Dr. Thomas Martínez

First time visiting Penn State! The Nittany Lion Inn is amazing.

Looking forward to talking big data analysis in biology (including microproteins😎) all week at NCEMS!

My kid’s latest obsession. Ask me how many times I’ve seen KPop Demon Hunters😂

congrats!

The NIH budget will INCREASE by $400 million — not slashed by 40%, as Trump proposed — according to a proposal by Senate appropriators, says Sen Murray.

"Some have asked if there will even be an NIH by [2029]. The commmittee's resounding message is yes—Congress has your back", she says.

First highlight...

Senator Capito started of the discussion saying that the bill contains AN INCREASE for NIH.

The details are not available, but the bill will be released ofter the hearing.

This is not a done-deal, but it does show where the Senate is on a bipartisan basis.

Trump Administration Scraps Effort to Pause Health-Research Funding The administration halted and then restarted billions in new research grants flowing from the National Institutes of Health.

Looks like the WSJ story got the money flowing again. www.wsj.com/politics/pol...

A major NIH grant to study ways to restore hearing was terminated by the Trump administration bc it was awarded through a DEI initiative—to a researcher who qualified bc of his own hearing loss www.cnn.com/2025/07/29/h... @manorlaboratory.bsky.social

Wow, what a great recruiting pitch for the next generation of scientists.

bien dicho

a cartoon character with brown hair and glasses is smiling with a blue background ALT: a cartoon character with brown hair and glasses is smiling with a blue background

The first few years of being a dad, I watched myself slowly turn into my parents. Now in the first few years of being a professor, I am watching myself slowly turn into my advisors. Time comes for us all 🫠

Macropinocytosis maintains CAF subtype identity under metabolic stress in pancreatic cancer Pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC) tumors are glutamine deficient, and both tumor cells and cancer-associated fibroblasts (CAFs) rely on this ami…

Excited to share work published in @cp-cancercell.bsky.social by @yijuan.bsky.social showing that macropinocytosis inhibition drives myCAF-to-iCAF conversion, enhancing therapeutic responses in pancreatic cancer. Thank you to our collaborators that contributed! www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

Very cool, Abby! Congrats!

I just posted it, I didn't write it.

But, with that said, I think that there are legitimate arguments to make that a lottery would be as fair as pretending that there are differences in scientific merit between a 6th %ile application and an 8th %ile one (or even larger ranges).

1/2

Interview: How a Hearing-Loss Grant Got Cut in the Fight Over DEI “It felt like the floor dropped out,” researcher Uri Manor said after the sudden suspension of his lab’s award.

Interview: How a Hearing-Loss Grant Got Cut in the Fight Over DEI

Graph showing NIH funding for new and competitive renewal grants for fiscal year 2025 compared to fiscal year 2024. The fiscal year 2025 curve is substantially below the fiscal year 2024 curve.

Update on funding curves and late non-competitive renewals.

First, funding curves for new and competitive renewals.

1/n

🔥🔥 those from low income backgrounds are also our parent's primary source of financial relief, and that there are usually no $$ retirement plans

🇲🇽🇲🇽

Vacation time😎

Despite ~20 years in/around #chembio research, I went to my first Bioorganic GRC this week. This community is amazing and so supportive. I feel energized (and tired, lol) and find myself rooting for the next generation of chemical biologists. Sooooo much awesome science - We can’t/won’t be stopped!

Great science and even greater time catching up with old friends and making new ones. This year’s #BioorganicGRC was one for the books. Hats off to @doc-jlmeier.bsky.social, Denise Field, and the vice chairs for putting it all together!

Looks like the falcon rocket launch from this evening

Beautiful day at Proctor Acad for Bioorganic GRC

Atul Butte died yesterday.
The world lost a giant.
A big bear of a man.
With a huge smile.
With love for everyone.
With energy that could power a room.
I loved everything about Atul.
I loved how he was always happy.
I loved how excited he was about science and helping people.

Spending a few days with intramural researcher at NIH has me thinking about the old Bell Labs, the storied research institute where major breakthroughs in physics, chemistry and mat sci (and associated @nobelprize.bsky.social awards) were made in the 70s-80s 1/n

it's a very cool advance for the field! congrats!

If you love #viruses, #ribosomes, and genomic #darkmatter, this thread is for you!! 💫
We're excited to share our new publication developing Massively Parallel Ribosome Profiling (MPRP), which uncovered ~4,000 hidden proteins in ~700 viral genomes. www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

Shining a Light on the World of Microproteins From viruses to humans, life makes microproteins that have evaded discovery until now.

How many proteins are in the human body? Excellent question! At least 20,000. But maybe 30,000? Maybe more? Here's my story about scientists exploring the hidden world of microproteins, and what it may mean for the future of medicine. nyti.ms/3HEPQTY 🧪

Shining a Light on the World of Tiny Proteins

These tiny proteins are super cool! 😊

www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

www.nytimes.com/2025/06/12/s...

All that to say, I was glad to have the chance to talk about microproteins with @carlzimmer.com in this excellent NYT article, which wonderfully highlights the field and an innovative new method to study viral microproteins from Shira Weingarten-Gabbay and team at the Broad.