Laura Lackner

Live: Federal agent presence reported in Evanston near Green Bay and Simpson Throughout early fall, Evanston has experienced an influx in activity from federal immigration agencies, with several community members taken by agents in September and October.  The city first inform...

At least 10 federal agents’ cars have been spotted in Evanston, according to an ICIRR alert at 11:35 a.m. The cars were seen near the intersections of Green Bay Road and McCormick Boulevard and Green Bay Road and Simpson Avenue and are still active.

Structural insights into GTP-coupled conformational changes in Mfn1 revealed by time-resolved transition metal ion FRET. Outer mitochondrial membrane fusion is mediated by the mitofusin paralogs Mfn1 and Mfn2. Nucleotide-driven self-assembly and conformational changes are required for regulated membrane fusion activity,...

Genuinely thrilled to share our new story with the world - an amazing collaboration with @profsharona.bsky.social and Bill Zagotta using their innovative FRET technique to study mitofusin conformational changes. Huge credit to Sophie Hurwitz for tackling this project. urldefense.com/v3/__https:/...

Full Committee Markup of Defense and Labor, Health and Human Services, and Education Appropriations Acts | United States Senate Committee on Appropriations United States Senate Committee on Appropriations

Senate Appropriations has a modest *INCREASE* in NIH funding but it will need to be recconciled with the house cut. If you have not been calling your representative of late now would be a good time to start again
www.appropriations.senate.gov/hearings/ful...

NIH scientists call on director to protect biomedical research In a public letter, hundreds of scientists expressed their dissent to the Trump administration's policies affecting the National Institutes of Health and called on its director to support the agency.

NPR story about the #BethesdaDeclaration

www.npr.org/sections/sho...

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Front-page-style graphic titled “BREAKING NEWS” with photos of RFK Jr. and Dr. Bhattacharya in front of a government hearing chamber. Text reads: “NIH Scientists Sound the Alarm as Health Research Faces Historic Threat” and “NIH Employees Send Trump Cronies Scathing Wake-Up Call.”

🚨BREAKING: 300+ NIH employees call out the harm of censorship & politicized science in scathing email to Bhattacharya, demanding an end to political interference, a lift on funding freezes, & rehiring of fired staff whose work saves lives.

This is historic - insiders are blowing the whistle.
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ASCB Georgia Virtual Capitol Hill Day ASCB Virtual Hill Day with members of the Georgia Congressional delegation.

Scientists in GA, ASCB has scheduled a virtual Hill Day on June 25. We need scientists willing to talk to their representatives about the consequences of the proposed budget slashes. Please sign up. Or, send to colleagues. Just need to be or become ASCB members. www.ascb.org/ascb-meeting...

When everything is "normal", writing and administering an NIH T32 program is crazy. Despite being an immense amount of work (probably the single most effort-demanding grant one can direct), it comes with no salary for the PI...

Phosphatidic acid drives spatiotemporal distribution of Pex30 at ER-LD contact sites, say Morgan House, Amit S. Joshi @joshilaboratory.bsky.social‬ and colleagues @utknoxville.bsky.social‬: rupress.org/jcb/article/...

#Organelles #Biochemistry #ER_literature #LipidDroplets #lipids

This is MAGA's one, big, beautiful healthcare plan.

"I have a message for America's scientists: I want to tell you how much I appreciate your work, how much I value and treasure your work, how much support you have within the Congress...we are aware of the deep damage that is being done to your profession and we are determined to make it stop" 🧪

New story up in Nature from @maxkozlov.bsky.social

NIH killed grants on orders from Elon Musk’s DOGE

Court documents and internal correspondence show the cost-cutting force has broad control over the world’s largest public biomedical funder.

www.nature.com/articles/d41...

All of NIH funding to Northwestern University is frozen. This pause includes noncompeting approved funding, new and competing grants with fundable scores. No reimbursements for money already spent have been received since March. This situation is rarely reported so please Please get the word out!

Excited to present first publication from the Joshi lab, now in @jcb.org

Here, we show that phosphatidic acid regulates Pex30 distribution at ER subdomains for lipid droplet biogenesis by binding to dysferlin domain.

rupress.org/jcb/article/...

Congratulations, Amit and the Joshi Lab! Beautiful story!

It's not just Northwestern and Harvard, I have gotten credible (confidential) reports from several other schools (including state schools) that the NIH is defaulting on federal commitments there too.

Seems like there may be a big story here for an investigative reporter willing to take it on

Northwestern has not received any NIH funds since March. No written communication about why or what can be done. Thank you Ben Singer for raising awareness at #ATS2025

Grant freezes versus terminations feel different, but they have the same practical effect.

We should start treating freezes as terminations, both of which can be undone by HHS / NIH whenever they want—or by court order if they refuse. They’re all illegal.

Definitely worth the 5 minutes to watch. Succinct summation of what is being thrown away

Every NIH-funded researcher should read this.

Professors and researchers at Chicago-area universities said federal funding cuts are leaving research projects unfinished.

Julius Lucks, a chemical engineering professor at Northwestern, speaks on if another sector could fund university research.

to.wttw.com/3Ygl3T8

Everyone please read and act! 👇

I feel like we need to keep saying this because it’s so insane: This is a legal U.S. resident who has been detained for over a month now for his political opinions.

Congratulations!!!

Women, minorities fired in purge of NIH science review boards Scientists, with expertise in fields that include mental health, cancer and infectious disease, typically serve five-year terms and were not given a reason for their dismissal.

Thirty-eight of 43 experts cut last month from the boards that review the science and research that happens in laboratories at the National Institutes of Health are female, Black or Hispanic, according to an analysis by the chairs of a dozen of the boards.

Sen Van Hollen met with El Salvador's Vice President Félix Ulloa, who told him that the reason they are holding Kilmar Abrego Garcia at CECOT is because the Trump admin is paying them to do so.

They also provided no evidence that Abrego Garcia is part of MS-13 or committed any crimes.

Donald Trump wants to illegally send American citizens to this notoriously inhumane prison in El Salvador.

“Home-growns are next. The home-growns. You gotta build about five more places.”

The constitutional crisis is here.

I am a professor at Columbia University. All of the student NIH training grants have been canceled and now there are reports that ALL funding will be frozen. Why are Universities not banding together and speaking out publicly and forcibly about governmental attacks on biomedical research?

“If the goal were to identify and address problems at these agencies in a good-faith manner, that would be one thing. But what is going on is akin to performing open-heart surgery on a patient who is not particularly sick using a blunt axe.”

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NIH freezes all research grants to Columbia University Amid negotiations with Trump, the university could risk losing nearly $700 million

See, if you just cooperate with the administration and comply, it all turns out OK...

www.science.org/content/arti...

of all the things the administration is doing, i am a little mystified by this effort to completely destroy the science, technology and medical research sector in the united states