iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

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Bruce Hamilton @bahome.bsky.social · 22h

Do it.

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Rebecca D. Burdine, PhD @rburdine1.bsky.social · 12/10/2026

Friends of Science - we need you to make comment TODAY. If you need ideas of what to say - go to @c4lifesciences.bsky.social for reasons why this proposal is bad for science. The judicial system is quoting the number of unaddressed comments when ruling on the validity of these proposals /1

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turrigiano.bsky.social @turrigiano.bsky.social · 12/10/2026

If you want to submit a comment on NIH's catastrophic proposed changes to peer review, the summary and links from SfN are helpful. Deadline is tomorrow www.sfn.org/advocacy/pre...

sfn.org

Tell NIH to Preserve Transparency and Accountability in Scientific Peer Review

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I-270, Exit 1 @i270exit1.bsky.social · 11/10/2026

The plan to bin review outcomes and hide scores from applicants and program staff is based on half-truths and is bad on so many levels. @27unihted.bsky.social explains and guides you on commenting. The deadline is October 13. 27unihted.substack.com/p/nih-wants-...

27unihted.substack.com

NIH wants to shroud peer review scores. Here’s what you can do about it.

Authored by anonymous current and former NIH workers with experience in peer review

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Jenna Norton @jenna-m-norton.bsky.social · 11/10/2026

Oct 13 comment deadline for NIH peer review score binning is fast approaching! Please add your voice! Direct link to RFI: rfi.grants.nih.gov?s=6a2b1c22c3... Background on why it matters: 27unihted.substack.com/p/nih-wants-...

27unihted.substack.com

NIH wants to shroud peer review scores. Here’s what you can do about it.

Authored by anonymous current and former NIH workers with experience in peer review

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Joshua Weitz @joshuasweitz.bsky.social · 11/10/2026

The NIH proposal to conceal reviewer scores from program officers, investigators, and advisory councils is ill-conceived, introduces disproportionate weight to small percentile differences, diminishes the role of scientific peer review, and should be withdrawn in its entirety. a 🧵

joshuasweitz.substack.com

What is NIH Leadership Trying to Hide from Researchers & the Public?

A NIH proposal to conceal reviewer rankings of investigator-initiated research grants is ripe for misuse & demands a collective response (by October 13).

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Jeremy Berg @jeremymberg.bsky.social · 11/10/2026

Please comment on "Request for Information (RFI) on Proposed Changes to Reporting Outcomes from NIH Peer Review" by Tuesday (October 13th, 2026). rfi.grants.nih.gov?s=6a2b1c22c3... Here is my comment: 1/6

rfi.grants.nih.gov

Request For Information

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Itai Yanai @itaiyanai.bsky.social · 10/10/2026

1. CRISPR came from basic research on bacteria. 2. Optogenetics started with a discovery in algae. 3. The GFP protein comes from jellyfish. The biggest breakthroughs all trace to scientists following their curiosity, and this is one huge reason why we must keep funding basic research!

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John Tuthill @tuthill.bsky.social · 09/10/2026

DHS just proposed a $70,000 fee for every international student who uses OPT. For an undergrad that wants to work for a year as a tech before a PhD, that’s more than her salary. We train these students, then they have to leave? It's incredibly dumb Comment here: www.regulations.gov/commenton/IC...

regulations.gov

Regulations.gov

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Hiten Madhani @hitenmadhani.bsky.social · 09/10/2026

Maybe hire an ID physician instead? Just a thought..

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Jeremy Berg @jeremymberg.bsky.social · 09/10/2026

Regaring this Press Release from yesterday. A 🧵 www.nih.gov/news-events/... I was pleased that NIH has been supporting early career investigators after Director Bhattacharya's rhetoric but lack of action last year. 1/9

nih.gov

NIH announces record number of grants to support early career investigators, launches new recruitment initiative for intramural research

NIH highlights actions to strengthen American biomedical science at White House Science: A New Golden Age Summit.

