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Reposted by Ali Ezzati, MD

Ali Ezzati, MD @ae-md.bsky.social · 02/08/2025

Please share! 🙏 Outreach is difficult given current social media algorithms. 🥼🔬🧪🧑‍🔬 I am recruiting 2 or 3 postdocs in Alzheimer’s and Dementia, Epidemiology, and Translational Neuroscience! recruit.ap.uci.edu/JPF09486

recruit.ap.uci.edu

Postdoctoral Scholar – Clinical Neuroscience Research

University of California, Irvine is hiring. Apply now!

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Ali Ezzati, MD @ae-md.bsky.social · 02/08/2025

recruit.ap.uci.edu

Postdoctoral Scholar – Clinical Neuroscience Research

University of California, Irvine is hiring. Apply now!

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Ali Ezzati, MD @ae-md.bsky.social · 08/04/2025

My guess is genetics. Is this Aria freq ApoE4 adjusted? The general frequency of the APOE ε4 allele varies massively in different ethnic populations (Asian 9%, Hispanic 12%, white 14%, AA 19%). E4E4 even lower.

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Ali Ezzati, MD @ae-md.bsky.social · 01/04/2025

Another issue for smaller, less known labs, not in the most desirable locations (Irvine is average, so cal but not LA or SD) is that finding those individuals who come with their own salary or visit is almost close to zero. So work force is immediately shrinked with budget restraints.

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Ali Ezzati, MD @ae-md.bsky.social · 01/04/2025

I am also under hiring, which might be a bad strategy for growth, but the effort that goes into hiring + dealing with firing issues if budgets are cut makes under hiring more appealing.

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Ali Ezzati, MD @ae-md.bsky.social · 01/04/2025

just very rough environment, I will try to write one or two more NIH grants, but I'm afraid that won't be a sustainable strategy for long term. Overall, what I need to survive is stronger allies + diversification.

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Ali Ezzati, MD @ae-md.bsky.social · 01/04/2025

I also don't have any private sources of funding (i.e. Donors), which is typical for most youngish scientists in smaller institutions. This alone makes hiring/planning harder...

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Ali Ezzati, MD @ae-md.bsky.social · 01/04/2025

I have many new people in my lab who are not ready to write up their. Own grants or help me with writing one. Working with many senior colleagues means that discussions for new MPI grants leads to me doing the work for others too (counter productive).

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Ali Ezzati, MD @ae-md.bsky.social · 01/04/2025

That was very thoughtful. Thanks for sharing. I don't have the capacity to increase the number of my submissions unfortunately. The main problem with budget cuts and lower chance of success is that smaller labs with less diversification will be hurt faster. I'm afraid my lab is among them...

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Ali Ezzati, MD @ae-md.bsky.social · 31/03/2025

May I ask how you are dealing with current NIH grant problems? Writing more grants? Changing existing ones for resubmitting? I'm geniunly not sure what's the best course of action for new or already fundex grants at this time. Uncertainty = to the roof.

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Ali Ezzati, MD @ae-md.bsky.social · 28/03/2025

Models showed high sensitivity and improved predictive value in both internal and external validation. ✅ Excited about the potential for smarter, more efficient AD trials.

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Ali Ezzati, MD @ae-md.bsky.social · 28/03/2025

Can we predict who’s unlikely to decline in Alzheimer’s clinical trials ⁉️ In our new Neurology paper, we used machine learning to identify cognitively stable individuals in the placebo arm of EXPEDITION3—aiming to optimize trial design and boost power. 🔭 www.neurology.org/doi/10.1212/...

neurology.org

A Machine Learning Approach to Predict Cognitive Decline in Alzheimer Disease Clinical Trials | Neurology

Background and ObjectivesAmong the participants of Alzheimer disease (AD) treatment trials, 40% do not show cognitive decline over 80 weeks of follow-up. Identifying and excluding these individuals ca...

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Ali Ezzati, MD @ae-md.bsky.social · 17/02/2025

Very insightful. I agree and add that imho: Data sharing is the achilles heel of academia.

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Reposted by Ali Ezzati, MD

BK. Titanji @boghuma.bsky.social · 12/02/2025

Live footage of the average NIH-funding academic as we cycle between maybe no longer having a job and court rulings allow NIH to resume evaluating and funding grants. I do not recommend this life style, it sucks Most of us just want to do important science unpeturbed.

media.tenor.com

an elderly woman is riding a roller coaster with her mouth open .

ALT: an elderly woman is riding a roller coaster with her mouth open .

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Ali Ezzati, MD @ae-md.bsky.social · 12/02/2025

Discussing sex as a biological construct is a requirement in all NIH grants. How is it even possible to exclude that in grants?

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Ali Ezzati, MD @ae-md.bsky.social · 12/02/2025

Sex differences? Really? This is unbelievable. I'm very hesitant to submit federal grants right now. Just can't commit that much time and not even get to review stage. I guess many people are like me. Please keep posting here if you found any updates. 🙏

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Reposted by Ali Ezzati, MD

Sen. Adam Schiff @schiff.senate.gov · 08/02/2025

Trump & Musk are making massive cuts to the National Institutes of Health. I know there is a lot going on right now, but this is one of worst things they have done so far, will affect cancer research and trials, the search for cures, innovation and competitiveness, our universities. Your lives.

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Ali Ezzati, MD @ae-md.bsky.social · 09/02/2025

Except in academia, nowhere in the U.S. economy can you hire PhDs or MDs for a meager salary of less than $70,000 (as postdocs or scientists) and still call it an over-expenditure & then trying to kill this business model with the excuse of "efficiency". It's absolutely ridiculous.

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Ali Ezzati, MD @ae-md.bsky.social · 08/02/2025

Do you - even remotely - think there is a logic behind decisions these people are making?

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Reposted by Ali Ezzati, MD

Daniel Colón-Ramos @dacolon.bsky.social · 08/02/2025

I have not seen a crisis of this magnitude since yesterday

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Ali Ezzati, MD @ae-md.bsky.social · 08/02/2025

I just don't know what to say. I don't care about my salary, but if this happens, at least one of my wonderful staff will pay for such stupidity with their job. I just can't. 🤦🏻🤦🏻

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Reposted by Ali Ezzati, MD

Carl T. Bergstrom @carlbergstrom.com · 08/02/2025

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.

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Ali Ezzati, MD @ae-md.bsky.social · 08/02/2025

Can someone tell us (Scientists) if we all need to search for a new job or what? Acadmec work is already impossible for physician scientists (& others). We don't need more hurdles. Universities are going to stop functioning with a shock of this magnitude. grants.nih.gov/grants/guide...

grants.nih.gov

NOT-OD-25-068: Supplemental Guidance to the 2024 NIH Grants Policy Statement: Indirect Cost Rates

NIH Funding Opportunities and Notices in the NIH Guide for Grants and Contracts: Supplemental Guidance to the 2024 NIH Grants Policy Statement: Indirect Cost Rates NOT-OD-25-068. OD

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Ali Ezzati, MD @ae-md.bsky.social · 08/02/2025

What? NCE out? Where did you see that. I moved too & for 8 months my funds where unavailable. 🥺 OMG. I'm wondering if I need a new job & though I'm in good condition relative to others.

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Ali Ezzati, MD @ae-md.bsky.social · 01/02/2025

I’m not sure which academics need to hear this, but kindness costs nothing—and it makes all the difference. The people I remember and want to collaborate with are the ones who lead with respect and empathy.

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Ali Ezzati, MD @ae-md.bsky.social · 25/01/2025

Kudos to all my fellow researchers working hard this week to finalize their abstracts for AAIC! Drop a comment below, and I'll make sure to attend your presentation in Toronto. Let's support each other!

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Reposted by Ali Ezzati, MD

BWJones @bwjones.bsky.social · 22/01/2025

Most folks do not understand how far in advance the planning and logistics of NIH grants take. We prepare for months or years for these submissions for one of 3 cycles per year. This study section cancellation delays grants by at least 6 months when study sections are cancelled.

