Kim Tolias

The U.S. Is Funding Fewer Grants in Every Area of Science and Medicine A quiet policy change means the government is making fewer bets on long-term science.

Under Trump, the NIH is giving fewer grants to fewer scientists. The grants awarded are smaller and scientists have less time to spend them.

Projects in cancer, diabetes, aging, neurological disorder, and more are going unfunded.

“Make America Healthy Again.”

🔬 Exciting PostDoc Opportunity! 🐁🧠

We - the @sinzlab.bsky.social (sinzlab.org) and @trose-neuro.bsky.social (troselab.de) Labs - are seeking an experimental postdoc to work at @unibonn.bsky.social with cutting-edge miniature 2-photon microscopy and gaze tracking in freely behaving mice.

"Women at Harvard deserve educators who respect them."

NEW: Epstein survivors release the most powerful PSA I have ever seen.

Make this go viral so every member of the House of Representatives sees it.

A bad thing is unfolding at NIH this week: It looks like the Trump administration is trying to replace key civil servant scientific leaders, the Institute Directors, with political hires. These directors control the NIH budget, tens of billions.

A bit of a video explainer here: 1/ 🧪

🧪This is a must watch. Please watch tonight's episode @60minutes.bsky.social.

Joan Brugge is an eminent scientist that was one of the first pioneers of 3D culture in breast cancer. She had two of her grants canceled last spring.

We used her protocols to develop our own for our research.

Battle between Trump and universities hurting scientific research in need of federal funding Federal research funding to universities has fueled breakthroughs for years. The White House is pressuring universities to align with the president's political agenda, or risk losing their funding.

Very well done story on 60 Minutes about the harms of grant terminations and freezes at Harvard with Joan Brugge, Don Engbar, David Liu, and a very compelling young cancer patient, now cured with Liu's technology.

Transcript and video here

www.cbsnews.com/news/researc...

7 basic science discoveries that changed the world Ozempic, MRI machines and flat screen televisions all emerged out of fundamental research decades earlier — the very types of study being slashed by the US government.

Scientists point to a long list of findings that emerged out of fundamental research, the type of studies the US government is cutting, and went on to change the world. Nature lists a few of their examples. 🧪

Remembering GABA pioneer Edward Kravitz The biochemist, who died last month at age 92, was part of the first neurobiology department in the world and showed that gamma-aminobutyric acid is inhibitory.

Edward Kravitz, a Harvard biochemist who proved GABA's inhibitory power, passed away last month. He will "be remembered for his humanity, for his social conscience and his desire to help those less fortunate than he,” says Ronald Harris-Warrick.

By @claudia-lopez.bsky.social

bit.ly/479Ggmo

Jane Goodall, Eminent Primatologist Who Chronicled the Lives of Chimps, Dies at 91

Sad news: Jane Goodall has died. She did more than any other human for our understanding and appreciation of our closest relatives, the chimpanzees.

That chimpanzees are Endangered tells you everything about our species and about what made her so exceptional.

www.nytimes.com/2025/10/01/o...

‘Congress has your back’: US senators tell scientists they want to protect NIH budget Senate budget bill includes small increase for the health-research agency — but faces a long road before being signed into law.

‘Congress has your back’: US senators tell scientists they want to protect NIH budget
www.nature.com/articles/d41...

A functional perspective on astrocyte heterogeneity Astrocytes are glial cells of the central nervous system (CNS) that perform an array of diverse functions that are essential for brain activity. Studies on the functional diversity of astrocytes sugge...

A functional perspective on astrocyte heterogeneity
www.cell.com/trends/neuro...

My quote of the day

A Video Quote

Medical miracles don't happen overnight. You have to invest in them. Our investments are in trouble.

(From Francis Collins on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert, July 16, 2025)

Nobel laureate on how Trump's cuts are hurting science Neuroscientist, biologist and 2021 Nobel Prize winner Ardem Patapoutian joined Midday Edition to talk about how the Trump administration's effort to cut back on science spending is impacting researche...

I spoke with Jade Hindmon, host of @kpbssandiego.bsky.social Midday Edition, about the consequences of the current administration’s cuts to science funding. Please share to help spread the word and raise awareness.
www.kpbs.org/podcasts/kpb...

