Bailey Weatherbee

Opinion | Trump’s Most Lethal Policy

On the ground impacts from the loss of USAID.

As a child of peace corps & niece of a USAID employee, watching US aid crumble is heartbreaking. Aid investments have always been in our national self-interest, but nonetheless have been essential for uplifting millions globally.

shorturl.at/kU5Eu

Speaker presenting slides from a podium

@mariamikedis.bsky.social is closing out Midwest SDB with our final talk of the conference!
Great weekend of science and lovely colleagues here at @cincyresearch.bsky.social

@socdevbio.bsky.social

#MWSDB25

Dr Lovely presenting a slide with a picture of a humorous sign advising “warning: alcohol impairs judgement” with a person kissing a fish underwater

An important reminder from @thelovelylab.bsky.social after an amazing talk at #MWSDB25

Conference participants on a tour of a microscopy facility

Image of a fluorescent mouse brain on an imaging computer

The #MWSDB25 tour of the Nikon Center of Excellence at Cincinnati Children’s Research Foundation ✨

Speaker on stage presenting slides

Fantastic interactive plenary talk at #MWSDB25 on from Jason Organ on the importance of changing our communication styles as scientists to more effectively communicate with the general public

@socdevbio.bsky.social

Seated crowd watching speaker at podium present slides in an auditorium conference room

Going strong on day 2 of Midwest SDB #MWSDB25 @socdevbio.bsky.social @cincyresearch.bsky.social

Presentation with person at podium to the left

Kicking it off at #MWSDB25 with a keynote from Paul Trainor @aussiebiologist.bsky.social!

@socdevbio.bsky.social @cincyresearch.bsky.social

Meeting poster for the Midwest SDB

Meeting policies and code of conduct slide

Midwest SDB starting now @cincyresearch.bsky.social @socdevbio.bsky.social

#MWSDB25

Harvard victory leaves scientists feeling vindicated but uncertain Trump administration vows to appeal ruling that it illegally cut $2.2 billion in research funding

Harvard victory leaves scientists feeling vindicated but uncertain @science.org
www.science.org/content/arti...

Shootings on campus are always bad.

PhD student from @cincychildrens.bsky.social leaving the US for more fertile ground in Europe

The uncertainty and devastation of NIH cuts will either destroy the academic careers of trainees, stamp them out before they begin, or push them to places they never thought under duress

Flash talk slide presented in lecture theater

2 Poster prize winners holding certificates

Blow up frog

Slide announcing new lab opening

Zorn lab & @xenbase.bsky.social team had a great time at #IXC25 in portsmouth! Including (finally!!!) key good news shared by @nicoleedwds.bsky.social 😉

Thank you to everyone who organized and made it possible!!

Photo of a slide showing an ironic summary of the 2006 Xenopus meeting during which seemingly every talk was about Wnt signaling

New Xenopus community lore unlocked at the #IXC25 @frogwranglers.bsky.social

If it’s time to revisit the 14-day rule, it’s also time to engage the public  - Nuffield Council on Bioethics Molly Gray, Public Engagement Manager at the Nuffield Council on Bioethics, introduces our upcoming public dialogue and discusses the importance of engaging the public in conversations around the 14-d...

"With debate growing around whether the “14-day rule” on human embryo research remains fit for purpose, the need for inclusive public dialogue is more important than ever".
www.nuffieldbioethics.org/news-blog/if...

🤩 Very excited to share our new work! We have derived euploid and aneuploid trophoblast organoids and extra-embryonic mesoderm cell lines from early human embryos. In doing so, we have characterised the tissue requirements for their specification. If you want to know more, continue reading….

Dachshund with a pink axolotl dog toy

Added an axolotl to his model organism collection.

Pupper is pleased. The axolotl both has crinkle and squeaking features. He wishes to find out if he gets a limb off, will it regenerate.

9. I simply cannot ethically hire anyone on federal funds under these new conditions, and I will not do so going forward.

That hamstrings my research, but worse it prevents the development of brilliant, talented researchers like my former students who are professors, startup founders, and more.

7. Training, meanwhile, becomes impossible.

In the US, earning a PhD takes 5 years or more. Every student I have ever trained has been supported on federal funds that they were directly awarded or from grants that I won.

If I can't guarantee to pay, I can't take students. It's that simple.

Improving Oversight of Federal Grantmaking By the authority vested in me as President by the Constitution and the laws of the United States of America, and to improve the process of Federal

Well, this is a huge Executive Order power grab...

www.whitehouse.gov/presidential...

1/3

Per a question to the chair from Senator Durbin: $400 M increase in the bill.

Here is the bill (I haven't had time to read it)

www.appropriations.senate.gov/imo/media/do...

1/2

Trump Administration Puts New Chokehold on Billions in Health-Research Funding The National Institutes of Health can’t award grants to outside researchers under a new White House restriction.

NEW
The White House is blocking the NIH from awarding new research grants for the rest of the fiscal year

Chokes off billions in research funding

Gift link www.wsj.com/politics/pol... with @nidhisubs.bsky.social

Odds of winning NIH grants plummet as new funding policy and spending delays bite Funding multiyear grants up front will sharply cut number of investigators receiving awards

Odds of winning #NIH grants plummet as new funding policy and spending delays bite | Science | AAAS www.science.org/content/arti...

I was thinking about this too as I'm a standing member at NIH and review did the DoD. The amount of time and effort for no monetary benefit that is expected of us is unreasonable even at a 10th percentile funding rate. But at 4%.... what are we even asking of scientists?

New paper out from @zernickagoetz.bsky.social lab led by Dong-Yuan Chen.

We show how the extracellular matrix guides body axis formation in mouse—and possibly human—embryos. Dong did some very challenging experiments - glad to have played a part in seeing it complete.

doi.org/10.1038/s414...

FY 2026 R&D Appropriations Dashboard | American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS)

I guess no Appros. markup from the house at least on the labor/HHS (NIH) before Aug recess (from the house at least) since Speaker is afraid of Epstein files.

In the meantime, AAAS has a decent dashboard for FY26 markups/exec budget requests (interactive more u.p.d): www.aaas.org/news/fy-2026...

Venus Williams just won her first match in two years and at the end when they were interviewing her about what a miracle it was, she said she had to come back and play a match; they told her she was on cobra and she’s always at the doctor so **she needs the health insurance**

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)

A bar graph showing the fraction of non-competitive renewal grants funded by month for Northwestern. Almost no grants were funded with budget start dates in From June 1 onwards.

The situation is still dire for institutions such as Northwestern (shown here) where non-competitive renewals are still not being issued at an appreciable rate.

/fin for now

Dear all, PLEASE add comments on the importance of model organism research at this link: