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David R. Martinez

@davidmartinez.bsky.social

Assistant Professor of Immunobiology and Microbial Pathogenesis at Yale School of Medicine. Hanna H. Gray Faculty Fellow of the HHMI. Scientist. Husband/Dad. Viral pathogenesis. Vaccines. Immunobiology. Above all, be kind.

564 Followers  |  290 Following  |  34 Posts  |  Joined: 28.09.2023  |  1.9004

Latest posts by davidmartinez.bsky.social on Bluesky

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Senate appropriators approve Labor-HHS bill with NIH bump The vote and lawmaker comments show that most senators aren't going along with the White House's proposed 40% budget cut to NIH.

BIG NEWS:

β€œSenate appropriators on Thursday approved an FY26 Labor-HHS bill that included a slight bump in funding for the NIH, with a strong 26–3 bipartisan vote.”

Thank you to members of the Senate Appropriations Committee on both sides of the aisle!

www.axios.com/pro/health-c...

31.07.2025 18:48 β€” πŸ‘ 115    πŸ” 27    πŸ’¬ 2    πŸ“Œ 1

The NIH budget will INCREASE by $400 million β€” not slashed by 40%, as Trump proposed β€” according to a proposal by Senate appropriators, says Sen Murray.

"Some have asked if there will even be an NIH by [2029]. The commmittee's resounding message is yesβ€”Congress has your back", she says.

31.07.2025 13:53 β€” πŸ‘ 259    πŸ” 78    πŸ’¬ 8    πŸ“Œ 15
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In preparation of today's mark-up of the NIH appropriations bill in the Senate and other activities, I sent this note to Senator Susan Collins' office.

1/2

31.07.2025 12:58 β€” πŸ‘ 195    πŸ” 31    πŸ’¬ 11    πŸ“Œ 13

Extra kudos and thanks to all the staff at NIH and NSF and other federal funding agencies for working extra hard in very small windows of opportunity to get grants reviewed and funds released before the attention-addled federal policies change again (on an hourly basis).

30.07.2025 20:41 β€” πŸ‘ 394    πŸ” 85    πŸ’¬ 2    πŸ“Œ 3
Brown University's campus. A headline reads: "Brown University Makes A Deal With the White House to Restore Funding." Photo credit: lan MacLellan for The New York Times.

Brown University's campus. A headline reads: "Brown University Makes A Deal With the White House to Restore Funding." Photo credit: lan MacLellan for The New York Times.

Breaking News: Brown University was said to have reached a deal with the Trump administration to restore federal funding. nyti.ms/459nQzY

30.07.2025 20:54 β€” πŸ‘ 62    πŸ” 29    πŸ’¬ 61    πŸ“Œ 66

Reviewer #3 feedback.

23.07.2025 10:53 β€” πŸ‘ 4    πŸ” 0    πŸ’¬ 0    πŸ“Œ 0
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holy shit lmao

19.07.2025 03:21 β€” πŸ‘ 26843    πŸ” 5106    πŸ’¬ 507    πŸ“Œ 727
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New paper! Combining epidemiology and experiments uncovers surprising drug-host-microbiome-pathogen interactions. Congrats @amankumar25.bsky.social, Robyn Tamblyn, and the rest of the team.

www.nature.com/articles/s41...

16.07.2025 19:59 β€” πŸ‘ 12    πŸ” 6    πŸ’¬ 3    πŸ“Œ 1
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Macrophage-derived oncostatin M repairs the lung epithelial barrier during inflammatory damage Tissue repair programs must function alongside antiviral immunity to restore the lung epithelial barrier following infection. We found that macrophage-derived oncostatin M (OSM) counteracted the patho...

πŸŽ‰ Over the moon to share the first paper from my lab!! We discovered an unexpected role for the cytokine OSM in lung epithelial homeostasis and repair. 🧡 1/n www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

11.07.2025 01:03 β€” πŸ‘ 138    πŸ” 28    πŸ’¬ 12    πŸ“Œ 6
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Miss Rachel continues to have more of a moral backbone than 99% of public figures

10.07.2025 20:31 β€” πŸ‘ 5442    πŸ” 1784    πŸ’¬ 48    πŸ“Œ 115

Very depressing to hear that. How can this be happening at NIH? It defies belief.

03.07.2025 16:00 β€” πŸ‘ 2    πŸ” 1    πŸ’¬ 0    πŸ“Œ 0
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Lunch outing with the lab to celebrate Jordan’s brilliant qualifying exam (she passed with flying colors)! And, also celebrated a 1%ile score on the lab’s R01 on mucosal vaccines for respiratory viruses. Fingers crossed for the NOA!

02.07.2025 21:37 β€” πŸ‘ 9    πŸ” 0    πŸ’¬ 1    πŸ“Œ 0

: )

30.06.2025 23:22 β€” πŸ‘ 0    πŸ” 0    πŸ’¬ 0    πŸ“Œ 0

β€œThe 1793 yellow fever epidemic in Philadelphia was one of the most severe in American history, killing around 5,000 people, or 10% of the city's population. The outbreak began in August near the Delaware waterfront and spread rapidly throughout the summer and fall.” The rich fled to the countryside

21.06.2025 02:53 β€” πŸ‘ 14    πŸ” 4    πŸ’¬ 1    πŸ“Œ 1
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Trump Administration Live Updates: Judge Rules N.I.H. Grant Cuts Illegal, Orders Funds Restored

πŸ™ŒπŸΌ praise be for the judicial branch putting the brakes on the illegal actions of this current administration.

Judge Rules N.I.H. Grant Cuts Illegal, Orders Funds Restored www.nytimes.com/live/2025/06...

