Talia Lerner

Happy birthday! Having all the FOMO not at SfN 😞

🔊 Listen Now: Young brain researchers ponder other careers amid federal funding cuts All Things Considered on NPR One | 3:53

Listen to: Young brain researchers ponder other careers amid federal funding cuts - one.npr.org/i/nx-s1-5603...

If they win, Democrats will have to use their newfound authority to rethink, even dismantle, agencies like U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement and U.S. Customs and Border Protection. They may need to walk back the Bush-era decision to consolidate those agencies and others under a single department, given the wild abuses perpetrated under this administration and its predecessors. It will need to give serious thought to major political and social reform, including D.C. statehood, a federal ban on partisan gerrymandering, a new voting rights act and federal protections for reproductive rights and bodily autonomy, including the rights of gender and sexual minorities. Democrats will also need to embrace the legislature’s constitutional authority to structure the executive branch and the judiciary, up to and including Supreme Court reform. If they win next year, Democrats will need to treat the next Congress not as a return to the status quo ante but as the beginning of a new era in which the principal task is to roll back the president’s effort to create and consolidate a personalist dictatorship. They’ll need to fortify the American political system against future attempts to play dictator and lay out a project of genuine democratic renewal. None of this is possible without a willingness to use power rather than just hold it. What we’ve seen this week is that there are still too many Democrats whose instinct is to retreat to normalcy rather than face the conflict at hand.

Jamelle was cooking.

Gift link: www.nytimes.com/2025/11/12/o...

Sue and win. Fight back. AAUP ✊🏼

Researchers with lived experience of mental illness/SUDs bring vital insight to our field, yet remain underrepresented and face barriers to participation & leadership

This Perspective calls for removing such barriers & proposes reforms to build inclusive environments

www.nature.com/articles/s44...

Yup, it is chaos. I can't imagine trying to be an SRO right now.

FWIW I have not heard this (yet?). We are trying to reschedule.

If it does happen, I hope it won't be the new norm, but there may be compromises necessary right now to get anything to the January council round.

CHALLENGE ACCEPTED!

Boo! ♥️ Lerner Lab

This is where I live. This is where I'm trying to raise my kids.

Go home 🧊

Arts & Sciences Dean says WashU will not sign Trump’s higher ed compact as-is - Student Life Dean of WashU’s College of Arts & Sciences, Feng Sheng Hu, told faculty at a meeting on Tuesday that Chancellor Andrew D. Martin does not plan to sign the Trump administration’s compact for higher edu...

This decision leaked in an Arts & Sciences faculty meeting yesterday afternoon, and, while I suspect it'll take a minute for the student paper to update after today's email, credit to them that they had this story up this morning. www.studlife.com/news/2025/10...

All but 2 Universities Decline a Trump Offer of Preferential Funding

2 more to go... C'mon Vanderbilt and Texas 😌

www.nytimes.com/2025/10/20/u...

🌵Tucson Proud🌵
No Compact for the University of Arizona. ✊🏼

Hands off Chicago. No Kings.

Numerous state and local reps giving emotional speeches

This is the "small" neighborhood pre-rally! Get out there today everybody!

DARTMOUTH OUT!

We are at 6 rejections. Vanderbilt is the only private left standing "considering" the compact along with UT Austin and the University of Arizona.

A university that signs the “compact” is one that acknowledges its own inability to compete and succeed based talent and merit. It would signal insecurity and mediocrity to current and future students and faculty. Say no. Recruit the best people, protect their freedom and support their hard work.

U.Va. rejects Trump administration Compact for Academic Excellence The University has rejected the “Compact for Academic Excellence in Higher Education,” which he received from the White House and Department of Education Oct. 1, according to a community statement rel...

Interim University of Virginia President Paul Mahoney has responded ”no thank you” to the loyalty pledge masquerading as a compact. Go UVA!

www.cavalierdaily.com/article/2025...

#nocompact #uva #academicfreedom

I'm interested to try it on some of my own papers and see what it can do. Looks to be in beta for neuroscience!

Penn, U. of Southern California Reject Trump Compact The universities follow the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Brown University in rejecting the Trump administration’s proposal that would require sweeping changes.

Penn and USC have also rejected the Compact!

That makes 4 - stronger together.

www.insidehighered.com/news/faculty...

Penn rejects White House proposal for special funding treatment With the decision, Penn becomes the third university to decline the offer.

Penn joins MIT and Brown in saying “no” to Trump extortion move.

Persistent open chromatin state in early-life stress-activated cells of the VTA Scientific Reports - Persistent open chromatin state in early-life stress-activated cells of the VTA

Congratulations to Rebekah Rashford and team, it’s finally out! We tagged early life stress-activated neurons in VTA and found that chromatin those cells was much more open, even into adulthood, and that open CREs predicted greater gene expression in response to stress later in life
rdcu.be/eLa9z

Brown is out! They had to do more dancing in their letter because they previously capitulated and needed to reference their previous agreement but, at its core, this reiterates MIT's letter.

The clock is now on for all other institutions.

www.brown.edu/sites/defaul...

In that situation, but don't have an answer...

A heartfelt goodbye 👋🏼 to @glopez.bsky.social, OG of the lab. On to her next adventure in medical writing!

Last pic - from Gaby - it's me in my office, in my office 😄

mitochondria from bipolar patients are closer to the nucleus in these images; control patients' are spread out further

15 years in the making, we confirmed that mitochondria - the powerhouse of the cell - have an unusual localization in patients who experience psychosis (including schizophrenia and bipolar disorders). You’ll never guess what kind of patient cells we used to make this discovery… 🧵

M.I.T. Rejects a White House Offer for Special Funding Treatment

www.nytimes.com/2025/10/10/u...

Go MIT ✊🏼

Has Your Scientific Work Been Cut? We Want to Hear.

www.nytimes.com/2025/10/08/c...

one more day left for poster submissions to Winter Brain 2026

October 9th is the deadline for poster submissions for #WCBR2026 please share! www.winterbrain.org