@bollinger.bsky.social
Neuroscientist | Sex as a biological variable | Psychological stress | Glia | He/Him
Indirect immunostaining of astrocytes surrounding a blood vessel in the mouse brain with GFAP 🟠. Nuclei have been visualized by DAPI staining 🔵.
#bloodbrainbarrier
#FluorescenceFriday
Three researchers who served as scientific advisers to NIMH and one to NIDA were removed from their positions this week with no explanation. @callimcflurry.bsky.social and I reported for @thetransmitter.bsky.social:
#neuroskyence 🧪
www.thetransmitter.org/science-and-...
While I was on the extramural side prior to being let go - I was directing a program focused on environmental contributions in chronic systems (neurodevelopmental conditions). Likewise, my background is in stress biology… which, you know, would seem to align with their agenda, nonsense all around 😂
04.03.2025 15:34 — 👍 0 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0The Precision Psychopathology + Dynamic Immunopsychiatry Lab at UPenn will be hiring 1-2 post-bacc RAs and potentially a postdoc this year
Immune/phlebotomy/blood preprocessing exp will be a plus. Formal posting will follow in a few weeks
Excited to recruit the founding members of this team :)
ATTENTION
The Washington Post is collecting data about funding issues. Please consider contributing.
thewashingtonpost.formstack.com/forms/scient...
Using both male and female mice is critical for understanding the full pathogenesis of diseases. I will continue to use both male and female mice in my research. I hope other scientists will too. Again, I ask where is NIH leadership? Anticipatory obedience will kill the NIH. #science
25.02.2025 13:26 — 👍 134 🔁 53 💬 2 📌 3
February 18, 2024 TO: Dr. Matthew Memoli, Acting Director, NIH CC: John Burklow, Chief of Staff, NIH Julie Berko, Director, OHR, NIH FROM: Nathaniel James Brought, Director, ES, NIH SUBJECT: Resignation Dear Dr. Memoli, On July 3, 2001, I stepped off a bus on Marine Corps Recruit Training Depot Perris Island. Scared out of my mind, I stood on a pair of freshly painted yellow footprints, raised my right hand, and recited the oath of enlistment: I, Nathaniel James Brought, do solemnly swear that I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic; that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same; and that I will obey the orders of the President of the United States and the orders of the officers appointed over me, according to regulations and the Uniform Code of Military Justice. So help me God. For the last 23 years, 7 months, and 15 days, I like to believe I have faithfully carried out the duties of each office to which I've been appointed in my military and civilian service to this nation. That Service has taken me from the Marine Corps to 3 different federal departments, spanned 3 continents, included service in one war zone, and has included: • For the Marine Corps and the National Security Agency, I worked on intelligence operations at the highest classification levels using bleeding edge intelligence tools to ensure America's special operators put boots-to-asses on America's enemies overseas (including commendations crediting my work for the kill or capture of dozens of terrorists), ensuring America's policy makers were able to track the movement of dangerous dual
nuclear technology across international borders, and monitored the flow of terrorist financing across the international banking system. • Utilized information from all-source intelligence to ensure the continued security of America's homeland from international and domestic threats. • Worked with some of the finest lawyers in the world to ensure America's security operations were effective, while upholding the rights of all those who interacted with them. • Ensuring that America's rural communities had access to programs like rural development loans, farm aid, and that America's children wouldn't be hungry as they sat in their classrooms and tried to learn. • Most recently, and frankly most dear to my heart, working with each of you here at the National Institutes of Health to advance the future of science and medicine. Not for Americans. Not for any one group of people. But for ALL of humanity. I am unbelievably proud to be able to say that there are Americans who are alive, and terrorists who are not, because of the work I've done to serve this nation. I am proud to say that my service to this country has allowed me to ensure that my children have never faced the struggles of poverty that I grew up with. That service didn't begin because of some great altruistic impulse or drive. I didn't grow up saying "I want to do the great work that needs to be done to weave the fabric of America and ensure her people are not only safe, but healthy." Frankly, that service began because I was poor, and I was inspired. I grew up as a free lunch kid who lived in project housing. It was my fellow Americans who made sure I wasn't hungry in class and that I had enough food to excel academically the way I did. It was Americans who had more than we did that made sure I had good schools to attend where I could learn things that expanded my mind. As I approached the end of high school, I dreamed of going to college and figuring out how to make a living that would allow me to do more tha…
to go to college. I knew my grades weren't good enough to compete for scholarships with kids who were as smart as me but also had private tutors and didn't have to work after class to be able to drive their brand-new cars to our school each day. So, I gave up. I nearly failed my senior year of high school with an attendance failure, even though I only needed two classes to graduate. I didn't see the point. What was the point of learning calculus? So it would be that much harder when my dream of being a brain surgeon died not because I was incapable, but because I didn't have the means to make it come true? I resigned myself to being one of the working poor. I resigned myself to needing a spinal fusion before I was 50, like my father, because he literally broke his back trying to make his dreams come true. The example of my father didn't inspire me at that time. It reminded me of the futility of trying to escape the rung of the social ladder I had been born onto. No matter how smart or "gifted and talented" I may have been, I saw no path that led me to a place where I could realize my potential. So, instead I accepted that it would be wasted. Ultimately, the reason I find myself here today, rather than in the place I saw as my only end, is because of another young man who committed to serving his country. Shamefully, I do not remember his name, but there was a young corporal from the United States Marine Corps who had been assigned as a recruiter in Reading, Pennsylvania at that time. This man spoke to me about my plans for my future during lunch one day at school. I told him I planned to do what my father had done. Work hard jobs until my body broke down, maybe start a struggling business, and try to do what I could to stay above the poverty line and off welfare. I told him I hoped to be successful enough that my kids never had to watch me use food stamps at the grocery store. It had been hard to watch my mom go through that. How sad is that? I was a smart young 18-…
Over on LinkedIn, the head of the Executive Secretariat of the NIH -- a central part of NIH leadership 🧪🩺-- resigned with a lettter worth reading
www.linkedin.com/posts/nathan...
