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Peter Todd

@realtoddlab.bsky.social
112 followers 101 following 25 posts

Neurologist and scientist at University of Michigan. We study short tandem repeats in human disease: Fragile X, FXTAS, CANVAS, Ataxia, ALS, FTD, neurogenetics.

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Reposted by Peter Todd
eric lai @lucksmith.bsky.social · 20/09/2025
alert to all H1B holders, please share: Trump just banned H-1B employees from reentering US unless employer pays $100,000 "fee". Proclamation applies to both new H-1B entrants and current H-1B employees who are abroad. set to take effect tmrw sun sept 21. please return if you can. i am so sorry. 😢
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Peter Todd @realtoddlab.bsky.social · 01/09/2025
Not sure this is the right long term answer-although it is clearly coming. We will all run our papers through algorithms that spit out the same stuff. My AI vs your AI. There is signal in the noise humans make.
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Dr Sian Gramates @drglam.bsky.social · 11/08/2025
I just got the notice that all the FlyBase people at Harvard, including me, will be laid off on October 12. I'm devastated.
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Peter Todd @realtoddlab.bsky.social · 08/08/2025
Remember when expertise was considered a good thing? If the president's pawns serve as the final arbiters of grant success, the whole system will quickly go from a meritocracy to an idiocratic system of patronage and payoffs. Trump's great legacy will be the destruction of American science.
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Peter Todd @realtoddlab.bsky.social · 04/08/2025
Ever wonder how intronic repeats in C9orf72 get translated into toxic proteins in ALS and FTD? We found that transcription initiates within the intron to generate a novel endogenous efficient mRNA template for RAN translation in patient neurons and mouse models 1/5| PNAS www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...
pnas.org
Cryptic intronic transcriptional initiation generates efficient endogenous mRNA templates for C9orf72-associated RAN translation | PNAS
Intronic GGGGCC hexanucleotide repeat expansions in C9orf72 are the most common genetic cause of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) and frontotemp...
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boehninglab @boehninglab.com · 08/07/2025
This is extraordinarily dangerous and will slow academic biomedical research and drug development. A total ban is on the horizon. www.drugdiscoverytrends.com/nih-announce...
drugdiscoverytrends.com
NIH announces end to funding for animal-only studies - Drug Discovery and Development
Drug Discovery and Development covers strategies and technologies related to pharmaceutical research and development and drug formulation.
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Dave Shechner @shechnerlab.bsky.social · 30/06/2025
Hello! Ever wonder what's "talking to" your favorite transcript, but were too scared to ask? In our review in @cp-cellreports.bsky.social, @mardakheh.bsky.social and I highlight new RNA-focused tools for discovering RNA interactions across organizational scales. Checkit! tinyurl.com/ydn6e3ac
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Peter Todd @realtoddlab.bsky.social · 26/06/2025
This is inspiring stuff, Jack. I stand with you in your pledge to our trainees. They need our support and they deserve our courage.
trainees.to
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Jason Shepherd @jasonsynaptic.bsky.social · 20/06/2025
Just got told by my NIA PO that I should probably resubmit my R01, even though it scored a 10% and is on Alzheimer’s disease. Last year’s NIA paylines were 13% for regular R01s and 16% for AD grants..so WTF?! 😭🫠
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Allison Gill @muellershewrote.com · 14/06/2025
San Diego SHOWED UP! I’ve been here for 30 years and have NEVER seen anything like this! #NOKINGS
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Indivisible Twin Cities @indivistwincities.bsky.social · 14/06/2025
The day started with tragedy with political violence in MN and instead of being scared, neighbors SHOWED UP to stand together at No Kings Twin Cities. We packed the Capitol Mall all the way to the Cathedral. Estimate 80,000+ right now. So proud of our state. #nokings #indivisible
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Peter Todd @realtoddlab.bsky.social · 15/06/2025
A huge and untimely loss
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Jeremy Berg @jeremymberg.bsky.social · 04/06/2025
New powerful article up in the New York Times on cancelled and delayed grants www.nytimes.com/interactive/...
nytimes.com
Here Are the Nearly 2,500 Medical Research Grants Canceled or Delayed by Trump (Gift Article)
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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eric lai @lucksmith.bsky.social · 04/06/2025
Hello Fly Folks. quick note FlyBase is under duress due to termination NIH$ to Harvard and intl collabs. The hardworking folks @flybase.bsky.social are doing their darndest to ensure access to current data. For US, there will soon be a new site to donate. Please spread the word, ideas and support 🪰💪
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Dmitri Petrov @petrovadmitri.bsky.social · 03/06/2025
Flybase lost all of the NIH support overnight - it is a disaster for the community. Please consider donating. I just did! www.philanthropy.cam.ac.uk/give-to-camb...
philanthropy.cam.ac.uk
Drosophila Genetic Database
The Drosophila Genetic Database, FlyBase, is on the brink of collapse due to the sudden termination of the FlyBase NIH grant, which includes salaries for 5 literature curators based at the University ...
