The Trump Administration’s racist science policies have achieved some of their goals. The number of Black Principal Investigators has dropped by 10% between 2024 and 2025; while the number of Hispanic PIs has fallen by 7%. For research trainees, the numbers are far worse.

Trends in NIH Investigators by Sex, Race, Ethnicity, and Disability Status

This cross-sectional study assesses National Institutes of Health (NIH) data from fiscal years 2016-2025 comprising annual counts of principal investigators funded through research grants and fellowsh...

jamanetwork.com

NIH funding is back in limbo, and it’s a mess. Between a 90% drop in new funding notices and White House spending blocks, only about 800 new awards have been made, less than a third of the usual rate. If these "spend plans" don't clear soon, we’re looking at a major gap in biomedical research.

Delays in awards and funding calls worry NIH-funded researchers

Many programs may be pushed into the next fiscal year, and some could face funding gaps

science.org

A long overdue reckoning for Henrietta Lacks — the Black woman whose cancer cells led to breakthroughs but were harvested without her consent. Novartis has settled a lawsuit by Lacks’ estate that alleged the pharmaceutical giant profited off her cells. https://bit.ly/3NgCeBs

Henrietta Lacks' Family Reaches Settlement in Fight Over Her Stolen Cells

Details of the Novartis agreement aren't public, but the family says it is pleased with the outcome.

capitalbnews.org

Some exciting news! NCBI has finished the annotation pipeline for our new #zebrafish reference sequence GRCz12tu: www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/refseq/annot... This is a big step up in data depth and quality and should be super helpful going forward.

A dresser inside a museum in New York City has been discovered as a secret stop on the Underground Railroad — the first of its kind discovered in Manhattan in over 100 years

In the aftermath of a global pandemic, and in the midst of two major public health crises (the ongoing measles and bird flu outbreaks), the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services announces that it is cutting 20,000 full-time jobs. www.npr.org/sections/sho...

The Trump administration restructures federal health agencies, cuts 20,000 jobs

The reduction in force comes along with a reorganization of the Department of Health and Human Services, consolidating 28 divisions to 15.

npr.org

Today I lost an NIH grant training clinicians to do research about intimate partner violence with perinatal women. More women are murdered in the perinatal period than die of obstetric complications. I didn't just lose a grant. We lost an entire cohort of people building careers to prevent that.

Who funds biomedical research? @nature.com www.nature.com/articles/d41...

I'm excited to share that we have a new paper out! This is a review about a #RareDisease. We propose that #TBCK Syndrome, #PPP1R21 related intellectual disability, and #FERRY3 intellectual disability, all rare disease, may constitute a new disease class. (1/4) journals.biologists.com/bio/article/...

Neurogenetic disorders associated with mutations in the FERRY complex: a novel disease class?

Summary: This Review provides a summary of cellular and molecular data about TBCK, PPP1R21, and FERRY3, components of the FERRY complex, and compares clinical symptoms observed upon their mutation.

journals.biologists.com

"This is direct censorship of scientific research.”

Jacek Debiec, MD, PhD, DPhil 🌎 🧠@drjacekdebiec.bsky.social · last yr.

"In an unprecedented move, the US National Institutes of Health (NIH) has begun mass terminations of research grants that fund active scientific projects [Studies that touch on LGBT+ health, gender identity, and DEI ] because they no longer meet 'agency priorities'..." www.nature.com/articles/d41...

US President Donald Trump is taking a wrecking ball to science and to international institutions. The global research community must take a stand against these attacks. https://go.nature.com/4kd1vIu

Trump 2.0: an assault on science anywhere is an assault on science everywhere

US President Donald Trump is taking a wrecking ball to science and to international institutions. The global research community must take a stand against these attacks.

go.nature.com

"I promise, America will soon be the Cybertruck of countries—uglier than you could have imagined, built for rich chuds, borderline inoperable, and on fire."

Here at DOGE, We’ve Streamlined Every Aspect of America’s Collapse

"Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent gave representatives of the so-called Department of Government Efficiency access to the federal payment system la...

buff.ly

Hi all, I am in contact with a reporter at Science magazine who would like to talk with a trainee or mentor who successfully applied for an equity/DEI-related NIH training grant or a training supplement but have not received the Notice of Award and probably won't get the grant.

Reminder that @europepmc.org is a mirror of Pubmed with better search and that it indexes *all* bioRxiv preprints (as well as ResearchSquare), not just the ones funded by NIH like chauvinist Pubmed

Prasad Jallepalli, MD, PhD@prasad.bsky.social · 2y ago

I’m very scared to see what happens to PubMed

Hope this is real.

