Javier Irazoqui

A titan of vaccine development sees his field’s achievements slip away Stanley Plotkin, the 93-year-old "godfather of vaccines," is watching his field’s achievements slip away.

Stanley Plotkin, the 93-year-old "godfather of vaccines," is watching his field’s achievements slip away. www.statnews.com/2026/03/02/s...

NSF officials break silence on how AI and quantum now drive agency grantmaking Leaders acknowledge White House role in controversial moves

NSF officials break silence on how AI and quantum now drive agency grantmaking | Science | AAAS www.science.org/content/arti...

How will we know if AI is smart enough to do science? New tests gauge whether large language models can use their deep troves of knowledge to actually make discoveries

How will we know if AI is smart enough to do science? | Science | AAAS www.science.org/content/arti...

But the brackets

AI immunologists are here: Are they ready for prime time? - PubMed Large language model (LLM)-based artificial intelligence (AI) agents are powerful tools that can help researchers automate complex tasks such as literature review, data mining, computational code generation, and summarization of existing knowledge, but they can still fall short in developing origina …

pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/41348863/?ut...

The Republicans Made Peace With Science — The Atlantic The Trump administration’s hostility to science is real, but it isn’t matched by the rest of the GOP’s.

The Republicans Made Peace With Science - The Atlantic

apple.news/AfvbjX206T9q...

Caspase-4 binds to LPS membranes with positive curvature for non-canonical inflammasome activation The cytosolic LPS sensor caspase-4 controls antibacterial immunity by inducing pyroptosis and cytokine secretion. Began et al. show how remodeling of LPS membranes by interferon-induced GTPase GBP1 pr...

PAPER ALERT!
I am excited to share that our study describing the molecular mechanism of caspase-4 activation has just been published in Immunity.
www.cell.com/immunity/ful...

I would like to thank all the co-authors for their valuable contributions.
Well done guys!
Link for short summary below👇

Free Thought and Official Propaganda a.co/d/0dvb2IdJ - Bertrand Russell

Grant proposals drafted with AI help more likely to win NIH funding But funding proposals to US agencies also tend to be more similar to previously funded projects if they are written or edited with the help of a chatbot.

www.nature.com/articles/d41...

The existential AI threat is here — and some AI leaders are fleeing — Axios Top AI experts at OpenAI, Anthropic and other companies warn of rising dangers of their technology, with some quitting in protest or going public with grave concerns.

“"I finally feel the existential threat that AI is posing."”

Excerpt From
“The existential AI threat is here — and some AI leaders are fleeing”
Madison Mills
Axios
apple.news/AXU7icH7KS3m...
This material may be protected by copyright.

“…But not US!”

Governors to skip Trump meeting after White House invited only Republicans, source says — Reuters The National Governors Association canceled a meeting with U.S. President Donald Trump later this month after the White House excluded Democratic governors, chairman Kevin Stitt told members on Monday...

“it is critical that institutions continue to stand for unity, dignity and constructive engagement”

Excerpt From
“Governors to skip Trump meeting after White House invited only Republicans, source says”
Jasper Ward
Reuters
apple.news/AmOAkrkK1T_W...
This material may be protected by copyright.

Feels to me that people in charge in US think scientific successes in country over last 100 years are a product of innate American genius rather than sustained and reliable funding of basic science

Because of this mistaken assumption, American science is f$cked for at least the next couple decades

Is it an outrage if your NIH grant score goes from nearly funded to ND after you revise it? Yes, the answer is yes. It is extremely painful to have your grant proposal just miss the cut for funding on one version and then to have the revised version end up way out of the race or Not Discu…

Is it an outrage if your NIH grant score goes from nearly funded to ND after you revise it? drugmonkey.wordpress.com/2026/02/06/i...

A photograph of Judith Nadell at the age of 29.

On this International Day of Women & Girls in Science, one of the many people I am thinking about my mother, Judith Nadell. A 🧵

Here she is as a young physician scientist three years before I was born.

1/15

AI could transform the economy by year’s end — Vox An exponential process is in motion — one that will inevitably shake the world to its core — and upend our economy, politics, and social lives. Yet most people are still going about their business, ob...

“If celebrations of the singularity are premature, preparations for something like it are now overdue.”

Excerpt From
“AI could transform the economy by year’s end”
Eric Levitz
Vox
apple.news/AhHISgP4JTgS...
This material may be protected by copyright.
- Vox

Trump tried to gut science research funding. Courts and Congress have rebuffed him. — NBC News A year ago, federal support for scientific research appeared to be crumbling. But thanks to Congress and several lawsuits, scientists’ worst fears haven’t come to pass.

Trump tried to gut science-research funding. Courts and Congress have rebuffed him. - NBC News

Includes @jeremymberg.bsky.social

apple.news/A0YbiqBA0RYC...

Stories from the scientist who changed how we visualize proteins - Nature Reviews Chemistry Ahead of her 85th birthday, Jane Richardson, Professor of Biochemistry at Duke University, discussed her life in science from making her own telescope to developing the ribbon diagrams for the 3D stru...

I loved my class with Jane!!

www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Tenure Under Threat A spate of firings in the fall revealed just how corroded tenure protections have become. How did we get here?

Tenure Under Threat www.insidehighered.com/news/faculty...

Little Liam Ramos stood facing an ICE vehicle with his cartoon blue wooly hat. A state-sponsored terrorist ICE agent is holding him by his rucksack.

A reminder that Liam Ramos, the son of legal residents in Minnesota, is still being held in a Texas prison.

A five year old little boy - and America’s global reputation - now scarred for life.

(📸 Ali Daniel’s/AP)

U.S. government has lost more than 10,000 STEM Ph.D.s since Trump took office | Science | AAAS www.science.org/content/arti...

Same

Gladys West, mathematician whose work paved the way for GPS, dies at 95 — NPR A self-described “little farm girl” in the Jim Crow Era, Gladys West’s complex and pioneering work for the U.S. Navy helped to improve billions of lives — and keep us from getting lost.

Gladys West, mathematician whose work paved the way for GPS, dies at 95 - NPR

apple.news/ATGxtuSGfSFG...

Two SROs separately told me that they won’t recruit a worm reviewer for just one app

A lot. I’m seeing a lot of “translational” and “relevant”comments against model org grants

It seems to be

I’ve had this for over a decade. Worms - too NSFy for NIH, too NIHy for NSF. We should get our own ICO and be done.

US science after a year of Trump: what has been lost and what remains A series of graphics reveals how the Trump administration has sought historic cuts to science and the research workforce.

Trump has been in office for one year. We at @nature.com did a deep dive looking at the administration's disruption of science in numbers.

Take a look—the numbers are staggering. By me, @dangaristo.bsky.social, Jeff Tollefson, @kimay.bsky.social, & help from @noamross.net @scott-delaney.bsky.social

Important story from Max Kozlov. Loss without replacement of council members is a serious concerns which could be a huge problem in the future, but this is uncertain.

Considering the impact of Multi-Year Funding at NIH Somewhere in the back of my head I have been thinking that the worst impact of NIH allocating ~50% of funds via Multi-Year Funding would be FY2026 if, and that is a huge IF, the overall budget stay…

Considering the impact of Multi-Year Funding at NIH drugmonkey.wordpress.com/2026/01/20/c...