Rock Lab

Senate committee endorses NIH budget increase, rebuking Trump administration’s proposed 40% cut Senators from both parties endorsed a $400 million increase to the budget of the National Institutes of Health on Thursday

Senate committee endorses NIH budget increase, rebuking Trump administration’s proposed 40% cut www.statnews.com/2025/07/31/n...

SuFEx-based antitubercular compound irreversibly inhibits Pks13 - Nature A preclinical covalent compound, CMX410, contains a aryl fluorosulfate warhead that targets the acyltransferase domain of Mtb Pks13, an essential enzyme in cell-wall biosynthesis, making it a pro...

Congrats to all authors! Very cool mechanism. www.nature.com/articles/s41...

I doubt that there is a single family in America that hasn’t benefitted directly from the NIH.

Thanks for your leadership on this @asm.org. asm.org/articles/pol...

Human iPSC derived alveolar macrophages reveal macrophage subtype specific functions of itaconate in M. tuberculosis host defense M. tuberculosis must survive within multiple macrophage populations during infection, including alveolar macrophages (AM) and recruited inflammatory macrophages. In mice, itaconate, produced in macrop...

Happy to share the most recent preprint from the lab, the thesis work of Dr. Adam Krebs and a collaboration with many, including the Geissmann lab @mskcancercenter.bsky.social
Here is a short paper thread. #tuberculosis #macrophages 🦠
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

"In addition to interrupting lifesaving science, the suspensions will threaten jobs and take money away from universities and their surrounding economies in 10 states representing all regions of the country..."

Hard agree. But for the grants I know that were hit, the “substantial” qualifier is too generous—there’s no risk.

"In TAG’s view, the suspended TB studies do not pose a substantial risk to the American public in comparison with the clear and present danger of TB, which is the world’s leading cause of death from a single infectious agent."

www.treatmentactiongroup.org/statement/tr...

Well done Liam!

Trump officials halt ‘dangerous’ research, overriding NIH career scientists The Trump administration’s actions on NIH gain-of-function research have raised concerns among scientists, who argue the move could block experiments that are safe and potentially lead to new treatmen...

The politically appointed NIH deputy director Matt Memoli overrode career staff and the NIAID director to suspend additional projects he deemed risky — mainly about tuberculosis and ones that made the bacterium less dangerous, the WaPo reports.

Exclusive: NIH suspends dozens of pathogen studies over ‘gain-of-function’ concerns Trump executive order leads to pauses on U.S.-funded research into TB, influenza, COVID-19, and other diseases, dismaying some scientists

Exclusive: In response to White House concerns about allegedly risky research on viruses, bacteria, and other pathogens, the National Institutes of Health has begun a crackdown on dozens of studies it was funding, ScienceInsider has learned. scim.ag/44oJIbw

Great work from Horia Todor in Carol Gross's lab showing it's possible to predict complexes in "competition" pools in AF3 resulting in the first all-by-all prediction for a species. After length correcting the ipTM score predicts well known interactions and correlating ipTM vectors also has value.

Reminder for science budget watchers-- House and Senate Appropriations Committees are working on FY26 spending bills to determine NSF and NIH funding. The White House recommended a 57% reduction for NSF and 40% for NIH. But Congress sets the budget.

www.ascb.org/science-poli...

Daniel J.C. Kronauer Interview with Daniel Kronauer, who studies the evolution and function of insect societies at Rockefeller University.

Check out our latest issue where we interview @danielkronauer.bsky.social, who studies the evolution and function of insect societies at Rockefeller University. www.cell.com/current-biol...

Mycobacterium tuberculosis biology, pathogenicity and interaction with the host Nature Reviews Microbiology - In this Review, Warner, Barczak, Gutierrez and Mizrahi explore essential aspects of Mycobacterium tuberculosis physiology and biology, present recent advances related...

💥 Very excited to share this review in Nature Reviews Microbiology.
Contributing to this review with Val, Digby and Amy was an enlightening experience! Hope people in the community find it useful- we managed to cite around 200 papers...
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
www.nature.com/articles/s41...

www.bwfund.org/funding-oppo...

Please apply!

