Eligibility for SNAP is changing, resulting in millions no longer receiving aid. If you're able to, consider monetary donations to your local food bank. With monetary donations, food banks are able to buy fresh foods, food in bulk, and support operational costs. www.npr.org/2026/08/03/n...

Over 4 million people are no longer receiving food aid amid sweeping changes to SNAP

SNAP, also known as food stamps, has seen a rapid and consistent participation decline since last July. The drop comes as the program faces historic cuts and changes.

npr.org

"Federal officials offered the new details about the grant cancellations as part of an agreement with plaintiffs meant to spare the government an exhaustive, evidence-uncovering process known as discovery...That process could have required federal agencies to hand over more damaging records."

tony romm@tonyromm.bsky.social · 2w ago

NEW: In a stunning admission, the Trump administration admitted in court documents that it canceled billions in energy grants to states "based solely" on politics -- and whether that state was represented by Democrats and backed Harris in 2024. www.nytimes.com/2026/07/24/b...

Every year I organize a lab professional development day. It takes some time and creativity to put on, but everyone learns something new. I was fortunate to get a lot of training and professional development along the way, and this is how I can give my lab the same experience.

Schmitt Lab @ UCLA@schmittlab-ucla.bsky.social · last mo.

Today was the 3rd Annual Schmitt Lab Professional Development Day! Here's what we did...🧵

I teach a large (100+) enrollment upper division biochemistry class. I had online assessments for one quarter. I spent that quarter grading Chat. Since then, I use in-person, mostly paper-based assessments for course content. It’s “old school” but it works for me!

A reminder that UC _faculty_ and Faculty Associations — not the universities themselves nor their administrators — are waging this battle in court, demonstrating great bravery and moral clarity.

White House admits it used keywords to kill billions worth of California research grants

Federal agencies that terminated more than a thousand research grants at the University of California last year admitted that they used keywords related to diversity, gender, vaccine hesitancy and COV...

apnews.com

The LRP is an awesome program. It helped pay for over half of my college debt. 100% recommend checking if you are eligible and applying

I-75 Scientist@flscitriguy.bsky.social · 3w ago

NIH Loan Repayment Program Notices have been published. There are 3 of them: Extramural Loan Repayment Program for Clinical Researchers (LRP-CR) grants.nih.gov/grants/guide...

Every year I organize a lab professional development day. It takes some time and creativity to put on, but everyone learns something new. I was fortunate to get a lot of training and professional development along the way, and this is how I can give my lab the same experience.

Schmitt Lab @ UCLA@schmittlab-ucla.bsky.social · last mo.

Today was the 3rd Annual Schmitt Lab Professional Development Day! Here's what we did...🧵

Anyone else get emotional watching the USMNT celebrating their win while an entire stadium sings “County Roads”? Just me?

Congrats to Katarina, who presented her work on developing Meteor at the recent Chemical Biology in the Greater Los Angeles Area Meeting and won a poster prize!

Schmitt Lab @ UCLA@schmittlab-ucla.bsky.social · 2mo ago

☄️New biosensor!☄️ We present Meteor, our GFP-based methionine optical reporter, which can be used to measure methionine dynamics across scales, from subcellular to organisms like C elegans! Plasmids will be deposited with Addgene. www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...

Delta has included an instrumental version of “Born This Way” in their boarding music, happy pride.

This week in the lab we’ve turned in article proofs, resubmitted a manuscript, submitted a new manuscript, had a grant rejected, and had a grant selected for funding. It’s amazing to see how far my lab has come in 4 years! I’m so proud of our accomplishments.

Check out our new biosensor for methionine, Meteor! Plasmids will be deposited with Addgene soon!

Schmitt Lab @ UCLA@schmittlab-ucla.bsky.social · 2mo ago

☄️New biosensor!☄️ We present Meteor, our GFP-based methionine optical reporter, which can be used to measure methionine dynamics across scales, from subcellular to organisms like C elegans! Plasmids will be deposited with Addgene. www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...

☄️New biosensor!☄️ We present Meteor, our GFP-based methionine optical reporter, which can be used to measure methionine dynamics across scales, from subcellular to organisms like C elegans! Plasmids will be deposited with Addgene. www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...

Revealing the spatiotemporal dynamics of methionine metabolism with a genetically encoded single-fluorophore biosensor

Methionine is an essential amino acid, used for protein synthesis, redox homeostasis, and methylation reactions throughout the cell. However, the compartmentalized dynamics of methionine have remained...

biorxiv.org

Today I received a departmental award for excellence in inclusion & mentoring! It really means a lot to me to receive this award, and that all my efforts to be an effective mentor to my trainees, at UCLA, and beyond are recognized. Thank you so much to my lab members who nominated me for this award.

