NEW: The NIH is quietly restricting funding for research that evaluates how public policy impacts human health. According to internal documents I obtained, the agency no longer considers policymakers "mission relevant" — a massive shift for the biomedical funder. My latest for @nature.com:

NIH limits funding for research on the health effects of public policy

US biomedical agency no longer considers policymakers as ‘mission relevant’, leaving dozens of grants in limbo.

nature.com

E-cigarette exposure triggers distal lung cell injury, persistent lung stress response, and anti-viral immune suppression @insight.jci.org @irinapetrache.bsky.social @nationaljewish.org insight.jci.org/articles/vie...

I like how the people angry at a text convo in which Dr. Fauci notes a theoretical concern for teratogenicity from fevers in pregnancy provoked by COVID vaccines (before we had human data showing this isn’t a concern) are also people who wanted to ban the use of acetaminophen in pregnancy

Vaccines are probably the most life-saving invention in history. For the past 75+ years, every effort has been toward making them *more* widely available. These rollbacks are senseless.

I feel like this entitles vaccine experts to decide on foreign policy and tariffs. I mean, it's all interchangeable, isn't it?

Dan Diamond@ddiamond.bsky.social · 6d ago

BREAKING — Trump is planning to sign an executive order today that calls for spacing out childhood vaccines, breaking the MMR into three separate shots and making other key vaccine changes. @lenasun.bsky.social @rachelroubein.bsky.social

Dr.Anthony Fauci is a good man who deserves a peaceful retirement for his many decades of hardwork and leadership. It is a disgrace he isn't being extended this bare minimum of grace.

A fun fact in case you have ever wondered about this like me: high homocysteine is bad (in part) because it can cyclize into homocysteine thiolactone (a γ-thiolactone), which is highly reactive and readily forms adducts with suitable nucleophiles especially amines (amides are hard to hydrolyze...

The first volunteer has been dosed with the world's first BDBV vaccine. www.ox.ac.uk/news/2026-07...

You know what's really useful in these conversations? Data. www.kff.org/public-opini...

The Atlantic@theatlantic.com · 3w ago

A lot of people in public health believe that MAHA is “nothing more than a subversive anti-vaccine, anti-science syndicate,” but the movement is an opportunity that the public-health sector “cannot afford to squander,” Craig Spencer argues:

Not to just jump on the bandwagon of dunking on AI but... today Open Evidence told me that IgM+ plasma cells don't display surface immunoglobulin and thus surface IgM cannot used for targeting them. This is untrue. I get that it is not feasible to verify everything, but if it matters, try.

A functional BCR in human IgA and IgM plasma cells

Key Points. IgA and IgM human plasma cells express a functional BCR on their cell surface and can therefore respond to antigenic stimulation.

ashpublications.org

From 2003 to 2024, the number of children 17-years and under killed by US law enforcement each year increased from 8 per year (0.01 per 100 000 person-years) to 37 per year (0.05 per 100 000 person-years), noticeably outpacing the significant increases in all annual deaths caused by law enforcement.

JAMA@jama.com · last mo.

From 2003 to 2024, deaths caused by law enforcement in the US rose among adults and children, with non-Hispanic Black males aged 18 to 29 years experiencing the highest rates each year. ja.ma/4vjmbCY

Why are lysosomal storage diseases?

@biorxivpreprint.bsky.social Weight loss increases adipose dendritic cells, non-classical antigen presenting proteins, and cytotoxic effector cells @heathercaslin.bsky.social www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6... @uhouston.bsky.social

When purine-nucleotide levels are low, PPAT remains active, enabling cells to produce more nucleotides. But when these levels rise, the nucleotides themselves drive assembly of the PPAT–NUDT5 complex, inhibiting PPAT and shutting down further production.'

Nucleotides act as ‘molecular glue’ and can sense their own abundance

Some nucleotides have been shown to control metabolism by ‘gluing’ proteins together. Could other small molecules made naturally by cells have similar capabilities?

nature.com

Autoantigen-specific Tr1 cells repair autoimmune demyelination by delivering amphiregulin to the oligodendrocyte epidermal growth factor receptor www.science.org/doi/10.1126/... @ucalgary.bsky.social

WATCH: When her son Chris was 7, Mary McGonigle-Martin gave him raw milk, as it promised to treat allergies and digestive problems. A month later, he fell gravely ill. Now 27, he’s still dealing with the effects of kidney damage and other health issues. This is their story.

