Jason Shepherd

Thanks Sam!

Oh sweet!

Thanks! I’ve actually never been to Brisbane, but spent a summer at the ANU in Canberra as an undergrad. Visited Sydney and Melbourne many times as well.

a close up of a cat 's face against a blue sky ALT: a close up of a cat 's face against a blue sky

Excited to be heading down under for a bit! First stop Brisbane (QBI), then Sydney for the Pavlovian Society meeting, Melbourne @floreyinstitute.bsky.social and finally Auckland @aucklanduni.bsky.social 😅

It took us by surprise too!

Cool!! Def looks like capsids/vesicles.

Interesting! In what context are they popping up?

PDB101: Molecule of the Month: Arc An unexpected link between viruses and the brain

Arc is the protein of the month on PDB @rcsbpdb.bsky.social! Of course, it's really protein of the century in my mind 😆

Thanks to Janet Iwasa @utah.edu and her team for the excellent write up and animations! pdb101.rcsb.org/motm/308

Join us in Montreal this October! Registration now open and we will be selecting short talks from the abstracts. ECRs will be prioritized!

NIH director Bhattacharya denies banned word list in meeting with staffers Bethesda Declaration signers insist that a list exists and further criticize new policies

#NIH PIs, start emailing Dr. Jayanta Bhattacharya and tell them what you are experiencing. CC Dr. Jon Lorsch and your ICO Director of Extramural Activities. Get them to talk with each other. #defendresearch

Yes

Phew! Hoping House agrees.

🫠😑

Means a lot. Wasn’t sure anyone even noticed those articles.

Thanks Alex ❤️. I know we had our disagreements about this a few years ago. But, seems like I am the only one willing to talk to reporters these days. Just such a pervasive sense of fear (not that I’m blaming anyone).

🫠

This man is pure evil.

Meh. Pseudoscience.

All signs point to the budget being about the same next year, especially if it’s a CR. But the paylines will still be 1/2 because of this policy. I see zero benefits to labs.

Sure but the problem is that if labs have to shut down because no new grants..that’s it. They won’t reopen and so we are going to lose a lot of good people. So this isn’t a trivial degree of emphasis.

There’s never been a worry that we would not get the $$ each year for NIH continuing grants. The progress reports were a formality. The problem now is that this change in policy is not being phased in. So paylines are now going to be around 5% even if the budget is not cut. Labs will shut down!

Indeed! The public needs to know that the groundwork for major medical breakthroughs is slow, requires investment from tax payers…but is absolutely worth it! Wes Sundquist’s work on HIV was curiosity driven but ultimately paved the way for a major breakthrough in curing AIDS.

And congrats to your student as well! You and Emily are killing it.

Thanks Michael! 🤞🏻

I know right?! Will wait and see what the PO says.

Anyone know what’s going on with NIH NRSAs? My student just scored a 9% (impact score 22) for her F31..assigned to NIMH!! Normally this would be a slam dunk..but who knows these days 🫠

No better time to call or email your members of Congress. Next year’s NIH budget is being debated in the Senate. A new nonpartisan campaign is making it easy to defend science and protect America’s innovation. Just follow this link to contact your representatives: www.protectscienceandinnovation.org

Yeah, seems unlikely they would come to consensus but who knows. Senate is still marking their budget for August 1st I think.

What do you hear?