Replaying germinal center evolution on a quantified affinity landscape Darwinian evolution of immunoglobulin genes within germinal centers (GC) underlies the progressive increase in antibody affinity following antigen exposure. Whereas the mechanics of how competition be...

Wanted to highlight our latest preprint--a huge effort by multiple people and labs, but led primarily by @wsdewitt.github.io, Tatsuya Araki, and Ashni Vora, in a very close wet-dry collaboration with @matsen.bsky.social’s lab at the Hutch

www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

DnaJ mediates phage sensing by the bacterial NLR-related protein bNACHT25 Bacteria encode homologs of the human NACHT proteins that form inflammasomes, and use them to defend against phage infection. This study shows that the NLR-related protein bNACHT25 detects diverse pha...

Bacteria encode homologs of the human NACHT proteins that form inflammasomes and use them to defend against phage #infection. @amyconte.bsky.social @aaronwhiteley.bsky.social &co show that bNACHT25 detects diverse phages indirectly through interaction with the host chaperone DnaJ. 🧪
plos.io/4koXP60

NSF, NASA and NIH budgets per year, inflation adjusted from 2000-2025 along with the proposed cuts. NSF includes research component only. Massive cuts across all sectors, well below support spanning 25 years.

How bad will it be? Catastrophic.

Proposed cuts to #NSF, #NIH, and #NASA will set the US R&D landscape back 25 yrs+, cause economic and job loss now, and undermine innovations to come.

But, this is the WH's *proposed* budget.

Speak up now before it is too late.

(inflation adjusted $-s below)

Here's the NIH's proposed budget - from $48 billion to $27 billion. NIAID, current ~$7 billion cut to ~$4.2 billion.

The proposed 15% cap on indirect costs remains.

Again, these budgets are passed, and our leadership in science, technology, and innovation is gone.

www.hhs.gov/sites/defaul...

Structure and assembly of the MmpL5/MmpS5 efflux transporter from Mycobacterium tuberculosis - Nature Communications The MmpL5/MmpS5 efflux system is crucial for drug extrusion and siderophore export in M. tuberculosis. Here, the authors report its high-resolution cryo-EM structures, revealing a unique trimeric asse...

Really excited that our group was able to contribute to this awesome work from Bing Zhang and Zihe Rao solving the structure and assembly of the MmpS5L5 efflux pump from Mtb!!

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

All of NIH funding to Northwestern University is frozen. This pause includes noncompeting approved funding, new and competing grants with fundable scores. No reimbursements for money already spent have been received since March. This situation is rarely reported so please Please get the word out!

This isn’t just numbers on a table–it’s my lab and the labs of my colleagues. Terminated grants mean shuttered projects, lost talent, and stalled progress against deadly pathogens. The damage to science–and to public health–is real and immediate. Thanks @peterhotezmdphd.bsky.social for speaking out.

I will be recruiting new postdocs with start dates end 2025 - early 2026. If you'd like to work at the Pasteur Institute in the heart of Paris surrounded by amazing scientists, reach out to discuss possible projects on SynBio / Bacterial Immunity!

Challenging times for biomedical research in the U.S. One of our grants was terminated and two others frozen. Thinking of colleagues from Bethesda to Boston to South Africa who are facing the same uncertainty. Now more than ever, we must speak up for the value of this work.

Baby Is Healed With World’s First Personalized Gene-Editing Treatment

Simply incredible story of the triumph of the US biomedical research ecosystem. Think of all the strands of discovery over many decades that came together to save this child. In large part becuase of NIH. www.nytimes.com/2025/05/15/h...

First Patient Treated with Personalized CRISPR Therapy, Developed in Just Six Months The first on-demand CRISPR therapy for an infant with a rare metabolic disease developed by the IGI and collaborators around the world.

This is what can be achieved today due to longstanding federal support of academic basic science alongside close partnership of universities, private industry and NIH intramural initiatives. An ecosystem worth not just saving but doubling down on!

innovativegenomics.org/news/first-p...

Couldn't be happier for you buddy!

Congratulations @saehrt.bsky.social. Absolutely thrilled for you and the department!
news.weill.cornell.edu/news/2025/04...