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Reposted by Ali Ezzati, MD

Amy Feldman @amyfeldman7.bsky.social · 22/01/2025

If you’ve been directly impacted by a pause or cancellation of an NIH study session, we @forbes.com would like to talk to you

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Ali Ezzati, MD @ae-md.bsky.social · 24/12/2024

Lol, I got a couple of grant review request too. 😎 It's not even surprising anymore. Yaayyy.... Merry Christmas! Free labor for everyone.

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Ali Ezzati, MD @ae-md.bsky.social · 24/12/2024

This is an excellent read. I agree that we're perhaps jumping the gun by labeling amyloid as the ultimate root cause of everything Alzheimer's.

alzforum.org

An Open Letter to Dennis J. Selkoe, M.D. | ALZFORUM

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Ali Ezzati, MD @ae-md.bsky.social · 20/12/2024

Literally everyone in Academia after Thanksgiving.

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Ali Ezzati, MD @ae-md.bsky.social · 10/12/2024

Websites, videos, books, review papers or anything else that can help with decreasing the burden on 1:1 meetings.

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Ali Ezzati, MD @ae-md.bsky.social · 10/12/2024

Help needed! Colleagues in Alzheimer's (or other clinical research), what are some of the resources that you use for teachings basics of biology and clinical aspects to new lab members who come from non-biological and non-medical fields? e.g. Someone from statistics or informatics background.

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Ali Ezzati, MD @ae-md.bsky.social · 07/12/2024

This works only when they calculate/report percentile. It's not always reported. On special panels when out of 5 applications one or two MUST be funded, they don't have to calculate percentile.

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Ali Ezzati, MD @ae-md.bsky.social · 07/12/2024

A long time ago, we had an application that was funded with impact of 30s, no way that percentile wise it was in the 30s. That being said, 40 is too far to be funded in this environment😭

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Ali Ezzati, MD @ae-md.bsky.social · 07/12/2024

That part I understand. But NIH does not report percentile for all applications. Not for training grants and not for many of R01s in response to specific RFAs. So now I have an impact score of 40 & - I think- no way to know if others on the panel "averaged" better.

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Ali Ezzati, MD @ae-md.bsky.social · 07/12/2024

Ok, so how should we interpret impact scores for R01s? Isn't it a simple average of scores? So an impact score of 40 could be much better than a percentile score of 20 in theory?

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Ali Ezzati, MD @ae-md.bsky.social · 05/12/2024

Isn't it about money in all specialties? No one would go to NSx, the longest/hardest of all trainings, if pay was not good. I'm afraid solution is only through improving salaries.

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Ali Ezzati, MD @ae-md.bsky.social · 01/12/2024

Probably. But from the mice study: "The number of microglia around amyloid plaques doubled, and amyloid load was cut in half." Amyloid load did not decrease in human. Maybe there was a trend in the interim 🤷🏻

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Ali Ezzati, MD @ae-md.bsky.social · 01/12/2024

I think legal mandate is only for NIH sponsored trials (2y max). For privately funded ones, there is an "ethical" mandate for full results and legal mandate for summery results. I know quite a few older trials without publications in form of papers.

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Ali Ezzati, MD @ae-md.bsky.social · 01/12/2024

I don't understand why an interim analysis on AD biomarkers was not done to halt the trial. It seems there was no target engagement in human. I hope they publish results or fully present at AAIC.

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Ali Ezzati, MD @ae-md.bsky.social · 25/11/2024

How many of directors ended up in prison? I think we don't keep standards of drug development hight enough. Too many shady stories.

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Ali Ezzati, MD @ae-md.bsky.social · 22/11/2024

Yes, but this is based on a more recent analysis we've done in ADNI. It's a shame none of these failed trials of 2010s have sufficient tau meaures.

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Ali Ezzati, MD @ae-md.bsky.social · 22/11/2024

It only took 14 months for us to publish this. Isn't it amazing? 😬

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