown... The illegal spending cuts they have instituted in the last 2 months will become legal. There will be no recourse in the courts. Dems need to at least TRY and fight and negotiate! Call your SENATORS!
If anyone is wondering why the republican's CR is worse than a government shutdown... The illegal spending cuts they have instituted in the last 2 months will become legal. There will be no recourse in the courts. Dems need to at least TRY and fight and negotiate! Call your SENATORS!
The House Continuing Resolution budget “adjustments” for NIH are drastic. Here are some examples:
Please call your Congressmen today to tell them that you support children's cancer research and not to cut Dept of Defense CDMRP funding for cancer research. Vote No on the job-killing, kid-killing Continuing Resolution (CR) tomorrow. Also breast cancer, prostate cancer, Parkinson’s research, etc.
Because one of the hats I wear is 'researcher with expertise in milk, lactation, & breastfeeding' I encounter folks who think breastfeeding is more important than vaccination... Yes, I am about to launch a
a man in a suit and tie is saying `` chaos grenade '' while standing in an office .
Alt: a man in a suit and tie is saying `` chaos grenade '' while standing in an office pretending to throw said grenade.
media.tenor.com
Stand up for Science at the MN Capital. Lots of great speakers talking about the impact of the current administration on scientific and medical research, public health, the environment, and DEI. @drnegillis.bsky.social @standupforscience.bsky.social
@docfanning.bsky.social at UMN today telling us about his work on ER structure and Dickkopf-1. My personal favorite was the cameo appearance of PELP1. Great talk Sean!
About $74 million in US govt funding (including NIH) went into developing enzalutamide - a multibillion dollar drug that prolonged life for countless men with prostate cancer. Why would anyone cut this support? We need more, not less! @ascocancer.bsky.social @theaacr.bsky.social
New York Times article now up on Federal Register stuff. www.nytimes.com/2025/02/21/s... 1/n
Trump Administration Stalls Scientific Research Despite Court Ruling (Gift Article)
Using an arcane law, officials have effectively delayed funding from the National Institutes of Health, leaving medical studies in jeopardy.
nytimes.com
