"Too often, first-generation and low-income students are told that hard work is enough. But that message is incomplete. ...The missing piece is someone willing to teach you that second curriculum, if you weren’t among the lucky few to inherit it." www.the74million.org/article/the-...

The ‘Second Curriculum’ — What 1st-Gen College Students Need to Know, But Don’t

Chaparro: My family has traveled far in 2 generations, and my baby daughter will travel further still. But too many young people still miss out.

the74million.org

Look it’s me in @amynahpradhan.bsky.social ‘s endowment talk! What a beautiful and impressive display of work from the charming and funny and brilliant Amynah- I’m am so lucky to call you a friend and to have been trained by you 🩷 congratulations!! This is so deserved

We should fully fund science.

In a Milestone for A.L.S., a Treatment Helps Some Patients Improve

nytimes.com

This is so so sad- Howard trained my PhD mentor and I even contacted him to do a postdoc- he was a titan in the field and will be missed!

Josh Johansen@jojolab.bsky.social · 3mo ago

I’m very sad to share that Howard Fields has died. He made seminal discoveries in pain modulation, placebo, and addiction. He was also a wonderful mentor and friend who taught me how to think about the brain and the joy of scientific discovery. www.iasp-pain.org/publications...

I’m very sad to share that Howard Fields has died. He made seminal discoveries in pain modulation, placebo, and addiction. He was also a wonderful mentor and friend who taught me how to think about the brain and the joy of scientific discovery. www.iasp-pain.org/publications...

In Memory of Howard L. Fields - International Association for the Study of Pain (IASP)

IASP is deeply saddened to hear of the recent death of Honorary IASP Member, Prof Howard Fields, and we offer our condolences to his family, friends and colleagues. We are […]

iasp-pain.org

Free and open-source images, icons, and tools for creating scientific illustrations doi.org/10.59350/5zt... 🧪

Free and open-source images, icons, and tools for creating scientific illustrations

Phylopic, NIH Bioart, Bioicons, Scidraw, Open Science Art, Health Icons, Servier Medical Art, Biodiversity Heritage Library, the Noun Project, Segment Anything, Excalidraw, draw.io, Biographics

doi.org

Welcome to the last half of the US federal fiscal year. Here is where we're at with National Science Foundation--the agency that funds basically everything other than biomedical research at American universities--grant numbers. grant-witness.us/funding_curv...

“0.15% of research worldwide has looked at hormonal contraceptives and how they affect brain health.” — @liisagalea.bsky.social (@camhnews.bsky.social). Even after nearly 70 years and 300M users, we know so little. On the next (MIS)Treated with @namshine.bsky.social and @marsdd.bsky.social.

I believe Jeremy Berg's plots using public NIH Reporter data. jeremymberg.github.io/jeremyberg.g...

Nominate your work for this brilliant award for ✨✨preclinical null findings✨✨ www.ecnp.eu/awards/list-...

Excited to share our new study on how the brain generates placebo pain relief! We developed a mouse model that recapitulates key features of human placebo analgesia, then used it to identify causal circuitry. www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti... today.ucsd.edu/story/neurob... 1/n

Neurobiologists Hack Brain Circuits Tied to Placebo Pain Relief

Scientists have identified the brain circuits tied to placebo pain relief. Researchers have known that placebo effects can be a powerful treatment, yet the underlying neurological mechanisms have not ...

today.ucsd.edu

So depressing to look at NIMH and NCCIH- NINDS looks a bit better. NIDA also almost at 0.

Jeremy Berg@jeremymberg.bsky.social · 4mo ago

NIH and NSF Updates (using graphs from grant-witness.us) NIH all awards (New and Non-Competitive Renewal, Type 1 and Type 5, consistent with what is shown on NIH Reporter) The flattening MAY be due to the lack of an OMB apportionment, which has now been remedied. 1/5

NIH and NSF Updates (using graphs from grant-witness.us) NIH all awards (New and Non-Competitive Renewal, Type 1 and Type 5, consistent with what is shown on NIH Reporter) The flattening MAY be due to the lack of an OMB apportionment, which has now been remedied. 1/5

A study in Nature Communications suggests that SARS-CoV-2 circulation and vaccination have generated widespread immunity against related sarbecoviruses, creating an immunological barrier to novel sarbecovirus emergence in humans. go.nature.com/4sDW5Kk #medsky 🧪

