Kylee Morrison

Extra kudos and thanks to all the staff at NIH and NSF and other federal funding agencies for working extra hard in very small windows of opportunity to get grants reviewed and funds released before the attention-addled federal policies change again (on an hourly basis).

Postdoc positions available! Please re-post!

Are you interested in how viruses manipulate chromatin? Are you excited to discover unknown facets of molecular biology? If so, we’d love to hear from you! Come check us out at:
avgoustilab.org

www.thecrimson.com/article/2025...

Hello BlueSky friends! I am wildly grateful and excited to share that I'm joining the Biological Sciences Dept at Western Michigan University as an Assistant Professor this fall! My lab will study host-virus interactions required for HCMV infectivity. Go Broncos! 💛🦠🧫🤎

First Patient Treated with Personalized CRISPR Therapy, Developed in Just Six Months The first on-demand CRISPR therapy for an infant with a rare metabolic disease developed by the IGI and collaborators around the world.

This is what can be achieved today due to longstanding federal support of academic basic science alongside close partnership of universities, private industry and NIH intramural initiatives. An ecosystem worth not just saving but doubling down on!

innovativegenomics.org/news/first-p...

Multiple long-range cis interactions generate CTCF insulator-dependent viral chromatin domains in quiescent HSV-1 genomes https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.05.08.652945v1

CLS Calls on the Trump Administration to Restore Research Funding - The Coalition for the Life Sciences On April 14, 2025, CLS Chair Jo Handelsman and Exec Director Adrienne Hallett sent a letter outlining the tremendous consequences of terminating research and asking that it be reinstated.

Please share the letter from the Coalition for the Life Sciences re termination of ongoing NIH grants. It's a breach trust betw researchers and govt, bad for trainees, potentially fatal for patients in clinical trials, and diminishes the US science. www.coalitionforlifesciences.org/cls-calls-on...

Terrence S. Dermody and Julie K. Pfeiffer: To tackle chronic disease, turn to the virologists Despite the United States being a global leader in many areas, Americans are not healthy. Life expectancy is lower than in other industrialized nations,...

Terry Dermody and I wrote an op-ed about chronic diseases ("Make America Healthy Again"), the role of viral infections, and how virologists can help. www.post-gazette.com/opinion/gues...

This is the way to fight back. Not just rejecting illegal demands, but also arguing affirmatively for the value of university research.

Prospective UW-Madison grad students lose funding offers amid federal cuts Students enrolled in science Ph.D programs are typically paid and have their tuition covered. But with current federal funding uncertainties driven by the Trump administration, faculty scientists said...

www.wpr.org/news/prospec...

NIH Grants Fueled $95 Billion In FY 2024 Economic Activity, Finds New Report National Institutes of Health grants generated almost $95 billion in economic activity nationwide in FY 2024 according to a new report by United for Medical Research.

In 2024 NIH grant awards supported 407,782 jobs and $94.58 billion in new economic activity nationwide, the largest figure in the history of the report. www.forbes.com/sites/michae...

How do we keep Standing Up for Science? A heartfelt thank you for everyone that Stood Up for Science with us on March 7th—whether it be volunteering, donating, sharing, or attending in event, we're forever indebted to people like you who ca...

Our work is far from done—science is still under attack.

We’ve got ideas, but we want to hear from you. What’s worrying you most? What should we do next? How can we grow this movement together?

Fill out this quick form to share your thoughts & stay connected: forms.gle/7EEQMZUveXN9...

Ann Carol Palmenberg, Ph.D Obituary February 20, 2025 - Cress Funeral and Cremation Services View Ann Carol Palmenberg, Ph.D's obituary, find service dates, and sign the guestbook.

Sad to share news of the loss of a virology legend after a long battle with cancer. We will miss you dearly, Ann Palmenberg. www.cressfuneralservice.com/obituaries/a...

In today's episode of doomerism isn't a strategy, here's a list of things you can do today to make the world around you suck a little bit less:

Pick ONE thing and do it.
bsky.app/profile/itsa...

Opinion | American Science is Under Attack The Trump administration hobbles research and endangers the public health.

