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Alka Kanaya

@alka-kanaya.bsky.social
122 followers 156 following 16 posts

General internist, population scientist, yoga aficionado Professor of Medicine, Epidemiology & Biostatistics at UCSF

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Reposted by Alka Kanaya
Lekshmi Santhosh MD MAEd (she/her) @lekshmimd.bsky.social · 06/01/2026
January is National #Mentoring Month! Is your new year's resolution to be a better mentor or mentee? Check our our piece on Mentorship in Times of Uncertainty for best practices & how to navigate these times as a mentor & mentee alike: www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti... @alka-kanaya.bsky.social
sciencedirect.com
Mentorship in Times of Uncertainty
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Elizabeth Jacobs, PhD @elizabethjacobs.bsky.social · 14/11/2025
NIH scientist Dr. Jenna Norton was just placed on nondisciplinary leave. She led a team who wrote a sign-on letter critical of The Regime. A person at NIH asked to give a reason for her leave called her “radical leftist”; while the NIH Director has claimed that “dissent is productive”.
nytimes.com
N.I.H. Worker Who Criticized Trump Health Policies Says She Is on Administrative Leave
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Sam Stroope @sam-stroope.bsky.social · 18/08/2025
🚨Excited to share our new paper ✔️ #Yoga = ⬆️ health (e.g., Life’s Essential 8, diet, smoking, BMI, alcohol) ✔️ Religious attendance = ⬆️ ideal diet ✔️ Religious attendance = ⬇️ alcohol @bvkent.bsky.social @alka-kanaya.bsky.social @nilayshah.bsky.social @lsuresearch.bsky.social doi.org/10.1093/abm/...
doi.org
Religious affiliations, religious practices, and health behaviors in US South Asians
AbstractObjectives. This study examined how religious affiliations and religious practices are related to health behaviors and clinical health behavior-rel
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Anirvan Chatterjee @chatterjee.net · 30/07/2025
If you’ve been meaning to take the Berkeley or SF South Asian Radical History Walking Tour, we just announced seven more tour dates for 2025: www.berkeleysouthasian.org We share stories of four generations of Bay Area feminists and freedom fighters, high school students and civil rights activists.
berkeleysouthasian.org
Berkeley South Asian Radical History Walking Tour
Sunday, August 17 in BerkeleySunday, September 21 in BerkeleySunday, October 12 in SFSaturday, October 18 in BerkeleySunday, November 16 in Berkeley
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Max Kozlov @maxkozlov.bsky.social · 01/08/2025
Full story here ⤵️ “Given the alternative, the Senate’s recommendation of a $400m increase for NIH is an indication the agency still has support on Capitol Hill,” says Jennifer Zeitzer of FASEB. “A 40% cut would have been devastating, so this is a good outcome in a tough year.”
nature.com
‘Congress has your back’: US senators tell scientists they want to protect NIH budget
Senate budget bill includes small increase for the health-research agency — but faces a long road before being signed into law.
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Drug Monkey @drugmonkey.bsky.social · 29/07/2025
Odds of winning #NIH grants plummet as new funding policy and spending delays bite | Science | AAAS www.science.org/content/arti...
science.org
Odds of winning NIH grants plummet as new funding policy and spending delays bite
Funding multiyear grants up front will sharply cut number of investigators receiving awards
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Alka Kanaya @alka-kanaya.bsky.social · 30/06/2025
Bay Area friends, please help me amplify to your networks:
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Jeremy Berg @jeremymberg.bsky.social · 27/06/2025
My quote of the day Earth provides enough to satisfy every man's need, but not every man's greed. Mohandas Gandhi
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Alka Kanaya @alka-kanaya.bsky.social · 09/06/2025
Grateful for these brave NIH employees for speaking up “The Bethesda Declaration” 👍🏽💪🏽🙏🏽 apnews.com/article/nih-...
apnews.com
NIH scientists publish declaration criticizing Trump's deep cuts in public health research
Scores of National Institutes of Health researchers and staffers have come forward to send their Trump-appointed leader a letter challenging policies they say undermine the NIH mission.