I lost my job at the National Science Foundation yesterday, along with 167 of my colleagues, including some dear friends. This was the best job I've ever had, and I thought it would be my last. The PI community has been sympathetic and supportive, without exception. I will miss working for you.
19.02.2025 12:47 — 👍 13251 🔁 2103 💬 590 📌 86Firings are happening right now at the National Science Foundation. Essential staff are being cut.
This isn’t about the budget. If it was, they’d be going after the military (17%) or state appropriations (38%). NSF is 0.7% of the federal budget. All federal employees make up only 4% of the budget.
HANDS OFF! OUR HEALTHCARE, RESEARCH, JOBS National Day of Action February 19 labor4highered.org Atlanta, GA - Sam Nunn Atlanta Federal Center, 12 pm Austin, TX - UT Austin Boston, MA - JFK Federal Building, 3 pm Chicago, IL - 828 S Wolcott Av, 10 am Los Angeles, CA Newark, NJ - Smith Library, Rutgers Medical School, 11 am New Brunswick, NJ - Life Science Building Atrium, Busch Campus, 12 pm New Haven, CT - New Haven Green, 5:15 pm New York, NY - Washington Square Park, 4 pm Twin Cities, MN - Metropolitan State University in St. Paul, 11 am Philadelphia, PA - Center City, 12 pm Seattle, WA - University of Washington Main Campus Time: 12 p.m. State College, PA - Senator McCormick’s Penn State Office, 12 pm St. Louis, MO - Both WashU campuses, 3 pm Washington, DC - HHS Building, 3pm
TOMORROW (WED): Rallies are being held across the country to protest the funding cuts to science and the illegal firing of federal workers.
Please join if you can. We need to show that many people oppose these destructive attacks on science and healthcare.
Details: labor4highered.org
So heartbreaking to hear all of the stories of fantastic scientists at the NIH who were unexpectedly terminated.
To all federal scientists—we’re fighting for you and the crucial work you do.
Want to help? Join us at #standupforscience2025 on March 7th, in DC & Nationwide.
Not to add more flames to the fire - but you'll also want to keep an eye on council meetings. Many of these were pushed due to the communications ban, and will face similar difficulties in being scheduled. Grants with stellar scores will likely be stalled at council review.
18.02.2025 14:47 — 👍 1 🔁 0 💬 1 📌 0No kidding, it does read like a solid fortune cookie, ha! I read it with the best intentions in mind :-)
16.02.2025 18:10 — 👍 5 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0
To probationary federal employees who have been terminated:
Democracy Forward has filed a first-of-its-kind class-wide complaint with the Office of Special Counsel. If civil servants want to join in the complaint, you can email info@civilservicestrong.org
I am actively looking for a research scientist position or research administration role within the Raleigh-Durham (RDU) area! Please reach out if my background and skillset might fit your labs needs :-) Lots of experience with preclinical models, translational neuroscience, and behavioral analyses!
16.02.2025 15:49 — 👍 124 🔁 84 💬 4 📌 8I was hoping that my first bsky post would be more cheerful. I recently joined NIH (NIEHS) as a PO. I fought hard for this position and was so excited to support health science from a new vantage point… I picked up my life and moved to NC. Unfortunately, my time at NIEHS was short lived.
16.02.2025 15:49 — 👍 613 🔁 115 💬 28 📌 7Dear federal scientists: If you have been affected by the probationary firings and would be willing to speak with Science, please reach out to me by email (klangin@aaas.org) or on Signal. We can guarantee annonymity.
14.02.2025 20:05 — 👍 2497 🔁 1312 💬 24 📌 15
Delighted to share an update to our preprint, reviewed at @elife.bsky.social, and now sent back for re-review.
Colossal work by the team and driven home by @mathiasgua.bsky.social
Quick 🧵 of what's new -
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
