lsprahl.bsky.social - Profile | ThreadSky | a Reddit-style client for Bluesky

Invite your Member of Congress to tour your lab during the March recess! Show them firsthand the impact of federally funded research. Be welcoming, share your work, and post with #ASCBAdvocacy & #STEMAdvocacy! Learn how: www.ascb.org/science-poli...

submitted 21 hours ago • 0 comments

📣 Our first speaker announcement for the Philly @standupforscience.bsky.social rally on March 7th, 11a at City Hall. 📣 We will hear from Congressmembers Jamie Gauthier and Nina Ahmad and squid biologist @sarahmackattack.bsky.social (Skype A Scientist). RSVP: www.eventbrite.com/e/stand-up-f...

submitted 1 day ago • 3 comments

🚨PA colleagues: "Senator Fetterman wants to hear from you about how the federal funding freeze is affecting Pennsylvania." "If your project has been impacted, please fill out our constituent impact form:" forms.office.com/g/mFv2JAPxpC Get out your Other Support and share that info!

submitted 3 days ago • 5 comments

Ok scientists & those who love science 🧪: here is another exhortation. Call Congress TODAY about the freeze on NIH Council Meetings and Study Sections. Emphasize that this means NO new grants are being funded & labs will soon start to shut down and fire employees. Phone numbers are at: 5calls.org

submitted 4 days ago • 5 comments

My annual Valentine’s post of this image that happens to land on #FluorescenceFriday this year! An axon approaching a kidney glomerulus doing its best to look like a rose.

submitted 12 days ago • 7 comments

One perk of being a teaching prof is not needing to worry about the NIH grants…or so I thought. Took 10 mins at the start of class today to teach a crash course on biomedical research funding in the US. Many students said they were confused about what they've been hearing in the news. 1/4

submitted 12 days ago • 1 comment

Big news - I'm going to be moving to a new position at The Company of Biologists, working across all our journals. This means my job is up for grabs! If you're an experienced editor with a love of developmental biology and its community, this could be the role for you. Full details in the link.

submitted 13 days ago • 13 comments

1/8. This week I had a few different conversations with scholars who, in the face of the attacks on science and institutions of learning in the U.S., are wondering what to do. One suggestion I have is: keep doing your work. It matters in and of itself. Why do I say that? A few reasons.

submitted 17 days ago • 16 comments

Congrats to the 2025 SDB Award Winners! Conklin Medal: Blanche Capel DB-SDB Lifetime Achievement Award: Billie Swalla Hamburger Outstanding Educator Prize: Erica Crespi Hay New Investigator Award: Mubarak Syed SDB Trainee Science Communication Award: Joaquin Navajas Acedo bit.ly/4bcrFap

submitted 14 days ago • 0 comments

Petition to Reverse the NIH Indirect Cost Cap initiated by Tom Maniatis. Please amplify Sign the Petition: chng.it/kK2HMP5pGk "Share with Leadership & Faculty. Reach out to professional societies, biotech and pharma leaders, and philanthropic organizations to raise awareness and mobilize support."

submitted 15 days ago • 9 comments

@NIH’s new 15% cap on research funds threatens U.S. science. Call Congress now to oppose it! Your voice matters—act today. Find your rep’s number at govtrack.us. #SupportScience #cellbiology

submitted 15 days ago • 1 comment

NIH had two tracks for the same fellowship: those from underrepresented backgrounds and those not. Both usually get funds. Rather than merge back to one track to comply with their understanding of executive orders, they essentially rejected without review all the ones on the underrepresented track.

submitted 17 days ago • 19 comments

The NIH overhead cut doesn't just hurt universities. It's deadly to the US economy. The US is a world leader in tech due to the ecosystem that NIH and NSF propel. It drives innovation for tech transfer, creates a highly-skilled sci/tech workforce, and fosters academic/industry crossfertilization.

submitted 18 days ago • 31 comments

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...

submitted 18 days ago • 271 comments

HHMI just cancelled our grant. We were in the second year of developing programs to retain students from all backgrounds in STEM. All that work, all that energy…..I am profoundly disappointed. Well-funded HHMI labs, what do you think of dismantling funding for these training programs?

submitted 20 days ago • 2 comments

"Imagine a DAPI-like stain, but for the extracellular matrix." That's basically how this work was pitched to me by Kayvon and Antonio a year or so ago. Now the final product really delivers. Read about their versatile label for ECM in living tissues here: www.nature.com/articles/s41...

submitted 19 days ago • 9 comments

Your Action Is Needed! Congress needs to hear from scientists. Call your representatives to oppose funding freezes and restrictions on research. Find contact info at govtrack.us and make your voice heard today! #SciencePolicy www.ascb.org/science-poli...

submitted 20 days ago • 1 comment

Hi all, I am in contact with a reporter at Science magazine who would like to talk with a trainee or mentor who successfully applied for an equity/DEI-related NIH training grant or a training supplement but have not received the Notice of Award and probably won't get the grant.

submitted 20 days ago • 8 comments

AIMBE has posted a public statement on the impact of federal policy changes on biomedical research: aimbe.org/advocate/wri... Above, we have also developed an advocacy letter for members of the medical & biological engineering community to send to their congressional representatives on this matter.

submitted 21 days ago • 1 comment

A special Bluetorial about one of my mentors Ruth Kirschstein Among Ruth Kirschstein’s many contributions to American science was the development and expansion of programs intended to increase participation of people from groups underrepresented in biomedical research.

