Michelle Starr MD MPH

Fun and big last day at PAS! Join me and two incredible colleagues to talk about neonatal hypertension at 10:45! I’ll be talking about a precision based approach to management.

@babykidney.bsky.social

Kicking off PAS2025 with the RINK (Research Incubator in Neonatal Kidney Disease). This is our 4th in person meeting - now with several ongoing studies and developing even more - come join the fun!

Stating off #pas2025 with a Neonatal Nephrology session with @triplebadger10.bsky.social looking back at where the field has come from. @babykidney.bsky.social

#NephSky #AskRenal

And then there were 42! We are up to 42 clinical sites and over 800 patients that are entered into our database! Looking forward to catching up with collaborators and talking more about this project next week at #PASMeeting @babykidney.bsky.social

A group of @babykidney.bsky.social collaborators are working on a list of useful references in neonatal nephrology which have instrumental in improving care of infants. Help us and complete this survey asking for your opinion on the most important articles! redcap.link/NeoSurvey

A beeswarm chart of canceled NIH grants showing the years into each project when the funding was pulled. Each dot represents a terminated grant and is colored by the number of publications associated with the project: none, one to four or five or more. The grants are separated into thee rows based on the award type (R01, U01, U54). RO1 research projects had the most terminations, which occurred at all stages of research, from the project onset to 7+ years in. Most grants were canceled short of the 4-5 year lifespan of a typical grant, and 40% of R01s had no publications at the time of termination. Projects that had been active for longer had more publications, suggesting that more findings are disseminated in the later stages of these grants.

In terminating hundreds of NIH grants, the Trump administration dumped years of investment down the drain. In my latest @opinion.bloomberg.com column, we analyzed the cancelled projects & talked to scientists to understand just how much the public loses out. It's a lot: tinyurl.com/bdey86su

Formerly anti-vax parents on how they changed their minds: ‘I really made a mistake’ Researchers believe personal stories are more persuasive than facts alone in addressing vaccine skepticism

On this day of the Stand Up For Science events, a reminder:

The typical anti-vax parent is wrong, but well-intentioned.

The people like RFJ Jr that are financially profiting from lying about vaccines to vulnerable people are evil.

They're not the same.

www.theguardian.com/global/2025/...

NIH abruptly terminates millions in research grants, defying court orders The NIH is terminating grants, citing Trump administration restrictions on funding work related to DEI and transgender issues

NIH abruptly terminates millions in research grants, defying court orders. 

And, NIH officials "are not authorized to speak publicly." 

“Scientific inquiry is under siege and the public’s health hangs in the balance as crucial studies vanish.” shorturl.at/iMcdH #BlueSky  #MedSky 🧪 #IDSky #scisky

Today we officially launched AWAKEN 2.0 - a study that we hope will improve our understanding of neonatal kidney disease both in the NICU and beyond. We plan to use this account to update on our study progress, share milestones and information and eventually share our results!

Welcome to the Bluesky account for Stand Up for Science 2025!

Keep an eye on this space for updates, event information, and ways to get involved. We can't wait to see everyone #standupforscience2025 on March 7th, both in DC and locations nationwide!

#scienceforall #sciencenotsilence

Def not just you. There’s a solid work around - I retweeted and that seems to be working for now. NIH website, clintrials and the rest are also all down too.

I was recently asked by a few people at #SCCM2025 if they could share this ‘Toolkit for Hard Days’ that the #PedsICU nurses made from one of my posts (🔗 in comments).

I can’t overstate how happy I am to share it with anyone who could be helped by it.

#MedSky

The greatest trick the billionaires ever pulled was convincing us to fight each other instead of them

Per @raphaelwimmer.bsky.social:

Workaround: put this in your hosts file

156.40.212.210 nih.gov
96.17.96.9 www.nih.gov
34.107.134.59 pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov
130.14.250.10 ftp.wip.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov
130.14.250.10 ftp.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov
130.14.29.110 blast.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov

Pubmed website unavailable

This is going to be a big problem.

Not typically on pubmed (a free online database of medical literature) on Saturday nights but heard it was down and had to check for myself.

NIH website down
PubMed website down
eRA Commons Website down

Not like I use any of these tools on a daily basis….

We talk a lot about gender differences in academia and improving the representation of non cis white men as invited speakers at conferences. Here, though, is a study by @mcstarr1.bsky.social, that shows men overwhelming ask more questions at medical conferences than women do.

a man in a suit and tie says kaboom ! you 've been lawyered . ALT: a man in a suit and tie says kaboom ! you 've been lawyered .

Got the amusement of watching two lawyers try and out lawyer themselves on a data use agreement today. Let me just tell you, it was an amusing way to spend a Friday.

Nearly every medicine we benefit from started with NIH-funded research. Early discovery work starts in academia.

Immunotherapies?
Gene therapy for rare diseases?
Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s medicines?
Vaccines?
Novel cancer treatments?
Psychiatric medicines?

You betcha.

1/

NIH plans to slash support for indirect research costs, sending shockwaves through science The NIH said Friday night that it would slash support for indirect costs on all existing and future grants to 15%

“This is a blatant attempt to gut the universities and health research that have saved so many lives and given economic opportunity to so many people.” @iwashyna.bsky.social on impact of new NIh order to cut research indirect costs. www.statnews.com/2025/02/07/n...

Scientists and journalists need to figure out right quick how to explain to the average person how a massive change in research indirects will impact the medical care they and their children get (eg at the local children’s hospital), the education their children will get, the price of tuition, etc.

1. Today the NIH director issued a new directive slashing overhead rates to 15%.

I want to provide some context on what that means and why it matters.

grants.nih.gov/grants/guide...

I was hoping that this was a me problem…😭

Everything appears to be down…

Is it just me or is NIH commons down for everyone? Tough to feel like isn’t a scary indicator of where things are heading…

Optimist: The cup is half full
Pessimist: The cup is half empty

Pediatric nephrologist: The number of cups you should drink varies based on your ability to produce urine

It’s true. #KidVengers holds several records.

💪Only team to have won #HCWvsHunger twice
💪 Only unmerged team to have won #HCWvsHunger
💪 2023 MVP award
💪 Only team (to our knowledge) to have trended on Twitter

Will they reclaim the Crystal apple from #DiagnoseAndTreats in 2024? 👀

#PedSky #MedSky

Every single day I’m on service, no matter how tough it is, I remind myself that I get to go home and my babies are there and we all have our health and aren’t staying the night in the hospital.

Perspective is everything.