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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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Gc Rox @gcrox.bsky.social · 23/05/2025
All of NIH funding to Northwestern University is frozen. This pause includes noncompeting approved funding, new and competing grants with fundable scores. No reimbursements for money already spent have been received since March. This situation is rarely reported so please Please get the word out!
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Peter Todd @realtoddlab.bsky.social · 22/05/2025
If this comes to pass, it will cripple biomedical research and markedly reduce international student attendance at US Colleges- which will drive up education costs.
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Jacquelyn Gill @jacquelyngill.bsky.social · 21/05/2025
OPT provides short-term work visas for recent international graduate students in the US, allowing them to work after their student visa expires. It's a pipeline for jobs in medicine, biomedical research, education, technology, engineering, and other highly skilled work. This is very, very, bad.
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Cathy Gao-Howard MD MS @catgaohow.bsky.social · 18/05/2025
Northwestern has not received any NIH funds since March. No written communication about why or what can be done. Thank you Ben Singer for raising awareness at #ATS2025
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Anna Kornbluh @annakornbluh.bsky.social · 18/05/2025
say it again: 4 million people work in higher ed, the largest employer in 10 states, second largest employer in 10 more, and in 60 of the 100 biggest cities ROI for NIH and NSF for local economies is conservatively 4x, often close to 10x demolishing higher education is economic sabotage
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Peter Todd @realtoddlab.bsky.social · 15/05/2025
7 months from novel diagnosis to first dose. We are rapidly moving into a world where modular RNA based medicines, gene therapies and gene editing will be rapidly deployed, routine, and personalized to the recipient. Also- none of this happens without academic biomedical research and NIH $.
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John Doench @johndoench.bsky.social · 15/05/2025
Amazing that this has happened. Maddening that we are actively destroying the capability to do it again. www.nytimes.com/2025/05/15/h...
nytimes.com
Baby Is Healed With World’s First Personalized Gene-Editing Treatment
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Josh Marshall @joshtpm.bsky.social · 15/05/2025
I’m reliably told this is cutting edge research with lots of commercial and defense applications that no one in their right mind would shutter.
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Peter Todd @realtoddlab.bsky.social · 08/05/2025
Those who stay will be champions.
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Josh Marshall @joshtpm.bsky.social · 08/05/2025
NEW: Fresh off announcing his departure for the University of Florida, outgoing University of Michigan President Santa Ono has had his name removed from the American Assoc of Colleges and Universities academic freedom letter he signed barely two weeks ago. talkingpointsmemo.com/edblog/outgo...
talkingpointsmemo.com
Outgoing UMich Prez Santa Ono Pulls His Name from Academic Freedom Letter
Over the weekend University of Michigan President Santa Ono announced that he...
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Peter Todd @realtoddlab.bsky.social · 08/05/2025
Santa Ono is willingly leaving Michigan to be a part of and party to all of this. Best of luck to him!
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Peter Todd @realtoddlab.bsky.social · 05/05/2025
Announcing a new CSHL Asia meeting that I am co-directing with Peng Jin from Emory on Repeat expansion diseases. I hope you can join us! Cold Spring Harbor Asia Meeting - Short Tandem Repeats in Gene Regulation and Disease www.csh-asia.org?content/2754
csh-asia.org
WELCOME-Meetings-Cold Spring Harbor Asia
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Peter Todd @realtoddlab.bsky.social · 04/05/2025
Sovereignty beating Journalism is a perfect summary of 2025
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Peter Todd @realtoddlab.bsky.social · 03/05/2025
Important to recognize these for what they are- cuts to science. Just like Tariffs are taxes on people that buy things, these cuts effectively lower how much science we do in the US - which in turn dictates our success in technology as a country.
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Peter Todd @realtoddlab.bsky.social · 02/05/2025
This is my weekend work
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Alex Merz 🇺🇸🇨🇦🇺🇦 @merz.bsky.social · 02/05/2025
Cannot emphasize this too strongly.
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Carl T. Bergstrom @carlbergstrom.com · 21/04/2025
During COVID, mRNA vaccines saved millions of lives worldwide. Today, Minnesota republicans proposed a bill stating that "whoever knowingly manufactures, acquires, possesses, or makes readily available to another mRNA injections or products" can be sentenced to 20 years in prison.
