Michelle Clay, PhD

@microbigal.bsky.social

Microbiologist | Director of Genomics Operations @SeqCoast.bsky.social | #bluesoup is best soup | mother to two bundles of chaos | she/her | opinions my own

We're sponsoring the University of Maryland's Molecular and Cellular Biology Department Retreat! Visit our table to: • Grab saltwater taffy and a notebook! • Ask about prepaid Insights Vouchers to preserve spending power of expiring grant funds • Get sequencing advice for your next big project

SeqCoast Genomics vendor table, staffed by co-founders Thom Novak and Michelle Clay

Consistent with so much of what I’ve heard and observed. Private funders don’t want to pay to keep people employed & freezers running – they take for granted that they can just piggyback off of those things being federally subsidized, & just cover relatively minor expenses like “reagents”

Tiffany Lowe-Power stands with Minnesota@tlowepower.bsky.social · last yr.

Considering the Federal situation, campuses are encouraging labs to enter partnerships with industry. A plant breeding company reached out to see if my lab could rate their plant lines for their resistance to Ralstonia. I said "maybe, but these assays require personnel time and materials"

Our work on the facial skin microbiome of non-human primates is out in mSystems! We show there is no close relative of Cutibacterium on the faces of gorillas and chimps at the Lincoln Park Zoo, furthering the mysterious origin of the dominant human skin colonizer. journals.asm.org/doi/10.1128/...

The microbiome of the human facial skin is unique compared to that of other hominids | mSystems

Understanding how and why human skin bacteria differ from our closest animal relatives provides crucial insights into human evolution and health. While we have known that human facial skin hosts disti...

journals.asm.org

I got hit by some rather sudden and extreme financial hardship so if anyone is in need of remote wetlab contract research, strictly BSL1, do let me know. Currently scrambling for gigs. Plant, Bacterial, Archaeal Non-model Bioeng Custom Lab Hardware Turn Key Genetic Design Please repost for reach 💚

I'm sure y'all are fucking tired of me but one thing I wanna say upfront is that I am brainstorming on here how to talk about what we as academic scientists and experts do so that other people in our country can understand what will be lost.

This is an understatement. We have already lost our scientific edge. Mass personnel cuts, lost grant support, gutting of pipeline programs, and the uncertainty about the future has already impacted our competitiveness and future generations of scientists. We just don’t see it yet. But we will.

Karen S Wilcox, PhD (she/her)@karenswilcoxphd.bsky.social · last yr.

To the outstanding civil servants at NIH who are waiting to find out if they are one of the 1200 individuals to be laid off this weekend, we stand by you and know that you worked hard to help the country innovate, find cures, and save lives. This sucks. #MedSky www.rdworldonline.com/nih-layoffs-...

In my 25 years since high school I’ve seen 1. HIV/AIDS go from death sentence to manageable with drugs 2. Cystic fibrosis go from pretty much an extended death sentence to manageable with drugs 3. Sickle cell go from a horrible disease to (almost maybe) cured by gene therapy Simply incredible

I received one of the 232 NIH grant "terminations" sent to scientists at Columbia last night. My research focuses on improving maternal and child health in the US. Also affected: ongoing clinical trials, research training programs, and research centers that aim to improve the health of Americans.

Hundreds of research grants at Columbia canceled following Trump edict, administrator says

The National Institutes of Health is terminating 232 grants for scientific research at Columbia University Irving Medical Center, according to an email an administrator sent to faculty.

gothamist.com

they’re treating medical research as some kind of favor to bestow, rather than what it is — arduous painstaking and unprofitable work done for all Americans this will slow Alzheimer’s and other brain research, not help it in net, patients will suffer

Coleen Murphy@ctmurphy1.bsky.social · last yr.

I cannot think of a single scientific or justifiable reason to suddenly cut research on brain regions, other than revenge on Columbia. I think many of us have to realize that we are likely next

I’m thrilled to share my first ever publication, now published in PNAS! www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/... With mentorship from the amazing @ksxue.bsky.social, I looked at how the outcomes of species introductions to microbial communities are influenced by the number of introduced microbes.

PNAS

Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS), a peer reviewed journal of the National Academy of Sciences (NAS) - an authoritative source of high-impact, original research that broadly spans...

pnas.org

There’s been some talk on here about communicating more with undergrads about science funding, policies, outlook etc. I admit I was skeptical there would be interest. I polled my course. 70% were interested in having a discussion. The other 30% were “maybe interested.” 0% were not interested.