James Jaggard

Dr. Jay Bhattacharya on His Mission to Rebuild Public Trust in the NIH and CDC He discusses "DEI" research, campus funding freezes, ACIP, and the path forward for the nation's public health infrastructure

OK. Buckle up. Here goes...

Here is the video and the transcript.

substack.com/home/post/p-...

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A line graph showing funding curves for all NIH projects awarded grants for fiscal years 2021-2026. The curve for fiscal year 2026 is lagging behind that for previous fiscal years substantially.

My weekly update on NIH funding.

This is for all projects.

The breakdown for competing and non-competing awards will follow.

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I'm at the Willard Hotel where I've been denied entry and kicked out of the Reclaiming Science event with NIH director Bhattacharya & other top agency leaders.

@jocelynkaiser.bsky.social and I registered for the event months ago yet were told capacity was full, even as they let in dozens of others.

What a cool field of study!!! So many open fundamental questions about how the body signals to the brain, how paracrine/endocrine signals alter cell/circuits, how extracellular fluid exchange carries signals to/from the brain etc...

Evolution of a novel adrenal cell type that promotes parental care - Nature The adrenal gland of the oldfield mouse (Peromyscus polionotus) has a recently evolved cell type that promotes monogamous-typical parenting behaviour and is not present in closely related species.

AND this awesome paper from a couple years ago:
www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Neuroendocrine circuit for sleep-dependent growth hormone release The increase in growth hormone release during sleep is driven by sleep-wake-dependent activity of stimulatory GHRH neurons and inhibitory SST neurons in the hypothalamus. The released growth hormone e...

AND Yang Dan's lab has an awesome sleep-specific paper recently:
www.cell.com/cell/fulltex...

Neuroendocrine bases of monogamy A number of studies have implicated the neurohypophyseal peptides oxytocin and vasopressin in the central mediation of complex social behaviors, including affiliation, parental care and territorial ag...

lol after thinking about this for a few minutes, I remembered this sort of thing was all covered in Neuro 101:
www.cell.com/trends/neuro...

#neuro folks: I'm looking for helpful neuroendocrine reviews/good people in this field to read up on. Bonus points for neuroendocrine function in behavior. Any tips appreciated!

I seem to remember a very funny "otter" typo in an otherwise serious NIH discussion from long past twitter days...

Soma Ca2+ is decoupled from daily synaptic activity and neuropeptide release in Drosophila clock neurons Klose et al. demonstrate in sLNv clock terminals that activity-dependent endogenous neuropeptide release occurs at midmorning, many hours after the daily activity-independent Ca2+ peak in the soma. Th...

Very cool paper: soma-synapse decoupling in peptidergic release. But is the decoupled soma Ca2+ still required for synaptic Ca2+ driven exocytosis?
www.cell.com/current-biol...

My grandma was quadriplegic and lived in an iron lung thanks to polio - made a lasting impression on me.

Scientific journals: we don’t want you using generative AI because it makes shit up.

Same journal: here is an AI summary or evaluation of this paper. This might be more useful than the actual abstract or paper that the authors freaking wrote

Same journal: AI cover art which makes no sense? Oooh!

Today I am starting a weekly post titled "Autism: The Evidence". I hope it helps someone fight the colossal wave of misinformation that is drowning us. Part 1: I heard Autism prevalence has gone up. Is that true? If so why?

Applications for Fellows-to-Faculty Awards Now Open Applications for Fellows-to-Faculty Awards Now Open on Simons Foundation

Applications for our Fellows-to-Faculty Award are now open! This program supports early career scientists in #autism or #neuroscience research by facilitating their transition into tenure-track faculty positions. Apply by 1/14/2026: www.simonsfoundation.org/2025/10/31/a... #science

Want to image the adult zebrafish brain? Here's a nifty design that I made with the help of a talented master's student, Corey Steinhauser.

Supporting files here!
morgridge.org/research/lab...

I’m so honored to be named a simonsfoundation.org Fellows-to-Faculty awardee for my research in sleep and aging! This support will help me as I transition into a tenure-track position. Reach out if you know of faculty openings or have interest in using diverse fish species in neuroscience!

Historians See Autocratic Playbook in Trump’s Attacks on Science

www.nytimes.com/2025/08/31/s...

This is awesome!! I'm looking forward to reading this.

Enjoy Jupiter! It was a great place to do a PhD. If you have time, be sure to visit the inlet-some good eats/drinks at a beautiful spot. Also Civil Society is a really good brewery steps away from campus.

I think we may have this. Let me check and get back to you tomorrow.

Happy #Fluorescencefriday! Live ROS brain imaging in zebrafish showing strong signal in radial glia/ependyma. :]

I have heard that Grammerly has a good tool for checking this. Just copy paste in the text in question.