Jennifer Landino

“I will be too tired. I am going back to bed.”

Toad went back into the house.

John Gurdon John Gurdon is at the Wellcome Trust/Cancer Research UK Institute of Cancer and Developmental Biology in Cambridge. Educated at Eton and Christ Church, Oxford, he changed from classics to zoology. Dur...

“For Gurdon to continue in biology would be a complete waste of time both for him and for those who would have to teach him”

He proved them wrong! RIP John Gurdon

www.cell.com/current-biol...

a white cat is sitting on a box with the words where written on it . ALT: a white cat is sitting on a box with the words where written on it .

The fiscal year is over.

So how was the NIH appropriation committed?

A long thread with institute by institute results about where the money went.

a man with his eyes closed is wearing a plaid shirt and a blue jacket . ALT: a man with his eyes closed is wearing a plaid shirt and a blue jacket .

So... I did some analysis of grants that did receive noncompetitive renewals.

In particular, I looked a those award where the title of the grant changed.

Warning: The results are just what I expected, but oooph...

1/4

Feel free to reach out if you have questions, or want to learn more about our scientific community 🔬

Biological Sciences at Dartmouth is also hiring a Cell and Molecular Biologist. We could be neighbors 😀 apply.interfolio.com/171625

Dartmouth is hiring! Come be my colleague. Biochemistry and Cell Biology is accepting applications for a tenure-track Assistant Professor position. Join us in New Hampshire for great science, nice people, and beautiful scenery ⛰️ apply.interfolio.com/171438

Listed are some of the many NIH research training programs that were terminated! Together, these programs supported thousands of trainees, whose careers are now in limbo. Such a great loss for discovery and innovation. We must protect our next generation of scientists!
#HandsOffNIH #ProtectScience

August 22, 2025 Dear Director Bhattacharya: I write to you regarding your plans after the Supreme Court ruling yesterday. As you know, the Supreme Court did allow a stay on the required grant reinstatements based on a controversial jurisdictional issue but also found that the grant termination processes used were likely illegal. I know you are deeply concerned about public trust in NIH. I hope that you understand that proceeding to fail to reinstate or to re-terminate grants that had been found to have been illegally terminated will not increase the public trust in NIH. This would also be substantially damaging to science.

I just sent this email to Director Bhattacharya and am sending him a hard copy by registered mail.

1/14

Very cool! I will definitely take a look

Membrane composition-dependent patterning of Rho and F-actin in an artificial cell cortex https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.07.31.667950v1

Big congrats to Greg, the first author, for getting this work ready for preprint. It's extra special because today is the lab's 2 year birthday! 🥳 #newpi #xenopus #frogwranglers #cellfree

Membrane composition-dependent patterning of Rho and F-actin in an artificial cell cortex Cortical excitability, a phenomenon in which the cell cortex is dynamically patterned with waves of F-actin assembly, has been described in a variety of animal model systems, including embryos of mamm...

📢 Pre-print alert 📢 We are excited to share the lab's first research article! We used our artificial cortex system to investigate how membrane composition regulates self-organized cortical dyanamics. Check it out here: www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

Frontiers | Reconstitution Methods in Cell Biology Reconstitution of cellular phenomena is a powerful approach for investigating the biochemical and biophysical processes that sustain life. Cell-free reconsti...

Interested in reconstitution methods? Love cell biology? Check out the accepted manuscripts in our Research Topic on Reconstitution Methods in Cell Biology! We are still open for submissions so if you're writing something exciting this summer, send it here: www.frontiersin.org/research-top...

APHA Plaintiffs' counsel:

The record shows a "slapdash" decisionmaking process to terminate grants.

In one case, Matt Memoli at NIH took 6 minutes to review 6 grants to "review" and terminate them.

This is important bc it shows NIH didn't make a meaningful grant-by-grant review as req'd by law.

🚨 A new rule would let career scientists like NSF/NIH program officers be replaced by political appointees

Already 14,000+ public comments, deadline is Friday

📣 Comments can be short. Courts consider them—and scientists with NSF/NIH experience are especially impactful

Speak up! shorturl.at/WKuBj

The comment period for this ends in 3 DAYS. Please leave a comment telling them EVERYONE should be able to get covid boosters.
www.regulations.gov/commenton/FD...

Lux Capital & @wolfejosh.bsky.social are launching the Lux Science Helpline - a $100M commitment to support American scientists whose research is threatened by funding cuts, bureaucratic hurdles, and career roadblocks - that expands our Lux Labs program.

www.luxcapital.com/news/our-hel...

"I would not have dared to dream that metastatic melanoma would become a treatable disease in my lifetime. Yet here we are today, with 43% of people diagnosed with metastatic melanoma living 10 years or more, due to treatments that we broadly refer to as cancer immunotherapy." Barry P. Sleckman, UAB

Deaths from heart disease down 75%, that’s NIH.

Deaths from stroke down 75%, that’s NIH.

HIV/AIDS no longer a death sentence, that’s NIH.

99% of FDA approved drugs in the last decade, that’s NIH.

Please show this video to anyone who doesn’t understand why the NIH is so important.

As a diversity grant dies, young scientists fear it will haunt their careers The Trump administration defunded the National Institute of Health's MOSAIC grant program, which launched the careers of scientists from diverse backgrounds.

I'm heartbroken that the MOSAIC K99/R00 is being terminated, and I'm angry that many of my peers are facing uncertainy with the early cancellation of their grants. I hope you'll take time to read their stories.

Neighbor cells restrain furrowing during Xenopus epithelial cytokinesis Xenopus epithelial cells mechanosensitively reinforce connections to neighbor cells during cytokinesis. Here, Landino et al. show that actomyosin arrays assembled in neighbor cells restrain cytokineti...

I'm so pleased the final version of this research is published! We found that epithelial cells neighoring the cytokinetic furrow regulate the speed and sucess of cell division, while maintaining barrier function and cell packing geometry. Many thanks to the co-authors who contributed! 🐸 #xenopus

BREAKING: We're suing the National Institutes of Health over their politically-motivated purge of research grants.

This is an unlawful attack on scientific progress that puts lives at risk.

Course alums*, not albums 🤦‍♀️

Two 2018 CSHL Xenopus course albums returning as new PIs and guest instructors for 2025! #froglife

'Today, we celebrate': Judge says National Park Service must reinstate employees Judge orders the National Park Service to reinstate fired workers, but protests grow as looming layoffs threaten park services.

'Today, we celebrate': Judge says National Park Service must reinstate all fired employees
www.sfgate.com/california-p...

A woman studies embryos for decades, struggles for funding and respect. She publishes under her husband’s name, until they divorce. A single mother, she moves across an ocean to continue her studies. It all sounds quite modern, until you learn that she also worried she’d be burned as a witch. 🧵 1/15

Last weekend I wrote a letter to the editor to my hometown newspaper as part of the Sciencehomecoming.com movement.

I will share my letter in this thread, and share my approach to lower the activation energy for y'all to join me.

🧪 #microsky

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...

This is a distinction without a difference. If there are no council meetings, funding is still being withheld and reviewer time is being wasted.