Loren Looger lab

On the latest ep of the Climate Biotech Podcast, hear how synthetic biology legend @loogerl.bsky.social is turning his protein engineering expertise to developing tools to study methane monooxygenase, an enzyme that could unlock methane removal.

Listen in: podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/t...

On the most recent episode of the Climate Biotech Podcast, we are joined by Loren Looger, Professor of Neurosciences at UC San Diego and Investigator at Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI). | Homew... On the most recent episode of the Climate Biotech Podcast, we are joined by Loren Looger, Professor of Neurosciences at UC San Diego and Investigator at Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI). Loren i...

My absolute privilege to be interviewed by @homeworld.bsky.social‬: www.linkedin.com/feed/update/.... we talk methane, brains, tools, Alabama, you know - all the things. this is a fun and insightful podcast series. and HW is really getting it done in the granting/research space! check them out!

what do ppl think is going to happen to this 6 NIH grant app maximum? will it stick? how are people interpreting the whole co-PI vs MPI thing?

Thanks to Garden Grant co-funders
@sparkclimate.bsky.social sky.social and @granthamcsf.bsky.social, and to Quadrature Climate Foundation for making this possible through programmatic and regranting support.

so proud of this team!!! they're changing the way grants are sought, written, and funded. and such critical work - greenhouse gases this cycle, focused on methane. they funded us (+ Michael Konopka, USNA) to study methane monooxygenase (pMMO), potentially the key to remediating methane pollution.

Exclusive: NIH to suspend funds for research abroad as it overhauls policy Move by US biomedical agency threatens thousands of projects on infectious diseases, cancer and more.

ok rumors were true all along: www.nature.com/articles/d41...

steady slide into fascism.

what are ppl hearing about US-based researchers with foreign citizenship? I am hearing rumors that they are being targeted now. Sounds laughable but all too real in this hellhole

GABA imaging classifies amacrine cell types in mouse retina! Aki and
@keisukeyonehara.bsky.social
are amazing! future goals include Gly imaging, 2-color Glu/GABA, more complete scRNA-seq/MERFISH mapped onto functional classes.

Super-fun collaboration! @janeliagenie.bsky.social

ouch, I'm so sorry. but yes, consistent with I'm hearing. Most disconcertingly, it wasn't even CURRENT intl collabs; PREVIOUS intl collabs seemed enough to kill it. Very chilling.

I don't know yet but will ask

hey, what are ppl hearing about NIH/NSF grants with international collaborators? A colleague has their NIH grant withheld bc it had intl collabs. are other ppl hearing this? any place to find info on this? thanks!

This is a cartogram map of the United States depicting land use by different categories. The map distorts state shapes to represent proportional land usage. Key land use types include cow pasture/range (covering much of the central U.S.), private and federal timberland in the Pacific Northwest, corporate timberland in the Southeast, and urban housing/commercial areas in the Northeast. Other categories include agriculture (livestock feed, wheat exports, ethanol/biodiesel, cotton), protected lands (national parks, federal wilderness, state parks), and infrastructure (railroads, airports, highways). Additional specialized land uses include wildfires, golf courses, Christmas tree farms, and maple syrup production.

I think about this map a lot.

www.bloomberg.com/graphics/201...

Critical ocean current AMOC weakest in 1,600 years and even without an imminent collapse its weakening will have a devastating impact on billions
Prof Niklas Boers
"in the short term, it doesn’t really matter if we have a strong weakening, say 80%, or a collapse.”
www.theguardian.com/environment/...

2025 Study section tracking

Wondering if your study section cancelled? I update this sheet daily. As of today, 56/124 study sections that should have met since Jan 2, 2025 have "not met as scheduled." docs.google.com/spreadsheets...

does anyone have a gut feeling on when NIH/NSF grant reviews will resume? do ppl think they will? what are ppl doing - focusing on foundations and international opps right now? going into cost-saving mode? dos anyone have any advice for navigating this brave new world?

I am becoming increasingly informed about various non-science-related careers

as of today, we're still allowed to spend $. uni admin advocating "wait and see" approach

holy shit this seems real, posted by many ppl. It seems that @hhmi.bsky.social just killed its IE3 program. Does that kill Gilliam Fellows? lab member just applied. Freeman Hrabowski Scholars? is it all gone? I don't understand why @hhmi.bsky.social would be doing this; I look fwd to their statement

“unis will freeze all non personnel spending at 5pm today, place orders in ASAP."

"Note that some university policies require orders to be delivered by the deadline to be covered, in which case a bulk order this afternoon might not do any good unless shipping is remarkably fast."

god help us all

"cold dead hands" lol

does anyone have any ideas how we're going to survive this? $ from state, companies, foundations? What can we do to support each other during this shit time? how can we fight back? it all feels so hopeless right now, I'm srsly looking into alternative careers.

Another epic announcement from the Homeworld team! Come look at Problem Statements, make a plan, and solve the world's most serious problem: greenhouse gas-driven warming and climate change. The grant process is easy, and creativity is encouraged! Spread the word!

to clarify, you mean measure and modify specific RNAs, DNAs? in your mind, what would be the most transformative tools in this area?

sorry copied from Twitter lol

wow, awesome!

well yes and no. I've interacted extensively with those POs and they definitely want hypotheses, despite wording of NOFOs. And absolutely no one wants to fund making existing tools better. they prefer sth shiny, new, & useless to a 2.0 version of a useful tool.

sure, but BRAIN is gutted. maybe it will revive, but honestly seems unlikely.

that's a no lol

awesome man! would love to catch up anyway, too long

oooh amazing! I hadn't found these people yet, thanks so much Ali!!!!

hey Chris, yes I'm aware of the R21 mechanism. We're definitely open to it, but the near-universal advice from colleagues is "a fraction the $ of an R01 for almost as much work" but yes the "non-need of prelim data" (don't really believe this) makes that appealing in some situations, thanks!

have ppl found any funders that support toolmaking? I want to keep making tools for people, but there is a seemingly irresistible force pushing us towards hypothesis-driven research. In my experience, funders don't want to hear about tech dev. Any insights? for both neuro & climate would be great tx