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Sophie Astrof

@sophie-astrof.bsky.social
1.1K followers 1.7K following 47 posts

sites.rutgers.edu/astrof-lab Developmental biology, ECM, cardiovascular development, pharyngeal arches and arteries, congenital heart disease; Arches banner credit: Sam Snitkovsky.

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Sophie Astrof @sophie-astrof.bsky.social · 11/04/2026
Interested in attending the Weinstein 2026 Cardiovascular Development and Regeneration Conference weinstein-conference.oa-event.com? We received funds to sponsor MORE TRAVEL AWARDS ranging from $500-1,000. The deadline: April 10; Notifications: the week of April 13th. Applications: lnkd.in/gTkFuCui
weinstein-conference.oa-event.com
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Join leading scientists in New York for the 2026 Weinstein Cardiovascular Development & Regeneration Conference — an international meeting showcasing breakthroughs in heart development, congenital heart disease, and cardiac regeneration.
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Sophie Astrof @sophie-astrof.bsky.social · 06/02/2026
Registration and Abstract submission are now open for the Weinstein Cardiovascular Development and Regeneration Conference in New York City. Hope to see you in May!! weinstein-conference.oa-event.com
weinstein-conference.oa-event.com
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Sophie Astrof @sophie-astrof.bsky.social · 25/11/2025
Calling all cardiovascular and regeneration researchers! ✨ The Weinstein Conference is officially set for May 6-8, 2026. Connect with peers, discover groundbreaking science, and shape the future of the field. The website is live for updates. 📢 For announcements: weinstein-conference.oa-event.com
weinstein-conference.oa-event.com
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Gretchen Goldman, PhD @gretchentg.bsky.social · 14/08/2025
My new @science.org editorial on the role of scientists in defending democracy is out today. As authoritarianism takes hold in the US, we must fight for the democratic principles that enable a free society and scientists have a key role. I hope you'll join us. www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...
science.org
Scientists’ role in defending democracy
The United States’ democratic leadership, commitment to freedom of expression, and investment in the pursuit of knowledge have long enabled its preeminence in science and technology. Yet today we are ...
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Brynn Paulsen, PhD @brynnpaulsen.bsky.social · 14/08/2025
DON’T LET RFK Jr. TURN OUR OCEANS OF SCIENCE INTO SWAMPS OF QUACKERY. Sign and repost the call for impeachment below - The health of our nation depends on it. 👇 #standupforscience #draintheswamp #quackquackquack
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Research!America @researchamerica.bsky.social · 08/08/2025
#ICYMI: Registration is now open for Research!America’s National Health Research Forum, taking place virtually on Sept. 3 and 10, and in person on Sept. 17. Save your spot! Register here: events.researchamerica.org/2025forum #RAForum #HealthResearch #SciPol #EarlyCareer #Science
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Crystal Rogers, PhD @rogerslabucd.bsky.social · 30/07/2025
This is an excellent explainer for why the multi year funding model is going to kill academic science as we know it. Please read!! ☹️
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Jason Shepherd @jasonsynaptic.bsky.social · 30/07/2025
This man is pure evil.
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Maureen Barr @barrlab.bsky.social · 26/07/2025
From @aaas.org check-in with Sudip Parikh: a letter by 14 Republican senators urge the Office of Management and Budget to release NIH funding. If this includes your state (AL, ME, WV, SC, KY, KS, AR, PA, NC, IN, AK), Sudip recommends contacting & thanking them for being American science leaders.
Director Vought: 
We write to ask you to fully implement the Fiscal Year (FY) 2025 Full-Year Continuing Appropriations and Extensions Act, including funds appropriated for the National Institutes of Health (NIH). 
The continuing resolution supp011s NIH initiatives across a range of critical research areas­cancer, cardiovascular disease, rare pediatric disorders, and more. These vital efforts are not only necessary to Make America Healthy Again, but also have a direct impact on American families, biomedical innovation, our economy, and competing with Communist China. 
We are concerned by the slow disbursement rate of FY25 NIH funds, as it risks undermining critical research and the thousands of American jobs it supports. Suspension of these appropriated funds - whether formally withheld or functionally delayed - could threaten Americans' ability to access better treatments and limit our nation's leadership in biomedical science. It also risks inadve11ently severing ongoing NIH-funded research prior to actionable results. 
We share your commitment to ensuring NIH funds are used responsibly and not diverted to ideological or unaccountable programs. We are confident Secretary Kennedy and Director Bhattacharya are well positioned to uphold gold standard research by ensuring that NIH awards are grounded in transparency, scientific merit, and a clear alignment with national interests. Our shared goal is to restore public trust in the NIH precisely because its work is focused on results, accountability, and real-world impact. Withholding or suspending these funds would jeopardize that trust and hinder progress on critical health challenges facing our nation. Ultimately, this is about finding cures and seeing them through to fruition. 