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Gregg Gonsalves @gregggonsalves.bsky.social · 31/05/2025
I don't think anyone outside of universities, pharma and biotech, independent research institutions have any idea of what is happening right now. If you haven't sounded the alarm among your friends, family and colleagues, now is the time to do it.
 quote on a dark blue and purple background from Sudip S. Parikh, CEO of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), criticizing proposed cuts to science funding in the FY26 U.S. federal budget. The quote reads:

“If enacted, the FY26 budget request would end America’s global scientific leadership. The cuts to science would imperil our nation’s future health, security and prosperity. This budget proposal stands in stark contrast to the President’s call for a renewed commitment to American scientific leadership. Congress has demonstrated a bipartisan commitment to investment in research and must do so again to answer the President’s call.”
The quote is attributed to Sudip S. Parikh, CEO of AAAS and Executive Publisher of the Science family of journals. The AAAS logo appears at the bottom right.
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Lisa Jarvis @lisamjarvis.bsky.social · 19/05/2025
MAHA leaders seem intrigued by using blood sugar tracking to improve metabolic health--none more so than Surgeon General nominee Casey Means, who cofounded a co pushing CGMs. And yet...there's little evidence it offers lasting health benefits. My latest @opinion.bloomberg.com (🎁 link):
bloomberg.com
MAHA Is Pushing Glucose Tracking That Most People Don’t Need
Surgeon General nominee Casey Means’ metabolic health theory isn’t based on the “gold-standard” science the movement promises.
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Josh Marshall @joshtpm.bsky.social · 16/05/2025
A Path Forward to Save American Bio-Medical Research talkingpointsmemo.com/edblog/a-pat...
talkingpointsmemo.com
A Path Forward to Save American Bio-Medical Research
Over the past four months I’ve spoken to dozens of biomedical researchers...
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Alka Kanaya @alka-kanaya.bsky.social · 02/05/2025
Watch The Brown Heart docudrama here… www.thebrownheart.com
thebrownheart.com
THE BROWN HEART
THE BROWN HEART FILM: WATCH HERE
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Alka Kanaya @alka-kanaya.bsky.social · 26/04/2025
www.statnews.com/2025/04/25/r... Where’s the uproar from the Cardiology and public health community when NIH cuts major cohorts? Bad for communities, bad for public health, bad ROI. #Cardiosky
statnews.com
Rural health study is told it’s losing federal funds, and other major heart studies are worried
A federal health study that was examining the high burden of chronic disease in rural areas learned its funding has been cut off.
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American Journal of Preventive Cardiology @ajpcardio.bsky.social · 23/04/2025
New @aspcardio.bsky.social Clinical Practice Statement🫀: Framework to improve cardiometabolic care for South Asians—individual to population level. ow.ly/glCT50VGq9Y @pnatarajanmd.bsky.social @drmarthagulati.bsky.social #CardioSky #MedSky #SouthAsianHealth #HeartHealth #ASPC
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Meghana Gadgil @meghanagadgil.bsky.social · 25/04/2025
Special issue of the journals Diabetes Care and Diabetes celebrating the work of NIDDK for 75 years and with concern and trepidation for an uncertain future. diabetesjournals.org/care/article...
diabetesjournals.org
NIDDK at 75 Years of Age: Great Triumphs but Concerns for Its Longevity
Steven E. Kahn, Cheryl A.M. Anderson, John B. Buse, Elizabeth Selvin, David A. D’Alessio; NIDDK at 75 Years of Age: Great Triumphs but Concerns for Its Lon
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Alka Kanaya @alka-kanaya.bsky.social · 26/04/2025
urldefense.com/v3/__https:/...
urldefense.com
Rural health study is told it’s losing federal funds, and other major heart studies are worried
A federal health study that was examining the high burden of chronic disease in rural areas learned its funding has been cut off.
