Jason Williams

You think you can leave us? Just like that? I know you feel that creature inside. It’s hungry. And it’s patient.

Trust your instincts.

Wow... NYC's congestion pricing has led to big drops in PM2.5 and real improvements in local air quality.

One comment “I just finished a speed run of Dr. Phil and Dr. Oz YouTube clips from their TV shows. I think I’m ready for any of these positions listed.”

Screenshot of FB ad for NIH Director positions.

The NIH is seeking leadership via Facebook ad. The comments are spectacular.

www.facebook.com/share/1AAWyg...

Larry & David Ellison

The Ellison family’s desire to take over Warner Bros should alarm anyone concerned with U.S. propaganda & media consolidation—

They would own Paramount, Warner Bros, CNN, CBS, HBO, TikTok & a host of major cable channels

This is a London attempt to trap unwary New Yorkers

Their culture and traditions are dangerous. Look up pork roll.

Staten Island ferry, or the NJ side of any bridge is where I turn back.

Monitoring for when you are tagging the episodes with 1000+ watches.

It’s been a while because it’s a journey to make, but well worth it!

Tomorrow’s soup croutons.

Pretty outrageous.

Death by starvation is turning out to be at least as bad as death by firing squad. Because we have no termination notice, everyone is struggling to apply for bridge funding, and no one is stepping in to save our work, because our project "still exists" even as our labs' bank accounts hit zero. /5

Developing diagnostic algorithms to tell dengue apart from rarer diseases like chikungunya and Zika in children

Evaluating whether mosquitoes can transmit Oropouche virus (and therefore, whether it can show up in places like the United States)

Developing laboratory resources like bat cell lines to understand how their immune systems interact with their viruses

Understanding how Sin Nombre virus got to Washington State, based on the first sequences from the Pacific Northwest

I wish I could say "the work, at least, will continue" with a straight face. But the people driving this project are (mostly early-career) researchers who U.S. face funding shortages across the board. In-progress work will be lost on fundamental bio, climate change, and pandemic risk assessment /4

A graduate student presents about H5N1 bird flu at NSF

Two professors stare and point at a whiteboard covered in notes and post-its

We started building Verena in 2019. Three years into being an NSF Center, we are/were a preposterously productive research team; the open science organization for pandemic prevention; a training hub that was creating new paths into the field; and a community that means a lot to all of us. /2

Hi everyone, I wanted to share some sad news about the future of the Verena program. As you know, in September, NSF delayed our annual payment indefinitely, and asked us to keep spending closer and closer to zero until they could “justify” another payment. We began to run out of funds at some universities this month, and will be fully spent out by late spring, so the goal was to get paid in December. We’ve been working with our program officer to make this happen, but sadly, we’ve learned we’re not getting an increment again, and there’s no clarity on when or how much we will be paid in the remainder of the grant (through September 1, 2027). Because of this, the Executive Committee has made the difficult decision to essentially shut the BII down until / unless something changes. What that means is an indefinite end to all programs (e.g., seminar), training activities (integration workshops, trainee corner), and evaluation. On research, what’s able to continue will have to be navigated by each investigator; our goal is to work together to push out all the impactful science we’ve spent three years collecting and analyzing data for, but we also know that priorities may shift around to keep people employed. If we’re lucky, Congress will pass a budget that lets us continue doing something like what we planned, and we’ll pick that back up when Zoe and Collin are back in April. Until then, Verena will continue to exist as a community where we can collaborate (and give and receive support!), and we’re working to find funding sources that can pick up from where the BII left off. On a personal note: it’s been the privilege of a lifetime to work with all of you, and an unbelievably lucky thing to get to run an NSF center in my 20s. I’ve loved this project, and I hope it’s made as much of a difference in your lives as it has in mine. In case I don’t see you later: happy holidays, be well, and so long and thanks for all the viruses. Best, Colin

Yesterday, we sent this message to the @viralemergence.org team, bringing a (hopefully temporary) end to our project three years into what started as a decade of planned work. /1

🎉🧪 Some rare GOOD news (🙃): the National Defense Authorization Act language that's just been released seems to have eliminated the "SAFE Research Act," which would have barred any scientist from federal funding if they had Chinese collaborations in the last 5 years rules.house.gov/sites/evo-su...

Dinner: Lamb gyro on homemade pita.

I’m not a big investor, but how does one buy stock in Hep B specifically?

Sometimes the obvious is worth restating.

Many of us need to keep writing federal grants (both for political reasons and as a Hail Mary to keep people employed) despite the feeling it's a waste of time, so... if you got an NSF or NIH grant funded this year, would you mind bragging about it in the replies, so it feels like the odds are >0%?

Reviewers in December

Usually have something custom. Just speak to your private tailor?

Very bad indeed.

So, you want Pandora’s interval to be open…

Dec 1 is the first possible start date for NIH grants in Cycle I. Let the RePORTER watching begin!

I have complicated feelings about tying bad puns to vital bioinformatics tools.

Nothing could be better than bedtools. But maybe something could be bedder…

Dessert: Apple pie with homemade saffron and mace ice cream.