Amee Manges

harry potter is surrounded by a bunch of letters falling on the floor . ALT: harry potter is surrounded by a bunch of letters falling on the floor .

Some sweet people have been sending physical cards and letters to the Bethesda Declaration signers. This is so kind and meaningful.

It would be GREAT if they received more. Cards can be sent to

Ian Morgan
NIGMS
45 Center Dr, MSC 6200
Bethesda, MD 20892-6200

Ian will share them with the signers.

Unexpected side-effect: how common medications clear the way for pathogens

CMFI's @lisamaierlab.bsky.social @unituebingen.bsky.social show in @nature.com: many non-antibiotics weaken the natural protective function of the intestine.

Press release: www.cmfi.uni-tuebingen.de/en/news-even...

Canada has recorded the highest number of measles cases since achieving measles elimination status in 1998.

Burrowing owlet standing on a slab of concrete appearing to be screaming (just coughing up a pellet, probably) while his two siblings stand below him, oblivious.

Screaming into the void 🪶

PBEEE/Quebec Merit Scholarship for Foreign Postdocs and Visiting Research Student and Visiting Researchers **Note that the FRQ is in the process of revamping their webpages. We will update links soon as we can with the current 2025 year's information. Be sure to check back to see if any eligibility or docu...

Are you a recent PhD (or soon to be PhD) from outside Canada looking to do a postdoc in Quebec?

Get in touch if you are excited about microbes, evolution, ecology, genomics (or all of the above!) and I'd be happy to help develop a project together!

www.mcgill.ca/gps/funding/...

A Burrowing Owl in mid-flight, wings arched in a dramatic curve, staring directly at the camera with piercing yellow eyes, against a blurred green and golden field background during golden hour.

Caught in a perfect moment – the intensity and beauty of this creature in flight. Simply breathtaking. Photo by ©markian.b
ID: Burrowing owl.
More owl: ohmywild.com

Text of https://www.hhs.gov/press-room/hhs-nih-announces-generation-gold-standard.html

I am often challenged to provide an example of a vaccine that could not have been developed without doing gain-of-function virology research.

Thanks to HHS Secretary Kennedy and former BiosafetyNow! board member/NIH Director Jay Bhattacharya, I now have an answer:

Generation Gold Standard

Bespoke plant glycoconjugates for gut microbiota-mediated drug targeting The gut microbiota of mammals possess unique metabolic pathways with untapped therapeutic potential. Using molecular insights into dietary fiber metabolism by the human gut microbiota, we designed a t...

Fabulous work by this BC and AB Team! Bespoke plant glycoconjugates for gut microbiota-mediated drug targeting | Science www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

Modeling Reemergence of Vaccine-Eliminated Infectious Diseases Under Declining Vaccination in the US This study estimates the number of cases and complications in the US under scenarios of declining childhood vaccination for measles, rubella, poliomyelitis, and diphtheria.

Alarming new study in JAMA modeling measles in the US:

If we stay at CURRENT vaccination rates, measles will become endemic again over roughly 20 years.

If rates drop by even 10 percent (and they're sliding), there would be 11 MILLION cases over the next 25 years. jamanetwork.com/journals/jam...

To wit, I am borrowing this from‬ ‪@theferrarilab.bsky.social‬

Rule 2. If you ever find yourself in a bar fight and someone wants to join in on your side, don't bring up old s**t until the fight is over.

Rule 1. Know when you are in a bar fight.

Can we all agree that political parties are not serving us well at the moment. How about this, if you believe in democracy you are in one group, and if you do not, you are in the autocracy group.

If the Marshals Go Rogue, Courts Have Other Ways to Enforce their Orders Opinion | Even a rogue marshal’s service is not an insurmountable obstacle to courts enforcing the rule of law.

I suggest everyone become very, very familiar with this piece by law Professor @david.noll.org. I suspect you will be referring to it often. www.democracydocket.com/opinion/if-t...