Another “finalist but not winner” grant today 😑

We spend under $50 billion a year on NIH…

We often think of survival as an individual act. But when facing hardship together, social groups may function more like a unified system than a collection of separate individuals. We are excited to share our latest work @natneuro.nature.com studying collective social dynamics. See: rdcu.be/e8LrV

Beautiful amazing work out today from @tararaam.bsky.social @honglab.bsky.social

Tara Raam@tararaam.bsky.social · 5mo ago

Excited to share my postdoc work is out in @natneuro.nature.com today! We examined how the brain enables social groups to collectively coordinate their behavior in the face of environmental challenge ❄️🐭🐭🐭🐭❄️ : www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Thanks to the Nature team for digging into this. Apportionment is one of those inside-baseball issues that I hoped never to need to learn about... But here was are.

Max Kozlov@maxkozlov.bsky.social · 5mo ago

Congress rejected massive cuts to US science budgets for 2026, but much of the money still isn’t flowing to researchers. The culprit? The White House Office of Management and Budget (OMB) is quietly slow-walking the release of funds. 🧵👇

NIH Director Bhattacharya signals an end to the affirmative action program for ESI drugmonkey.wordpress.com/2026/02/26/n...

NIH Director Bhattacharya signals an end to the affirmative action program for ESI

Well, this is fascinating. Director Jayanta Bhattacharya went on the Why Should I Trust You podcast in an episode dated Feb 26, 2026 [h/t]. Around 59:00 he is answering the podcast host after she p…

drugmonkey.wordpress.com

Another case of prioritizing a man’s potential over the safety of women: doctor doesn’t lose license bc he supposedly only raped one woman and he had glowing reviews from colleagues

Blackpool doctor not struck off by panel over 'one-off' rape - BBC News

Dr Aloaye Foy-Yamah has his medical licence suspended for 12 months over the attack.

bbc.com

La lumière, nouvelle méthode antidouleur chez les animaux. It was great to collaborate with Guillaume Sandoz @univcotedazur.bsky.social @cnrsbiologie.bsky.social and other colleagues on this exciting project www.nature.com/articles/s41...

National media should really be covering the fact thay every major school, museum, and arts institution in the Twin Cities, and hundreds of local businesses are closed tomorrow to protest federal occupation. Nothing like this at this scale has happened anywhere in America anytime in living memory.

The NIH also hints at future restrictions on research involving human embryonic stem cells go.nature.com/3YUZfwe

NIH ends support for some human fetal-tissue research – dismaying scientists

The US biomedical funding agency also hints at future restrictions on research involving human embryonic stem cells.

go.nature.com

Thirteen of the US NIH’s advisory councils, which must review grant applications before funding is awarded, are on track to have no voting members go.nature.com/4r6TiIp

Exclusive: key NIH review panels due to lose all members by the end of 2026

Thirteen of the agency’s advisory councils, which must review grant applications before funding is awarded, are on track to have no voting members.

go.nature.com

PSA on Competitive, Not Discussed NIH proposal outcomes drugmonkey.wordpress.com/2026/01/23/p...

PSA on Competitive, Not Discussed NIH proposal outcomes

As you know, Dear Reader, the current and following rounds of NIH study section meetings have adopted temporary* new triage/streamlining rules. Previously, approximately half of proposals are Not D…

drugmonkey.wordpress.com

Personalized vaccines against cancer, made with mRNA technology, are showing promising results even five years after treatment. Go deep with our recent feature on what might come next for the technique

Personalized Cancer Vaccines Are Almost Here—But Federal Funding Cuts Could Derail Them

Vaccines based on mRNA can be tailored to target a cancer patient’s unique tumor mutations. But crumbling support for cancer and mRNA vaccine research has endangered this promising therapy

scientificamerican.com

US federal agencies were gutted in 2025, losing ~20% of their staff relative to 2024.

On a call with NIH PO this morning - I knew NOSIs were no longer a thing, but wasn't aware they now have these "Highlighted Topics". Not clear how it exactly interfaces with funding and/or how you highlight alignment, but good to keep an eye on! grants.nih.gov/funding/find...

Important story from Max Kozlov. Loss without replacement of council members is a serious concerns which could be a huge problem in the future, but this is uncertain.

Max Kozlov@maxkozlov.bsky.social · 6mo ago

🚨 New from me: Grant review at more than half of NIH's institutes could be frozen by the end of the year. That's because crucial NIH grant-review panels are slated to be empty at those institutes by Jan 2027. A wonky bureaucratic problem with big implications. A short 🧵