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Brenton Graveley

@graveley.bsky.social
796 followers 940 following 96 posts

Scientist, Husband, Father, Potter, Athlete, bengal cat lover, Great Dane addict, dungeons and dragons fanatic. Hartford, CT Professor and Chair, Department of Genetics and Genome Sciences, Associate Director Institute for Systems Genomics, UConn Health

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Reposted by Brenton Graveley
Harmit Singh Malik @harmitmalik.bsky.social · 23/03/2026
Why are ICE officers coming to airports to relieve TSA officers who are working without pay WHEN DHS PAYS BOTH ICE AND TSA OFFICERS?!!!
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Benoit Bruneau @benoitbruneau.bsky.social · 26/01/2026
Giant nope. I don’t have polite words for this guy especially as he treats children. I don’t care how “nice and caring” his wife says he is. That may be but his ideas are more than misguided and his proposal is unethical
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Brenton Graveley @graveley.bsky.social · 25/01/2026
Had the opportunity to listen to Pete Buttigieg last night. Lent some sanity to an insane world
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Reposted by Brenton Graveley
David Ho @davidho.bsky.social · 20/01/2026
This is the most astonishing graph of what the Trump regime has done to US science. They have destroyed the federal science workforce across the board. The negative impacts on Americans will be felt for generations, and the US might never be the same again. www.nature.com/immersive/d4...
This line graph illustrates the percentage change in agency staff levels from the previous year for nine major U.S. federal scientific and health organizations between the fiscal years 2016 and 2025. The agencies tracked include the CDC, Department of Energy, EPA, FDA, NASA, NIH, NIST, NOAA, and NSF. For the majority of the timeline between 2016 and 2023, the agencies show relatively stable fluctuations, generally staying within a range of +5% to -5% change per year. However, there is a dramatic and uniform plummet starting in the 2024–25 period. Every agency depicted shows a sharp downward trajectory, with staffing losses ranging from approximately -15% to over -25%. The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) shows the most significant decline, dropping to roughly -26%, while the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) shows the least severe but still substantial drop at approximately -15%.
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Rachel Maddow @maddow.bsky.social · 22/01/2026
This comes just after the president publicly demanded that ICE should start showing the public how terrible the people are who they're grabbing and arresting. In this case, his name is Liam. He's five years old. www.kare11.com/article/news...
kare11.com
5-year-old boy among four students detained by ICE, according to school leaders
School district leaders argue ICE agents are following students and their parents while driving to and from school.
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Reposted by Brenton Graveley
Eric Van Nostrand Lab @ BCM @evannostrandlab.bsky.social · 18/01/2026
Happy to share Joey (Zhuoyi)'s review on technologies to map RBP:RNA and (especially) RBP-associated RNA:RNA interactions is now up at RNA! pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/41535089
pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov
Progress and challenges in profiling protein-RNA and protein-associated RNA-RNA interactions - PubMed
RNA binding proteins (RBPs) play essential roles in post-transcriptional gene regulation by interacting with a wide range of RNA targets. In addition to regulating RNA processing via individual RBP-RNA interactions, there is a growing appreciation of the regulatory impact of protein-associated RNA-R …
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Reposted by Brenton Graveley
Monica @softtail65.bsky.social · 17/01/2026
We need age limits... 24 members of Congress are 80 or older, and more than half are running for re-election. Thirteen of the 24 have decided to run again in 2026, according to an NBC News review. www.nbcnews.com/politics/con...
nbcnews.com
24 members of Congress are 80 or older. More than half are running for re-election.
While older members of leadership in the House and the Senate are retiring, some from the Silent Generation say their seniority is still a boon for their districts.
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Jeremy Berg @jeremymberg.bsky.social · 16/01/2026
Non-competitive renewal awards. On a more or less normal curve but not catching up from the government shutdown-related delay. All ICs except for NIAAA and NCCIH have made some awards with NIAID having made the most at 579. 2/2
