Peter Todd

alert to all H1B holders, please share: Trump just banned H-1B employees from reentering US unless employer pays $100,000 "fee". Proclamation applies to both new H-1B entrants and current H-1B employees who are abroad. set to take effect tmrw sun sept 21. please return if you can. i am so sorry. 😢

Not sure this is the right long term answer-although it is clearly coming. We will all run our papers through algorithms that spit out the same stuff. My AI vs your AI.

There is signal in the noise humans make.

I just got the notice that all the FlyBase people at Harvard, including me, will be laid off on October 12. I'm devastated.

Remember when expertise was considered a good thing?

If the president's pawns serve as the final arbiters of grant success, the whole system will quickly go from a meritocracy to an idiocratic system of patronage and payoffs. Trump's great legacy will be the destruction of American science.

This project was led by @sh4nnonmiller and @KatelynMGreen with help from @alanboyle.bsky.social and @BarmadaLab and everyone in @realtoddlab.bsky.social Thanks to NIH and VAResearch for support! 5/5

Knowing the template for DPR production from RAN translation in C9orf72 FTD and ALS is a key first step to developing effective therapies for these currently untreatable conditions. 4/5

In contrast, we find no evidence for lariat RNAs or intron retention as endogenous templates for RAN translation, as both species are very rare and inefficient translation templates in neurons. 3/5

We used nanopore coupled to 5'RACE to find the 5' end of repeat containing RNAs. 95%+ of repeat RNAs initiate in the intron rather than at annotated start sites. These short (~80nt) 5' leader mRNAs are capped and polyadenylated and robustly translated in reporter assays. 2/5

Cryptic intronic transcriptional initiation generates efficient endogenous mRNA templates for C9orf72-associated RAN translation | PNAS Intronic GGGGCC hexanucleotide repeat expansions in C9orf72 are the most common genetic cause of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) and frontotemp...

Ever wonder how intronic repeats in C9orf72 get translated into toxic proteins in ALS and FTD? We found that transcription initiates within the intron to generate a novel endogenous efficient mRNA template for RAN translation in patient neurons and mouse models 1/5| PNAS www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...

NIH announces end to funding for animal-only studies - Drug Discovery and Development Drug Discovery and Development covers strategies and technologies related to pharmaceutical research and development and drug formulation.

This is extraordinarily dangerous and will slow academic biomedical research and drug development. A total ban is on the horizon. www.drugdiscoverytrends.com/nih-announce...

Hello! Ever wonder what's "talking to" your favorite transcript, but were too scared to ask? In our review in @cp-cellreports.bsky.social, @mardakheh.bsky.social and I highlight new RNA-focused tools for discovering RNA interactions across organizational scales. Checkit!

tinyurl.com/ydn6e3ac

This is inspiring stuff, Jack.

I stand with you in your pledge to our trainees. They need our support and they deserve our courage.

Just got told by my NIA PO that I should probably resubmit my R01, even though it scored a 10% and is on Alzheimer’s disease. Last year’s NIA paylines were 13% for regular R01s and 16% for AD grants..so WTF?! 😭🫠

San Diego SHOWED UP! I’ve been here for 30 years and have NEVER seen anything like this! #NOKINGS

The day started with tragedy with political violence in MN and instead of being scared, neighbors SHOWED UP to stand together at No Kings Twin Cities. We packed the Capitol Mall all the way to the Cathedral. Estimate 80,000+ right now. So proud of our state. #nokings #indivisible

A huge and untimely loss

Here Are the Nearly 2,500 Medical Research Grants Canceled or Delayed by Trump (Gift Article) Some cuts have been starkly visible, but the country’s medical grant-making machinery has also radically transformed outside the public eye.

New powerful article up in the New York Times on cancelled and delayed grants

www.nytimes.com/interactive/...

Hello Fly Folks. quick note FlyBase is under duress due to termination NIH$ to Harvard and intl collabs. The hardworking folks @flybase.bsky.social are doing their darndest to ensure access to current data. For US, there will soon be a new site to donate. Please spread the word, ideas and support 🪰💪

Drosophila Genetic Database The Drosophila Genetic Database, FlyBase, is on the brink of collapse due to the sudden termination of the FlyBase NIH grant, which includes salaries for 5 literature curators based at the University ...

Flybase lost all of the NIH support overnight - it is a disaster for the community. Please consider donating. I just did! www.philanthropy.cam.ac.uk/give-to-camb...

URGENT: FlyBase has lost practically all its funding overnight; even user fees are tied up in denied grant funding. 🤬🤯

Any lab using @flybase.bsky.social please donate using the link in post below.

This incredible community, on whose backs our #Drosophila labs depend, can't be left out to dry.

All of NIH funding to Northwestern University is frozen. This pause includes noncompeting approved funding, new and competing grants with fundable scores. No reimbursements for money already spent have been received since March. This situation is rarely reported so please Please get the word out!

If this comes to pass, it will cripple biomedical research and markedly reduce international student attendance at US Colleges- which will drive up education costs.

OPT provides short-term work visas for recent international graduate students in the US, allowing them to work after their student visa expires. It's a pipeline for jobs in medicine, biomedical research, education, technology, engineering, and other highly skilled work.

This is very, very, bad.

Northwestern has not received any NIH funds since March. No written communication about why or what can be done. Thank you Ben Singer for raising awareness at #ATS2025

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

7 months from novel diagnosis to first dose. We are rapidly moving into a world where modular RNA based medicines, gene therapies and gene editing will be rapidly deployed, routine, and personalized to the recipient.

Also- none of this happens without academic biomedical research and NIH $.

Baby Is Healed With World’s First Personalized Gene-Editing Treatment

Amazing that this has happened. Maddening that we are actively destroying the capability to do it again. www.nytimes.com/2025/05/15/h...

I’m reliably told this is cutting edge research with lots of commercial and defense applications that no one in their right mind would shutter.

Our job is to make such important matters happen

Those who stay will be champions.