Don't be shy to take on a little two-week side project. These five months will be the most precious three years of your academic journey.

Congrats to the newest PhD from the @siegenthalerlab.bsky.social, Dr. Sophia Kim! Beautiful thesis document & presentation! 🧠🦠🔬🎉 Sophia's thesis work on arachnoid barrier breakdown in meningitis is on bioRxiv - check it out! www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...

🚨 New preprint from our lab led by Sophia Kim w/ @kellydoran.bsky.social group @cuanschutz.bsky.social -- using neonatal 🐭 model of bacterial meningitis ➡️ arachnoid barrier is leaky, Cldn11 junctions are disrupted & cytokines are part of the problem. Lots of 🤩🧠🦠🔬 & compelling data, check it out! 1/5

Conserved cellular architecture and developmental mechanisms of the zebrafish https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.02.14.703877v1

Excited to share my final postdoc project published. We looked into the striking amyloidosis of important brain waste clearance sites (bridging veins) in mouse and human. A great collaborative project with Rupal Mehta at Rush who did all the human studies. Thanks to everyone who contributed!

Waggoner Lab@labwaggoner.bsky.social · 9mo ago

Amyloidosis of bridging veins is a pathologic feature of Alzheimer’s disease @jem.org @jonykipnis.bsky.social @leonsmyth.bsky.social @washumedicine.bsky.social rupress.org/jem/article-...

Postnatal Cerebral Perivascular Fibroblast #SciArt Fibroblast PDGFRα KO🐭(P0) 👉⏬Perivascular Fibroblast & Perivascular Mφ coverage of penetrating vessels (P10) 👉↔️SMC/Astrocyte coverage @hejcell.bsky.social @siegenthalerlab.bsky.social @devbiol.bsky.social 2025 www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

& a great time to share a life update! (better late than never) I’ve recently started as a Postdoc in the Wills lab at University of Washington where I’ll be studying the role of fibroblasts during regeneration in Xenopus 🐸🧠 On my way to becoming a frog wrangler @frogwranglers.bsky.social

Siegenthaler Lab@siegenthalerlab.bsky.social · 10mo ago

Congrats to Hannah @hejcell.bsky.social on the last of FOUR 1st author papers from her thesis work & short postdoc in the @siegenthalerlab.bsky.social - excited for all your future discoveries in the Wills Lab! 🐸 🧠

Thrilled to share this last little bit of my thesis work w/ @siegenthalerlab.bsky.social! 🐭🧠 Generating the PDGFRa cKO line we use in this paper was no trivial task, spanning multiple years (& a pandemic!) We were extremely excited to see this phenotype & even more excited to share it with everyone!

Siegenthaler Lab@siegenthalerlab.bsky.social · 10mo ago

Our work out in @devbiol.bsky.social, PDGFra is needed for 🧠 perivascular fibroblast development... ⬇️ perivascular fibroblast = ⬇️ perivascular macrophage...cross-talk? 👀 Led by Hannah Jones @hejcell.bsky.social w/ Kelsey Abrams, Sophia Kim, excited for more projects w/ @fantauzzolab.bsky.social!

Our work out in @devbiol.bsky.social, PDGFra is needed for 🧠 perivascular fibroblast development... ⬇️ perivascular fibroblast = ⬇️ perivascular macrophage...cross-talk? 👀 Led by Hannah Jones @hejcell.bsky.social w/ Kelsey Abrams, Sophia Kim, excited for more projects w/ @fantauzzolab.bsky.social!

Baptiste Lacoste@blacoste.bsky.social · 10mo ago

PDGFRα is required for postnatal cerebral perivascular fibroblast development. Congrats @siegenthalerlab.bsky.social ! #cerebrovascular #fibroblasts #development

SAVE THE DATE! Stoked to organize the 2026 Santa Cruz Developmental Biology Meeting with @rashmi-priya.bsky.social, @lowelab.bsky.social, and Shelbi Russell. Come learn about Biomedicine, Biomechanics, and the Biosphere, August 24-28, 2026. Registration dates, etc., coming soon! Please RT

"If we lose hope, we're doomed." We must continue Dr. Jane Goodall's mission and all fight for the future of the planet.

PhD Timeline xkcd.com/3081

@cshlmeetings.bsky.social Brain Barriers 2025 is a wrap! It was an honor to co-organize this meeting in 2023 & 2025, a highlight of my scientific career. I am amazed by all the great science presented by these awesome scientists over the last five days...the future of CNS barrier biology is 🤩 💫!

