Cheng-Ying Ho, MD, PhD

My quote of the day

Never lose the childlike wonder. Show gratitude... Don't complain; just work harder... Never give up.

Randy Pausch

No even if it’s free.

You look at science (or at least talk of it) as some sort of demoralizing invention of man, something apart from real life, and which must be cautiously guarded and kept separate from everyday existence. But science and everyday life cannot and should not be separated.

Rosalind Franklin (to father)

a muppet news anchor says " and now a muppet news flash " while holding a piece of paper ALT: a muppet news anchor says " and now a muppet news flash " while holding a piece of paper

I now have multiple sources that say at least one round of NATIONAL ADVISORY COUNCIL MEETINGS will now be announced in the Federal Register.

Looks like NIH Councils are going to resume meeting in April/May

BREAKING: NIH CSR meeting notices in the Federal Register will restart tomorrow (Tuesday, 3/4).

The first notice is for 4 CSR meetings in late March and early April. 3 special emphasis panels, 1 for kidney disease.

This is the first such notice since January 21.

Wow! Incredible new study on how hippocampal neuronal activity tracks narration:

1/ Each word has a contextualized neural code.
2/ Neural distance mirrors semantic distance. Super cool as @dlevenstein.bsky.social showed this emerges from sequential predictive coding!

Congrats to the team!!

UPDATE ON FUNDING

These are data through 2/21/25. The lag in Reporter really does appear to be about a week.

There was a second mini-pause as suspected from internal reports, but grants are being awarded.

About 21% new or competitive renewals (compared to 29% in 2017, and 22% in 2021

2025 Study section tracking

Wondering if your study section cancelled? I update this sheet daily. As of today, 56/124 study sections that should have met since Jan 2, 2025 have "not met as scheduled." docs.google.com/spreadsheets...

a muppet news anchor says " and now a muppet news flash " while holding a piece of paper ALT: a muppet news anchor says " and now a muppet news flash " while holding a piece of paper

Confirmed (by many sources) news about 50 NIH Study Sections being allowed to announce meetings in the Federal Register.

As usual, MANY more questions than answers...

1/2

Some NIH study sections will resume reviewing grants, but final funding decisions are still in limbo While some NIH study sections will resume, advisory council meetings, which make final funding decisions, seem to still be held up.

STAT story is up about study section restart.

www.statnews.com/2025/02/24/s...

a man in a red suit and tie is holding a piece of paper that says breaking news on it ALT: a man in a red suit and tie is holding a piece of paper that says breaking news on it

Some good-ish news from NIH

“Federal Register notices for study sections run by CSR (but not those by ICs) will start being permitted again”

As far as I know, the timing for this is not clear, but I will be checking the Federal Register.

I wanted to highlight this incredible science advocacy resource on the @sfn.org website. There's info on how to contact your legislatures, prep for meetings, and make your voice heard. Thank you to SfN for not backing down from the fight and supporting scientists! 🧠🧪 www.sfn.org/advocacy/adv...

Senator Murray Blasts Trump & Elon for Illegally Paralyzing Lifesaving Research Again, Threatening to Extinguish Ongoing and Groundbreaking Work - Senator Patty Murray ICYMI: Murray Blasts Trump and Musk Decimating HHS, Risking Americans’ Health and Livelihoods Washington, D.C. — U.S. Senator Patty Murray (D-WA), Vice Chair of the Senate Appropriations Committee and...

A US Senator Joins the Fray. Thank you
@murray.senate.gov ! More of this, please!

www.murray.senate.gov/senator-murr...

Revealed: NIH research grants still frozen despite lawsuits challenging Trump order The Trump administration is exploiting a loophole to keep a funding freeze in place, leaving researchers in limbo.

In case you were wondering how the Trump admin was still freezing NIH funds, despite court orders, this is how.

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

I called my senator and congressman to let them know this. I don’t think many of them know this hurdle yet.

NPI is not on the register. Their last meeting was on January 6th which was a special conflict panel to review my application (and possibly other applications). Their meeting today was not on the federal register and therefore canceled.

My lab has a position for a programmer--if you have programming skills and have recently left the NIH please contact me.

Mine was canceled today. At least I don't need to think about the score for a while. Too many bad things are happening right now. My mind needs a break.

I believe that they are still waiting for the 2025 appropriation from the Congress.

If the block on the Federal Register isn’t removed in the next few months, I fear a majority of labs will close within a year. This small procedural wrench has the power to kill US science indefinitely, losing an entire generation of discovery and innovation.

I would also like to express my gratitude. It is hard being an ESI in this political climate with everything being delayed and a looming funding cut. I appreciate the information and you fighting for us.

I feel that by now we should have an idea about the budget cut but we don’t

Speaking of which -
🧬🦠🧠🥼📈🟦 Bioinformatics and Open Science folks:

Has anyone heard of efforts to mirror or back up NCBI?

NCBI doesn't seem to be under fire yet, but there are many datasets on NCBI that include variables like gender and race...

@openbio.bsky.social @iscb.bsky.social @cos.io