Ben Saunders

🫡 thank you Jeremy

I spoke with a hair stylist about what’s happening to science funding. She had no idea and was appalled. (She’s staunchly independent and had even cut 45’s hair.) She didn’t know that we now have vaccines against cancers (I mean so cool!) but it’s all getting cut.
Keep talking! To EVERYONE!

yeah I see it

RNAscope with probes for white matter (green) and relevant cell type markers in the striatum (magenta) in tissue section of human brain at the level of the ventral striatum

smFISH to validate anatomical level and localize nucleus accumbens for molecular profiling experiments in tissue sections of the human 🧠. I really love looking at the striations in the white matter of the internal capsule here - so satisfying! Image credit to Staff Scientist Svitlana Bach 👩‍🔬🧪🤩

Yessssss

Congrats to you all!!!!

No words for this

Researcher presenting on stage in front of a large screen

Group of scientists standing in front of a research poster

Total blast at the Amygdala GRC in Barcelona this week. Huge thanks to @katewassum.bsky.social @anna-beyeler.bsky.social @joserodroma.bsky.social for organizing a great meeting. Megan also crushed it with a talk at the GRS and was picked for a full GRC talk. Grateful to have this community.

Two large yellow squash beside a smaller hand

Back home from a very fun week at the amygdala GRC to see my fully grown children

Great to see you Tom!

Future of NIH in the hands of five senators.

Write to them if you are in
PA -McCormick
WV - Moore Capito
ME - Collins
AL - Britt
LA - Cassidy

The House committee for NSF/NASA/NOAA is meeting tomorrow (Tuesday) at noon ET. Now would be a good time to call anyone on this list & tell them to keep science funding at full 2025 levels. You can remind them that 75% of voters want tax-funded science and they're concerned about the impact of cuts.

IMPORTANT IMPORTANT IMPORTANT IMPORTANT

Please watch the workshop video and COMMENT by 5:00 Monday 7/14

This is the source of the "no more model organism only grants in NIH-funded research" decree.

FDA-NIH Workshop: Reducing Animal Testing The FDA is hosting a workshop on reducing animal testing. The workshop is open to current FDA and NIH employees.

🧪 After the workshop on 7/7, the FDA and NIH are asking for public comments on implementing novel methodologies and other strategies to reduce the use of animal testing by 7/14:

www.fda.gov/news-events/...

There is still time to save science funding. The key is to now call members of the Senate Appropriations Committee esp if you are a constituent:

Majority Members (15)
Collins, Susan M. (ME), Chairman
McConnell, Mitch (KY)
Murkowski, Lisa (AK)
Graham, Lindsey (SC)
Moran, Jerry (KS)
continued...

FDA-NIH Workshop: Reducing Animal Testing The FDA is hosting a workshop on reducing animal testing. The workshop is open to current FDA and NIH employees.

Public comments have been opened back up!

Research with animals is critical for providing evidence-based knowledge in the pursuit of human health. Broadly reducing research projects with animals threatens public health and will greatly stall the development of new therapeutics for diseases!

Breaking: Supreme Court allows Trump admin to resume mass-firing plans "[T]his Court sees fit to step in now and release the President’s wrecking ball at the outset of this litigation," Justice Jackson wrote in dissent.

BREAKING: Supreme Court allows Trump admin to resume mass-firing plans.

"[T]his Court sees fit to step in now and release the President’s wrecking ball at the outset of this litigation," Justice Jackson wrote in dissent.

New, at Law Dork:

Supreme Court Clears Way for Mass Firings at Federal Agencies

It’s only going to get worse folks: Supreme Court clears way for mass firings at federal agencies

www.nytimes.com/2025/07/08/u...

With this vote, Congress makes ICE the highest-funded federal law enforcement agency in history, with more money per year at its disposal over the next four years than the budgets of the FBI, DEA, ATF, US Marshals, and Bureau of Prisons combined.

Evaluating the impact of two decades of USAID interventions and projecting the effects of defunding on mortality up to 2030: a retrospective impact evaluation and forecasting analysis USAID funding has significantly contributed to the reduction in adult and child mortality across low-income and middle-income countries over the past two decades. Our estimates show that, unless the a...

Elon Musk casually, and illegally, dismantled USAID. According to a new study in the Lancet, that action will lead to *14 million* premature deaths between 2025 and 2030.

Again: Elon Musk is directly responsible for 14 million coming deaths. 4.5 million will be children.

I've seen some science folks react with relief that the current reconciliation bill doesn't cut NIH spending- of course this is a good thing. But we can't stand by and say this isn't our fight - there's a lot in here that will affect biomedical scientists and some really bad stuff for the country 🧵

The Trump administration is building a national citizenship data system The Department of Homeland Security, with help from DOGE, has rolled out a tool that purports to be able to check the citizenship status of almost all Americans.

Per @npr.org, the Department of Homeland Security, in partnership with the White House U.S. DOGE Service, has built a searchable national citizenship register with data from the Social Security Administration & immigration records— without public notice & comment.
Infrastructure for a police state.

Will the Senate Save NIH? Rescuing biomedical research is every bit as important as saving Medicaid.

It seems that only the science community is noticing that NIH and NSF budgets are cut 40% and 55% in the budget bill, respectively. If you live in Maine, West Va, Pennsylvania, Alabama, or Louisiana, CALL YOUR SENATOR as they could make a difference. See below.

prospect.org/politics/202...

From someone who knows: publishers apparently will not volunteer this information, but authors can deposit the accepted version in PMC themselves, which includes the changes made after peer review (complies w policy) but not further copyediting by the journal bsky.app/profile/john...

Opinion | Trump’s cruel immigration machine is still tearing families apart In its first five months, this administration has taken approximately 500 migrant children living in the U.S. from their homes and into government custody.

Mass deportation IS family separation. With colleagues @jordancfoster.bsky.social and @profdfhesq.bsky.social www.msnbc.com/opinion/msnb...

Just in: NIH staff have been instructed to REINSTATE these ~900 grants to comply with the court order, per sources. This comes after staff were also directed to cease any further terminations.

You can see the lists grants to be reinstated in my post below.

Incredible turnout for the #NoKings protest in Los Angeles!

The day started with tragedy with political violence in MN and instead of being scared, neighbors SHOWED UP to stand together at No Kings Twin Cities. We packed the Capitol Mall all the way to the Cathedral. Estimate 80,000+ right now. So proud of our state. #nokings #indivisible

Rep. Melissa Hortman, killed in targeted attack, was a champion for Minnesotan families Hortman worked closely with Gov. Tim Walz to enact policies that prioritized children and families and expanded protections for abortion and gender-affirming care

Melissa Hortman, a former Minnesota House speaker, was assassinated early Saturday in what Gov. Tim Walz called “an act of targeted political violence.”

Here’s a look at Hortman’s legislative history and legacy on key policies.