Pietro Pichierri

"US President Donald Trump issued an expansive EO that would centralize power & upend the process that the US government has used for decades to award research grants. If implemented, political appointees — not career civil servants, including scientists — would have control over grants."

The U.S. government has fueled decades of world-leading scientific and technical innovation by funding research efforts through grants programs & universities where researchers controlled decisions.

In the USSR, no decisions were made by scientists alone. Every decision required political approval.

Pathway to Independence – an interview with Giulia Paci

In this interview, @giuliapaci.bsky.social talks about physics, mechanics, comics, her research journey, and the importance of public engagement:

journals.biologists.com/dev/article/...

Decoding the language of PLK1 docking motifs and activation mechanisms Polo-like kinase 1 (PLK1) phosphorylates a plethora of different substrates to regulate key cell cycle processes that include, among others, mitotic entry, chromosome condensation, nuclear envelope breakdown, centrosome maturation, spindle assembly and chromosome biorientation, cytokinesis, and the deposition of the specialized centromere histone CENP-A. Addressing the exact spatial and temporal control of PLK1 activity in these processes and its dynamic interplay with protein phosphatases that counteract mitotic phosphorylation, most notably PP1 and PP2A, has proven especially puzzling. In this review, we focus on the main unknowns in the area of human PLK1 regulation, exploring more specifically an emerging concept that master docking sites, including newly discovered noncanonical motifs, trigger initial local activation of PLK1 that promotes subsequent localized spreading of phosphorylation.

Decoding the language of PLK1 docking motifs and activation mechanisms

📢 Excited to share my World View article, just published in @NatureSMB, where I reflect on returning to Czechia and building research group grounded in collaboration🤝, resilience and curiosity💡. www.nature.com/articles/s41...

🚨 Our parent-of-origin study is out in Nature! 🧬
Maternal and paternal alleles can have distinct — even opposite — effects on human traits, revealing a hidden layer of genetic architecture that standard GWAS miss.
🔗 www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Highlights below!

To underscore this further, we were able to generate vaccines to SARSCoV2 so quickly thanks to years of work optimizing mRNA delivery. The pandemic showed us how successful the method could be, & the years since have expanded the targets to cancer, influenza, HIV & more. Throwing it away is madness.

🚨Il Dipartimento della Salute e dei Servizi Umani degli Stati Uniti (HHS) ha annunciato l'inizio di una riduzione coordinata delle sue attività di sviluppo dei vaccini a mRNA. La scienza in mano a pazzi ideologici. Le motivazioni elencate da RFK Jr. non reggono. 1/2 🧪

90% of doing science is being open to new ideas.

My quote of the day

I think as a leader, you just take accountability. That's what leadership is. Leadership is taking accountability yourself and holding others to the same standard, regardless of what's going on.

Jason Kelce

Pathway to Independence – an interview with Giulia Paci Giulia Paci is a Postdoctoral Fellow at the Laboratory for Molecular Cell Biology at University College London, UK, supported by Yanlan Mao and Buzz Baum, who is interested in how developmental progra...

My Pathway to Independence interview is now live on @dev-journal.bsky.social ! I had a great time speaking with @amjeve.bsky.social about my research journey and what's ahead journals.biologists.com/dev/article/...

A report from the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office found that proposed cuts to the NIH budget could significantly lower the number of new drugs that come to market in the next three decades. Ask your representatives to reject the President’s FY26 budget and #FundNIH:
buff.ly/FN4TXD3

Humility is not a lack of confidence. Humility is a lack of arrogance.

Arrogance says "I can do great things and you can't, so I'm better than you."

Confidence says "I can do great things and so can you, let's work together."

It's possible to own your skills without diminishing those of others.

say it again:

4 million people work in higher ed, the largest employer in 10 states, second largest employer in 10 more, and in 60 of the 100 biggest cities

demolishing higher education is economic sabotage

which is by design

New from us in @natrevmcb.nature.com -- @szmyd-radoslaw.bsky.social & @radoncdocgee.bsky.social explore how DNA repair actively shapes cancer cell fate following DNA damage, reframing repair as both a protective process & a driver of treatment response and cell death. www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Organelle membrane-associated proteins recruit cGAS via phase separation to facilitate its membrane localization https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.08.01.668185v1

Neural anticipation of virtual infection triggers an immune response - Nature Neuroscience Serino et al. show that seeing an infectious avatar approach the body in virtual reality triggers an immune response, indicating that the brain prepares the body to fight infections even for perceived...