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Mark Peifer (He, him) @peiferlabunc.bsky.social · 09/10/2026

If you are an NIH funded scientist and have not commented, you are agreeing that this change is a good idea. If, you, like me, think ditching peer review is a bad idea, take the 5 minutes and post a comment.

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Silvia Ramundo @sramundo.bsky.social · 09/10/2026

What I loved most about UCSF (and what I’m trying to cultivate here @vbcscitraining.bsky.social ) is the genuine sense of flat hierarchy. I just found this picture of my son in Bruce Alberts’ office (to be fair, almost any adult or kid would be drawn to that office!). I was a random postdoc, 1/2

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27 UNIHTED @27unihted.bsky.social · 09/10/2026

Comment on peer review proposal by Oct 13th “Although NIH leadership says this proposal is the same as the NSF review process, we’ve spoken to people who have experienced review for both agencies who say that it is very different. The NSF process is transparent; there are no ‘secret scores.’…

27unihted.substack.com

How to comment on a plan that decreases transparency in NIH peer review — listen on WCOM radio

Deadline to respond is Tuesday, October 13th. Research staff or anyone who benefits or hopes to benefit from health research someday can express their opinion about the proposal.

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Michelle Momany @mcmomany.bsky.social · 08/10/2026

Join us in UGA Fungal Group! Dept of Microbiology is hiring tenure track Associate or Full prof in Medical Mycology pursuing translational and/or fundamental understanding of human fungal pathogens using any experimental or computational system. www.ugajobsearch.com/postings/508...

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Hiten Madhani @hitenmadhani.bsky.social · 08/10/2026

Like everyone else, I’m tired of it all. But what gives me tremendous hope is the curiosity and ambition of our youth. . They are truly the future and we need to support their dreams as it will lead is to the promised land. Together, we will land somewhere great. Hang in there my freinds.

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Igor Brodsky @brodskyigorlab.bsky.social · 07/10/2026

6 days to register a comment on NIH Request for Information (RFI) on Changing Reporting Outcomes for Peer Review. They are proposing to hide the impact scores and percentiles. 🤔 funding decisions will not be transparent👎🏼. Register a comment while you still can rfi.grants.nih.gov?s=6a2b1c22c3...

rfi.grants.nih.gov

Request For Information

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Hiten Madhani @hitenmadhani.bsky.social · 08/10/2026

So just maybe we should pay a bit wee less attention to prizes and think a tad bit more about the actual science, eh?

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Hiten Madhani @hitenmadhani.bsky.social · 08/10/2026

Although I cannot say I am happy about anything that disassembles what I discovered as a PhD student (the U2-U6 structure at the heart of the spliceosome), I have to say this is a beautiful piece of work from the Plaschka lab. Congratulations to the authors! rdcu.be/S3duPskRLCJa

rdcu.be

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Mark Peifer (He, him) @peiferlabunc.bsky.social · 06/10/2026

Earlier this year the scientific community successfully fought back on dramatic changes in Federal funding proposed by the Trump Administration.Now another RFI is proposing substantial changes that would damage peer review. This letter from SDB President Helen McNeill lays out the issue clearly 1/n

Dear SDB Members,

I am writing you now to ask everyone to respond to a proposed change to the way that grant review information at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) is communicated to grant applicants, institutions, and NIH program staff. This is your opportunity to provide feedback on the process that selects our grants for funding.

The proposed change means that individuals, institutes and NIH staff will no longer receive the final overall impact score or percentile score that reflects the scientific opinion of a panel of experts. Currently, three reviewers provide their detailed opinion of a grant, and then the entire panel asks questions, can examine figures, and discuss the strengths and weaknesses of a grant, and then members all independently score. The final overall impact score reflects this discussion and careful consideration of the entire scientific panel.

The proposed change is to now simply divide the scored grants into three categories: Scored applications would be grouped into three broad categories - “Most Competitive (top 25%),” “Competitive (26%-50%),” and “Not Discussed”. The motivation for the change is that decisions would now focus on the comments of reviewers, not the score of the grant to determine which grants to support. However, the current mechanism allows for scores and comments to be considered. Thus, removing the score component from NIH staff makes selection of which grants to fund more burdensome for NIH staff.

