Kara Maxwell MD PhD
@karanoelle.bsky.social
Physician scientist in cancer genetics. PI of a lab at Penn Medicine and Philly VA. Cancer genetics doc at same. Mom of two teens. LGBTQIA+ ally and proud Mom of trans son. Roller skater and roller derby lover. Opinions are my own.
Somatic tumor next-generation sequencing in US veterans with metastatic prostate cancer ft. Heena Desai, Ryan Hausler & @karanoelle.bsky.social (@penncancer.bsky.social/ @VAPhiladelphia) https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamanetworkopen/fullarticle/2833847
No question things are bad. But - a ray of hope - I got a notice of funding for an FY24 DOD grant. The CDRMP program sites were all down until this week.
Off duty LLMs to decide if "physician" is a necessary job title. www.nbcnews.com/politics/dog...
DOGE will use AI to assess the responses of federal workers who were told to justify their jobs via email
The revelation comes as federal workers face a midnight deadline to respond.
nbcnews.com
Heartbroken. This is a government website. Why does my child's authentic self and what he does with his body anger so many people? womenshealth.gov/protecting-w...
Off duty. Every day in science now is like a year. This helps keep track. www.science.org/content/arti...
Welcome to Trump Tracker: Probationary workers at health agencies being fired today
Follow President Donald Trump’s impact on U.S. research and science globally
science.org
Loved this post from a postdoc who lived through the Bolsonaro years in Brazil: "The best 'fuck you' to fascists? Thriving. Publish that paper. Build that collaboration. Laugh with labmates. Science outlives dictators—but only if we stay in the fight." www.reddit.com/r/labrats/co...
Indirects fund 412,000 staff at universities - all the "unnecessary funding" pays all the hardworking people who take a low salary (comparatively) because they believe in academic research. The cuts will decimate two-thirds of those jobs. www.nytimes.com/2025/02/07/u...
Trump Administration Cuts Put Medical Progress at Risk, Researchers Say
Grants from the National Institutes of Health come with additional money for overhead. A planned $4 billion cut would leave colleges with large budget gaps.
nytimes.com
Good explanatory thread of why every scientist and all medical schools, graduate schools, and universities in the US are freaking out.
Carl T. Bergstrom@carlbergstrom.com · 2y ago1. 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...
Harvard’s explainer is good. “F&A Cost Rates: After World War II when the federal government initiated a close partnership with universities in pursuit of the research enterprise, recognition was given to the infrastructure costs needed to support this expensive endeavor…”
This is devastating. Universities need the indirects to keep the lights on in research labs. The directs barely pay the people and science.
indirects.to
Alt NIH Bluesky 🧪@altnih4science.bsky.social · 2y ago🚨RED ALERT for 🧪: The Trump NIH just gashed indirect costs. This is a direct attack on universities. “Pursuant to this Supplemental Guidance, there will be a standard rate of 15% across all NIH grants for indirect costs.” 😮 Just a devastating Friday night news dump. #scicomm #academicaky
R01 #2 made it in with 7 minutes to spare. After scrubbing it for all indication of diversity or how I use genetics to improve disparities....😔
My last R01 submitted Oct 5th has a study section date! However, having nightmares about some AI bot finding the statement in my Innovation secion that the goal of this project is to "advance health equity and reduce disparities in prostate cancer" and tossing it to "ND".
R01 #1 for the Feb 2025 cycle submitted to NIH. #2 is going to go right up to the deadline but I've got to do it. Let's hope this news of study sections restarting is real!!!!
Anyone else Google CDMRP prostate cancer research program or any of the others? You get a hit but then you click on it... It's gone. Ebrap just there to taunt. If anyone thought cancer research wouldn't take a hit, think again....
On caring for a liver transplant patient: “worst day of my medical career,” because he knew a $50 vaccine could have prevented her fate. “Your past of undermining confidence in vaccines with unfounded or misleading arguments concerns me,” Mr. Cassidy said.
My career is based on government research funding yet I've never watched the HHS secretary confirmation hearings so closely. Yes that problem is due to the President. But we as scientists need to examine why we can't convince half the country that their health is better due to government funding.
Nobel laureates urge US Senate to reject Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s nomination Seventy-seven Nobel Prize winners sign letter stating Trump’s DHHS pick will put US public health ‘in jeopardy.’ www.theguardian.com/us-news/2024...
Nobel laureates urge US Senate to reject Robert F Kennedy Jr’s nomination
Seventy-seven prize winners sign letter arguing Trump’s DHHS pick will put US public health ‘in jeopardy’
theguardian.com
1 / 2 Since I am not currently on duty at the VA, I can say with no commentary the fact that I am no longer allowed to speak about my VA research publicly or travel on VA time.
All federal grants and loan disbursement paused by White House | CNN Politics search.app/txcoEUWLNRqn...
All federal grants and loan disbursement paused by White House | CNN Politics
The White House budget office has ordered a pause on all federal grants and loans, according to an internal memorandum sent Monday.
search.app
This is a free, searchable database of all kinds of doctors, medical professionals and healthcare providers who are knowledgeable and sensitive to the unique health needs of LGBTQ+ people in the USA and Canada. lgbtqhealthcaredirectory.org/about-us
About Us - LGBTQ+ Healthcare Directory
The LGBTQ+ Healthcare Directory is a free, searchable database helping LGBTQ+ people to find friendly and affirming doctors, medical professionals and healthcare providers.
lgbtqhealthcaredirectory.org
My sincere hope for Super Bowl LIX is that Kevin Hart gets s#$&-faced and moons T Swift after the Eagles wipe the floor with the Chiefs.
Hiring freeze not supposed to affect Veterans healthcare? Well it is and it will, and Collins doesn't really seem to care. www.veterans.senate.gov/2025/1/video...
Video: Blumenthal to Collins on Trump's VA Hiring Freeze: This will be Your First Test
Committee’s top Democrat pressed Collins to push back against proposals harmful to veterans, including a hiring freeze on critical VA health care positions already facing shortages
veterans.senate.gov
Today, study sections to review NIH grants are being cancelled as the NIH is not allowed to communicate - ie review research grants (and therefore anyone to get grants), post new grants, and all the researchers there cannot publish or present, they can't even travel.
Federal hiring freeze led to multiple new offers of research appointments (including unpaid positions for students) on my and every VA researchers' teams to be rescinded. If continues I will be unable to pay academic staff on VA research grants conpletely disabling my research program.
Email from VA Secretary tonight - all DEI must stop - part of the email "These [DEI] programs divided America by race, wasted taxpayer dollars and resulted in shameful discrimination." Just devastated.