Risultati SORPRENDENTI da un nuovo studio su Nature Neuroscience: la sola vista di un malato attiva il sistema immunitario prima del contatto fisico. Immergiamoci in questa ricerca che ci offre un punto di vista veramente particolare. 🧪 1/7
www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Low-dose metformin requires brain Rap1 for its antidiabetic action Metformin lowers blood glucose by inhibiting Rap1 in ventromedial hypothalamic neurons that regulate glucose balance.

Metformin, the first line drug for Type 2 diabetes, has been used for 60 years without a clearcut mechanism of action. It turns out it's not just reducing glucose output from the liver. Metformin also works via the brain www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

Nine nanometers!

From 2D to 3D and beyond: the evolution and impact of in vitro tumor models in cancer research - Nature Methods This Perspective discusses recent progresses in development of in vitro tumor models and the current challenges in this field.

A new Perspective discusses recent progress and challenges in the development of in vitro tumor models.

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

Bluesky's CEO warns you shouldn't 'fully outsource your thinking' to AI Bluesky CEO Jay Graber emphasized the importance of critical thinking and developing a generalist skillset for the AI era.

Bluesky CEO Jay Graber emphasized the importance of critical thinking and developing a generalist skillset for the AI era.

NIH is shrinking the number of research projects it funds due to a new Trump policy NIH plans to shrink the share of grant applications it will award for the remainder of the fiscal year, in some cases by more than half.

By entirely funding more awards up front, the NIH is on track to fund just 1 in 25 applications

Such a payline “would chase a lot of people out of science” former NCI director Ned Sharpless told us 🧪🔬

www.statnews.com/2025/07/29/n...

Precisely defining disease variant effects in CRISPR-edited single cells - Nature A plate-based assay called CRAFTseq has been developed that uses ‘multi-omic’ single-cell RNA sequencing and direct genotyping of CRISPR edits to test the functional effects of genetic variants on cell state and function.

Nature research paper: Precisely defining disease variant effects in CRISPR-edited single cells

go.nature.com/44M3ygX

Trump didn’t win. Europe didn’t lose The new tariff deal looks like a humiliation for the EU. In reality, Americans will foot the bill—and Europe may have scored a quiet victory

Almost every headline today screams that Europe has been humiliated, Trump wins, and we’ll pay 15% tariffs.

That story is wrong.

Trump hasn’t won. The EU hasn’t lost. And Americans—not Europeans—will foot the bill.

My latest piece explains why this deal may actually be a small win for Europe. 👇

New analysis predicts sprawling effects of proposed NIH budget cuts Initial analyses of the Trump administration’s proposed NIH cuts neglect key aspects of their long-term economic and health impact, study says.

Proposed NIH cuts predicted to cause a drop in the US scientific workforce, to reduce support for public health, and to create gaps in scientific knowledge. Story by @aniloza.bsky.social
industryhttps://www.statnews.com/2025/07/28/nih-cuts-new-study-says-long-term-they-will-cost-more-than-saved/

you are a lab head, this affects you; if you are a student, this threatens your future The NIH grant system was already hyper- competitive before Trump. This policy will make it brutal. Without immediate resistance from the research community, this policy will go forward with devastating consequences for US science. What can you do? • Contact your Congressional representatives. It is best to show up in person. Explain and tell them to oppose this forward funding mandate. Share this article if it helps! Tell them to protect NIH funding. • For researchers: Make noise within your institution. Ask your research office what they re doing to push back. Talk to your program officers. Demand transparency. • Tell your local press that Trump is destroying US medical research, and find local activist groups to reach out to. • There are many engaged citizens across the country affected by cancer, or Alzheimer's, that want more information from scientists to help them advocate to their elected officials and to the press. Offer to talk to them, and help them do

this ends with a description of what YOU can do.

Please get involved now.
Everyone can take one of these actions.

The whole purpose of having a federally funded National Institutes of Health is that NO COMPANY WILL EVER MAKE INVESTMENTS TO IMPROVE HUMAN HEALTH THAT DO NOT IMMEDIATELY RETURN BILLIONS IN PROFIT… the comparison of NIH with a company is a prime example of how unqualified this person is to lead OMB

If the Supreme Court grants this stay, not only will it let NIH to get back to what Reagan appointee Judge Young called the most palpable discrimination he’s seen in his 40 years on the bench.

It will also put ALL NIH science at risk.