We respectfully request that you ensure the timely release of all FY25 NIH appropriations in accordance with congressional intent. Doing so will ensure continued momentum in curing disease, supp011ing American innovation, and delivering result…Sincerely,
Katie Boyd Britt
John Boozman
Shelly Moore Capito
Bill Cassidy
Susan Collins
Lindsey O. Graham
David H. McCormick
Mitch McConnel
Jerry Moran
Lisa Murkowski
Thom Tillis
Todd Young
Dan Sullivan
Tim Scott
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Science Magazine @science.org · 22/07/2025
In Science, researchers detail a nanoscale-resolution reconstruction of a millimeter-scale fragment of human cerebral cortex, giving an unprecedented view into the structural organization of brain tissue at the supracellular, cellular, and subcellular levels. #WorldBrainDay scim.ag/3FvpAKy
A single neuron (white) shown with 5,600 of the axons (blue) that connect to it. The synapses that make these connections are shown in green. The cell body (central core) of the neuron is about 14 micrometers across.
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Sophie Astrof @sophie-astrof.bsky.social · 21/07/2025
Does anyone know if NCE are being approved after the rules changed in May? My NCE request is “currently pending leadership release”. Does anyone know what this means? @jeremymberg.bsky.social
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Jeremy Berg @jeremymberg.bsky.social · 01/07/2025
Now is a good time to sign on in support of the courageous folks at EPA who stood up for all of us. www.standupforscience.net/epa-declarat...
standupforscience.net
Support EPA Staff Now! — STAND UP FOR SCIENCE
Your solidarity with the EPA heroes increases the pressure on their Administrator Lee Zeldin.
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Karen S Wilcox, PhD (she/her) @karenswilcoxphd.bsky.social · 28/06/2025
wonderful opportunity for junior faculty
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Javi Ibarrondo @jibarrondo.bsky.social · 23/06/2025
New approach enables body to engineer its own cells to fight cancer or autoimmunity | Science | AAAS www.science.org/content/arti... 🧪
science.org
New approach enables body to engineer its own cells to fight cancer or autoimmunity
Injections of mRNA may offer a simpler, cheaper way to build powerful CAR-T cells
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Ardem Patapoutian @ardemp.bskyverified.social · 19/06/2025
I spoke with Jade Hindmon, host of @kpbssandiego.bsky.social Midday Edition, about the consequences of the current administration’s cuts to science funding. Please share to help spread the word and raise awareness. www.kpbs.org/podcasts/kpb...
kpbs.org
Nobel laureate on how Trump's cuts are hurting science
Neuroscientist, biologist and 2021 Nobel Prize winner Ardem Patapoutian joined Midday Edition to talk about how the Trump administration's effort to cut back on science spending is impacting researche...
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piatkevich.bsky.social @piatkevich.bsky.social · 18/06/2025
mScarlet3-H (aka mYongHong) is on the cover of Nature Methods! All plasmids are available for free from WeKwikGene wekwikgene.wllsb.edu.cn/publications...
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New Scientist @newscientist.com · 18/06/2025
The Vera C. Rubin Observatory is releasing its first images on 23 June, showing us galaxies as we’ve never seen them before. Here’s how you can join a watch party to see those shots in full definition.
newscientist.com
Why you should join a watch party for the first Vera C. Rubin images
The Vera C. Rubin Observatory is releasing its first images on 23 June, showing us galaxies as we’ve never seen them before. Here’s how you can join a party to see those shots in full definition
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Bardin Lab @bardinlab.bsky.social · 13/06/2025
Students (Master's/PhD), do not miss this fantastic Developmental Biology course of @sorbonne-universite.fr and @institutcurie.bsky.social - It is FREE and open to international students, however, room and board + travel are not included. training.institut-curie.org/courses/deve...
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Dr. Rabbithole @drrabbithole.bsky.social · 10/06/2025
Amazing news - the support letter to the #BethesdaDeclaration has over 10,000 signatures from scientists, Nobel Laureates, clinical trial participants, and ordinary people who care about supporting science and curing diseases. It's not too late for you to add your name!
actionnetwork.org
ADD YOUR NAME: Sign the Open Letter in Support of NIH Staff
Join the courageous and committed National Institutes of Health (NIH) public servants by adding your name now.
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Russell Epstein @russellepstein.bsky.social · 09/06/2025
I signed this letter and I urge all my colleagues to do the same. I am very impressed by the bravery of the NIH staff who put their names to this. We should stand behind them. It's the least we can do.