The loss of detailed scores will also make it more difficult for researchers to assess how competitive an application was and determine whether to revise and resubmit it. An application ranked top 2% and one ranked 24th% would receive the same label, even if the scientific panel viewed them quite differently. Meanwhile, applications ranked 25th%and 26th% would be placed in different categories because of a tiny difference that NIH itself says should not be treated as meaningful. The proposal would erase potentially important differences while creating arbitrary new dividing lines.

This is a dramatic loss of transparency in the scientific review process. Under the new plan, principal investigator(s), applicant institutions, NIH program staff, ICO leadership, and the relevant NIH Advisory Council will no longer have access to the final overall score.

NIH is explicitly asking for input on this particular question.

This is a Request for Information (RFI), not simply an announcement of a policy that has already been finalized. NIH says comments will be used to inform the final recommendation, including implementation and communication.

Please comment here: https://rfi.grants.nih.gov/?s=6a2b1c22c3fcfda46e0badd2

Deadline for response receipt is October 13, 2026, 11:59 PM ET.

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Chrystal Starbird @drstarbird.bsky.social · 01/10/2026

And… I am SO excited to share the first research preprint from my group! In this paper we determined several cryoEM structures to visualize the entire cell-to-cell bridging complex formed by TAM receptor and ligand, bringing into 3D a common graphical depiction. www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...

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Senator Patty Murray @murray.senate.gov · 06/10/2026

Cancer research should not require Trump's personal sign-off. I'm pushing for laws that make sure we invest in the best science and research, not whatever makes Trump happy.

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elizabethginexi.bsky.social @elizabethginexi.bsky.social · 04/10/2026

NIH’s move toward multiyear funding is a major reason for the drop in grant numbers: The agency now commits several years of funding at once to fewer awards, rather than paying for projects one year at a time. www.the-scientist.com/federal-rese...

the-scientist.com

NIH Grant Awards Fall to a Six-Year Low in FY2026 | The Scientist

A public dataset from Grant Witness shows NIH has issued about 11 percent fewer grant awards this fiscal year than its five-year average pace.

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Jeremy Reiter @reitergroup.bsky.social · 02/10/2026

Are you a mouse transgeneticist interested in coming to UCSF? Come join us! Questions? DM me! Please repost, peeps! careers.ucsf.edu/careers/JobD...

careers.ucsf.edu

Staff Research Associate IV Detail – UCSF

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Hiten Madhani @hitenmadhani.bsky.social · 02/10/2026

Today is UCSF’s memorial for Mike Bishop with the first talk (appropriately enough) is Harold Varmus. I learned to clone and sequence in Harold’s lab during my first two years of medical school from a graduate student named Tyler Jacks. Good times.

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Michelle Fry @myfry.bsky.social · 02/10/2026

1/ 🧵 Two classic mitochondrial pathways the TCA cycle and OXPHOS are taught as linked but distinct pathways. I’m happy to share our new work out in @cp-cell.bsky.social showing that in Acanthamoeba they're physically linked—with a TCA enzyme incorporated in ATP synthase. www.cell.com/cell/fulltex...

cell.com

Acanthamoeba ATP synthase structure reveals the TCA cycle is tethered to OXPHOS

Acanthamoeba castellanii, a pathogenic amoeba, belongs to an evolutionary branch distinctly removed from humans and fungi. Cryo-EM of the organism’s ATP synthase enzyme using raw mitochondrial lysates...

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Jennifer Biddle @jenbiddle.bsky.social · 01/10/2026

Hey Biologists : Have you made any comments on the NIH Biosafety Policy for Biohazards? Because some of the changes are REDONKULOUS - and there are only 40 comments on file - Submit comments by Oct 19! osp.od.nih.gov/comment-form.... 🦠 #microsky

osp.od.nih.gov

Comment Form: Draft NIH Biosafety Policy for Research Involving Biohazards

Request for Information: Draft NIH Biosafety Policy for Research Involving Biohazards

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shenvi.bsky.social @shenvi.bsky.social · 01/10/2026

A few folks have asked how I make molecular animations from ChemDraw. Sadly, the answer has been “the old-fashioned way,” frame by frame. This was too slow. So I worked with Claude Science to create a webpage that animates your ChemDraws. Give it a try: rshenvi.github.io/cdxmorph/

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Basil Greber @bjgreber.bsky.social · 01/10/2026

Those who had a careful look at the methods section of our work on the #cryoEM structure of the CDK11-cyclin L-SAP30BP complex will have noticed that we added a short peptide to our sample before freezing. If you wonder why...

