Ashley Connors

Trump EPA Approves Its First ‘Forever Chemical’ Pesticide The Environmental Protection Agency today approved the highly persistent pesticide cyclobutrifluram for golf courses, lawns, cotton, soybeans and lettuce. The pesticide is a “forever chemical” — one o...

Well, that’s not ideal.

biologicaldiversity.org/w/news/press...

A little good news for your feed 🐟

That’s a fantastic sign!

Reason #452 why we should regulate supplements in the same way that we regulate medications:

What a new study reveals about 'forever chemicals,' lead, more in New Orleans-area tap water A new report shows widespread PFAS, lead and other contaminants in tap water drawn from the Mississippi River for New Orleans and neighboring parishes.

What a new study reveals about 'forever chemicals,' lead, more in New Orleans-area tap water. Read the full article by Emily Woodruff (Nola.com) here: www.nola.com/news/environ...

I’m not a nuclear chemist, but I suspect the safe solution to radioactive pollution is NOT dilution.

The article doesn’t say which isotopes are in the radioactive water, or their concentration. The radioisotopes will degrade, but that could take a very long time depending on the half-lives.

For those that haven't spoken with grad students openly lately: we are not okay

We are watching our futures be gutted (in both industry in academia), while becoming 'overeducated' for other jobs too.

Seeing post docs being suddenly dropped, we know that money isn't coming back soon enough...

What? Some good news on a Friday?

Parent Fellowship Notices of Funding Opportunities are up!

F30, F31, F32, F33

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

These are grant TO THE STUDENTS, not to the institution, so this is just straight-up punishing students for choosing the institution

I don’t know what’s going on with my job yet but I’m an NIH funded scientist and I’ve been waiting for the other shoe to drop.

Here’s my LinkedIn. I’m a human geneticist and computational biologist. I very much want to stay in Seattle for family reasons. Please repost

www.linkedin.com/in/nparmalee

It’s never too late to start masking. It doesn’t matter how many covid infections you’ve had, any infection delayed or prevented is a good thing.

You’re also helping protect others when you mask up. You’re breaking chains of transmission. You’re saving lives.

Regulations are written in blood.

National Science Foundation suspends salary payments, leaving researchers unable to pay their bills An NSF online payment system remained down after the federal funding freeze was lifted, leaving early-career scientists scrambling to pay bills

“If the freeze is not stopped, I might lose my house."

Some NSF-funded postdocs are having trouble paying rent and credit card bills because their salaries were paused this week, even though the federal funding freeze memo was rescinded.

www.statnews.com/2025/01/30/t...

Bravo to Sen. Alsobrooks for her question.

“We should not be giving Black people the same vaccine schedule as Whites because their immune system is better than ours.” — RFK Jr

This is the deadlier version of the racist myth that Black people feel less pain, leading to denied pain meds.

Looks like states are going to have to take the lead on #PFAS regulations

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Looking for a #MSc or #PhD position in #ecotoxicology? Opportunity at Queen's U for an ambitious Canadian student to study the tire antioxidant #6PPD as part of a collaborative research project with Environment & Climate Change Canada. Apply now! Deadline is this Friday, January 24, 2025.

Rapid Characterization of Human Serum Albumin Binding for Per- and Polyfluoroalkyl Substances Using Differential Scanning Fluorimetry Per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) are a diverse class of synthetic chemicals that accumulate in the environment. Many proteins, including the primary human serum transport protein albumin (HSA), bind PFAS. The predictive power of physiologically based pharmacokinetic modeling approaches is currently limited by a lack of experimental data defining albumin-binding properties for most PFAS. A novel thermal denaturation assay was optimized to evaluate changes in the thermal stability of HSA in the presence of increasing concentrations of known ligands and a structurally diverse set of PFAS. Assay performance was initially evaluated for fatty acids and HSA-binding drugs ibuprofen and warfarin. Concentration–response relationships were determined and dissociation constants (Kd) for each compound were calculated using regression analysis of the dose-dependent changes in HSA melting temperature. Estimated Kd values for HSA binding of octanoic acid, decanoic acid, hexadecenoic acid, ibuprofen, and warfarin agreed with established values. The binding affinities for 24 PFAS that included perfluoroalkyl carboxylic acids (C4–C12), perfluoroalkyl sulfonic acids (C4–C8), mono- and polyether perfluoroalkyl ether acids, and polyfluoroalkyl fluorotelomer substances were determined. These results demonstrate the utility of this differential scanning fluorimetry assay as a rapid high-throughput approach for determining the relative protein-binding properties and identification of chemical structures involved in binding for large numbers of structurally diverse PFAS.

Colleagues here at NC State have also found chain-length relationships in how PFASs bind albumin, a protein in our blood: pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/...

Legacy and emerging per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances suppress the neutrophil respiratory burst Per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFASs) are used in a multitude of processes and products, including nonstick coatings, food wrappers, and fire-fighting foams. These chemicals are environmental...

Thanks for sharing! I have seen chain-length effects in my (not yet published) work. Several papers show effects with chain length and head group. My lab tested 9 PFAS on neutrophils (immune cells): the only PFAS with an effect had carboxylic acid groups. www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....

Methylene blue is an antidote, yet more often than not my job as a toxicologist is telling highly-trained medical professionals not to use methylene blue (in monitored, clinical settings) because it has a lot of risk and very few benefits. Please don’t listen to people inhaling it on Instagram reels

Norovirus outbreaks are on the rise around the country and on cruise ships Outbreaks of the gastrointestinal illness are surging both at sea and on land. Here's what to know.

Outbreaks of the gastrointestinal illness are surging both at sea and on land. Here's what to know.

Screenshot of a bluesky post that says "Funny how people mock vet-approved vegan cat food, yet it's currently the only option guaranteed free from avian flu. Same goes for dog food. They just added taurine, and it's perfectly fine. Meanwhile, regular and raw-fed cats could just die."

So, a few things things:
1. Regular cat food is cooked and therefore safe from bird flu. Only raw/undercooked meat and raw dairy put your cat at risk. "Cooking meat or pasteurizing raw milk destroys the bird flu virus and other disease-causing germs." apnews.com/article/cats... 🧵

The Library of Congress has literally one gazillion public domain photos and illustrations that are free to use for your projects!
www.loc.gov/free-to-use

Please respond/share and help reach the goal of 100 participants. Only 2 more to go!!!

Cats in L.A. County die after drinking recalled raw milk Los Angeles County health officials are investigating the deaths of two cats who became ill after drinking recalled H5N1 bird flu-infected raw milk.

Don’t drink raw milk yourself, but also don’t feed it to your pets. (And while we’re at it, keep your cats inside.) Cats have been infected via raw milk, as here or in the dairy barns elsewhere in this outbreak - and also by raw meat.

The mortality rate for cats with H5N1 infections is 50-67%.

🧪

Excellent writing on the unregulated nutraceutical space. AKA untested ingredients w/unsubstantiated claims.

One of the first things the FDA requires are safety/toxicology tests, which includes monitoring the liver. Bypassing these safety studies puts patients at risk. #medsky #supplements

Just a reminder:

All vaccines used in public health have been rigorously tested. Their benefits greatly outweigh their risks. While a few people have a medical reason for not taking vaccines, most people (and the population overall) will benefit. Doctors who claim otherwise are irresponsible.

A simply majestic floof. What more could you need in life?