Christina Fitzsimmons

E15 Groups The Helmholtz Institute for RNA-based Infection Researchopens a call for

Looking to start your own lab? 🧬🧪 The Helmholtz Institute Würzburg (HIRI) is offering group leader positions in RNA biology, RNA medicine & RNA technology. Apply by October 31 at www.helmholtz-hiri.de/en/jobs-tale...

Venezuela's opposition leader María Corina Machado wins 2025 Nobel Peace Prize Venezuela's opposition leader María Corina Machado has won this year's Nobel Peace Prize for her tireless work promoting democratic rights for the people of Venezuela.

Venezuela's opposition leader María Corina Machado has won this year's Nobel Peace Prize for her tireless work promoting democratic rights for the people of Venezuela.

Changes at NIH Give Political Appointees Greater Power To Fund or Block Research - KFF Health News The National Institutes of Health’s long-held standard of peer review for grantmaking has been subverted by President Donald Trump and NIH Director Jay Bhattacharya, who gave unprecedented power to po...

IMO this hasn't gotten enough attention: a recent memo at NIH announces that peer review will be devalued in determining which grants get funded, granting more power to political appointees to make decisions based on the admin's whims over scientific merit

kffhealthnews.org/news/article...

UPenn professors have responded forcefully to the Trump administration's that colleges sign a "compact" in order to secure funding:

"When an invitation is accompanied by consequences for not accepting it, it is in fact a threat, not an invitation." aaup-penn.org/statement-by...

Pritzker: "In any other country, if federal agents fired upon journalists & protesters when unprovoked what would we call it? If officials marched down streets harassing civilians & demanding their papers, what would we say? I don't think we'd have trouble calling it what it is: authoritarianism"

It has been 7 years and these are still just as relevant!

Laura is awesome and I can't wait to hear about all the cool work her lab is doing! Prospective students you should definitely reach out!

Florida Decided There Were Too Many Children The state’s elimination of vaccine mandates is a courageous first step toward decluttering itself of any excess kids.

This is amazing: www.theatlantic.com/newsletters/...

We are hiring at all levels! Interested undergrads and grad students should reach out about openings / rotations. Prospective postdocs should apply here: careers.msu.edu/jobs/researc...
@chemjobber.bsky.social (3/3)

Extremely grateful for support from my graduate and postdoc mentors @danicafujimori.bsky.social and @pjorb.bsky.social, as well as support from @americancancersoc.bsky.social @leadingedgeprogram.bsky.social (2/3)

A photo of a newly renovated science lab with metal cabinets and tile floors. Select pieces of equipment such as test tube racks and chairs are visible.

Excited to announce the opening of the @fitzsimmonslab.bsky.social at @michiganstateu.bsky.social dept. of biochemistry & molecular biology! (1/3)

Opinion | America First? Not When It Comes to Your Health.

Gift link: www.nytimes.com/2025/08/24/o...

An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure. Two doses of the MMR vaccine are 97% effective at preventing measles.

Wow. A group of top scholars at Harvard just sent a letter to its president, Alan Garber, warning against surrendering to Trump.

Signatories include Steven Levitsky, Dani Rodrik, Ryan Enos, Theda Skocpol, and Steven Walt.

Someone forwarded it to me. Read it here:

The Bio Dept. @macalestercollege.bsky.social is looking for a tenure-track assistant professor in molecular genetics. I got my BA here and can say without a doubt that Mac really launched my scientific journey. Applications due Sept 15th!
academicjobsonline.org/ajo/jobs/30197

My academic job offer was rescinded. I’ll keep going—but U.S. researchers are running out of road Despite an uncertain future, this postdoc will “keep doing the science I love while I still have a bench”

A beautifully written piece on a terrible time

www.science.org/content/arti...

Keep talking to your reps and senators!!

Guest Editorial: Invest in science, invest in the future “An investment in knowledge pays the best interest,” wrote Pennsylvania’s own Benjamin Franklin — words that have only grown more powerful in today’s world.

I wrote an op-ed for my local paper (The Sentinel in Carlisle, PA) about the impact of science funding cuts.
cumberlink.com/opinion/edit...

Thank you to @cornellasap.bsky.social and @sciencehomecoming.bsky.social to get my writing out there as part of the #McClintockLetters initiative!

Planning to apply to Biology PhD Programs this year? Let us help you out!! At the Stanford Biology Preview Program, we aim to support students from all backgrounds through the graduate school application process. Apply here: forms.gle/EvTyUWXFMRSL...

The comment process is quick and easy! The volume of comments also matters, so writing something short and sweet is perfect.

Congratulations to all the new fellows and welcome to the Leading Edge community!!

Scientists, reach out to your local communities about the importance of funding science! Write an op-ed to your local newspaper as part of the #McClintockLetters.

Please spread the word and sign up! DM me if you're interested and need help getting started. I'm trained as a writer and happy to help.

Sen. Ossoff: Who out there in the American public is sitting at home demanding that we shut down cancer research and Alzheimer's research?

I don’t quite have the words to describe what just happened at HHS, on a Friday afternoon, before a holiday weekend, but it’s very very bad, and we will all be less safe and less healthy as a result.

These are long time friends and colleagues and amazing, AMAZING scientists.

This is senseless. 💔

In case folks are interested in contacting their congresspeople about the NIH indirect cuts with some estimates of what they would mean for institutions in their state, here are some estimates based on published F&A rates and funding ... let me know if you want a particular state

Hello everyone! A brief reintroduction: I am a biochemist interested in #RNAmodifications, dysregulated #metabolism, and their crosstalk in systems including #cancer and #aging. And I'm currently on the #academicjobs market!

If you want to follow awesome women and non-binary early career scientists, the starter pack of Leading Edge Fellows is here!

go.bsky.app/He3EAcq

So excited to FINALLY see our work online!! Thank you to everyone who contributed to this really awesome story!
aacrjournals.org/mct/article-...

Excited to see our recent work on cryptic splice mutations in hereditary renal cancer out. Congrats to all the authors!

academic.oup.com/hmg/advance-...