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Timothée Lionnet @successprocess.bsky.social · 11/09/2026

Sharing ZATELLITE 🛰️ - a tool to visualize and manipulate repetitive loci in living cells using designer zinc fingers tinyurl.com/ZATELLITE led by Nestor Saiz, collab with Marcus Noyes, @teresadavoli.bsky.social, @glennislogsdon.bsky.social, @liamholt.bsky.social & @jefboeke.bsky.social (1/n)

principle of ZATELLITE: synthetic Zinc Fingers are fused to a fluorescent protein and targeted to repetitive endogenous sequences - this ensures damage-free tagging, which is not the case with dCas9

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Biophysical Society @biophysicalsoc.bsky.social · 30/09/2026

Robert M. Stroud to Receive Biophysical Society’s 2027 Founders Award buff.ly/wbQVkNC

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Craig Kaplan @triggerloop.bsky.social · 30/09/2026

Two extremely cool new papers on how AID gets targeted to appropriate genes for somatic hypermutation: paper 1 from Schatz lab at Yale shows that NELF and elongation components of the SEC are required- and suggests NELF can travel into genes /1 www.nature.com/articles/s41...

nature.com

Transcription pause and elongation regulators mediate somatic hypermutation - Nature

The molecular factors and mechanisms that mediate the chromatin recruitment of activation-induced deaminase and the generation of its stalled polymerase II substrate during somatic hypermutation are i...

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Katrina Velle @katrinavelle.bsky.social · 29/09/2026

Heads up to other October NIH deadliners-- if you didn't do this already it appears you do not have to.

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bioRxiv Biochemistry @biorxiv-biochem.bsky.social · 28/09/2026

Reconstitution of +1 nucleosome transcription reveals coordinated functions of SAGA, Mediator, and TFIIH www.biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/20…

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Mark Peifer (He, him) @peiferlabunc.bsky.social · 28/09/2026

Are you looking for a postdoc exploring the cell biology of development, defining how cells change shape and move? Do you want to develop a research program & teaching skills preparing you for a position at a college or small University? Our new NIH grant will support those goals 1/n Please share

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Igor Brodsky @brodskyigorlab.bsky.social · 27/09/2026

The power of funding fundamental discovery in driving unexpected benefits for humankind are unmatched. We should be funding more basic research not less

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BWJones @bwjones.bsky.social · 25/09/2026

Science peeps: Looks like SciENcv updated the digital certificate used to sign Biosketch and Current & Pending documents without notification. The old certificate expires Saturday, September 26, 2026. SciENcv docs before that date may fail validation in eRA Commons delaying or blocking submission.

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Prasad Jallepalli, MD, PhD @prasad.bsky.social · 24/09/2026

“1st, rather than cut NIH by nearly 40 percent, as the OMB proposed last year, we should double its $48 billion budget within five years. These are big numbers, but if they yield discoveries that trim the nation’s $5.3 trillion health bill by just 1 percent, they will more than pay for themselves.”

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Hiten Madhani @hitenmadhani.bsky.social · 25/09/2026

Too easy: Ferroptosis (literal death metal)

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Hiten Madhani @hitenmadhani.bsky.social · 25/09/2026

What a waste. Your institute was a gem Wendy.

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Wendy Bickmore @wbickmor.bsky.social · 24/09/2026

Emotional day yesterday celebrating alumni of the MRC Human Genetics Unit PhD programme across 3 decades. Wonderful to see old friends and hear about the amazing contributions our alumni are making across all walks of life. Closure of this training programme is such a loss. @uoe-igc.bsky.social

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