The Prime Minister of the Heard / McDonald Islands Speaks on Trump’s Tariffs

We need a new word for euphoric optimism in the face of the usurpation of power and despair...a 'Bookerism'. Be Bookerish!

What a bright light for today.

Warren Winkelstein found her first! Regardless, thank you for highlighting this great scientist!

Putting the Arctic Ocean closer to the center, this brings the Greenland Canada gambit into focus. It is a grab for power, money, water, and resources, also giving the US complete control over the Northwest Passage. Fentanyl and the border are a smokescreen for a much bigger project: theft.

Immune history shapes human antibody responses to H5N1 influenza viruses - Nature Medicine H5N1 strain-specific antibodies are higher in older individuals and correlate more with birth year than with age, suggesting that younger individuals are potentially more likely to benefit from H5N1 v...

Today @natmedicine.bsky.social published our study showing the older individuals born prior to 1968 have more antibodies that cross-react to #H5N1 relative to younger individuals. If H5N1 causes a pandemic, children will likely be the most susceptible. 1/2

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

Latest post on measles vaccines and the fallacy of ‘one more study to settle things’: kucharski.substack.com/p/a-wild-vac...

Burrowing owl mother perched on a small rock while one of her chicks gazes up at her, wondering when she is going to feed him.

The way this kid looks at his mom just melts my heart. 🪶

Thread.

Hundreds of research grants at Columbia canceled following Trump edict, administrator says The National Institutes of Health is terminating 232 grants for scientific research at Columbia University Irving Medical Center, according to an email an administrator sent to faculty.

I received one of the 232 NIH grant "terminations" sent to scientists at Columbia last night. My research focuses on improving maternal and child health in the US. Also affected: ongoing clinical trials, research training programs, and research centers that aim to improve the health of Americans.

NEW - BC is launching a new ad and recruiting campaign in the spring to target doctors in Washington, Oregon and California. #bcpoli

Having a hard reconciling this action against Columbia University when members of the current administration are offering hateful salutes.

Measuring the Income Gap from 1975 to 2023 The author extends the results of prior work on the income gap between the bottom 90 percent of workers in 2023 and what they would have earned with an even growth rate from 1975 to 2023. These worker...

New RAND Corporation analysis finds that the wealthy extracted $79 trillion from the bottom 90% of U.S. income earners between 1975 and 2023. www.rand.org/pubs/working...

The image is a black-and-white political cartoon depicting a man in a suit standing behind a counter labeled "Republican Platform." He is holding a bottle labeled "Untaxed Whiskey, 20¢ Gal." in one hand and a piece of cloth labeled "War-Taxed Common Cloth, Tariff 84%" in the other. Above the counter, a sign reads, "If you don’t see what you want, ask for it." The cartoon, signed by W.A. Rogers, appears to satirize the Republican Party's economic policies, highlighting the disparity in taxation between luxury items like whiskey and essential goods like cloth.

In 1890, the Tariff Act came into place in the United States. It placed tariffs on imports of up to 50%.
While touted as a way to build American industry, there was also the hope it would force an annexation of Canada. It backfired.
Let's learn more.

🧵1/10

Just so you know, up to 60,000 children go blind from measles every year

CALLING ALL TRAINEES

Okay, nerds, buckle in!
It's time for some SCIENCE.

Back in the late 1960s, a scientist got some government funding from the National Science Foundation (NSF) and the Atomic Energy Commission to look for interesting bacteria living in extreme environments.

1/x

The H5N1 virus detected in US cattle & a human case in Wyoming now carry the D701N & E672K mutations both known to help the virus adapt better to humans. These genetic changes raise serious concerns about increased transmission, making it easier for the virus to spread among mammals, including humans. With H5N1 continuing to evolve, the risk of a wider outbreak is growing. Bird flu is becoming a serious public health threat.

Okay, so.

I don’t know how much of a heads up this is when it’s just a notice about these 2 mutations. Do they really raise serious concerns about “increased transmission?”

Sort of. It’s more complex than D701N & E626K, omg pandemic bird flu.

What do these mutations do in H5N1?