Ellen Weinzapfel, PhD

OPINION | Op-Ed: Funding cuts will slow medical research, lead to deaths Cuts to National Institutes of Health and National Science Foundation research funding aren’t just numbers on a budget spreadsheet.

🧬🧪So I got really inspired by the amazing scientists writing op-eds, so I wrote one for my hometown newspaper in Evansville, IN.

I wrote it a week ago, it went online yesterday, and now I'm wishing I had been harsher about the realities. What 5 days can do...😭

www.courierpress.com/story/opinio...

This man is a national treasure, and this is not hyperbole. Thank you @jeremymberg.bsky.social for your updates, advocacy, and so much more that we probably don't know about.
Also I guess I need to contact my reps/senators again...

The thing about destroying NIH is NIH’s scale in medical research just dwarfs everyone else.

For ex, in 2023 the American Cancer Society gave out $64.5 million worth of grants. Sounds big, right?
But NIH’s budget was $49 billion. With a B.

Kill NIH and the floor drops out of US science.

So I did this today: banged out a couple hundred words of a pitch while managing lab, sent it to the opinion page editor at the newspaper my parents still somehow get in print, and got back a "yes" in, I absolutely kid you not, under 15 minutes

THIS.

I work for a company that supports and collaborates with NIH funded labs, and our R&D is partially funded by the NIH. So many labs, start-ups, and companies rely on this funding for life-saving research.

You are seen and you matter ❤️

ReproductiveRights.Gov Vanished, So We Brought It Back theSkimm makes it easier to live smarter. You're welcome. Get all the info you need from AM to PM, wherever you are.

The administration took down the reproductive rights website that women need access to. So The Skimm bought a url and brought the content back. Pass this on!

Go to reproductiverightsdotgov.com

I am not cowed, but I am very sad.

I am sad for so many, people facing upheaval in their lives, with their families, at work, and in their communities. I am sad because it is being done out of hate, and also out of spite. I am sad because it is going to get much worse.

Scientific advancements aside, this is economically irresponsible

Every $1 spent by NIH generates $2.46

For example, in 2023, $47B in NIH spending generated ~$93B

Halting NIH spending will LOSE the US a lot of money (and talent)

This was a fascinating read... second the recommendation.

Devastating seems like an understatement. Especially with no timeline or future plans laid out. This impacts researchers, students, patients, physicians, and anyone related to this work.
Is Terrifying a better word? Despicable? I don't know. The last few days have been all these words combined.

Transcription dynamics and genome organization in the mammalian nucleus: Recent advances [perspective by Kaustubh Wagh, Diana Stavreva and Gordon Hager] www.cell.com/molecular-ce...

My apologies - I definitely read too quickly and saw pediatric diabetes, assuming Type I. Thank you for correcting me! Klaus would laugh at me for this mistake 🤣

🧪🧬Extensive chromatin mapping, including Hi-C, Capture-C, ATAC-seq, and RNA-seq help link GWAS variants to gene regulatory mechanisms in Type I Diabetes.

Great work by some fantastic scientists at UPenn, congrats to all!

🧬🧪#PAG33 Learning about the economics, genomics, and genetic diversity of blueberries. Posting because...I LOVE blueberries 🫐
Fun talk by Kendall Lee at HudsonAlpha Institute for Biotechnology!

🧪🧬Don't miss out on Andrea's poster - you'll want to download this!!

Why?

If you are doing whole genome bisulfite or EM-seq, we are working on some new, low cost DNA methylation profiling options for you.

With MORE coverage than arrays.

See you at #PAG32!! I'm en route ☺️

🧪SUPER excited for @emadden.bsky.social talk about EpiCypher's latest work developing chromatin mapping assays for #FFPE tissues. These strategies will open the door to thousands of samples that were inaccessible by other methods. Stay tuned!!

🧬🧪 I'm flying out to San Diego tomorrow for #PAG32 and I can't wait!

My poster on CUT&RUN and CUT&Tag is Monday evening. We also have a poster (P052) in the Monday morning session on DNA methylation, from Andrea Johnstone.

How can we help you apply #epigenomics in plants? Let us know!

We updated our Manual and Tech Support Center as well - I personally work on this content, so if you have requests for new FAQs please let me know!

It is still designed for 8-strip tubes and multichannel pipetting, enabling higher throughput CUT&RUN.

We also added a new control antibody, so now you are getting THREE controls: H3K4me3, H3K27me3, and IgG, paired with our SNAP-CUTANA K-MetStat Panel.

🧪🧬We are SUPER excited about the launch of our 24 reaction CUT&RUN Kit.

It has all the controls and reagents from the larger CUT&RUN kit, but in a kit size that is more accessible to a lot of researchers.

🎄🔔Ho Ho ho!😆 Our final
#FragileNucleosome
seminar of the year! We are excited to host Julia and Nithya, two amazing ECR scientists!
🗓️Don't forget to register: us06web.zoom.us/webinar/regi...

🧪🧬Very exited to see this out on bioRxiv! I helped develop and edit this manuscript, but so much time and effort was put in by the lead author, Tessa Firestone, and senior author Lu Sun, PhD.

We hope it helps boost the efforts of new and expert CUT&RUN users alike!

Macrophages excite muscle spindles with glutamate to bolster locomotion - Nature A population of macrophages with exclusive molecular and functional signatures in the muscle spindles express machinery for synthesizing and releasing glutamate, and a cellular component, the muscle s...

Immunologists, time to embrace your inner neuroscientist 🧠🧪

Macrophages (yes, #macrophages) release glutamate (yes, #glutamate) to sensory neurons engaging in the muscle stretch reflex. Very cool paper! #neuroscience #immunology

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

🧪 Great resource - and a great reminder that how we present data is important to proper interpretation and discussion.

Getting the right combination to break the epigenetic code - Nature Reviews Clinical Oncology Increased recognition of the roles of epigenetic reprogramming in cancer has spurred the development of epigenetic therapies, although these drugs have meaningful efficacy as single agents in only a n...

🧪🧬A new review on epigenetic-targeted drugs - with a big focus on how epigenetic drugs are being explored for combination therapies across multiple types of cancer.

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

Targeting chromatin modifying complexes in acute myeloid leukemia Abstract. Acute myeloid leukemia (AML) is a devastating hematologic malignancy with high rates of relapse, which can, in part, be attributed to the dysregu

Overwhelmed by all of the exciting new research on chromatin modifiers in AML? Find it hard to keep track of all the new menin inhibitors? Well good news, we’ve just published the perfect review for you in SCTM!

@alexkschurer.bsky.social
@gritsmanlab.bsky.social

academic.oup.com/stcltm/advan...

I find this paper so fascinating because:

🧬 DNA methylation is cool

🧪 New, innovative technologies (PER-seq) allowed scientists to unravel new mechanisms

💊 These discoveries may provide new targets for drug development! (4/n)