Monique Smith

Lab’s 1st preprint!

Menstruation is understudied due to societal taboos + a biological challenge: mice (a key system for research + drug discovery) don’t menstruate.

@cagricevrim.bsky.social made menstruating mice + used them to discover early events in menstruation.

He is on the job market!

Such exciting work from @karalmckinley.bsky.social lab. I wonder if this mouse model could be used to study brain changes across the menstrual cycle and associated mood disorders as well.

Induction of menstruation in mice reveals the regulation of menstrual shedding During menstruation, an inner layer of the endometrium is selectively shed, while an outer, progenitor-containing layer is preserved to support repeated regeneration. Progress in understanding this co...

I’m thrilled to share my postdoc work and the first paper from the McKinley Lab! 🎉
@karalmckinley.bsky.social
We built the first transgenic model of menstruation in mice.
We used it to uncover how the endometrium organizes and sheds during menstruation. 🧪
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
🧵

Coming to SD 🌴 for #SfN25 🧠?! Join @storiesofwin.bsky.social for our first in-person event 🤩. We’ll have a keynote, panels, & time for networking! Won’t be in SD? You can still register to receive a recording! Speaker/panelist announcements coming soon 👀

Register by Nov 1: forms.gle/CJPcKZNZY7uU...

Yeah I understand- I’m just pointing out that it’s just always all men and maybe one woman when you look across the categories. Every year the same thing- every year I post into the void about it- hah

Maybe not among the “expected” lists….but still all men

This is figure 3, which shows Googling for images of occupations amplifies age-based gender inequality in people’s beliefs.

An analysis of 1.4 million online images published in Nature suggests that women are represented as younger than men across occupations and social roles. These stereotypes may be further reinforced by mainstream algorithms. go.nature.com/4o9zHWw 🧪

Same thing we do every year Pinky- give all the Nobel prizes to men and primarily white men.

How Academic Freedom in Universities Generates the Greatest Value for Society Academic freedom is at the foundation of one of the most powerful and fundamental ideas about universities. Learn about how academic freedom has contributed to broad benefits in society and UC Davis f...

“If we aren't free to pursue research and teaching based on wherever the knowledge leads us, we are not truly working in the service of the public.”

— Rana Jaleel, associate professor at UC Davis & Chair of the AAUP’s Committee A on Academic Freedom & Tenure

Over the weekend ICE abducted an NIH contractor when he showed up to a courthouse for his green card hearing. He is documented. His wife is a citizen.

He is also member of the skeleton crew of animal care staff that works through a shutdown, to ensure the health and wellbeing of research animals.

Today my @nytimes.com colleagues and I are launching a new series called Lost Science. We interview US scientists who can no longer discover something new about our world, thanks to this year‘s cuts. Here is my first interview with a scientist who studied bees and fires. Gift link: nyti.ms/3IWXbiE

Hah. Samesies. Running experiments on the weekly rn!! Made me miss a meeting today- oops!

Next up, @honglab.bsky.social!

Mice show prosocial behaviors and coordinate with each other to achieve mutual rewards. 🐭

Mice also get better at coordinating over time (waiting for the other, nose poking to time their behaviors)! 🐁

#S4SN2025

Aaaand invited speaker Michael Yartsev studies natural social behavior in groups of bats. 🦇

Why bats? Bats live their lives almost entirely in collective social settings and they live quite long so they interact a lot with others. Fascinating!

#S4SN2025

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2) MDMA makes mice more empathic, just like humans! So Serotonin seems to play a role! 🤔

The fantastic @moeneuro.bsky.social talking about social transfer of pain & analgesia in mice today!

1) Mice express pain-related behaviours they observe in others & this transfer effect is related to Activity in ACC and NAc!

#S4SN2025

a close up of a woman 's face with the words " are you ready for it " ALT: a close up of a woman 's face with the words " are you ready for it "

Day 1 was already amazing - are you ready for day 2? 🌟

Great symposium today with @honglab.bsky.social Andreas Olsson and Grit Hein on empathy across species at @s4sn.bsky.social in Lisbon! #s4sn2025

“Social behavior is the cause of and solution to all of our problems,” Liz Hammock giving a beautiful talk at the Larry Young Memorial symposium at #s4sn2025 @s4sn.bsky.social

Beautiful and timely talk by Inbal Ben Ami Bartal @s4sn.bsky.social #S4sn2025

a close up of a woman 's face with the words `` it 's game time '' written on it . ALT: a close up of a woman 's face with the words `` it 's game time '' written on it .

And we're on!!! Don't forget to tag us or use the hashtag #S4SN2025 for all your conference activities! 🤩

Starting now! #S4SN2025 🤗

🫶🏻 Countdown to S4SN 2025! 🎉

Only a few days to go until we gather in beautiful Lisbon from September 23 to 26!

Can’t wait to see you all as we honor our cherished founder, Prof. Larry Young, and celebrate advancements in social neuroscience.
🌍✨ #S4SN2025 #SocialNeuroscience #Lisbon

One of the problems is that civilians hear “grant“ and think it’s a “fill out a form and get money” process, not a “harrowing Hunger Games competition against the brightest minds in the country” process.

Did You Work on a Terminated NIH Grant? ProPublica Wants to Hear From You. The National Institutes of Health is canceling grants that are seen as conflicting with the Trump administration’s priorities. We want to hear from researchers who have been affected.

Related to our previous post- if you had a grant terminated, Pro Publica wants to hear from you. Your work was funded because it was good, important science meant to help Americans. Reach out, and make your voice heard.

www.propublica.org/getinvolved/...

Will be presenting on pain and negative affect during social interactions and social support following traumatic birth!

Are you curious about headache and migraine pain? Join the Gulf Coast Consortium for a deep dive into the world of headaches and migraines at the #Pain2025 Workshop, featuring talks from @moeneuro.bsky.social, Yarimar Carrasquillo, and Greg Corder bit.ly/3JaeHzL #PRF

In light of today’s news about the National Cancer Institute announcing a 4% payline, it’s really important to communicate to people that the previous 10% payline was still effectively a lottery and the result of decades of underfunding the NIH. Paylines used to be 25%.

For MAGA, Ignorance is Strength Research cuts aren’t about shrinking government, they’re about killing science

"two first-rate economists, David Cutler and Ed Glaeser, have made a stab at estimating the impact of cuts at NIH. Their analysis suggests that these cuts might save $500 billion in federal spending over the next 25 years — while imposing more than $8 trillion in losses."

Grant terminations have grabbed the headlines and have seen legal action, but even more damaging to the US research enterprise has been the massive decrease in number of research grants issued by federal agencies

NIH has seen a decrease of 57% in the number of awards & 63% in value compared to FY24