The world has lost a hero. Bill Foege helped lead smallpox eradication, guided the CDC in the early AIDS era, and shaped global health at the Gates Foundation and the Carter Center. As the Bill Foege Professor at Emory, I heard one refrain again and again: “Bill Foege is my hero.” He was mine too.

Unfortunately, the CDC budget was reduced by 15.8%.
Write your senator as they vote next week on the bill

The House voted yesterday on the conferenced appropriations bill (H.R. 7148), passing it by a vote of 341 in favor and 88 against. This 954-page bill includes funding for NIH, CDC, and other federal science agencies.
The NIH’s overall budget increased by 0.6% compared to FY25.

Very cool

Beautiful

Moe Mahjoub and I are heading to CSH Asia meeting in Suzhou China

St. Louis NPR listeners stepped up last week and contributed 150% of the lost funding from the federal government. Please donate to your local station

Thanks to Susan Collins and Patty Murray for leading the effort to fund NIH. Aldo thanks to the members of the appropriation committee for their support of science.

Girish
This is a well deserved honor. Congratulations on the wonderful work on Dynein. I am sure Barbara and Ian would be smiling about your contributions.

More video from the Francis Collins interview on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert.

1/5

I got my NOA yesterday seven days after the NIGMS MIRA council meeting.

October, 2024

Thanks to everyone at NIGMS. The NOA for my NIH MIRA grant arrived today - seven days after the Advisory Council met on May 22. Sorry for so many acronyms but I am a geneticist.

Christina. Thanks. It is lots of hands, hearts and brains in the lab.

Dagmar: thanks so much

Biomedical Research: Keeping America’s Edge in Innovation | United States Senate Committee on Appropriations United States Senate Committee on Appropriations

The Senate Appropriation Committee hearing on Biomedical Research chaired by Senator Susan Collins is worth watching
for the bipartisan support

www.appropriations.senate.gov/hearings/bio...

Dr. Sudip Parikh, the CEO of AAAS, spoke to the Senate Appropriation Committee today about the importance of both basic and clinical research funded by NIH and NSF.

Barry Sleckman testified today to the Senate Appropriations Committee chaired by Senator Collins about the important role of NIH and NCI in therapies for cancer. Take a listen.

That’s a wrap! We hope you enjoyed our 50th Anniversary Celebration and Symposium as much as we did! Thank you to all the speakers, students, faculty and staff who attended the event. Here’s to more amazing years at the Department of Genetics at WashU Medicine!

On April 24, we celebrated the 50th anniversary of the Department of Genetics at Washington University. We heard about its history from Bob Waterston and Eric Green and how the former trainees are moving science forward.
NHGRI has great resources for those interested in the history of Genomics.

Having taught graduate students about the power of suppressor analysis in yeast, it was great to see suppressors being identified that help people with Alzheimer’s.

From Nature Outlook:
The genes of a Colombian woman who beat the odds might lead to a new way to tackle the disease.

Nobel laureate: I owe America my success. Today, its scientific future is in danger | CNN Dr. Ardem Patapoutian says he watches “with deep sadness as the United States’ remarkable scientific enterprise, which took generations of hard work and national investment to build, faces a concerted...

Published an op-ed for @cnn.com: “Nobel laureate: I owe America my success. Today, its scientific future is in danger.”
A personal reflection on what’s at stake as science funding gets slashed. I’d be grateful if you could amplify both in and beyond the science world.
www.cnn.com/2025/04/09/h...

Judge Permanently Bars N.I.H. From Limiting Medical Research Funding The decision came as an initial win for a broad coalition of academic institutions that had argued the policy jeopardized ongoing research, but it set up an almost certain appeal.

www.nytimes.com/2025/04/04/u...
The law suit is a good first step

Love this "behind the paper" !!! @inikon.bsky.social

Congratulations.

Seven of my great Wash U colleagues were elected as AAAS fellows (American Association for the Advancement of Science). 🎉🎉🎉

She left Canada because, I believe, women were not allow to pursue research careers. She went to Berlin, then U of Chicago, then U of Pittsburgh where she spent the bulk of her career. She was even (eventually) promoted to full professor.

Data from Jeremy Berg’s Dashboard. Reductions across the board for NIH funding

Carl Frieden received a distinguished professorship contributed by a former postdoctoral fellow. He is still going at 95 years old.