iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Hannah @hannahkurka.bsky.social · 01/07/2026

The OMB’s proposals will give the president shocking control over who can get scientific funding and what it can be used for. We need to flood the comment section before July 13th. Read more and submit your comment here: elkodaily.com/news/local/c... www.regulations.gov/commenton/OM...

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Roberto Vázquez Núñez @robertovn.bsky.social · 29/05/2026

🚨 New preprint: GATO-seq did it again! ELOF1 is the missing promoter-proximal factor that confers RNA Pol II resistance to TFIIF. Including ELOF1, DSIF, and NELF in GATO-seq reactions recapitulates promoter-proximal pausing in vitro at physiological conditions for the 1st time. tinyurl.com/ELOF1

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Hannah @hannahkurka.bsky.social · 17/04/2026

It felt weird and a little self indulgent to write about my own work, but it’s an important example of the type of science suffering funding cuts at the hands of the Trump administration. elkodaily.com/news/local/a...

elkodaily.com

Speaking of Science: Understanding a tick-transmitted bacterial pathogen

The author’s lab studies a class of tick-transmitted bacterial pathogens which cause spotted fevers - some of the deadliest tick-borne pathogens in the world.

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Roberto Vázquez Núñez @robertovn.bsky.social · 19/02/2026

Preprint alert 🚨Happy to share my first Posdoc manuscript from the Vos lab @voslab.org. We introduce GATO-seq, a high-throughput, fully in vitro technique that maps RNA polymerases at base pair resolution over time. Using it, we found a new pause state of Pol II: sidetracking tinyurl.com/superpause

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Hannah @hannahkurka.bsky.social · 25/02/2026

It's long overdue, but I'm back to writing about science, starting with how science gets funded (aka grants). "Fun" fact: even before current cuts to science funding, less than 1% of the federal budget went to science grants. elkodaily.com/news/local/a...

A graphic accompanying an article about science funding. It shows a pie chart representing the 2024 Federal Budget with a tiny sliver taken up by science grants. It also shows a flow diagram demonstrating how scientists get grants. Scientists iteratively work on experiments that inform grant proposals and vice versa. These grant proposals are submitted to a review panel which can ultimately lead to scientific funding if you are lucky.

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Hannah @hannahkurka.bsky.social · 05/07/2025

We wrapped up our most successful year to date at Symbiotic STEM! Check out what we accomplished at symbioticstem.org 🌱🌱

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Hannah @hannahkurka.bsky.social · 27/02/2025

So thankful for the amazing mentors who are speaking with students from my former high school at our first mentoring event entirely in Spanish!!

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Mark Cuban @mcuban.bsky.social · 09/02/2025

This is the most relevant article to NIH and research cuts I’ve seen. Imagine if this was today , how many people would be saying “Why are we studying Gila Monsters and their impact on diabetes ? That’s wasted money !” globalnews.ca/news/9793403...

globalnews.ca

How a Canadian scientist and a venomous lizard helped pave the way for Ozempic - National | Globalnews.ca

In 1984, Dr. Daniel Drucker, an endocrinologist from the University of Toronto, discovered a hormone that helped pave the way for popular diabetes drugs such as Ozempic.

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Hannah @hannahkurka.bsky.social · 10/02/2025

Do you know anyone who has been treated for cancer? Taken a medication for something like diabetes or heart disease? Had surgery? Not had TB, diphtheria, tentanus, or dozens of other diseases that used to kill many people before they could reach adulthood? The NIH played a role in that.

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Well Meaning Robot 🤖 @well-meaning-robot.bsky.social · 05/02/2025

Found out that TWENTY emails is considered a lot to politicians on an issue. TWENTY. As in, they call that getting slammed. So next time you see a request to email your rep, or call, keep that in mind. TWENTY is a lot.

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Science Magazine @science.org · 06/02/2025

The Howard Hughes Medical Institute, the nation’s largest private funder of biomedical research, yesterday killed a $60 million program aimed at making universities’ STEM education more inclusive. scim.ag/3EtS0US

scim.ag

HHMI kills program aimed at boosting inclusivity in STEM education

“Inclusive excellence” program had committed $60 million to 104 institutions

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Hannah @hannahkurka.bsky.social · 23/01/2025

Every time I get to speak with aspiring scientists from my former high school in rural Nevada my heart feels so full. It's a hard place to start out, but I know that their passion, drive, and curiosity will take them far (literally and figuratively!) If you want to mentor, go to symbioticstem.org

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