Rommie Amaro

My little outlook on how our lungs 🫁 are like the sea 🌊 is finally out in Central Science. Thanks to the support from incredible mentors @rommieamaro.bsky.social and @kprather.bsky.social !!

thanks, Carl!

A new review explores one of the themes of my book Air-Borne: our lungs are like the ocean. Both send life into the atmosphere. pubs.acs.org/doi/full/10....

thanks, Linsey!!

Fascinating outlook on similarities in aerosolization of microbes from the ocean surface and respiratory tract fluid by Dommer @rommieamaro.bsky.social @kprather.bsky.social

Happy to share the latest from the lab, led by Daniel Alvarez, in collaboration with @lizconibear.bsky.social‬. In this AA-MD tour-de-force, we delve deep into the mechanism and energetics of lipid uptake by bridge-like lipid transfer proteins, and we learn a few interesting things along the way...

Trump Administration Scraps Effort to Pause Health-Research Funding The administration halted and then restarted billions in new research grants flowing from the National Institutes of Health.

UPDATE: The pause was scrapped Tuesday evening after intervention by top White House officials. www.wsj.com/politics/pol...

Given that OMB is part of the Executive Office of the President, this should read

"after intervention by OTHER top White House Officials."

2/n

/fin

Trump Administration Puts New Chokehold on Billions in Health-Research Funding The National Institutes of Health can’t award grants to outside researchers under a new White House restriction.

WSJ story about OMB blocking NIH spending and grant making

www.wsj.com/politics/pol...

1/n

Did you know about the BPS Bridging Funds Program?

If you're a biophysicist navigating a difficult time, this program is for you to defray costs for attending the BPS Annual Meeting!
I am grateful to the @biophysicalsoc.bsky.social for supporting our members!
www.biophysics.org/2026meeting/...

14 Republican senators urge White House to release delayed NIH funds Sen. Katie Britt (R-Ala.) is leading the letter making the ask of OMB director Russ Vought.

“Withholding or suspending these funds would jeopardize that trust and hinder progress on critical health challenges facing our nation. Ultimately, this is about finding cures and seeing them through to fruition.”

www.politico.com/news/2025/07...

AlphaFold developer Google DeepMind to fund CASP as NIH funding falls short Protein structure prediction contest CASP gets temporary funding from Google DeepMind as NIH grant runs out.

NEW from me at STAT:

We've learned that DeepMind is going to fund CASP, the protein structure competition that brought Google DeepMind's #AlphaFold to prominence (and a Nobel Prize), as its NIH funding runs out.

More @statnews.com:
www.statnews.com/2025/07/21/c...

🖥️🩺🧪🧬 #bioML

BREAKING: Scientists are staging a “science fair” in the lobby of a Congressional building to tell elected officials about the critical knowledge the US will lose because their research grants have been canceled.

World’s premier cancer institute faces crippling cuts and chaos | CNN The Trump administration’s broadsides against scientific research have caused unprecedented upheaval at the National Cancer Institute, the storied federal government research hub that has spearheaded ...

New hair-raising piece from CNN about the National Cancer Institute...

www.cnn.com/2025/07/08/h...

the word alert is in a purple circle ALT: the word alert is in a purple circle

ACTION ITEM-----ACTION ITEM

Implementation of Schedule F

This is what a lot of us have been worried about.

This allows for many civil service positions to replaced with political appointees. This could include NIH institute directors and even POs.

BUT THERE IS A COMMENT PERIOD...

1/n

🚨. I've been mostly off social media for a bit (mental health) but this is very important!!!!!

Please comment and circulate to everyone you know for comments!!!

Reminiscing about our Airborne Institute event last week. Having @carlzimmer.com attend & sign his book Air-borne made the day beyond extra special at UC San Diego. We are ready to take on airborne disease and push beyond the place the world has been stuck for 200+ years! @rommieamaro.bsky.social

Trump administration freezes $1B for Cornell, $790M for Northwestern Cornell is the sixth Ivy League institution to face a federal funding freeze.

Trump administration freezes $1B for Cornell, $790M for Northwestern.

Infographic on the chemistry of beer. The top of the graphic identifies the major stages of beer brewing: milling, mashing, brewing, cooling, fermenting, and maturing. The rest of the graphic identifies four key components of beer flavour: alpha acids, beta acids, essential oils and esters. Alpha acids degrade during brewing and form iso-alpha acids, which contribute bitterness. Humulone is the main alpha acid in the majority of hops. Beta acids also originate from hops and add a harsher bitterness than alpha acids. Essential oils contribute the majority of hop flavour and aroma, and there are over 250 found in hops. Esters form during the reaction of alcohol with organic acids, and give fruity flavours.

It's #NationalBeerDay 🍻

Enjoy some of the chemistry behind the brewing while you watch the markets slide 📉

www.compoundchem.com/2014/07/10/b...

#ChemSky 🧪

The Continuing Crisis, Part XI: Feral Children, Breaking Things

More updates on what’s happening to federally funded US science. Roughly the same magic touch Trump has brought to world trade, actually.

Today’s examples are on drug-resistant gonorrhea and vaccine approvals, both of which are going to hell.

San Diego to take a $40 million hit in federal funding for public health Ninety-one grant-funded positions could be affected by cancellation of grants.

Just as our new Public Health Lab - which was built on key lessons learned during COVID - was set to open, the necessary funding for its operation was just pulled by DOGE/HHS.

That operation, critical to safety and public health in San Diego.

Gone.

www.sandiegouniontribune.com/2025/04/04/s...

We were just notified that our contract to UCSD and Scripps Research to support wastewater surveillance in San Diego (searchcovid.info) was terminated immediately for the same reasons 👇.

That means no more genomic wastewater surveillance, and our proposed extensions to measles, Hep A, others, gone.

Trump promised scientific breakthroughs. Researchers say he’s breaking science. NIH funding for biomedical research has abruptly fallen by billions of dollars, with many grant decisions on hold. Trump officials say they’re reviewing the agency.

Powerful new Washington Post story up...

wapo.st/426d9fT

(Gift link)

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This is particularly awful

The F awards are US biomedical workforce training awards

Their agenda to destroy the future of biomedical science on full display here

Ufffff!!!!!

🤬🤬🤬🤬🤬

Google Colab

Run BioEmu in Colab - just click "Runtime → Run all"! Our notebook uses ColabFold to generate MSAs, BioEmu to predict trajectories, and Foldseek to cluster conformations.
Thanks @jjimenezluna.bsky.social for the help!
🌐 colab.research.google.com/github/sokry...
📄 www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

Trump travel ban: California colleges urge international students to rethink travel plans At least one university said it doesn't recommend international travel as a possible travel ban that could impact more than 40 countries looms.

Wow. California State University, UC-Berkeley, UC-Davis, UC-San Diego and U of SF are ALL urging foreign-born students, faculty and staff to reconsider international travel because there's no telling whether the Trump administration will allow them to re-enter.
www.desertsun.com/story/news/n...

Turns out a colander works pretty well for eclipse spotting.
#SolarEclipse