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Carl T. Bergstrom @carlbergstrom.com · 19/04/2025
Yeah, about that letter "signed by three federal officials, placed on official letterhead, was sent from the email inbox of a senior federal official and was sent on April 11 as promised”? And then you told us to fuck ourselves? Yeah, that wasn't a real letter. We didn't mean it.
nytimes.com
Trump Officials Blame Mistake for Setting Off Confrontation With Harvard (Gift Article)
An official on the administration’s antisemitism task force told the university that a letter of demands had been sent without authorization.
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Peter Todd @realtoddlab.bsky.social · 18/04/2025
We are in the same boat
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Ben Ross @benross.bsky.social · 16/04/2025
Steve Kerr wore a Harvard basketball shirt after the Warriors’ win tonight: “Yes, this is me supporting Harvard. Way to go. Way to stand up to the bully.”
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Oregon 🕎🎲 @oregonthedm.bsky.social · 09/04/2025
Biggest commitment to a 3 second joke I've ever seen
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Peter Todd @realtoddlab.bsky.social · 08/04/2025
Finally! Evidence that a scientist will be in the room when they are thinking about how to fund science. Big shoes to fill- Mike Lauer did a great job and provided clarity and transparency on NIH processes. Let's hope both Jon and his boss continue to do the same.
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Jeremy Berg @jeremymberg.bsky.social · 07/04/2025
Jon Lorsch, Director of the National Institute of General Medical Sciences (NIGMS) has apparently been named Acting Deputy Director for Extramural Research at NIH (Mike Lauer's position). Today was his first day...
media.tenor.com
a muppet news anchor says " and now a muppet news flash " while holding a piece of paper
ALT: a muppet news anchor says " and now a muppet news flash " while holding a piece of paper
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Peter Todd @realtoddlab.bsky.social · 06/04/2025
The insanity of firing top scientists who have tenure and who have been employed for decades because of clerical errors in your chaotic process that you later justify as "expected" is incredible. They are not even pretending to care about impact and outcome.
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STAT @statnews.com · 31/03/2025
Nearly 2,000 members of the National Academies called on the Trump administration to halt its “wholesale assault on U.S. science" in an open letter. www.statnews.com/2025/03/31/t...
statnews.com
Nearly 2,000 top researchers call on Trump administration to halt ‘assault’ on science
Nearly 2,000 members of the National Academies called on the Trump administration to halt its “wholesale assault on U.S. science" in an open letter.
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Joachim Frank @joachim123.bsky.social · 24/03/2025
regarding Columbia University, I just learned about this (anonymous) account of negotiations of the Hitler regime in the 1930s with Frankfurt University -- Germany's most prestigious university at the time:
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Eric Topol @erictopol.bsky.social · 23/03/2025
A pie graph worth keeping in mind as the NIH budget plummets jamanetwork.com/journals/jam... for 356 new FDA drugs approved
graph of NIH basisfor new drugs
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Mark Cuban @mcuban.bsky.social · 22/03/2025
From 2010 to 2016 (latest data I have ), NIH research contributed to EVERY drug approved by the FDA
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Jacquelyn Gill @jacquelyngill.bsky.social · 21/03/2025
“Universities must defend their truth-seeking and educational missions. They can point to obvious benefits, including economic ones….But universities must also insist that one cannot pick and choose research, as in: say medical research OK, but climate research not.“
theguardian.com
Academic freedom in America needs to be defended. Here’s how | Jan-Werner Müller
To begin with, universities should not be intimidated by the claim that public opinion is turning against them. That’s not necessarily true
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Beth Popp Berman @epopppp.bsky.social · 21/03/2025
This is a shameful moment in the history of the American university.
wsj.com
Exclusive | Columbia Yields to Trump in Battle Over Federal Funding
Columbia’s agreement is a significant moment in the intensifying battle between Trump and elite universities.
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eric lai @lucksmith.bsky.social · 17/03/2025
excited to speak at my alma mater UCSD tomorrow, Mar 17, for Gene Yeo's Center of RNA Technologies & Therapeutics. Sanford Consortium 3 PM! www.sanfordconsortium.org/event-detail...
sanfordconsortium.org
Center for RNA Technologies & Therapeutics Seminar Series | Sanford Consortium
Join us for an exciting seminar hosted by the Center for RNA Technologies & Therapeutics featuring Eric Lai, Ph.D., as he discusses groundbreaking research in the world of RNA interference (RNAi) and ...
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Peter Todd @realtoddlab.bsky.social · 17/03/2025
Congrats Sinem! Has been great having you in lab and excited to see where your career takes you!
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Brendan Nyhan @brendannyhan.bsky.social · 14/03/2025
If the government can do this to universities, we don't live in a free society. Five alarm fire.
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Peter Sagal @petersagal.bsky.social · 10/03/2025
It’s amazing to find out at this late date how much the rule of law depended on people simply deciding, on a voluntary, daily basis, not to break the law.
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