pay living wages for all workers. tax the shit out of billionaires. happy labor day.

NIH Proposes Big Change In How Grants Applications Evaluated Here's my coverage in @forbes.com of this 🛟 🧪 😷 #AcademicSky #MedSky #episky🩺 #HiSciSky Public Health #science www.forbes.com/sites/brucel...

NIH Proposes Big Change In How Grants Applications Evaluated

The National Institutes of Health (NIH) is proposing yet another significant change in its grant review process, moving away from numerical scores for applications.

forbes.com

In a time where high single digit %iles are not getting funded, being told your grant was scored somewhere 1-25%ile is almost meaningless. I work my ass off submitting every grant. Other PIs work their asses off to review them. I want my score and my %ile. No good justification imo for not doing it.

Here’s a helpful guide to writing a public comment by @hormiga.bsky.social: scienceforeveryone.science/submit-your-...

Submit your OMB comment this weekend.

This one is important. It's due on Monday.

scienceforeveryone.science

I am happy to share our latest manuscript, led by newly-minted PhD Justin Wang, identifying a neural population that selectively controls hedonic, but not homeostatic, feeding. www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...

Ventral pallidal GABAergic neurons control hedonic feeding and obesity

Food intake is governed by two interacting drives. The homeostatic hunger drive regulates food intake to fulfill caloric needs while the hedonic drive promotes intake of palatable foods outside of cal...

biorxiv.org

Hello! The Alward lab will be well represented at #SBN2026 @sbn-bsky.bsky.social in Niagara Falls! Beau Alward is giving a Beach Award talk and three trainees are presenting posters. Most posts to come. Also, we’re looking to take a PhD student next cycle! If attending the meeting reach out!

UMass Amherst’s Pereira lab is here @sbn-bsky.bsky.social! Dr. Pereira is giving a talk tomorrow on circuit-level regulation of maternal sensitivity. Also, come to our trainees’ posters tomorrow (Posters 8, 27, 38 & 39) to discuss. We’re also here all week to connect with everyone!

(5/5) 🚨 It’s time to flood the zone. NIH scientists just took a huge risk speaking out. Now it’s our turn. 📜 Read the Bethesda Declaration ✍️ Sign the Public Letter of Support 👯‍♀️Follow NIHers doing the work: @nihvigils.bsky.social Read and sign here 👉 www.standupforscience.net/bethesda-dec...

If you have some ~cool sounds~ and you’re okay with them being used as stimuli for research, we’re collecting natural sound recordings for a project! Bonus points if they’re sampled at 192kHz or higher 😊 send me a message if you have something like this we’d love to use it!

I appreciate the offers from other scientists to help Harvard (students, labs, etc) through this attack, but what would be most helpful is for you to use your position to contact your elected representatives and make it clear this fight isn't just Harvard, it will affect you, and their districts too

🚨 A new rule would let career scientists like NSF/NIH program officers be replaced by political appointees Already 14,000+ public comments, deadline is Friday 📣 Comments can be short. Courts consider them—and scientists with NSF/NIH experience are especially impactful Speak up! shorturl.at/WKuBj

Today, @hhmi.org stopped all competitions supporting ECRs when we needed it most. As an FGLI undergraduate 2014/2015 HHMI EXROP participant, a 2020 Gilliam Fellow, and applicant for the now paused 2025 HGF program - I was a consistently supported by HHMI throughout my career. Please reconsider!

Feeling double whammied today with first the HHMI cancellation and now also finding out a visiting assistant professor position I applied for decided to not update me to say that I was not considered and that they filled the position after I applied.

Thrilled to announce that our paper is now finally out! 🎉We combine scRNAseq, 2p imaging, ephys, and behavior to understand the role of lateral septal Nts neurons in opioid withdrawal. Curious about the septum and addiction? Give it a read👇 www.cell.com/neuron/fullt...

Opioid-driven disruption of the septum reveals a role for neurotensin-expressing neurons in withdrawal

Opioid withdrawal produces a dysphoric state that can lead to relapse. Simon et al. reveal that lateral septal neurotensin-expressing neurons are selectively activated by naloxone and drive changes in...

cell.com

Just received an email stating that all applications for the 2025 HHMI Hanna Gray fellowship. Truly a bummer in funding news for science today.

