Rachel C. Rice (she/they)

My NIH diversity supplement was reinstated! 🥳

This is not the time to keep quiet or feel defeated by this administration. This is the time to raise hell 🔥 and be heard ✊🏽

#GRCPsychedelics 🔥🔥🔥🔥poster session and our first ever Honorary Best PI poster award to @zenbrainest.bsky.social 🤣🤣🤣

Touching words from Dr. Markus Heilig today at the @rsaofficial.bsky.social closing ceremony, reminding us, especially young researchers, to not lose hope.

Attending this conference and seeing my colleagues persist despite hardship has been a beacon of light in a dark year. #standupforscience

Judge rules some NIH grant cuts illegal, saying he's never seen such discrimination in 40 years A federal judge says it was illegal for the Trump administration to cancel several hundred research grants issued by the National Institutes of Health.

NIH researchers were working on treatments, health equity, and saving lives—but their work was cut for being ideologically inconvenient.

Now a federal judge says: illegal.

Recently, NIHers risked everything to speak out. Stand with them here ➡️zurl.co/rqq7T

zurl.co/0GTNE

No one can ever make me like Duke, but I'll issue that challenge, as well! #GoHeels

🧵 You might have seen a post urging you to donate to Harvard, a wealthy university that needs no financial reward for doing the bare minimum.

Instead, I'd like to tell you about some organizations that are working to protect academic freedom and at-risk scholars and deserve your support

1

A poster showing Dippy the Dino, the statue outside of the Carnegie museums and library in Pittsburgh, with the words: "The Earth is burning and you're invited! Saturday, April 19, Schenley Plaza, 1-3 PM Rally for science and democracy! Guest speakers, science games, mutual aid drive, take action! 50501PGH.com"

Round 2, Pittsburgh-- let's make it a good one! ✊️

Thanks again to the wonderful organizers at @standupforscience.bsky.social and @50501movement.bsky.social for their hard work in making things happen. 💕

#StandUpforScience
#StandUpforScience2025
#MutualAid

A young scientist stands at a lectern to deliver a presentation titled "In vitro Neat1 Knockdown and its Effect on the Neuroimmune Response to Alcohol."

Yesterday, my first undergraduate mentee successfully defended her honors thesis. So incredibly proud of her hard work and growth over the last ~2 years in the @spfarris.bsky.social lab!

Look out, world, here comes Remy Frawley, B.S.!

A scientist with black and green hair and wearing a scarf that depicts one of Santiago Ramón y Cajal's drawings of a Purkinje cell slightly smiles while holding a science fair judge's clipboard.

Continued my annual service tradition of judging the Senior Biology Division of the Pittsburgh Regional Science and Engineering Fair!

3 years and counting, and the high school students continue to blow me away with their work.

#thekidsarealright #sciencerules

I heard the above while sitting at my lab desk, with my dad's old desk flag stand with the U.S., German, and NATO flags sitting in the corner.

I was especially struck by his turn of phrase of NATO Article 5 earlier (RE: USAID and its public health efforts being shuttered, I'm also paraphrasing):

"A public health emergency in one country is a public health emergency in all."

The thing that has been keeping me going through labwork today is listening to Senator Booker's speech. Almost 23 hours and counting.

History is being made right now, and for the first time in the past ~70 days, I finally feel an iota of hope saying that.

‘We’re hurting.’ Trans scientists call for recognition and support from research community “Rigorous science demands” it, authors write in landmark commentary

In a landmark commentary last year, 24 scientists from around the globe—all of whom either identify as trans or have trans family members—called for recognition and support from the research community. #TransDayOfVisibility scim.ag/4l8LK5O

First lines of NOT-OD-25-080, available at https://grants.nih.gov/grants/guide/notice-files/NOT-OD-25-080.html

Jay Bhattacharya said in his confirmation hearing that he plans to restore NIH to its former glory & repair public distrust of science.

Would love to hear how rescinding the NIH policy on scientific integrity accomplishes that goal.

grants.nih.gov/grants/guide...

🧵: I am getting texts on what scientists should do in this perilous and scary moment. My advice: your biggest power is to organize through your professional societies. A few ideas -

AltNIH4Science - Science Crisis News Join the conversation

Dear scientists,

We've heard from many of you: "What can I do to act, to help stop the authoritarian takeover? I feel helpless."

One thing you can do is to get every scientist you know onto bluesky.
Get them off Twitter.
Talk to yr colleagues. Make it a point.

Send this:
bsky.app/starter-pac...

This is an amazing effort and staggering map.

Sci-Commers Join the conversation

I just created a Sci-Commers Starter Pack! Science Communication is CRITICAL right now, and there is more than one way to do it! Get some inspiration (+ fun!) from a variety of different sci-commers from various backgrounds (although there may be a bit of a marine bias here 💙). go.bsky.app/NMCFMcj

Trusted my newer undergrad with cryosectioning some precious tissue from my AAV infusions today, and his slices came out absolutely beautifully. So proud of him! We love to see trainees gaining proficiency and the joy they show when they notice it 🙌🏻💕

14 pages of terminated NIH grants--everyone should read through the list. The sweep is VERY broad, including "The Impact of the Herpes Zoster Vaccine on Herpes Zoster Ophthalmicus" & "Mitochondrial-based Determinants of Sex Differences in Acute Kidney Injury"🧪 1/n
taggs.hhs.gov/Content/Data...

I am very grateful to all the science and public health journalists who are continuing to tirelessly report on everything that's happening to science, research, domestic and global health right now.
Thanks for amplifying our voices, our stories and the far reaching impact on the public.

Still can’t believe we’re only 2 months into this hellscape. A new heartache, every day.

With 23AndMe going belly up, anybody who used them may have their genetic data sold to the highest bidder, to do with as they please. There is a way out - the linked article shows how you can delete your data from their database. DO IT NOW! archive.is/iNFaf

Hahahaha, I won't make the same mistake again!

In these trying times where scientific research is being threatened, attending symposia and lectures like this and commiserating with my colleagues is a ray of hope.

Together, we laugh, we cry, and we are inspired to keep pushing for rigorous science for the good of humanity.

Nobel Laureate Drew Weissman stands at a podium to give a talk titled "Nucleoside-Modified mRNA-LNP Therapeutics" at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine.

What an honor to see Nobel laureate Drew Weissman speak at my institution about his work on mRNA-lipid nanoparticle (LNP) therapeutics, and yet what a heartbreak to hear at the beginning of his talk that just yesterday did he receive a grant termination notice due to studying vaccines.

‘Scientists will not be silenced’: thousands protest Trump research cuts Researchers at Stand Up for Science rallies voice defiance against the policies of US President Donald Trump’s administration.

The mood was defiant at many of the rallies, where chants of “Scientists will not be silenced”, “Facts over fear” and “What do we want? Peer review! When do we want it? Now!” were heard.


https://go.nature.com/3F8T6FX