Sandra Romero Pinto

👀!

Over 20 years after Julius’s lab and mine cloned TRPM8, it is rewarding to see this science helping patients. The TRPM8 agonist Tryptyr treats dry eye by increasing tear production. A reminder that NIH-funded curiosity-driven research translates to medicines.
tryptyr.myalcon.com?gad_source=1...

codebase here ! zenodo.org/records/1532...

thank you to all the amazing members/alumni of the Uchida lab and people with whom I had the privilege to discuss with @paulmasset.bsky.social @gershbrain.bsky.social @coolscontrol.bsky.social

This is an overlooked mechanism that impacts both the core understanding of dopamine signals in in reinforcement learning but also the study of psychiatric disorders and pharmacological interventions

We also show evidence in humans : indirect measurements of dopamine baseline correlates with asymmetric learning rates and explains the effects of dopamine pharmacological manipulations in a way consistent with the model

We show how only by accounting for this mechanism we could explain the effects of Habenula lesions , where mice showed signals of 'optimistic' biases after re-learning a task.

Tonic dopamine and biases in value learning linked through a biologically inspired reinforcement learning model Nature Communications - Accurate future predictions are essential for guiding behavior, and disruptions in this process are associated with psychiatric disorders. Here the authors show that changes...

My first paper with @naoshigeuchida.bsky.social is finally out in @natcomms.nature.com ! rdcu.be/eACGf

TL;DR: asymmetric learning rates can be induced by shifts in tonic dopamine giving rise to pessimistic/optimistic biases in agents or animals undergoing reinforcement learning .

groundbreaking work by the amazingly talented @hannahpayne.bsky.social !

this is awesome groundbreaking work!! congrats to all involved!!!

NIH indirect cost cuts will affect the economy and employment - Nature Human Behaviour Nature Human Behaviour - NIH indirect cost cuts will affect the economy and employment

Out now in @nathumbehav.nature.com: Cuts to NIH funding will impact the economy and employment nationwide. We visualize these losses and advocate for a theory-driven approach to communicating local, self-relevant impact. w/ @joshuasweitz.bsky.social + SCIMaP team:

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

Harvard today, your institution tomorrow.

It's all part of the Project 2025 plan to destroy high education in America.

All leading US universities depend on federal funding and tuition dollars from international students. They severely curtailed the former. Now they're eliminating the latter.

website views of PhD programmes up in Netherlands. canada, sweden etc

website views from outside the US down massively in the US, up elsewhere

America is in danger of experiencing an academic brain drain 
economist.com/science-and-...

I am where I am now because of OPT. That was my status all throughout my postdoc. It is basically the only way international students are able to transition to employment and contribute their US-trained skills in the United States.

I realize that as a retired professor I have a responsibility to say more on this than I have.

International students are essential to the fiscal bottom line of almost every university. This is an unambiguous attempt to destroy Harvard—permanently.

And he won’t stop with Harvard. This is madness.

Skilled immigration on the chopping block? Effects of eliminating "Optional Practical Training" in the US The White House has taken numerous steps to sharply reduce the number of immigrant workers, with or without legal status, in the US economy. These policies, so far, typically target immigrants with le...

They're terminating OPT.

Today the nominee to head USCIS stated directly: he will end Optional Practical Training, the single largest channel for high-skill immigrants to work in the US.

6 weeks ago I warned about this & summarized the research on impacts of this drastic action—> @piie.com

With nearly all of Harvard Chan School’s direct federal grants terminated, we are relying on philanthropy to power our research and support our educational programs. Every gift, regardless of size, advances our vision of health, dignity, and justice for every human. Support our work: hsph.me/whygive

‘This Is Not How We Do Science, Ever’ The Trump administration is manipulating government-sponsored research to get the answers it wants.

The Trump administration is "willing to not just slash and burn research that challenges their political ideology but to replace it with shoddy studies designed to support their goals, under the guise of scientific legitimacy," Katherine J. Wu writes.

RFK Jr’s autism study collecting Americans’ private medical records The National Institutes of Health claims it is fulfilling RFK’s promise to find cause of autism by September

An autism "registry" culled from private medical records could potentially violate federal privacy laws and runs the risk of abuse.

It also harkens back to a time when disabled people were labeled, segregated, and excluded. We won't go back.

1. For the past thirty years I've had the best job in the world.


I've had the opportunity to follow my curiosity; explore the workings of nature and society; mentor students and junior colleagues in the same process; and teach generations of students about it all.

Here are six examples of how foreign visitors to the US with no criminal record are being treated:

1. Mahmoud Khalil, a green card holding student with no criminal record married to an American is abducted by ICE and is still in detention over a week later.
www.nytimes.com/2025/03/19/n...
......

Brown University Surgeon and Professor Are Deported to Lebanon Despite a Judge’s Order Dr. Rasha Alawieh, a kidney transplant specialist and Brown University professor who had a valid visa, was expelled in apparent defiance of a court order.

A kidney transplant specialist and professor at Brown University’s medical school has been deported from the U.S., even though she had a valid visa and a court order temporarily blocking her expulsion, according to her lawyer and court papers.

NSF downsizes summer research program for undergraduates Many participants are from groups underrepresented in science

"downsizes" is a weak way of saying "forced to cancel dozens of programs, which jeopardizes future STEM careers of talented undergrads" @science.org www.science.org/content/arti...

Thinking of how to convince the NIH to give me money to study these...

🚨PIs of Training Grants and Programs, ESPECIALLY training grants that support students from historically excluded groups (T32s and T34s, IMSD, MARC, PREP, MOSAIC, etc.)🚨

We need to push back on the loss of information and the disappearance of websites about these resources.