Zandrea Ambrose, Ph.D. 🦠🧬🧪🧫
@zandrea.bsky.social
Virologist & Professor, Pitt Dept. of Microbiology & Molecular Genetics and former Director of @Pitt-PMI.bsky.social Seattle native living in Pittsburgh. (Go Huskies! Go Hawks! Go Ms!) Website: http://ambrose-lab.com
“Without notifying Congress or the American people, DoD has signed an interagency agreement that could give the Department access to billions of dollars that Congress provided to NIH for critical biomedical research…” Billions. That’s a significant part of the NIH budget. 2/
Congratulations to @microbiosaroj.bsky.social from the @lauraamike.bsky.social lab on his upcoming PhD thesis defense! 🎈 🎉
Lightning over Oakland and the Cathedral of Learning tonight
This is brilliant!
Joanne Freeman@jbf1755.bsky.social · 5d agoRando story: 40 years ago, I was on a subway reading her essay, “If Men Could Menstruate.” Noticed a guy reading it over my shoulder. So before I turned a page, I glanced to see if he was finished. Figured the more men who read her work, the better. The essay: www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK565...
Rando story: 40 years ago, I was on a subway reading her essay, “If Men Could Menstruate.” Noticed a guy reading it over my shoulder. So before I turned a page, I glanced to see if he was finished. Figured the more men who read her work, the better. The essay: www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK565...
If Men Could Menstruate
In this satirical piece, Gloria Steinem scrutinizes the sexist social constructions dominant Western attitudes towards menstruation by imagining a world in which men, not women, are menstruators. Thro...
ncbi.nlm.nih.gov
Jacqueline Antonovich@jackiantonovich.bsky.social · 5d agoMan, we've lost a real one. What an absolute icon and beacon to the world.
If NIH is looking to off load a little money this month, feel free to fund our 20 year virology T32 that got an 18 impact score! These bright-eyed young scientists would appreciate it and will put it to good use!
Jeremy Berg@jeremymberg.bsky.social · 7d agoNIH funding curves posted at grant-witness. It looks like grant making is slowing down noticeably and we are in the now in the last month of the fiscal year. It seems like "NIH" may be challenged to get all of the appropriated funds out the door (even if that is their intention).
Schools in my district are going remote because it is too hot and unsafe to be in the classroom. Read that again. This is what happens when human-caused climate change, infrastructure, and education are treated like unrelated issues. They’re not. Environmental justice is social justice.
Pittsburgh Public Schools to shift 35 schools to remote learning due to projected high temperatures
Pittsburgh Public Schools will temporarily shift to remote learning at 35 school buildings this week due to projected high temperatures.
cbsnews.com
18 PhD and 1 MSTP students just joined our graduate program last week!
Pitt Program in Microbiology & Immunology@pitt-pmi.bsky.social · 7d agoWe want to welcome our 19 first year PhD students to Pittsburgh! 🎉 We are happy to have you here and we're excited to see all the wonderful things you do!
Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro says RFK Jr. offered federal help after two unvaccinated people died from measles, the first U.S. deaths this year. Shapiro declined, saying PA could handle it, and confronted Kennedy, telling him: “There’s real life consequences to spreading misinformation.”
Just a reminder that Dolly believed in vaccines.
Two die of measles in Pennsylvania outbreak just in time for the first week of school! Both were unvaccinated. First measles deaths in the Commonwealth in 35 years.
Two die of measles in Pennsylvania outbreak
The deaths are the first measles-related fatalities in the U.S. this year. Both people had not been vaccinated against the illness.
nbcnews.com
Optimist: The cup is half full. Pessimist: The cup is half empty. Reviewer #2: You are using the wrong cup and your water is from the wrong source. Further, you are not qualified to handle cups or drink water.
Daniel Williams@daniel-williams.co.uk · 2w agoOptimist: The cup is half full. Pessimist: The cup is half empty. Cosmologist: The cup is expanding in all directions all of the time. We don't know how fast it's happening, and our measurements all seem to contradict each other.
The child was unvaccinated. Jonas Salk would be so disappointed.
1 measles case confirmed at UPMC Children’s Hospital
A person has been diagnosed with measles at UPMC Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh, the hospital system confirmed Thursday. It’s the first confirmed case of the highly contagious disease i...
triblive.com
Data backing up what many of us have suspected about students' use of AI.
Vaughn Cooper@vscooper.micropopbio.org · 3w agoStunning magnitude of AI-caused learning deficits 🤯 h/t @briannosek.bsky.social ➡️ raises homework scores by 18%, reduces completion time by 30% BUT ➡️ lowers monthly exam scores by 20% within six months. ➡️ High-stakes entrance-exam scores fall by 18 and 24% papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers....
We welcome our PMI students back to campus for the 2026-2027 school year, especially our 20 first year students!
This is a setup for obscuring the impact of the political review of grants, which is fixing to be massive. It also greases the skids for corruption and funneling money away from universities and toward venture capitalists. Please vote this November, friends. It’s bad out here.
5. If your score isn’t fundable, the percentile can help you decide whether or not to try again But now they’re going to hide the percentile. So you won’t know if your grant was in a very low percentile and that they decided to give the money to someone whose grant was rated significantly worse.
Is anyone else watching the NIH Unified Funding webinar now?
🙋🏻♀️ Male PIs: do you also get grant reviewer critiques concerned about your administrative duties preventing you from conducting your proposed research or training aims? Or is that just female PIs? Or just me? 🤔
Scientists have found a new virus in dairy cattle in southern Germany, Switzerland, and France. Learn more: https://scim.ag/45h9RbV
Im looking for a postdoc to help with protein engineering efforts. If you know who could be a good fit send them my way! see details below:
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette story about the recent NIH grant terminations. www.post-gazette.com/news/educati... 1/3
So far, terminated NIH grants have cost University of Pittsburgh $40 million
The federal government has unexpectedly ended two more research grants at the University of Pittsburgh, which in one case, upends 16 years of research...
post-gazette.com
Calling all Pitt, CMU, and Chatham undergrad students interested in microbiology or immunology research!
Pitt Department of Immunology@pitt-immunology.bsky.social · last mo.Know a college sophomore/junior in Pittsburgh who's interested in their first research opportunity? The Microbiology & Immunology Depts. Scholars program is for them! 4 semesters of hands-on research, mentorship & more. Apply by Sept. 2: www.pmi.pitt.edu/research/mid... @pitt-pmi.bsky.social
“Contact tracing is not working,” apnews.com/article/cong...
Ebola kills 1,700 in eastern Congo as the fastest-growing outbreak surges
Ebola has killed over 1,700 people in eastern Congo, becoming the fastest-growing outbreak of the disease. A total of 3,802 cases have been recorded as of Tuesday.
apnews.com
RFK jr overrode the NIH recommendation for NIAID Director to appoint his own preferred candidate (who applied, but NIH declined to interview), per @politico.com. Institute directors have final say on funding decisions and are critical to the integrity of NIH. 🧵 www.politico.com/news/2026/08...
A lab-leak proponent is in line for Fauci’s old job
Steven Quay is in final vetting to run the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases.
politico.com
Words of wisdom to me from the 20-something barista: “You can do anything you set your mind to.” ❤️
This may be the biggest mistake I’ve ever heard of anyone making in an undergraduate microbiology laboratory - and it wasn’t the students’ fault. arstechnica.com/health/2026/...
College lab class ends with 32 people on antibiotics for deadly germ exposure
Lab students were supposed to ID a mild germ. They all identified a deadly pathogen.
arstechnica.com