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Alka Kanaya @alka-kanaya.bsky.social · 25/04/2025
Our voices matter—public outcry helps! Support our NIH cohorts that have some of the richest longitudinal data www.nytimes.com/2025/04/24/h...
nytimes.com
Federal Officials Promise to Restore Funding to Women’s Health Initiative
The decades-long research effort has contributed to thousands of research papers, altering medical care for women around the world.
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Alka Kanaya @alka-kanaya.bsky.social · 25/04/2025
Fabulous issues of Diabetes & Diabetes Care journals showing 75 years of diabetes excellence funded by NIDDK urldefense.com/v3/__http://...
urldefense.com
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David Corn @davidcorn.bsky.social · 02/04/2025
It’s stunning to me that the New York Times did not put the story on the bloodbath at the NIH, CDC, and FDA on its front page this morning.
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Gayle @grandmagayle.bsky.social · 02/04/2025
Good trouble. As other social media appear to be attempting to silence the daily letters, it's important to subscribe to receive them daily via email. #goodtrouble
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Needhi Bhalla 💅🏽 @needhibhalla.bsky.social · 29/03/2025
“I cannot think of any other time in modern history where grants that have gone through a very, very rigorous peer-review process have been canceled like this” 🎁
sfchronicle.com
San Francisco scientists ‘devastated’ by federal funding cuts for vaccine research
The National Institutes of Health immediately terminated projects investigating vaccine safety during pregnancy and the effectiveness of the shingles vaccine.
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Joshua Weitz @joshuasweitz.bsky.social · 28/03/2025
Working with an interdisciplinary team, we have developed a website to communicate how the White House's proposed cuts to health research would cause losses of $16B and 68,500 jobs. Find out how your community may be impacted. Explore more at SCIMaP: scienceimpacts.org a 🧵
US map via scienceimpacts.org visualization of economic loss due to IDC cuts to 15% as part of Feb 7, 2025 executive order, with shading denoting intensity of cuts.
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Charlotte Moore-Lambert @charlottereads.com · 22/03/2025
anyway, find your local independent bookstore, or any independent bookstore, and support them however you can. you don't need to spend money! book clubs and storytimes are free. author events are often free! asking for help is free. community is free ❤️ bookshop.org
bookshop.org
Bookshop: Buy books online. Support local bookstores.
An online bookstore that financially supports local independent bookstores and gives back to the book community.
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Nick Fleisher @nickfleisher.bsky.social · 16/03/2025
Every part of this story is enraging and insane
washingtonpost.com
Her research grant mentioned ‘hesitancy.’ Now her funding is gone.
A medical researcher may have erroneously lost hundreds of thousands of dollars in grant money because she was swept up in Trump administration efforts to ban studies of vaccine hesitancy and uptake.
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Septima P. Snark @drsubini.blacksky.app · 24/02/2025
Gift link: archive.ph/gQgno#select... New op-ed out today! "We believe this rush to comply is a sign that universities are willing to become an institutional wing of the new segregationists." This op-ed was written with fierce love for our communities. That's who we serve. We will not be erased.
archive.ph
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Ed Yong is offline @edyong209.bsky.social · 23/02/2025
This is excellent
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Indian American Impact @iaimpact.org · 21/02/2025
Our 2025 Desis Lead Spring Cohort application is now open! This 10-session intensive is crafted to empower South Asian Americans with the essential tools, knowledge, and network needed to run for public office and become effective community leaders. Apply today: bit.ly/desislead
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Anirvan Chatterjee @chatterjee.net · 21/02/2025
Filming ICE? “Law enforcement may not search your cell phone or other device without a warrant…you may refuse a request from an officer to review or delete what you recorded. You also may refuse to unlock your phone”
techdirt.com
Yes, You Have The Right To Film ICE
Across the United States, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) has already begun increasing enforcement operations, including highly publicized raids. As immigrant communities, families, …
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Qasim Rashid, Esq. @qasimrashid.com · 19/02/2025
Today is a notable date in US History: —Feb 19, 1923: SCOTUS denies Indian immigrants citizenship b/c they're brown —Feb 19, 1942: FDR issues EO 9066 forcing 120K Japanese Americans into Camps b/c they're brown —Feb 19, 2025: Trump ICE raids undocumented Latinos www.qasimrashid.com/p/why-februa...
