Patrick Phillips

Bittersweet to be leaving @docedge.bsky.social after a wonderful postdoc, but excited to share that I'm joining @uoregon.bsky.social next month as an Assistant Professor in the Department of Data Science.

Congress says they have our back...let's hold them to their word!

All gas, no breaks this August with the 31 Days of Action campaign.

Sign up for our daily action notes here: act.standupforscience.net/forms/31-day...

The point is that we are only seven months in and many things have already gone back and forth multiple times. Doesn't mean that it won't skid to the dirt, but even those pay lines could reverse at the last moment since the money is sitting there. Courts and Congress.

My point was that these things are on a fast cycle. It sucks that NCI folks (and others?) are in the 5% payline cycle, which may indeed persist. No where did I say that you should not be pissed. Targeted efficacious action through Congress at this very moment is what will shift the cycle back a bit.

Mostly continuing awards for me. The new award landscape is becoming very challenging. This is essentially a zero funding stance, so we should be seeing those patterns emerge shortly. Very sorry that you are in this situation. There does seem to be a cycle to this, which adds extra randomness.

My students will testify that your GIF game also makes you a man after my own heart 😆. Decided to tone down the bitmoji's a few years ago.

8. A day may come when the courage of scientists fails, when we forsake our colleagues, and break all bonds of mutual support, but it is not this day. 9/9

7. So keep your head up the best that you can. Every scientist has succeeded via raw persistence and dog headedness. Discouragement is the intent. We are not at that point yet, and people are in the trenches every day fighting to keep it that way. 8/n

6. So my general take is that new funding is clearly being slow walked and changes in policy are intended to limit investment, but the system is still grinding forward. Initial steps by congress are promising so supporting those efforts remains key. 7/n

5. I have also served on or chaired 5 or so NIH study sections and/or workshops since January. I have tried to say yes most times when I can. The broader community continues to be fantastic at this important work, and the SROs again remain dedicated to the task of moving things forward. 6/n

4. Tracking information from @jeremymberg.bsky.social has been critical to my understanding of the situation, even ironically keeping me calm by knowing that we are all in the same boat when things ebb and flow. We are lucky to have him helping to serve as an extremely credible spokesperson. 5/n

3. The POs for NIGMS and NIA have been phenomenal (as well as NIBIB, which is an aspiration for us). They have been very calm and reassuring, even as I know that their individual lives are very challenging. We are very lucky to have these staff and should be fighting for them whenever possible. 4/n

2. We have had some NOAs that are two months overdue (i.e., people working without funding) and some that have come in right on time with no warning. The pattern seems to simply follow the national landscape of when the NIH as a whole is issuing funding or not. 3/n

1. My situation is obviously unusual and is the result of working broadly across fields as well as working on service-oriented U-awards. I also work on worms and so tend to have many small grants rather than a couple of big ones. So this is not a flex, but instead intended to provide hope.

I've now received five NIH notice of awards for new or continuing grants since January. Almost enough data to detect some patterns. Here are a few observations. 1/n

L’Orangarie is in a hotel. Surprised if it is closed, but maybe. Pleasant seating around a central courtyard. Not super fussy (but still formal).

There are multiple Michelin star restaurants near the Arc de Triomphe, so you are going to need to figure out your target range for dinner.

Not super close to the LV Museum, but taking the boat over to the Le Chalet des Îles in the Bois de Boulogne for lunch is pretty special as well.

My favorite place in Montmartre is Chez Plumeau, a surprising oasis right around the corner from the main square. Specials are often actually special.

There are so many more. According to this effort, around 100 scientists alone have saved 5 billion lives in the modern era: scienceheroes.com/

That is very nearly all of us. We are not here, had they not been here. Our family trees would not protrude into modernity.


17/19

For those keeping track of such things, I just received a NOA for a continuing R01, 10 weeks after the end of the previous budget period. So it does happen. Very grateful to the dedicated folks a the NIA for their continuing efforts to keep things rolling.

Former lab member Anna Crist, who now CRISPRizes mosquitoes at the Pasteur Institute in Paris, sent me this awesome card with original artwork.

Cilantro pepita hummus (10 o’clock) and white bean hummus (3 o’clock) won the popular vote in a very tight race.

Hummus and veggies displayed on a table.

Meanwhile, lab humus competition 2025

YouTube video by Morris Maduro Worm Show 2025

2025 Worm Show

youtu.be/HXgUZzLJ-b0?...

We will be there too. Consider attending this Epigenetics workshop in Erice, Sicily! (see link below).

I’m excited to share our work which identifies a new seminal fluid protein in C. elegans!

Pro-longevity compounds extend Caenorhabditis elegans male lifespan and reproductive healthspan Sex differences in aging are robust and ubiquitous. Demographic differences in aging generated by sex have long been recognized, but the underlying biological basis for these differences and the poten...

Fresh on the heels of #worm25, our new preprint just dropped: Pro-longevity compounds extend Caenorhabditis elegans male lifespan and reproductive healthspan, by @rosealsaadi.bsky.social www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

For those searching for info (like me), the reconciliation process used for the BBB cannot be used to address discretionary funding, like NIH & NSF. So those continue to operate under the continuing resolution until the next appropriations process, which will begin in July and end in September.

Megan Moerdyk-Schauwecker did a terrific job sharing an update on our library based transgenesis approaches at #worm25. We have a bunch of stuff in the pipeline that will hopefully take this to the next level of impact for the community. 🤞