My trainee's F31 diversity from NIDDK "terminated" today. We received a NGA for $0.00. He worked his butt off for it and would have been competitive in the normal F31 pool. This is just blatant discrimination. If there are large lawsuits being put together, please share that info. #contractlaw

Talia Lerner@talialerner.bsky.social · last yr.

All NIDA F31 diversity scholars officially losing their funding... I barely have words. Expected at this point but so so disappointing and unfair. We are effectively punishing some of America's best science students for telling the government they are from an underrepresented community.

Bone chilling. A court ordered Kilmar Abrego Garcia to stay in the United States. The Supreme Court ruled 9-0 that he was illegally removed. Trump is pretending he won the ruling 9-0. 1/ You may not think this case means anything to you. But let me tell you why it does.

A nice, layperson writeup of my latest work, which is now out on eLife! TLDR: Using snRNA-seq, we find cell type abundance differences and sex-biased gene expression differences that may explain innate differences in mating + parenting behavior elifesciences.org/digests/1031...

The parenting styles of deer mice

Single-nuclei RNA-sequencing sheds new light on how two closely related species of deer behave differently when mating and caring for young.

elifesciences.org

I just learned that there's a national graduate student crisis line - gradresources.org. Might be worth spreading the word as I'm pretty sure exactly *checks notes* zero grad students are doing well emotionally right now.

Grad Resources

Encouraging and equipping graduate students for impact.

gradresources.org

If you or someone you know has been negatively affected by NIH-funded clinical trials being paused, disrupted, cancelled etc., I have a contact with the Senate HELP Committee eager to collect stories of everyday Americans affected by the NIH closures. Please DM me.

Happy to share that the Max Planck postdoc program officially launched! I was lucky to be part of the committee that designed the program - our goal was to provide better and more structured resources for onboarding, career development, & mentoring.

Max-Planck-Gesellschaft@maxplanck.de · last yr.

🚀 Apply now 🚀 The new Max Planck #Postdoc Program offers a guaranteed contract of at least 3 years, targeted mentoring, and career workshops. postdocprogram.mpg.de #ScienceCareer #PostdocProgram

'The results show that mitochondria, which generate the energy that powers cells, differ in type and density in different parts of the brain. For example, the evolutionarily oldest brain regions have a lower density of mitochondria than newer regions.' www.nature.com/articles/d41...

First map of human brain mitochondria is ‘groundbreaking’ achievement

Hundreds of cubes of human brain tissue help scientists to chart the energy-making capabilities of various brain regions.

nature.com

every zoom meeting can be a mukbang if you put your mind to it

Dynamic Ontogeny of Auditory Lateralization in the Zebra Finch https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.03.30.646178v1

Defending soon? Come postdoc with us - MUSC is a great place to prepare you for your next career move, in or outside of academia!

Patrick Mulholland (He/Him)@mulhollandlab.bsky.social · 2y ago

The Charleston Alcohol Research Center has an opening for a #postdoctoral fellowship on the #NIAAA T32 training grant - please spread the word and contact me if interested in working in beautiful Charleston, SC @drjrink.bsky.social

Explore the newly launched Early-Career Neuroscientists Resource Center, designed to help you navigate the field with news, expert insights and practical tools. The page also highlights job openings, seminars, and more: #neuroskyence www.thetransmitter.org/early-career...

Early-Career Neuroscientists Resource Center

News, perspectives and resources to help navigate the early stages of your neuroscience career

thetransmitter.org

A comprehensive review on covalent chemical strategies for protein self-labeling from @kjohnsson.bsky.social's lab: HaloTag, SNAP-tag et al. www.annualreviews.org/content/jour...

First hike of the season and since we moved to Western Mass! Weather was nice so had to take advantage of it even if the trail was muddy and slippery in some steep parts.

Livid because one of my students who has worked their ass off has had a graduate school admission offer rescinded due to anticipated budget cuts. We’re already seeing the next generation of scientists being stopped from achieving their goals thanks to the federal administration.

Two months into this postdoc and two grant applications submitted! It’s been tough developing a research plan in an unfamiliar field in just a few weeks but I’m glad to know I can do it. And now I have a way better understanding of maternal behavior than I did before!