🚨 A new Daneman Lab preprint!! 🚨 Reid Larsen, one of the brightest scientists I know, studied the BBB glycocalyx, identified its structure, composition, and function and uncovered what makes the CNS glycocalyx unique. It was a true pleasure to be a part of this seminal study! shorturl.at/Wkhxr

Multi-omic analysis reveals the unique glycan landscape of the blood-brain barrier glycocalyx

The blood-brain barrier (BBB) glycocalyx is the dense layer of glycans and glycoconjugates that coats the luminal surface of the central nervous system (CNS) vasculature. Despite being the first point...

biorxiv.org

I was imaging this weekend, took this image because it was beautiful to me, the blood vessels, fibroblasts, astrocytes, & macrophages as steadfast guardians at the brain's edges. Cheers to the 'guardians' of all that is important. ❤️

More white coats, less white robes! @eddpasquier.bsky.social #standupforscience #standupforscience2025

we’re standing up for science tomorrow! Made some signs tonight with Denver @standupforscience.bsky.social organizers ❤️🧬🔬🥼

"downsizes" is a weak way of saying "forced to cancel dozens of programs, which jeopardizes future STEM careers of talented undergrads" @science.org www.science.org/content/arti...

NSF downsizes summer research program for undergraduates

Many participants are from groups underrepresented in science

science.org

"Memoli had no choice, he insisted: He was following the direction of three HHS officials—Dorothy Fink, then the acting secretary; Heather Flick Melanson, chief of staff; and Hannah Anderson, deputy chief of staff of policy—who told him, in no uncertain terms, that the pause was to continue..." /1

Inside the Collapse at the NIH

Administration officials pressured the NIH to avoid clear advice from the agency’s own lawyers to restart grant funding now.

theatlantic.com

A small museum says all but one sponsor of a Girls in STEM event backed out, fearing retaliation from the Trump administration over "DEI." Evan Kruegel reports for @nexton9news.bsky.social. www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zg1n...

Sponsors pull out of 'Girls in Science' event at Colorado children’s museum following DEI cuts

YouTube video by Next 9NEWS

youtube.com

Join us! Science Homecoming helps scientists reconnect with communities by writing about the importance of science funding in their hometown newspapers. We’ve mapped every small newspaper in the U.S. and provide resources to get you started. Help science get back home 🧪🔬🧬 🏠 sciencehomecoming.com

Maybe I wasn’t clear about this. I wanted more egg and no plane crash, not many plane crash and no egg.

“It’s really an elaborate infrastructure that’s required to do this research. One of the things that concerns me is the magnitude and rapidity of these changes.” VC for Research Tom Flaig, MD, recently spoke to @cbsnews.com about the potential impact the proposed NIH cuts could have on our campus.

Colorado's large medical research community deals with attempts to cut federal funding

Colorado's medical research community is looking at how to handle the potential of cuts to research grant money that it receives from the National Institutes of Health.

cbsnews.com

On International Day of Women and Girls in Science, a reminder to not close your eyes and turn away from what is happening in the US right now. Fascism is an assault on scientific integrity, knowledge, and innovation. www.chron.com/news/space/a...

NASA to wipe mentions of women, Indigenous people from websites

NASA employees told to remove mentions of women, indigenous people, and environmental justice from websites.

chron.com

March for science? AAUP & other unions are working on action plans and messaging around NIH, DEI, and other slashes Feb 13: National call in 8PM (below) Feb 19: National day of action on campuses (details soon) Feb 25: National Action & Press Conference in DC (details soon) @aaup.bsky.social

Higher Education Labor United (HELU)@higheredlabor.bsky.social · 2y ago

How can we respond to the onslaught of attacks on higher ed? Feb 13 at 8pm ET/7pm CT/6pm MT/5pm PT: workers & allies from around the US will come together in a national strategy call. Register: us06web.zoom.us/webinar/regi... @uaw.org @aftunion.bsky.social @cwaunion.bsky.social @aaup.bsky.social

I have not seen a crisis of this magnitude since yesterday

1. Today the NIH director issued a new directive slashing overhead rates to 15%. I want to provide some context on what that means and why it matters. grants.nih.gov/grants/guide...

The number of people surprised by the long list of words NSF is targeting makes me think many of you all have not seen this: www.commerce.senate.gov/services/fil...