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epithelial mechanics fan club @epimechfc.bsky.social · 03/06/2025
Kong, W., Loison, O., Chavadimane Shivakumar, P., Chan, E. H., Saadaoui, M., Collinet, C., Lenne, P. F., & Clément, R. (2019). Experimental validation of force inference in epithelia from cell to tissue scale. Scientific reports, 9(1), 14647. #EpithelialMechanics buff.ly/tLICFiu
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epithelial mechanics fan club @epimechfc.bsky.social · 08/06/2025
What do we see when looking at cells under the microscope? 👉Some are bigger than others, some are elongated and align with the neighbors & others seem to move. Cool, right? But wouldn't it be cooler to quantify these observations? I'm @juliaeckert.bsky.social. Let's explore some analysis software!‬
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Eric Topol @erictopol.bsky.social · 05/06/2025
He's right. "Nothing short of devastating" By @holdenthorp.bsky.social @science.org www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...
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The Empty City @davidallengreen.bsky.social · 05/06/2025
“A Busy, Busy Day at the Airport” By Ruben Bolling Genius. Click in.
A cartoon showing various activity at an airport, including an extorted luxury jet, an exploding X rocket, a ketamine enthusiast wheeling a barrow of money to his plane, many ICE officers -- some taking people to an El Salvador plane, another with a zip-tied child being blocked by a federal judge -- scientists boarding a plane to Europe, a medical self-educator covered with pox, and more. All the people are represented by various animals. The story is made in the style of a Richard Starry children's book.  Alt text borrowed from Mastodon..
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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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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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Ardem Patapoutian @ardemp.bskyverified.social · 03/06/2025
Talked to @KateZernike at @nytimes about my journey and the current moment for scientists in the U.S. “Ardem Patapoutian’s story is not just the American dream, it is the dream of American science.” Read the article here. No subscription required: www.nytimes.com/2025/06/03/u...
nytimes.com
The U.S. Lit a Beacon for Science. Under Trump, Scientists Fear It’s Dimming
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Katie Mack @astrokatie.com · 03/06/2025
If you burn down a forest, you don't miss out on lumber for just that season. You have to replant all the trees, nurture them, and wait for them to grow. The science and research budget cuts happening now are wanton, senseless arson. Recovery, if it ever happens, will take generations.
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Meera Sundaram @meera-sundaram.bsky.social · 03/06/2025
Flybase is in trouble and needs emergency support. #Celegans community I know we have a friendly feud but maybe consider a donation to honor a fly colleague/mentor?
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Ed Boyden @eboyden3.bsky.social · 30/05/2025
Just published, expansion in situ genome sequencing, where you can sequence DNA while still inside the cell, mapping its organization relative to proteins and other markers, with the help of expansion microscopy! Led by @jbuenrostro.bksy.social. www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...
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Neil Shubin @neilshubin.bsky.social · 21/05/2025
New paper from the lab: Our teeth arose as sensory organs on the outside of the body of ancient jawless fish.!! Congrats to Yara Haridy and the team! Background and video: phys.org/news/2025-05... Open Access Paper: www.nature.com/articles/s41... News and Views: www.nature.com/articles/d41...
phys.org
Teeth first evolved as sensory tissue in the armored exoskeletons of ancient fish, fossil scans find
Anyone who has ever squirmed through a dental cleaning can tell you how sensitive teeth can be. This sensitivity gives important feedback about temperature, pressure—and yes, pain—as we bite and chew ...
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Sophie Astrof @sophie-astrof.bsky.social · 26/05/2025
Poppies growing in New York City.
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Tim Verstynen @tdverstynen.bsky.social · 24/05/2025
The party of freedom and liberty is installing conformity czars to adjudicate compliance to the party’s definition of valid scientific inquiry. Land of the free…
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Tim Verstynen @tdverstynen.bsky.social · 24/05/2025
Literally paving the way for American-style Lysenkoism en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lysenko...
en.m.wikipedia.org
Lysenkoism - Wikipedia
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Dr. Rabbithole @drrabbithole.bsky.social · 21/05/2025
Hey y'all! The House will be voting to end the Residential Solar Tax Credit tomorrow (apparently solar power tax breaks are bad but billionaire tax breaks are good?). Let them know you disagree here (takes 1 minute): info.energysage.com/e3t/Ctc/P+11...
info.energysage.com
If you're not redirected in a few seconds, click here
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Prof Peter Hotez MD PhD DSc(hon) @peterhotezmdphd.bsky.social · 21/05/2025
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Kara Jorgensen @authorkaraj.bsky.social · 20/05/2025
The comment period for this ends in 3 DAYS. Please leave a comment telling them EVERYONE should be able to get covid boosters. www.regulations.gov/commenton/FD...
regulations.gov
Regulations.gov
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Michael Olesen @molesen.bsky.social · 21/05/2025
Please do your part to help ensure that COVID vaccines remain available for the entire population. I even advocated for updating them every 3-6 months. They want to limit it to those >65 or with high risk conditions. www.regulations.gov/commenton/FD...