qasimrashid.com
Why February 19 Is A Notable Day In U.S. History
Some of America's most dreadful chapters unfolded on this day, and that trend continues in 2025
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Alka Kanaya @alka-kanaya.bsky.social · 19/02/2025
No new NIH meetings (study sections, councils) scheduled since Jan 21st! www.thetransmitter.org/funding/fede...
thetransmitter.org
Federal Register hold makes ‘end run’ around court pause on NIH funding freeze
NIH-related updates to the Federal Register, which are required for the scheduling of study sections and advisory councils, are on hold indefinitely, according to an email reviewed by <i>The Transmitt...
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Greg Sargent @gregsargent.bsky.social · 19/02/2025
Scoop --> Trump-Musk cuts just resulted in the firing of numerous top researchers at NIH's center for combating Alzheimer's, sources tell me. They predict big setbacks to fighting dementias. This cause was once championed by *Republicans.* Details here: newrepublic.com/article/1917...
newrepublic.com
Oops: Trump-Musk Cuts Just Wrecked an NIH Org Championed by GOPers
Republicans once lavished praise on an NIH center that deals with Alzheimer’s. Donald Trump and Elon Musk are hobbling it. What will they say now?
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Margot Kushel MD @mkushel.bsky.social · 19/02/2025
📣New paper alert 🧵Our paper on substance use in homeless populations @jama.com : 🗝️points: 1) >1/3 ppl use drugs regularly--meth is most common 2) ~1/4 of all ppl experiencing homeless (PEH) started using regularly AFTER becoming homeless (42% before) jamanetwork.com/journals/jam... 1/x
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Gregg Gonsalves @gregggonsalves.bsky.social · 15/02/2025
It’s a long past time that unions, professional and civic organizations, religious institutions, and all people of goodwill descend on DC and march to the White House. The question is who will lead this? What is happening now is madness.
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Crystal Fleming is on sabbatical @alwaystheself.bsky.social · 17/02/2025
Don’t know who needs to hear this but there’s literally NO “pathway to DEI compliance” for HBCU’s — or women’s colleges for that matter!
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Priyanka Satish @psatishmd.bsky.social · 16/02/2025
It is an honor to discuss #hearthealth with #Austin on @kxan.com this February! I'm grateful for the opportunity to discuss ways to reduce heart disease risk and the Ascension Cardiovascular Prevention program! @americanheart.bsky.social @aspcardio.bsky.social #Heartmonth #Hearthealth
youtu.be
Ascension Seton launches preventative cardiology clinic
YouTube video by KXAN
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Stand Up for Science! @standupforscience.net · 16/02/2025
It’s time to #standupforscience2025 - We’re making our voice heard about the importance of the American science ecosystem, and want you to join us. More information at www.standupforscience2025.org #scienceforall #sciencenotsilence
Stand up for science poster featuring event details. Stand up for science is happening on March 7th in DC and nationwide. Find more information and other ways to get involved at www.standupforscience2025.org.
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Jeremy Berg @jeremymberg.bsky.social · 16/02/2025
Thanks to all of the NIHers and their friends who reached out to me. I am still here (DM me or Signal jeremymberg.78) I still have a very incomplete picture but based on what I have been told, the damage to NIH and to many wonderful people who work(ed) there is/was impossible for me to imagine 1/n
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Neil deGrasse Tyson @neildegrassetyson.com · 15/02/2025
At the moment, mansion-sized Asteroid 2024-YR4 has a one-in-fifty chance of hitting Earth in the next eight years. Now might be a bad time to reduce spending on Science. Just sayin’.