submitted 25 days ago • 8 comments

Join us for our next western/evening 🌙 session seminar! Next week we’ll be hearing about 🪰 and 🐓 development; our speakers will be: Claudia Vasquez @claudiaraudia.bsky.social and Ashley Libby 🗓️ Thursday, February 6th at ⏰ 09:30 PST / 12:30 EST / 17:30 UTC / 17:30 GMT / 18:30 CET

submitted 25 days ago • 0 comments

How do epithelial tissues develop their diverse, beautiful shapes? Some researchers have been controlling their forces with light to understand it. I’m Guillermo Martínez Ara and today I’ll tell you about how we can use optogenetics to study morphogenesis!

submitted 25 days ago • 1 comment

Now out in PLOS CB: Spherical Texture extraction! doi.org/10.1371/jour... This method quantifies the intensity distribution in microscopy objects, and is implemented parameter-free in @ilastik-team.bsky.social object classification! We show applications in cells, C. elegans and Drosophila! 😁

submitted 27 days ago • 1 comment

The Society for Developmental Biology has released a statement on the Unprecedented Disruptions to Biomedical Research in the United States.

submitted 27 days ago • 6 comments

Somewhere in the U.S., there’s a scientist staring at their NSF/NIH grant application wondering why they bother. This post is for you. Science and society both need you. Hang in there and know there is a whole community supporting you.

submitted 27 days ago • 42 comments

Very happy to see our review out in @natrevmcb.bsky.social! Here we discuss how stem cells exert forces to sculpt tissues in development and homeostasis, and how stem cell mechanics go awry upon malignant transformation. Read it here 👇 www.nature.com/articles/s41...

submitted 27 days ago • 0 comments

I just contacted my representatives about the nomination of RFK, Jr and the recent executive orders. Here is what I wrote in my email or said to the staffer on the phone: Hello- I am writing/calling on several topics:

submitted 28 days ago • 9 comments

Yesterday President Trump announced a pause on all federal grant disbursals. While it is a bit vague on details, it appears to include research grants. This would be devastating to American science. If you have not had a chance, call your Senators & Reps 🧪 www.cnn.com/2025/01/27/p...

submitted 29 days ago • 7 comments

I post this every April 15: As a recipient of federal grants from NIH and NSF that fund research in my lab, I'd like to sincerely thank American taxpayers for supporting and subsidizing scientific research that lays the foundation for medical and technological innovation in this country

submitted 30 days ago • 2 comments

The NIH diversity supplement pages have all been pulled down. What is a diversity supplement and why should the public care? A diversity supplement is funding to help diversify the research workforce. You may be wondering, “so what?”. Let me explain. www.nigms.nih.gov/Pages/PageNo...

submitted 31 days ago • 9 comments

CNN has now confirmed this. www.cnn.com/2025/01/24/h...

submitted 31 days ago • 95 comments

Someone in 1st Century India got human embryonic limb development perfectly right. The progressive emergence of parts, even the timing, exactly right. Today, I'll start a new thing about the ancient origins developmental biology, the science of embryos. 🧵1/15 #TheLongBibliography #DevBiol #SciHist

submitted 31 days ago • 5 comments

Excited and grateful that our initial report on temperature-sensitive protein switches is now published @naturemethods.bsky.social Co-led by PhD students Will Benman and @dennishuang.bsky.social www.nature.com/articles/s41... Brief thread:

submitted 33 days ago • 2 comments

Every once in a while we publish a paper that moves a whole field forward. I think that's the case for this one from the Bugaj lab, where they describe proteins for THERMOGENETIC control of cellular behavior. www.nature.com/articles/s41...

submitted 33 days ago • 38 comments

NIH funding supports the vast majority of all biomedical research in the United States. Virtually every advance in American medicine and biological science comes from NIH. This is a blow against American science. Call Congress, 202-224-3121.

submitted 34 days ago • 38 comments

Study sections are the review panels that allocate NIH research grants. They bring in experts from around the country and have to be scheduled many months in advance; they provide the funds that keep the nation's biomedical research going. It's hard to overstate the disruption this causes.

submitted 34 days ago • 22 comments

NIH and other federal health agencies have been instructed to cease external communications indefinitely. This means that grant programs—the money that funds life-saving university and hospital research—are currently in limbo. This includes VA research on veterans’ health.

submitted 34 days ago • 15 comments

If you are directly affected by a cancellation of a meeting you were scheduled to participate in or at which your grant may have been discussed, consider reaching out.

submitted 34 days ago • 1 comment

#SpatialTranscriptomics #Cartana in situ sequencing +snRNAseq 🐭Kidney development e15.5/18.5 P3 #SciArt A Critical Milestone KSTAT/Kidney Spatial Transcriptome Analysis Tool➡️ Single-cell mapping of regulon & enriched pathway biorRxiv 2024 @ondinecleaver.bsky.social www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

submitted 36 days ago • 0 comments

Remember to keep your eyes on the prize: the future world you want to build Don’t drown thinking only of the things you are against Remember to dream of and work to create what you’re for

submitted 37 days ago • 12 comments

There are two weeks left to apply for the #ChooseDevelopment! Summer Undergraduate Research Program. Undergrads from underrepresented racial or ethnic group, first-generation college students, veterans & students with a disability are eligible. bit.ly/3FwHqYp Deadline: February 1, 2025 #devbio

submitted 40 days ago • 0 comments

We asked you to vote your favourite 2024 @dev-journal.bsky.social cover image, and the results are in! Congrats to @parahsaramore.bsky.social, @celestemnelson.bsky.social & co. for their image of embryonic mouse lungs 🫁 Find out about the 2nd and 3rd place: thenode.biologists.com/who-won-the-...

submitted 41 days ago • 0 comments

A perfect start in the new year! 🌱 Regenerating tissues are just an amazing spatio temporal controlled process! Our new manuscript explores how cell heterogeneity and bistability orchestrate intestinal regeneration. 🧵 biorxiv.org/cgi/content/...

submitted 41 days ago • 7 comments