16.06.2025 23:52 β€” πŸ‘ 6    πŸ” 1    πŸ’¬ 1    πŸ“Œ 0

Real vaccine science, check it out

12.06.2025 14:36 β€” πŸ‘ 3    πŸ” 1    πŸ’¬ 0    πŸ“Œ 0
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Nonstabilized SARS-CoV-2 spike mRNA vaccination induces broadly neutralizing antibodies in nonhuman primates Nonstabilized SARS-CoV-2 spike mRNA vaccination elicited distinct antibodies to either Omicron variants of concern or preemergent sarbecoviruses.

A paper from our pancoronavirus vaccine P01 grant group is now out in Science Translational Medicine.

Here we show that non-stabilized spike delivered as mRNA is sufficient to elicit broadly neutralizing antibodies in monkeys.

@alexschaefer.bsky.social

www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

12.06.2025 14:15 β€” πŸ‘ 4    πŸ” 2    πŸ’¬ 0    πŸ“Œ 2

Kennedy’s ACIP 2.0 is as expected. Headlined by charlatans that have nothing to lose and will rubber stamp ludicrous policies.

I strongly urge my fellow healthcare providers to speak up and be unafraid. We must ensure there is accountability through collective action.

11.06.2025 22:08 β€” πŸ‘ 956    πŸ” 294    πŸ’¬ 19    πŸ“Œ 11

The process for ACIP membership usually takes years of vetting, particularly for conflicts of interest. Have these people undergone the same level of scrutiny? I'm pretty sure Malone has made money from saying falsely that mRNA vaccines are unsafe.

11.06.2025 21:35 β€” πŸ‘ 192    πŸ” 60    πŸ’¬ 15    πŸ“Œ 4
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RFK Jr.’s attack on vaccine experts endangers every American β€œOur nation’s top health official cannot be trusted to protect America’s children and their families,” writes Richard Besser, pediatrician and president of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.

RFK Jr.’s attack on vaccine experts endangers every American www.statnews.com/2025/06/10/a... via @statnews.com

"Kennedy is not fit for the office he holds."

"Congress must act. The medical and public health community must speak out. And the public should demand better."

10.06.2025 20:15 β€” πŸ‘ 295    πŸ” 96    πŸ’¬ 3    πŸ“Œ 3
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Jay Bhattacharya is decimating health research

Here in my state, his cuts are MASSIVE ($566 million in lost funding

NC is #2 in terminated grants

The impact will be horrific

Bhattacharya took $129 million from Duke’s HIV vaccine development efforts; see www.dukechronicle.com/article/2025...

10.06.2025 14:51 β€” πŸ‘ 34    πŸ” 15    πŸ’¬ 1    πŸ“Œ 0
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NIH details how Trump budget would cut support for grants, training, and research centers President Trump's 2026 budget proposes cutting NIH grants to universities, academic medical centers, and other institutions by 43%

~40% cuts to NIH research awards.
~35% cuts to training programs.
~27% cut to internal research.
~30% fewer grants awarded overall.
The Common Fund will be cut in half.
American science has never faced a threat like this.
www.statnews.com/2025/06/06/n... via @statnews.com

06.06.2025 22:31 β€” πŸ‘ 48    πŸ” 37    πŸ’¬ 3    πŸ“Œ 8

Remember the day when the cyber truck was unveiled by Elon Musk trying to channel his best Steve Jobs? When he took a hammer to the β€˜bulletproof windows’ which were not?

Today is better.

05.06.2025 21:38 β€” πŸ‘ 33    πŸ” 2    πŸ’¬ 1    πŸ“Œ 0

Losing the US contribution to GAVI is predicted to lead to 1.2 million additional preventable child deaths globally. From our new piece about measles: www.nature.com/articles/s41...

04.06.2025 16:37 β€” πŸ‘ 32    πŸ” 21    πŸ’¬ 1    πŸ“Œ 1

I grew up in the US in the 1980s, so exceptionalism is a defining trait. My default setting is USA #1.

I can’t accept that making America great again means voluntarily stepping off the podium and relinquishing our medals. It’s the least American thing we could ever do.

31.05.2025 11:50 β€” πŸ‘ 112    πŸ” 23    πŸ’¬ 7    πŸ“Œ 0

RFK has always a history of making his own reality which requires making stuff up to support his fantasy-reality

29.05.2025 22:35 β€” πŸ‘ 30    πŸ” 8    πŸ’¬ 3    πŸ“Œ 0

🚨 In a stunningly short-sighted move, HHS just canceled its contract with Moderna to test mRNA vaccines for #H5N1 and other pandemic threats.

When the next big outbreak hits, what’s the planβ€”bleach again?

This will come back to bite us. Hard.
#BirdFlu #PublicHealth #PandemicPreparedness

28.05.2025 23:32 β€” πŸ‘ 168    πŸ” 92    πŸ’¬ 14    πŸ“Œ 6
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ACE2 from Pipistrellus abramus bats is a receptor for HKU5 coronaviruses - Nature Communications This work shows that receptor use in merbecovirus is clade-specific by clustering them into clades based on the receptor-binding domain (RBD) of their spike proteins. While MERS-CoV and its close rela...

New paper about ACE2 using Merbecovirus. Hot stuff. So hot but you can't Letko. @fviromics.bsky.social and Nick Catanzaro. www.nature.com/articles/s41... #ACE2 #emergingviruses #bats #batman #MERS #HKU5

28.05.2025 18:17 β€” πŸ‘ 10    πŸ” 8    πŸ’¬ 1    πŸ“Œ 0

Definitely fool’s gold. Pun intended.

28.05.2025 15:56 β€” πŸ‘ 0    πŸ” 0    πŸ’¬ 0    πŸ“Œ 0

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