Courtney R. McDermott, PhD

Excited to share our latest paper - now out in @science.org - we showed how oxytocin modulates maternally-directed behavior in young mice (P15).

We have the turnout today in the MILLIONS — sourced from handsoff2025.com directly and echoed by @moveon.org and @publiccitizen.bsky.social.

Millions.
Enormous turnout across all 50 states and globally. Please reinforce that to everyone you know.

This is Utah in case anyone’s wondering how pissed off people are. I have never seen anything like this.

I've already had two federal grants terminated and face a 33% pay cut due to future terminations. It's painful, but not as painful as the conversations I'm having every day with brilliant trainees in graduate school and postdoctoral positions who see little future for themselves in US science.

< Jaime Montana Cook is at Sackets Harbor Central School. 5h • Message from the Sackets Harbor Principal As the principal of these students, I need to speak plainly. Our three students who were taken by ICE were doing everything right. They had declared themselves to immigration judges, attended court on their assigned dates, and were following the legal process. They are not criminals. They have no ties to any criminal activity. They are loved in their classrooms. Their family has worked at the nearby "Old McDonald's" petting zoo and dairy farm for 15 years. They lived in a house on the same road as a home ICE had a warrant for. The fact that ICE went door to door is unfathomable. The fact that our students were handcuffed and put into the same van as the alleged criminal from down the street is unconscionable. When I think of my third grader's experience, my stomach twists and it is hard to breathe. We are in shock-and it is that shared shock that has unified our community in the call for our students' release. We are in direct communication with our students. Let me be clear: they are not "being medically evaluated." They are not being "questioned as potential victims." Calling a detention center by another name does not change what it is. We deserve better than spin and misinformation. My teachers and my students are already hurting. Please, think about how long every hour feels for a third grader in a detention center. The wait had already been too long a week ago. I have no other agenda. Please release my students and their mother back to our community. Jaime Cook Prek-12 Principal Sackets Harbor, NY

Sackets Harbor, NY is so small that there’s one pre k-12 school with 475 students. Three of those students were disappeared by ICE.

Here is a statement published today by school principal Jaime Cook:

✍️ without any hesitation.

🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣

Hi everyone, the lab has been enabling my professional interest in doing weird shit with touchscreens (as opposed to my personal interest)

Blessed are the mice, for they cannot doomscroll

but here's some recent work you may enjoy if you want to see what mice do with their touchscreens instead

The “who” is impacted by cancellation of NIH “diversity” awards is much broader than “not white.” Eligibility criteria included individuals who are disabled, economically disadvantaged, grew up in rural communities, first generation college students, homeless… grants.nih.gov/grants/guide...

If you or someone you know has been negatively affected by NIH-funded clinical trials being paused, disrupted, cancelled etc., I have a contact with the Senate HELP Committee eager to collect stories of everyday Americans affected by the NIH closures. Please DM me.

SFARI | Simons Sleep Project Releases Data About Sleep Behaviors and Autism SFARI is pleased to release data from its Simons Sleep Project, a study accelerating research into sleep and daily behaviors in people with autism.

How does autism affect sleep? To help answer this question, open-source data from the Simons Sleep Project is now available to approved researchers worldwide: www.sfari.org/2025/03/27/s... #science #autismresearch

It’s stunning to me that the New York Times did not put the story on the bloodbath at the NIH, CDC, and FDA on its front page this morning.

Five things to know if your federal grant is terminated If you want to appeal the decision, know the rules that govern terminations, as well as the specific rationale given in your notice, science policy experts say.

I hope no one ever has to use this story, but here are the key things to know if your grant is terminated: #neuroskyence www.thetransmitter.org/funding/five...

They can take the money away, but we are still here, and we must continue to support each other.

To anyone able to make a hire, look at the former K99 MOSAIC scholars who did not get a chance to apply for faculty jobs yet, they are SUPERstars. #MOSAICFOREVER

I’m so sorry Erica, Dr. Starbird, and all other scholars. 😢

We have been awarded a Fund for Undergraduate Research Internship Programs (FURIP) grant from @ibroorg.bsky.social to fund more undergraduates for the CoB-KIBM scholars program this summer 🥲 thank you @jiannacressy.bsky.social for taking the lead on this!!

Early-Career Neuroscientists Resource Center News, perspectives and resources to help navigate the early stages of your neuroscience career

Explore the newly launched Early-Career Neuroscientists Resource Center, designed to help you navigate the field with news, expert insights and practical tools. The page also highlights job openings, seminars, and more:

#neuroskyence

www.thetransmitter.org/early-career...

There are days in life that shake you.

I’m shattered 💔 to share that I just found out that the US Government terminated my 2024 NIH Director’s Early Independence Award (~$2 million), threatening my long-promised assistant professor job at Columbia University
& academic career... 1/🧵

This is incredibly frustrating. I’m so sorry. 😕

This cure for sickle cell anemia was made possible by NIH-funded research to turn the gene for fetal hemoglobin back on. It was done predominantly by NIH researchers, including intramural researchers on the NIH campus.

irp.nih.gov/catalyst/33/...

Honoring the life & legacy of Dr. Evelyn Witkin on what would have been her birthday. 🎂✨ A pioneer in DNA repair, her groundbreaking work at CSHL shaped modern genetics & earned her the Lasker Prize.
This #WomensHistoryMonth, we celebrate the trailblazers who paved the way. #WomenAtCSHL

i love being bilingual

Verified & Vetted #AltGov

A person in a mask holding a painting that says “hands off my transgenic mice”

At @standupforscience.bsky.social and the signs are statistically significantly excellent

image of the livestream

LIVE STREAM UP!

m.twitch.tv/standupforsc...

Leslie Vosshall awarded the 2025 Scolnick Prize in Neuroscience - MIT McGovern Institute Today the McGovern Institute at MIT announces that the 2025 Edward M. Scolnick Prize in Neuroscience will be awarded to Leslie Vosshall, the Robin Chemers Neustein Professor at The Rockefeller Univers...

Kavli NSI @rockefelleruniv.bsky.social member & former Director Leslie Vosshall has been awarded the 2025 Scolnick Prize in Neuroscience for her groundbreaking work on the neural mechanisms of mosquito behavior. 🦟🔬

Congrats, Dr. Vosshall! 🎉 #Neuroscience #KavliNeuro
mcgovern.mit.edu/2025/03/03/l...

2025 Brain Prize honors pair of cancer neuroscientists Michelle Monje and Frank Winkler share the $1.4 million award for their discovery of synapses between brain cancer cells and neurons.

@michellemonje.bsky.social at @stanfordmedicine.bsky.social and Frank Winkler at Heidelberg University have won the 2025 @brainprize.bsky.social from the Lundbeck Foundation for their work in cancer neuroscience.

By @sydneywyatt.bsky.social

#neuroskyence

www.thetransmitter.org/community/20...

YouTube video by UC Davis From Labs to Lives: Brian Trainor, Ph.D.

I made a video with @ucdavis.bsky.social on the benefits of federal grants for health science and our economy. Please share with friends/family that could be receptive or better yet, make your own video www.youtube.com/watch?v=ndjH...

Black and white mitral cell #FluorescenceFriday 🧠🧪