regulations.gov
Regulations.gov
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Denis Wirtz @deniswirtz.bsky.social · 16/05/2025
The government has made deep cuts in research funding of science, engineering and medicine. The NYT describes 5 federally-funded scientific and technological breakthroughs that changed .... everything Here: www.nytimes.com/2025/05/16/s...
nytimes.com
9 Federally Funded Scientific Breakthroughs That Changed Everything
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Filipa Simões @simoesfilipa.bsky.social · 16/05/2025
🫀Job alert 🧬 come and be our colleague! Join a BBSRC-funded consortium aiming to understand how the human heart develops - you will be contributing multimodal single cell & spatial transcriptomics data using zebrafish and human cardiac organoids as models. Learn more: www.heartdevelopment.org (1/4)
heartdevelopment.org
CellTalk HHD | Human Heart Development Research
CellTalk-Human Heart Development is a BBSRC funded consortium established to find out more about how cells come together to build the heart as it grows inside the womb.
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John Skiles Skinner @skiles.blue · 14/05/2025
Let's talk about these two department store owners: brother and sister Louis Bamberger and Caroline Bamberger Fuld. From Newark, New Jersey. They are random people, basically. But in the late 1920s, with fascism taking over Europe, they made a choice that profoundly changed the world: 🧵
A photograph of Louis Bamberger, seated on the right, wearing a mustache and bowler hat, and his sister Caroline Bamberger Fuld, standing on the left, wearing a fur hat and shawl
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Michael Baym @baym.lol · 14/05/2025
Yesterday, the NIH R35 “Outstanding Investigator” grant to fund scientists in my lab studying antibiotic resistance was terminated for reasons not related to the content of the science, or any actions taken by me or members of my lab
A screenshot of the termination notice showing "Outstanding Investigator Grants"A screenshot of the termination notice with "This award is terminated effective the date of this award, due to unsafe antisemitic actions that suggest the institution lacks concern for the safety and wellbeing of Jewish students." highlighted
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Science Magazine @science.org · 08/05/2025
In a new #ScienceEditorial, Donald Moynihan and Pamela Herd address concerning impacts of “Schedule F” increasing the number of political appointees at federal agencies like the National Science Foundation. scim.ag/4kcAnIX
"The opening months of the Trump administration represent a historic disruption to America’s scientific agencies." - Donald Moynihan and Pamela Herd, University of Michigan
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Colette Delawalla, PhD @cdelawalla.bsky.social · 09/05/2025
Dorks, it’s time to throw sand in the gears. They want us to stop teaching, we will teach in the streets. They want us to stop our research, we will use archival data. They want to send us back to the dark ages, we will be a light. We will not lay down and take this.
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Led By Donkeys @ledbydonkeys.org · 07/05/2025
TANK vs TESLA "We've crushed fascism before and we'll crush it again" - ⁠WW2 veteran Ken, 98, in the tank
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David Ho @davidho.bsky.social · 07/05/2025
Definitely read this interview with @naomiaklein.bsky.social.
rollingstone.com
Naomi Klein: 'What They Want Is Absolutely Everything'
The ‘Shock Doctrine’ author explains the dark logic of Donald Trump and Elon Musk’s path of destruction and why billionaire oligarchs are so angry.
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Josh Marshall @joshtpm.bsky.social · 06/05/2025
What's happening with these grants is much more complicated and mostly unknown. None of the NIH have been officially cancelled. The NIH was just ordered to stop paying. They got the Unis to enforce silence on their own campuses because they thought they were "negotiating" and cld get the funds back.
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Adam Gordon @dnadam.bsky.social · 06/05/2025
I am a Northwestern faculty impacted just how you describe. My research - including an active trial of cancer / cardiac disease prevention, part of a large national network - has been frozen, despite a notice of award for our renewal. Year 6 of a 6 year study. We are completely in the dark.
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Josh Marshall @joshtpm.bsky.social · 06/05/2025
Conspiracy of Silence: How Trump is Covertly Strangling Billions in Disease Cure Research talkingpointsmemo.com/edblog/consp...
talkingpointsmemo.com
Conspiracy of Silence: How Trump is Covertly Strangling Billions in Disease Cure Research
The following is very important news about the Trump White House’s unfolding...
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David Ho @davidho.bsky.social · 04/05/2025
I think a lot about what Carl Sagan said in one of his final interviews.
"WE'VE ARRANGED A society based on science and technology, in which nobody understands anything about science technology. And this combustible mixture of ignorance and power, sooner or later, is going to blow up in our faces. Who is running the science and technology in a democracy if the people don't know anything about it?"
"Science is more than a body of knowledge, it's a way of thinking. A way of skeptically interrogating the universe with a fine understanding of human fallibility. If we are not able to ask skeptical questions, to interrogate those who tell us that something is true, to be skeptical of those in authority, then we're up for grabs for the next charlatan, political or religious, who comes ambling along."
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