Brittany Charlton

Thank you, Bill — I really appreciate this. Moments like this remind me why the work (and the risk) is worth it.

📢 Hiring: Postdoctoral Fellow in LGBTQ Reproductive Health Disparities at Harvard Medical School 🌈🧬

Focus on rigorous epi methods + big data (longitudinal cohorts, EMR, claims) 📊

Ideal for epi/biostats folks who want rich cross-Harvard collaborations

Details👇 Please boost + tag! 📣

NIH begins review of thousands of delayed research proposals, funding 135 on first day A deal between NIH and groups that sued the Trump administration over delayed DEI-related grant proposals is already bearing fruit

STAT: www.statnews.com/2025/12/30/n...

Science: www.science.org/content/arti...

"...Years of research were shut down overnight, and with that, we lost real progress that could have prevented illness and saved lives.”

As I told @statnews.com and @science.org: “This agreement offers a path, however imperfect, back to doing the work scientists were trained to do: documenting health inequities and developing solutions that save lives. At the same time, we should be very clear: the damage is already profound...

Another key part of our lawsuit is making sure NIH reviews applications fairly and on time. We recently reached an agreement on that part:

🔹 NIH will use its standard scientific review process (not political directives)

🔹 NIH must decide on stalled applications by clear deadlines

✊ Today, we’re back in court for appellate arguments on the termination of existing grants, following the Supreme Court’s preliminary decision sending the case back down

Some big movement in our NIH lawsuit ⚖️🧬

⚠️ Our case challenges new rules that cut grants on LGBTQ health, racism, climate change, vaccines, and other health equity topics

Just in: NIH staff have been instructed to REINSTATE these ~900 grants to comply with the court order, per sources. This comes after staff were also directed to cease any further terminations.

You can see the lists grants to be reinstated in my post below.

The sense of relief, vindication, & hope in the courtroom was undeniable—the emotion was so thick you could feel it in the air as justice & the value of our research were finally affirmed

📢BREAKING: Just left the courthouse for our NIH grant termination case

Judge ruled terminations are “VOID & ILLEGAL”

As a plaintiff, I felt a wave of relief & hope; he acknowledged the discrimination & harm

Closed by asking, ‘Have we fallen so low? Have we no shame?’

‘Devastated’ and ‘Hopeless.’ Researchers Speak Out on Funding Cuts | ACLU

⚖️Heartbroken but proud to stand with fellow researchers in court today⚖️

NIH’s sudden grant cuts:
🚫 Silence lifesaving health equity work
⏳ Undermine years of progress
⚠️ Put vital discoveries at risk

We won’t stop fighting for science & justice 🧪

👇More details from our @aclu.org representation👇

Challenging politically-driven attacks on science and medical research - Protect Democracy Protect Democracy is challenging the Trump administration’s unlawful termination of $400 million in federal funding.

From our lawyers @protectdemocracy.org

"By excluding entire topics...the NIH divides & polarizes communities, undermines our shared sense of reality, & demonizes marginalized groups.

Challenging these actions is vital for science, for equality, & for democracy."

🤞 for tomorrow's hearing

An NIH Grant Is Restored, With a Catch: Cut a Study on Trans Youth HIV scientists were given a choice: eliminate a study of transgender youth or lose a shot to recover a larger series of grants. They chose the former.

Heartbroken for my colleague @kgamarel.bsky.social

After decades of NIH support, HIV research network gets funding back—but Kristi's study on trans youth of color is singled out & cut

Essential research for most vulnerable—lost

🙏 Powerful reporting @stephaniemlee.bsky.social in @chronicle.com

Opinion | Three Well-Tested Ways to Undermine an Autocrat

✊ How to challenge authoritarianism?

🔥 3 proven approaches

1️⃣ Mockery & salacious humor 🤡
2️⃣ Expose corruption, hypocrisy (& not just calling for ‘democracy’) 💸
3️⃣ Spotlight an individual tragedy (& not sea of oppression) 💔

🔗 👇 Nicholas Kristof @nytimes.com

NIH killed grants on orders from Elon Musk’s DOGE Court documents and internal correspondence show the cost-cutting force has broad control over the world’s largest public biomedical funder.

Sworn testimony & leaked emails: more proof DOGE is hand-picking which NIH grants live or die—screening awards, handing out kill lists, & canceling science in hours

🙌 Shout out to @maxkozlov.bsky.social at @nature.com for breaking the story (again), in part due to brave NIH insiders

The faces of the NIH cuts What sort of research is being slashed?

🗣️ Tomorrow, our lawyers will ask the court for an injunction to halt the illegal cancellation of NIH research grants

They'll argue violations of the Administrative Procedure Act & Constitution

Meet the other plaintiffs & listen in on the hearing 👇🔬

#ProtectScience

My @bostonglobe.com quotes 💔

"The scale of what happened is incomprehensible—a bloodbath for research and the wider community.

Entire labs are unraveling, and young scientists on training grants may be suddenly adrift. Work that could change lives—or save them—is being brought to a standstill.” 🔬

‘A bloodbath’: Trump administration moves to terminate hundreds of federal grants at Harvard - The Boston Globe Harvard researchers who rely on federal grants to study cancer, infectious diseases and a range of other topics began receiving termination notices en masse on Thursday from a number of federal agenci...

📍DEVELOPING

🪓 Hundreds of Harvard research grants slashed

What I told @bostonglobe.com — full quote follows ⬇️

#AcademicTwitter #HigherEd #Science

13/ If you care about truth 💡 health 🩺 & democracy 🗳️ — fight with us ✊

We need a tidal wave 🌊

12/ That’s why I ran for local office 🗳️ — and won 🏆

We need scientists everywhere:

🔬 In labs

📚 On school boards

⚖️ In courtrooms

Not just resisting — leading 🚀

11/ Philanthropy 💸 must step up

Congress 🏛️ must act

And the public 👥 must understand: this isn’t niche

The research you rely on — cancer 🧬, HIV 🦠, vaccines 💉, mental health 🧠 — is next 🔥

10/ I’m proud to be a Harvard faculty member 🎓 — & proud Harvard is also suing to defend academic freedom 📢🧠.

More universities 🏛️ & institutions must join now

This is DEFCON 1 🚨

9/ I’ve faced hate mail 💌 Disturbing threats 🚫

I've increased security around my office & family 🛑🏠.

But the greater danger is silence 😶

We either defend science now — or we watch it vanish 🫥

8/ I’m not alone ✊

Leading researchers, the American Public Health Association 🏥 & others joined our suit — to stop unlawful grant terminations & protect science 🔬📚

7/ This is not just about me

It’s about whether truth 🧬 will survive in a democracy 🗳️ — or if science will be rewritten by ideology 📉

That’s why I'm filing a federal lawsuit ⚖️ against RFK Jr. & the NIH

6/ One canceled study found lesbians are 3x as likely to experience stillbirth 🫄

Another studied suicide risk in queer youth under anti-LGBTQ laws 🧒

5/ The government destroyed $16 million in taxpayer-funded science that I was leading 💰

But that’s not what hurts most

What hurts is this: vital, life-saving LGBTQ research is now in the trash — defunded, silenced, erased

4/ That’s what makes what happened next so dangerous ⚠️

Dangerous for every American who relies on evidence-based health care

3/ I share this because my work was rigorous & earned the respect of experienced scientists

Now, it’s all been erased — because it’s no longer “aligned with agency priorities.”