A line grant showing non-competitive renewal awards made by NIH is fiscal year 2026 compared to 2021-2025. The line for fiscal year 2026 shows a lag due to the government shutdown in October and November and then follows the other curves but the lags due to the delay remains.
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Jeremy Berg @jeremymberg.bsky.social · 16/01/2026
My (now) weekly update on 2026 NIH funding. New and competitive renewal awards. 3 new awards (compared to ~100 expected based on recent years). No new ICs... still just NIA, NINDS, NIDCD, and NIDCR. 1/2
A line grant showing new and competitive renewal awards made by NIH is fiscal year 2026 compared to 2021-2025. The line for fiscal year 2026 is very close to zero.
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Reposted by Brenton Graveley
Steven Salzberg @stevensalzberg.bsky.social · 16/01/2026
very sad news. Peer Bork was one of the leaders of our field, a wonderful scientist, and he's much too young to be gone. www.embl.org/news/embl-an...
embl.org
In remembrance of Peer Bork  | EMBL
EMBL and its community are deeply saddened by the death of Peer Bork, the organisation’s Interim Director General.
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Theresa Kim, PhD, MS @tyk314.net · 14/01/2026
Latest post from Dr. Ginexi on NOFO guidance, "reductions in burden," and subsequent confusion at #NIH.
substack.com
When Everything Changes at Once: Making Sense of Institutional Overload
NIH Office of Extramural Research is Implementing a Plan for “Administrative Burden Reduction”
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Brenton Graveley @graveley.bsky.social · 19/12/2025
Latest paper from the lab in collaboration with Gordon Carmichael, JD Beaudoin, and Chris Holley’s labs. www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...
biorxiv.org
Genome-wide profiling of RNA 2'-O-methylation in neurons and identification of orphan snoRNA targets
We have compared genome-wide patterns of RNA 2'-O-methylation (Nm) between two isogenic pairs of neurons. Each pair includes one line harboring a small deletion of orphan box C/D snoRNAs (SNORD116s) f...
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Brenton Graveley @graveley.bsky.social · 10/10/2025
Zero chance Trump wins the peace prize tomorrow.
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Reposted by Brenton Graveley
Karly Kingsley @karlykingsley.bsky.social · 30/09/2025
The President of the United States just stood in front of top military leaders and declared that there’s a “domestic enemy” days after he said he was “authorizing full force” against an American city. This entire country should be outraged, not apathetic because it’s Trump.
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Jim Acosta @jimacosta.bsky.social · 23/09/2025
I said what I said.
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Dr. Jonathan N. Stea @jonathanstea.bsky.social · 23/09/2025
RFK Jr: “Research on vaccines and autism has been suppressed.” PubMed: “Here’s over 1200 research papers on vaccines and autism… …including this first one which is a meta-analysis showing that vaccines are not associated with autism.”
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Allison Gill @muellershewrote.com · 19/09/2025
“The law doesn’t matter anymore” is obeying in advance.
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max tani @maxtani.bsky.social · 18/09/2025
The union representing the musicians from Jimmy Kimmel’s band releases a statement calling the FCC’s pressure on Disney “state censorship.”
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Molly Jong-Fast @mollyjongfast.bsky.social · 18/09/2025
They are literally canceling culture
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jamelle @jamellebouie.net · 29/08/2025
there is no question in my mind that rfk jr is the most dangerous person in this administration and that his eugenicist ideology threatens the lives of millions of people www.advocate.com/politics/dem...
advocate.com
RFK Jr.’s damage to the CDC is ‘past the point of no return,’ Dr. Demetre Daskalakis warns
“The CDC you knew is over,” the infectious diseases doctor told The Advocate. “Unless someone takes radical action, there is nothing there that can be salvaged.”
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Carl Zimmer @carlzimmer.com · 29/08/2025
On the new acting CDC director. www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025...
O’Neill, unlike Monarez, has no training in medicine or infectious disease science. He is a former speechwriter for the health department, during the Bush years, who went on to work for the tech investor and conservative megadonor Peter Thiel.

