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michaelzlin.bsky.social
Harvard → UCLA → HMS → UCSD → Associate Prof. of Neurobiology & Bioengineering at Stanford → Molecules, medicines, & SARSCoV2. Bad manners blocked.
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New powerful article up in the New York Times on cancelled and delayed grants www.nytimes.com/interactive/...

submitted 2 days ago • 11 comments

Received a 2% (top 2%) score on a NIH R21 grant last fall, and it won't get funded. This decision was made before the new administration, actually, showing that NIH has not lived up to its mission to fund the best science for a while. It's only going to get worse now with the budget cuts.

submitted 3 days ago • 2 comments

Academia has turned into industry, in that grants and papers are awarded based on measurable productivity metrics. The use of each dollar granted is increasingly scrutinized and costs are driven down through competition. Being an academic feels like running a mom-and-pop CRO sometimes.

submitted 22 days ago • 1 comment

If you're interested in optical reporting of neuronal activity, and can get to Venice, there are a couple of spots left at the Neuroscience School of Advanced Studies in Neurophotonics, 5/31 to 6/7. www.neurosas.org/advanced-cou...

submitted 28 days ago • 3 comments

It's Star Wars day, so what am I doing? Submitting two papers, of course

submitted 32 days ago • 1 comment

Our new paper is out in Science. What is the synaptic plasticity rule in the brain, we asked. It turns out there are multiple, even within individual neurons. Congrats Jake! www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

submitted 49 days ago • 2 comments

A very thoughtful Perspective on our recent paper by Ayelén Groisman and Johannes Letzkus. Thank you! www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

submitted 45 days ago • 0 comments

Carl Sagan was prescient.

submitted 51 days ago • 4 comments

Alan Garber for President (or any other person with a good heart and good brains willing to stand up for the rule of law... you know, traditional American qualities)

submitted 51 days ago • 0 comments

Where do things stand with the Abrego Garcia case, and where will they go from here? Via "One First," I look at the ridiculousness of the government's position and behavior; the options available to Judge Xinis; and the case's (mounting) broader ramifications: www.stevevladeck.com/p/143-the-st...

submitted 51 days ago • 38 comments

It's vastly underreported that the person driving the worst aspects of Trump's agenda is Stephen Miller. Bannon saw Trump as a vessel for his agenda but is now sidelined. Musk came on late and isn't 24/7 in the WH. Stephen Miller has been with Trump the whole time and has fed him every bad idea.

submitted 51 days ago • 3 comments

Measles likely came from cows (via rinderpest) around the 6th century BCE. For 2,500 years, we didn’t evolve superhuman resistance—children just died. Real protection only came in the 1960s, with vaccines. Our superpower isn’t evolving into superhumans. It’s outthinking pathogens.

submitted 61 days ago • 4 comments

Congrats to my friend David Liu, inventor of base editing, prime editing, and many other genome and molecular engineering methods, for a well deserved Breakthrough Prize David demonstrates how much positive impact comes from combining creativity with scientific insight (and some NIH funding).

submitted 60 days ago • 1 comment

77% of funds already appropriated by Congress for neuroscience research are not being spent. Meanwhile Alzheimer's and Parkinson's are not going to cure themselves. www.thetransmitter.org/funding/newl...

submitted 62 days ago • 0 comments

Our study on the molecular basis of shifts in receptor recognition by western equine encephalitis virus (WEEV) in the past century, led by Xiaoyi Fan and @wanyuviridae.bsky.social , is online! 👏🎉 www.cell.com/cell/fulltex...

submitted 62 days ago • 1 comment

AI was going to transform the world economy. Yesterday it did—not by doing anything useful, but when imbeciles used to it set tariff raters. AI was going to transforming education. Today it has— not by creating better learning platforms but instead by undermining ones have worked for centuries. 🧵

submitted 62 days ago • 3 comments

This article does a great job describing the lives of young American scientists: “You roll up your sleeves, try to make or discover something useful and then let the scientific community try to punch holes in your work to make sure that it’s sound”

submitted 62 days ago • 1 comment

Despite daily disruptions, scientists try to use logic and creativity to help fellow humans. Thus I would like to report our latest work describing microbial-independent deep assembly and screening, a method that goes from primers to mammalian cell assays in 1 day. www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

submitted 63 days ago • 2 comments

New hope for families battling Dravet Syndrome. Scientists have developed a new gene replacement therapy that could improve treatments for a rare and life-altering form of epilepsy. 🧵 #Neuroskyence #DravetSyndrome

submitted 78 days ago • 2 comments