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@rayprescott.bsky.social

Postdoc in the Almagro-Moreno lab at St. Jude. I move small amounts of liquid from one container to another. πŸ‘©πŸ»β€πŸ”¬ 🧫

55 Followers  |  124 Following  |  3 Posts  |  Joined: 11.11.2024  |  2.0932

Latest posts by rayprescott.bsky.social on Bluesky

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Faculty Professor Associate - Full-Time | Vaughn Cooper We are recruiting Faculty microbiologists in three (3) different, complementary, and collaborative areas at the University of Pittsburgh associated with the School of Medicine. 1) Fundamental researc...

🚨 Microbiologists! We are recruiting Assistant / Associate Professors in 3 collaborative areas of our U. Pittsburgh School of Medicine.
1) MMG (my dept): fundamental research in med micro
2) Peds ID / I4Kids institute
3) Center for Vaccine Research
πŸ”— to all 3 w/info: www.linkedin.com/posts/vaughn...

23.09.2025 22:31 β€” πŸ‘ 93    πŸ” 127    πŸ’¬ 1    πŸ“Œ 6
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Flexible competency framework: A tool for optimizing life science training Life sciences research requires high standards of rigor and professionalism, which need to be woven into the training future scientists. This Community Page presents a competency-based framework to us...

How can we improve the #training of future #biology researchers? This Community Page presents a competency-based framework to use to align curriculum and trainee outcomes with educational objectives in the life sciences. πŸ§ͺ #academicsky
plos.io/3HIpuB1

28.08.2025 12:26 β€” πŸ‘ 9    πŸ” 4    πŸ’¬ 0    πŸ“Œ 0
An illustration of a man riding a bike surrounded by wheels and other bike parts, with text: How a Ph.D. is like riding a bike

An illustration of a man riding a bike surrounded by wheels and other bike parts, with text: How a Ph.D. is like riding a bike

"For half an hour, I vented everything I had been holding in for months … my supervisor … then calmly offered a line I’ll never forget: 'You are here to learn to ride a bicycle, not to invent a bicycle.' That one sentence landed softly, but it cracked something open." https://scim.ag/4lt1Ru0

18.08.2025 13:08 β€” πŸ‘ 89    πŸ” 27    πŸ’¬ 0    πŸ“Œ 3

few outcomes, except for 99% of FDA-approved drugs, 174 recipients of 104 Nobel Prizes, training ~30K MDs and ~10K PhDs per year to enter the workforce, and a 34% reduction in age-adjusted cancer deaths since 1990 -- the largest decrease in history

29.07.2025 03:26 β€” πŸ‘ 807    πŸ” 343    πŸ’¬ 14    πŸ“Œ 9
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Survey of US postdocs finds threefold increase in job losses Country-wide cuts are difficult to determine, but a survey by the National Postdoctoral Association reveals mounting pressures.

Cuts across the US are difficult to determine, but a survey by the National Postdoctoral Association reveals mounting pressures

go.nature.com/4nNqvba

11.07.2025 09:30 β€” πŸ‘ 26    πŸ” 9    πŸ’¬ 0    πŸ“Œ 1
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The microbiota vault initiative: safeguarding Earth’s microbial heritage for future generations - Nature Communications Nature Communications - The microbiota vault initiative: safeguarding Earth’s microbial heritage for future generations

A #WorldMicrobiomeDay special from @natcomms.nature.com!

The Microbiota Vault Initiative - an attempt to preserve the microbial diversity for our future generations.

#MicroSky #MicrobiomeSky 🦠

www.nature.com/articles/s41...

27.06.2025 12:22 β€” πŸ‘ 14    πŸ” 6    πŸ’¬ 0    πŸ“Œ 0
Too poor to science: How wealth determines who succeeds in STEM From student to researcher, a career in science can come with a high price tag. This Perspective explores how persistent financial barriers limit who can succeed in science, revealing how wealth shape...

Behind many scientists is a lifetime of invisible, unsustainable costs. From unpaid internships to underpaid postdocs, the economic toll of a STEM career is staggeringβ€”and it's pushing talent out. My new perspective explores this crisis. #STEM #AcademicBlueSky journals.plos.org/plosbiology/...

24.06.2025 18:14 β€” πŸ‘ 91    πŸ” 49    πŸ’¬ 2    πŸ“Œ 13
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Exciting fundamental discovery!

Early embryos fight bacteria WITHOUT immune cells

Zebrafish, mouse, and human embryos use epithelial cells (trophoectoderm)β€”not immune cellsβ€”to engulf and destroy 𝘌. 𝘀𝘰𝘭π˜ͺ and 𝘚. 𝘒𝘢𝘳𝘦𝘢𝘴

Hoijman Lab Barcelona πŸ‡ͺπŸ‡Έ
𝘊𝘦𝘭𝘭 𝘏𝘰𝘴𝘡 π˜”π˜ͺ𝘀𝘳𝘰𝘣𝘦

www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

21.06.2025 05:06 β€” πŸ‘ 297    πŸ” 79    πŸ’¬ 8    πŸ“Œ 2
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Shattered Science: The Research Lost as Trump Targets NIH Funding The Trump administration cut research funding that sought cures for future pandemics, examined the causes of dementia and tried to prevent HIV transmission. More than 150 researchers shared with ProPu...