During the Covid pandemic, O’Neill voiced public support for unproven treatments that were not supported by scientific evidence, including ivermectin and hydroxychloroquine, as well as vitamin D as a supposed “prophylaxis”.

He also posted a number of conspiratorial theories on social media, including the baseless claim that “the name #COVID was chosen to conceal the origin of the virus. This name made it harder to study and probably slowed the response.”
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George Takei @georgetakei.bsky.social · 28/08/2025
Pay attention. Your family’s safety is on the line.
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Princess Vimentin PhD | Cancer Biologist @princess-vimentin.bsky.social · 13/08/2025
🧪That’s not how it works. Science doesn’t care about your feelings. So essentially if the people don’t like science we should ignore the potential it has. In his op ed in the WaPo, JB has proven that he should not be taken seriously. He’s DEFINITELY not a real scientist.
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Gregg Gonsalves @gregggonsalves.bsky.social · 13/08/2025
If the Supreme Court rules for the Trump administration in this case, biomedical research is finished in this country.
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Zack Labe @zacklabe.com · 08/07/2025
I can't stress enough how close U.S. science is to the cliff. "Numbers released in May by the National Science Foundation (NSF) indicate that if Congress approves the cuts to the agency proposed by the White House, the number of early-career researchers it supports could fall by 78%" (@science.org)
science.org
‘It’s a nightmare.’ U.S. funding cuts threaten academic science jobs at all levels
“There is a lot of pressure to essentially leave the country or not pursue research,” one Ph.D. student says
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Ardem Patapoutian @ardemp.bskyverified.social · 09/07/2025
Franklin W. Stahl, 95, Dies; Helped Create a ‘Beautiful’ DNA Experiment. Gift article: www.nytimes.com/2025/07/07/s...
nytimes.com
Franklin W. Stahl, 95, Dies; Helped Create a ‘Beautiful’ DNA Experiment
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Republicans Against Trumpism @rpsagainsttrump.bsky.social · 01/07/2025
CNN chief data analyst Harry Enten: “American people don’t see this as a big, beautiful bill. They see it as a big, bad bill. They hate it, hate it, hate it! They think it’s awful, awful, awful!”
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Jeremy Berg @jeremymberg.bsky.social · 10/06/2025
Absolutely this 👇
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Jennifer Ouellette @jenlucpiquant.bsky.social · 05/06/2025
US science is being wrecked, and its leadership is fighting the last war arstechnica.com/science/2025...
arstechnica.com
US science is being wrecked, and its leadership is fighting the last war
Facing an extreme budget, the National Academies hosted an event that ignored it.
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Brenton Graveley @graveley.bsky.social · 05/06/2025
nytimes.com
Here Are the Nearly 2,500 Medical Research Grants Canceled or Delayed by Trump
Some cuts have been starkly visible, but the country’s medical grant-making machinery has also radically transformed outside the public eye.
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Reposted by Brenton Graveley
Mark A. Hanson @hansonmark.bsky.social · 03/06/2025
URGENT: FlyBase has lost practically all its funding overnight; even user fees are tied up in denied grant funding. 🤬🤯 Any lab using @flybase.bsky.social please donate using the link in post below. This incredible community, on whose backs our #Drosophila labs depend, can't be left out to dry.
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Madhu Pai, MD, PhD @madhupai.bsky.social · 03/06/2025
What a sad story in @science.org How Trump upended science A chaotic 100-day push to remake federal research will have lasting consequences www.science.org/content/arti...
science.org
The 100 days that shook U.S. science
Trump’s chaotic push to remake federal research will have lasting consequences
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Dr. Kareem Carr, Ph.D. @kareemcarr.bsky.social · 27/05/2025
Make no mistake. This is an extinction level event for American scientific dominance.
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Elizabeth Jacobs, PhD @elizabethjacobs.bsky.social · 27/05/2025
The American public is being subjected to a disinformation campaign by our own government. The HHS Secretary, NIH Director, and FDA Director are knowingly and willingly passing along utterly false information about vaccines. Every Republican supports this, without exception.
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Don Moynihan @donmoyn.bsky.social · 27/05/2025
*International students represent about 15% of all higher ed students. *They subsidize US students, so expect domestic student costs to increase *Trump complains about tariffs but he is destroying an industry where the US is a huge net exporter www.nytimes.com/2025/05/23/u...
Higher education is, effectively, a major American export — and one where the foreign students consuming it do so in American communities, also spending money on housing, groceries and books there. More than 1.1 million international students contributed about $43 billion to the U.S. economy during the 2023-24 academic year, most of it on tuition and housing, according to an analysis by NAFSA, a nonprofit association of international educators.
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Ilan Goldenberg @ilangoldenberg.bsky.social · 28/05/2025
More Trump attacks on universities in thr name of fighting antisemtism. Not good for america and not good for Jews. www.politico.com/news/2025/05...
politico.com
Trump team pauses new student visa interviews as it weighs expanding social media vetting
It’s the latest salvo against universities, many of whom rely heavily on foreign students for funds.
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Dr. Jessie Christiansen @aussiastronomer.bsky.social · 23/05/2025
“Harvard is prohibited from having any aliens on F- or J-nonimmigrant status” To be clear, this includes international postdocs as well as international students. (I was at Harvard on a J-1 visa for two years.) Thinking of all my fabulous colleagues over in Cambridge, Mass.
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Don Moynihan @donmoyn.bsky.social · 22/05/2025
To Fight Anti-semitism at Harvard, Trump Bans Israeli Students www.nytimes.com/2025/05/22/u...
nytimes.com
Trump Administration Halts Harvard’s Ability to Enroll International Students
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Arghavan Salles, MD, PhD @arghavansallesmd.medsky.social · 22/05/2025
100% decrease in graduate education funding (80% decrease in overall education funding) means we will not have scientists. Between this and the brain drain, you can say goodbye to American science. But the wealthy will have their tax cuts, and that’s what’s important /s
Changes in N.S.F. grant funding
Show more detail