Yas! Parent F32 (PA-25-423) and F30s (PA-25-426, PA-25-425) are also published.
simpler.grants.gov

These are not just grants. This is thousands of people who devoted their lives and careers - taking pay cuts, working long hours, living with uncertainty - all for the chance to try to make people's lives a bit better for you and your loved ones. This breaks my heart.

NIH indirect cost cuts will affect the economy and employment - Nature Human Behaviour Nature Human Behaviour - NIH indirect cost cuts will affect the economy and employment

www.nature.com/articles/s41...
Every $1 spent on NIH funding returns nearly $3 to the economy - an almost 200% return on investment💰.
Also 99% of drugs developed 2010-2019 were funded by NIH ‼️🤯
Cutting NIH funding not only hurts the economy but will hurt families and patients 😔💔

Ardem Patapoutian's story is not just the American dream, it is the dream of American science. He arrived in Los Angeles in 1986 at age 18 after fleeing war-torn Lebanon. He spent a year writing for an Armenian newspaper and delivering Domino's at night to become eligible for the University of California, where he earned his undergraduate degree and a postdoctoral fellowship in neuroscience. He started a lab at Scripps Research in San Diego with a grant from the National Institutes of Health, discovered the way humans sense touch, and in 2021 won the Nobel Prize. But with the Trump administration slashing spending on science, Dr. Patapoutian's federal grant to develop new approaches to treating pain has been frozen. In late February, he posted on Bluesky that such cuts would damage biomedical research and prompt an exodus of talent from the United States. Within hours, he had an email from China, offering to move his lab to "any city, any university I want," he said, with a guarantee of funding for the next 20 years.

Man comes to the US from Lebanon. Starts out delivering pizzas, becomes a Nobel winning neuroscientist. Trump freezes his funding, he gets an email from China offering to move his lab “any city, any university I want" with guaranteed funding for 20 years.

What are we doing?

Senator Ossoff speaking the truth. We need real action

It is hard to conceive of a more anti-American policy choice for US innovation and prosperity in the 21st century.

ASSIGNMENT: COMMENT ON SCHEDULE F

1 week left to comment about Schedule F, potentially making NIH institute and center director essentially political appointees.

www.regulations.gov/commenton/OP...

1/n

Huge congratulations to @franciscoblanco.bsky.social (PhD) and Topher Cronkite (MD/PhD) for earning their degrees! Mentoring such outstanding students has been a true honor! Can't wait to see the amazing things they'll do next! @bcmneurosci.bsky.social @bcm-mstp.bsky.social #BCMGraduation

YouTube video by Amanpour and Company Breakthrough Prize-Winning Biochemist on the Deadly Cost of Funding Cuts | Amanpour and Company

David Liu @harvard.edu beautifully articulates the criticality of basic science funding for developing revolutionary therapeutics like life-saving base editors 👏

youtu.be/8YhJM6zxYDw?...

Harvard today, your institution tomorrow.

It's all part of the Project 2025 plan to destroy high education in America.

All leading US universities depend on federal funding and tuition dollars from international students. They severely curtailed the former. Now they're eliminating the latter.

DURBIN: How can we give hope to people across the country who are suffering from so many diseases when our government is cutting back on that research?

RFK Jr: I do not know about any cuts to ALS research

D: I just read them to you!

R: I didn't know about them until you told me about them

say it again:

4 million people work in higher ed, the largest employer in 10 states, second largest employer in 10 more, and in 60 of the 100 biggest cities

ROI for NIH and NSF for local economies is conservatively 4x, often close to 10x

demolishing higher education is economic sabotage

Why We Need the National Institutes of Health NIH has historically received bipartisan support. We should all be advocating for continued federal funding for biomedical research.

On why we need the NIH.

www.physiology.org/publications...

We have updated our database of funding opportunities for Early-Career Researchers (private foundations, federal, international)

We have 456 entries, for which we provide $ amount, deadline, eligibility criteria, etc.

Download this massive database here for free: research.jhu.edu/rdt/funding-...

"The biomedical research cuts when they’re polled are like 70-30 or 80-20 against. But it’s only on the edges of the news. You want to push it to the center of the news...Let’s have that vote. Push this issue to the top of the news feed and make Republicans own these cuts."