An incredible interactive look at the thousands of NIH grants and billions of dollars cut β€” and the real people, both researchers and patients, behind them.

Bravo @anniewaldman.bsky.social et al at @propublica.org

12.06.2025 15:34 β€” πŸ‘ 27    πŸ” 20    πŸ’¬ 1    πŸ“Œ 4
MMPC 2025 - Registration Please click here to visit Loyola's secure site for conference registration! The following meals will be included with your registration fee: Dinner, Friday October 3 Lunch, Saturday October 4 Dinner...

Registration for MMPC 2025 opens today! We can’t wait to see you in St. Charles, IL, for the first MMPC hosted by Loyola University Chicago!
www.mmpconference2025.com/registration

01.05.2025 14:51 β€” πŸ‘ 7    πŸ” 6    πŸ’¬ 0    πŸ“Œ 3
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Rapid Response Bridge Funding Program In the face of recent abrupt shifts in federal funding for education research, including large-scale terminations of National Science Foundation (NSF) research grant awards, we have developed a rap...

Very smart, high ROI initiative from the Spencer Foundation.

Providing bridge funding for canceled NSF grants:

1) directs funds to projects already screened by a top-noch review process.
2) avoids imposing proposal prep costs on researchers.
3) ameliorates the disruption from GOP sabotage.

06.06.2025 23:09 β€” πŸ‘ 781    πŸ” 336    πŸ’¬ 6    πŸ“Œ 10

Make America dangerous again 🀑

25.05.2025 12:08 β€” πŸ‘ 0    πŸ” 0    πŸ’¬ 0    πŸ“Œ 0
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Trump’s NIH And NSF Cuts Estimated To Cost The U.S. Economy $10 Billion Annually Economists find public R&D drives U.S. productivity growth β€” and pays for itself

In case you need some numbers when you call your representatives about the cuts to basic research funding:

www.forbes.com/sites/johndr...

22.05.2025 09:34 β€” πŸ‘ 13    πŸ” 8    πŸ’¬ 1    πŸ“Œ 0

β€œA growing recognition that women’s pain should be treated.” Why is this being presented like a revolutionary concept?? As women I guess we all kind of know our pain is ignored in the medical field but seeing it presented as fact is certainly eye opening…

20.05.2025 10:47 β€” πŸ‘ 0    πŸ” 0    πŸ’¬ 0    πŸ“Œ 0
A chocolate cake with red and white decorations and lit candles shaped as the number 75. Bold text reads: β€˜The NSF Turns 75 Today. What has it done over the past 7 decades?’ The background is a celebratory red with a spray-paint texture.

A chocolate cake with red and white decorations and lit candles shaped as the number 75. Bold text reads: β€˜The NSF Turns 75 Today. What has it done over the past 7 decades?’ The background is a celebratory red with a spray-paint texture.

HAPPY 75th, NSF!

We’re celebrating this milestone by highlighting some of NSF’s most transformative accomplishmentsβ€”innovations that have shaped our world and continue to drive progress in health, technology, the environment, and beyond.

Read on 🧡(1/11):

10.05.2025 20:19 β€” πŸ‘ 804    πŸ” 411    πŸ’¬ 8    πŸ“Œ 25
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Rapid Response Bridge Funding Program In the face of recent abrupt shifts in federal funding for education research, including large-scale terminations of National Science Foundation (NSF) research grant awards, we have developed a rap...

FYI: The Spencer Foundation, Kapor Foundation, The William T. Grant Foundation, and the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation have collaborated to offer $25K rapid response grants.

"This rapid response bridge funding opportunity is for scholars and teams whose grants have recently been cancelled by NSF."

02.05.2025 21:16 β€” πŸ‘ 763    πŸ” 554    πŸ’¬ 6    πŸ“Œ 24
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A huge majority of Americans (77%) oppose the cuts to medical research that the current administration has made.

(Source: Wash. Post/ABC/Ipsos poll)

28.04.2025 20:48 β€” πŸ‘ 108    πŸ” 41    πŸ’¬ 3    πŸ“Œ 2

BREAKING: We're suing the National Institutes of Health over their politically-motivated purge of research grants.

This is an unlawful attack on scientific progress that puts lives at risk.

02.04.2025 20:03 β€” πŸ‘ 14201    πŸ” 3031    πŸ’¬ 131    πŸ“Œ 108
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75% of US scientists who answered Nature poll consider leaving More than 1,600 readers answered our poll; many said they were looking for jobs in Europe and Canada.