DIRECTORATE

2015-2024
AVG.
FUNDING

FUNDING
CHANGE

Education
$280 mil.
$56 mil.
-80%

Math, physics and chemistry

$432 mil. $143 mil.
-67%

Engineering
$221 mil.
$94 mil.
-57%

Biology

$303 mil. $147 mil.
-52%

Geosciences

$305 mil. $204 mil.
-33%

Computer science

$277 mil. $192 mil.
-31%

Social sciences
$78 mil.
$62 mil.
-20%

Technology
$110 mil.
$92 mil.
-17%

Other
$65 mil.
$47 mil.
-29%

Total
$2.1 bil.
$1 bil.
-50%Changes in N.S.F. grant funding
Show less detail


DIRECTORATE

2015-2024
FUNDING
2025

FUNDING
CHANGE

Education
$280 mil.
$56 mil.
-80%

Graduate education
$21 mil.
$0
-100%

Equity for excellence in
STEM
$46 mil.
$1 mil.
-97%

Research on learning in formal and informal settings
$77 mil.
$16 mil.
-79%

Undergraduate education
$135 mil.
$39 mil.
-71%
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Josh Chafetz @joshchafetz.bsky.social · 22/05/2025
Just utter lawlessness from the Trump Administration, with no goal other than to punish institutions for refusing to bend the knee. www.nytimes.com/2025/05/22/u...
nytimes.com
Trump Administration Halts Harvard’s Ability to Enroll International Students
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Anne Simon 🧪🌱🐴🦠🍊🇨🇦🇺🇦 @annealiz1.bsky.social · 22/05/2025
How dare they do this to Harvard or any school! apnews.com/live/donald-...
apnews.com
Live updates: Administration bars Harvard from enrolling foreign students, says thousands must transfer
President Donald Trump's administration revoked Harvard University's ability to enroll international students in its escalating battle with the Ivy League school.
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Drug Monkey @drugmonkey.bsky.social · 21/05/2025
You are not alone in this NIH grant game drugmonkey.wordpress.com/2025/05/21/y...
drugmonkey.wordpress.com
You are not alone in this NIH grant game
Many years ago I started blogging about the NIH system of extramural grant award because of my own frustrations with the system, as it appeared to be to me. Over time, I realized that there were a …
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Michael Clemens @mclem.org · 21/05/2025
They're terminating OPT. Today the nominee to head USCIS stated directly: he will end Optional Practical Training, the single largest channel for high-skill immigrants to work in the US. 6 weeks ago I warned about this & summarized the research on impacts of this drastic action—> @piie.com
piie.com
Skilled immigration on the chopping block? Effects of eliminating "Optional Practical Training" in the US
The White House has taken numerous steps to sharply reduce the number of immigrant workers, with or without legal status, in the US economy. These policies, so far, typically target immigrants with le...
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Joy-Ann Reid @joyannreid.bsky.social · 19/05/2025
Nobody better ever ask me again why I don’t just give the Trumps and #maga a chance.
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Christopher Mims @mims.bsky.social · 17/05/2025
Trump administration is terminating $2.7 billion in research funding to Harvard: Work on breast cancer, impact of nutrition on fertility, antibiotic resistance and hundreds of other topics all dead “It feels like the academic equivalent of nuclear war" www.wbur.org/news/2025/05...
wbur.org
Feds yank funds from Harvard breast cancer, fertility, antibiotics research
The Trump administration is following through on threats to terminate $2.7 billion dollars in federal grants and other funding at Harvard University, punishment for alleged antisemitism on campus. One...
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Mehdi Hasan @mehdirhasan.bsky.social · 16/05/2025
If this person sat next to you on a bus or train and started ranting about Bruce Springsteen in this way, you would get up and move to a different seat. In the United States, we have him the nuclear codes.
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Art Candee 🍿🥤 @artcandee.bsky.social · 14/05/2025
RFK Jr. says he doesn't think people should be taking medical advice from him. A key part of his job as HHS Secretary is to communicate broad public health guidance and recommendations. Who else agrees that if he can't fulfill that responsibility, then he should resign? 🙋‍♀️
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Whitaker @protime-fitness1.bsky.social · 09/05/2025
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Albert Vilella, PhD. @albertvilella.bsky.social · 08/05/2025
$85M in tariff related costs for Illumina
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Bren @kindofnerdy.bsky.social · 08/05/2025
For $5 million, you can buy yourself a pathway to U.S. citizenship! Musk is currently leading the tech rollout of the golden Trump Card Visa, allowing fast-tracked U.S. residency to wealthy buyers. Make way for oligarchs! U.S. citizenship and influence are for sale! www.wired.com/story/doge-t...
wired.com
A ‘Trump Card Visa’ Is Already Showing Up in Immigration Forms
Donald Trump has proposed launching a “gold card” program offering US residency for $5 million. Elon Musk’s DOGE has begun rolling out the technology to enable it.
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