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Margot Kushel MD @mkushel.bsky.social · 14/02/2025
This makes us all less safe. And will echo through generations. www.nytimes.com/2025/02/14/h...
nytimes.com
NIH Research Grants Lag Behind Last Year’s by $1 Billion
After weeks of disruption to scientific federal grants, the National Institutes of Health has fallen behind in funding research into treatments for deadly diseases.
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Alka Kanaya @alka-kanaya.bsky.social · 15/02/2025
The reason that Mike Lauer was pushed out of the NIH… Thank you for your service and voice over the last 3 decades, Mike popular.info/p/breaking-n...
popular.info
BREAKING: NIH admits funding freeze is illegal, will resume issuing grants
An internal memo issued February 12 was obtained by Popular Information.
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Josh Marshall @joshtpm.bsky.social · 14/02/2025
In its totality what's happening at HHS & NIH is a Musk/Trump effort to shutdown almost all cancer cure research in the US. No more new cures. Cancer's brand is really in the dumps. It polls terribly. This is a political argument that is straightforward to make. talkingpointsmemo.com/edblog/nih-a...
talkingpointsmemo.com
NIH and Its Agencies Are Being Smothered
In recent days I have been inundated by reports out of HHS...
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Alt NIH Bluesky 🧪 @altnih4science.bsky.social · 14/02/2025
It’s been buried in all the news today, but every scientist in the US should pay attention to this: Mike Lauer went out on a limb for us all, sending out a memo saying institutes should start awarding grants. And it looks like Trump/Musk fired him for that. 🧪
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Nitish Pahwa @nitishpahwa.com · 14/02/2025
I wrote about the clashes between the longtime MAGA base and the recent tech-bro Trump converts, how Indian immigrants have stood at the center of it all, and why we're going to see even more open anti-Indian racism as this coalition stabilizes itself: slate.com/technology/2...
slate.com
Unfortunately, MAGA Indian Americans Should Have Seen This Coming
The racist posts from Musk’s DOGE staffer show a widening gap in the GOP between its base and its wealthy technocratic elite.
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Anirvan Chatterjee @chatterjee.net · 13/02/2025
If you’re feeling disheartened in these times, I hope this might be what you need to get re-inspired for the months and years ahead. www.berkeleysouthasian.org
berkeleysouthasian.org
Berkeley South Asian Radical History Walking Tour
Discover 100 years of Desi history on the streets of Berkeley! South Asians have been living in California since at least 1857, but their stories are still little known. Join community historians Anir...
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Alka Kanaya @alka-kanaya.bsky.social · 11/02/2025
Congratulations Alison Huang on being elected to ASCI! 🎉🎊 So well deserved with your valuable contributions to women’s healthy aging @alisonhuangmd.bsky.social
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Dr Thomas Clements @taphonomist.bsky.social · 10/02/2025
In today's climate, getting a grant is super hard. Yet I'm seeing more and more colleagues getting hammered for arbitrary and poor reasons when we review each others grants. Don't do this. Unless there is a fundamental issue, you should be supporting your colleagues, not ripping them down.
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Asha Rangappa @asharangappa.bsky.social · 09/02/2025
I wrote about the importance of "prebunking," in light of rumors that Elon Musk may have purchased $40 million in Super Bowl ads to spread misinformation about the "fraud" and "corruption" in this vital agency. I hope you will read and share asharangappa.substack.com/p/prebunking...
asharangappa.substack.com
Prebunking Elon Musk's Super Bowl Propaganda
Perception is reality.
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Vignesh Ramachandran @vignesh.bsky.social · 07/02/2025
Why threats to public data harm ALL Americans — regardless of political ideology: aapidata.com/blog/threats... The harms include hurting: —American economic success —Global competitiveness —Public health —Government efficiency —Anti-discrimination —Freedom of speech
aapidata.com
Threats to Public Data Harm All Americans - AAPI Data
Message from Karthick Ramakrishnan, Founder and Executive Director
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