Travis Whitfill's Avatar

Travis Whitfill

@twhitfill.bsky.social

Biotech/healthcare. Assistant Professor Adjunct at Yale. Cofounder & COO, Azitra. Former partner Bios Partners. PhD UCL. MPH Yale ‘14. Opinions mine.

58 Followers  |  66 Following  |  11 Posts  |  Joined: 16.11.2024  |  1.7333

Latest posts by twhitfill.bsky.social on Bluesky

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I've admittedly often complained about high indirect costs on my grants (my worst offender was Jackson Labs at 90%), but indirect costs are critical in supporting fundamental academic research.

Here's a great infographic showing where these funds go:

08.02.2025 14:30 — 👍 1    🔁 0    💬 0    📌 0
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I submitted a grant to AHRQ last month with a review scheduled next week

Reached out to PO to see if it’s still meeting. Email returned; no longer works there

Reached out to other contact and learned the study section is cancelled

Scientific progress across the board is being unilaterally halted.

30.01.2025 16:25 — 👍 2    🔁 0    💬 0    📌 0

The entire public health/biopharma sector has been disrupted. Some personal anecdotes/impacts:
- Job offers before Monday rescinded (NIH)
- Travel plans for the year cancelled (NIH)
- Grants essentially frozen
- No disease surveillance comms
- No more diversity for agencies AND clinical trials (??)

24.01.2025 02:58 — 👍 1    🔁 1    💬 2    📌 0

Not just a hiring freeze. Per my friend at NIH, job offers made before Monday are being rescinded.

24.01.2025 00:52 — 👍 2    🔁 0    💬 1    📌 0
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First snow on the first day of winter here in New York ❄️

21.12.2024 14:29 — 👍 1    🔁 0    💬 0    📌 0
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I was watching the Macy’s parade and was surprised to see my old high school performing! (Wouldn’t be surprised if some of them are my friends’ kids…)

28.11.2024 21:11 — 👍 0    🔁 0    💬 0    📌 0

Great read. For those that forgot or are unaware, Jay was an author of The Great Barrington Declaration, which discouraged masks and other interventions before we had vaccines for COVID. This was a wrong, dangerous policy — a gravely concerning sign for the new head of NIH.

27.11.2024 19:49 — 👍 1    🔁 0    💬 0    📌 0
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Starting in January, the NIH review process will be simplified with only three review criteria. I think this is great, as novice investigators are less likely to be penalized in the scoring. (Plus easier when reviewing applications!)

Some other changes coming:

grants.nih.gov/policy-and-c...

20.11.2024 22:15 — 👍 0    🔁 0    💬 0    📌 0
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A nice reminder from Stifel/Our World in Data on the efficacy of vaccines:

17.11.2024 23:16 — 👍 5    🔁 0    💬 0    📌 0

One of the biggest sources of misinformation during the pandemic naturally is a possible choice to lead NIH. This would be disastrous.

16.11.2024 15:51 — 👍 1    🔁 0    💬 0    📌 0

Oh no…. No no 😩

16.11.2024 15:40 — 👍 3    🔁 0    💬 0    📌 0

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