Alt NIH Bluesky 🧪@altnih4science.bsky.social · 2y ago

This account is for sharing info with US scientists, both extramural and intramural to NIH, about attacks on science in the US. Education is power, and we can help advocate for science and medicine together. 💪🧪 We are a team of NIH people. Please ask us questions you might have.

🚨PIs of Training Grants and Programs, ESPECIALLY training grants that support students from historically excluded groups (T32s and T34s, IMSD, MARC, PREP, MOSAIC, etc.)🚨 We need to push back on the loss of information and the disappearance of websites about these resources.

Can someone please explain to me the legal basis for dismantling DEI programs? I get that the Supreme Court ruled against using race-based affirmative action for Higher Ed admissions but, if you take race out of the equation, does that make every program that mentions DEI ‘illegal’?

🧪👩🏽‍🔬👩‍🔬👩🏻‍🔬👩🏼‍🔬👩🏾‍🔬👩🏿‍🔬

Dr. Sue Ishaq@drsueishaq.bsky.social · 2y ago

The L’Oréal USA For Women in Science program awards women postdoctoral scientists. Candidates must have their PhD, started their postdoctoral research position, and be a U.S. citizen or permanent resident. Applications due 5:00pm ET on Friday, February 14. www.loreal.com/en/usa/pages...

Once again, this administration reveals how it stands in the way of scientific progress and process: Preprints enable scientists to communicate their science more rapidly and widely. 🧪

Richard Sever@richardsever.bsky.social · 2y ago

NIH staff told they can submit papers to journals but not preprints. "a short pause to allow the new team to set up a process for review and prioritization" <- review by whom...? www.science.org/content/arti... ht @philipncohen.com 1/2

This looks awesome! I hope people will use it in combination with @adrienjouary.bsky.social 's megabouts.ai, which can lower the time resolution needed for bout identification, helping to enable low cost experimental set-ups.

What’s up with Downes?@gbdownes.bsky.social · 2y ago

I'm thrilled to announce that our paper describing Marigold, a free machine learning-based webapp for zebrafish behavioral analysis, is officially published! Marigold features a user friendly graphical user interface to enable training of a neural network for analyzing behavioral recordings.

I'm thrilled to announce that our paper describing Marigold, a free machine learning-based webapp for zebrafish behavioral analysis, is officially published! Marigold features a user friendly graphical user interface to enable training of a neural network for analyzing behavioral recordings.

On the migration of the scientific community to Bluesky: www.nature.com/articles/d41... 🧪

Bluesky’s science takeover: 70% of Nature poll respondents use platform

Roughly 6,000 readers answered our poll, with many declaring that Bluesky was nicer, kinder and less antagonistic to science than X.

nature.com

I’m an NSF panel reviewer that was scheduled to meet today. Just got notice that all NSF panels were canceled today. I reviewed some innovative proposals in support of students. Devastating if these scholars don’t get to do this work. For the love of science & students I hope this is just a delay.💔

People are about to learn just how many programs, departments, events, roles, etc for Black and brown folks were federally funded (and in some cases federally protected). All the Black ppl who always ask "what have the dems even done for us" are about to get the most dramatic answer possible.

NIH appears to have canceled/postponed all of its study sections—the independent review panels that approve federal grants for health research. Such grants fund the work/salaries of 300k people at more than 2,500 institutions

Jane Liebschutz, MD MPH (she/her)@liebschutz.bsky.social · 2y ago

All NIH study sections canceled indefinitely. This will halt science and devastate research budgets in universities.

NIH Study Sections are getting abruptly cancelled, folks. 🧬🧠

The guy who manufactured the outrage against Critical Race Theory and Elon Musk are now just simply firing non-whites and non-males in the federal government.

New: Trump officials have paused all external communications at health agencies like CDC, FDA, NIH. No health alerts and the famed MMWRs; no updates to key websites or social media posts. And no indication how long the pause will last. With @rachelroubein.bsky.social + Lena Sun.

Trump officials pause health agencies’ communications, citing review

The agencies are charged with making decisions that touch the lives of every American and are the source of crucial information to health-care providers.

washingtonpost.com

Thoughts about January 20th- Happy MLK Day! I spent the long weekend on Martha's Vineyard. While there, I went to a nice talk at the MV History Museum and heard about how MLK spent his time on the island thinking, writing, and, perhaps most importantly, resting. (1/5)