Kristy Townsend, PhD

A much-needed glimmer of hope for US biomedical workforce right now. It’s been a long period of irregularities, cuts and chronic stress about research continuity. Fingers crossed this bipartisan effort for human health breakthroughs and innovations gets through 🤞🤞🧪🧪

😳😳 mirror neurons?

Opinion | What Happens When Doctors Can’t Trust the Government?

“Every time you go to your doctor or get treated by a nurse, there’s a chorus of researchers, public health workers, policy experts, epidemiologists and advisory panels arrayed behind them, aided by laboratories, databases, websites… Our current government seems determined to wrench this away”

Over the last year, WIRED has gained … something of a reputation. A good one. One that involved offering more scoops than a Ben & Jerry’s. On top of all that excellent reporting we’ve served up fantastic editorial packages. As their curator, here are my faves of 2025.
www.wired.com/v2/offers/wi...

Evergreen post. 🧪🧪

I doubt that there is a single family in America that hasn’t benefitted directly from the NIH.

Microbial metal physiology: ions to ecosystems Nature Reviews Microbiology - Metal ions are required for all cells, and their homeostasis relies on ancient mechanisms that facilitate their import, distribution and storage. In this Review,...

Metal ions are universally required for life, and many of the foundational principles of metal homeostasis have emerged from studies of microbial systems. In this review, I provide a introductory overview targeted to those new to the field.
#MicroSky #Metals

rdcu.be/eycU2

Reevaluating the role of education on cognitive decline and brain aging in longitudinal cohorts across 33 Western countries - Nature Medicine In a large cross-national study, education was linked to better memory and larger brain volumes but not to slower cognitive or brain decline with age, suggesting that the association reflects early-li...

New study out in Nature Medicine: Education does not protect against age-related decline of memory. Read more here: Reevaluating the role of education on cognitive decline and brain aging in longitudinal cohorts across 33 Western countries www.nature.com/articles/s41...

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

New Science story about multi-year funding and it potential catastrophic consequences

www.science.org/content/arti...

1/n

2025 Midwest Metabolism Meeting Join us for 2025 Midwest Metabolism Meeting at Van Andel Institute Stay informed about exciting upcoming events and activities.

1/ If you are in the Midwest and ❤️ metabolism, take note!

This year’s Midwest Metabolism meeting will be held jointly with the Translational Research in Mitochondrial Metabolism in Aging and Disease (TRiMAD) conference.

www.vai.org/event/2025-m...

Sharing our paper - incretin receptors in peripheral nervous system. Much work on these signals centered on functions in brain only, but clearly also neural actions in PNS. We show staining on human nerves. Maybe a role in neuropathy? Great work by Erica DeSousa in our lab 🧪 tinyurl.com/5n6e99wy

Oooh interesting!

Just posted, by Nina Khera, @clairebookworm.bsky.social, and myself: “Involuntary collaboration: a strategy for decentralized science”! Discussing the "invent-deploy-discover-design" model, and why the Bell Labs of the 21st century might be the whole earth. engineeringx.substack.com/p/involuntar...

Headed to #ENDO2025 this week? Come see us hypothalamic neurogenesis folks! Chaired by Kurrasch, with me, Petrik and Quarta at 9am Tuesday! @endocrinesociety.bsky.social

While you're traveling, immerse yourself in the ENDO experience with the #ENDO2025 themed issue of the
@endocrinenews.bsky.social, our monthly news and feature magazine.

#endocrinology #hormones #hormonescience #EndoSky

Yay for Gehirn & Geist (a German pop science magazine) for covering the excitement around adipose nerves. Quotes by my colleagues and me, which I had to translate to understand 😂 I think this writer did a phenomenal job distilling a complex topic and making it relevant. 🧪🧪

Why Did Waters Rise So Quickly in the Texas Flash Floods? Flash floods happen when heavy rains unleash more water than the ground can absorb, causing that water to pile up and flow to low-lying areas

Here's a little note on how flash floods manage to be so, for lack of a better word, flash 🧪 www.scientificamerican.com/article/why-...

🧪🧪

The #SummerScience Exhibition is in full swing! Join us today to experience the Quantum Jungle, hear talks on inclusive spaceflight and fighting superbugs, and explore our 13 fascinating flagship exhibits: royalsociety.org/science-even...

The Somatic Mosaicism across Human Tissues Network - Nature The Somatic Mosaicism across Human Tissues Network aims to create a reference catalogue of somatic mosaicism across different tissues and cells within individuals.

We are all somatic mutation mosaics.
"There are trillions of cells in a human body and so the total number of somatic mutations acquired in a single individual may well exceed quadrillions, millions of times the size of the human genome."
@nature.com
nature.com/articles/s41...

Lab meetings feel like an art exhibit some days! Gargi Mishra’s parade of DRGs today 🥳 🧪🧪

Oh I’ll miss it unfortunately - headed out before then. Hope to cross paths soon!

Hope we cross paths Karen!

Enjoyed our crosstalk about brain-body systems in metabolism and diabetes re: adipose (me), liver (Young-Hwan Jo), pancreas (Roberto Coppari), and gut (Lisa Beutler), chaired by Gary Schwartz and organized by Young-Bum Kim- at American Diabetes Association annual meeting in Chicago today.🧪🧪🧪🧪

Health of our fat (adipose) matters more than its mass; and the peripheral nerves help keep adipose healthy 🧪🧪

Federal Judge Deems Trump Administration’s Termination of NIH Grants Illegal In a ruling issued Monday, the judge called the government’s directives “arbitrary and capricious” and ordered funding for some of the NIH grants, including many profiled by ProPublica in recent month...

NEW: A federal judge has ruled that the Trump administration’s termination of hundreds of NIH grants was “void and illegal.”

He ordered funding for some of the grants, including many profiled by ProPublica in recent months, to be reinstated.

By @anniewaldman.bsky.social

What is common knowledge in your field but shocks outsiders?

Slight changes in question wording can dramatically affect the results of a poll, even for questions that are about someone's material reality, and even more so for opinions.

Shining a Light on the World of Microproteins From viruses to humans, life makes microproteins that have evaded discovery until now.

How many proteins are in the human body? Excellent question! At least 20,000. But maybe 30,000? Maybe more? Here's my story about scientists exploring the hidden world of microproteins, and what it may mean for the future of medicine. nyti.ms/3HEPQTY 🧪

Screenshot of title and abstract of article published in Trends in Cognitive Sciences titled "Psychological distance to science."

"Not only do individual differences in psychological distance to science reliably predict science rejection across domains, but a modest, easy-to-implement intervention...improved science attitudes one week later..." #PsychSciSky #AcademicSky #EduSky
www.cell.com/trends/cogni...

Hearing directly from NIH Director Dr Bhatracharya at AAMC GRAND today - his blueprint: 1) advance health of entire population; 2) allow academic dissent/freedom; 3) solve replication crisis; 4) make big advances via innovation; 5) maintain safety and transparency.