The staff at @sciam.bsky.social is hosting a Summer Reading Challenge! With prizes! Details on how to join here: tinyurl.com/jny9p9rn (Send me ur book recs! 🤓) #SciAmBookBingo #SciAmSummerReading

The California primary election is this coming Tuesday! I dropped my ballot off at a secure drop box in my neighborhood and my ballot has been received and accepted!

Dropped my ballot off at a secure drop box! Less than a week left to vote, California!

Danielle L. Schmitt 🔬@schmittwitt.bsky.social · 2mo ago

It took me about 40 minutes but I have voted! I’ll drop off my ballot tomorrow morning at the secure drop box in my neighborhood. Bless the legal aid groups who put together voter guides for the 2+ pages of judges.

It took me about 40 minutes but I have voted! I’ll drop off my ballot tomorrow morning at the secure drop box in my neighborhood. Bless the legal aid groups who put together voter guides for the 2+ pages of judges.

My not discussed grants (submitted in Oct, reviewed in May) have been upgraded to Not Discussed+!

Even with federal grants largely restored, scientists say the Trump administration is still preventing those funds from reaching them. The consequences, they say, are already becoming clear. n.pr/4dwU7Fi

Researchers say the Trump administration is finding new ways to punish science

Even with federal grants largely restored, scientists say the Trump administration is still preventing those funds from reaching them. The consequences, they say, are already becoming clear.

n.pr

Will you survive? drugmonkey.wordpress.com/2026/05/15/w...

Will you survive?

There was a distressed post that flew by on Blüski this week. How are we to survive this? How will academic scientists get through this chaos and assault on our profession? You either will, or you …

drugmonkey.wordpress.com

📚New review! Led by our amazing post-bac Arnav, we have put together a history of AMPK biosensors & highlighted some cool use cases! We hope this review will help broaden the adoption of biosensors in the field & increase our understanding of dynamic AMPK activity. portlandpress.com/biochemj/art...

Growing up, my dad took us to conferences. DC, Santa Barbara, Florida. Now my parents are going with me to conferences. Here’s my mom and I in Honolulu for Pacifichem. Happy Mothers Day, Mom.

This Canvas outage reminds me of that time in grad school when a fellow TA deleted the grades for all 500 students taking gen chem lab from Blackboard (we managed to recover the grades).

🍾 Congrats to @charlotteek.bsky.social the 7th graduate student to advance to candidacy in the Schmitt Lab! Charlotte passed with flying colors!

SHARE SHARE SHARE youtu.be/ms5DzHgDbN4?...

The U.S. built the future with this agency. Trump wants to destroy it.

YouTube video by MS NOW

youtu.be

The Stand Up for Science Foundation (a nonpartisan 501c3) is launching a new Institute to craft and implement policy that will address the damage to federal agencies and institutions, recenter evidence-based decision making, and reestablish the United States as a global leader in science. 2/7

✨New Review✨ Coordinated by Mia Sung, we contributed to a new review about non-invasive imaging of single cell dynamics! Written by leaders in the field, this comprehensive review discusses how we can measure single cell dynamics, with a section on metabolite biosensors. www.cell.com/trends/cell-...

Noninvasive methods to monitor dynamic single-cell events

Adaptations to changing environments manifest in various cellular activities across multiple timescales, where single-cell responses can occur asynchronously between individual cells. Hence, accurate ...

cell.com

Abstracts due in 2 weeks for the Signal Dynamics FASEB! Many speaking slots will be filled from submitted abstracts events.faseb.org/event/Dynami...

FASEB@faseborg.bsky.social · 4mo ago

Encode the cell signals for this "dynamic" conference! Featuring keynotes Tobias Meyer of @weillcornell.bsky.social and @jinzhanglab.bsky.social, alongside organizers Mary Teruel, Eric Batchelor, @bugajlab.bsky.social, and Andrew Paek. Register and submit your abstract by April 26: buff.ly/YMRzst4

Ari Belshi hosted “All In” tonight on MS Now and has a great segment about the destruction of biomedical research in the US. podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/a...

WaPo bombshell: RFK's CDC burying report on Covid vaccine success

Podcast Episode · All In with Chris Hayes · April 10 · 42m

podcasts.apple.com