The massive changes in US research brought about by the new administration of President Donald Trump are causing many scientists in the country to rethink their lives and careers

https://go.nature.com/41OhAgK

27.03.2025 14:14 β€” πŸ‘ 138    πŸ” 78    πŸ’¬ 2    πŸ“Œ 27
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Science Under Threat in the United States: How scientists and institutions should respond Individual researchers and university leaders need to make the case for science to their elected representatives and to the public at large.

Science is under threat in the US. @elife.bsky.social have commissioned a series of articles discussing the implications and what we can do. The first three articles are now live. More to follow:
elifesciences.org/articles/106...
elifesciences.org/articles/106...
elifesciences.org/articles/106...

25.03.2025 14:24 β€” πŸ‘ 233    πŸ” 162    πŸ’¬ 13    πŸ“Œ 6
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NIH Grants Fueled $95 Billion In FY 2024 Economic Activity, Finds New Report National Institutes of Health grants generated almost $95 billion in economic activity nationwide in FY 2024 according to a new report by United for Medical Research.

New report shows that NIH grants fueled $95 billion in economic activity and 407,782 jobs in 2024.

That's not to mention the countless lives that biomedical research has saved.

Show me a better investment than that.
www.forbes.com/sites/michae...

12.03.2025 20:47 β€” πŸ‘ 2033    πŸ” 1146    πŸ’¬ 23    πŸ“Œ 71

This feels like a situation in which we should very specifically NOT be using AI…

04.03.2025 12:00 β€” πŸ‘ 3    πŸ” 0    πŸ’¬ 0    πŸ“Œ 0

If you've been calling Congress, keep calling & if not, start-we're getting their attention. We had a good visit to a Congressional office yesterday to discuss science funding & the staffer told us how busy they've been-usually the Senate shwitchboard gets 64 calls/minute-now they're getting 1600 πŸ§ͺ

01.03.2025 13:04 β€” πŸ‘ 965    πŸ” 286    πŸ’¬ 18    πŸ“Œ 10
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U.S. early-career researchers struggling amid chaos Uncertain funding, government firings, and distressed universities hit vulnerable groups especially hard

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

22.02.2025 02:18 β€” πŸ‘ 16    πŸ” 7    πŸ’¬ 0    πŸ“Œ 1

This clearly shows that the administration doesn’t care at all about the price of eggs. If they did they would not be firing people in an office that coordinates testing and tracking of bird flu across a network of national labs in the middle of a massive bird flu outbreak

17.02.2025 11:11 β€” πŸ‘ 10    πŸ” 5    πŸ’¬ 0    πŸ“Œ 1
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Opinion | Kennedy’s Anti-Vaccine Views Don’t Represent America Threatening vaccine access is not only bad science, it’s bad politics.

Americans don’t agree on much, but nine in 10 endorse childhood vaccines, Caitlin Rivers writes. Emphasizing the popularity of the shots is not just about correcting the record β€” it’s key to protecting them.

16.02.2025 15:56 β€” πŸ‘ 380    πŸ” 94    πŸ’¬ 23    πŸ“Œ 9
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How Trump’s Medical Research Cuts Would Hit Colleges and Hospitals in Every State Changes to a key funding formula will reduce research grants at hospitals and universities by billions β€” and may discourage future research.

How Trump’s medical research cuts would hit colleges and hospitals in every state: www.nytimes.com/interactive/... My colleagues and I crunched the numbers.

14.02.2025 14:00 β€” πŸ‘ 300    πŸ” 146    πŸ’¬ 12    πŸ“Œ 11
ASM’s Commitment to Diversity, Equity and Inclusion The American Society for Microbiology stands firm in its commitment to diversity, equity and inclusion, as such efforts are critical to advancing the microbial sciences for everyone.

ASM stands firm in its commitment to diversity, equity and inclusion, as such efforts are critical to advancing the microbial sciences for everyone. Read our statement: asm.org/Press-Releas...

15.02.2025 00:34 β€” πŸ‘ 902    πŸ” 173    πŸ’¬ 27    πŸ“Œ 29
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A leading pediatrician was already worried about the future of vaccines. Then RFK Jr. came along In a new book, pediatric infectious disease specialist Dr. Adam Ratner details the history of measles, a virus that’s often a bellwether for public health disasters.

"The best and the worst thing about vaccination is that it 'makes nothing happen.'

A child successfully inoculated against measles doesn’t fall sick with that condition, doesn’t miss school, doesn’t go to the hospital. They don’t suffer life-changing complications. They don’t die prematurely."

11.02.2025 00:01 β€” πŸ‘ 17539    πŸ” 3929    πŸ’¬ 256    πŸ“Œ 123

Apologies for this long post I put together to explain to non-scientists the impact of NIH cuts: Last night, an β€œatomic bomb” was dropped on the biomedical science community. We were informed that effective immediately, indirect costs on NIH grants (both current and future) would be fixed at 15%.

08.02.2025 22:32 β€” πŸ‘ 441    πŸ” 205    πŸ’¬ 19    πŸ“Œ 32

@rayprescott is following 20 prominent accounts