“Perhaps what’s most disheartening is what feels like the absence of widespread opposition to this unraveling. ...
This is not a fight that our country can afford to lose.”
By Harold Varmus 🧪

Graph showing that prior to 1963 when the measles vaccine was introduced, there were around 300,000-700,000 measles cases per year. Within a few years of the vaccine, the number of cases fell below 20,000/year. There were a blips where cases rose, but shortly after the second vaccine dose was recommended in 1989, annual cases have generally been well below 1,000 cases. In 2000, measles elimination was declared in the US. Now we have sporadic outbreaks that typically spread among unvaccinated people. Chart is from Center for American Progress and is based on CDC data on measles cases.

Vaccines work! As measles cases have recently been reported in Alaska, Georgia, New York, Rhode Island and Texas, it's important to remember that prior to the introduction of the measles vaccine in 1963, measles killed 400-500 people and resulted in ~48,000 hospitalizations per year.

The statement reads: We are disappointed in the rapid capitulation by some U.S. institutions and organizations to recent attacks on diversity, equity, inclusion, and access. At their core, these weak arguments are fueled by the familiar underlying assumption that people from Black, Indigenous, and other marginalized identities cannot be excellent and therefore have not ‘earned’ our place in public intellectual life. However, we have always been competent, hardworking, and creative people who have contributed positively to society at large, across sectors but especially in science. We reject these attempts at silencing and erasure and will continue to be a place of respite and community in these turbulent times. To our members, your talent, skills, and safety are important! To our friends and allies, you may be feeling like everything happening is out of your control, but we want you to know that your voice and actions can make a difference. We want to point you towards some immediate actions that you can take. These are the top 3 issues we are concerned about and what you can do about it if you mirror our concerns. Freezing of federal funding and cutting grant programs for scientific research that have any connotation of being “DEI.” The potential confirmation of RFK Jr., a vocal anti-vaccination proponent, as the head of HHS. The American Society for Microbiology (ASM) removed their ABRCMS and IDEAAS webpages in addition to some scientist spotlights and written articles highlighting the current and historic contributions of microbiologists who are a part of marginalized communities including LGBTQIA+, Women, Indigenous and Black, as well as others page that could be considered “‘DEI”. Many have now been reinstated with changes to language (i.e. removing terms like “equity” and “marginalized”), and the statements released by ASM did not acknowledge the harm that they have caused to their members and showed no remorse for their actions.

A statement from the BMA Board Members to the BMA Community and Beyond.

Additional alt text to follow due to the character limit.

Joy is resistance. Community is resistance. Continuing to do work we believe in is resistance. Education is resistance. Living aligned with our professed values is resistance. It is a hard time to be a person and a scientist, but now is the time to keep showing up, for ourselves and for each other.

Happy Black History Month! I’m not sure if ASM is celebrating this year, so I’ll share some links to ASM resources I had previously collated on black women in microbiology that are now deleted (or at risk of being deleted). Deleted content can be viewed via the internet archive (links provided).

Shoutout to all of the exceptional Black scientists who have contributed to and are currently contributing to virology research! Your work is vitally important to understanding basic virology controlling viral diseases worldwide! #BlackHistoryMonth

DO NOT TAKE YOUR FOOT OFF THE GAS. They balked. Now make them pay a price. Again and again and again.

Politics does not end with elections.

This is a critically important point

The ASV 2024 abstract submission deadline is approaching (Feb 1st, 2024)! You can submit your abstract and find more information on abstract submission for the ASV 2024 annual meeting here: asv.org/asv2024/abst...

Ending 2023 feeling especially grateful for my science support system. It's been a tough year of unfunded grants and often frustrating experiments, but also great opportunities and realizing my science support network is wider than I ever thought. To my friends, colleagues, and mentors- thank you ☺️

Another grant cycle, another close but not good enough to be funded. Highest percentile I've gotten yet, but impact score not quite there. Onward! As Ted Lasso says, time to be a goldfish. Except I'm not planning to just forget, gotta take the lessons and alter my approach...let's do this.

#HiSciSky ! I'm a postdoc at UW-Madison studying how host-virus interactions influence HCMV infectivity, happy to move to this place. #lovevirology