Forgot this one. I’m curious why NYT thinks this kind of vile racism isn’t disqualifying for an op-ed writer. I imagine that if an author said something similarly vitriolic about, say, Lutherans, the NYT would face massive blowback for publishing them.

Interesting choice by NYT to publish an op-ed bemoaning America’s projected population decline by a guy who’s massively racist against immigrants and compares IVF to “Nazi eugenics.” The “pronatalists” only want more of a very specific kind of person in this country. It gives the game away.

Received a gift in the mail. It has a receipt. Under customer comments, it says "can you not include receipt. this is a gift." Life is funny

The Trump administration last year cut the CDC’s program that monitors food-borne illness outbreaks so they can intervene. In case you’re wondering why an outbreak of explosive diarrhea has sickened 2000 people but the CDC is only reporting 145 cases. www.cidrap.umn.edu/foodborne-di...

CDC cuts back foodborne illness surveillance program

cidrap.umn.edu

I am starting my term as President Elect of @nfidvaccines.bsky.social - #MedSky + #IDSky + #ObGynSky. And please plan on joining us for our annual gala and awards ceremony this October in conjunction with @idweek.bsky.social. www.nfid.org/nfid-announc...

NFID Announces 2026-2027 Board of Directors

NFID is pleased to announce the 2026-2027 NFID Board of Directors and leadership team.

nfid.org

45 years ago.

They’re not even trying to pretend any more This is what MAHA/MAGA wants The piece was written by Scott Atlas, Trump’s Covid czar—the dude who persuaded Trump to adopt the Great Barrington Declaration’s recommendation to end federal testing for COVID (if you don’t test, it just goes away 😳)

I just learned that if I am smiling, the Face ID on my phone thinks I’m a different person. Interesting.

Some (much needed) good news: @who.int just announced that the PARTNERS trial in the DRC has launched. They are enrolling patients now to test treatments against Bundibugyo, the virus causing the terrible Ebola outbreak there. 🧪 I wrote about the history and plans a few weeks ago in @science.org:

Can fast, nimble clinical trials deliver a drug for the new Ebola outbreak?

Past outbreaks spawned clever strategies for testing antivirals and antibodies, but researchers will still face major challenges on the ground

science.org

stop telling yourself you deserve a sensitive man you deserve a sensitive AND specific man

Hot off the preprint press: Longitudinal Bundibugyo Virus Glycoprotein Seroreactivity Following rVSVΔG-ZEBOV-GP (ERVEBO) Vaccination in Outbreak-Affected Populations of the Democratic Republic of the Congo A tireless effort from many teams and colleagues www.medrxiv.org/content/10.6...

Longitudinal Bundibugyo Virus Glycoprotein Seroreactivity Following rVSVΔG-ZEBOV-GP Vaccination in Outbreak-Affected Populations of the Democratic Republic of the Congo

Background: There are currently no vaccines approved for the prevention or treatment of Orthoebolavirus bundibugyoense (Bundibugyo virus; BDBV). The recombinant vesicular stomatitis virus- Zaire ebola...

medrxiv.org

Latest work from my lab, in which @amycrobes.bsky.social probes the evolutionary consequences of prophages potentiating death at otherwise sublethal antibiotic doses

Amy Zamora@amycrobes.bsky.social · 2mo ago

We're excited to share our work on how prophages influence the evolution of resistance against DNA-damaging antibiotics! This has been a fun project with @sianowen.bsky.social, @baym.lol, @theshreyaspai.bsky.social, @kepatitis-c.bsky.social, & @fernpizza.bsky.social biorxiv.org/content/10.6... 1/

"When I returned to my reality as a first-year medical student learning cardiopulmonary examinations and anatomy practicals, I recognized that my hearing had not returned with me." In #APieceofMyMind, a medical student details adjusting to unilateral #deafness. ja.ma/3QkNrCP

Disparate off rates drive the agonism and antagonism of antibodies targeting the inhibitory FcγR in humans, hFcγRIIB @cp-immunity.bsky.social @unisouthampton.bsky.social www.cell.com/immunity/ful...